I love CUPCAKES!

So, very exciting news... I now have my new computer, so this means blogging can continue without a fuss!

In noting this happiness, I decided to make cupcakes, cause they always make me happy!
I apologize to my vegan readers as this is not a vegan recipe. It is nevertheless a good one for forgetting about being vegan for an afternoon.

Now, cupcakes are VERY particular. They are very scientific, so this recipe must not but taken lightly or half-heartedly!!! To get the perfect cake, you must use the perfect methods, and these I take from the 'Crabapple Bakery Cookbook' - a place I can only dream about visiting and sampling their delights.

It is a little bit time consuming, but not hard, I promise!!!


Acquire the following items:
2 & 3/4 C - Flour
2 t Baking Powder
200g softened butter (What ever you do don't melt it!!)
1 & 3/4 Cup castor sugar
4 fresh eggs (Room temp!!)
1 T vanilla extract (the real stuff!)
1 C milk
and some pretty cupcake cases and decorations


Okay, here is how:::

Oven - 170c


SIFT together flour and baking powder into a bowl - leave aside.




In another bowl (a large one!) Cream butter for 2 minutes. (Use electric mixer!)
Then separating the sugar into 3 equal parts, add it a 1/3rd at a time to the butter, beating (still electric) for 2 minutes after each addition.
(ie. This should take you 8 minutes all up so far!)



It should now be light and fluffy!

Next add eggs one at a time beating for 1 minute after each addition.



Now add vanilla and beat until combined.


The mix will be tasting real good right now!


Nextly, (ps. I know this is not a word, I'm taking LING at Uni, so I've found joy in making new words!) Add a 1/3 of the flour mix to the creamy yummy mixture and beat on low speed until combined.


Following this method, add 1/2 of the milk and mix, then another 1/3rd of the flour and mix, followed by the last 1/2 of the milk and mix and last 1/3rd of flour and mix BUT DON'T OVER MIX IT NOW OR IT'LL BE GROSS


Next spoon into pretty cases!!
Mine 3/4 filled 36 cases - cause they were littleish.


Next COOK COOK COOK. For aboooout 15-20mins! (I chucked my oven onto fan bake at this stage)
Then take them out to cool.


While they are cooling their heads,
make some yum frosting! I made butter cream, which is a mix of melted butter, milk, vanilla es, and HEAPS of icing sugar (I used 2 bags worth!YIKES!)



Lastly, ice and decorate them (after they have cooled).



KAWAII!!!!!!!!!!


Now serve up to friends and they'll *love* you forever




NOW GET BAKING!!

RAWRRRRRR!

So yesterday I was at Merivale mall dropping off some films (I'll put pics up soon) and afterwards wandered into a homeware shop called 'The Homestore' to get some cupcake cases...

And after diving into a treasure trove of cookie cutters I came across this one!!!


So Charlie and I made some LEMON DINOSAUR COOKIES!! Using this good ol' edmonds recipe...



Then we made green lemon icing with water,lemon juice, melted butter, icing sugar and green food colouring!


This was the result:

YAY


Here are a few close ups of the real cute ones...

Dinosaur attack! (Brendan my brother helped with these ones)



Sparkly scales!


Charlies hip-jop dino, complete with bling and grillz!


Cow dinosaur... or maybe it is sick dinosaur? Hahaha


I think next time I will make them chocolate cookie with mint icing!!
YUM
xx

Secret BOOKS!

I have always wanted to make one of these secret books!

Firstly find an aptly named book... this one is called "The face of innocence" - perfect!

N.B, if you feel bad chopping up books, find one that has already been ruined, waterlogged, scribed on etc.

Next using a strong PVA glue, glue the edges of the book pages.


Leave a few of the beginning pages out of this gluing... Now leaving the book OPEN, dry it overnight under a pile of heavy books.



When it is dry, mark out where you a going to cut it.
I kinda followed the books' text.



Then begin to cut using a sharp craft knife!


Cut and cut and cut until you reach the bottom...


Now glue the inside pages



Then CLOSE the book and dry overnight
Then cut a piece of velvet to size and hot glue it in!



Then put in all your precious things...



And hide away in the bookcase!


YAY

Summer dressing PART 2

Do you remember my yellow dress post?

Well I've finished it!
Here's the rest of my story... (sorry I'm missing some photos of the middle stages... but pretty much I just sewed things together and put in darts etc...)


My awesome mom helped me sew the skirts together and put in the side zip. The tulle too was a NIGHTMARE!



So many layers of skirt!


I made the odd mistake...


But eventually got there...



And then it was finished! Here is the front:


And the 60's style back:



It ended up a little shorter than I wanted but still looks cute on.
Now only if it would be hot and summery weather to wear it in!!

Gingerbread men -really easy tasty recipe!

I made some yummy gingerbread men... some vegan and some normal. I gave some away as gifts at christmas time!

This is what I used:
(actually I didn't use the cream of tartar, it was for something else I was making. teehee)


Amounts...
3T golden syrup
75g castor sugar
1 T water
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t mixed spice
2t ground ginger
75g butter or light oil
1/2t baking soda
225g flour




Cooking...


Oven on 180c
Put the first 6 ingredients in the saucepan and bring to boil
Then take of heat and add butter/oil and baking soda
Then slowly add sifted flour, until it makes a firm dough.

Roll out and cut into people shapes! - Not too thin, but about 5mm at least thick. Getting the right thickness really makes the biscuit awesome.

Put on tray and cook in over for 12ish minutes
Then ice!!
For the non vegan biscuits I used royal icing... which is a few cups of icing sugar to an whisked egg white.
It is a good gluey texture for icing with.
I put it in a glad bag and snipped a tiny bit off the corner and used it as a piping bag!!



It works best if you choose a really simple design like I have :-)

WOW THESE WERE TASTY!!

What I've been up to...

So the truth is, my computer is only 40GB, and really slow... so this year 'course related costs' will be going towards a new computer which will make uploading pictures and doing this blog much faster :)

I did lots of fun wee projects over christmas time so the following blogs will display these!

xx

Gah pure holiday laziness

I *have* been doing creative things, but not posting them, soooo sorry. Will get onto this shortly!!! You have a lots of fun posts to look forward to this year :-)

Including: MOre dresses
More fun with pegs
Umbrella madness
Tapes make a comeback
One giant fork
Book boxes

and so much more!

xoxo