Spice Cake with Raisins

I have collected books from Odhams Publishing for years, mostly the knitting and dressmaking books, but I also have this huge book called Cookery Illustrated and Household Management. The book has an enormous amount of recipes, and there is one I have wanted to try out for a long time; Spiced Raisin Cake. When I lived in Dublin I used to get these snacks called Nutrigrains, which basically was a small square of spiced raisin cake, and I have missed them terribly since moving back to Norway. They are so handy, you can just pop a few in your handbag, and have an easy fix for those pesky low blood sugar incidents. When I saw this recipe I thought that this seemed like it could be a close match. It's actually not. I think the Nutrigrains have oats in them, whereas this is a traditional spice cake. But it was delicious, albeit a little too sweet for my liking. Next time I will halve the sugar and syrup. I would not recommend adding more spices, as the cake has a very pleasant aromatic taste as it is.

Recipe:
3/4 cup of sour milk (I used buttermilk)
1 lb. flour
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup syrup or treacle (I used dark syrup)
3/4 cup of margarine or butter (I used margarine)
2 cups of chopped raisins
1/2 ts of ground cloves
1/2 ts salt
2 ts ground cinnamon
1/2 ts of ground mace (I used nutmeg)
1 ts of baking soda

Beat the butter or margarine until creamy. Stir in the sugar and the syrup or treacle. Beat well, then add the beaten eggs, and when well mixed, stir in the sour milk in which the soda has been dissolved. Add the chopped raisins to the flour sifted with the salt and spices, and then mix all the ingredients together. Turn the mixture into a shallow, buttered baking tin, and bake in a moderate oven (160 degrees celcius in a fan oven, 180 in a traditional oven) for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, stand for a minute or two, then turn out and cool on a cake rack. Serve cut into squares.

Edited for update October 31st:

This cake tastes best the day after it was made, somehow the tastes seem to refine, and it no longer tastes too sweet. So, perfect as it is on day two :)

Humerus Fracture

The recent long silence is due to a broken humerus. I broke my arm first week of August after a nasty fall, and although it most certainly has been a learning experience it has mostly been of a "ouch that hurts" nature, and of limited interest to others, I think.

I am now quite a lot better, the arm has started healing properly (as I understand it a healing time of 15 weeks is not uncommon), and I am now able to knit a little and do a bit of cooking, which I enjoy. I am thinking of testing a cake recipe this weekend, an English spiced cake, should be yummy.

I have started knitting this jacket here:

I found this picture online and decided to try recreating the pattern. If anyone wants to follow the attempt you can check the progress on Ravelry. If the jacket turns out OK I'll post the pattern here.

Home Made Cold Cream

I made a batch of home made cold cream yesterday, and discovered quite by chance how to get a fluffy, creamy result. When I made cold cream previously I used the instructions and recipe from The Vintage Style Files, and the cold cream was nice, but the consistency of it was more like a slightly grainy body butter than cold cream. The instructions says to beat the cream until it goes white, glossy and slightly thick, but when I use the stick blender it gets like this almost immediately. I would usually spend some 10 minutes at it with the stick blender, which gives the consistency I described above.

For some time now I have wondered how it would turn out if I beat it for a couple of minutes only, and yesterday I decided to give it a go. I used the blender for a few minutes and then poured the cream into containers. This was a very bad idea. I ended up with  the wax and oil slightly congealed, whereas the rose water had separated. I then decided to try mixing it all together again using the stick blender and see if this would help, and boy did it! Have a look:

The picture might be a little bright, but hopefully you'll see how light and creamy it got. I then tested with an older batch to see if I could get it to be like this even though it was made a week ago, and it turned out just as well. It feels similar to Pond's, albeit a little richer. It's smooth, silky and wonderfully creamy, and I'm just so proud :D

Perfumes and Pliers

Today I thought I'd share a little tutorial on how to decant designer perfumes into vintage splash bottles. I own quite a few perfumes, some of them more than a decade old. These old perfumes are by no means spoiled, but they have grown quite powerful, and using an atomizer is out of the question as it dispenses too much scent. So I've bought vintage splash perfume bottles which I've cleaned and filled with the designer perfumes.

