Almond Tarte

I originally started this blog to write about sewing AND baking/cooking, but somehow I rarely post pictures of my baking. Well, I have a favorite recipe I’ve made a couple of time in the last few months: the Almond Tarte.

It is delicious. And I’ve gotten better at making it! The first one I made was a little too hard and crispy. Also the surface didn’t look as pretty:

Don’t get me wrong, it was still good, but not as good as the next few!

If you like almonds and caramel, go for it, make this, you will love it. It’s more candy than cake. It’s like homemade Toffifay without the chocolate (if you want the chocolate you can just melt some good quality, dark chocolate and sprinkle/pour some on top of the tarte when it’s done, I might try that some time, but it’s not like it needs it). Everyone that tried some of this liked it, I feel like this is going to become my “classic” haha :)

the lighting is a little too “cool” in these fotos, so the tarte looks a little pale but omnomnom, it is delicious! Here’s the recipe. It sounds complicated but it’s not that bad, really, and it’s sooo worth it! And here’s the post I did on my german blog when I made it the first time, WIP pictures included!

Altered Dresses (May 2012)

I have finally been able to edit the fotos I took in may of the dresses I altered. I find altering can be just as hard as sewing from scratch, or even harder, as you’re not starting with a length of fabric, so you’re limited in what you have to work with.

The first dress I altered (my first time sewing again!) was simply shortening the waist on this dress:

I got it over the internet, and now that it fits me (well, it became a little short in the process, but I always wear legging-cut-off-shorts underneath) I wear it so much! it’s very comfortable. It’s amazing how much better and more “expensive” cheap clothing looks when it fits right!

above, before altering (but with a couple of pins in it), below: after

This one I got in Paris for € 45, and I did quite some altering. It seems to me that this dress was handmade by someone! A lot of the hand stitching had come undone, and some more of it had to be opened to alter the dress. I really like how it turned out! I did make the waist a little too tight for it to be as comfortable as the polka dot one above (which has elastic shirring around the waist), but it should work fine for cooler summer days at work.

after:

Ok, this one I got on ebay for $24(!!!) and it’s my favorite! Buuut, it’s also the hardest to work with fabric wise. I made the skirt waaay to tight the first time:

Couldn’t sit down! Second time around is better, but I’ve worn it once and I really have to put in a walking slit at the back, I had to take tiny steps! Plus, I was too scared to cut off the hem when I shortened it, I just folded it and it become quite thick, which explains the wonky hem. I’ll have to fix that. Quite a bit of altering had been done on this dress. It was originally made in Hong Kong, in the early 60ies probably. It reminds me of Joan from Mad Men! She had on this Asia-Inspired Floral Dress on in season 5 if I remember correctly… (oh btw, how dark was this past mad men season? I mean, no feet chopped off, no wild affairs for Don, and still, the season went very gradually from “hey, everything might actually work out this time!” to “everything’s so depressing and I can’t put my finger on how it happened exactly”. Very much like real life though. I really liked Megan, even though I didn’t think I would at first, and now that marriage is over, they made that pretty clear in the end… ok enough with the Mad Men talk!)