The demise of google reader

If you're a regular blog reader like me then you'll probably have heard that google reader will cease to exist as of 1st of July this year. I'm not especially sad to see the reader bit go as I use Bloglovin' instead anyway, but I will be sad to see my Google Friend Connect followers go.  I know I've only got 24, but I really appreciate each and every one! So if you would like to continue following me after 1st of July or you aren't a follower already then read on to get my take on the various options for blog following sans google reader.

Bloglovin

This is my favourite and the main feed reader I've used pretty much since I started blogging. It's come on leaps and bounds since I first joined and they really seem to listen to what people want from a feed reader. It has great functionality as you can organise blogs into folders really easily keep track of what you have and haven't read, but what really sold it for me is that you view posts in their original (pretty) contexts with the bloglovin' banner at the top to navigate. There's also a great little phone app so you stay up to date on the move. You can find my profile here -

Hello Cotton

This one seems fairly popular with a lot of craft bloggers, but I have to admit I still don't really 'get' it. It seems a great site for discovering new blogs and content, but I feel it's more aimed at discovery and the social element of blog reading as opposed to the organisational side which I feel I need, although I know a lot of people love it. You can find me here -

Feedly

I've heard a lot about this recently as the main opponent to Bloglovin' so I though I'd check it out.  It seems more customisable than Bloglovin' and is a great organisational tool, but I wasn't particularly keen on posts being displayed within the reader as opposed to in their original location so you don't get to see any of the surrounding blog design, but I can see why a lot of people like it.

Email, Facebook and Twitter

As always you can still follow me via email if you sign up on my sidebar or you can like my facebook page or follow me on twitter to get regular updates.

Thanks for reading and apologies for the long post. I hope to see you again soon!

#PostCircle

If you haven't heard about it already I'd like to tell you about a little something that's going on in the blogosphere at the moment - the lovely Anna of Miss Beatrix is running a post circle!

hand delivered to me no less!

What's a post circle I hear you ask? Well, everyone likes receiving nice things through the post right? So Anna has arranged people wishing to take part into groups of 6 to send letters to each other. Whenever you receive a letter you then send your own letter to someone else in the group and so it continues - It's as simple as that! I've joined in as I love receiving post and it gives me a nice opportunity to practice writing by hand. You can find out more about it in Anna's original post here.

I received my first piece of post a couple of weekends ago from Kelly of A Place of My Own who sent me this lovely note card and booklet about quilting. She'd been having a look through my blog, saw my 22 before 22 list and thought that it might come in handy for helping me achieve one of my goals. Thank you so much Kelly, I'll be sure to let you know when I make something using one of the patterns!

I've since sent out my own letter to Joanne of Not So Granny with a postcard to Kelly to say thank you and I'm working on my next couple of letters, but I won't ruin the surprise for the recipients so I'm keeping quiet for now.

I hope everyone is having an enjoyable (and warm!) weekend, 

Recipe Review: Brazil & Banana Bread

We've had a couple of bananas which were past their best kicking round the kitchen for the last few days so I decided to put them out of their misery by making some kind of banana bread. There are loads of recipes on the BBC Good Food website but I went with the brazil & banana bread purely because it only required 2 bananas and that's all I had!

Pros

• Good for making with children - there's crumbling, mashing and easy mixing
• Easy to make, but make sure to read through the method carefully first or simplify it as per my suggestion
• The recipe says it can be frozen (everyone should have emergency cake!)
• The crumble topping is really yummy and a nice finishing touch
• Can easily be made dairy free as the recipe only calls for small quantities of butter and milk which could be easily substituted

Cons

• The method could have been written a bit clearer - I ended up making a mistake
• There was a little unnecessary faff in beating the egg white and sugar together first and then folding in. I slipped up here and just stirred the wet and dry ingredients together in separate bowls which turned out fine, so you can easily leave out this step
• A little too heavy on the brazil nuts for me making it quite crunchy
• Mine took a bit longer to bake than the recipe suggests - more like 50 than 40 mins in my fan oven, and a little longer wouldn't have hurt

Tips

• Keep and eye on the crumble topping as it browns easily and cover with foil towards the end to stop it getting too crispy - it will be much easier to cut
• You don't need to worry with the whisking of the egg white and sugar if you don't want to - I didn't! Plus not doing so means less washing up (oh, to own a dishwasher!)

What I thought...

Slight misunderstanding with the method aside, I really liked this cake - it's yummy and the fact that it's banana means you can pretend it's healthy. The banana and oil also keeps it's nice and moist. However, next time I think I'll use fewer brazil nuts and perhaps slightly more cinnamon as it didn't really come through. I loved the crumble topping though, especially the hint of coconut, so I think I may be recycling that idea in other loaf cakes I make!

Overall a good solid recipe and a nice starting point to play around with and tailor to your own tastes. I will definitely be baking this again, albeit with a few alterations.

Tea time!

