Apple and Raspberry cake

A little bit flat, but I cooked this in a flan case.

Ingredients (approx amounts)

8oz self raising flour

4oz butter/ margarine

two tablespoonfuls sweetener (or 4oz sugar)

three eggs

two tablespoons milk

pinch of salt

large cooking apple peeled and cored

packet of raspberries.

I put the self raising flour in a bowl and then put bits of butter in plus the sweetener, then with a metal spoon I broke the fat up more, a pinch of salt, then crumbled the mix between my fingers so that it looked like breadcrumbs.

I made a dip in the mix and added the eggs, slowly stirring it in and trying to keep air in the batter, I added a bit of semi-skimmed milk to soften it more.

I added the apple slices and the raspberries to the cake batter so the fruit was evenly mixed into it. Then I poured the batter into the flan case which I had buttered.

I put the cake in an oven, gas mark 4, for 1 hour and 10 to 15 minutes.

It came out nice and moist, and it wasn’t completely cooled when we tore into it!

Note I used self raising flour that contains wheat, milk and eggs that can be allergens, butter which may not be in your diet and sweetener that you can cook with because I try to make sugar free cakes.

Idea for a painting

Sprig moulded jug? Longport

Hmm, still thinking about painting this. I like the colours and the ellipses. It looks good against the dark green background. The pattern on the plate has colours matching in with the jug and the wall. If I paint it I think I will enlarge the jug slightly, it’s a little small for the composition.

Leaf like a skull

It’s withered, like a dead skull, on York stone pavement. Crumbling, dried, sad. Losing colour, frayed round the edges. On a thin stem, fallen from a great height, spiralled down from the highest treetop. Remember when you were a bud? Barely broken out of your twig…? Then you swelled as rain fell onto the ground. Expanding green, growth, sucking in sunlight. Changing it to sugars. Then the cold wind bit, frost grew on your surface, ice crept into your veins. Ended, you fell. You will be dust soon, forgotten.

My Emma Bailey ceramics cat

It’s a lovely little cat with yellow and black decoration. It’s only small, about 7 inches tall. He’s smart and adds to my ornaments on the mantlepiece. Emma does larger cats and lots of other objects. The ceramics have designs that are reminiscent of Clarice Cliff pottery from the 1930’s.

Emma Bailey ceramics is based at Middleport pottery in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Check opening times as the pottery is open at the moment.

Orme does Picasso

Orme arts autumn challenge. We agreed to attempt to reproduce a Picasso weeping woman painting. We did one or two panels each. I drew the top and bottom middle pages. The top on was mainly marker pens, but I could not get the purple colour so I used a mixture of white, blue and magenta to try and get it. Not right though. I also did the bottom middle panel. In that case I used watercolour paints then a black marker pen over the top.

Even though a number of artists put this together I think there is a good coherence and the squares are well matched. I’m pleased with the result.

Corona virus going up again.

I hope I’m allowed to share this? Just watching the news and the amount of covid 19 is going up again in England. A second wave? The problem is across the nation and its passing up from younger people to older people.

So why has it happened? Was it because children went back to school, because more people were allowed to meet up? Because work places and pubs and restaurants opened up? Our government just has not got a grip on this. If we had kept the lockdown longer and tried using masks sooner maybe we wouldn’t be here.

Oh I despair of the people running things, not the NHS, they are still working so hard. But the bumbling idiot in charge of it all! I don’t mind being locked down again, but the government is against that…… Crazy…

Hey hooman, fetch me my tea

My paws are cold, turn on the heating hooman. Miaow, where’s my food? Little questions or demands they make. Insisting they are served. Hooman you have no choice, you are in my power. Now play with me, no I want to curl up and sleep, oh I’ve changed my mind, I want to go out.

Hooman, you should know I don’t eat THAT food. It is not special enough. Give me more of the rich tasty stuff.

Hooman? Where is my catnip? I née my catnip toy. I love you hooman. But don’t try and pick me up! No I won’t take my claw out of your hand!

Purrr, I’m feeling friendly. Let me put my claws in your leg. Oi let me down hooman. I’ve had enough fuss!