Bunting - Handmade Appliqué Bunting

This was a fun way to test out my applique skills and try a new project. I've always wanted to make bunting for a party and Charlie turned 3 this weekend - her favourite colour is yellow and she was planning a party in the park - it seemed like the perfect opportunity for birthday bunting! The instructions for the bunting are very simple, as you would imagine. Cut multiple Isoceles triangles in pairs of your chosen fabrics, the long sides of mine measured 22cm and the shorter side 15cm. Work out how long you want your bunting to be (allowing length at each end to tie up the bunting) and space the flags evenly along your bias binding (or folded cotton ribbon in this case) to work out how many you need. Since I was appliqueing the letters and hearts on before sewing everything together, this gave me an opportunity to decide where her name should sit and where the hearts would go. I then appliqued the Libery Print fabric letters and shapes onto one side of the unsewn flags. Once that was done, I machine stitched the flags (right sides together) with a quarter inch seam, trimmed the seam inside the point, turned inside out (with a knitting needle) and ironed flat before pinning in place to the ribbon and sewing together. I hope it is a success and since yellow is her favourite colour (such a sunny colour to have hanging around!), I'm hoping she'll want to hang this in her room and celebrate being 3 and Charlie every day.

Red, White and Blue

Here is another one of my 4th of July desserts, a classic Summer Victoria Sponge with a little red, white and blue thrown in for celebratory purposes. The recipe came from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' which is beginning to look like it might need replacing soon with a fresh copy - it is so reliable and so well used! The recipe is seriously simple - See below - mix it all in the food processor and then bake. As I was making the cakes in someone else's kitchen using someone else's oven I was a little nervous and forgot to put the vanilla essence in - I was making it by hand and trying to look relaxed at the same time ;) Still, they came out very nicely and I just added the vanilla to the cream. Yum! Decorating is the best part, but my friend and I got so absorbed with decorating the top that I burnt the top of the Tarte Tartin that was warming under the grill - brilliant Miranda - nobody seemed to find much though as they were all such lovely people and apparently all loved Tarte Tartin with homemade bourbon ice cream. Don't mind if I do!

Victoria Sponge
225g soft unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
200g self raising flour
25g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder (only if using food processor)
3-4 tbsp milk
2 x 21cm sandwich tins about 5cm deep, buttered