Rhubarb and orange cake...

If you come over to our house for dinner you're more than likely to be a guinea pig for at least one new recipe...and our friends were guinea pigs for this rhubarb and orange cake from the May edition of the Good Food Magazine.

This went straight from oven to mouth so there were only a couple of slices left for photos - photos which I took early saturday morning and then proceeded to enjoy cake and icecream for breakfast. It was a good saturday.

I haven't cooked with rhubarb before but a friend gave me some rhubarb from her garden. It was perfect timing as Good Food had all sorts of amazing rhubarb recipes. I settled on this delicious sweet cake!

Ingredients
400g rhubarb, thickly sliced
280g golden caster sugar
225g butter
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange
225g self-raising flour
100g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
3 medium eggs

1) Mix the rhubarb with 50g of the sugar and leave to macerate for 30 minutes.
2) Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
3) Tip the remaining sugar, the butter, orange zest and juice into a bowl and mix until well blended.
4) Add the flour, almonds, baking powder and eggs, beat until smooth.
5) Fold in the rhubarb and any juices. Spoon into the tin.
6) I skipped this step but the original recipe recommends sprinkling the top of the cake with a handful of flaked almonds.
7) Bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cover the cake with foil if it starts to brown too much.

If serving warm leave to cool for ten minutes prior to slicing the cake. It's delicious with custard and ice cream!

And the winner is...

Congratulations Emma on winning the Coral & Stone giveaway! Email me at thebumblingbee{at}hotmail{dot}co{dot}uk for further details on how to claim your prize :)

And for everybody else, don't forget that you can claim 15% discount on any item in the Coral & Stone etsy shop until May 24th, simply use the code CSANDBEE15 at the checkout!

DIY shoe makeover...

I often read about how important it is to decide on how much of your personal life you are going to share when blogging.

I have a feeling the before-photo of these shoes should probably have stayed in my private life.

I would just like to state publicly that I do wash my feet. Very regularly :) However my love of going barefoot whenever possible and my inexplicable skill of choosing inappropriate shoes on a rainy day have led to this...let's not hold back now...pretty disgusting outcome!

So here is how I prettied them up!

1) Firstly use the original insoles as templates to sketch out the new soles on the fabric. Cut out and adhere to the soles of the shoes with the strong glue.

2) Next use the craft knife (or stanley knife) to make small cuts along the side of the shoe (mine were about 1.5cm long).

3) Thread the ribbon through the slits, making sure both ends come out at the front of the shoe (that step probably didn't need to be explained!). I found 1m of ribbon for each shoe worked out perfectly.

4) Double knot the ribbon before tying the bow. Then trim the bow ends!

I haven't treated the ends of the ribbon but if you find it frays then holding a lit match close to the edge (briefly) seals it.

I love my new shoes! Here is probably where I shouldn't admit that on their first outing outdoors I got them soaked in the rain - at least all the decoration is replaceable!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway to be in with a chance of winning $40 to spend on any beautiful piece of jewellery by Coral & Stone!

Giveaway with Coral & Stone! (now closed)

I'm really excited to introduce the lovely Coralie of Coral & Stone to you all today. It's not always easy to find designs that are truly original but Coralie's jewellery is both unique and beautiful. I just had to share this find of mine with you!

And, even better, today you're in with a chance of winning an item of jewellery from her shop of your choosing up to a value of $40 (approx £25). First up though I want to share some of my favourite finds!

Just visit the Coral & Stone Etsy shop and comment below with your favourite item. It's that simple!

In addition to the above entry you can gain an extra entry for each of the following (leave a separate comment for each additional entry):

1) Follow The Bumbling Bee on Bloglovin'

2) Like Coral & Stone on Facebook

3) Share the Giveaway on Pinterest 

4) Share the Giveaway on Twitter 

5) Share the Giveaway on Facebook

6) Pin your favourite piece of jewellery from Coral & Stone on Pinterest

This is an international Giveaway and it will run through to 16th May. The winner will be selected at random and will be announced shortly after!

All Bumbling Bee readers can get 15% discount off all Coral & Stone Products until May 24th using the following code CSANDBEE15.

Thank you Coralie for this amazing prize and good luck to you all!

Music for your Monday...

I was going to share a recipe with you today but instead I'm sharing one of the most beautiful songs I've heard of late. I heard it on the Masterchef final so I like to think this post is still slightly related to it's original food theme :)

No it's not the funky music with sounds of perfectly timed chopping of onions and slamming of ovens interspersed throughout - although, obviously, I did love that.

The song is Salvation by Gabrielle Aplin. Her voice is stunning and the piano is so beautiful, this will brighten up your Monday!