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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?
Giveaway Gifts T his week is blog giveaway time! Last week I celebrated my birthday. I’ve had far too many to count the candles, but I had a wonderful party on the weekend with my family - with an indulgent birthday cake, favourite foods cooked by my husband and great company. ( In case you were wondering about the writing on the cake , Por Por = Chinese grandmother) I also got great gifts from my family and friends. There seemed to be a bit of a theme this year – with many of my gifts and cards depicting matryshoka ( babushka) dolls and tea drinking. As it is also winter here in Australia , it was easy for me to decide what I could offer as gifts in this birthday giveaway. All the gifts are handmade by me. Gift 1 - two little fabric matryshoka dolls Gift 2- a little bag made from colourful teapot and teacup fabric . The design is called a jester bag, but it is suitable for carrying s...
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...
As promised, to celebrate and thank you for over 500 likes on the Empress Wu Designs Facebook Page , here is a giveaway of some of my art - three giveaways, in fact. I have chosen three sets of art gift tags as prizes because they are easily posted worldwide... These tags make great small gifts themselves or as an accompaniment to a gift, or you can even use them as bookmarks. All you need to do to win a set is leave a comment here or on the Facebook page (or both) and next week on Monday, 6 October, 5pm Australian Eastern Summer Time, I will randomly choose three winners. The first person will have first choice (one of three sets of tags) ; the second person will have a choice of the remaining two sets, and I am afraid the third person will have whatever set has not been chosen before. Here they are: Art Tags Set A - Marie Antoinette series (mixed media tags) Marie Antoinette series - 1 Beehive tag( line drawing on tea bag paper, digital image wit...
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