MUFFIN MONDAY - Marbled Vanilla & Chocolate AND Oaty Fruity Muffins

It's Monday....and it's Muffins! I baked up a couple of batches of new recipes to try over the weekend and as promised (to my FB friends), after being sampled and some bits slightly tweaked, the results and ingredients are now here for you to try.

Marbled Vanilla & Chocolate Muffins

I recently found a little book  '1 mix, 50 muffins' with some very interesting variations in, but have really only just got around to trying out some of it's contents. I wanted to make basic chocolate muffins and could have used my normal tried and tested recipes, but found in this book one for a marbled effect - ie the mix is split into half chocolate, half vanilla then randomly spooned into the cases to create a marbled swirled sponge. I decided to give this variation a go...but mainly because the instructions got me a little curious. It called for the whole batter mix to be mixed up as vanilla, then halved into two bowls, and an amount of cocoa powder added to one batch. On reading this I immediately thought...hmmmm surely adding the cocoa to this batch would alter the consistency, compared to the vanilla...

I went ahead with the recipe...and sure enough, the addition of the extra 'dry ingredient' cocoa powder did indeed make the chocolate batch much thicker in consistency to the vanilla half. My concern then, was whether this would affect the baking. I think it did. The batch of muffins came out very uneven and lopsided...and on pulling apart and tasting one, found the chocolate sections much drier and heavier....and maybe even a tad overcooked. The vanilla parts were much nicer in texture....so I wasn't happy...a tweak of the recipe was called for.

Convinced that the dry powder ingredients (ie flour and cocoa) needed to be equal in weights for both batches I took a look at the book again and took the details for a basic vanilla mix and then compared it to the details for a basic chocolate mix. The vanilla one called for 10oz of plain flour, the chocolate one called for 8oz of flour with the remaining 2oz substituted with cocoa powder.....(all the rest of the ingredients were identical) so the obvious thing was to use both of these recipes instead, halve the quantities and just follow the same instructions as to spooning these batches into the cases as before, to create the marble.

The result was a much more evenly baked and risen muffin...and so here is my amended version -

Marbled Vanilla & Chocolate Muffins (makes approx 10-12 standard sized)

for the Vanilla batch -
5oz Plain flour
half tbsp baking powder
quarter tsp salt
2oz caster sugar
1egg
4 1/2 floz milk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1tsp vanilla extract

for the Chocolate batch -
4oz Plain flour
1oz Cocoa powder
half tbsp baking powder
quarter tsp salt
2oz caster sugar
1 egg
4 1/2 floz milk
3 tbsp vegetable oil

Pre heat oven to 200oC/400oF/gas mark 6 (if using fan assisted oven, reduce temperature according to manufacturers instructions)

Prepare a muffin tin, grease and line or use paper cases.

Make up each batch in separate bowls in the order as follows - Sift together dry ingredients, mix together wet ingredients in another bowl or jug, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir quickly but gently until just combined (it will look lumpy but no dry flour should be visible).

Using teaspoons, spoon batter into the muffin tins, alternating the chocolate and vanilla mix.

Bake in oven for approx 20mins until well risen, and tops spring back when touched or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

These muffins look pretty cool with the swirled two tone sponge but as it was Easter, I tarted mine up a little bit more for an extra sweet treat -

The tops were smothered in chocolate frosting and little chocolate mini eggs placed on as decoration...you couldn't see the marbling and only once the case was peeled back and the sponge bitten into, did the multicoloured mix reveal itself!

Oaty & Fruity Breakfast Muffins (makes 10-12 standard size)

This is from a tried and trusted Susan Reimer recipe for Oatmeal and chocolate chip muffins that has been tweaked and the chocolate replaced with dried fruit....for a slightly more healthier version. I call then 'Breakfast' muffins because I use porridge oats.

2oz rolled oats
9 floz milk
8oz plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
half tsp salt
4oz mixed dried fruit
1 egg (beaten)
4oz light brown soft sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3floz vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 200oC/400oF/Gas Mark6 (if using fan assisted oven, reduce temperature according to makers instructions)

Prepare muffin tins.

In bowl combine the oats and milk and set aside to soak while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt...then stir in the dried mixed fruit.

To the oat/milk mixture, stir in the beaten egg, sugar, vanilla extract, and oil...then pour into the dry ingredients and stir quickly but gently until just combined. Do not over mix....it should be a lumpy batter but with no dry flour visible.

