Mice Pies - Mince Pies

Yes definitely Mice. In my last post I didn't edit it very well it really should be MINCE. It is so busy here. I am on holidays from Sunday and will have a few days at home and then into the Christmas mayhem with a vengeance I am sure.

Marvelous Mice Pies

I am in a Christmas Mood. The fruit cake is made. I should tell you that 15 minutes of heating the fruit might not be enough. For some reason mine took a bit longer than that today. I simmer the fruit mixture until the liquid has just about disappeared.
My favorite mince pies are mince pies with a twist. Here is the recipe.
Marvelous Mince Pies.
Pastry
3 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cornflour
2 teaspoon baking powder
300 grams butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon lemon juice (Optional)
Rub the butter into the combined flours. Add sugar and baking powder. Mix in beaten eggs and lemon juice. You might have to add a bit of water to get it together. chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Roll out and line greased and floured patty cake tins.
Filling
1 cup sultanas
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup chopped dried apple
1/2 cup currants
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup brandy
1/4 cup orange juice.
Grated rind of 1 orange
Mix all these filling ingredients and refrigerate overnight. Stir regularly.
the next day stir in
300 mls sour cream full fat not the skim kind. If you must use the skim then add an extra egg.
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar.
Mix well and spoon into the pastry cases and bake for 30-40 minutes.
This makes a lot about 5 dozen.
Alternatively just mix 2 1/2 cups of fruit mince with the 300 mls sour cream, a splash of brandy, 2 eggs and 1 cup brown sugar.
Enjoy with a nice glass of port.

Jaffa Fruit Cake

This is the recipe for our favorite fruit cake. I am making it tomorrow. The work Christmas Party is this week and I am working so I will not be going. Because 6 of us are missing out on the party I am taking in dessert for all of us. Mince Pies, fruit cake, brandy custard and shortbread. Fruit for the mince pies is made and I will make the shortbread and the fruit cake tomorrow and the custard on the day.

Peta’s Easy Amazing Incredible Jaffa Fruit Cake
This is my own recipe. Please read all the instructions before starting too cook this cake. This is a moist dense fruity cake that is incredibly more-ish. It is great with custard. It is really better if made with the fruit I have indicated rather than pre-packaged mixed fruit

Ingredients
2 Oranges or 1 orange and 1 lemon
100 mls brandy or cointreau
Water
Grated rind from the citrus fruit.
100 grams dried apricots - chopped
100 grams dried apple - chopped
100 grams dried peaches - chopped
200 grams sultanas
100 grams currants
200 grams dates chopped
100 grams raisins chopped
100 grams dried figs or glace fruit (cherries if you like them)chopped
Or substitute 1 kg mixed fruit
1 cup walnuts or pecans chopped
½ cup brown sugar (Optional – but better with than without)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon ground cloves
100 grams dark cooking chocolate broken into chunks.
3 cups (450 g) plain flour
2 eggs beaten

Method
Grease and line a lamington tin 12” x 9” or a 12” square tin with baking paper.
Puree the oranges in a food process until finely chopped.
Strain off and save the liquid in a measuring jug.
Add the brandy to the juice and then make up to 600 mls with water or more juice.
Place the pulp and juice into a large pot. Add dried fruit, grated rind, spices and nuts. Gently bring to a simmer and stir regularly for 15 mins. Remove from heat. Add the nuts, chocolate and sugar and stir into hot fruit until melted. Cover and cool. When cool or nearly cool add the flour and eggs and stir well. Place into tin and bake in a 160 °C oven for 1 to 1 ½ hours. Until cooked You may need to place a piece of foil loosely over the tin after 45 – 60 minutes to prevent top drying out.
You can decorate the top with glace fruits and almonds if you want to. If the top gets to dry warm ¼ cup of apricot jam and add 2 tablespoons of brandy. Mix well and then brush this across the top of the hot cake. Cover and cool

Food

Matthew and Kristen came for lunch today. Lovely to see the newly weds. We are slowly clearing out things we have not used for ages. The coffee maker went to Bronwyn last week. It was something I had wanted for ages and Bronwyn bought it for me for Mothers Day a few years ago. Greg hates it when I use it because it makes the whole house smell like coffee. He does not like coffee. Today we gave Matt and Kristen the big esky we haven't used that for years and also a rug that used to collect threads in my studio and I decided that it was easier to have the wooden floor and the high chair. Jessica is too big for it now and it was taking up space. We had thought that it could go to Matthew's church but they decided to keep it. They have friends over a lot so it will be useful to them.
I have been cooking. My favorite coffee shop at Murray Bridge makes a lovely almond coconut and lemon cake that they will not share the recipe for so I decide to experiment and try and make it. The result was not like theirs but still very edible. I also made another two dozen Mince pies for the Embroiderers Guild Christmas Party tomorrow. I made up a big batch of fruit mince a couple of weeks ago and it has been in the refrigerator since. I don't make it until December as I use butter rather than suet. It is lovely. I made 6 dozen pies for the Doll Club Christmas party last weekend. Most went and the rest I shared with Matt and Kristen and took some to work. They were a hit. I haven't made my fruit cake yet. the one I took to the Doll Club Christmas was a light one not the Jaffa one I usually make. I have to make it soon.

