Laura Strutt's Blog, page 30

The Week That Was: Life/Work Balance

All work no play makes Laura a dull girl. That’s what they say, right?

I can’t begin to tell you how packed out my schedule has been these last few weeks. I have been dashing about all over the country, attending meetings, meeting new folks and somehow trying to stay on top of all the other everything that I need to do. Wow, just wow! Somedays I don’t even know which way up I should be!

For all those folks that work from home, run a business or operate second creative business ‘on the side’ I salute you! Working for a living is hard, am I right? I guess that’s why y’all call it work! For nearly twelve months I have been working from home, working as my own boss, and have been setting up and running a creative business – it has been a steep learning curve. Don’t even get me started on business plans, writing pitches, staying on top of admin. As they say, good things come to those who work hard, so I’ve been hard at work, work, work for nearly a year. And, now I’m certain I have my Work Game pretty tight, it’s time to focus on getting that Life Game back in the running!

I’m a goal orientated kind of gal, what? You don’t seem shocked in the least about that fact! Well, for the last few months I have been muttering on to my long-suffering husband about how I “just need to shake things up a little bit and the whole life/work balance will magically fall into place”. Turns out, you need to do a wee bit more than simple mutter about it. You have to actually make a conscious change. Yes I have deadlines that I can’t shift. Yes I have a packed out workload that I need to focus on. Yes life is that thing that seems to happen all around me while I’m glued to the computer or the sewing machine. That’s true for so many of us, regardless of whether we work in the home or at an office. It would be lovely to power down at 5:30 and just kick back and get on with the life part of the balance? But, as any employee, freelancer or business owner will tell you – it ain’t always that simple. It’s perhaps more tricky if, like me, you are actually doing hot damn near to what you might call your Dream Job – why would you want to power off when you’re on a roll? Let me tell you why. Because you’ll burnout, you’ll become dull, you’ll forget what real life is really like.

Cue cute snapshot of ‘long-suffering’ husband and pup!

Now, that’s two sweet reasons right there to get the balance bang on target, am I right?! After a weekend of total relaxation with friends (there wasn’t a spot of work in sight – I swear it!) I’ve decided to set myself a few little Life/Work Resolutions to keep things on track…

Work Smart

Setting out (realistic) plans for the day’s work tasks is a great way to manage time and stay on top of deadlines, projects, duties and admin. Proceed with caution – adding too many items will leave you feeling like a failure in your work day when the bell rings for the end of the day and you still have a dozen items left to do, this is a sure fire way to see you working thorough into the wee small hours.

Work Time/Play Time

Working from home certainly gives you a whole heap more flexibility in life. You can just quickly catch up on that pile of laundry that it growing at a terrifying rate, you can decide that perhaps spending the afternoon catching up for a coffee date with a chum is a great idea. Flexibility is a double edge sword my friends. It is great to be able to set your own hours but quickly you will realise that goofing off on a sunny afternoon is mostly likely going to mean that you have extra bits and bobs of work to catch up on in the evenings or at weekends – which ain’t a lot of fun! try to keep the lines of Work Time and Play Time from blurring too much!

Tech-Free Time

It can be horrifying how much time can be spent online – both for work and for play – ditching the gadgets for as little as a couple of hours each day is a great way to get more time living in the real world. After all, you might just be hitting up your fave social media, but chances are you’ll be checking in on those emails too. If an email drops into your inbox in the late evening, chances are it can wait till the morning – even if you spend those hours planning out your meals for the week, grocery shopping, reading a book or catching a movie, you’ll be out there in the real world, doing real life things – which is the whole point!

Set a Non-Work Goal

Sounds pretty formal and clinical I know, but giving yourself something to work towards as a target in your personal life is a fun and rewarding way to help ensure that you to dedicate more time to real life activities. This can be anything you fancy – squeeze in three hours reading a week, clear out your closet by the end of the month, walk 10k steps a day. Anything! Knowing that you have other goals in your life, aside from work, is a great way to get the balance back!