Pour into muffin tin/cups (about  three quarters full), bake for 20-25mins until light brown and firm to the touch. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!

SIMPLE MOROCCAN BEAN AND VEGETABLE STEW

As, usual....I haven't posted on here for a while. I'm busy with refurbing and redecorating the bathroom, diningroom and kitchen - picking up from where I left off after the professionals came in to fit new suite and kitchen appliances a while back etc (if you follow my blog you'll have seen the photos and such). I'm on the home straight (I think!) and I'll be doing another update and blog post once it's all finished so hang tight...it'll be here soon I hope...

...in the meantime, I'm just posting up a recipe for something I cooked up today. Really enjoyed it...it was a big hit with the OH so I've decided to share on here.

We're in the middle of a snow storm again (it's nearly April for crying out loud...can we please have Spring now...all this white stuff and below freezing temps is becoming a joke!) so we've been hankering after comfort foods. I was watching an old Nigel Slater tv cookery show and he was making a lentil and pancetta stew and that kinda got my mouth watering...

...stew...mmmmmm...stew sounded goooood...

...but I didn't have any lentils (used up my last can a few days ago for a dahl curry) and I didn't have any pancetta....or bacon...or any other meats for that fact...

so a quick scout of the cupboard and armed with an onion, two small leeks, two large carrots, tinned tomatoes and a tin of butterbeans and the herbs and spice cupboard at the ready, I decided to try out moroccan style. I used an old tried and tested combo of spices (normally used for a meat tagine) but the rest was kinda winging it...thankfully it turned out rather good. With the absence of meat it's pretty quick one pot to cook up and serve within the hour...although I daresay, if left over night the flavours would develop even more.

Don't be put off by the long list of herbs and spices...looks a lot, but these really are needed for a good authentic moroccan flavour and are actually in small quantities.

Sorry...but no photos...we were too hungry to stand around prepping and making pretty for piccies!

Simple Moroccan style Bean and Veg stew (serves 4)

couple of tblspns of oil for frying (I used rapseed but olive or veg oil is fine)
1 medium sized onion, peeled and chopped (about 1inch pieces)
1 large leek (or two small), washed and chopped (about 1 inch pieces)
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
*1tsp cumin seeds
*half tsp ground cinnamon
*1tsp ground coriander
*half tsp tumeric powder
*half tsp fennel seeds
*1 tsp dried basil
*half tsp sea salt
*small pinch of cayenne
2 garlic cloves (crushed or very fine choped)
1 400g tin Tomatoes in juice
1pt chicken stock (or veg stock if making as a vegetarian meal)
1 400g tin Butter Beans, drained and rinsed
half tblsp grated fresh ginger (optional)
fresh chopped coriander or parsley to serve (optional)

Fry off the onion, leek and carrot in the oil for a couple of minutes, then stir in all the * marked herbs and spices and cook a further 2 mins, Add the garlic, gently cook another min the add in the tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer about 25-30mins...stiring occasionaly and keeping an eye that it doesn't dry up...add extra water or more stock if needed (the tomatoes and long simmering will thicken the liquid but it's a stew so there needs to be ample juices). Add the Butterbeans and gently cook a further 10 mins then stir in the grated ginger (if using), turn off the heat, cover and let rest a few minutes.

Serve scattered with the chopped fresh herbs and with plain cous cous or some pitta bread to mop up the juices.

Enjoy!

MUFFIN MONDAY! Spiced apple, Gingerbread muffins...and a few Welsh Cakes thrown in.

It's MUFFIN MONDAY!  I haven't done one of these for a while...mainly due to all the work going into finishing off the studio which I'm delighted to say I moved back into last week and started work for proper...although there are still a few tweaks and things to tidy off before it's all completed but it's finally a workable space again and I'm loving it...

...anyways, back to the muffins! Today is the annual Macmillan Cake Sale fund raiser event at Clive's work so I was asked to contribute...and of course muffins were the way to go. So, I did the usual batch of always popular spiced apple muffins....plus a flavour I've never baked before - Gingerbread! Oh and I also had a little extra time to make some Welsh Cakes...and those are what I'll share the recipe with you today.

LEFT (back) - Gingerbread muffins with sweet iced topping. RIGHT (back) - Spiced apple muffins with crispy walnut topping. FRONT - Welsh Cakes with mixed fruits.

