Delia Smith's Old Fashioned Cherry Cake

May has been a busy cookbook buying month, so Mum picked the first recipe she would like to try. She made Delia Smith's Old Fashioned Cherry Cake early last week, and it was an unfortunate flop! Mum blamed everything from the recipe, ingredients, KitchenAid, oven ... but I deduced that it was probably using the wrong attachment on the mixer. When creaming butter and sugar for cakes, the wire whisk attachment should always be used, not the flat paddle! To prove my point, I made this cake on Saturday and it turned out beautifully! I know, it's ungracious to gloat...

I've always loved cherries (you will note my cross stitched table runner) ~ fresh and glace, and when I was a child "helping" Mum cut up cherries to decorate biscuits, I probably ate half of what I was cutting! I have more restraint these days as it is much more satisfying to eat the cake with chunks of juicy cherries! YUM!

Red Rooster Cross Stitch

I love rummaging discount bins because I love being giddy with anticipation of finding a bargain. A few months ago, my local Spotlight discounted red tea towels with Aida cross stitch cross stitch panels. If you've read my previous posts you will be familiar with my tea towel obsession so I was jumping out of my skin with this find! They were reduced to A$5 but when I got to the register they were further reduced to A$3! I bought all six tea towels that were on sale... of course, who wouldn't?...ok perhaps I was a tad greedy, but you must agree it was a excellent bargain!

It's a good thing I like red huh? I love redwork and have a dozen skeins of DMC 666 (isn't it cheeky of DMC?) in my stash because it's a really popular colour. I remember a few years ago there was a DMC 666 shortage (sigh, a first world problem) and I went to half a dozen haberdashery stores before Christmas looking for it (it is such a vibrant red so it's perfect for holiday crafts).

The rooster (haha, "Red Rooster") pattern is from Traditionell by Rico Design, and since I have five more tea towels, the only issue I have is deciding what to cross stitch next!