Fresh Air

I’m going to say it again, because I just don’t care! Fresh air! There is a whole lot to be said for stepping out and getting a big healthy lungful of fresh air during the day. If you work from home, chances are there are days where you see little else than your own four walls. This is a one-way ticket to cabin fever. Not only will it send you towards Grouchsville without passing Go or collecting £100, you’ll probably find that your productivity or concentration starts to drop right off too, so you’ll be stuck for even longer trying to beat the tasks. Take a 10 minute walk, wander into your garden, heck go sit on your doorstep to drink your morning coffee – any of these things will work to clear the cobwebs and give you an instant lift!

 ♥ – ♥ – ♥

I’m starting on a new project this week, which is taking my workload right up to full capacity – and with very little wiggle room at that! So, for the sake of the sanity of myself (and my little family) I’m going to be following these resolutions and see just how much life I can shake into this Life/Work balance!

I’m always open to suggestions – how do you make sure that you’re getting as much Play as you get Work in your life?

The post The Week That Was: Life/Work Balance appeared first on Made Peachy.

Style Sunday: The Bombshell Bathing Suit

Well, if is going to be summertime then I declare that we all shall be wearing retro one-pieces!

Seriously – is there anything sassier than this amazing than this blank & white retro bathing suit by Ester Williams, £65, For Luna – I mean it has everything that swimwear should have, halter neck with just the right amount of  of décolletage, gathering at the sides with ruching over the tummy (all sins are carefully under wraps!) and full coverage that is sure to flatter all body shapes and looks incredibly sexy and slimming. I’ll take it to Vegas and marry it right now!

So, how about making your own? Sounds like a challenge we can all get behind this summer, right? Then check out today’s Style Sunday: The Bombshell Bathing Suit for more inspiration!

The Pattern

The Bombshell, Sizes (US 4 – 18, £6.72, ClosetCaseFiles

Based on the classic 1950s silhouette with a tie-halter neck, rucking over the tummy and back and extended panels that provide fill coverage at the in front and on the bottom. Select Design A for this classic swimsuit.

The Fabrics

Black & White Polka Dot Spandex, £7.75 per metre
Scarlet Swimsuit Fabric, £12.95 per metre MyFabrics

Coral Four Way Stretch, £5.99 per metre Tissu

Blue Stretch Lycra, £11.99 per metre MinervaCrafts

I know what your thinking, ‘that’s cute Laura, but sewing that stretch slinky fabrics is a no-no!’ That’s where you’re wrong my friends. Sewing stretch fabrics, like these for a bombshell bathing suit, needn’t be a nightmare, here are my Top Tips for Swimwear Stitching Success!

Fabrics: Be sure to pick a nylon spandex when making a bathing costume, this is stretch enough to make this comfortable, yet will be quick to dry and will hold a flattering shape while wet. Add a lining – like a stretch nylon as this will prevent the fabrics form becoming see through when wet – and ain’t no-one wants that!

Sewing needle: Picking the right needle for you project will help, a lot! Opt for a stretch needle as this will prevent the stitches from skipping while you sew.

Stitch style: A medium width zig zag stitch is ideal for sewing stretch fabrics, like for swim wear, as it will allow the fabrics to move and stretch out without the threads on the seams snapping and breaking.

Sewing foot: Switch out your standard foot for a walking foot, this is the best way to ensure that the fabrics feed easily through the machine without them stretching out too much prior to stitching, which will help you to achieve the neat shaping that you want from a bathing costume.

Added extras: Inserting some soft foam cups to the bodice and thin elastic around the legs, neckline and back portions of the swimsuit will help to give the garment a better (and more modest!) fit when finished!)

All we need now is some sunshine, a pool and perhaps a cocktail in a pineapple and the summer is all good!

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Cherry Pot Super Foods Quick Fix Recipe

For the last week I have been feeling pretty under the weather – being unwell, having a work load up to my eyeballs and generally in need of a little lift.

