Jelly cake!

I've been on a bit of a baking kick recently. I discovered that you can make cake flavoured with jelly (all right, Jell-o if you Americans insist) crystals, which works out rather well. I usually have loads of packets of sugar-free jelly in the cupboard because it's an easy low-cal dessert.

Choir people especially have been begging me for recipes, so I thought I'd start with the jelly one I eventually settled on. It's a simple basic cake mix, it makes 12 buns/small cupcakes. And it's in ounces - I always make cake in imperial measures because it's easier to remember that way, plus it's the way my mother taught me, and her grandmother taught her. Convert it yourself if you need/want to.

4oz granulated white sugar
4oz soft margarine
2 packets of jelly crystals (enough to make 2 pints of jelly)
2 eggs (medium or large)
4oz self-raising flour, sifted
A little milk or fruit juice

1) Cream together the sugar, margarine and jelly crystals with a wooden spoon. Keep going until the mixture is slightly paler, and feels less gritty.

2) Beat in one egg. Keep beating until the mixture is almost as thick as before you added the egg. That might sound a bit odd, but it makes sense when you're doing it. The more air you get into the mixture, the more your cakes will rise and the lighter they'll be. Repeat with the other egg.

3) Sift in the flour, and switch to a metal spoon. Gently fold the flour into the mixture, using the side of the spoon rather than the front or back. I use a figure-of-eight motion. Take your time, if you're rough now you'll lose all the air you beat into it in. Once it's nearly mixed in you'll probably need to add a little liquid - maybe a couple of teaspoons - to get it to a "dropping" consistency, that is it should drop off the spoon with just a little encouragement.

4) Divide the mixture between 12 paper bun cases in a bun tray, and bake in the middle of a preheated oven at 200C/400F/Gas 6 for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Let them cool completely before you add any toppings.

Flavour suggestions...

Strawberry and raspberry mixed, with a teaspoon of vanilla extract (NOT vanilla essence!) added with the eggs. Top with melted chocolate.
Orange with two teaspoons of mixed spice or cinnamon added with the flour. Top with cream cheese mixed with a little honey, and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Lemon/lime with 1/2 teaspoon of ginger with the flour. Add a cream cheese topping as above.
Blackcurrant with two teaspoons of rum added with the eggs. Mix up a packet of butterscotch or vanilla Angel Delight (pudding mix) with 100ml of milk (and a bit more rum if you like) to make a thick creamy topping.

Damn. Now I've revealed how easy this is, no-one with think I'm great anymore! ;)

More Basil

I was worried about Basil, because he hadn't eaten since I brought him inside Saturday night.

I took his collar off earlier tonight because he obviously wasn't happy with it on, he just sat there under his bedding looking miserable. And I gave him some cooked chicken to try to tempt him.

I've just been in to change his water and he had his nose in the food dish and a chunk of chicken in his mouth. Thank goodness for that.

Hedgehogs do like to worry me. Hopefully he's feeling better though, and won't damage his foot without the collar on. Fingers crossed for him.

The continuing Basil saga

Poor Basil.

Unbeknown to me, there was a loose thread on the piece of old sheet we'd given Basil for bedding when we brought him in. The thread ended up wrapped around one of his back feet, just below the toes, and of course his foot swelled up.

He'd tried to free himself, and bitten off the ends of the two middle toes. I found all this when I went to check on him last night, and then spent two hours trying to cut the thread, while his foot slowly swelled up even more. Eventually we managed to cut the thread with a scalpel, and then the foot started bleeding so the circulation must have been cut off.

The foot and leg still look very swollen today, and there was more blood in the cage so I'm guessing he's been licking/nibbling the foot. I sat him in cold water for half an hour or so to help with the swelling, and I've fitted him with a collar so he can't get to it anymore.

He hasn't eaten and I don't think he had a drink last night either, but he did drink a little of the water I put him in earlier. On the plus side the foot is warm so the circulation wasn't off long enough for the foot to start dying, and he seems quite lively, sniffing at everything. He's been very patient with me messing about with him, except for when I though I was going to drop him and shifted my grip a little too roughly and he bit me. Can't say I blame him.

