Treat Filled Weekend

I had a lovely weekend. I hope you did too. I ate, drank and was merry. I need to learn to carry my camera around. I am failing at that. I could have shown you the nice time I had with friends, involving lunch and drinks and lots of laughs but I guess we'll just have to do it again! We had lunch in Honest to Goodness in Georges Street Arcade and it was really tasty but a little pricey if you ask me. In these recessionary times..(*pushes glasses up nose*) €10 for tea and a sandwich is basically too friggin much.
I can, however, show you some of the delights from my trip to the Dublin Flea today. This can be hit and miss in my opinion. Some days, you could get a pile of stuff. Some days, nothing. That is the joy of flea markets though. All I know is I really enjoy it every time I go and even if you go just to get a cake, it would be worth it.

Dublin Flea

Sweet cake stall

This looked amazing!

Michael's award winning raspberry cheesecake brownie and oh so chic cappuccino

My not so chic cup of tea and an apologetically gooey apple cake

I nabbed this gorgeous cake plate and serving knife at one of the stalls. She said €15 and I must have looked sad because she promptly dropped it down to €12. Sold!

Definitely a treasure

Also acquired a lovely rose tea set...here's the jug

Enjoying a cosy Sunday night in. Too rainy and cold to face the outdoors.

Joey x

This and tat.

When you are obsessed with crap like I am, you tend to have/buy lots of useless things you don't need. I had never heard the saying "For your bottom drawer", but Mam would always say she was buying me stuff for my bottom drawer but even though I hadn't a breeze what she meant, it did mean getting presents so I wasn't going to argue. My bottom drawer has spread to most of the presses in the kitchen. It is a little ridicules. But like...who needs a house when you can cram all the contents of it into numerous cupboards/ your bedroom eh?
Memory of Mam:
She used to always buy stuff that I would be looking at her saying "What purpose do yo have for that?" And she would either say none or say she just liked it. Or sometimes tell me to mind my own business and she could spend her own money if she wanted and she didn't need an 11 year old telling her how to control her expenditure. All good reasons.
I seem to have inherited her need to buy useless, meaningless tat. I don't know what happened. It snook up on me. But I  now LOVE tat. What is tat you may be wondering. Tat is a random selection of bric-a-brac that doesn't really serve a purpose but remains wonderful. That may not be a dictionary definition but I am pretty sure it's close.

I got some highly useful glassware when we stopped off at Avoca during our trip to the mountains. Totally needed a vase/ antique style lemon juicer/ glass teapot.

€3 in Avoca sale

A mere €4-how could I resist?

Bibi needed a birthday present...

I also got this highly useful 'J' just in case I ever forget what letter my name starts with. It's best to be safe.

Sticking with my 'J' theme: This does not fall into the tat category as I don't want to offend Michael's very talented knitting extraordinaire mammy, who kindly knitted me this oh so lovely, teeny jumper, complete with wire hanger and j badge. 

And lastly, my 2nd installment of my useless cup collection.

This one is the most important. Mam gave me this one three weeks before she died. So I will always have a cup from her in my collection. They got it in a weird little market and it's chipped and scratched but it's perfect. The white lace is trim from her wedding dress which I found in Grandma's sewing box and when I went to take a picture of it, there was a tiny gold angel peaking out. I won't ask questions...

Joey x

They'll be coming 'round the mountains...

On Sunday, myself and my two lovely pals, Bibi and Rachel, headed up the mountains. We went to Glendalough which really is beautiful. And not that far away at all. Maybe it's because the last time I went I was small and trips in the car seemed like the never ending journey because Mam had the oh so spacious, two door, Ford Fiesta which we all were crammed into. Ahh the days of no seat-belts!
Anyway, Rachel is a chef and made delicious leek and potato soup, prosciutto and goats cheese sambos, and avoca mars bar squares.We obviously needed to replenish our dwindling, calorific intake due to all of the hard core mountaineering we were doing. So we attempted to be mountaineers. Well I am pretty sure they were grand but I was dying. We were allegedly on the easy Sunday, stroll route but the sign lied. It doesn't help when your friends want to go cross country style which led to my foot being in a very muddy, sludge pile. You should go sometime. But be warned, if your mountaineering ensemble isn't up to scratch, you will be totes embarrassed because there were lots of hill walking babes decked out in Breghause jackets and celeb-style sunglasses.

Then we called into Avoca for a spot of tea and smuggled in the remaining mars bar squares. We justified this devious act by the fact that it was from their recipe book so that's basically paying for them.

And in a miraculous, twist of fate, we all got engaged. On the same day! Or we tried on fake engagement rings. You decide...

