living on the crafty side of life

Day 7 of the Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza

Hello and welcome to the seventh day of our Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza.

Mel and I have been in the kitchen preparing some Easter goodness to share with you today. Mel has cooked up some yummy Easter baskets which are really good enough to eat.

[Just a reminder before I start that last year I made Easter egg cupcakes. You can find the post about these HERE.]

I have made one of my all time favourite puddings with an Easter twist. There are a few puddings which I love to cook.... bread and butter pudding in one of them. At Easter time when the hot cross buns are everywhere in the bakeries I make a "hot cross bun and butter" pudding. The custard base is the same as the regular variety, I just substitute the bread for the buns.

Here's a few photos from my cooking...

In this pudding I have used the choc-chip hot cross buns from Baker's Delight. In other puddings I have also used the regular fruit filled variety which make a lovely pudding as well. I like to prepare my custard mix first and leave it to 'settle' while I'm constructing the pudding. I have included my custard mix recipe further down in this post.

 

I have sliced the each bun into about 4-5 pieces from top to bottom and spread a little butter on each slice.

 

This photo below shows the buns in my baking dish. Rather than laying the slices flat as I would with regular bread slices, I have kept the buns together and separated the slices slightly.

 

Pour the custard mixture into the baking dish.

Leave your prepared pudding sit for a while. I leave it at least 30 minutes. What this does is allow plenty of time for the custard mixture to be absorbed by the buns... basically they go very soggy (not the best culinary description). At this point you may have a little custard mix left over, and will want to top up the mixture in the baking dish. Having the soggy buns will give you an even pudding-like consistency once the pudding is cooked (instead of a pudding with pieces of dry bread through it).

 

By the time my pudding was cooked and out of the oven, it was night time, so unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo of my pudding. But is was yummy.

 

For the custard mix, you can use your regular bread and butter pudding recipe. I'll share mine if you haven't got one. Mix all the ingredients together and whisk thoroughly.

• 2 cups (8 fl oz) milk

• 2 cups (8 fl oz) pouring or single cream

• 4 eggs

• 2 egg yolks extra

• 2/3 cup sugar

• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

These puddings need to be cooked carefully. Many recipes call for a water bath. With a larger baking dish, I find a water bath hard to use, so I cook my pudding in a lower heat oven for a slightly longer time than a recipe calls for. Use your recipe as a guide. My recipe above will make a large pudding, I usually cook it for about 1 hour 20 minutes in a 140-150 degree C oven. As with most of my cooking, I check it as it cooks to see how things are going. You don't want your pudding to 'bubble', if this is happening turn your oven down.

This recipe is a good one for the kids to make too. Get them cracking the eggs and whisking the mixture in a big bowl. You can always strain the mixture to take out any egg shell bits that might have slipped into the bowl during this process, I have done this on many occasions. They can spread the butter on the buns and arrange them in your baking dish, too. It's very rewarding for kids to be able help cook part of a meal.

We'll see you on Wednesday for our last day, day 8, of our Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza. We've been having so much fun sharing our Easter ideas.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona x

Homegrown, cooking and crafting

Yesterday we picked some of Phoebe's produce from her veggie patch. It's only a small space (we converted the old sand pit in the back yard to a veggie patch a few years ago), but she grows some fabulous veggies and herbs.

 

This year she's grown three different varieties of tomatoes... and basil (summer would be the same without fresh basil in our garden), as well as some other herbs.

 

This is our second "harvest" from the garden recently.

So dinner last night was fresh tomato and basil pasta. Very quick easy and delicious. Here's how...

• Roughly chop the tomatoes, no need to peel the tomatoes and keep all the juices and seeds.

• Heat some olive oil in a fry pan, add a little garlic (1-2 cloves, chopped) and cook. Add the tomatoes and gently cook for about half and hour, stirring occasionally.

• Towards the end add a splash of balsamic vinegar and a splash of mirin (if you don't have mirin, add a couple of teaspoons of brown sugar).

• Cook your pasta, drain, etc.

• While cooking the pasta pick the basil leaves from the stems, don't bother cutting them up, they are yummier left whole.

• When all is ready, toss the pasta into the sauce and stir around to cover the pasta.

