Proclaim your love of cupcakes to the driving masses!!!

For all you crazed cupcakes lovers out there the bumper sticker of your dreams has arrived at my online store...please click here www.cafepress.com/patriciashea to procure your proclamation .

Thank you!!!!

PLUS...I missed the first "Mid-Coast Maine Iron Cupcake Challenge"
Honestly what kind of fool am I to have missed this? Actually the kind of fool who was helping her partner gold leaf on another all day rainfest here in Maine!!
The Iron Cupcake Challenges are a great idea for crazy bakers to get together and make themselves sick by eating vast amounts of varied flavour cupcakes by many and sundry other crazy bakers. Each month a flavour theme is given out and you come up with a recipe, then make the requisite amount of cupcakes and show up at the designated time and place and off you go eating cupcakes to your little heart's content. You do have to sign up for the challenge...IRON CUPCAKE CHALLENGE.
Well here are the two delights I missed out on yesterday...only two bakers showed but it was a grim day and it was the first and we are in underpopulated Mid-Coast Maine afterall....the winner was Anna from VerysmallAnna with Lemon Chamomile Tea cupcakes with Blueberry Chamomile filling and Honey Lemon buttercream (faint!!) and the runner up was Carrie from Fieldsofcake with Lavendar Vanilla Bean Red Velvet Cupcakes with Lavendar Bean Custard and Lavendar Buttercream (double faint!!!)
I consider myself as daft as a brush for missing this but have declared come hell or high water" I WILL BE AT THE NEXT CHALLENGE"...join me if you dare!! Details will be at Carrie's blog...click above or here at Fieldsofcake

Delphiniums, blueberries and the haunting scent of milkweed!

For the longest time I thought I didn't like delphiniums and I have to admit it was a prejudice against the name....I made the assumption that the name alluded to some kind of leafy aspidistra looking Victorian foliage-y plant in a big heavy urn in a darkened overly wallpapered room...was I wrong or WHAT!! I am now in love with delphiniums...they are so beautiful, regal and gorgeously coloured in the white, blue, lavendar and lilac pallette. Admittedly my poor delphiniums have been labouring sadly to grow this season what with the unending rain, drizzle, mist, mizzle, fog, thunderstorms and torrential downpours we have been experiencing here in Maine for the last six weeks...yes that does say SIX weeks...very little sun has been glimpsed until about 4 days ago and as a result my plants are leggy and bendy and generally well behind where they should be at this time of the year. I was beginning to think the 'delphs' had no chance at all but they sallied forth and turned into these beauties you see above...they are a little thin and spindly but they are still breathtaking..... and I will never assume again I don't like them because of their glum sounding name...naughty moi!!

The blueberries have not faired well either...I just took this photo on the barren next to our house today and as you can see there are some absolutely full and ripe berries right next to ones which have barely begun to grow...the weather has caused them to ripen very unevenly...they are still beautiful though aren't they?

Now here's a happy bunch..............

...and look at this for textile design inspiration, I did design a blueberry t-shirt for a company here in Maine a few years ago...they were a delight to paint but quite a hard colour to capture because of their bloom...again you can see the uneveness of the ripening.

And here we have milkweed, an unassuming little weed (except that it is toxic and monarch caterpillars dote on it!!!).....quite pretty in it's subtle colouration and beautiful globe like flowers...what is special about this plant is the scent...I have left a whole pod of it to grow around one of James' sculptures and the scent wafting through the house is gorgeous...heady and old-fashioned and very evocative, reminds of the Yardley scents I grew up with...do any Brits know what I am talking about?? I wish we had smellorama here on the blog!!

My little town Belfast, Maine anka (also now known as) Chicken Village!!!

Here is a design I did on spec a few years ago for my 'dinnerware' portfolio. I used to develop a portfolio of designs 'in the round' which I then took down to my tabletop (any item that goes on a tabletop...plates, mugs, glassware etc) clients in New York with the hopes of the design being purchased for use on ceramic or porcelain ware....unfortunately this design was left an orphan so I recently decided to recycle it into a celebration of the colourful history of my wonderful town Belfast, Maine.

So here is the reworked design in all it's strutting glory!!

Belfast, Maine is an excellent coastal 'village' at the top of Penobscot Bay, and a wonderful place to live. In the 'olden' days it was a shipbuilding port and Belfast area shipyards built more than 600 sailing vessels during the mid-19th century. It was indeed named after Belfast, Northern Ireland where shipbuilding was also a very important trade.