Loads of fun.

PS I forgot my memory card so couldn't use my camera so these are from Rachel's handy dandy i phone. 

Joey x

A rocky road...

This week was a bit weird. I think it is the first week in a while when there wasn't something to "get through". This seems to be the chosen phrase used when somebody passes away. We had to get through the funeral, then the weeks after, then my first birthday without Mam, then get through Christmas, then get through New Years. Then we got through all of the above and then it was Dad's 50th. And now there is a lull for the first time in ages. There is nothing in particular happening but you still have to "get through" it. And it is crap. It's a rocky road one might say....cue rocky road recipe!

This is really easy. You basically put whatever you want into a load of melted chocolate. There was a mega pile of sweets and bars and biscuits left over since Christmas and I have never actually made Rock Road so I thought I would give it a go. The recipe I looked at had dried apricots and raisins and la-di-da things that I did not possess so i just murdered a chocolate Santy and threw a load of fun things in.

What you need:

12 digestive biscuits

1 bag of marshmallows

Lots and lots of chocolate to melt

Chewy bars like mars or snickers to put into the melted chocolate

What you do:

Break up the chocolate and melt it in a glass bowl over simmering water. I used hazelnut chocolate so I didn't have to buy nuts. Thrifty! 

When it's melted, chop up your chewy bars and throw them in along with your coarsely broken up biscuits. Chop a few marshmallows and that is basically it. Squash it all into a tin and let it set in the fridge.

A tasty, little, emotionally named treat.

Also here are a few photos from during the week:

Some pretty burnt orange roses

New nail varnish

Cheeseboard and chats with the girls

A Christmas present haircut-they have massage chairs!

Joey x

A little college treat

Sorry for boring the people who know me well  but for anyone who doesn't know me I do Media Production in college and I am trying my darndest to get through my final year which has been a bit hard at times but it has also been a good distraction. Anyway, we had a project which was called the solo piece and it was haunting me all year because you had to edit it on your own. I didn't know what to do it on and then I thought to myself..."What do I do best?" Cupcakes.
Have a little look-see.


A Little Treat from Treats&Treasure on Vimeo.

Joey x

Treats and Treasure Thursday

I like Thursdays. It's the almost there day. It's almost Friday. Everybody is always a little bit giddy about what's on their agenda for the weekend. I will be in work. Boo.
I do however, have a few lovely little treats and treasures to show you from my week so far. Hope you like them.

Some shots from my sewing class in Om Diva

Also I got some new Yankee candles. Whenever I see them on offer, I actually can't resist. They smell too damn delightful.

Isn't this the best? Teeny, tiny, cupcake candles courtesy of Grandmas trip to England. Thanks!

Oh ye! Have I mentioned I really like vintage cups. I have a secret little collection going. I thought I would show you some. This little baby is the first one I bought. I got it at the Dublin Flea, which is actually really good, full of posers, but really nice. I may have been fleeced as I was a vintage cup rookie and paid €12 for it! I was not pleased when I went to the next stall and they had whole tea sets for a fiver. I do love it though. And they wrapped it nicely so that totally merits all those euros spent on some granny's old cup. 

Night.

Joey x

Vanilla Layer Birthday Cake

I couldn't wait. Here is the recipe for the birthday cake I made for Dad's birthday. Have a look at the last post for pics of the party.
I am really terrible at sticking to recipes. This one was meant to be from the Primrose Bakery cupcake recipe book but I definitely didn't follow the method. I am a cake baking maverick.

Here's what you need:

For the cake..

• Two 8 inch cake tins
• 225g soft butter
• 210s self raising flour, sifted
• 25g corn flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons of milk at room temperature

To beautify:

• A batch of buttercream icing
• Raspberry jam
• Strawberries

Made up Method:

Right so this is what I did. I take no responsibility if yours doesn't work out. You just are not as much of a talented baker extraordinaire. No really. I have made this a few times and it always works so you should be grand if you want to give it a go.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Sieve in the flour,cornflour and baking powder and mix gently. If you over mix the batter when the flour is in they can get all tough and horrible. Next add your eggs. And beat until they are incorporated. This is where I add the milk and vanilla. Put the batter into your buttered tins and place in a 180 degree oven (160 if it's a fan oven) and bake until a skewer comes out clean. Cool. As in cool down on a rack but I guess they are pretty cool too.

To make the buttercream icing, cream 110g of soft butter with 500g of icing sugar until it is nice and smooth. Add 60 ml of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. You can also put in a few drops of food colouring but I didn't bother.

Now decorate however you like and let them eat cake!

Joey x