• Toss the basil into the pasta/tomato sauce combo and let them wilt slightly. Plate up and enjoy with Parmesan cheese.

We were talking last night after our dinner saying how some of our favourite meals are often the most simple to cook.

And now for some crafting....

Here is another Maya Road project created for their CHA booth.

 

The chipboard book used as the base is the Car Key Chipboard Coaster Book. There are quite a few new products used through this album. Some new trinkets flowers mixed with old.

 

New little sheer birdies...

 

I've used some older tags from a coaster book as the mounts for the quotes. The little birdies rub-ons are very cute and match the sheer birdies perfectly.

 

 

We, the design team, were asked to create a Valentines tag for the Maya Road booth as well.

 

I used pieces from the Maya Road Love Key chain Set which I then covered in Stampendous Fun Flock, which gives a fabulous fuzzy-flock finish to the chipboard.

 

I've also added a couple of the new trims from Maya Road. The Pink Vintage Sequins Edging and a new large pom pom trim.

 

That's about all for now. My girls are now back at school, settled in nicely, new teachers, new classrooms and new schedules to learn.

Don't forget there is still a day or two left to enter the RAK. Leave a comment on this post, you might win a set of Maya Road Cupcakes stamps.

Thanks for visiting, hope you have a great weekend.

Cheers

Fiona x

 

ice cream cupcakes

I had an idea to make ice cream cupcakes for Emily's birthday. Last year she enjoyed the ice cream birthday cake I made, and wanted it again. I thought it would be fun to try and make smaller ice cream cakes and came up with the idea of ice cream cupcakes.

OK, so they look a bit like homemade choc tops, but they were still well enjoyed at the birthday party.

Here's how they were made. I used both vanilla and chocolate store-bought ice cream.

STEP 1: Soften the vanilla ice cream. Place in your mixer and beat. While mixing add mini marshmallows and meringues. You need to work quickly so the ice cream doesn't melt too much.

STEP 2: Fill the ice cream cones with this mixture to the top of the cone. I like to add a "surprise" to these, so added a chocolate coated finger biscuit at this stage. Place in the freezer. I left these for 24 hours before I moved to the next stage.

STEP 3: Repeat step 1 with the chocolate ice cream, adding the meringues and marshmallows. This ice cream may need to be frozen slightly before moving onto the scooping stage. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop up the ice cream.

And place the scoop of ice cream over the top of the ice cream cone.

You will have little ice cream cupcakes like below. These need to be returned to the freezer again for about 24 hours, to make sure they are really frozen before the next step.

STEP 4: Melt chocolate. I used dark chocolate. Stand your ice cream cupcakes over a wire rack with a tray underneath (this step gets a little messy). Drizzle the melted chocolate over the ice cream cones and sprinkle with 100's and 1000's (this is a good job for an assistant if one is eagerly standing by).

 

You do need to return these to the freezer as soon as possible, as the ice cream does start to melt. I worked on about 6 ice cream cones at a time, then returned those to the freezer before starting on the next batch.

That's it. Ice cream cupcakes.

A couple of things to point out about these. Firstly they are not the type of "cake" to be made at the last minute. They do take a few days putting them together and freezing in between. Secondly, they are top-heavy and were difficult to arrange nicely. I placed them in a big bowl and handed them out from there.

I'd like to find the little plastic bowls used in the gelato stores if I were making these again, and use those instead of the ice cream cones. I think the gelato bowls would look similar to the patty papers used for cupcakes.

They were very nice and enjoyed by everyone at the party, and were something a little different from the traditional birthday cakes I usually make.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you're having a good weekend.

Cheers

Fiona x

snapshot from sydney

It's a beautiful sunny winter's day here in Sydney. Just thought I'd share a photo from this morning's activities.

Taken from the headland between Curl Curl and Freshwater beaches. Looking towards Manly beach.

We walked between the two beaches this morning, then had morning tea/coffee at the cafe at the South Curl Curl Beach SLSC. Gorgeous location right on the beach.

Hope you're having a great day.

Cheers

Fiona x

Birthday month

June sees the start of birthday month in our house. Both Phoebe and I have June birthdays, my niece and a few friends also celebrate during this month. But for some reason Phoebe's birthday celebrations seem to last the whole month... (usually overshadowing my birthday completely).

