Anna's cake adventures!

Hello,
A couple of weeks ago I made some little cakes as I couldnt remember the last time I had made any and fancied doing some baking. Anyway, I documented this weeks 'cake adventures' on instagram and had some very nice comments :) Sally at Hand Over Your Fair Cakes asked me for the recipe so I thought I would post the recipe here today.
Its a very simple recipe that I use every week then I add my own spin. This week- SHRIMP CAKES! I wasnt sure how these would turn out after cooking the chunks of shrimp but it turns into this sort of toffee like substance. Yum.

Ingredients-
110g butter or margarine
110g self raising flour
110g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Bag of shrimp sweets, I bought mine from M&S

For the icing-
140g icing sugar
70g butter

You need 12 hole cake tin and paper cake cases.

Method-
1. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas mark 4.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. Add the vanilla extract. Then add the beaten egg a little bit of a time.
3. Chop up the shrimps into little pieces (leaving 12 to decorate the tops)
4. Fold the sifted flour in to the mixture a little at a time the add the shrimp chunks.
5. Half fill the paper cake cases with the mixture.
6. Bake for 10-15mins. They will probably take 10. You can check if they are cooked by touching the top of the cake. If it springs back up they are cooked.
7. Allow to cool fully.
8. For the icing cream the butter until soft then add the icing sugar. Ice the cakes with a flat knife then add a shrimp!
DONE!

You can substitute shrimps for anything else you fancy I guess. Hope you like them!
Anna, CM

Stuff I Love...Karen Walker Eyewear

Hello,
My love for Karen Walker is well documented on this blog. I love her brand. Love love love it. Karen Walker sunglasses are the greatest and as usual she has done an amazing job using these fantastic ladies in the latest eyewear campaign.

How amazing do they look! The campaign was shot (I think) by Ari Seth Cohen the guy behind the website Advanced Style, a website I love and follow. Stylish older ladies, whats not to love!

A denim shirt and long grey hair= AMAZING!

For the full range of sunglasses and other Karen Walker greatness GO HERE

Oh and how amazing are these pants!

Anna, CM

This Saturday...

Hello,

Custom Made is a member of Designers/Makers. They are an organisation who put on events and fairs and such like for, yes you guessed it Designers/Makers.
Anyway, they have a monthly spot at Old Spitalfields Market and Custom Made will be there selling our wares. Come along because this Saturday there are a LOT of other collectives there- Pop Up Vintage Fairs and Fifi's Market. There will be loads of great traders. Oh, and Hoxton Radio will be interviewing traders.
There is lots of info HERE on the Spitalfields Facebook page, and here on the Designers Makers website.
Designers Makers also has a lovely shop with a fine selection of items from their members. Worth a look for sure!

Anna, CM

Car Boot Inspiration....

Hello,
Maybe this post should be under the heading 'Stuff I Love' because i do love car boot sales but I only did one of those on Friday so...
Anyway, there is a great car boot sale every Sunday very near to where I live so on a nice day Anthony and I head up there. I have to say, for me, its a very good one. Sunday was a book day for me. I bought True Grit. My Grampy Butler was a big western fan and I loved the film so I thought I would buy it. Who knows maybe I will be come a western addict like him.
Then I stumbled across these two beauties. I have really started to enjoy Science Fiction books from the 50's and 60's. I bought some in a used bookstore in Nashville last year so you can imagine how pleased I was to stumble across these.
The cover art is BEAUTIFUL. They caught my eye straight away. I find the covers very inspirational, the fonts, the colours etc etc. People often ask where my inspiration comes from. Well here is one little insight.

Anna, CM

Stuff I love...Apak (again!) and Naoshi

Hello,
For quite some time on this blog I used to do a little feature called 'Stuff I love' anyway it sort of stopped so I thought this was a perfect time to reinstate it.
I'm going to L.A in March. Anthony will be there with work so I am going to fly out and meet him. Its an opportunity not to be missed due to many many air miles etc etc. Anyway, to my delight I spotted an artshow. Its at Qpop a shop/gallery in Little Tokyo, a delightful neighborhood in L.A and it features two artist that I love Naoshi & Apak
Apak I have loved forever, I have lots of their work (Happy Hermits) in the house and Naoshi I came to love as her work is stocked at one of Custom Made's stockist Hannah Zakari Her work is 'Sunae' which is sand, her artwork is made using sand!

Apak- Earth riders

Naoshi- Super Matchbox

Anyway, I just emailed the gallery to see how long the show goes on for. I am hoping so much it will still be on when I arrive. 

Fingers crossed!

Anna, CM 

PEANUTS!!!!

Hello,
Very excited today as the lovely little peanut you see above now hangs on a necklace and is ready for your purchasing pleasure in the shop!
OH YES!

You can grab yourself one RIGHT HERE

Its print time...and other things

Hello,
I do seem to be keeping up on the blogging. I am very pleased with myself! There are lots of things going on at CM HQ at the moment. Our studio has had a refurb. If you follow us on instagram you will have seen a couple of photos (we are @custommadeuk) While we are on the subject of Instagram here's a little selection of the fun we have been having with it!

Anyway...one of the things I have floating around in my head is a new print for a bag. One of my favorite things is designing prints etc for packaging, business cards, the website etc. We havent produced a printed bag for some time so its on! At the moment I have to print in my head. I need to get down to the actual design. What I can tell you is that it will feature our Geo Cat and Geo Rabbit. I'm looking forward to getting down to the design proper.

In the meantime we have wholesale orders to fill this week so you lovely people can get your Custom Made goodies!

See you on the blog soon.

Anna, CM

Valentines selection over at Culture Label

Our Kissing Birds Necklace is featured in the Culture Label Valentines Day Gift Guide! Take a look RIGHT HERE

Free treats!

As you know we have a FREE SHIPPING code in the shop right now AND to celebrate Valentines day here's a treat from us to you! We will be including one of these in each order until Feb 14th.

YOU.
ARE.
WELCOME.

Anna, CM

FREE SHIPPING FOR VALENTINES!

GRAB YOUR CODE HERE

Organize, organize, organize...

There is a lot going on at CM HQ. We are in a temporary HQ at the moment (don't worry business as usual) while CM HQ gets a make over. The new wood floor is going in as we speak.
Anyway, we are busy planning the new layout of the workshop, where the cutting table will go, the area for jewellery making, the fabric store etc etc. These are the big things, but I cant help thinking about the little things which of course leads my mind over to Present and Correct!

If you love stationary of the beautiful variety then head over there. I really would love to buy everything they stock. Here are a few highlights to make organisation the name of the game.

Lovely.

Anna CM.

Our Valentines Special Necklace is ready!

Have a lovely weekend everyone...you can grab one of these RIGHT HERE