My Filofax diary set up

Anyone who knows me well is aware of my slight obsession with Filofaxes. This post is to show my day to day set up in the Filofax I carry everywhere with me and should be interesting to my friends in the Filofax community. Everyone else may find it interesting, even if they don't admit it :-)

I have Filofaxes for various things, addresses, financial etc but I carry my diary in my everyday Filofax which is my personal, purple, patent original. I have been using this as my main planner for over a year and it still looks good

The front of my planner holds pens, post it notes and a home made flyleaf.

I have a few of my blog cards in a card holder near the front of my planner.

My diary is a week on 2 pages from Paperchase with a half page insert for extra to do notes. This works well for me as some things can be done any time in the week. The Paperchase inserts are clear but also pretty. I use extra stickers to mark certain things. For example, scales for weight, coffee cup for meeting friends for coffee and various other stickers that I make using clip art.

I keep a basic book list of authors and books I want to read in my Filofax so that when I am in the library or a bookshop I can check whether there are books I want to buy. My memory is awful  and I know I won't never keep them all in my head.

In my Filofax there are various pages of information  including local library opening times and also a short list of positive phrases. There is a  place for notes and a small notepad in the back.The superheroes postcard came from Paperchase and I use it as a divider. I also have various diet related pages to track my eating.

I carry only the things I think I need and do need when out and about and can change things as and when I want. The luxury of a ring bound planner system is that you can add and remove whatever you need.
Despite the 1980's comments and jokes I receive regularly, the ring bound planner is perfect for me and also for many others. It is a really good system for keeping organized and in control.

Indulge me..... cakes I have made.

I recently did a blog piece on how to bake a basic Victoria sponge cake. The basic sponge cake is what I have always use as the cake to make birthday cakes. Sometimes I add cocoa to make a chocolate cake but  it is basically a sponge recipe. 

Apologies for the strange layout of the last few pics, my laptop has been taken over by spacing gremlins.
As you can see the execution of my ideas is not always  as good as the expectation. I do, however, have a lot of fun making the cakes and they always taste good. A note of warning  when making cakes which use biscuits and sweets as additions to the cakes........ there are always leftover sweets and biscuits to eat :-)

I am being very self-indulgent as I am going to show you my favourite cakes I have made over the the years.

This allotment cake was one I made for my son. At the time my son and his wife had an allotment. They didn't have a pig but their allotment neighbour did. This is my favourite of all the  cakes I have made so far.

I made a rectangle chocolate cake and used chocolate finger biscuits to make a rustic fence round the outside. The pig pen and  the shed are made of malted milk chocolate biscuits and the logs are made of twix pieces. For the grass I coloured dessicated coconut and the earth is chocolate vermicelli. I used raw sprouts as cabbages ( but they did not get eaten) and sugar flowers as the flowers on the allotment.

Cocktail sticks over a sugar flower and icing and chocolate vermicelli hedgehogs (by the logs) add details in the background and  a plastic pig in the pig pen completed the scene.

The guitar cake, above was my Dad's 60th birthday cake. It was approximately 18 inches in length and made by baking then cutting up various cakes to fit the shape needed. It was covered in home made butter cream and decorated using pink bootlace sweets for all the strings and the circle. ( to represent the hole in the guitar) Dark choc finger biscuits made good frets and glacé cherries were useful as the tuning buttons at the end of the guitar.

The turtle cake was my daughter's 9th ( or it may have been 8th) birthday cake.

I made the basic cake in a pudding basin in the oven. In hindsight I may have been better building up layers. The paws were cupcakes.

The whole thing is covered in chocolate butter cream with chocolate button eyes  and a pattern made in the icing. Very simple but effective and sticky!

For this rock group cake ( another one for Dad of course) I mostly used plastic decorations. I covered a basic sponge in fairly thick icing, put a ribbon round the outside and added the decorations. The Happy Birthday I have had for years and I ordered the other decorations online. The band does not come with a keyboard player so I ordered two sets and made one drummer a keyboard ( not really visible) out of cake.  The records, music notes and instruments were                                                            good finishing touches.

