Recipe: Bara Brith

Here it is, a little later than promised, but better late than never. This is the recipe I used to make Bara Brith. I got it from my grandmother and I don't think it's her own but it's one of those that's been scribbled in a recipe book 50 years ago so God knows where it came from.

To make Bara Brith you will need the following:
1 Saucepan,
1 Mixing Bowl
1 Loaf Tin
1 Measuring Jug
1 Wooden Spoon
Kitchen Scales
Baking Parchment

Ingredients:
1 cup of sultanas
1 cup of water
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 oz soft margarine
2 cups of self raising flower
1 egg
Half tsp baking powder

1: Melt the first four ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool until lukewarm


2: Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.


3: Beat the egg and add, along with the cooled mixture from the saucepan, to the mixing bowl.


4: Beat with a wooden spoon until well mixed and pour into a greased lined loaf tin.



5: Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for one to one and a quarter hours.

6: Remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool slightly, before turning onto a wire rack.


7: Once cooled, slice quite thickly, butter, and enjoy!

Best enjoyed with a steaming cup of tea. This one is going with me to my sewing class tonight as I'm the only one in the house who likes it so it would go stale before I got through it all. I hope the Irish enjoy a bit of Welsh cuisine for a change!

Fabric Stash

I am about to start cutting, snipping and slicing my latest stash of yummy fabric in order to create some much needed stock, but before I do I thought I'd share with you my most recent fabric finds:






Aren't they lovely?? I'm waiting on a second delivery soon so I'll be up to the eyeballs in cute little lions and elephants. Life's tough sometimes but I'll struggle on! Happy Wednesday everyone!

St. David's Day

A very happy St. David's Day to you all! I am proudly wearing my leek (felt, not real) and shall be making Bara Brith this afternoon. Yum yum! Maybe I'll share the recipe with you all later. The sun is shining and it looks like spring has arrived at long last. No sign of daffodils yet though - we've had too cold a winter!

When we were in primary school we would dress in traditional Welsh costume every St. David's Day, and schools would send a group picture to the local paper. My parents have plenty of pictures of us dressed up each year, but as I'm not going home until the weekend after next I haven't been able to get my hands on any. Instead, here's a pic of me and my sister representing Wales at the Interceltic Festival, Lorient, 2005.

that's me on the left!

Female costume consists of a long woven skirt, an apron, a short fronted buttoned jacked, a blouse, shawl, lace bonnet, and tall felt hat. These beautiful costumes were handmade to fit by the very talented Ruth Petersen, daughter-in-law of Dave Petersen, who is sporting welsh Tartan in the centre of the picture.

My Dad, who is an avid historian, actually has pictures of women from our village dressed like this from back when it was everyday wear! Unfortunately, these days the traditional costume is being dropped more and more often on St. David's Day in favour of a Welsh Rugby jersey. But Daffodils and Leeks are still being worn with pride!

So a very happy St David's Day to everyone. Have a great day!

Holi

Today, nine of us decided to go up to Belfast to celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of colours. The celebration took place in St George's Market and was free for everyone to participate or observe.


There was food, craft stalls, music and dancing, and even some audience-participation drumming led by The Gathering Drum. The highlight was the "paint party" whereby participants threw powder paint over each other.


We decided not to participate as we had a 75 mile drive home with no change of clothing, so we all came away with a conservative dot on the forehead:


Whilst others ended up looking like this:

image c/o bbc.co.uk

An enjoyable and colourful day was had by all!

Folksy Friday

Well as it's St David's Day on Monday I though it would be apt if this weeks Folksy Friday theme was Wales. Unfortunately I will not be at home this year but I shall be donning my daffodil and eating Welsh Cakes and Bara Brith none the less!

So here we go then:


This red dragon cushion is made by HELKATDESIGN who makes a whole host of British icon inspired textile items

This felted daffodil brooch made by Sue2 would be perfect for Monday. I wore a real daffodil last year but it wilted quite quickly so I may make one this year.

Now some people prefer to wear the national vegetable on St David's Day as an alternative to the daffodil. Personally I've never liked the taste of leeks very much (does that make me any less Welsh??) but this lovely little veggie is made by Maxine Veronica.

