Apple Pastry Roses

I am totally loving these apple roses!  I shared a video on my facebook page months and months ago but finally got round to making them.  They are super easy to do and so quick!  Perfect for when you want to impress with little effort. 

All you need is a packet of puff pastry and some nice red skinned apples.  I used Pink Ladies.

Start off by de-coring and thinly (I mean thin - think potato crisps) slicing the apples. 

Once they are sliced put them in a saucepan of hot water with a little lemon and simmer until slightly softened.   A lot of the tutorials/videos online don't mention this bit and let me tell you it's messy and annoying if you skip it.  When it comes to rolling the roses it makes life so much easier.  Trust me!

Meanwhile roll out your pastry or if you are really lazy (yep that's me) buy the ready rolled stuff.  Make sure it's been sitting at room temperature for at least an hour otherwise you will find it cracks.

Cut into 1 inch wide strips, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon and a little brown sugar.

Then get your slices of apple and lay them along one side of the pastry strips. 

 Turn the other side of the strip over on top of the apple slices and start to roll.

Voila you've got yourself a lovely apple pastry rose!

Place in a muffin tin.  I used a silicone one so I didn't need to grease it but if you are using a tin I would suggest buttering the tin first. 

Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes or until golden 

Delicious served with whipped cream, a sprinkling of icing sugar and cinnamon.

Enjoy!

A weekend full of cake

Hello lovelies!  I know I've probably lost half my followers as Ive been gone for so long but I'm back.  I've beat myself up a lot for letting my blog slip but you know sometimes you just have to let some things go if they aren't working so I did, but only temporarily.  

So let's catch up .... I'm starting from my favourite corner of the cottage on Friday morning.   Before I left for work I plumped up my cushions, put clean throws on my sofa, cleaned out the stove and filled a basket of turf all in anticipation of spending my entire weekend here :) Needless to say it didn't turn out as planned but it was still a lovely weekend nonetheless and I'm now sitting here... At last ... In front of the fire. 

My weekend has been (cue guilty feelings) full of CAKE really!

It started with Afternoon Tea at the lovely Lough Rynn Castle.  Honestly it's under an hour away from my house and each time I go I wonder why I don't go more often!  It's such a treat, not just the food but the whole experience. 

 

The highlight being my first piece of Christmas cake ... Okay it was probably a wedding cake but I like to think it's Christmas cake ! 

As if that wasn't enough cake for one weekend I then spent this afternoon baking. It's been really grey and wet wet wet here in the West of Ireland so I've loved having my table lamps on which make the kitchen so cosy.  

I started with delicious Anzac biscuits. Honestly if you haven't tried them you must! They are so scrumpscious!  

I also made a gorgeous Dutch Apple Cake which is heavenly!  It's so light, perfect on it's own but ding dong delicious with a big blob of cream! 

You always know how good a cake is when there's only one piece left in a matter of hours of it coming out of the oven! 

As you see things haven't changed much at the cottage ... I'm still eating cake and plumping cushions :) 

What about you peeps, what have you all been up to? 

Must dash ... Time to re-plump the cushions and maybe squeeze in the last slice of cake. Comfort eating as it's the penultimate episode in the last series of Downton #devastated

A walk in the woods

Today has been, still is, such a BEAUTIFUL day here in the West of Ireland. 

We are being blessed with the most stunning September I can ever recall.  The skies are just the most perfect blue and the sun is beaming all day long.  I'm still wearing my summer clothes and sun glasses every day, it's just bliss!!

I was lucky enough to spend my morning with a lovely friend on a leisurely (hmmm maybe not so leisurely) walk (make that hike!) through Doughill Forest up Sliabh Ban mountain.  We checked it out on the map and estimated it to be 6k which is what I've been walking a lot lately but over three hours later we decided the map must be wrong :O) 

Hard to believe that this is only a couple of miles (or as they say in Ireland "a stones throw") from my cottage and yet I have never been here.  That is all going to change.  It was just glorious! I can't wait to go again. 

It was truly magical.  I don't think we could have chose a better day.

There is nothing on this earth that can make you feel as good as a walk in the fresh air.  It blows away all the cobwebs and I always come home bursting with ideas and enthusiasm. 

I got a little over excited in the moment and burst into song at one point !

After three hours we finally made it to the summit .... 

Can't say the summit itself was worth it, actually a little disappointing, but the walk up and back was most definitely worth it.  

I was so glad I had my camera.  Not only for the pics but for the fact that I finally worked out how to take a panoramic shot !!

Overall a truly fabulous day!

Have a great weekend peeps xx

Baking afternoon

Nothing nicer than a coffee and cupcake treat in the afternoon.

I had a few cake sales to bake for recently so indulged in nearly a full day of baking.  I then froze a lot and have just been defrosting two or three each week.  Don't know why I didn't think of this sooner as normally I end up baking a whole batch of cupcakes and eating just one and giving all the rest away!  

I love laying everything out before I start.  I used to be really bad and just grab things out of the cupboard with floury hands and then three quarters way through the recipe realise that I was missing an essential ingredient!!  Now I lay everything out before I begin.

 

 What I'm not so keen on is the mess I seem to make and the few hours it takes to clean up !

 However once they come out of the oven it's all worthwhile

Especially when I get to sit back and enjoy one with a lovely cup of coffee :O)

The cupcakes I made here were blueberry ones and chocolate ones but I have to say they weren't amazing.  The chocolate cupcake recipe was very dry - does anyone have a nice recipe they would like to share?  The blueberry was ok, a little boring if I'm honest.  I like strong flavours - especially spices so next time i'll make cinnamon buns and I'm on the lookout for a nice carrot cake cupcake recipe too.

All things LOVEly

Belated Happy Valentines my Blogettes!

I have been super busy writing blog posts and taking pictures, writing tutorials and testing patterns to share with you all and I hit slump with my internet connection.  It's still not resolved but today is ever so slightly better than it has been :O(

So here we go with a catch up on what I've been up to ...

For Valentine's Day I went totally overboard as I do :O) and made everything I could possibly do heart shaped.  I even cut my strawberries out (above) using heart shaped cookie cutters.  Simply slice the strawberry into thick slices and using a really small cookie cutter cut out your shapes.  Perfect!  Fiddly but pretty cute :o)

I also went mad making latte's just so I could use my love stencils.  I'm normally a strong black americano type of girl but I went mad for a few days and had a few lattes to perfect my stencilling technique.

On the eve of Valentines day I had an evening tea with my friend Carole, complete with heart shaped sugar lumps (tutorial on how to make them here) raspberry buns iced with white chocolate and topped with heart strawberries and shortbread biscuits iced with white chocolate and red heart sprinkles :O) 

The week continued with lots of heart shaped lovelies including lots of these heart shaped pancakes (recipe here).

and even a heart shaped breakfast  

and lots more but I'm pretty sure you've had enough by now :O) 

Hope you all had a lovely Valentines' whatever you were doing. 

Sorry again for lack of posts.

More to come including details on this little chappie ...

Hope everyone's having a lovely relaxing Sunday x