Super Easy Mandarin and Date Cake

Today's experimental 'use up what's in the fruit bowl' recipe was such a success that I thought I'd better share.
Not only did I think it was delicious, but Alice shoved handfuls of cake into her little mouth and I've never seen her do that before!

My Mum passed along a 'tangy orange cake' recipe that uses a whole orange, and this is a variation of that recipe.

Mandarin and Date Cake:
Ingredients:
3 small mandarins, chopped in half
Handful of dates
175g melted butter
1.5 cups self raising flour
0.5 cups sugar
3 eggs

Method:
Blitz the mandarins and dates in the food processor. Add all other ingredients and blitz until combined.
Pour into a greased 20cm cake tin.
Bake at 180 degrees for 35-40mins.
Serve drenched with icing sugar.

Back with a hat

So I haven't been blogging lately, but I have been making things..
I finished a new sunhat for Alice today and it has inspired me to get blogging again!

I love crocheting hats. Since my nephews came along I have made quite a few! Mostly simple beanies/winter hats but I have made the odd sunhat for Alice. This winter I have made hats for myself and my sister too (but that's a whole different blog post)

This sunhat is nice and simple and I love the interchangeable flower too.. It fits my 14 month old with room to move, so I guess it is a 12-18 month size.

Once you know how to make a basic hat the world is your oyster. The basic idea is to increase in a circle until you get the right head size, stop the increase and do enough rows to get down to above the ears, and then increase again to make the brim.

For this hat I used 4ply cotton from Lincraft.

So here is the pattern:

3 ch. Join with slip stitch to first chain to make a ring

Row 1: 3 ch (becomes first tr), 11 tr in ring

Row 2: 3ch, 1tr at base of the 3ch, 2tr in each tr to end

Row 3: 3ch, 1tr at base of the 3ch, 1tr in next tr,*2tr in next tr, 1tr in next tr*, repeat from * until end

Row 4: 3ch, 1tr at base of the 3ch, 1tr in next 2 tr,*2tr in next tr, 1tr in next 2 tr*, repeat from * until end

Row 5: 3ch, 1tr at base of the 3ch, 1tr in next 3 tr,*2tr in next tr, 1tr in next 3 tr*, repeat from * until end

.....

Continue in this way (adding 1 more tr in between the 2tr clusters) until the hat is the right size.

I did 9 rows, so I finished my increase with the following row:

Row 9: 3ch, 1tr at base of the 3ch, 1tr in next 7 tr,*2tr in next tr, 1tr in next 7 tr*, repeat from * until end

Row 10 (ridge row): 3ch, 1tr in each tr to end, working into only the back loop of the tr

 (this picture shows the increase and the ridge row)

Rows 11-14: 3ch, 1tr in each tr to end
Row 15: 1ch, 1dc in each tr to end
Row 16 (spaces for tie/ribbon): 4ch, *skip 1tr, 1tr in the next tr*, repeat from * to end
Row 17: 1ch, 1dc in tr/chain space to end

 Rows 18-23 (brim increase): 3ch, 1tr at base of the 3ch, 1tr in each of the next 5 tr, *2tr in next tr, 1tr in each of the next 5 tr*, repeat from * to end (you will end with 4 trs as there is not space for 5).

Finishing off:
Darn in all ends.
I crocheted the tie/ribbon by creating a long string of chains, and then 1 row of dc the whole way along.

For this hat I sewed on a pretty button, and then created a flower which fits over the button. This way I can create lots of coloured flowers to go with every outfit!

The flower was created as follows:
7ch, join with a slip stitch to form a ring.
4ch, *1 tr into the ring, 1ch* repeat from * 11 times
Petals:
*slip stitch in next space (between the trebles), 2ch, 2tr, 2ch, slip stitch (all in the same space)*
repeat from * in all spaces to end.

I hope you enjoy making this hat as much as I did. I now just need to find a way to keep it on Alice's head!