Russian Cherry Cake

I have found a picture of a delicious looking cake on Pinterest, but when I followed the link, the recipe was actually in Russian. I first asked my parents-in-law for help since they took Russian in school, but they still needed the help of an online translator ;)

Here is the translated recipe, I cannot guarantee that it is exact, but after testing the recipe I can say that it looks about right:

Ingredients for the dough:

200gr of soft butter
A pinch of salt
3 cups of flour
1 cup of Kefir (apparently a sort of cream cheese - I replaced it with plain yoghurt but next time I'll use something a little thicker, it made the dough a little sticky)
A sachet of baking powder
A sachet of vanilla sugar

Ingredients for the filling:

500gr of cherries (without stones)
1 cup of sugar

Mix the ingredients for the dough - I did put the yoghurt last, and then I left the dough to rest a bit before rolling it out while I was getting the fruits ready with the children.

Then roll out the dough in a large rectangles on 3mm thickness. Cut bands of about 7 to 8 cm width (I think next time I'd make them a tad wider). Put the fruits in the middle of each stripe and sprinkle with sugar. Form rolls and place them in a round form.

30 to 40 min. in the oven at 200°C

and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

It looks good and it tastes brilliant. I also loved working with the dough, it was quite supple and easy to use.
I will try the recipe again using different fruits such as plums. Yum, I'm looking forward to it already !!

Cupcake Wrist-bag

I recently came across this pattern of a cupcake wrist-bag with doubles up as miniature cradle. I decided it looked super-sweet and wanted to test it right away for my children. I made several alterations: the cup part is shorter by 4 rows, I didn't want it too deep. The hood part didn't seem to work, so I made up my own pattern for that. If I make them again, I will make the strings a little bit longer (they are already 10 stitches longer than what the pattern suggests).

On the whole it was a rather interesting pattern and the result  looks rather nice. I'll probably try again with a different yarn, I want to see how it looks like with cotton yarn instead of acrylic.

The SC & More n°283: Nightwear

This week Mummy Factory is hosting the challenge! She told us to do whatever we like. Two days ago I went to the fabric shop... bad idea ;) as per usual I bought several pieces. Among them two very sweet, soft and light 100% cotton fabrics. One in blue, one in light purple. They reminded me immediately of old nightwear I had as a child and I visualised my daughter and my two nieces in nightgowns made of those fabrics. So I had to buy them.

I made three gowns, size 5yo, size 4yo and size 3yo.

One in blue with blue biais tape.

One in light purple with pink biais tape and one in purple with purple biais tape.

I didn't want to use the same fabric (with mini bows) for my son, so I used my favourite Ikea fabric with the same biais tape as the first night gown, and I made summer pjs!

I am very much looking forward to seeing the four cousins together!!

For the Museum, a square picture

These nightwears are really light and look comfortable. They are ideal for hot summer nights such as the ones we have currently!

In about two weeks we will be all together, won't that be nice? A quatuor with a 5yyo, a 4yo, a 3yo and a 2,5yo!! Days will be lively :)

Un Mot, des Titres - Session 33: Nous

Ce mois-ci nous avions pour mot "nous", il m'a fallut du temps pour trouver un livre et ensuite il m'en a fallut encore plus pour le lire!

J'ai choisi:                                  "Nous" de Yevgeny Zamyatin

Zamyatin était un auteur russe et son ouvrage futuristique "Nous" a été censuré par les Soviétiques. "Nous" a été publié à l'Ouest après avoir été passé en douce à Prague. Zamyatin a ensuite été banni de toute publication en URSS et a fini par s'exiler à Paris en 1931 (10 ans après la publication de son roman) où il finit par mourir dans la pauvreté.

Son roman a été l'inspiration pour les romans "utopiques" et futuristiques qui ont suivi: 1984 d'Orwell, et Le Meilleur des Mondes d'Huxley par exemple.

L'histoire nous présente un  homme du futur qui écrit son journal pour les générations suivantes. D-360 (les personnes n'ont plus de nom mais une combinaison de chiffres et de lettre. Les consonnes étant les hommes, les voyelles les femmes) est mathématicien et constructeur du vaisseau spatial "Intégrale" qui servira à coloniser d'autres planètes.