On the weekend we took Phoebe and a few friends to the Sydney Observatory for her birthday celebration. She wanted to go to the Observatory last year, but we left it all too late to arrange, so this year we started early. Just as well, as we couldn't get in next weekend as planned (that's the Observatory's 150th birthday and there's big things planned there) so we had to go a week early for Phoebe's birthday.

We arrived at Observatory Hill early, and the girls had fun running around the rotunda. They watched a bridal party have their photos taken, then the girls insisted the bride and groom kiss, which they willingly obliged.

I tried to take some creative photos, but without my tripod, they didn't really work out. Here's one of the better ones.

The view from the rotunda was beautiful looking north over the harbour to the Harbour Bridge and Luna Park.

The Observatory was great. We looked through two big telescopes including the large one in the domed roof. The most amazing thing we saw was Saturn, we could actually see the rings around the planet. Quite amazing.

After the visit to the Observatory, it was back home for the Starry-Starry night pinata cake. We saw this cake being made several weeks ago on Better Homes and Gardens. Phoebe loved it when she saw it and ordered one (from mum) for her birthday.

Armed with wooden spoons the girls had to smash their way through the chocolate outer shell to reach the cupcakes and lollies hiding underneath.

Phoebe and I made little starry time capsules for the lolly bags. We found the plastic containers at Reverse Garbage. We then wrapped a strip of Scenic Route paper around each container, added a scalloped punched oval shape, a star shape (with doodling) and a Maya Road chipboard letter to finish.

I just have to say I love my new Marvy Uchida scalloped punches. After searching here in Australia for them, and not being able to find them, I finally bought several from Papertrey Ink in the US recently.

That's about all for now. Thanks for visiting!

Cheers

Fiona x

a little catch up

We've all been a bit under the weather around our house over the last week. We're feeling better this week, thankfully.

Some non-crafting news: A friend of ours has started embracing life in the slow lane and has started a blog to reflect on his finds. Take a look at the Slow Lane blog.

And there's just a few things to share from me from the past week.

Made this little fabric bookmark as part of a present for Phoebe's friend last weekend. It is inspired by a a m s' work over on flickr, here are some of her bookmarks. My bookmark is more "rustic", shall we say, and could be a good one for the kids to make - hand stitch the felt monogram to the fabric and straight machine stitching around the edge.

A quick card I made last week....

I've been back at school this morning playing working with Phoebe. It is Education Day. My tasks were to paint the sun and make a find-a-word. Loved sitting with the kids painting and chatting.

That's about all, short and sweet today.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

birthday wishes

Yesterday was the big day....

Paul, my DH, turned 50. It's a big number, but he coped very well :-))

We had a busy day, lots of running around, but we managed to celebrate in between the busy parts. The girls cooked bacon and egg rolls for breaky. The carrot cupcakes were iced with a cream cheese and ricotta icing, and were really, really yummy. We fitted in a netball game and a basketball game, and a few other committments. We had drinks at friends and then we went to dinner at China Doll on Woolloomooloo Wharf.

It was a good day.

And today was Mothers' Day. A lovely day was had here with my gorgeous girls. Breakfast in bed. Watching Phoebe's fabo soccer game. Phoebe made Chocolate Kisses for afternoon tea (recipe from Better Homes and Gardens). Visiting my mum and dad. And dinner cooked by the girls Paul.

Bring on Monday so we can all have a rest!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there.

Fiona x

Carrot Cupcakes

We have a very important birthday in our family this weekend. After subtle (and not so subtle) questions from the girls as to the type of cake that would be enjoyed by this birthday person, it was decided that carrot cake would be well received.

So here I am cooking today. We are running out of time to prepare the cakes, and tomorrow (THE birthday) is already full with sporting matches and plays, so I thought I'd make the cakes today, so the girls can decorate in the morning.

Something occurred to me this morning as I was enjoying my cooking - BY MYSELF. One of the very few negatives of having children (apart from the cost of running them) is that you create cake spoon and bowl licking competitors. I love licking the spoon, the bowl and anything else that has a dollop of uncooked cake mixture. But these days I rarely get to indulge in this pleasure. I have little people who, as soon as they hear the cake tin going into the oven, suddenly appear in the kitchen. And that's if they weren't already there, "helping" with the actual cooking.