I'm definitely more of a coffee than a tea person. I drink coffee every day without fail because I love the taste, the smell, it warms me up and I have to say the caffeine is much appreciated as well. But I do love a good cup of tea from time to time too, and I go through phases where I drink it a lot and then go for weeks if not months without. Although I blame that mostly on the fact that my stash is kept out of sight in a cupboard!

However, after mum bought me some new tea a couple of weekends ago I feel another tea drinking phase is about to begin! I was in search of a suitable diffuser when I realised just how much tea and assorted paraphernalia I have - my stash is really rather impressive for a self-confessed coffee drinker!

So, for my most recent study break tea experience I had some of my new tea from mum - Vanilla Supreme from the Gilded Teapot in Dorchester. It describes itself as:

A malty Indian Assam that has been blended with pieces of bourbon vanilla - for all tea lovers with a sweet tooth. A rich flavour with a perfectly balanced vanilla sweetness.

It wasn't quite as sweet as I was expecting, but personally I think that's a good thing as all the sweetness seemed to come from the Vanilla as opposed to feeling synthetic. And if you're a real sugar addict you can always add some more sugar yourself!

Now on to the big question - to milk or not to milk? As always I tried it without first which I enjoyed, but I much preferred it with a splash of milk which gave it a much smoother more rounded and mellow taste.

Now which of my tea stash shall I try next?

February 2013

February seems to have just flown by this year! I know it's the shortest month, but it seems like it was even shorter than usual this year. Things have been very busy of late so not much crafting has gone on, come to think of it I'm not sure any crafting has gone on (that most definitely needs fixing asap I think!), but a definite foody theme seems to have been appearing. Anyway, this month I have...

...begun my quest to become a soup dragon and started my 22 before 22 list...

...found a wonderful old photo of Sir Percival and admired Mum's tea plates...

...received a valentines parcel in the post from Mum...

...discovered farmers market eggs and got some bargain crochet patterns...

...had more farmers market yummies and made (not so yummy) cupcakes...

...had defrosting issues and rehearsed for a concert last weekend... 

What have you been up to this month? I'd love to see your instagram round up if you've done one too, just leave a link in a comment.

See you soon,

Alex

Choral baking

Sorry this is a day later than expected - blogger wasn't being very cooperative last night! But as promised I'm back to share my most recent baking exploits.

As psychology students we have to run an empirical project in our third year, which is our version of a dissertation, and I was in need of participants. As it's all run online I asked if any of the members of my choir, Brighton Festival Chorus, would be willing to participate with the possible reward of cake on concert day. To my delight/slight trepidation 50 or so people signed up, so on Friday night I got my bake on!

It took me about 5 hours start to finish (with icing) and about a kilo of icing sugar, but I got there in the end  -70 cupcakes all boxed up and ready for choir. I used a couple of recipes from my trusty cupcake bible Cupcakes by Susannah Blake and improvised with the coffee ones. The ones above are all vanilla with plain icing.

And these ones are lemon, coffee and then rose water. I think the rose water ones could have done with a little more flavor as the rose water I used was fairly cheap and a bit more water than rose, but otherwise I was really pleased with myself!

I'm starting to think I should have done something baking related rather than a psychology degree as I enjoy it so much!

Have a great week,

Alex

BFC, a concert and a bear hunt!

I know I've mentioned the various musical things I do before in passing, like this post about singing on Songs of Praise, but I don't tend to give it much air time on this here blog. That's not really surprising given that this blog is primarily about my makes and bakes, but it does strike me as a little odd given that if you asked pretty much anybody back home to sum me up 'musical' would probably be the first thing anyone would say.

Music has been bred into me and is such a big part of my life that I consider it my 'normal'. Going to rehearsals every week, performing in front of people or hanging around at theaters/concert halls/churches for hours on end is just what I do. In fact not doing so would be highly abnormal for me - I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a house that wasn't musical (have I mentioned before that we don't have a dining room at home, we have a music room instead?).

What's my point? Well I'm doing a concert tomorrow and I thought maybe you would be interested in hearing about it. As I've said before, I'm a member of the Brighton Festival Chorus, and tomorrow we are doing a concert entitled 'The Glory of Venice' at St Bartholomew's church in Brighton. We're singing some truly amazing music in both two and three choir format and are being joined by Onyx brass who are performing some of their own repertoire as well as joining us for some of ours. If you're interested you can find out more about the concert via our Facebook page.

Half the choir rehearsing at St Barts on Tuesday night

It's an unusual, but equally beautiful church and I shall endeavor to take more photos tomorrow if I have time. Herein also lies a rather interesting baking challenge that shall be occupying me for most if this evening and tomorrow morning, but I shall let you know all about that on Sunday.

If choral music isn't so much you're thing then you might like this, another thing that's been happening with Brighton Festival Chorus this week...

We're performing in the Brighton Festival this year and, as the guest director for this year is Michael Rosen who wrote We're Going on a Bear Hunt, this video was made for the launch and we're in it! Keep your eyes pealed and you might be able to spot me - front row in the choir, pink scarf.

Have a lovely weekend, 

Alex