Cet homme est un citoyen parfait, jusqu'au jour où il rencontre une femme I-330 qui va changer tout son univers ainsi même que sa pensée, et le faire devenir plus humain.

Je ne vais pas vous en dire plus, j'ai encore un peu de mal à "digérer" ce livre que j'ai fini ce matin. Je ne sais pas si j'ai envie de le relire pour mieux comprendre. Jusqu'à la moitié du livre j'ai du me forcer à lire, ensuite les événements se sont précipités et j'ai sans doute lu trop vite du coup.

Les romans futuristiques ne sont pas vraiment pas tasse de thé, mais je les trouve néanmoins intéressants. 

J'aimerais savoir si d'autres connaissent ce livre et ce qu'ils en pensent. 

RDV au 31 juillet pour la session 34 avec le mot "après" cette fois-ci :) et je sais déja ce que je vais lire!

The SC & more n°282: My favourite colour!

"Make something in your favourite colour!" is this week's challenge. Oh I love it! I certainly did not need to think long about the colour I was to use :) My favourite colour is pink and a couple of months ago I found a fabric which I absolutely love: purple with small flowers and two children (in pink) kissing. The remaining question was what to make. I am now quite completely addicted to crochet and where I go, I take my gear with me. I was just missing a proper bag for it... Up to now! 

I'm happy to present you my wrist-crochet bag:

Picture for the Museum

 

And to top it off, a mini-pink rabbit to hold my tapestry needles.

I have already spotted a few things to improve the next time I make such a bag: put a piece of cardboard or plastic at the bottom of the bag, use some Vlieseline on the sides to strengthen them, make the bag a little less wide and a little higher.

On the whole though I like it and think it is rather pretty and practical :)

DaWanda shop

A couple of months ago I opened my DaWanda shop, but I do not recall sharing the information on my blog! That was rather silly of me, I still need to make my first sale, but I have to admit the fault is partly mine as I have been a rather bad advertiser!

I also need to work on translating the product descriptions in French and English.

I just published a couple of new product description, I thought you might like to have a look and share the link :)

Curious? Then click here and visit my shop!

 

 Wishing you a good visit of my shop!

The SC & More n°281: Male

This week Zak is hosting the SC Challenge and asked us to do something on the theme of "Male". In his opinion there are too many women doing "female stuff", so he wanted us to work on "male stuff" instead at least just one week ;)

So here we are! What is more masculine than a medieval knight? A while back I had made T. a knight hood and costume. For this week's challenge I made a similar costume for "Claude" my old doll.

Actually, let me introduce Claude to you, my only boy doll. It is obviously a boy, but as to respect his privacy, I won't show you ;)

 

 This poor boy has been naked for most of his life apart from a couple of pants I did sew by hand when I was a child during one summer holiday. So a new set of clothes was definitely welcome.

I started with the hood:

I got inspiration from there but I did not follow a pattern at all. The neck part doesn't look as good as I wanted it to be, but that's ok.

Then I started working on trousers:

  

 No pattern for those either, but I remember how to make them and I will make some in different colours, they fit perfectly!

And finally the top part, with three press-studs (shoulders+one side) to allow my youngest to dress and undress Claude easily.

Square picture for the Museum

How do you like my mini-knight? Personally, I think Claude looks pretty cool in those clothes!

Medieval Market & Costumes

Earlier this year we went to a Medieval Market in Meißen. Meißen is a lovely town along the Elbe. The weather was beautiful and for the occasion I re-used the dress I had made for the carnival, for the children I made new costumes. They loved them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T.'s costume is rather big so it will last him a couple of years. His head-wear was made from this pattern, I could not get bulk yarn, so I used two threads instead. It was actually quite quick to make and I loved how it turned out!
N.'s dress is also too big, so I am also on the "safe" side for some time. Her crown and mine actually were both made from this pattern, I really liked making them.  It was also a very easy and fast project. I just found it difficult to determine which size would be right. N. was very happy, I used shiny threads for both ^^

What do you think? Do you like them as much as I do? :)