I have to say, the gingerbread ones were a first for me and the making of them was quite unusual because the inclusion of sticky black treacle makes the mix look and feel quite strange. Although the final baked form is more cake-like, the putting together is done in the way of making a traditional muffin (ie dry ingredients in one bowl, all the wet ingredients mixed together in another bowl, then the whole lot combined in one go) but the mix is much wetter and smoother and slightly thinner....and I don't actually like ginger (I have a strange allergic type reaction when I've eaten it...worse when it's fresh ginger) so I was a little worried whether they'd turned out fine. Luckily Clive was on hand to do a test taste for me and the verdict was good, with a nice subtle ginger flavour and a good dark hit of treacle...PHEW!

Another new one for the Macmillan event, was Welsh Cakes. I haven't made these for a while but had some dried fruit left over from a fruit cake I'd recently made so it was a perfect time to use up those left over bits and pieces.

Here's the recipe, which I've been assured (by Welsh friends) is a good traditional one...and which uses just currants. For the ones I made today, I used mixed dried fruits instead because Clive likes the hit of citrus from the dried peel pieces and the additional moistness from the larger plump raisins helps prevent them drying out too quick.

WELSH CAKES - (makes approx 20)

8oz Plain Flour sifted*
1/2 teaspoon baking powder*
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice*
pinch of salt*
4oz Butter (room temperature and cut into small cubes)
3oz Caster Sugar
2-3oz Currants
1 Egg
a little milk on standby
extra caster sugar for coating

For cooking the cakes the traditional tool to use is a Planc or Welsh Bakestone but I've not got one and have found a frying pan just as good - a good non stick heavy based one or even a griddle (flat one NOT the one with ridges) will do the trick without the need for greasing....but remember that a small pan will only allow you to cook a small batch at a time....so be prepared for a long baking session! You'll also need a round fluted tartlett/cookie cutter and I used a 2.5 inch one which made 20 cakes. These cakes, in name, are a little deceiving...and are actually more like a flat scone and not a sponge...the technique is very much like scone and some pastry/biscuit making where you 'breadcrumb' the dry and butter ingredients before adding the wet to form a soft dough and rolling out. DO NOT, however, allow the dough to rest or place in a fridge - this will make the mix too short and crumbly. Use straight away like with a scone mix.

1. Sift together the dry ingredients (marked with a *)
2. Rub the butter into the flour mix to a fine breadcrumb consistency
3. Stir in the sugar and currants and combine well to make sure there is an even spread of the fruits.
4. Add the egg and combine to form a soft dough ball. If it looks a little dry or is not forming a dough, add a scant amount of milk but take care not to make it too wet.
5. Turn out onto a lightly floured worktop and knead VERY gently just a couple of times - take care not to overwork or the dough will become too tough.
6. Flatten and roll out evenly to approx 8mm thick (see notes below)
7. Using the round fluted cutter, start cutting out rounds, placing on a tray lined with baking parchment (so they don't stick) ready for cooking.
8. Preheat up the griddle/frying pan and gently transfer a small batch of the dough rounds to it. Use a flat palette knife or fish slice etc so the round shapes do not get distorted.
9. Gently cook until the base has a nice golden colour then flip over and gently cook the other side (see notes below)
10. Transfer cooked cakes to a wire cooling rack and immediately dredge both sides with caster sugar.

NOTES

• Use the dough immediately - DO NOT allow to rest or place in the fridge because the mix will toughen up and 'shorten' - altering the texture of the cake. It needs to be soft like a traditional English sweet scone.
• likewise, DO NOT over knead or be too heavy handed rolling out the dough...this will activate the glutens in the flour which will toughen up the mix.
• Due to the inclusion of Baking Powder, these cakes will rise very slightly during cooking so it's important not to roll out and cut out too think a round or else they will not cook through into the centre. I tend to roll out to the thickness of about a digestive biscuit.
• These are very simple to make...but do need a little care and thought in the cooking. Do not heat up the pan too hot or else you'll end up burning the outside before the inside is done. A moderate heat and gentle cooking on both sides until you get a good golden to dark colour on them. You can judge when it's cooked by keeping an eye on the sides...you can see the raw dough changing colour and if you still have a raw line in the centre....chances are its uncooked in the centre. I sometimes cook just one piece to start off with, then tear in half to check the inside so I can get a good idea of the level of heat I'm using and how long they take to do each side...before cooking the rest of the batch.
• The cakes are best served warm and fresh baked. They are nice eaten cold and will keep for a day or so but tend to dry out and go stale quick. If this does happen you can warm up for a few seconds in the microwave and a little spreading of butter on the top adds moisture back into them.
• I'm on the understanding that the traditional fruit ingredients are currants only...but there's nothing to stop you from creating variations to suite your own tastes - using mixed fruits...even chopped up dried tropical fruits or a few nuts. I personally do not like dried fruit and have on occasion made plain ones using the spices only, although they can be a little dry due to the omission of the fruits (which add extra moisture and sweetness) so are best served fresh baked, warm with a little smearing of butter on the top. Some people even spread jam on theirs!

