A very musical birthday ♫

Just a wee quick post from me today!  We're busy tidying and preparing our place for my parents who are visiting from across the pond and arriving Monday.  So this wont be a huge post, just a quick blog about a very musical birthday cake I created last week...

 

As I've mentioned before, in my other choir related posts (sewing accessories/ cakes and bunting), I sing with the Cantabile Chamber Singers in Toronto and at the end of February we celebrated my lovely friend and amazing choir conductor's birthday ... ACTUALLY on rehearsal day!  So committed!!  So although we were busy rehearsing music for our upcoming 'Bach and Beyond' concert at the end of March, we did have a delicious snack break with yummy cheeses, and also shared my red velvet music cake with everyone too!... And if that wasn't enough, a few of us also enjoyed a late night gelato after rehearsal :-)

I was lucky enough to have the Tuesday morning free to bake that day... so red velvet cake here I came.  As I have mentioned every time I bake red velvet - I use Joy of Baking's recipe every single time!  It is definitely tried and tested!  I follow it pretty much exactly, but usually make a buttercream for the filling, and in this case the frosting too instead of the cream cheese icing.

 



 

Having bought a new small music note cookie cutter on my last trip to St. Lawrence Market I had known for a few weeks that this would make an appearance on my friend's birthday cake!



 

Having baked a 'red' velvet cake, and made a white buttercream, it made a great contrast to have the black music notes as the fondant decorations.

 



 

I knew the birthday girl wasn't a huge fondant fan, and wouldn't want the cake to be 'overly' sweet, so I went with the buttercream for the filling and frosting and simply placed the 12 music notes circling the edge of the cake.

 

 

 

Leaving room for a set of candles in the middle, the cake was made and ready to go!  ... Then just to hoping it made the journey through a few piano student's homes (their dogs were VERY interested in my cake box and bag that day that's for sure!!!)... before safely arriving at the choir rehearsal!

There was a perfect amount for everybody, and we had a great cheese and cake feast mid-rehearsal :-)

 

 

A year ago to the weekend I wrote about some super fun crafting I did for St. Patrick's Day!  The holidays never get old, so read this post here!

 

Worksheet Game for St. Patrick's Day!

Alright... Well there has been a whole lot of baking going on so far this year and not much else!  My sewing machine hasn't made an appearance (although I'm definitely going to rectify that in the next couple of weeks) and there hasn't even been much crafting, beyond a few handmade cards and a small Valentine project for Jonathan... So today, you will NOT be reading about cake!  (Sorry if that's your favourite part), but it's time for something a little different. 

 

This weekend I came up a new worksheet that I'll be using for my piano students during March in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. 

 

 

While I was making it, and thinking of how it would work during my piano lessons, I thought it would be great to keep it general - then anybody can use it!

 

Using PicMonkey for the first time in creating the full worksheet (and then using the image in word, before saving as a PDF!) I used lots of shamrock shapes, with a starting point and 10 small shamrocks before reaching the 'You Win' pot of gold at the end of the line of shamrocks.

 

 

My plan for that pot of gold is to have a chocolate coin to aim for! 



Keeping it simple and generic I just stated that you should 'Follow instructions and move along the shamrocks to make it to your pot of gold at the end of the game'... 

 

Whether instructions are being given by a piano teacher like me, another teacher or parent this worksheet game can be adapted to anything.

 

The PDF is on Google Drive, and anybody with THIS LINK can download and print it as you like (just print on 'Actual Size').  Click here to see it.  If you're looking for a lower colour option, then perhaps printing in 'draft' will save your printing costs :)

 

Like I say, the instructions my piano students will be following are musical ones - I have a few students taking RCM piano exams in April so lots of the instructions will be based on scales, chords, ear testing and sight reading etc in preparation for the technical side of their exam. 

 

For my beginning piano students we'll do some fun challenges - playing high/low.. performing a piece loudly or softly, playing their pentascales... And some other fun ways of playing.

 

In addition to the worksheet, I also created a List of Instructions to print and go along with the worksheet.  You can download this one here - just click THIS link!

 

 

With there being 10 small shamrocks, and then one final step to finally reach the pot of gold finish point I put a Bonus to Finish instruction as well, this might be something fun, or something my student has trouble with - or maybe the point where the student can play their favourite exam piece, or play their Irish piece of music we'll be learning in March ♫

 

I'm sure you'll be able to think of LOTS of ways to use this in your lives - whether as parents or as education providers, but here are a few idea I had so far...

 

Perhaps your child has a spelling test coming up... Can they spell 10 + bonus words correctly in studying for their test!?

