Friday 22 June 2012

Visiting Thea & Sami's studio and lemon syrup cake

What a crazy busy week we've had. Hence the lack of blog posts from around here.

It was nice however to end the week with a visit to Thea & Sami which is one of Brisbane's best screen-printing design studios. Thea invited me, and a few other Brissy bloggers, to an ultra-casual morning tea in her shop/studio.

Thea's fabrics.
In the background you can see vintage chairs with her fabrics used as upholstery

I bought a few tea-towels. They are very cool.

Thea designs and hand screen-prints natural fabrics and creates linen homewares - they really are first class products. I've always admired Thea's work from when she used to create hand screen-printed clothing. She is renowned for her award winning Brisbane printed skirts that was favoured by a former Premier of Queensland (and it wasn't Peter Beattie!).
Image courtesy of Thea & Sami blog.
The skirt is no longer available but Thea still sells the  screen-print as a panel


Thea's screen-print of Brisbane is available HERE.
It is fabulous and touches my Brissy heart.

It was also great to catch up with Katherine from theoldboathouse, A-M from The House A-M Built, Annie from Red roses and crystal and of course Thea. We stuffed ourselves full of cake and sweets. A-M brought delicious carrot cake, Annie treated us to some home-made jam drops and I brought along a fantastically easy-to-bake lemon syrup cake.

Jam-drops and lemon syrup cake

I promised everyone to include the recipe here. It is a Nigella Lawson recipe from her How to be a Domestic Goddess (I think Jason bought it for me...ever hopeful he is...).


Lemon-Syrup Loaf Cake
125g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
175g self raising flour
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons milk (I used Greek yoghurt because that's just how I roll)
23x13x7cm loaf tin buttered and lined

For the syrup:
juice of 1 and a half lemons
100g icing sugar


Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 C/ gas mark 4.
Butter and line your loaf tin well.
Cream together butter and sugar and add eggs and lemon zest, beating them in well.
Gently fold in the flour and the salt, mixing thoroughly and then add the milk (or yoghurt).
Spoon the batter into your prepared tin and bake for 45 mins or until cake tester comes out clean.

For the syrup:
Put the lemon juice and icing sugar into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves.

As soon as cake is out of oven, puncture all over with skewer and pour over the syrup. Leave cake to cool completely before removing from the tin.


Make it, because it is simply good.

Also, Thea's shop/studio, if you're interested, is located in Unit 1/ 6 Jones Road Capalaba. It's open every Friday from 10am to 4pm or by appointment. It's good to support local designers, so they are able to keep on creating. Thanks Thea!

22 comments:

  1. Hi Brismod, I love those vintage chairs covered in the lovely fabric and that lemon syrup cake looks divine! I might try and make that this weekend! (will try to only have one piece!). Yum. What a lovely morning tea you must have all had and with great company for it too! Mxxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. How fabulous, Anita. Ooh, I would have loved to join you. What a treat to see Thea's beautiful work up close like that. J x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I do like Thea's prints esp. the fish and the rivva vista of Brisba (Keeping the 'a'theme going but throwing spelling caution out the window).

    Did Katherine bring one of her concrete swans, propped on her hip, as a handbag? I would have.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a lovely way to end the week! It sounds like you all had a wonderful time. I love the sound of the cake-thanks for the recipe!

    Hope you all enjoy some fun times during the school holidays. I am ready to sit back, relax and do absolutely nothing!

    Best wishes,
    Natasha.
    xo

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Everything looks yummy, including the fabrics.

    ReplyDelete
  7. HI Anita, thank you for the visit, the lovely post and the cake recipe. Your lemon syrup cake was delicious! It was a fun day all around. x

    ReplyDelete
  8. The screen prints are beautiful, especially that classy skirt. Couldn't the lemon syrup cake be easily adapted to make pineapple syrup cake?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh thank goodness. The recipe. Now we can all get some sleep. A-M xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Anita - those tea towels are too cute. I'll put a visit to the shop on my "to-do-list."

    ReplyDelete
  11. It was such a fun day and great to catch up. The cakes and jam drops were amazing! I definitely think we should all do a screen printing class soon. xxx

    ReplyDelete
  12. that would have been a great outing!! i love thea's work.

    and that cake is going straight to my recipe file, i think even i could make a good go of that one! looks delish xxx

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a fun visit in an inspiring environment. Not to mention how nic the cake looks. Thanks for the recipe - might have to whip that puppy up :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks Anita, I will have a go at that recipe and it looks like you had a great morning.

    ReplyDelete
  15. A fabulous day with much chatter, laughter and yummy cake. You girls are a scream!
    Fingers crossed my lemon cake is as delish as yours.
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  16. Today I went online and found your blog really amazing, I think you have an amazing creativity I am happy to learn from you even can't be met in the real world.
    How to Draw Video Game Characters

    ReplyDelete
  17. What lovely stuff! Thanks for sharing. Thea & Sami's studio is on my side of town, will definitely have to pay them a visit..

    ReplyDelete
  18. Absolutely beautiful designs. I heard all about your lemon syrup cake, very delicious! Rachael xx

    ReplyDelete
  19. Nigella's lemon cake is a regular in this house too - love it.
    x

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thea's fabrics are fabulous - oh to be so clever.
    And the lemon syrup cake - one of my absolute favourites. My version has sour cream, so I get the yoghurt thing. Delicious, and how nice to have a wee bloggy meet-up like this. x

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi I've only recently found your blog , but just wanted to say a big thankyou for the lemo syrup cake recipe. I made it this week and it was delish. xx

    ReplyDelete

Love to read your comments

Related Posts with Thumbnails