Today I was able to enjoy a little bit of cake mixture, uncooked, by myself. And this mixture in particular was delicious and rich uncooked.

Here's the first batch out of the oven. The mixture was huge. I've made 28 muffin sized carrot cupcakes from this recipe. Looks like there'll be some left over for Mother's Day on Sunday :-))

The recipe I used is the Church Picnic Carrot Cupcakes (page 49) from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. Great book, full of beautiful ideas for cupcakes.

OK, I've finished my cup of tea, better keep going, I've got a mini book to work on and some ribbon orders to pack. I'll share some photos of the finished cakes when the girls have worked their magic on them tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Cheers

Fiona x

a pink post

I haven't shared the new love in my life. I never thought I'd be so smitten with a kitchen appliance, but I am. I love this machine. My gorgeous family bought me a KitchenAid for Christmas. The hard thing was choosing a colour. If you know about KitchenAids, you'll know their appliances are available in a fantastic range of colours.

When I went to the store to order my machine, I still hadn't decided on a colour. I had narrowed it down to either white or pink. The Gemini twins in me were having a huge tug of war in my head. The practical twin was saying get the WHITE, it'll go with everything. The other completely non-practical twin was whispering get the PINK, you really want the pink, who cares if it doesn't go with the blue kitchen! The shop assistant was on the phone ready to order the machine, asking me which colour. PINK came out of my mouth in reply, and so a pink KitchenAid was ordered.

It certainly looks best with pink icing...

Phoebe's basketball team is called the Hotcakes. We had the team BBQ a couple of weeks ago and Phoebe and I made pink Hotcakes cupcakes to take. I iced the cakes this time with a piping bag and really loved the effect.

We added a little pink surprise in the cakes before cooking them. With the cake mixture in the patty pans (with pink cupcake papers), a small amount of pink food colouring was swirled through each cake. We did this with a tooth pick dipped in the food colouring.

Make sure you swirl the tooth pick deep into the cake, and not just on the surface.

Here are the cakes cooked with their pretty pink swirls.

Once cooked, cooled and the cakes are iced, the pink swirl will only be revealed once you bite into the cake. This is a bit of a cheats way of making marble cupcakes.

Last week, the Hotcakes won their basketball gala day. Another trophy for the trophy cabinet! Another pink moment...

Hope you're all having a great week. Thanks for visiting.

Fiona

x

Easter {cooking} project #4

I'm moving away from Easter craft projects for one post. This is an Easter cooking project.

Easter Egg {surprise} Cupcakes

Make your cupcake mixture. Place mixture into cupcake tins.

Place a small solid chocolate Easter egg in the middle. You do not have to cover the egg with mixture.

Bake. As the cupcakes rise in the cooking process, they cover the chocolate egg. Here is a photo taken from oven cam about half way through the cooking time.

Now while I was waiting for the cupcakes to cook I thought I'd take some photos of my other cupcakes baked by Bacio Beads, Lovelinks and Bijoux.

Here's the baked cupcakes, and the chocolate eggs are now safely hidden inside the cupcakes.

Decorate the cupcakes with icing and eggs or little fluffy chicks (just make sure you remove the fluffy chick from the cake before taking a bite.) And when the cupcakes are being eaten a nice chocolate eggy surprise will be discovered inside each one.

 

Emily had some friends from her new high school over on the weekend, and they decorated cupcakes for afternoon tea.

I must thank Mel, who sent me the gorgeous Easter egg patty papers which you can probably just see in the photos. They were so gorgeous and made our cupcakes very special!

And make sure you visit Mel's blog, she has some more Easter crafting ideas over there. I love the Easter bunting she's made, very clever.

And lastly for this post, thank you to everyone who has been visiting during the last few weeks, and for all the links back to my Easter crafting posts. I really do appreciate the fact that people are reading.

I was asked by Georgie in a comment if my Easter ribbon is for sale over at Ribbons Galore. Yes, it is over in the Easter ribbon collection. (the carrots and the eggs which Mel used in the bunting). If you'd like to win some, leave me a comment and I'll choose a few winners.

Till next time.

Cheers

Fiona