Made with Love ...

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

 

So, yesterday I stepped out of the kitchen and we set out to make our own Christmas Tree, inspired by Tanya at my favourite store in Cotton Tree, The Lovely Bird.

 

We are in the middle of renovating a little cottage on our property, so we have copious amounts of scrap timber, so this was an easy task.

 

I went to the shed and found my favourite paints that I've used to paint furniture, some old white ceiling paint, old rags and away we went.

 

I was prepared to hand-saw the lengths that I needed, however I cheated and had my man cut them, with his electric saw, just because he looked like he needed something to do.  He also used his nail gun to attach them to the post after I'd placed them where I wanted them.

 

My youngest Eli, getting his hands dirty ..
and his body, and his shorts, and the dogs :)

 

Then, with a little bit of paint, a touch of motherly stress and a lot of love, we painted each panel with rags, rather than brushes, to give it amore rustic appeal.

 

And there you have it!

 

Love, love, love it!

 

Now to decorate it ...

 

 

 



Rainy Day Retro, Pineapple Upside Down Cake ...

Pineapple Upside Down Cake ... sticky caramel goodness!

 

My boys felt like something sweet to eat, and decided on a baby pinapple that he found in the fridge.  It was a bit sour, so we decided to use it to bake a cake .... Pineapple Upside Down was the call.

Oh, my lord ... I can't believe it's been so long since I've made this.

The sweetest, stickiest, gooiest, deliciously delectable retro dessert ever .. or brunch as it was for us, this rainy Sunday morning.


INGREDIENTS

50g butter
1/2C Rapadura Sugar
Sliced Pinapple (we used fresh with the core cut out - you can use tinned)

100g butter
1/2C Rapadura Sugar
2 small eggs (or 1 large)
pinch of salt
1tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1.2 C White Spelt Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
Juice from the left over pinapple (or from the tin)
A splash of Milk if there is not enough juice for cakey consistency (any milk will do)

METHOD

Melt the butter and add to a lined loaf or round tin, sprinkle with the rapadura (or if you like, brown sugar, or coconut palm or whatver dark sugar you have in the pantry).  Line with pineapple slices.

Beat butter and sugar in the cake mixer until creamy and well mixed, add eggs, vanilla, then slowly add the sifted flour, salt, juice and milk if required.

Pour over the pinapple and sugar in the cake tin and bake in a moderate (180) oven for around 40 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan for ten minutes so that it doesn't fall apart (as mine did, because I was too impatient, and hungry for a slice) and then tipit  upside down and gently peel away the baking paper.

We devoured our piece in a minute, I snuck some icecream with mine ... mmmmmm mmm m!

And it even brought back the sunshine!