I'll see how he is tomorrow, if there's any sign of infection I'll have him to the vet.

Poor guy. He's not having an easy time of it.

Our next door neighbours have just offered us their huge rabbit run for use with hogs! It's in two sections with sleeping boxes, so it would be perfect. It's very kind of them. So Basil will have new luxury accomodation when he's well enough to go outside again.

One funeral, lots of singing and one near-death experience

So I went to Boo's funeral on Friday. It necessitated a trip to Hereford, which involved catching a train at 8.35am, changing at Birmingham and arriving in Hereford at 11.30am. Funeral at 12.

I nearly arsed the whole thing up because my bus was late so I had to run (I say run, I actually mean I ran a little way then walked, then ran again) to the railway station. I don't do running, I'm horribly unfit, but I managed it. Actually I was there 5 minutes before the train was. Bah.

I did have to wait a while at Hereford station. Pete and Nic picked me up from the station, but Pete hadn't got a map of where the station was, because he didn't know I was going until Friday morning. My fault, I'd been so busy with concert and rehearsals that I hadn't confirmed that I would be there. Anyway, we just about got to the crematorium on time.

The service was lovely, very moving. It was sad, but it made me smile to hear all the things she'd achieved. It was also nice to meet her family, and share a few stories and memories of her. I'm glad I went, it's definitely made me feel better.

The hymn was The Lord's My Shepherd, and as I was singing it I couldn't help noticing several things. Firstly, it struck me that hymns are not designed for altos. The highest note in the last line ("The qui-i-et wat-ers by") is a touch high for me when I'm having to sing quietly.

Which leads me into the second - the general public, even if they are regular church-goers, are too self-conscious to sing out. I mean everyone sang, but in a very mumbly quiet way. I was singing pretty softly to try to blend in but I could hear myself above everyone else, apart from the vicar who was loud. It's a shame really. Maybe I don't understand because I've always been confident in my voice, but I think that if you believe in God, when you sing hymns you're singing to him and you shouldn't worry about what other people think of you or what you sound like. Sing out, be proud.

And third, something I notice with songs on the radio. No-one thinks about where to breathe in the song. It's natural to breathe at the end of the (musical) line, or when you run out of breath! But often that doesn't work when you look at how the lyrics form sentences. I'll use The Lord’s my Shepherd as an example.

The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want.
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters by.

If you breathe after want, lie, me and by, the sentences get a bit chopped up and it makes less sense. It sounds like "he makes me lie down", "he leads me in green pastures", and then "the quiet waters by" just tacked on the end for no reason. In my opinion, the breaths should follow the punctuation - after want and green only. Then it means "he makes me lie down in green pastures" and "he leads me by quiet waters".

Maybe I think too much.

It seemed a bit inappropriate to be distracted like that at a funeral, but I can't help it!

I was so tired by Friday night, I just curled up in front of the TV with two hours of The House of Eliott and a double pepperoni pizza.

Saturday I spent all day rehearsing. Our next concert is on the 12th of May - both the main Society Chorus and the smaller Socii Cantorum are performing. Some of the Socii stuff is hard, the Missa Kenya is quite tricky in places, especially the Sanctus. Still, we're on top of it now I think. Harriet made us all move, we weren't allowed to stand next to anyone in our part. I ended up with a soprano one side, and a bass the other. It was really difficult because shamefully I often rely on the other altos to help me when I'm not sure of myself, but it was very useful because I realised that I actually can do it without their help... in fact I sometimes end up going wrong because someone else does, when actually I was right. I just need to be more confident.

I tried to have an early night Saturday, but I was just settling down when Michael told me that our neighbour's two dogs had gotten into our garden again. They are those big hairy mountain dog types, like Newfoundlands or similar. They break through the fence by simply bashing into it. I said I hoped they weren't upsetting Basil, who is in a pen in the garden, and Michael went out to see what was happening, maybe catch them if he could.