By the 1950s poultry, sardine and potato companies had set up processing plants along the waterfront. Belfast called itself the “Broiler Capital of New England” and each July thousands came to eat barbequed chicken on 'Broiler Day'. The first 'Broiler Day' was July 10th 1948 and there were 2,000 people in attendance. Learn more about the history of Belfast, Maine at the
Belfast Historical Society and Museum

Celebrate Belfast with a t-shirt from my online store

...or a BBQ apron

...or a mug that says "Greetings from Chicken Village, Maine"

Lucie and I make chocolate and English fudge squares!!

Don't these look yummy? (Who put the fingerprints in the top?) First a layer of shortcake, then a layer of caramel or English fudge topped with a layer of chocolatey ganache lusciousness. I first discovered these hugely sweet, but not cloying, treats at a cafe in the Lake District of Northwest England (by the way one of my favourite places ever, home of Wordsworth and divine rolling hills) and although I don't suppose they are a particularly British dessert (as I did once find a similar delight in Oklahoma) the fudge part is very English. A lot of Brit fudge differs from US in that it is crystallized, crumbly and melty as opposed to soft and chewy. Having grown up with the crumbly version I am very much partial to it, plus my teeth are not so fond of chewy things that threaten to dislodge my 100 year old fillings!!

Here is Lucie stirring the fudge mixture that I fear we overcooked, due to mirth!!, so it was a little harder than I wanted it to be....Lucie had not tasted this kind of fudge before and she was consuming it in such vast quantities and at such a rate of speed (why DO people say that instead of just 'speed') I was concerned she might induce some kind of apoplexy in herself....luckily she just got really happy!!

Again this picture shows the overcookedness of the fudge...it is too caramel coloured and you can see how hard it is as it set instantly when glopped into the case...do not fear though it tasted just fine!!...it was just a little too toothsome and slightly hard to cut.

HERE IS THE RECIPE FOR THE ATTENDANT LAYERS:
SHORTCAKE LAYER
from 'Entertaining with Cranks' (Cranks is a chain of excellent vegetarian restaurants in Blighty and I think they were pretty much responsible, along with Neal's Yard, for the Veggie
Revolution in the UK)

Ingredients:
4oz white flour

3oz butter (I use salted as I like the tang)
1 egg yolk
2 oz sugar

1. Cut or rub or food process the butter into the flour
2. Add the sugar and swish in
3. Make a well in the centre of the mix and add egg yolk, mix with a fork to blend in and then squish together til a ball is formed...as you know try to handle this as little as possible so it doesn't warm up.
4. Squush the ball into the bottom of a springform or removable base piepan that is about 8" diameter.

CARAMEL/ENGLISH FUDGE LAYER
This is actually a candy/sweet recipe from 'Farmhouse Kitchen 2' for Swiss Milk Tablet

INGREDIENTS:
14 oz white sugar
2 oz butter
7 fl oz condensed milk
4 fl oz half and half or whole milk

1. Put sugar, half and half or milk and butter in a heavy bottomed pan and melt over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
2. Bring to a boil whilst stirring, and add condensed milk
3. Continue boiling and stir constantly so the mix doesn't catch and burn (Lucie and I were laughing and let this happen thus the overcooking and slight overcolouring of the 'fudge')
3. Recipe says to boil til 240F but I think this is too high and the fudge would get really hard so I only let it get to 210 (plus I don't think my thermometer works anyways)...the best way to tell if it is done, and believe you me this isn't a very scientific way...BUT the mixture gets considerably thicker and starts looking like boiling lava..big sputtering bubbles...it also starts to crystallize on the side of the pan...something you actually want in this recipe...if you pour a little of the mix onto a cold saucer when it cools it should be getting crystally and not chewy...sorry this is so vague...honestly however this layer turns out it will still taste GREAT!!! And of course you can do this part on it's own if you just want to have crumbly English fudge.
4. When your intuition tells you it's the right time pour onto the top of the shortcake layer....then allow to cool considerably before pouring on the next layer

CHOCOLATE GANACHEY GOOEY LAYER:
For my taste this was actually too much chocolate goo so in future I would make half this recipe...but if you like chocolate go ahead with the full complement!!

INGREDIENTS:
4oz chocolate (whatever kind you like best in whatever form you like best)
1 oz sugar
2 oz butter
3 fl oz whole milk or half and half or cream

1. In a bowl over simmering water melt all the above until well blended...allow to cool before pouring over the fudge.

...and there you have it! Lucie and I made this treat on Wednesday last and I had my final piece yesterday and I must say I think it improved over the days...you know how some things just get better with a little time...this appears to be one of those things!!! Happy crumbling!!

More colour on a rainy day!

'PRISM MANDALA' 2006

I originally finished this 'mandala', an acrylic painting on panel, late in 2006 but just recently I felt compelled to rework some of the layout and now it is refinished as below....

