#Kitchenclearout: Lime and Coconut Loaf Cake

Fed up with trying to meal plan off the top of my head, I decided to use my kitchen cupboards as a source of inspiration to work from. I have so many seasoning mixes and baking ingredients that get shoved to the back of the cupboard.  I think the reason for this is that I tend to stick to things that I know we like as the children are just so fussy.  For the past few weeks though, my oldest son at lease will try pretty much anything I make.  We have had some hits and we have had some misses, but that's all part of the fun.

As I was reading my favourite blogs, I noticed that other people are doing this too and there's even an hashtag for it.  So this week I'm going to take part in the #kitchenclearout challenge.

I have had a pack of desiccated coconut sitting in my cupboard for ages, so I decided to start off with a loaf cake.

This recipe is  'Lime and Coconut Loaf Cake'

ingredients:
200g unsalted softened butter
180g caster sugar
4 eggs
200g sifted self-raising flour
75g desiccated coconut
finely grated zest of lime and juice of 1 lime

Topping:
Juice of 2 limes
80g caster sugar
scattering of desiccated coconut

Line a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper.
Whisk together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add in the eggs one at a time, whisking in between each addition.
Then fold in the flour, coconut and lime.
Bake in the oven at 160 degrees c for around 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Whilst the cake is in the oven mix together the lime juice and sugar.
When the cake is cooked, pour over the lime mixture and scatter over desiccated coconut to your liking!  Wait to cool and then remove from tin!

Delicious!

Adding this to Cheryl's #Kitchenclearout linky as I have finally got round to using some of that coconut.  Now to hunt for more coconut recipes!

Deer embroidery project from Mollie Makes magazine

I have just completed my first ever embroidery project.  I often browse at the inspirational projects in Mollie Makes magazine and when I saw Kirsty Neale's stunning deer project in issue 56, I just knew I had to give it a try.  I absolutely adored Kirsty's design but mine differed immediately when I stuck my deer shape on the wrong way, so the deer is coming in to the picture from a different angle.  This then meant instead of copying the template from the magazine I had to draw the design on as best as I could to fit the differing angle.  I also made the eyes of the deer a little bigger to give him a cuter look about him.

It was wonderfully therapeutic making this project.  I have mastered quite a lot of embroidery stitches now and it has inspired me enough to think about designing my own embroidery pictures in the future.  I love how the felt gives the picture a 3D look.

I also love Kirsty's work so much that I have purchased her book called 'Hoopla' off Amazon so I look forward to receiving that shortly and maybe I'll post some more completed projects very soon...