When he went out one of them crashed through the hedge back into the garden, with what looked like a football in his mouth. Michael got him to drop it. It wasn't a football, it was a terrified Basil - the dog had smashed through the pen and grabbed him. Michael brough him inside in a box, and we left him alone for a while so he'd uncurl and I could check for injuries. Almost an hour later, and he hadn't relaxed very much and didn't respond to my gentle rocking, so I had to put him in the sink with a little warm water to open him up.

Luckily he seems fine, except for oviously being in shock. He seemed quite stiff in his back legs when he moved, but I guess that's a consequence of being tightly curled for an hour - he probably had a bit of cramp. He's inside now, until we repair and reinforce his outdoor accomodation. Poor prickler, this is the third time we've saved him from death, he's very lucky. If Michael hadn't gone out he'd probably have been left injured or dead somewhere, and we wouldn't have found him.

I'm having a nice quiet day today.

Wow, it's been ages!

I don't have an excuse, I just can't be bothered with blogging recently. Which is a shame, because I do actually enjoy it. Apologies for not keeping up with reading everyone else's blogs too - I actually miss you guys.

In my defense, I can't be bothered with anything much recently. I essentially spend my days reading, watching stuff I've recorded on Sky+ (recently The House of Eliott and My Parents are Aliens) and playing computer games (Zelda on the Wii, Pokemon Colosseum). Oh and feeding the birds mealworms. I'm still singing, in fact singing is the only thing that I'm managing to keep up. Sometimes I go birdwatching, or take the dog out. And I'm bored, but I can't motivate myself to find something interesting to do. I seem to have no mental energy left at all.

Anyway. Here's a quick recap, in bullet point form, in no particular order.

* We have a new kitchen. It's really nice. I'll post pictures later. We still need to tile the walls, and put a floor in, then we can decorate and it will be finished.
* My chinchillas died. We put a big cardboard tube in the cage for them to chew on, unfortunately it fell over and trapped the two of them inside. It's taken weeks for me to even be able to post about it, mostly because I feel horribly guilty that it was my fault (even though obviously I didn't mean to hurt them, I just didn't think). I miss those little guys. I cried a lot.
* Holly and Ivy (my two hedgehog guests) went back to the garden they came from. They'll be properly released within the next week or so - they are big girls now and more than ready to lead a natural wild life.
* My friend Boo died. I posted in my other blog about her so I won't repeat myself here, but she was a wonderful woman who I met through the hedgehog forums and Yahoo Messenger chat. I miss her too.
* "My" robin (imaginatively named Mr Robin) built a nest with Mrs Robin in one of my conifer trees. They hatched four chicks, which fledged a couple of weeks ago and are hanging around most of the time waiting for me to put more mealworms out! And the parents have another brood now which judging my the amount of food Mr Robin is taking to them, won't be long before they fledge. I like that I'm making all their lives easier by providing loads of worms.
* Mr Robin will now land on my hand to take worms. He's a bit flicky and nervous about it, but doesn't hesitate when I put my hand out. Also two of the fledglings come to my hand too - one's nervous and the other is very relaxed about it and will actually stand on my hand while I put more worms on it with my other hand. Bless them, they are gorgeous.
* Two of my choirs have a concert on 12 May. Andrew Carter's Benedicite, Paul Basler's Missa Kenya and Karl Jenkins's The Armed Man. I really like the Benedicite, can't say I'm over keen on the others. Should be fun to sing though. Andew Carter's actually coming to work with us in our rehearsal tomorrow night - the man's a legend.
* Ladies' Choir have a concert tonight. Some poems by Wordsworth, Tennyson, etc, set to music by Harriet's dad, Stuart Johnson. They are pretty.

I'm sure there are more things I wanted to tell, but I can't think of them right now.

Oh, just wanted to do a quick plug for my brother's band, Turning Hollow. Here's their MySpace page. I'm going to do vocals for them, maybe even do some gigs with them!

Later guys.