Enjoy!

PIMP YOUR IKEA BOX!

The Olympics in London are in full swing - if you weren't aware of that...where have you been? It's hard not to know about this event...whether you are a sports fan or not...especially if you are in the UK where it's been held this time around. Well, anyways, the track and field athletics kick started off today and we have a fair bit of UK interest competing and excellent tv coverage. I rather enjoy watching this stuff so quite frankly work has gone out of the window. I had the tv on in the background as I tried to busy myself in the studio....but it proved distracting and I kept downing tools and running up to the screen to watch. So I've given up and decided today might just have to be a day of computer work instead - got the lap top and I'm sitting in the lounge infront of the big screen so I can just enjoy the athletics...and doing updates, blog stuff and research on the 'puter.

Studio decorating and redesign is nearing completion...YAY! I've been holding off from posting about it and uploading photos here as I wanted to wait until it was all done so I could do a complete start to finish blog post. However, as promised, here's one project I've been doing as part of the studio overhaul. Decided to post a little earlier seeings as I'm computer working today -

THE MOPPE MAKEOVER -

Up until now, most of my jewellery tools and findings, beads and what not have been stored in various boxes, bags and baskets of all shapes and sizes...including one mahoosive plastic diy tool box (a nightmare to cart around, held together with duct tape, but made a great step to stand on to reach stuff on high shelves!). Nothing 'gelled', nothing matched...not even closely...and certainly not in any chic quirky or eclectic way...in fact non of my storage for art, craft etc worked, so as part of the studio overhaul, new storage was on the agenda.

For some time now I've had one lonesome IKEA Moppe storage unit that I've kept art pens in - a nice useful 6 drawer cabinet in a plain unfinished birch plywood ('cuz IKEA like their naked wood...and also they like you to be creative and decorate and finish them off to your own tastes). Up until now, it remained untouched...basically because I knew I wanted to do something to it...but not what I wanted to do to it...

...until now.

So I decided that as part of the jewellery storage side of things I'd us this box and then get some more (to make up four units) so I could do them up to look similar and then have the ability to stack them all together to create a bigger unit. This idea sort of harks back to my days in the jewellery business and a little metal cabinet I had in my repairs office - a little thing with lots of mini compartments but something I didn't really take much notice of....it was just a piece of office furniture doing a job, storing stuff, a little battered, a little rusty, not much value then...but now, ironically, the sort of thing you see on Achica and other trendy re-purposed furniture sites or highly sort after and vastly overpriced on ebay etc. I often wonder what happened to that metal cabinet - the place was closed down, sold off and gutted out and I heard lots of things went in a skip (I'd left the company way before it shut down)...if that's the case, some people out there are probably kicking themselves now for trashing that piece..and others that had character, charm......and some were even antiques...

...I digress...so back to IKEA...

...which is what I did in order to get more Moppe units. I was a little bit concerned as to whether I'd actually be able to get matching storage - IKEA do have a tendency to tweak some designs a little over time, and it had been some time ago I'd purchased the original piece. But, thankfully, they did have some left (and yes they have also introduced some other slight variations of the Moppe) but for some reason they don't list the design I have on their website (maybe they are going to discontinue it) anyways, I got my three extra units and I was happy.

While there, I noticed that had a small display of Moppes that the staff had decorated...to give shoppers some inspiration as to the versatility of these storage units. Mostly painted up in lots of mixed up vivid paints...a bit crude but fun and cheerful....but not my style. However, one piece did catch my attention. They had attached wooden drawer knobs to the compartments (nice design feature on Moppe is the ability to turn the drawer sections around - one end has a finger notch, the other end has plain wood that you can stick handles, labels, pulls etc). These knobs were all the same but decorated differently - a very eclectic mix of colours...some with patterns drawn on them, some decoupaged with patterned papers...and this got me thinking. I'd initially had the idea of fitting name plates to mine so I could label each with their contents, but was having trouble finding some to fit. Seeing IKEAs efforts made me change my mind and decide that knobs were the way to go...but not their sort of knob...I wanted different things...different shapes, sizes and materials...

