Banana Ginger Cake Recipe

Now this recipe is really yummy.

Cake:
6 oz sugar, (3 oz demerera, 3 oz caster)
2 oz butter, softened
3 medium bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
7 oz flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1 oz finely chopped glace ginger
2 tbps semi skimmed milk

Topping:
6 oz icing suger
2 oz butter
½ tsp ginger powder (or to taste)
Sprinkling of nutmeg

  1. Preheat the oven to 180° C/350° F (Gas Mark 4)
  2. Grease an 8" square cake tin
  3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, mix sugar and butter together. until blended.  Add mashed banana, vanilla and egg.  Mix well.
  4. Add flour, baking powder, glace ginger, to mixture.  Mix well, and add milk as needed.
  5. Transfer to the cake tin.
  6. Bake for around 25-35 minutes at 180° C, until a skewer into the centre comes out clean.  Leave to cool, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
  7. In a small bowl cream the butter, then mix in the icing sugar and ginger.  
  8. Cover the cake with the topping, leaving it rough or peaked.  Sprinkle with the nutmeg powder.  Cut into around 9 squares before serving.
Whenever I make this cake, it is well received.  I have to say, I just love ginger, so this is one of my favourites too.

My Beautiful Christmas Present

Christmas came and went this year, the Christmas Cards were left unmade, but hey, it is only a day, a holiday, not real life.  The household was thrown into disarray by the arrival of my Christmas present.  The arrival of the delightful Bella!  She arrived a week before Christmas less than 2lbs of Chorkie.  We set out in thick snow to collect her in time for her to settle in for Christmas.  As DH put it, you get a lot more steak for your money!


The delightful, dainty, diddy Lady Isabella Boo is a Chorkie, a Yorkshire Terrier and Chihauhau cross.  My last baby, the little girl of our family.  She is my little princess....

She has a page on facebook, so feel free to follow her there.   Lady Isabella Boo on Facebook....

Flower Weave


I saw these beautiful woven hemp mats at Life in Style and fell in love with them. However, I'm not stocking them at this moment in time as I just don't have the space in my 35sqm little shop. The fact that they retail from $450 - $590 for a 1.5m diameter mat also held me back a little. They are gorgeous and made from natural fibres.... oh what to do?


Saturday 26th February 80 years commemoration outside Streatham rink 6.30pm

This Saturday evening at 6.30pm we will be holding a gathering outside Streatham Ice Rink to give the old lady the last rights in her 80th year rather than celebrate her birthday we will be highlighting the ghastly fact that she will be demolished in September.  Join us to commiserate together this untimely loss, we fear she will not return to Streatham.
Contrary to Lambeth's and Tesco's assertions that she is about to fall to pieces, we know she could last another 20 years, however these bullies have presented false information about Streatham Ice Arena and the temporary rink in Brixton to justify it is equivalent, we all know it isn't but they have mugged us and this grand old historic Ice Rink will soon be gone forever.
What is worse Tesco's have played the long game, they never intended to do the original project, they always planned to vary the Section 106 and there will be nothing to stop them doing it again in the near future, whether we will ever see a replacement ice rink in Streatham is very debatable.  Should Brixton fail in the three years it is due to be in Brixton, with all our clubs and teams gone,what is to stop Tesco's changing everything yet again. The section 106 is not worth the paper it is written on.
Please join us, bring your candles, crosses, wreaths, let everyone know how much we will miss our cherished Ice Rink just to make more profit quicker for Tesco's, come and show how much we disagree not just with Lambeth's approval but the Communities and Local Governments Eric Pickles failure to realise this rink is a Regional centre of excellence and cannot be dumped in Brixton and meet our needs, the mistakes these officers have made are unforgivable, currently they could renege on extending the opening hours from 7am till 11pm to 5am till 2am as promised, and no agreement has been set for the new management company (Planet Ice) to honour the current sessions for all our clubs and teams, some sold us out to get privilege and contributions to their teams or clubs costs, the distortion of information will only become fully apparent when this new temporary rink is opened in Brixton, when we will see just how cramped and unfit for purpose it will be, too late to change anything then.