These beautiful earrings are made by Paisley Chainsaw. They'd make a great alternative to pinning a daffodil to your coat. Visit the shop for many a quirky jewelry idea.

And finally this Welsh translation of "Keep Calm and Carry On" Cushion is made by POBshop. How good would that look plumped on my sofa!

My St David's Day celebration starts tonight, when Wales take on France in the 3rd set of 6 nation matches. Go Wales! I've promised the Irish that we'll give the French a hiding for them so we better had or I'll be in trouble.

And before I go I'd just like to say a massive good luck to my cousin Megan who has reached the final round of the "Can I Gymru" competition. It's a Welsh song writing competition - the winner gets a prize of £10,000 and goes through to represent Wales in the Pan Celtic Music Festival, held in Ireland. The competition will be shown live on S4C on Sunday night, at 7:30 pm. Watch and vote for Gwen ar fy Wyneb!

Smile!

I thought I'd quickly share with you two things that have made me smile today:

Firstly my crocheted brooch that I left at home over Christmas and recently got back. It is now safely pinned to my coat. I made and sold a few of these late last year but this one was my favourite so I kept it! And of course I forgot to write the pattern down so I need to work it out all over again to make more.


And secondly my lovely spotty tea pot! I could spend all day looking at tea pots - my mum and Nanny used to collect all those strangely shaped ones, so I'm proud to have restrained myself to owning only one. I'm afraid that this one was not hand-decorated by a fellow creative type, but rather I bought it in the Woolworths closing down sale. However my childhood weekends were spent browsing the CD isles and eyeing up the pick and mix in Woolies, so I got this as a bit of nostalgia from my once favourite, now non-existent, shop.

My lovely tea pot usually resides on the kitchen windowsill, but today he was filled to the brim with lovely steaming tea. He is unfortunately now empty but I am full to the brim with caffeine!
He was complaining about being a bit cold so I've promised to make him a nice cozy to keep him snug and warm. I asked him whether he would like a crocheted, knitted, or sewn cozy but he says he has no preference - what do you guys think?

Quilt Top

So I woke up today and just had the urge to sew. I hopped out of bed and popped next door to the "sewing room" and was there for an hour before my belly started to grumble for blueberry porridge (which by the way does not taste too fantastic when made with water instead of milk!) and a cup of tea.

After breakfast I was back up for round 2 and I eventually finished my quilt top! Now I didn't start it from scratch - I had already cut the squares and sewn a little bit of it but it's been sitting waiting for me to get going for about two weeks.


I decided to go for a trip around the world pattern this time as I absolutely love symmetry (sometimes to the point of obsession) but I think next time I might add in a few plain colours .Now it is quite busy and it reminds me of one of those optical illusions where if I get closer to it I'm gonna see an elephant pop out or something. But it's so pretty and overall I'm very pleased with it.

And before I go I'll share with you one of my recently discovered favourite things:

Freesias smell absolutely divine. I can't get enough of them. Every time I walk past the vase (which is a lot) I can't help but stick my nose in the bouquet and take a sniff. BF gives me weird looks but I don't care!

Folksy Friday

I thought that for this week's Folksy Friday I'd feature some lovely buttons I've got my eye on. Buttons are so yummy - If only they were edible then they'd be perfect!! Anyways here they are:


These cute little fairytale buttons are listed by Mollimoo. She has so many cute little fabric covered buttons that it was really hard to choose which set to feature!


These Patchwork Clay buttons are by Carols Crafts. She also incorporates her clay beads into her handmade beaded jewelry.


These "jelly on a plate" buttons are so much fun! They're designed and made by She Draws who stocks all manner of fun things.

Julia Smith Ceramics makes beautiful ceramic crockery and also made this beautiful set of buttons.

And finally no Folksy Friday would be complete without Russian Dolls!! This sweet little button set is made by incy wincy stitches. So so cute!

So I hope everyone has a great weekend. With no visitors anymore and no Six Nations on this week it will be a lovely quiet one for me. I might crack on with a quilt I started last week. Or maybe I'll crochet some flowers. Either way I'll be enjoying myself - I hope you will too!