'PRISM MANDALA' 2009

.....there isn't that much difference but I think I have simplified the overall feel of the painting and I prefer the way it looks now. These 'mandala' (circular designs used for meditation) paintings really are meditation for me, they are fun to paint and remind me of Spirograph and Paint by Numbers, both of which I was obsessed with as a child. The watercolour illustration work I do, as in the previous post, is actually hard work that requires a lot of planning, thinking and lengthy execution so when I want to relax and have fun I draw up a complex design on panel and fill the shapes with my happy pastel pallette....a colour wheel I cannot, no matter how hard I try, get away from. The painting is relaxing and pretty mindless and I can make these panel paintings really quite large...up to 4 feet diameter and larger if James is willing to help me do some carpentry which I am useless doing on my own.

It has been raining non-stop here in Maine for what seems like an aeon so I thought I would brighten things up not only with my Prism Mandala but with a picture of some stunning paeonia's from our neighbours garden, they have a beautiful, evanescent scent which makes me smile on yet another dreary weather day!

I had two recipe posts lined up but have recently had some major computer problems and lost all the images I had for these posts...I am rebaking and photographing tomorrow so the next recipe should be up by the weekend...check back for chocolate caramel shortbread squares!!

Recycling my artwork!

I designed this illustration for a paper products company some few years ago and it was quite successful on paper plates, napkins and the like. Just recently I realized I could rework it with some nice hand lettering into a tribute to Mother Nature and our local farmers so here I am adding the lettering to the basic central design. All my artwork is done by hand, mostly with watercolour paints as here, I do type out the lettering on the computer first but then I trace it and put it onto the necessary curve by hand and that gives me the ability to let the lettering have a human touch in slight inconsistencies here and there in the quality of the line.

Here is little Eleanor helping me paint....she is very good at constructive criticisms!!

The final design with the lettering added...I have to say I am quite pleased with the result!!

Here is the design applied to a fitted women's t-shirt......this one is organic...

...and a cute little baby's bodysuit, this one isn't organic but I do have organic one's at my Cafe Press store along with tote bags, greetings cards, lots of different t's for men and women and children and other various and sundry gift items...please do me the honour of taking a look by clicking here. Thanks so much!!!!

The robin chicks are growing apace.....

Now the little sweet peas look more like birds and here they are having a relaxing moment in between snacks from Mum and Dad....I am glad they are quite well camouflaged in their nest and no-one, other than me, seems to be bothering them!!

The bees are buzzing and the poppies are popping!

I couldn't resist sharing with you my first popped poppy of the season, don't they look like the skirts of those gorgeous fluffy ballerina dresses.....just this lone one has popped so far but look how many more are getting ready. There will be a veritable sea of them along with a mulititude of lupines...they make a spectacular colour combination....

...here are the bees, you can only see three here but I think there were five on this one poppy alone...the whole field is HUMMING with the wings of busy bees......they are the bees knees!!

We've got robin chicks!! YEA!!!

There are three little, messy, goofy looking chicks in the nest.....amazing that blue eggs can turn into these creatures...they look so vulnerable...the picture isn't too clear but I didn't want to bug the parents by hanging around...aren't they sweet!

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb....

Here are my neighbour's chickens enjoying our recent delightful weather....I took some of their wonderful eggs with yolks that were almost orange....

...then I picked some of the vast amount of rhubarb we have growing at the back of the house....

...then I proceeded to combine said rhubarb with varying amounts of sugar, eggs and butter in varying combinations until I came up with a recipe for rhubarb meringue tarts with rhubarb, mint (also from our garden) and lavendar sorbet...my path to this dessert was rather wobbly and treacherous and took me via some grand failures including marshmallows (which deserves it's own post!!), rhubarb and mint gelees/jellies/pate de fruits and rhubarb and mint jam/jelly which actually ended up more like candy and tasted too caramelized for my delicate tastebuds. Brits LOVE rhubarb thus my insistence on including it in this blog but rhubarb and custard is kind of boring as is rhubarb crumble....

Here are my wee tart shells which came out SO WELL especially so as I didn't use any weights to bake them 'blind' ie without a filling...they are a little thick but boy do they taste excellent..

Here is one of the tarts with it's attendant rhubarb curd which is pale orange because the yolks were so saturated in colour, I was expecting the curd to be pink and was disappointed when it turned out this colour, which is OK but NOT pink........

...and here is the finished dessert in all it's sublime glory...super creamy curd, clodlike, NO not CLODlike...cloudlike meringue and a buttery, shortbready shell with a tangy, smooth, bright sorbet....they combine in a very friendly manner I must tell you!!

Here are the recipes:

THE EASIEST SWEET TART CRUST IN THE WORLD!!! from a cooking demonstration at the Good Table in Belfast by Lindsey Schortz of 'Let Them Eat Cake"...oh do!!!

