So, as promised, here's a blog post about the charity fair that happened yesterday!
Jumping back to last week, not the one just gone, I worked hard and cleared my kitchen, cleaned it all down, and did the same to my living room. It was hard work, and I ached all over, but it was gratifying. A friend of mine gave me an extract to try, and it's amazing! Where before I'd often needed an afternoon nap, or two, and just had 0 energy, or I'd maybe manage to get into the kitchen, spend 5 mins doing something and then need to sit down again knackered - with this extract thing the only thing making me sit down is the pain, not the exhaustion. So, that's awesome! So kitchen, living room, and bathroom are gutted and cleaned and I'm so much happier wandering around the house than I was. Once I've recovered from this past week, I'll be getting on with my bedroom, and 2 of the three spare rooms. Then I had a really nice day on the Friday, as a friend came round with her two sons and we made cupcakes together. And even though there was a mess, I was able to clean it up the next day - and their faces when making them were well worth it. Such good fun!
So everything tidied, and a weekend of resting, meant that on Monday I could start on the list I'd made on the Sunday. So the job on Monday was to make the Chocolate Fudge Bar Balls and the Peppermint Creams. Nice and easy to do, can be mixed in the kitchen and then shaped in the sitting room in comfort. Then on Tuesday, my friend who asked me todo this came round, and we decorated the balls and packaged up them both.
So as you can see, those all went to plan and looked pretty good. Also on Tuesday, I made some Peanut Butter Tiffin, some Chocolate Tiffin, Some Chocolate Chip and Macadamia Nut cookies, and some Spiced Oat and Raisin Cookies. So with them all packaged up, they were sent off with my friend to her house, so that my kitchen was clear.
Then Wednesday rolled around, and I was definitely feeling it. Everything was sore and complaining, and silly mistakes started creeping into the baking. So the Jiffy Fruit Fingers, and the Shortbread didn't comes out as well as I hoped - I discovered when I sliced them - but they were at least still edible!
Thursday, I've had enough now. My body would love it if I'd just sit still for a day. But no, I have the main event to make today. The cupcakes! Chocolate cupcakes, Lemon and Yoghurt Muffins, and Coconut cupcakes were what we'd decided upon. For the lemon ones, I needed the zest of 7 lemons, and after 3 I'd had enough. My grater is horrific it would seem, and definitely blunt. So I'll need to look into finding a good one once I have some pennies. So I came up with a plan! The recipe also called for 12 tablespoons of lemon juice, and as it was an American recipe - a whoooooooooole lot of sugar! So, my plan? I added some lemon juice to my blender, plonked in the rest of the lemons whole, and blitzed them up. I knew the pith of the lemons would be bitter, but that should counterat the amount of sugar I was putting in, to make them a bit more palatable for the British tastes. Especially once I had put a white chocolate ganache on top of them.
None of my cupcakes worked as I'd hoped, nor with any consistency though! Some were perfect. Some bubbled over the cases, and some blew up nicely, and then settled back down again. I knew when I took them out of the oven, it was because I was so sore and so hadn't been able to pay attention properly and make sure every detail was perfect. It was a massive disappointment. But I was going to make it work!
So we've now reached Friday, and even my extract isn't helping me with the tiredness. lol. But I can see the finish line, and I'm almost there! Just got to decorate the monster muffins and crazy cupcakes and the making will be done. Oh, but I also need to shower and pack a bag too, as after these things are done, I'll be going to my friends to crash at hers, as on Saturday I'll be going to the fair to help out too. So, shower first, then relax for a bit. Then I grabbed some stuff to pack - change of clothes, something to sleep in, toiletries, and pills. Then on to toasting some coconut for 'wool'. Then I made up some water icing, covered th coconut cupcakes in it, then dunked them into the toasted coconut. TA DA! A wooly cupcake! Then I sliced and packed up everything else I had, shifted it to the sitting room, then cleaned down the kitchen again, and unloaded the dishwasher for the 8th time that week, or more. Then,I thought stuff it, and sat down and waited for my friend.
Once she got here, we had a bit of a chat and then got on with it. First things first, sheep heads were stuck onto the wooly cupcakes, as that meant they were done and dusted. We could forget about them for good. Then we thought we'd make up the fondant pieces we needed for the other two, so first, we coloured up some white fondant pink and made the inside of ears and some tongues. Then I used some white to make bones, while my friend used some black to make dog noses. I then painted the bones with some sparkly yellow food colouring - as they were for the lemon muffins - while my friend very kindly changed the cat litter, as I'd just not had the strength to do it this week. Then I made up a white chocolate ganache, using yoghurt instead of cream to make it more healthy, and then the butter icing in white and brown. Then we were good to go. The Lemon Muffins were covered in ganache and then topped with a bone or a rice paper circle. While the chocolate cupcakes were decorated to look like collies. And I think they looked awesome!
So, all packed up, we headed back to her house where we grabbed a Chinese, ate, then cut out jam pot covers, put them on jam pots, labelled them, weighed them, and priced them up. Then collapsed into bed. Saturday morning, I think I got up at about 7:30, and at 8:30 we headed off to the fair to set up the stall ready for the folks arriving at 10:30 - it takes about an hour to drive to Eldwick from her house. I think we did a pretty good job of it, seeing as how we'd asked for a double table up against a wall so we could have space for all of our boxes and goods to display them nicely...... but were denied, because the woman running it this year knew better. This of course meant that we couldn't put everything out, and everything looked really packed in tightly, and so I'm sure we lost sales. But it also meant that I couldn't move around freely as there was a stall right behind me, and a stall just to the right of me. So I was very cramped and uncomfortable all day. So by the end, I could barely walk and today......omg, ow!
The best bit though? We counted up the total that we had made just on our stall, and we made over £420 just by ourselves. Checking on FB today, and they made a total of over £2500 at the whole fair. So that will be a massive help for the dogs!
So today, I plan on doing NOTHING. Everything hurts. The kitchen looks like a bomb site. The sitting room has boxes strewn everywhere. But I don't care. lol. Let it stay like that for a couple of days, and then I'll sort it out.
Oh, and btw. Found out in the middle of the week that my womb is pre-cancerous. So at the beginning of December I need to have some growths removed from inside of it and tested. Then early next year, I'll need a hysterectomy. But shhhhhh. This is a cheery blog about cake, nothing else. ;)