...so the hunt for the ideal drawer knobs began...

...and in the meanwhile I started prepping the actual wooden units -                               

I stupidly forgot to photography the units in their original 'naked' state (I got too excited and eager to get decorating them). Here, above is one of the newer designs from the IKEA WEBSITE . Mine however are made up of six compartments - just imagine another two drawer sections on top.

They got a coating of wood stain first (same colour as the rest of my wood furniture in the studio).

Then I painted them. I wanted to keep some unity to the look and used the same emulsion paint I'd put on my one 'feature wall' (a nice chalky pale sage green). This was sparingly dry brushed on and no real care taken...as they were going to get sanded and distressed and aged. You can see one of the units where I've turned the compartment drawers around and painted them...the other hasn't been completed and still shows the drawers with the 'finger notch' side.

Then, they got sanded - this was done outside (thankfully had one of those rare sunny and dry days) - paint and wood dust ain't fun to breath in...and you certainly don't want to coat the inside of your house with it! The object was to achieve a distressed and aged look so I concentrated on areas that would naturally show signs of wear and patination ie around edges, corners and around where the knobs would be attached....taking it back in some areas to the bare wood and where you could see the dark woodstain base. I also did a bit of scratching to the surface to make them look even more ragged and used.

Next stage was where the 'faux' ageing really began...using stains and inks applied in similar areas to the sanding to dirty up, enhance the paint, create false splits and cracks in the wood and so on.

Cabinet drawer front 'pre' inking up...

...and after adding more colour. Now, it doesn't look much...but I had to bear in mind the units were going to be waxed and polished, which deepens the colours...so best to go easy - you can always add more later on...but you can't always take it away. Best to be safe than sorry! The other thing I was taking into account was natural wear and tear and ageing. I could have easily gone much further and really knocked these pieces around but I also wanted to give them the chance to do part of that process themselves.....I just gave them a gentle kick start! Had I gone the whole hog and really distressed them up...then later down the line, along with this natural ageing process quite frankly they would go past that point of being trendy shabby chic...and just look plain knackered and tatty! If you want a quick fix, immediate look, and the pieces are only for a short term use, then doing the 'full monty' on them would be ok...but these are hopefully going to be with me a while...so I now want them to settle in and settle down and age gracefully in their own time...along with the rest of the studio...and me lol!

Here are some of the full units, mid treatment. I used a mixture of wood stains, Stazon inks and even Distress inks...which yes, are water based but a blast from a heat gun sort of semi sets them and the wax goes over it pretty good...but after all I wasn't after perfection so the odd smear just added to the charm of them.

Once all were colour treated, it was time to wax and polish them. They actually look very nice left at the above stage and had a lovely chalky dull appearance...but I wanted to give them an added protective coating, a bit of wood nourishment and a sheen to enhance the wood grain. I use clear Briwax a natural, toulene free, beeswax on most of my wood projects and furniture in the house, rather than varnish which can often yellow (and is often full of weird nasty smelly chemical things). Wax brings wood to life...

...which I hope you can see above, in the same piece after treatment. I rubbed in a thin even coating of wax using a lint free cloth, allowed to set and dry then gently buffed up with a clean soft cloth.

So that was that...the units were all done and awaiting the drawer knobs!

The drawer knobs at first posed a bit of a problem...for try as I might I couldn't find anything that fitted (general furniture drawer knobs are too big and looked awkward and cumbersome attached to the small Moppe pieces) and I felt totally uninspired by the designs available at the DIY stores. I wanted an eclectic mix...but at the same time something that all pulled together, had some sort of tie, and fitted in well with the theme and colour scheme of the studio...(and weren't going to break the bank!). I found one small set of brass ball shaped knobs that were perfect, so got those, but basically came to a dead end in my hunt. My plan was to have six sets of four handles - some identical sets, some different designs but with a connection, some made of same material...preferably metal and some wood...I was being picky and awkward but I knew what I wanted and I didn't want to settle for second best...

...so basically I concluded that there was only one way I could do that...

...make the rest myself!