1 1/2 cups of unbleached, white flour

1/2 cup confectioner's/icing sugar

1/4 teaspoon of salt...if you use unsalted butter

1 stick/4oz plus 1 tablespoon of butter (ie 4 1/2 ozs)...I use salted and thus omit the salt mentioned previously

1 large egg yolk ( from a happy chicken)

Everything should be really cold...even keep the butter in the freezer for a while before you start.

1. Swish dry ingredients together

2. Rub (by hand as I do, the only time I like to get my hands sticky)) or blend in a food prcessor until you get a nice even sandlike texture.

3. Add the egg yolk and blend throughout

4. Gently squush together

5. Here's the great part...tear off pieces of the dough and push them into the tart pans evenly but certainly not perfectly...as I mentioned I made mine too thick but they were still excellent, next time I will make them thinner so they are more tart shelly then cookie like.

6. I put these tiny ones in the freezer for a couple of hours before I baked them off and I didn't use any weights to keep the pastry in place...I just docked/pricked the dough all over to prevent it from puffing up when baking. Then I baked these in a 375F oven for about 20 minutes until they were nicely browned and you couldn't see any of that transparent look that says they are not done yet...LOOK AT THEM....they didn't shrink or pull away from the tins...they baked up exactly how I squushed them in but just got a little thicker...amazing!!! I am a complete convert to this recipe for evermore!! No rolling, no tearing, no screaming when the dough falls apart as you try to transport it to the pan...yippeee....do try it for yourself...you'll be thrilled and it tastes like shortbread!!!

THE RHUBARB CURD:

2 cups of rhubarb cut into small pieces

4 tablespoons of sugar

4 tablespoons of water

4 teaspoons of lemon juice

Combine these four ingredients in a saucepan, preferably stainless steel, and boil together at med-high until rhubarb goes completely mushy...let it cool quite a bit then liquidize in a blender or food processor (if you blend when it is hot it could blow the top off the blender and burn you...I have had this happen before so be cautious and let it cool!!)

4 egg yolks

12 tablespoons sugar

4 ozs butter...again I use salted, if you use unsalted add a pinch of salt

Whisk the yolks and sugar together in the top part of a double boiler with simmering water in the bottom pan. Add the cooled rhubarb and the butter in pieces and stir, stir, stir until it is all combined and starts to thicken...it should already be quite thick because of the blended rhubarb...but let it thicken up some more. Cool completely and again it will thicken some more...this curd tastes infinitely better when it is cold so don't judge the flavour or texture if you taste it when it is warm...when cold it is creamy, a bit caramelly and quite tangy at the end...YUMMY!!!...you can use it for a multitude of things...especially on hot, buttered toast with a spot of tea!!!

THE MERINGUE:

For these little tarts I only did a small amount of meringue..you can double this for a whole pie

2 egg whites...from those happy chickens

4 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract/essence

1. Whisk egg whites until they hold stiff peaks but are not dry (what does that really mean?)

2. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and whisk well after each addition

3. Add teaspoon of vanilla and blend

4. When you have reached a stiff and very smooth state of meringueness transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe away to your hearts content until you have beauteous tarts.

5. Either pop into a 350F oven and watch like an eagle until the required state of toastiness has occured...approximately 10 minutes, or use one of those mini creme brulee torches and brown the meringue that way...et voila!

THE RHUBARB SORBET: Couldn't be simpler

2 cups of rhubarb

1 cup of sugar

5 big sprigs of mint

1 tablespoon of lavendar flowers in a tea ball

1. Put rhubarb, lavendar flowers, mint and sugar in a pan and add enough water just to cover the rhubarb.

2. Cook until totally mushy and the sugar is melted.

4. Retrieve tea ball and mint sprigs.

3. Let rhubarb cool and blend.

4. Pop into ice cream machine and follow manufacturers instructions...because rhubarb has a lot of pectin it has a sort of jelliness to it naturally and I think this helps it make a really full bodied and smooth sorbet...quite tangy with a hint of mint and lavendar!!!

Assemble as seen in bottom photo above and consume!!!...I'm off for another right now!

Awwwww...look what I found!

We have a live Christmas tree near our house, his name is Nigel...a Robin couple have decided to make a lovely home in Nigel's branches...the nest is so beautifully constructed but it worries me that it is actually lower than my eye level, I don't think our cat, Harry, will be able to make it up to the nest as the needles are REALLY sharp but we do have racoons about and they can be mean......there are two bright blue eggs in there.....

...and here is Mum or Dad keeping those little eggs warm...as you can plainly see there are the Christmas lights too! I'm hoping to be able to get pics when the chicks are 'born' but I also don't want to frighten the parents getting too close with my camera. Good luck Robins!!