Look forward to meeting all of you Tomorrow night, bring placards, slogans, banners and wear your team shirts, I will circulate pictures to all newspapers on Sunday, hopefully we should get decent coverage as a fitting tribute from the Millions of users that have skated there and remember the rink with fond memories. let's thank this lady for all the good times we have all enjoyed, the friends we have made, the girlfriends and boyfriends that became our partners, and the whole voluntary efforts by all the trainers and coaches that have encouraged us and helped us perfect our skating and the exhileration we have enjoyed for some of us for so many years, for me personally 58 wonderful years as a child, father and more recently grandfather..  
Trevor Hutton (Save Skating In Streatham)


Further information about the campaign to save the rink can be found here:  Save Streatham Skating Campaign

The Mozartkugel


This is one of those beautifully designed objects that just stares at you until you pick it up, feel it and see how it works. Joerg Adam and Dominik Harborth design objects that work in partnership with human beings. What a beautiful first gift for that special new babe, something they are sure to have for ever. It was recently chosen by the New York times as a "Must Have" so we really should have one shouldn't we??? Another find for Neck of the Woods soon to be in store.


Sounds playing at Neck of the Woods




Loving this album right now! Little Birdy Confetti. The other tracks are just as good.

NUD collection


At Neck of the Woods we have five plain white pendant light cords hanging in the window with some over sized traditional light bulbs hanging from the end. Over the past 10 months I've had so many people ask where they can get the long coloured/patterned cords from. Luckily for me I found them at the latest trade fairs.

With 43 patterns and colours to choose from it was one of the most difficult culling processes I've ever had to do. I finally decided on 6 to start with, if they do well we will expand the range. We will have the full range in sample form, so if you would like to order one not in store I can have it to you in a few days. RRP $65 all part included



Pony Rider


Well for any of you living in Sydney, you probably know someone who visited the latest home/gift trade fairs in Sydney. It was my first one as a home wares shopper, for the past seven years I had eyes only for paper goods and just looked in longing at the amazing home products that just didn't fit well in a stationery shop. So this time I went a little nuts. Thought I'd share a few of my favourites over the next few days.

First up is the talented Kelly from Pony Rider. Her new Swiss Heraldry collection is full of florals, stripes, typography and strong graphic shapes including crosses, antlers, Swiss Alps and Moroccan shields.  They all melt together with a fantastic colour palette of red, mint blue and charcoal. Can't wait to get them in store! Love to hear your thoughts.





wall banners


wall dots


Dorset Apple Cake Recipe

  • 225g cooking apples
  • ½ lemon, juiced
  • 225g plain flour
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • 115g butter
  • 165g soft brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2-3 tbsp milk
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon

  1. Preheat the oven to 180° C/350° F (Gas Mark 4)
  2. Grease an 8" ring cake tin
  3. Peel, core and chop the apples into small pieces, and toss in the lemon juice.  This will keep the apples fresh and stop them discolouring.
  4. Sift the flour and baking powder and using an electric whisk break up the butter, until like breadcrumbs.  Alternatively rub in with your fingers.
  5. Stir in just 115g of the sugar, saving the remainder for the topping.  Mix the apple and the beaten egg, and the milk, a little at a time.  Mix this to a dough.
  6. Transfer to the cake tin.
  7. Mix the remaining sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle this evenly over the top of the cake.
  8. Bake for around 45-50 minutes, until a skewer proves the mixture is set.  Leave to stand for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.

I have made this cake in a normal round tin too, but it does require slightly longer cooking time.  I also sometimes sprinkle a little caster sugar over the top after cooling, just because it looks pretty.

The cake is beautifully moist, which my husband is most fond of.  He prefers this to the sponges that I sometimes make.

More Home Cooking and why.....

Over the last couple of years, since I have been more home based, I have put a lot more effort into cleaning up our family diet.  It has been a slow process in many ways, but out have gone the processed foods, containing dodgy chemicals and additives, and in have come organic produce and more raw foods.  The process is by no means complete, but much progress has been made.  

For example the Microwave has been discarded, initially, delegated to sterilysing dishclothes, but now removed completely. There are many articles on the internet casting doubt on the nutritional value of food after microwaving, so erring on the side of caution, this has gone!