I'd recently had a delivery of polymer and air dry clays (intended for making jewellery beads and sculptures) and these seemed a perfect material to use. I did a bit of research on the Internet to see how people went about making polymer clay handles/knobs and the like and made the decision that the easiest thing to do was form the clay around a premade base (saved on polymer clay and also easier to bake). This obviously had to be something heat/fireproof as the polymer is cooked in an oven to cure and harden and it suddenly struck me that I had the very thing in my box of 'bits for altering and assemblage'. Tiny wooden knobs that on their own were mainly too small to use on the Moppe units as they were...but perfect to build up the clay over and being wood meant they could have pilot holes drilled into them so the finished handles could be screwed into place.

The first set I made were all going to be different designs but united by colour scheme...red, to tie in with the odd splashes of red I have in the studio decor. I modelled the polymer clay around the wooden knob bases...using a blob of clay at the base to stabilise the piece as I sculpted and freeing up both hands.

I made two flower inspired designs, a rounded piece with quarter segments and a twisted rope spiral design. Apart from colour, all had another common design element - a small brass brad in their centres. The photos above show the pieces after firing and I didn't sand or highly polish them (one piece was textured using fine grit sand paper) as that would have taken away some of the detailing...instead they were gently buffed but I also added a dark oil paint to stain and age them. I don't have a photo of that stage, but you can see the finished pieces at the end of the blog post.

The next two sets were also made of polymer clay - and comprise of identical designs....four knobbly pieces made with antique gold coloured polymer which were inspired by the shape of the studios brass curtain pole finials...and four jade/agate style round beads formed using a green clay to match the painted wall, mixed with translucent polymer and metal gilding flakes to highlight the brass fittings and features in the room. These pieces were also left buffed but not sanded to high polish but on reflection I now think the green ones would look better with a gloss look...so will do that at a later stage.

The final polymer set were made to look like a faux bone...each one a different shape and made in white (mixed with a little translucent) then scuffed up and stained (using oil paints) and buffed with denim to give a very gentle soft sheen. The white works well in the sets of knobs as the colour really pops out and gives a bit of life to the units... but the staining and distressing stops them looking too stark and out of place.

So that was all the polymer clay knobs done.

The brass premade ones needed no extra work done to them. They were a bit of a gem of a find and aren't strictly speaking cabinet drawer knobs...well actually the company who sold them to me dealt with antique furniture restoration  etc and said they were supposed to be ball feet for a small table or trinket box but they fitted the bill perfectly...and a nice discovery was that the engraved patterning on them was very similar to the materials on the Balinese wood puppets which are the main inspiration for the studio decor (wait for my blog post on the studio for that info and all will become more clearer). These brass knobs weren't cheap but seeings as I was saving money on the rest of the pieces I decided to treat myself.

That left just one set to go....and I was running out of ideas. I really wanted something wooden and struck upon the idea of using cotton reels. I had some small ones in that 'altering and assemblage' box so went to retrieve them....and instead found buried deep inside that box another small bag of wooden drawer knobs...same shape as some of the ones I'd used for the polymer clay pieces....only slightly larger!

This astounded me...as I can't (still to this day) remember when I bought them...and how long I'd had them...but that really didn't matter now....I had enough for a set of four and they were a perfect size. I stained them the dark wood colour and was going to leave them at that...but when I held them up against the cabinets...they sort of looked...well...blah! they looked lost and rather insignificant and needed something to just give them a bit of spark. I drilled the tops with a small hole and inserted a brass brad with a fancy metal star shaped thingy (god knows what they are called) found lurking amongst the craft bits and bobs. They aren't all the same, they have different metal colours and slight differences in shapes...but they still seem to go together and form a nice set.

So, all knobs done...now I just needed to attach them to the cabinet fronts. I opted to drill and screw each one rather than glue as this makes it easier to remove/replace any should they get damaged or if I ever change my mind and re do up the whole thing with new knobs. Some of the pieces needed the wood based sawing and levelling off a bit but the wood bases certainly made them easier to drill and secure. The brass ones already had integrated screws and fitted on like a dream!

Here's a round up of the knobs in situ -

The 'red' set - showing the dark staining patina achieved by rubbing in oil paints and buffing off the excess.

'faux bone', antique gold knobbly knobs, wood with metal detail, and 'green agate type' sets.

Antiqued and engraved solid brass ball knobs.