They say that you are what you eat, so I figured it was time to eat more awesome if that is how I want to feel. And, let’s face it I’m sweet enough so it is about time I ditched the sugar-loaded treats and grab for something a little more healthful!

This week, in the wake of my birthday and the fast approaching summertime, I’ve been kicking my healthy eating back into touch – and man is this a great sweet treat! If, like me, you are always on the look out for something really sweet and really tasty – especially as a mid afternoon pick-me-up snack – this Cherry Pot is a super food quick fix recipe that I know you’re going to love!

The very best part is that it is quick to make and tastes liken  ice cream sundae – only better because you know it is only packed with goodness!

It’s simple folks! You’re going to need sweet juicy frozen cherries – either store bought or you can de-stone and freeze them yourself, which is great if (like me) you bulk buy at the markets and can’t get through them all before they start to turn!

All you need to do is layer the fruits with spoonfuls of natural fat free fromage frais and a sprinkling of ground oatmeal and you are good to go!

See I told you that it was easy – probably the easiest sweet treat you can whip up – it is great for breakfast, dessert and snacks…I know this to be true from experience!

Delish – as soon as I have eaten my way through all these cherries I have frozen I’ll be looking to see what other fruity combos I can create – what fruits would you add?

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Love Sewing: Issue 2 on Sale NOW!

It’s Friday! It’s sunny! And…the latest issue of Love Sewing goes on sale today! If this isn’t a whole handful of reasons to be happy today then I don’t know what is!

I know that most of you subscribers will have got your copies by now – so, what do you think? Love it?! What are you going to make first?

For the rest of you that have not gotten out to the shops just get to snap up this latest issue – I wanted to share a little something that I made…

Friends, what do you think of this tie and pocket square combo?

Pocket squares are the must-have style piece for men this season – and let’s face it, there is nothing more dashing that a well put together chap sporting a tie and pocket square, is there!

These ties are a heap easier to put together then you first might think – Yes, it’s a lot of long strips of fabric, but honestly, once you’ve drafted out your template you’ll be stitching up a storm in no time, trust me on this one folks!

Don’t even get me started on these Liberty Tana Lawns - seriously! They are just plain dreamy!

You will even have time to work up a set or two before Father’s Day if you fancy treating your Papa to something that you’ve lovingly made with your own fair hands…Be sure to check out the latest issue of Love Sewing magazine to get the full pattern instructions, and (for summer cocktail fans!) I’ve shared a set of sweet summertime coasters in this issue too!

Happy Friday Friends!

 

 

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Father’s Day: A Handmade Gift Guide

Man! What I would give to see my Dad wearing this Darth Vader T-Shirt • £15.50 • SaintsDesigns I’m not certain that he would fully go for it…actually I think it is safe to say that he definitely wont! So, rather then dwell on it – I thought I would hunt out some rad finds for the papas out there with this Father’s Day Handmade Gift Guide!

1 Dad You Rock Plectrum • £15 • AbercrombieCumbes

2 Leather Tablet Case • £17.82 • PopularMiles

3 Periodic table elements greeting card • £2.95 • NewtonAndTheApple

4 Chocolate Bacon Lip Balm • £5.83 set of three • Lippydudu

5 Handmade Wood Travel Mug • £33.79 • WildWoodVermont

6 Bay Rum & Lime Aftershave • £15.36 • DirtyDeedsSoaps

7 Minimalist Wallet • £20.28 • Wallingandsons

8 Charcoal & Coffee Soap on a Rope • £4.92 • Dingsboems

9 Barber Shop Socks • £6.14 • NicSocks

Now, all I got to do is decide what to pick out…if I’m honest I want to get them all!

Happy handmade shopping y’all!

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Simple Makes & Simple Pleasures

When life gets busy it is more important than ever to enjoy the simple pleasures in life – and with that (for me, anyway) comes simple makes!

For the next few weeks I feel as though every single second of my days are accounted for – there is little wiggle room for slacking off or indulging in anything frivolous. I like busy, which is a good thing, but I also know that a girl can live on busy alone – even if it is the busy that goes right ahead and pays the bills!

