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An old recipe from my Mum. It never comes out as nice as hers...

 Ingredients:

40g butter

40g caster sugar

4 eggs separated

300g flour

1 sachet yeast

100ml milk

jam (preferably apricot)

250g icing sugar

 Beat the butter with the caster sugar.  Add the 4 egg yolks, the yeast dissolved in the milk, flour and a pinch of salt. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and elastic. This is hard work folks!

 Grease a baking tray with cold lard and spread your pastry on it about 1cm thick. Leave it to stand for 30 mins.

 Bake it in a pre-heated (180 C) oven for appr. 20-25 mins, or until the top turns golden. Take out and spread jam over it.

 Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in the icing sugar.

 Spread the egg whites mixture on top of the jam and put back in the oven on 160 C for about 10-20 mins until it starts to brown.

Giant seahorse

Someone has asked me if I can make the seahorses bigger. I tried ;) He is appr. 50 cm tall.

Ballinasloe Horse Fair 2011

The fair in Ballinasloe is one of the oldest in Europe and probably the largest now. Originally a cattle fair, for the last 100 years or so horses play a more prominent part. The horse fair is held on the Green while the streets are occupied by market stalls and street entertainment, the pubs are full and there is live music in most of them and there are loads of other activities as well.

For more info on the fair have a look at the web page.

Sunflower seed bread

I've been baking my own bread for a couple of years. I've tried a good few recipes and this is our usual bread, fairly quick and easy and lasts for long. (Unless we eat it all straight out of the oven with butter and milk!)

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 sachet dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

20g lard

a handful wheat bran

generous handful of sunflower seeds

1 tbsp semolina

450 ml water

 Mix the yeast and sugar with a little water and leave in a warm place to rise. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.

 Stir in the yeasty mixture when frothy and knead until smooth and elastic.

 Leave in the bowl, covered, until doubled in size.

 Punch back the dough and shape your bread. Place on a floured baking tray and leave to rise for about 30-40 mins.

Place in a pre-heated (200 C) oven and bake for 45-55 mins. You can brush the top with eggwhites and sprinkle with extra sunflower seeds before baking.

 Hmmmm....



Horses

Ballinasloe Horse Fair starts today. I wanted to make their own horses for the girls and found a pattern on the net. Unfortunately I don't know who is the original designer (maybe wolf and willow?) but owe due credit to them.

 It was one of those double craft dissaster, the legs and the head just didn't came out right. I have to make another one! ;)

But the new owners were still very happy and went to bed with their new friends.