High Fructose Corn Syrup, (HFCS) appears highly suspect.  There is of course much data available disproving the dangers, but I have now read enough to be sure that it is not something I want in our diet. Most factory produced cakes, biscuits and squashes contain HFCS, so I am buying less and home baking more.  Actually, the time usually runs out before I get round to baking so even better for us, eating less sugary foods altogether!


The Aspartame in most diet products means for me, dieting is back to eating sensibly rather than taking the easy 'low calorie' route. It seems clear that whenever a manufacturer removes sugar or fats to make a product 'low calorie' the chemicals that are added in their place are more harmful than the 'fattening' item that has been removed!  If it says 'Diet' on the packet, it gets left on the shop shelf!

I could go on...  I would love to be able to claim that we are all living a healthy vegan or raw diet, but that is not the case, but where I see enough credible evidence, I seek to remove the items from our diet. 


For me over the counter pharmaceutical drugs are out now too.  A glass of water, usually clears a headache.  Alcohol is for special occasions, and even then in small quantities if at all, rather than an everyday item.


Is it worth the effort?  It is for me. I have got rid of joint pain, brain fog, and many other horrid symptoms..... a few more to sort out still, but I am 100% that this is the way..... and now on with adding some recipes, even naughty ones... at least if I am making it I know what has gone into it.


I read somewhere, and cannot remember the exact quote, but if you read the ingredients on shop bought food, "If you cannot pronounce it, don't eat it!"  Sounds right to me!

New Keeley Hazell Wallpapers Gallery

Keeley Rebecca M. Hazell is a glamour model, British former Page 3 Girl and upcoming actress. Hazell was born on 18th september in 1986 in Lewisham to Amber and Roy. Her mother was a dinner lady and her father was a window fitter. She grew up in Grove Park and attended the Ravensbourne School in Bromley. Keeley Hazell's parents separated when she was thirteen.

At the age of 17, she competed and became winner in The Daily Star's "Search for a Beach Babe" contest. Later she won a one-year exclusive glamour modelling contract with The Sun as prize after becoming the winner of The Sun's page 3 Idol competition in 2004. She works for bringing awareness among people about environment and breast cancer. She is one of the most sort after model in the world today.

Birth Name : Keeley Rebecca Hazell
Birth Date : 18 September 1986
Birth Place : Lewisham, London, England
Height : 5ft 6in
Eye colour : Hazel
Hair colour : Dark Brown
Measurements : 32F-24-36

hot Keeley Hazell exposed picture

Keeley Hazell photo is perfect

crazy pic of Keeley Hazell

sexy Keeley Hazell bikini blue pics

new Keeley Hazell sexy wallpaper

hot Keeley Hazell bikini poster

Keeley Hazell sexy picture in tennis court

hot Keeley Hazell pictures free

weekly pin up


There's a bit of a colour theme going on here, but it was completely unintentional. Subliminally I might be  feeling a bit of Autumn creeping into my veins! 
Most of the pins here are from Etsy, which is great, it just means you can click and buy, oh except for the shoes, they're mine. Happy Valentines x 





tea time

If you loved the tea sets we've had in store previously, then you are going to flip over these cute as a button designs that are soon to be sitting on our shelves. I just want to find a little girl to play with and give the Pocahontas tea set to, it's too sweet! And who said real men don't drink tea? Look out Neil Armstrong.



Genetics and Cancer Treatment

This blog entry is not about my cancer. It’s focused on how genetic research and findings are transforming the field of cancer treatment. The first part of this blog will provide a foundation by way of definitions and a few basic premises. The second part will cite an article in today’s WSJ about how genetic testing could improve the prognosis and ultimately the treatment of prostate cancer.

Definitions, Foundation, and Hypothesis
==================================



Cancer cells: Uncontrolled growth of aberant cells in the body. Cancer cells can grow, divide, and invade normal tissue in the body.

Gene: The basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain an organism's cells and pass genetic traits to offspring. There are approximately three billion genes in humans.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): A long linear polymer found in the nucleus of a cell and formed from nucleotides and shaped like a double helix; associated with the transmission of genetic information

Chromosome: An organized structure of DNA and protein that is found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions. Humans have 22 chromosome pairs plus two sex chromosomes.

