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Countdown to Christmas - 18 : Surprise!
Singin 'in the Rain photo, with some editing by me, from isabelrose.com
Yes, I know Christmas cake should be absolutely, positively fruit cake!
No, not that kind of surprise!
This blog post is for those who dare to break the fruit cake tradition and prefer a butter cake for a Christmas cake. I think if you are going to have a variation of the traditional furit cake, then do it brilliantly. Perhaps not as outrageously as Kathy Selden ( Debbie Reynolds) surprised Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) in the 1952 movie, Singin'in the Rain in the photo above, but I found some amazing surprise Christmas cakes by some skilled bakers. The following images speak for themselves - beautiful cakes and when they are cut, they reveal a Christmas themed surprise.
Although this instructional video isn't for one of the Christmas surprise cakes, this clearly shows how it an be done. Looks easy? so if youa re not having a fruit cake for Christmas, how about trying your own Christmas Surprise cake?
This week I've been working on fish and sticks .... The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or my husband or from off cuts gifted to us from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks. Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...
There are many songs about fruit cakes - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary. Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers). This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach. Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...
Connecting and Interpreting : Story #6 from the ATASDA Collaborative Golden Cape Background : The Golden Cape is a collaborative project for ATASDA members and it celebrates the 50th Anniversary of ATASDA in 2024. 50 present day members have received an image of one of 50 yesteryear members artworks, to use as a muse, to create new artwork based on the past. Inspiration can come from textures, colours, style, design, subject, culture or history of the original artwork. The new artworks have become panels stitched together to create a Golden Cape - an anniversary art wearable . The Golden Cape will be displayed at various venues around Australia from May 2024. Angela Liddy drew inspiration from Maz Beetson's 2007 work "Fire Regrowth" for her contribution to the Golden Cape. Angela used a traditional Korean technique "joomchi ' in her work. Joomchi is a 500-year-old paper-making technique that uses water to seal...
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