Cupcakes are always a favourite and can be made using the basic sponge mix or chocolate sponge mix.They can be decorated in so many ways but I usually use ordinary icing or butter icing and whatever edible cake decorations or sweets I have to hand.
The Dr. Oetker range of cake decorations is very good and the edible daisies on some of these cupcakes are from that range.

This Ferrero Rocher cake was just the basic chocolate sponge, chocolate butter cream and nicely displayed Ferrero Rocher  chocolates with  a plastic happy birthday on the front. It is simple to make, tasty and looks good.

Both the cat and the tiger were basic round sponge cakes decorated with buttercream with food colouring  added and decorated with sweets.
The cat ears were made from a cupcake cut in pieces and the whiskers were made from spaghetti. Both  animals have jelly sweet tongues and eyes and the tiger has chocolate pieces broken up for is markings.

The chocolate castle cake is made up of several square chocolate sponge cakes covered in various chocolates, chocolate butter cream covered in broken chocolate pieces for the top and biscuit stacks for towers. Dark chocolate chunks top the towers and surround the biscuit turret in the middle.A kit kat and cocktail sticks make an effective drawbridge and the small chocolate bars cover the front as bricks. The three bears were what I used on my son's first birthday cake so I brought them out again for this one. ( in his 20's)

When my daughter was little she loved the Little Spook books and wanted a spook cake. I made this one as a lying down spook and she was happy with my efforts. I lay squares sponge cake together and cut a suitable shape, covered in butter cream and decorated with sweets. Easy  to make and went  down well.

 I wanted to make a snooker table cake but had no one to make it for as no one I know is that into snooker so made it anyway. I made a small rectangle sponge,  coloured icing sugar green and used chocolate finger biscuits to make the table edge. Skittles were perfect for balls and Mikado sticks made totally perfect snooker cues.

Bambi cake

Mini jam sponges

Flowers and champagne

Football

Chocolate car cakes

R2D2 looking flat

Teddy

Minion

Pirates

Quick blog update....... added search bar

There are now two ways that you can look through the various posts on Orangecoffee69.

1.   Firstly there is a blog archive down the side on my blog.

2.   Secondly I have just added a search bar at the top.

You can put anything into the search bar and it will pull up any posts with connections. For example Filofax, books, food, music.

J

Here's one I baked earlier

Here’s One I Baked Earlier (Recipe 1 Victoria Sponge Cake)

Victoria sponge cake is a classic and easy cake. It is good as it is or as a base for more intricate birthday cakes. If you want to start baking this is an ideal cake to make.

The step by step pictures are at the bottom of the page.

1.     First pre-heat the oven to 150 ( electric fan oven)

2.    Wipe the 7 inch cake tins with butter and dust with flour.

3.    Weigh out the following ingredients into separate bowls:

·         6 ounces of golden castor sugar (sieved) I use golden castor sugar which I have       stored with vanilla pods for an extra vanilla flavour

·         6 ounces of olive spread ( or butter if you prefer)

·         3 or 4 drops of vanilla essence

·         6 ounces of white self-raising flour ( sieved)

·         3 whole eggs ( medium), beaten

·         1 teaspoon of baking powder

·         Milk to mix

4.    Put the butter, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy using an electric whisk.

5.    Add the flour, baking powder and eggs and mix again. If the mixture seems a little dry then add some milk and mix again.

6.    Fill both cake tins so they are level.

7.    Bake for approximately 20 minutes, checking half way through. Times will vary depending on the oven.

8.    When the cakes are golden brown take out and test with a knife. If the knife comes out clean then the cake is done.

9.    Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tins.

10. Run a flat knife round the cake in the tin to loosen then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

11. When the cake is cool put jam on one cake and place the other on top.

12. Dust the top with icing sugar and enjoy.

 

Our boy is back in town...... gig review of Jon-Paul Bradshaw's latest Woking gig.

