Bastelesel

15 May 2016

Easy but stunning. Cutlery pouches made with paper doilies having a 6″ or 15cm diameter. Fold each doily to make a cornet and fix the upper flap with a glue dot. Decorate your doily individually with different accessories. The following picture will show some suggestions.

Fold all paper napkins to get a cornet shape to. For tea time just take some small napkins. Flower, ladybug or owlet will decorate the pouches. Big napkins and cutlery will also fit in den doily cornet. You can even add a name tag to your pouch as to be seen on the right side of the foto. At the end of your teat time party just put a single flower into the pouch and offer it as a little souvenir to your guests.

11 May 2016

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by Elke

With all my heart

If anyone travels through the world, he will have to tell a lot that’s at least what’s said in one of Beethoven’s songs. My wish however ist that those travelling will knwo how much I miss them. That’s why until now I always smuggled a little bedtime treat into the suitcase. Two lovely heart boxes formerly filled with chocolate made me think of first a possibility to prevent the treats from melting and probably soiling the suitcase’s content and second a possibility to send a personal note with them. With the help of a heart shaped punch I made a lot of different hearts in advance. In front I marked “For you” and on the backside I wrote down a personal word. It’s impossible to take a picture of front and back at the same time so I wrote my exemplary personal note on a second heart just for the foto. If you want to write down a bit more or if you lack a heart punch then just transmit the box shape on your paper and cut out the heart a bit inside the drwaing line. Thus it will fit the box. The heart box will remain in our suitcase after return waiting for being refilled and stuffed with a further wish or word.

06 May 2016

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by Elke

Rhubarb and meringue

We already had our first rhubarb stalks this year – as fruit sauce with rice pudding. Today I tried a new recipe with a lovely short crust emphasizing the sweet-sour note of the rhubarb filling. It’s once again a recipe from Hefe-und-mehr and I recommend trying it.

Ingredients for a 28cm tarte mold:

200g wheat flour
2 egg yolks (eggs size L)
some lemon zest
75g caster sugar
125g soft unsalted butter

Filling:

500 – 600g rhubarb stalks
3 egg whites (eggs size L)
120g caster sugar
1 dash of salt
50g bread crumbs
50g ground almonds

Mix all ingredients for pastry in a larg bowl, knead und put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then roll out the pastry, leaving aside a small ball, and put it in a greased mold. Form a long band of the remaining pastry ball and put it on the edge of the mold.
For the filling wash rhubarb, peel if necessary and cut it into small pieces. Whisk egg whites with salt until half stiff, add sugar and whisk until sugar is completel absorbed and stiff peaks come up. Carefully fold in bread crumbs, ground almonds and rhubarb. Pour mixture into the mold.
Put cake into the preheated oven at 200°C and cook for 30-40 minutes until peaks are becoming lightly brown. Remove cake from oven and set it on a cooling rack. You may serve it after cooling but it will be delicious the next day too, when completely infused

28 Apr 2016

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by Elke

Sweetest cleaning rag ever

I love cupcakes, I really do and these colourful ones shown in a Crafts, homeschooling and more-video convinced me immediately. A wonderful idea for all kinds of occasions. You may roll up a pair of socks, small guest towels or even microfiber rags. All of them need to be rolled up, probably fixed with a thin rubber band, and then put into the cupcake mold. They’re available in most food and crafting stores but it’s quite easy to make some yourself. I took the small template shown in a former post but still had to shorten it a little bit to prevent the socks from falling apart too far. The red guest towel’s cupcake is decrated with the edge of a paper doily. The black and white cupcakes are all filled with mikrofiber rags. Cheap ones are to be found in well assorted drugstores.

Put some further decoration in the center of each cupcake cloth. Take chocolate sweets, lip sticks, a tiny shower gel or simply a little tag – see foto on the left and cut out a double heart and glue a small wire in between. On the right side I decorated them with some other goodies. Between the two socks I rolled up a little bag with a face mask, the guest towel holds a cornet with a bathing salt and the yellow cupcake is decorated with a tiny shower gel. If you want to use the cupcakes as a gift just hang a little tag with a nice word around the top and as a guest goodie mark your guests’ names and place them besides the place covers. The more colors you chose for your cupcakes the more fun you will have with your decoration but a color-coordinated arrangement will be nice too.

25 Apr 2016

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by Elke

Malt beer bread rolls

One of the wonderful recipes found on Hefe-und-mehr, which we really like a lot. Thanks to te malt beer taken instead of water it’s a really hearty bread. I changed the original recipe and made some crusty rolls instead of knots. We love those rolls with a crust bursting on its sides. Another advantage of this recipe’s the fact that you may prepare the dough the previous day and bake the rolls for breakfast.

Ingredients:

150g whole grain flour
350g wheat flour white
330g malt beer
1g yeast
10g salt
60g unsalted butter
some freshly ground pepper

Combine all ingredients with your food processor at low speed for 5 minutes then continue at high speed for further 5 minutes. Remove dough from your bowl and knead a large ball with your hands. Put it back into the lightly floure bowl, cover it thoroughly and leave it for rising at room temperature over night.
Preheat the oven at 250°C in the morgning. Remove dough from your bowl and divide it into pieces of 85g each. Shapee balls and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Then form bread knobs as described in gallery below. Cover them with a clean dishcloth and leave to reast for further 30 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 230°C, put in the bread rolls and bake them with steam for 25-25 minutes. If you don’t dispose of a steamer simply take a fire-proof bowl filled with water und place it on the bottom of the oven. To get even more steam just throw in some ice cubes when inserting the bread rolls.
If you’re a bit grumpy in the morning then just prepare the rolls in the evening. Knead dough and leave it to rest for an hour. Make rolls as described, put them on a baking tray, cover with a dishcloth and put the into the fridghe overnight. Remove them in the morning, leave them to rest for 15 minutes and bake them afterwards.