Easter celebrations

Once every few years,  Easter weekend is special to us, because my middle daughter and I celebrate our birthday as well. When Easter is late, I celebrate mine. When Easter is early, like this year, we celebrate hers.  

I was up at six on Saturday morning, to put up the bunting and add the finishing touches to a cake,  which I baked the day before. I chose a wheat free, low fat Easter cake from the book Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell, of which I changed the recipe a little. I used saffron to colour the icing and beetroot to colour the cake.

To get the speckled effect, I used a mixture of cocoa and vanilla essence, which I flicked at the cake with a tooth brush. My kitchen and I were covered in tiny chocolate specks, but most important: the cake looked better than I hoped for.   

In today's post,  photo's of our Easter breakfast table and Afternoon birthday tea. The vintage table cloths were incredibly lucky charity shop finds (almost missed them).  The colours are bright and sunny, and perfect for Easter. The embroidery on one of them is exceptionally beautiful. It makes me wonder if there are still women who make tablecloths like this, or is it a pastime of a bygone era?

Wishing you a Happy Easter. Have fun!

Love,

Madelief x

Homemade

When browsing through my photo's, I came upon a few colourful ones taken in Bath gardens in Bakewell, a small but beautiful town in Derbyshire (UK). I thought I would share them with you. Bakewell has one of the most colourful communal gardens I have ever seen.

The town is famous for it's Bakewell tart. A real delicacy,  consisting of a shortcrust pastry shell beneath layers of jam, fragipane and a topping of lemon icing and toasted almonds. I used the recipe from, I believe the first Great British Bake off book, but you can also find it on the internet.  It's really tasty and very addictive.
  
In this post I would like to thank my friend Ilse, who made me the fabulous vintage roses style tea cosy. A warm thank you to Jenny as well, who sent me some amazing vintage textiles and an absolutely beautiful handmade bag. Which is a real eye catcher. Dear Ilse and Jenny, thank you so much. A big kiss to both of you.

If you like today's photo's and would like to see more, please have a look at Jenny's blog The Custards. Jenny makes the most fabulous things out of vintage linens, has a love for gardening and all things colourful and vintage. It's one of my favourite blogs.

I want to thank  you too for your kind suggestions on what  to plant in my garden this year. They are very useful!

Wishing you a happy week ahead.

Love,

Madelief x

A big kiss to my daughter M. Love the anemones! And to Carolyn for sending me the sweet snowman.

Christmassy chocolate cranberry muffins

Hello,

It feels good to be back. Taking a blog break was just what I needed. My energy levels are up once more. My brothers wedding was lovely. I never realised how special a December wedding can be, with fairy lights and Christmas decorations wherever you look. Unfortunately I cannot show you the photo's, as I don't want to intrude on my brothers private life.

Hope you are all well and looking forward to Christmas?! I love the weeks coming up to Christmas, when the house looks festive, there are jolly songs on the radio and heavenly smells come from the kitchen. I baked some Chocolate cranberry muffins last week. They are really good and low in calories. So perfect for when you are on a diet or just want a healthier version of ordinary chocolate cranberry cupcakes. The recipe originally came from the good food magazine, but I changed it a little.

* 250 g self-raising flour
* 1 tbsp cocoa powder
* 1tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp cinnamon
* 85g light muscovado sugar
* 85g cranberries
* 50g dark chocolate, chopped
* 145 yogurt (low fat)
* 125 ml skimmed milk
* 3 tbsp sunflower oil
* 1 egg, lightly beaten

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and cranberries. Heat the chocolate au bain marie until melted.

Mix the yoghurt and milk with the sunflower oil and the egg. Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture and stir in the liquid. Drizzle three quarters of the chocolate over the mix and gently fold until a swirling pattern appears. Don't overdo it, because otherwise the swirls may dissapear. Spoon the mixture into the cases. Make a swirling pattern with the remaining chocolate on top of the muffins in the cases. Bake in the over for about 15 to 20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. 

I may post irregularly the coming weeks. As I am not sure if I will be able to put another post online before Christmas, I wish you and your family a lovely time.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Madelief x



 * The cupcake liners and toppers are by Meri Meri