Honeycake
Posted on November 2nd, 2010
This recipe started out life in the Winnie the Pooh Cookery Book and then was extensively altered from its original form as a birthday cake.
Basically, every single time I read a fantasy novel, someone is having sticky, delicious honeycakes, and I really wanted to get in on that. But I couldn’t find a recipe that sounded right, so I started with this one and altered it and altered it and messed with it until I got the dense, spiced, super sweet honeyed cake that I’d always imagined.
When this cake is baked up it’s heavy and a bit sticky, and goes wonderfully with a good cup of tea. Experiment to find the just-right baking time for you; my original recipe said 20-25 minutes, but I ended up going about 40 with the white whole wheat flour and that wasn’t quite enough. (Note: I have since had my oven fixed and get shorter baking times these days.)
1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour (I’ve made this with alternative flours with good results, too)- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cardamon
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup honey (spray measuring cup with cooking oil before adding honey for easier pouring)
- powdered sugar and/or nutmeg, for decoration
Preheat oven to 375° F. Sift dry ingredients together. While mixing, slowly add milk, eggs, softened butter, vanilla & honey. I mixed up the milk, eggs, and vanilla, then alternated milk mixture with honey, adding in the butter somewhere in the middle. When a creamy batter has formed (mmm), pour into 1 greased 9-inch round cake pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes (watching carefully if your oven is at all like mine) or until brown around the edges, and a cake tester comes out with just crumbs and no batter goo.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and/or nutmeg and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Use stencils to create pretty patterns if you’re a big dork or Martha Stewart.
Serves 12 (or 6 if you’re like me).
Categories: Daily Art, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bear, food, honey, recipe, sharpie marker
4 Comments »
Whiteboard Doodles Redux
Posted on November 1st, 2010
My scanner’s on the fritz, so instead of a recipe, you get more expectation-free art from my whiteboard. Lucky you! Photos taken with my iPhone, and therefore of approximately the same quality as the art. 😉
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: nfs, silly, whiteboard
2 Comments »
In the Forest of the Night
Posted on October 30th, 2010
In the Forest of the Night by Amy Crook
This was an exercise in patience for me. Hours and hours spent with very sharp pencils putting the detail in one delicate stroke at a time, never too much at once. I love the texture it ended up with, especially the swirling background that seems to be nearly as mysterious as the tiger-striped man in the foreground. I especially love the way the young man seems to be emerging from, or being swallowed by, the dark background, the shadows an inherent part of his identity.
At one point in the life of this piece, someone set a glass of sticky white wine down on it — feeling of course that art on top of an antique desk would make a great coaster, I suppose. Another three hours went into the repairs, which are nearly invisible now, thank goodness. Homicide averted!
In the Forest of the Night, pencil on museum board, 5″x5″, $999 with free shipping.
The stiff bristol board this is drawn on would lean in a bookshelf, but the art would really be better off matted or framed. I’m happy to frame it for you for a small additional fee.
Categories: Floating Gallery
Zombie: Wait Up!
Posted on October 29th, 2010
Zombie: Wait Up! by Amy Crook
This cheerful guy is one of the bonus zombies in my Cthulhu Coloring Book — I think he’s a little stuck and wants his zombie pals to wait up while he finishes struggling his way up out of the grave in search for delicious, tasty brains.
I’ve colored him here with a ghoulish green, though I think he’d do just fine in deathly grey or a rotting pink, as well. One nice thing about this one was that the style was so loose and scribbly, it was easy to color without worrying too much about staying inside the lines.
Zombie: Wait Up!, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: coloring book, copic marker, for sale, pen and ink, zombie
1 Comment »
Potato Fairy
Posted on October 28th, 2010
Potato Fairy by Amy Crook
When I first started making my own holiday cards, I carved stamps from potatoes, mushrooms, and sponges, and painstakingly hand-stamped dozens of cards — one year I sent nearly 100 cards out! I’ve since graduated to doing one original and printing the cards from that, though I still sometimes add a bit of hand-painted flair to personal cards.
This was the test print for one year’s cards, done using watercolors (including metallics) painted onto those rough handmade stamps. I chose the crouching fairy, though as I recall the cards didn’t get the mushroom-stamped object he’s crouching in front of. I was experimenting with different methods for making the wings, so there’s some extra texture added as well, in metallic gold, red-violet and softly brushed-on blue-green.
Potato Fairy, 9″x12″ watercolor on sketchbook paper, not for sale.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
Tags: fairy, holidays, nfs, potato stamp, watercolor
Weeble Wednesday: Cthulhu has a Coloring Book!
Posted on October 27th, 2010
Cthulhu Coloring Book by Amy Crook
Encouraged by the success of my Lovecraft-themed greeting cards on Etsy, I decided to up the ante this season and make a whole coloring book! There’s a few weebles you’ve already seen, and a bunch you haven’t — I even did a whole new Cthulhu for the cover (plus he’s on page 1 for your coloring pleasure).
There’s a whole bunch of adorably creepy creatures from the stories of HP Lovecraft and the other authors who’ve played in his Mythos over the years, plus a small mob of bonus Zombies.
You can get the Cthulhu Coloring Book on Etsy, either as a pdf or a printed book.
Weeble Cthulhu 2 by Amy Crook
You see what he has to put up with?
Weeble Cthulhu 2, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper, not for sale.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: coloring book, copic marker, cthulhu, etsy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, weeble
4 Comments »
Sunset
Posted on October 26th, 2010
Sunset by Amy Crook
Over a decade of doing the Starcycles Calendar off and on, I’ve gotten to create a variety of gorgeous art. In 2003, we tried out a wall calendar format, and I created this simple drawing using pastels on rich midnight blue paper. The drawing is very loose and I’ve always liked the way everything in the sky is reflected in the vast ocean below.
Sunset, 22.5″x19″ pastel on colored pastel paper
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, pastel, starcycles
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