Beading and Baking

Hello!  Over the last couple of weeks I have been collecting coloured workable clay that can be baked in the oven to harden such as Fimo and Sculpey.

I wanted to test both of them to see how they were in ease of use, colour retainment and outcome.  With my clay I only attempted making beads which required a bit of kneading, some rolling in the palms, making a hole with a skewer and baking.  It was that easy.  I found the Fimo a little harder to kneed but the finish was great, no finger print marks and it was smooth.  While the Sculpey was easier to kneed but because it was so soft I found I left little finger prints in the clay.  Both clays were baked at the Fimo instructions (Sculpey had no instructions on the packaging) 110 degrees Celsius for 30 mins.  I loved the outcome, the colours were retained after baking and the beads were hard and set.  This would also be a great activity to get the kids involved.  The websites both offer some cool ideas on what else you can do with the clay such as jewelry, homewares and figurines.   I ended up making a necklace with some of my beads and will probably use the rest as decorations for presents etc.

This week I also made a variation on the Raspberry Blissmas cake I made for Mother's Day a month or so back.   It was my sister's birthday in the first week of June and I made her a Cherry Blissmas cake, involving a chocolate sponge and cherry/cream/marshmallow centre.  Yum, I definitely think this cake is very versatile and can be made with other berries.

I also baked some raspberry friands this week and thought I would share my favourite recipe by Margaret Fulton.

• 175g butter
• grated rind of 1 orange
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 1 2/3 cup sifted icing sugar
• 1/3 cup & 1 tbs of plain flour
• 5 egg whites
• 200g fresh or frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celsius.  Grease friand or cupcake moulds with butter.  Put the butter in a small saucepan and cook gently until the butter is pale gold - set aside.  Place the ground almonds in a bowl with the orange rind, icing sugar and flour - mix well until combined.  Add egg whites and pour in butter carefully holding back browned solids.  Mix well.  Bake for 5 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and bake for a further 12-15 minutes  Turn off oven and leave in oven for 5 minutes.  Remove and turn out onto cooling rack.

I always forget how tasty and easy these little delights are.  They are such a pleasure to make :)

How has your week been?

Kimberlee xx:)xx