One of the things that I love to do while working at the sewing machine, knitting, walking the dog, taking and editing photographs and doing house chores is to listen to audiobooks and a few of my fave bands. It breaks the silence and monotony of stitching a zillion seams, without being to distracting that I find myself zoning out and making stupid mistakes.

This year my birthday gift was a pair of amazing Marshall Major headphones – these couldn’t be more perfect for me and they couldn’t have come into my life at a more perfect time. It was love at first listen – true love!

While I love that these beauts fold neatly to make them more portable – I’m notorious for getting into a tangle with cables, and I seem to have a huge amount of cables in my daily life! So, with the five minutes between finishing up work and making a start on cooking supper I decided I’d whizz up a neat little leather cable tidy!

Yup, this is just about the most simple thing that I have made in the longest time. But, man does it work like a charm! Don’t you just love that when a simple idea for a simple make works out first time? There was no sketching, measuring, fretting over supplies – which is so unlike me! Just grabbing the materials and going for it!

I’m pretty chuffed with how this worked out – it’s so simple that it couldn’t really fail, right? Now, I want to work on a collection of different little leather tidies for all my cables – imagine how tidy and organised all my gadgets will be! I consider this simple little make a prototype, and now when I get a spare five minutes I’m going to work on more ideas, perhaps with a little more careful consideration to the gadgets that I have to see if I can create a whole host of these handy little leather tidies!

Is there anything more satisfying than a quick, simple make?

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Creative Reading: Quiltopedia by Laura Jane Taylor

Every so now and then a book comes my way and I simply couldn’t love it more! This my friends, is one of those!

I think that my passion for patchwork is very apparent by now, so a book promising to be ‘the only quilting reference that I will ever need” surely needs to be on my bookshelf!

First things first, I was blown away by all the amazing images, bright colourful photographs, stunning projects to make and some of the most stylish contemporary quilting photography I have seen in a long, long time. Why is this so important to me? Well, we all love to look at beautiful things, you only have to take a peek over at my Pinterest boards to prove that fact to be true! As any quilter will tell you, fabrics selections and the composition of colours is just as important to the techniques of actually cutting, piecing and stitching a quilting project. So, these makes – whether you chose to work on the actual project (although I can’t fathom why you wouldn’t!) makes them an excellent lesson in fabrics selection, working combinations and using fabrics to great effect. Now, that is something that I know we all can get behind.

Ok, ok, so we don’t just want a picture book, I get that. Well, lucky for y’all this book isn’t just style over substance – this book is style and substance! I know, double whammy, right there! There is lots of basic information designed to give you a solid foundation if you are starting out, while those with a bit more experience can use these to get stuck in to applying these techniques into their makes having seen the application in the selection of projects.

And, for those of us that quite fancy going off piste with our quilting makes, there as a brilliant block directory at the back of the book, which sets out a series of traditional and more contemporary quilt blocks for you to work on – neat huh? I know that this is the section that I’ll be returning to over and over (as well as the technique sections for when my brain clouds over mid make!) there is plenty here to keep me busy for the time being…I guess when I have exhausted this for inspiration we’ll have to get hounding Laura Jane to write a follow up with even more great ideas and designs! Be warned, however, there are a whole heap of quilting abbreviations (yup – I didn’t know half of them existed either!) all of these are fully explained, but it can take a few moments to get your head round this special lingo – stick with it my friends, you won’t be disappointed! All I really want to do now is ditch work for the day and get busy using these ideas to make some rad quilts  *sigh*

 

♥ – ♥ – ♥

 Quiltopedia by Laura Jane Taylor, published by Apple Press, £14.99 paperback – get it while it’s hot!

You can keep up to date with the awesome Laura Jane on her blog NeedlePinsAndBakingTins!