To do this you'll need the following: A clean splash perfume bottle, the perfume you wish to decant, a set of cutting pliers, a funnel and latex gloves.

Most modern perfume bottles have a collar around the neck of the perfume bottles which serves as a rest for the topper, and hides the seal. You'll need a sharp cutter to remove it. I like the one in the picture. It cuts though metal like a knife though butter, the tips are slim and get into tight spots, and it's very solid, so I can use it to bend the metal as I go. Once the collar is off I gently bend the bottom part of the seal away from the bottle. Once it's loosened it looks like this:

Lift the seal off the bottle, place the funnel in the splash perfume bottle, and pour slowly.

I'd recommend doing this bit over the sink. Keep the tap running, this way if you spill perfume (and I almost always do) it's less likely your kitchen will smell like a tarts boudoir afterwards.

Now you can use as little or much perfume as you wish; no more trying to aim the atomiser spray to hit the very edge of your arm in an attempt to get just the right amount :)

Boning the Bra

After having tested the bra and worn it for a day I noticed tension pains in the left trapezius muscle (from the neck down towards the shoulder), and I think the weight of the bra is the culprit. I have therefore decided to bone the cups and see if this helps. I have looked at boned bras from the era, and they have bones at the sides of the cups, as well as two bones in a reversed v placed in the cup, like this one from Etsy:

I'm still not sure what kind of boning would be best. I'm leaning towards spiral boning, as plastic tends to loose its shape. I still have a few coils of spiral boning left from my corset making days, as well as artificial whalebone, and I think I'll probably try the whalebone first, as it's easier to change if it doesn't work. Spiral boning is a pain to remove. Has anyone else tried this? What did you use, and did it work well?

Update November 14th:
I ended up using artificial whalebone (sturdy plastic), and it worked very well. I lined the bottom of the bra front with a velvet ribbon to protect the skin from poking. This is rather important as the bone ends will dig in pretty bed without the velvet ribbon.

1940's bra

I finished the 1940's bra late last night. I was unsure of how to get the balance right between sturdy cups and band, and comfort, and after having done a bit of research found that using elastic at the back, between the closure and the band seems to have been rather common, and one would have to assume that it worked well. So yesterday I went shopping for elastic and bra closure. I found both, but the first bra closure I found was both expensive and unattractive. I then found a 3 pack of bra extenders, which is easy enough to convert to a closure. But in black, white and nude. I don't wear white and nude, so I decided to make the closure myself, using scraps of the cotton satin I used for the bra. If anyone is interested in knowing how I put the closure together please leave a comment, and I will do a quick tutorial.

I used black cotton satin for the outer shell, a corset twill for lining, the straps are non elastic, and made of the cotton satin. I also placed the straps towards the front of the bra, not angling towards the back, apparently this should help keep the straps on the shoulders. And what I found when trying the bra on, is that it seems to be kinder to the shoulders. Somehow the weight carried by the straps gets distributed to the back of the shoulders. Also it will not pull the back of the bra upwards, as sometimes happens when the straps are placed towards the back.

Lo and behold, my first ever home made bra:

Beach Bra Frustrations

It seems no matter how I tweak the pattern I cannot seem to get it right. It gets baggy at the sides where the fabric is gathered, and although it holds the bust it cannot be said to be flattering. I am trying to find a way to get the back to carry the weight of the bust, but alas, no luck. I think I'll have to give the beach bra pattern a rest and come back to it later. For now I'll see if I can turn the bra pattern from the sew along into a beach bra. I think I have some iron on interfacing I can use to stiffen the cups in the stash, and I am thinking perhaps a shirred back panel. It should keep the bra in place and hopefully also look good.