 

Or are there some chores your little one needs some motivation with... Maybe there will be a bonus $1 gold coin waiting for them at the end of the list of Shamrock Chores?!

 

Have some fun with homework or learning... Follow instructions to gain a 'gold coin' or other reward that fits with your current reward system!

 

Any other ideas you come up with I'd love to know!!  Just leave me a comment telling me how you enjoyed playing this Shamrock game :-)

 

I'll post some more pictures of the game in use during my piano lessons as we get further into March and play on St. Patrick's Day ♧

 



A February Round Up: Valentine Hearts, Pasta and Truffles

 



Yuletide Carols Being Sung by a Choir ♫

This past weekend the choir I sing with, the Cantabile Chamber Singers performed our first holiday concert since 2007!  Our usual yearly schedule means our first concert of the year doesn't always coincide with the holiday season, but we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to sing a December concert this year which of course meant a program filled with festive works as well as some other really great music.

We performed at a beautiful church in Toronto, and you can even see a snippet of our performance.  If you love 'Silent Night' click here and go to our Facebook page to see a video of the show :)  It was one of my favourites, so I'm very happy to be able to share it with you!

For this concert, our conductor and Artistic Director (and good friend of mine) asked if I might be able to make the choir some accessories.  In the past we had often coordinated colours, and always worn black concert clothes, but didn't have an official choir uniform that we had each concert.  So going with one of our favourites, a red colour scheme I got to work and set to making 18 choir accessories we could wear not only for this holiday season, but for every concert!

I chose to make pocket squares for the gentlemen, and flower pin brooches for the ladies.

Using music notation fabric I bought in JoAnns earlier this year I knew this would make a great bold black and white visual of music for the men. 

 

I started with 12 inch squares of the fabric, cut out with a rotary blade and trying really hard to keep everything straight and lined up!

In my first trial of the pocket squares I edged the fabric with ribbon after hemming the edges of the square.  However, on thinking about it, and finding the perfect double fold red binding tape I actually edged the squares with this instead, creating a really nice contrasting red colour which would pop out of the pocket once folded.  I love the colour choice my conductor wanted to go with and, there's no going wrong with red, black and white I think!

 



So, 9 pocket squares later, some ironing and folding done I was ready to tackle the flowers.

After ALWAYS seeing flowers online, how to create ruffled flowers, folded ribbon flowers, gathered fabric flowers, all kinds of easy DIY brooches or hair accessory flowers - I had actually never made one myself.  I've been too focused on the boys onesie bow ties and moustache pins/clips!

So, after a lot of research on some "how to's", some good old fashioned reading in sewing books etc I came up with a mix of methods which I felt I would be able to pull off (during an extremely busy week!)

I don't have many tutorial-esque photos I'm afraid as I was in a bit of a time crunch the whole time... but I'll try and describe what I did as I went along!

I started with a round of black felt that would be the base for the flower.  The bigger the circle, the more fabric you'd need, and the bigger flower you'll end up with.  I started trying a circle of this end of the whisk attachment but it ended up being too big.

 

Instead I ended up going with a very professional 2inch round fish food tub to measure the circles!

 

I had found this great ruffled trim in the perfect red for the flowers, cut initially into 12inch strips (although on making it I found 10-11inches to be long enough) and with my glue gun and button ready to go it was flower time!

 

Starting around the edge of the felt circle I applied the glue, and circled the fabric trim around the edge, winding my way in and applying glue as I went.  Circling inwards to the centre of the flower eventually coming to a point in the centre.

 

 

I glued a black button to the centre (kind of looks like a poppy I think too?).. and then attached a pin to the top middle of the back of the flower. 

 

Using a 2inch felt circle, with 10-11inches of fabric trim wound to the centre gave me a 3-4 inch diameter to the flower.  Perfect for attaching to our black shirts, jackets or dresses - and still big enough to be visible to the audience.



 

With enough pocket squares and flowers made, ready for our Saturday evening concert I posted it on my Facebook page and also on Instagram so everyone got a little sneak peek of what they'd be wearing, or seeing at the concert.  Are you following me yet?!  Click the links to always be first to know what I've been making or baking :)

 

 

 

As usual, my project was finished late in the evening, so the next day I made sure to get some shots of the accessories in the daylight!

I got some nice feedback about the choir accessories at the concert, and everyone looked really good wearing them - can't wait for our next concert in March to see everyone in them again!

 

Happy pre-Christmas everyone, hope you're enjoying some fun times, delicious foods and of course some festive music and songs ♫

Preserved Peaches one day, Peach Bundt Cake the next!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  To all the Canadians celebrating today, I hope you have a fun filled day with lots of turkey, family and friends.

