Mmmmm cake....

I had a lovely visit from Cathie and her two sweet little munchkins yesterday. They brought along a beautiful new sketchbook for me (perfect timing as my current one is almost finished), and these delicious cupcakes, and some very yummy banana bread.

Photo courtesy Melbourne Epicure

This is the second time that I've had this banana bread, and it's truly the most delicious one I have ever tasted. Cathie has shared the recipe on her blog.

Another sweet little munchkin has been hard at work making me pressies to take home. Nikki's wee girl is starting school very soon, which means that I won't see her as often..... I'm going to miss her, but she has invited me over to her house for a playdate!

A new banana recipe - UPDATED

I found myself a new recipe on a blog a couple of weeks ago. I printed the recipe but didn't include the blog and now I can't find it anywhere. Even Google refuses to tell me where I found it!

The recipe was for banana bread..... it intrigued me because of the unusual secret ingredient - Golden Syrup.

I finally had the chance to test it out, and it's a goodie for sure. It's really quite light in texture which is unlike a traditional banana cake or banana bread. It's not overly sweet but you can taste the golden syrup.

Ingredients:
130g butter (soft)
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2-3 mashed bananas (2 large ones suffice)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup golden syrup

Method:
Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and creamy.
Add eggs and mix well.
Add mashed banana then flour, baking powder, and golden syrup.
Pour into lined loaf tin.
Bake at 160 degrees celsius for 60 minutes.
Cool in tin for a few minutes before turning out.

If you know of the original blog, please let me know so that I can come back and add a link.
Now I'm off to have a piece drizzled with some maple syrup for dessert.....

Thanks to Cass, the mystery has been solved!
I found this recipe right here on Corrie's blog....and I should have used Maple Syrup in the mixture but I used Golden Syrup....whoops, but it was still delicious.

On My Desk....on a Wednesday and Blogtoberfestin'

Lots of mess On My Desk today. I'm really struggling to keep it contained to one area, which is why I end up with a huge pile of mess like this!

Left to right....Babushkas pencilcase with all of my snapsetting supplies inside (made by this lovely chick), some Michael Miller clown fabric and co-ordinating prints that a girlfriend gave me on the weekend (she bought it but never used it), some trim that my mum found at the oppy, some selvedge that I'm collecting (for this lovely chick), bizzare Elvis fabric that my sister bought over on Monday, some vintage tablecloth and sheeting cut up to make some more bags. and there's even a bib cut out peeking through on the far right! I always tend to have lots and lots of projects cut out....just not many sewn back together again.

Head on over to visit Kirsty for lots more On My Desk action....

Gotta run today....I have Banana Bread in the oven and Cathy's on her way over for a Blogtoberfestin' crafty day out...yippee!

Today I.........

.....baked some banana bread using the recipe that I found on Jen's Blog........

......stopped off at Mikes and dropped in my two Mirabel Softies........

......took my banana bread to Footscray and had a scrumptious afternoon tea with all of the lovely ladies that I used to work with.........


.....arrived home to find a package waiting patiently for me at the front door......


It was my Art Swap piece that Shellbells had made just for me! It's a gorgeous functional piece of art because it doubles as a letter holder. She has even added the little Into The Woods logo at the bottom. This is going on my kitchen wall (once I search the house and find some picture hooks). A big thanks must go to Cath for organising the swap...yah!


In other news, Michelle has received her Peter Rabbit pillowcase. I posted it a little bit later than I had expected so sorry about that!

And in more other news, Steph has finally received her 100th post giveaway prize.

The bag took me a little longer than I anticipated because I couldn't stop stitching and adding buttons. I was having fun sitting on the couch, watching tv and adding the embroidery.

I used Jodies tutorial again (I'm going to have start sending you commission Jodie.....maybe you would accept selvedges as payment).

I'm a little pedantic about the length of my bag strap, and I wasn't sure whether Steph liked long or short straps, so I decided to make both. They are detachable and each has multiple buttonholes so that the length can be changed.

The best thing about making this bag is that it forced me to actually read the instructions of my sewing machine manual. I now know how to make buttonholes.....yippee!

These are the little crafty bits and pieces that I added to the prize........

Keep you eyes peeled for another giveaway later this week (especially if you're a knitter).