We've been busy: baking and bunting.

Its a well known fact that I'm obsessed with baking/cooking/eating/thinking about any of the above mentioned. This week I've really been attacking our oven and here's what the delicious produce...

Best loaf of bread yet! Wholemeal as well...y to the um.

Bara brith (welsh tea loaf) which is pretty delish with a cuppa and a slather of butter.

[Image from Jar in the City]

Yes. This isn't my picture because there weren't any left in the morning for my to take a picture...rustic lemon curd tarts. Probably my favourite of the week, so I'll give you the recipe.


Rustic Lemon Curd Tarts.
200g plain flour
100g butter
2tbsp water
a jar of lemon curd (yes i cheated, but making homemade lemon curd it near the top of my list of things I'd like to try!)


In a big mixing bowl, rub together the flour and the butter so it resembles crumble topping.
Add 1 tablespoon of water to the mix and stir together with a fork until the mixture begins to form bigger clumps, adding more water if necessary.
Try not to overwork the mixture, when there are big clumps, use your hands and pull them together. It should be quite a dry, crumbly mix that compacts into one ball when you squeeze it together. 
Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 20mins.
Preheat the over to 180 degrees. 
In a cupcake tin (greased if necessary, but I never normally need to), line each 'hole' with a thin layer of pastry. I find it best to take a bowl (10p diameter-ish) and flattened it in the palm of my hands until its roughly the size of the hole. Then push it in and 'fit' it to the sides - it looks quite rustic.
Dollop a generous teaspoon of lemon curd into each tartlet.
Bake for 20mins until golden.
Eat. Yum. Enjoy the happiness.


At the same time, we're been trying to make waterproof bunting for our 'conservatory' (basically a gazebo we've attached to our backdoor for bbq's). I found this article whilst snaffling through blogs for recycled plastic, weatherproof bunting and thought it'd be perfect! The instructions are really simple and I LOVE that it recycles the collection of carrier bags we always seem to accumulate despite trying not to.


To be brief, what you do is layer up 3 or 4 carrier bags between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper, and iron them until they melt into one sheet of colourful supermarkety plastic. I didn't photograph this stage.
Then you cut them out into flaggy shapes...

...and then I stopped. Because I had backache and I couldn't find the twine to string them on. So I will add the finished article when I have a finished article to show! Promise!


All in all, a very productive few days for everything other than uni work...uh oh.


oh, and I wanted to show you my new BARGAIN!

a gorgeous Orla Kiely water bottle reduced to £1 in Robert Dyas. Steal.


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