We had an amazing weekend away, I was spoilt by my husband to a surprise weekend in the beautiful Haliburton, Ontario surrounded by amazing Fall colours, wild turkey, deer and lots of lakes!  And then yesterday we got to spend the day with Jonathan's family and cousins at their cottage with a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.  What a great weekend :)

So now, it's a bonus day off work and it's catch up day!

... Starting with... my Peaches and Cream Cake that I promised you a couple of weeks ago.  I made this peach bundt cake for our annual choir day out and meeting which of course took place along with a pot luck!  You already saw the DIY cute and easy cake bunting I made to music it up but the cake hasn't been blogged yet.  So today here it is!  

We were so lucky to be given a delicious jar of preserved peaches from Jonathan's grandmother a few weeks ago, so when I was thinking of something to make for the choir (thinking about what would feed everyone, but also be kind of new and fun to try) these jumped into my brain.  Peaches!  I've never baked with peaches before so this was perfect... off to the internet to find a recipe.

I found this great Week of Menus recipe that I slightly altered, but it served a perfect starting point for this bundt cake :)  

For the cake...

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 vanilla pod, split (the original recipe called for 1 pod, but I actually only had 1/2 of one!  The flavour still came through just fine luckily!)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup diced peaches (as you know, I used preserved peaches, but you can go with fresh if they're in season!)

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F/ 180°C and grease and lightly flour the inside of a 10 inch bundt pan.

2.  Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and set aside for later.

3.  Using a mixer, beat the butter until creamy (around 2 minutes) and gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy.

4.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Beat mixture after each addition.  Scrape the sides of the bowl down as necessary.  

5.  Scrape out the vanilla seeds from the pod and beat into the egg mixture. Keep the empty vanilla pod - don't throw it out yet, you'll need it for the syrup!

6.  At a low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream but beginning and ending with the flour.

7.  Scoop half of the batter into the bundt pan and spread with a spatula.

8.  Add diced peaches to the first half of the batter.  I chose to keep the peaches in the centre, so that the batter would completely surround the peaches keeping them right in the middle of the cake, with none escaping out of the sides!

9.  Scoop the remaining half of the batter on top of the peaches.  Spread with a spatula to smooth down the top surface.

10.  Bake in the centre of the oven for 50 - 60 minutes (mine actually took 65 minutes to be precise!  Keep an eye on it and test with a cake tester/skewer to check it is cooked through).  Cool the cake in the bundt pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes then flip out onto another cooling rack placed on top of a baking sheet or tray to continue cooling.  

And for the syrup - make while the cake is baking...

Ingredients:

1/3 cup fresh peach puree

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon peach syrup from the jar of preserved peaches OR 1 tablespoon orange juice

1 empty vanilla pod (kept from earlier in the cake baking!)

Method:

1.  Take 4 slices of peach (leftover from the jar of preserved peaches), and puree it until smooth.  Depending on your size of slices it may or may not make exactly 1/3 cup of puree but that's what you're aiming for - try it until you get that much puree!

2.  Combine peach puree, sugar, empty vanilla pod and syrup (or juice) in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves - around 3 or 4 minutes.

3.  Remove the pan from teh heat, and using a pastry brush, dab the syrup generously all over the surface of the warm cake, allowing it to soak into the cake before giving it another coat.  Then let the cake cool completely.

Then when you're done making and baking, it's photo time of course!

For this cake, as it was for a choir event I was excited to try making some cake bunting... Hehe BUNTING for the BUNDT cake (joke credit to my husband as he proof reads this!)...

I thought this would be the perfect cake for some bunting... with the poles on either side of the cake, music flags strung out over the hole of the cake.  If you missed the tutorial on this, click here!  It was really quick and easy to make, and I thought it was a really cute little way to glam up the cake :)

And of course, a little notecard to tell everybody what the cake was!  I like to know what I'm about to eat, especially if, on first glance you can't exactly see what would be inside, or what the flavours are.

I chose to call this a 'Peaches and Cream' cake... I know traditionally, peaches and cream would be sliced peaches and whipped cream - but the peaches are there for sure, and the addition of the vanilla pod gives it the vanilla cream flavour :)

It tasted really delicious, the preserved peaches were even better than fresh peaches in my opinion - because they have been soaking in a delicious peach sugar syrup for a while before even going into this cake!  The cake was moist, and had such a thick peach glaze on the outside which gave it a sugary crunch before the mouthful of cake!

Fresh peaches, peach syrup, along with vanilla cake = yum!  

Any more jars of preserved peaches out there, I'd be happy to receive them!!!