Christmas doughnuts

These are some festive themed doughnuts I've made for Christmas this year.  They are currently on sale here and here in my Etsy shop.  They're a perfect stocking filler!

 

 

Pecan Pie

I was very lucky to be asked by the lovely Auralea, editor of American Miniaturist, to make a Fall themed food scene for their November issue and write an article to go with it.  A pecan pie making scene immediately came to mind as I knew it was a Thanksgiving favourite and fit in with the theme perfectly.  I had no trouble with the food scene, but I was a bit nervous about writing the article.  It's been a few years since I'd written an essay but was more worried being an English girl writing about an American and much loved national dish...I didn't want to get the facts wrong and upset anyone! Hopefully I didn't and the AM readers enjoyed it.  We don't really eat so much pecan pie over here in the UK. I have tried it a few times and it was absolutely delicious! The last time I made it myself I made it with some homemade Jack Daniels flavoured ice cream and it tasted amazing!  I will definitely have to hunt that recipe down and make it again!

 

 

 

Profiterole tower

Could you imagine a tea party with a gigantic tower of fresh cream filled profiteroles and smothered in rich milk and dark chocolate sauce? Yes, I'd want to be there too!

 

 

 

Crumpets

Breakfast, lunch, tea time or supper...I love hot buttered crumpets and could eat them all day long! They just go perfectly with a cup of tea!

 

 

 

 

Rocky Road bars

 

Rocky Road (also known as chocolate tiffin or chocolate fridge cake) is a no bake chocolate snack bar made with melted chocolate, golden syrup and a little bit of butter mixed together with ingredients such as dried fruit, biscuits and nuts. 

 

My  Rocky Road bars have little pieces of pistachio nuts (green) marshmallows (pink and white) and digestive biscuits (beige) inside.  I made a slab of my tiffin mixture and cut into eight squared pieces so it looked like it had been poured and set inside a deep tray (as you would do if you had made this in real life!) Mmmm delicious!

 

 

 

"Painting The Roses Red" cupcakes

These vanilla sponge cupcakes continue the "Painting The Roses Red" theme with their fondant red and white rose decorations.   

 



 

 

The cupcakes are arranged on a large fluted glass plate with a removable domed lid (as shown in the photograph below) 

 

 

Chicken soup

 

Here is another food item continuing with the autumn theme... and what better way to warm you up on a cold miserable day than a bowl of delicious hot chicken soup? Whenever there was anyone in the family who was unwell with cold or flu there would always be a pan of this soup on the go!  It was usually made with leftover chicken from the Sunday roast and stock made from the carcass.  This hearty pan of soup would fit in with most time periods and scenes, from a farmyard cottage to a Victorian manor kitchen to a modern suburb. 

 

This item is now on sale in my Etsy shop here.



 

Autumn is here!

Summer is now well and truly behind us (well, it is in England at least!) and to get into the autumn spirit I have made another tutorial for this month's The Dolls' House magazine (October 2015) with a mini food project for apple and blackberry pie.

 

Where I grew up in England as a little girl, the half term holiday from school in October was always known as 'blackberry week'.  This was the week when all the wild blackberries in hedgerows and bramble bushes would ripen and everyone would bring out their Tupperware bowls, buckets and plastic carrier bags to pick them to make into pies, crumbles and jams.  This yearly tradition became  one of my favourite things to do in autumn as a child so when I was asked by the magazine to make something 'autumnal', I instantly knew I had to make a blackberry pie!

    

 

My inspiration for this tutorial was my nana who used to make the most amazing blackberry and apple pies! Each October school holiday me and my brother would help my nana and my granddad pick the biggest, juiciest blackberries to help her make into a delicious pie.

 

Once we had picked enough blackberries we would go back to their house and help to make the pie.  We would begin by making the shortcrust pastry, rolling it out and lined it over the bottom of a large deep plate; in the meantime the apples would be stewing and bubbling away in some water and sugar in a saucepan.  Once the apples had softened we put the apple mixture onto the pastry lined plate along with some of the blackberries and sprinkled them with sugar. 

 

To finish the pie we rolled out enough pastry to cover the top of the plate, crimped the edges, and made a hole in the top to let the steam escape.  We then brushed the pastry with a beaten egg, sprinkled some more sugar over the top and baked in the oven till the pastry was golden and the thick blackberry juices started to ooze out of the top.

 

 

 

We used to enjoy eating the pie fresh out of the oven and served with either cream or custard.  It was equally tasty just eaten on it's own.  It is the ultimate in comfort food! Just the thing to cheer you up when the weather outside is cold, dark and miserable! I must get my nana to make this again for old time's sake! 

This issue is currently available in branches of WH Smith or alternatively you can order a copy from here.

My first article in Dolls House and Miniature Scene

It's been a wee while since I last posted on here but since then I've had my first mini food tutorial published in Dolls House and Miniature Scene! In this article I wrote a tutorial on how to make 1:12 scale barbecue chicken kebab skewers and photographed my finished items in a miniature back garden scene.  It was a bit fiddly but I was so happy how my skewers turned out and the lovely people at DHMS made such a great job of my article and pictures! I'm really enjoying writing about how I make my miniatures...I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried my project and what they thought of it? I'd love to see some photo's of your items too if you have any and I'll share them on my page!

If you would like a copy of this issue (September 2015) it is currently on sale in WH Smith or alternatively you can follow this link.

My first magazine feature

I was very happy and excited recently to be featured in July's issue of American Miniaturist magazine for their Meet the Maker profile.   I've been a reader of dolls house magazines for a number of years so it was amazing to appear in the pages of one myself! I have another article coming up later in the year with AM magazine where I'm going to write my first article about Autumn foods as well as making themed miniature food to go with the article...I can't wait!