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Quick Catch Up: Hello June

The month of May has been a really mixed bag of “why nots” and “let’s give it a go”! The last four weeks I have done things I wouldn’t normally do, I have stepped right out of my comfort zone and given things a go and, all-in-all, it has been pretty amazing!

For one, I never thought I would be able to say, “Hey! Check out my video tutorials on YouTube!” Yup! I shrugged off my shyness and embrace the have-a-go philosophy (not to mention my phenomenal awkwardness!) and created a set of three DIY Wedding Mini-Make Videos for Haynes – the publisher’s of my book The DIY Wedding Manual!

Earlier this month I headed up to beautiful Malvern to share some inspiration, ideas and Vilene how-to at the Quilt UK . Having never attended this show, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. But, what I discovered is that there are so many rad folks out there making lots of rads things, looking for awesome new supplies and skills and that Quilters are pretty much an all-round rad bunch! I have a whole stack of makes in mind for the coming weeks – I just wonder if I’ll be able to get these finished up before The Festival of Quilts?!

Sometimes it is a little [read: a lot] nerve-wracking, putting yourself out there, trying something different and giving it a shot. In fact, almost a year ago, I decided to start up Made Peachy, to share some daily inspirations and do just that – give it a go. I’m getting rather sentimental over here, and I predict that I will only get more so over the coming months as Made Peachy hits the One Year mark! So, I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you how chuffed I was to be nominated by Blogers Required as one of their first 15 bloggers awarded with their new One To Watch Award! To say I’m stoked doesn’t even come close!

What else can I tell you about the glorious month of May…

Y’all have seen the new Love Sewing  magazine by now, right? I’m so stoked to be contributing some designs to this amazing new magazine – be sure to catch the latest issue, which goes on sale at the end of this week and, if you’ve got a questions for me for the Letters Page – be sure to email it over to letters@lovesewingmag.com

Today, while you’re reading this I’ll be heading over to the Big Smoke to dot the i’s and cross the t’s on a brilliant new project that I will be starting work on in the coming days…I’ll also know just how soon I can share this with y’all!

But in the meantime, here’s where I’ll be over the next few months…2014 Diary Dates

7 – 10 August The Festival of Quilts NEC Birmingham

19 – 21 September The Handmade Fair Hampton Court Palace

9 – 12 October The Knitting & Stitching Show Alexandra Palace, London

30 October – 2 November The Knitting & Stitching Show RDS, Dublin

20 – 23 November The Knitting & Stitching Show HIC, Harrogate

There has been a whole heap of things going on over here at Peachy HQ too…

Crafts: DIY Floral Crown

Style:

Skills: How To Crash Fabric

Eats: Macaroon Stack Cake

My Browser Besties:

1: The Sewing Directory

2: Simply Solids

3: SewMeSomething

4: TheMasonBarCompany

My Blog Crushes:

1: KatieGetsCrafty

2: Frugally Peachy -pssst! My chum Emma is looking for some Guest Posts for Frugally Peachy – be sure to get in touch with her if you have some rad ideas to share!

3: TheTattooedQuilter

4: AprilRhodes

This month I have also been super stoked to share a few fun children’s makes in the latest issue of  Sewing World  magazine! Seriously is there anything more cute than sewing projects made for Littles? Nope, there really isn’t.

This week I’m finishing up another exciting especial issue for the next issue of Sewing World, and seriously, this one has been a total blast! So Watch This Space!
PLUS – how delicious are my week trio of nephews?! They are killing me with their cute right here!

My Months Reads:

There have been some pretty epic books in my life this month- seems that if its dark, disturbing and dramatic, its on my reading lists this month…

19  Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes (Rose Gardner Mystery Book 1) -  Denise Grover Swank

A quirky mystery that grabs your attention right from the get go! The main character, Rose, is perhaps one of the most personable protagonists that I have read about in quite some time – making this book all the more charming.  The last few chapters of the book seems to cram in rather a huge amount of action – although by this point you wont want to put it down – which can make it a little hard to keep track of it all. But ‘crappy doodles’ i sure do want to read the rest of the books in this series!