Genome: An understanding of the complete set of a living organism’s DNA.

Human Genome Project (HGP): An international scientific research project with a primary goal to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify and map the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint.

Cancer Genome Project: Building off of the HGP and using high throughput mutation detection techniques, its goal is to identify somatically (i.e., cells in the human body) acquired sequence variants/mutations and hence identify genes critical in the development of human cancers.

Proteins serve many different functions within the chromosome and there are many different types of proteins. As such, I’m not going to define “protein” see (Wikipedia for a definition if interested). One function of a type of protein is cell division, either to encourage or discourage a cell from dividing. Proteins are complex and some proteins which regulate the growth of cancer cells have unique pathways. Admittedly, my knowledge here is weak and therefore should be treated as such. With this caveat, I’ll try to provide an example. In Head and Neck cancer, which for the most part is Squamous Cell Carcinoma, there is a protein called p53. This protein is also known as a tumor suppressor. There are other proteins which inactivate protein p53. Plus, to add to the complexity, the p53 protein may become compromised. So, in theory, if one could either 1) destroy the mutant p53 protein or 2) inactivate the proteins which inactivate the protein properly functioning p53 (yes, a double negative), then p53 could do its job in blocking the unregulated growth of cancer cells. From here, I’m on even thinner ice as I’m not sure about the relationship between p53 and my next statement (yet). Tarceva, a drug I have been on for 38 months is an EGFR (Epidural Growth Factor Receptor) inhibitor. It has special properties which in some way target a pathway into a protein which plays a significant role in solid cancer tumor growth. This is all very complex, so let me get to the hypothesis of this paragraph.

Hypothesis: If, through individualized genetic testing, one could find patients with an over-expression of the protein (or pathway) which Tarceva attacks, Tarceva (which is very expensive) could be targeted to those individuals for whom there is evidence of benefit (i.e., evidence based treatment). This in turn should increase the overall effectiveness of Tarceva on the population which is genetically receptive to this treatment regimen. It would in turn reduce unnecessary Tarceva treatment and reduce healthcare costs without impacting heath care effectiveness.

Today’s WSJ Article on Genetic Profiling and Cancer Treatment
============================================

You may have thought I forgot about part two of this blog entry. I found today’s (2/3/2011) news story in the WSJ titled, “New Clues to Treat Prostate Cancer,” fascinating. It is about how four genes play an intricate and interrelated role is predicting which individuals with prostate cancers have an aggressive cancer where treatment (e.g., radiation, surgery) is recommended versus one in which it should be watched without treatment.

Here are the article highlights. The findings so far is in mice, not man. Human testing is a few years off. One study cited in the article said that 48 men were treated with radiation or surgery to save one life. (Note, although this was not in the article, side effects from prostate treatment can include erectile dysfunction, incontinence, and surgical complications.) The article went on to say that if this genetic test could increase the odds of determining who should have treatment from our current standard of care test (an individual’s PSA level and biopsy) which predicts at a 60 – 70% to a 90% level that many men with a "favorable profile" might want to monitor the progress of their cancer for a while before deciding to undergo aggressive treatment.

To me, this is a game changer and yet another example of how our genetic understanding will impact medical practice over the coming years.

For those with access to the online version of the Wall Street Journal, here’s a link to the article…

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960804576120194229203936.html?mod=djkeyword

Take care everyone.

Ed

Favourite Pins


Thought I'd start a weekly post on some of my favourites from Pinterest. That way I can justify my addiction! This is actually my lounge, well not mine exactly but the same as mine and it's owned by a Melbourne couple who recently appeared on Design Sponge. We found ours locally and got it for free from an 85 year old women who had it handed down to her! I'm actually amazed there's another identical one.

I need to find a friend about to turn 30. 

Ahhh I do love an owl.  Anthroplogie, wish we had one in OZ.

I sell these timers and really need to re-order.

I am definitely getting myself a pair of these this autumn.

Lucy Laucht one of my favourite fashionistas.

Getting a range of these macrame planters in store soon.


Blog Archive