Something for Christmas

I belong to Cloth Doll Artistry, a cloth doll net work. they have a Christmas Challenge on so I thought I'd finish a merry little fellow for the challenge. He's been hanging around for quite a while now waiting for his big day. His name is Snooze and he is a Suzette Rugolo pattern. I smocked the ornament for him to hold and he is going to sit under the tree Looking up to see if anymore balls are going to fall into his lap.

New Blogs and wireless

I have added another two blogs to my list of those I follow. Am I mad probably, most people would say mostly but not always.

Shibori Girl
and Adventures in Thread are two new blogs I am going to follow.
I have also gone to a wireless modem partly for the great adventure in Tasmania next year and partly cause they gave me a deal.

Lady Dances with Dragonflies.

Well my 100 post passed without me even noticing. I had been keeping track and then didn't keep track anyway whatever.
I have finished the challenge doll for my "No Limits" group or as my friend says "No Instructions". We each took in a fabric which was cut into I think 14 or so and then we all got a piece of each fabric back. I have had the fabrics for quite some time and I have done several plans of what I could do. They all got tossed out the window and I decided to do a doll. I have had Ray Slater's book "Cloth Dolls for Textile Artists" for quite a while and I did make one of the wire dolls for the pincushion challenge at the beginning of the year. I don't like the face on pincushion girl and I have made a new one.
Well actually I made a head for the challenge doll and it was too big for the body so I made another head. Serendipitously the big head is the right size for the pincushion doll. Anyway back to Ray Slater's book. I used the stump doll pattern straight from the book. It is supposed to be enlarged to 115% but I didn't worry about that. I didn't use her head pattern as I wanted to have another go at the head technique from Barbara Willis's book "Cloth Doll Artistry".
I really like this way of doing a head. You start with an oval of stretch fabric, stuff it, stitch it while manipulating the stuffing with your needle to make the features and then stitch it some more then color it. You'll have to ge the book for more details than that. It looks quite hard but trust me it isn't. I made my first one in a class with Barbara which may have given me an edge but I think I could have done it from the book.
The other photo is of some of the fabrics we had to use. I forgot to take a photo before I started. I also set myself the challenge that I would not buy anything for the doll.
The body and arms of the doll is a flour bag that I had in my stash. A friend gave it too me.
The head is white two way stretch lycra also from the body fabric drawer in my studio. After the sculpting I painted it with flesh coloured So-Soft fabric paint from the fabric paint bin in my studio.
One of the challenge fabric you can see in the photo above is a piece of cross stitch fabric. I painted it gold with Lumiere paint. I used that for her crown.
Her hair is the multicolored blue/pink/purple fabric. I unravelled it and then stitched it all over. Linda Misa did that with wool in the last Dolls, Bears and Collectables.
Her sleeves and the gold areas on the bottom of her skirt are gold lame that was in the fabrics I received.
The patterned fabric at the bottom of her dress is the whole piece that I got. I painted it and the crinkle muslins and the feathery piece with blue fabric paint. The feathery piece was orange and white. It is on the back of her dress. I vliesofixed it to a piece of the green with white leaves. The brown piece of fabric I used on the back of the dolls head and you can't see it at all.
I used a little strip of the red dragon fabric to make the red dragon fly. I had great plans to use the blue lineny fabric for part of the skirt but changed my mind. The color wasn't right and I couldn't be bothered painting it. So I used some of the threads I had pulled off the fringe to make the blue dragon fly. I cut a thin strip of fabric off the white and made the white dragon fly. I couldn't get a good photo of them. They are just over 4 cm's long and my camera doesn't want to cooperate. The wings are made of the left over white ruffled fabric I used for the cuffs and collar on the doll. It was another of the challenge fabrics. So I have used all the fabrics. The rules of the challenge were that they had to be used not how much. The Studio Assistant(Husband Greg) cut me a piece of wood to use in the base. I added this on later because I couldn't get her to stand up. I should have put a sand bag in the bottom. I am taking her to Adelaide on Thursday our No LImits group is doing the display in the Studio at the Embroiderers Guild This month and she'll probably be back on show there for the fringe festival. Now I jsut have to finish my bit on the group project and I am up to date. I also have to make a small hand made gift for Doll Club on Sunday.