Shanghai Notions Market

The other day, during yet another strange and pointless Chinese mid-week holiday… I paid a visit to the Shanghai Notions Market/ Embellishment Market to see what it was all about… and I was completely overwhelmed! They had everything you could ever think of in terms of embellishment. I walked around aimlessly trying to wrack my brains for what I actually needed rather than wanted. 

Whilst on shopping trips my mum often says ‘Do you need it though?’, whilst helping to guide me in those times of need where you really just don’t know whether its a purchase worth making. I usually respond with ‘No… but I WANT IT!’. So with this in mind, I had to take my Mother’s advice.. otherwise I would have left that place laden with shopping bags and not a penny left to pay the rent… and lets face it, buttons won’t keep you warm at night. 

So, whilst it has lots of amazzzing things, it is worth going with an idea of what you need in mind first. A lot of things are sold in bulk, and I don’t really need 40 metres of ribbon right now. That’s not to say you can’t buy small quantities, I just guess its worth your money to buyer larger if your in need.

Anyway its worth a visit! And I will definitely be paying another one in the future… when I need 40 metres of ribbon and 700 buttons.

Wholesale Notions Market (Shanghai Tan Shang Xia)
Address: Renmin Lu 388
Hours: Daily, 8:30am – 5:30pm

Eastern Adventures

It has been sooo long since I have blogged and I have missed it! Since the last time I posted I have packed my bags and ventured East to the land of pandas, chopsticks and bad hygiene habits. I’m in China!! Although I have been enjoying my time here, interning, partying, eating, culture-absorbing, I am sad because I have no resources to continue with my crafty passion. I don’t have an oven to make cute cupcakes or have any of my many boxes and tins of crafty stuff. So I will have to restart collecting again here. Tomorrow I will venture to the Wholesale Notions Market (Shanghai Tan Shang Xia) to see what bargains I can find so I can enjoy my crafting hobby again. I especially want to get on with some jewellery design!

So hopefully I will be blogging again with some new eastern creations soon. Zai Jian!

Two-tier Ribbon Cake

I made this birthday cake for my brother’s 18th birthday! It took a while but it is definitely worth the time and effort. I made the top tier red velvet chocolate cake and the bottom a Victoria sponge cake so as to not have too much of the same flavour!! If you want to make a special cake for a loved one then this is definitely a good choice!

I got the recipie from here to make the cake: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/three-tier_red_velvet_17795 

But I only made two tiers and changed the bottom one to victoria sponge by taking away the cocoa powder and adding 50g of flour.

To make the icing ribbon follow this tutorial but on a bigger scale! http://jennifercloud.tumblr.com/post/32225899590/little-bow-cupcakes

Jam & Coconut Sponge

Many people may remember this pud as a school dinner favourite! There are not many foods I miss from school dinners but this is one that I do! Along with my brother who asked me to make some… so I did!

Its really simple and takes hardly any time at all..

Ingredients:

200g butter
175g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
200g self raising flour
A few tbsps (depending on how jammy you want it) of jam (I used raspberry) 
5 tbsps of desiccated coconut.

The how to:

1. Preheat your oven to gas mark 4/170c and then grease and line a square tin of around 25cm with greaseproof paper.

2. Mix together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until the mixture is pale looking.

3. Whisk the eggs in a seperate bowl and gradually pour them in to the mix a long with a few tbsps of the flour.

4. Fold in the rest of the flour and mix until its all combined.

5. Then pour the mixture into your tin and make sure it is spread out evenly. Put it in the oven for around 30 mins.

6. Once it is springy to touch, take it out and leave it to cool down for a bit before transferring it on to a wire rack to cool completely.

7. Once it is cool, spread the jam over the top evenly and then sprinkle with the coconut… EASY PEASY.