 Jon-Paul Bradshaw had the Mayford Arms in Woking rocking last Friday night with his amazing Teenage Kicks gig. A fantastic mixture of The Jam, Madness, The Clash, UB40, The Specials, Squeeze and many more songs which took us right back to our teenage years.

Some of us at the gig were lucky enough to go to school with Jon-Paul and are very happy that he is back living and performing in the UK after 25 years as a singing sensation in Mallorca. Their loss is definitely our gain as JP evoked memories of the 80’s with charisma, flair and his own personal style.

Jon-Paul has a faultless voice that lends itself to many styles but his Woking accent brings an extra edge to the songs that shaped our youth. The charisma and professionalism in this perfectly polished performance was sprinkled with JP’s very own cheeky style of humour which added that extra sparkle to an evening of music, memories, dancing and laughter.

The enthusiastic energy of this fantastic show had the audience on their feet dancing all night. Sitting down was not an option with the infectious beat and flawless performance which Jon-Paul delivered on Friday night. If you had two working legs then getting on the dance floor and boogieing the night away was a must.

This very talented man does other shows too and will be performing at The Mayford Arms in Woking again on the 18^th of December. The show that night is Blues Brothers versus the Commitments and this will, no doubt have us on our feet once again.

When you go home with a voice hoarse from singing along and in pain from dancing then you know you have had a fantastic night. (not sure I will attempt pogoing to the Clash again, but I can’t promise)

For more information on Jon-Paul Bradshaw, his huge range of songs and his amazing shows, you can go www.jpbradshaw.com.

Blog news 06.12.2015

Good morning lovely people.

I thought it was a good time to let you know of a few things I am hoping to add to the blog in the very near future.

Firstly, I am hoping to review a fantastic gig I went to the other night. I am just waiting or the performer to give his permission.

Secondly I will be adding some anecdotes to the blog. These will be short, hopefully funny pieces. They may be running under the heading of "Dear Diary" but this has yet to be decided.

It has been mentioned that as I have a love of cooking, baking, etc, that I should put some recipes on here so I will be doing this shortly.

Lastly, at the end of December I shall hopefully be introducing you to Bob the mannequin........ Watch this space J

Incorrect Pluralisation.........Don't Tell The Grammar Hulk.

There seems to be a trend lately to put an unnecessary s on the end of words, which in their plural form, do not need one. The words in question are being misused so often that they seem to be becoming part of the English language.  We need to preserve the language properly rather than agreeing with the mistakes and integrating them into our language.

I am all for new words if they are useful and relevant. However, if the words “bae” or “boo” are used to describe a romantic partner then the miscreant who is using the word should be taken out and made to grovel apologetically in a public place for such a heinous crime against the English language.

The first word that is given a wrongly placed s is fruit. We have a piece of fruit, a bowl of fruit, some fruit, lots of fruit but we never, under any circumstances have fruits. The plural of fruit is fruit. No s should darken the end of this word.

The next word, which is maimed with an evil and unnecessary letter s, is cereal. Again we can have a bowl of cereal, some cereal, a cereal bar but NEVER cereals. There is no s! Again, the plural of cereal is cereal.

My next contender for incorrectly pluralised word of the year is sport. We play sport, we watch sport, and there are many different kinds of sport to watch on television or participate in. That does not mean, however, that the word sports can be used. The plural of sport is sport.

My final example of victims of the extra s is the word Lego. Children and adults enjoy playing with Lego bricks or they are playing with Lego. They may have many Lego sets but they do not have Legos. The plural of Lego is Lego or even Lego bricks.

My abhorrence at the misuse of the letter s has grown over the last two or three years. The more I hear these wrongly spelt and pronounced words, the angrier I get. I am like the Incredible Hulk of the grammar world wanting to rip the heads off the people who recklessly add the letter s to any words they choose. Next time you find yourself adding an s to a word stop and think whether it should really be there, you wouldn't want the grammar hulk to find out.