If the Pants Fit & 5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

If you were to follow the pattern, with the correct gauge, hook and yarn, then if the pants fit, you've got yourself one huge baby !!! An online friend who is a fairly new crocheter asked me to help with a pattern that was giving her grief. Her baby is just on 5 months old and she was using the size for a 6 month. After doing a few inches she felt that what she was creating was a better fit for her 3 year old than for her 5 month old so she frogged it and gave up. I agreed that the starting chains were far too many and decided to make a pair of the pants for her so I could give her an idea of how many chains to start with to give a reasonable size for her boy. I improvised a little and for these pants, I used what would be between 0000 and 000 (between newborn & 3mth).



The pants will be winging their way to Alice Springs on Monday and I'll be interested to hear how the fit goes. It really makes me mad when commercial patterns aimed at beginners are incorrect.

Question .... How do you turn one ball of alpaca into this ??



I'll tell you how .... you go shopping with Nola !! She has a nose for Feathersoft 8ply and her enthusiasm for a bargain was catching. I also couldn't resist the other three balls of yarn in the front of the picture. My plan for the alpaca is to make a neckwarmer for a friend's sister, similar to the one pictured way back at the beginning of this blog. Now that I have got a picture of the yarn, perhaps my friend might let me know what colour she'd like ?

Finally, I want to share this wicked and dangerous recipe with you .....

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

4 tablespoons plain flour
1/2 tsp cream tartar
1/4 tsp bi-carb
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) or few pieces of chopped preserved ginger
small splash of vanilla essence

Whisk egg with oil, milk and vanilla. Add sifted flour, cream of tartar & bi-carb, cocoa and caster sugar and chocolate chips (if using). Mix well.

Put into a greased very large coffee mug (or soup mug) or small bowl and cook in microwave for approx 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake may rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed 1 Allow to cool a little and tip onto a plate if desired.
EAT (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slighty more virtuous). And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night !