And finally, here's the whole set of four cabinets stacked together. Each cabinet has one from each set of knobs and are fitted on in a random pattern. The units themselves are being stored on shelving above the jewellery work bench and are being kept separate so that I can lift down and retrieve any one unit as and when required....but should I ever want them displayed stacked together, then I also have that option and they have been made as a matching set and so when put together, they form one nice whole piece of storage furniture.

So I hope you found that post of interest and it'd be nice to have feedback on what you think of the units....

oh....one last thing...

THE ALSO RANS....

Things don't always go to plan...there were a couple of failures along the way and I have two sets of knobs that just didn't make the grade.

The first set of polymer round bead style knobs I made turned out the wrong colour mix - I wanted red and green streaks but over mixed the clay and the alcohol ink coloured gilding metals added into it all didn't help things at all and contributed towards turning the piece a bit orangey brown. They are actually still very nice in appearance and will look even nicer polished up....but didn't quite fit in with the Moppe units. They will come in handy for another project however...so not a total loss.

The other knobs however, were the true disaster of the whole project...everything ran so smoothly in the making of these storage cabinets that I suppose it was only time a real eeekkkk moment turned up! I had envisaged having knobs looking like old Victorian cracked porcelain ones so formed a base of white air dry clay over wooden knobs, let cure and dry and then went about treating with a Crackle Glaze. This all went well, and my intentions were to rub in some ink to age them and highlight the cracks, then coat with varnish to seal and provide a nice shine and glaze...the knobs were fully dry and nicely crackled but as I picked them up to ink, the bits of glaze just started falling off in chunks. I tried inking them all up to see if it was just one bad piece, but no they all were too brittle to use...and funnily enough, although I used the same ink on them, it came out different shades so the whole set looked a complete mess. These ones are consigned to the bin...but I'll salvage the wood bases for polymer use. I've no idea what went wrong - the clay bases were sealed, primed, and given a key for the glaze and this technique has worked in other projects before but I guess I can ponder over that another day. I can learn from this failure...and the upside is that I went on to make the faux bone knobs to replace them...and I think they're great...so maybe it turned out to be a happy accident!

AJL XXX

Mega Muffin Monday!

Ok, so I didn't exactly bake these today (otherwise I would have been up since the crack of dawn!) I actually baked them last Thursday...but had I posted about it then...well 'Muffin Thursday' doesn't ring quite as nice as my now traditional Monday title!

My OH's workplace are moving premises this month and their official 'leaving' party was last Friday so I was asked to provide some muffins, plus a little celebration cake (actually, they just asked for a rich fruit cake but I couldn't resist adding a bit of icing decoration to it)....so last Thursday was a Mega Muffin day!

Among the flavours I created some Lemon Drizzle Muffins and after mentioning it to a few Facebook friends, I was asked to hand over the recipe...so here it is.

Muffin Monday - Lemon Drizzle

I kid you not, these are tooth achingly sweet and tangy...not a chunk of chocolate in sight but still calorific with a double whammy of sugar...but heck, we all need a sugar hit treat now and again!

(makes 9-11 standard sized muffins)
9oz plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 oz caster sugar
1 egg
9floz milk
3floz vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
2 teaspoons fine grated lemon rind

Drizzle topping:
4oz caster sugar
juice of 1 large lemon
zested lemon peel
granulated sugar to sprinkle (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 190-200oC (375-400oF)
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. In another bowl combine together the egg, milk, oil, vanilla extract and lemon rind.
4. Pour all of the wet ingredients into the dry mix and stir until just combined. The batter will look lumpy but no dry flour should be visible.
5. Spoon into prepared muffin cups and bake 20-25mins until lightly browned.
6. Once baked and removed from the oven, gently slash the tops of the muffins with a knife (or spear with a skewer) and prepare the drizzle topping -
7. Place the sugar and lemon juice into a pan and heat very gently until the sugar has dissolved. Spoon half of the mixture over the muffins, making sure the liquid soaks into the slashes you've made.
8. Allow the remaining drizzle mix to thicken slightly and then spread this over the  muffin tops - the sugar will have begun to crystallise and set so it forms a nice crusty layer.
9. Sprinkle over the lemon zest and extra granulated sugar (if required).
10. EAT!

Enjoy!

Oh...and here's the little celebration cake I made for the party - couldn't resist adding a little 'safety hard hat' to the top!

HSE - 'Leaving Hagley Road (2002-2012) Party' celebration cake