 

20 Dark Places – Gillian Flynn

This book is dark, twisted, depressing and splattered with booth from start to finish. However, this is not a slasher novel, despite charting the life of the survivor of a horrific family massacre. Depression and sadness radiates from the main character, and the narrative skips from present day as she is trying to fathom out the actions of that fateful night, to flashbacks of the days, hours and minutes before the event.

21 Kingdom of Childhood – Rebecca Coleman

I wanted so much more from this book. Had felt that I was promised controversy, shocking events and even a hint at some horror…on these grounds I found the book slightly lacking. Not one for reading erotica, I found that this gave me a strange feeling that I was reading the fantasy of a middle aged woman (and not in a good way!) The concept as there, but somehow I don’t think that it fully delivered! Perhaps don’t read this after something as strong, dark and disturbing a Gillian Flynn!

22 Mystery Box- Eve Pohler

I picked this up as a free Kindle book with the view of trying a new-to-me author. The style of this writing was engaging, fast paced and, for the most part, well crafted almost to the point of being lyrical! I enjoyed the characters, although the cultural references were a little bit jarring on me. While there was a clear distinction between the good guys and bad guys, I still found myself being shocked and drawn into the story. 

Boom! I’m officially 42% through my Reading Challenge for this year! Are you taking the challenge  - how’s it going for you?

Bookworms – be sure to keep up with the other books I’ve been reading this year - January Reads, February Reads, March Reads, April Reads – or swing over to Goodreads and say Hi!

Finally, there was sunshine in May (albeit a little broken up with bouts of rain storms) and sunshine means lots of time when the Dog, so indulge me a little please! WaffleTheAwesome If you can;t get enough of this pup – you’ll love my Instagram feed, it is very puppy-heavy…and, I’m not even sorry!

So June, I’m pretty excited about all the opportunities and plans that are happening this month so, I am going to go right ahead and call this coming month OpporJUNEity  (yup, I said that!) – you can keep up-to-date with all the latest post, news and happenings on Made Peachy over on Bloglovin‘!

Tell me, what are you most looking forward to this month?

The post Quick Catch Up: Hello June appeared first on Made Peachy.

Style Sunday: Ballet Legwarmers

There is something of a health kick occurring over here at PeachyHQ…the flip side of having a birthday, getting another year older and indulging in all the good foods, is that you wake up feeling like you need to get your energy levels up!

I am a huge fan of the Ballet Beautiful workouts – after reading Mary Helen’s Ballet Beautiful Book  last summer, I’ve found that streaming her workout blast videos super easy to fit into daily life, especially when I’m on the road, it’s a lot of fun, but trust me, it’s an elegant looking workout that is surprisingly brutal – the Swan Arms is awesome for beating that hunch-back stiffness that you get from sitting over the computer or sewing machine for hours on end! Also, while deep down, I think it is safe to say that I will never now be a prima ballerina, this does make me feel like one – which is all that matters, right?

Ballet gear is pretty – and, of course, it isn’t essential to deck yourself out in dancewear to do the Ballet Beautiful workouts, but I love to! I adore leg warmers – and nothing is more elegant than these Lily Legwarmers £52.60 from Ballet Beautiful. But, why not make your own? Check out this Style Sunday: Ballet Legwarmers for inspiration!

The Pattern

Sausalito Stirrup Socks Pattern, Lion Brand, Available for Free

These classic full-length leggings feature a band of ribbing at the upper calf, open toe and stirrup foot detail making them the perfect additional to dance wear for workouts!

The Yarns

Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran in Blossom, £5.50 per 50g Deramores

Cascade 128 Superwash in Pinks, £10.30 per 100g Laughinghens

Drops Alpaca in Purple Mix, £1.60 per 50g WoolWarehouse

Berocco Ultra Alpaca in Turquoise Mix, £9.99 per 100g Loop

Now all that is left to do is dance around like on-one is watching!

