McCalls Dress

Well I've been out to do the weekly shop and it was quite a quick moving queue again, day 3 of Me Made May and I'm remembering to nip outside and grab a quick pic too.  I might become more forgetful of doing this as the month wears on but I will try my best.  So todays dress I made last year in April as a Minerva  make, I also have a long sleeve t shirt in the same fabric that I wear a lot (with jeans that I am vowing to stay out of for a month!).  For this dress I did use a pattern McCalls M7533, but I did add darts and taper it a bit as I found it a bit too loose originally.

This fabric has quite a silky feel to it so it is really comfortable to wear, I think clothes that are like that will obviously get more wear.  Shirts can look really smart and I have a few but they are never as easy on so they languish more in the back of the wardrobe, they will be coming out this month at some point.
Here below is the pattern I used if anyone wants to give it a try but be aware that  I added darts front and back to mine to get the fitted look.

Yesterday I made a carrot cake that was a bit of an experiment it turned out rather well, it is a little crumbly as all gf baking can be but not dry and very tasty. As we cannot be trusted to have a cake in the house in one piece here is an image of it with slices already missing!  It has also been cut a bit wonky but never mind that as long as everyone is enjoying it.  I will put the recipe below for fellow GF  bakers.   I made it in a loaf tin but I may do it in cake cases next time just for ease when serving.

Vegan GF Carrot Cake

100g GFv plain flour

50g gram flour

50g buckwheat flour

80g coconut

130g brown sugar

3 small carrots grated

grated rind of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

1tbsp apple sauce (from a jar)

handful of raisins (your preference or flaked almonds)

4 tsp baking powder

100ml rapeseed oil

225ml soya milk 

1/2 tsp mixed spice

Method

Line a 2lb loaf tin and pre heat oven to 180, sieve flour and baking powder into the mixing bowl and grate carrots and lemon.  Mix in other dry ingredients, combine oil and soya in a jug. Add remaining ingredients to bowl and combine, quickly fold in the wet ingredients  and pour into the tin.  The mixture is quite wet, tap the tin on the side to bring air to the surface then bake for 35-40 minutes. 

You could also add xanthan gum if you wish and it may well hold better but I don't think that agrees with me so I have stopped using it.   Apples sauce is good or banana if you have a ripe one for getting things to hold.

I really must try and take better food images if I am going to post recipes ha, ha you will have to trust me it tastes better than it looks.  Cooking is usually taking place here as we are hungry or in need of cake, the pictures are always very much an after thought but the cooking and baking I do  enjoy. 

We are having a bit of a change to the usual Yorkshire Sunday dinner here today and I am making Chinese food. If nothing else that at least means less washing up as I do tend to create a mountain of it on Sundays!  Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone.