ALQS2

A lovely bit of post this week. My much awaited little quilt from Kates swap. And here it is

Gorgeous ! As my favourite block is log cabin and I love blue and yellow together this suits me down to the ground. The maker of this little beauty is Sharon from Canada who did a fantastic job of this. Perfectly sewn with amazing hand-quilting. A couple of extra gifts of a great notebook and some Laura Ashley sticky notes too. Thankyou Sharon - another successful swap. I have some lovely little mini quilts now and I absolutely love them all.

I have done a fair bit of sewing this week although I have been naughty and not done any quilting on the sampler. I will try harder next week. I would love to have it gone to it's owner by Christmas. I have been sewing a new project and an old one. I want to do a bit more before I show photos though. Next time . .

By popular request here is the recipe for the chocolate beetroot cake. Measurements are in metric as that is all the recipe stated. I usually use imperial ( pounds and ounces ) and I know US cooks use cups. I think there are probably conversion tables lurking about on the net somewhere. As promised the cake was very moist and although you could not actually taste the beetroot it had a slightly earthy taste. Very good cake and if you make it I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

125g butter

100g dark chocolate ( at least 70% cocoa solids )

250g beetroot - cooked and obviously without vinegar

3 large eggs

100g cocoa powder or hot chocolate drink mix

225g self raising flour

200g caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180c/160c fan/Gas4 and line tins. I used 2 8 inch square tins.

2. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave til melted and stir to mix. Remove the bowl from the pan and set aside.

3. Puree the beetroot. Beat the egg and stir together. Sift the chocolate powder and flour together into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and beetrrot mixture.

4. Divide mix into the tins and level out.

5. Bake for about 35-40 mins until cooked through i.e until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool.

6. Make some filling. I made a fudgy chocolate crean with some melted chocolate, a little butter and some icing sugar. Sandwich cake together with this and dust top with a little icing sugar.

Our weather has been very cold this week and my cats have stayed in a lot.

Here are Marley and Tizer giving my new quilt a try.

And here they are a couple of hours later.

Tizer ( the tabby ) loves Marley and follows him around like a shadow when he is in. I thought this was so funny. Seems like he's copying his sleeping positions too - lol !

Have a great weekend !