 

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Macaroon Cake Stack Cake

The love affair with the sweet little macaroon is just never going to fade – and why would it? These tasty little treats are heavenly and you can experiment with a whole heap of different flavour combinations! Because today is my birthday, what better way to celebrate than to share one of my fave cake creations featuring these divine mini confections!

Macaroons can take a little bit of practice to get just right…I can’t begin to tell you how many batches of these little confections headed straight for the bin. Well, not exactly, more like directly to my tummy, without passing GO – these tasted ok, but they looked a bit to messy and wonky for public consumption. Then I got my hands on a Macaroon Pan, and let me tell you this is a game changer! Perfect, neat macaroons every single time!

Silicone Macaroon Pan, £8.99 c/o Lakeland

This looks-as-good-as-it-tastes Macaroon Stack Cake can be made with macaroons that you make yourself, or you can use patisserie-bought macaroons, if you want to whip this up in a flash. Try making up the macaroons the day before – and store in an air tight container in the fridge ready to construct the stack cake. This cake is make with chocolate and raspberry creme macaroons – but you can use an combination of flavours…now that is a recipe experimentation I can really get behind!

If you’ve not made macaroons before this is my go-to recipe, which is featured in my DIY Wedding Manual…give it a whirl!

Make Your Own Macaroons

125g (4oz) Ground almonds

200g (7oz) Icing sugar

2 tablespoon Caster sugar

½ teaspoon Cream of tartar

3 Egg whites

Chosen food colouring or flavouring

250ml Buttercream filling in chosen flavour

Macaroon pan

Icing bag

Electric whisk

Create the macaroons

Mix together the ground almonds and icing sugar. Using electric whisk, whisk the eggs until they form peaks, add in cream of tarter and caster sugar and mix until fully combined. Increase the speed, add in the food colouring or flavouring and whisk until the mixture is firm. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and using the markings on the macaroon tray fill each one.

Cook the macaroons

Smooth out any raised sections the back of a wet teaspoon. Leave to stand in a cool place for up to an hour before cooking for 10-15 minutes in a 160C (140C fan assisted oven) pre heated oven. After cooling for five minutes, carefully peel from the macaroon baking sheet and place aside to cool fully.

Fill the macaroons

Mix up the filling either whipping 250ml of buttercream – flavoured as required, or a spoonful of jam. Add a heaped teaspoon of filling on one side and gently press a second half on top, to create a sandwich. Store in an air tight container and chill.

Now that you have a whole stash of scrummy macaroons, transform them into a show stopping Macaroon Stack Cake!

Grab your supplies…

Selection of macaroons in your tow favourite flavours

Cake stand – this is a vintage cut glass single tier stand, but this will look just as great on a pretty place or modern cake stand

Cocktail sticks

Create lower layer

Create the foundation layer of the cake by working around the base of the cake stand, laying one flavour of macaroons flat on the surface. Try to pack them as closely as possible, without squashing them. If you find that you have gaps, try cutting a couple of macaroons in half and tucking into the centre of the design where they will fill the spaces yet not be seen.

Stagger second layer

Build the second layer of the cake with the second flavour of macaroons. Work around the foundation placing the macaroons on top, off set them slightly to prevent any gaps showing on the outer edge. Once you are happy with the placement, carefully insert cocktail sticks through the two layers of macaroons to secure them together.

Complete the cake

Continue working around the cake adding more layers of macaroons, alternating the colours and getting slightly smaller with each new level. Finish with one or two macaroons on the top – or even a little cake topper, if you’re feeling real fancy!

It’s good to know that macaroons contain nuts – yup, ground almonds are nuts, sounds dumb, but as they don’t have a real ‘nutty’ taste it is easy to forget! So, this recipe is not safe for those with nut allergies (which in this house means I get to eat my husbands share – deep sorrow!) I’m still working on a recipe that substitutes out the ground almonds to make these nut-free, but this is a little bit of a work-in-progress for now!

Macaroons are said to stay fresh if stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to three days…I’m yet to have any leftovers to fully confirm this fact.

Enjoy!

 

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