Strawberry Santas

As all good cooks know, the perfect accompaniment to a chocolate cake is the humble strawberry. In an appropriately festive mood, Acacia and I decided that we would try something a bit different and make strawberry Santas to guard our Christmas chocolate cake from those wishing to consume it :D

After some extensive research (all 2 minutes of it), we realised that a recipe wasn't really necessary. Some experimentation later and the little strawberry people were born. 

Ingredients: 

• millions of strawberries
• cream cheese (beaten)
• hundreds and thousands
• silver cachous 

The hulls were removed with a knife, which gave the Santas flat bottoms to sit on. Then the top 1/3 of the strawberry was removed to form the hat. A butter knife was used to position the cream cheese for the face, the 'hat' replaced and a small blob of cream cheese placed on the tip of the strawberry as a cute pom-pom.

We decided on silver cashous as buttons, and just pressed them firmly into the strawberry to fix them on. Unfortunately, some of the silver rubbed off leaving the cashous white underneath, but this wasn't extremely noticeable, and the white looked just as good. 

The cashous were too large to be used as eyes, so Acacia and I decided to use hundreds and thousands instead, which had the added bonus of providing a bit of variety. Some evil red-eyed Santas may have been created... :D

If we make these again, which I'm sure we will, substituting chocolate sprinkles for eyes would probably work better, as the dye on the hundreds and thousands started to run in the hot weather.

Dr Who Galaxy Shoes

I've been on a blogging break. A very, very, very, very......very long blogging break. Why? A combination of stressful Grade 11 Schoolwork & Exams (capitals intended), laziness and warped internet.

I've been doing plenty of craft and D.I.Y, following other peoples blogs, and making a general mess of my bedroom in search of that last bead/hook/paint-brush/fancy paper, I just haven't been blogging about it. Rather than going back and writing posts on all the things I have done I 'm procrastinating and pretending I didn't make them and therefore do not have to blog about them.

I give you: Doctor Who Galaxy Shoes





 They started off as this (worth $4 from Big W):



There are loads of tutorials out there for Dr Who Shoes, Galaxy Shoes, and Dr Who Galaxy Shoes. So rather than adding another tutorial to the already jam packed internet I am just going to show pretty shots of my shoes and give you links to some very good tutorials I muddled around with.



 I will give you a couple of tips though.

1.) If you don't know who Doctor Who is thats OK. I won't judge you......much. I do suggest you start watching though, it's pretty darn good. Start from the first season though, otherwise it's a tad confusing. Don't watch it at nighttime....especially not the Weeping Angels episode. In fact if you have angel statues in your yard or local park stay away from Doctor Who completely.

2.) Lots of the tutorials suggest using a toothbrush dipped lightly in white paint and flicking it at your shoes to create the star patterns. What they all fail to mention is that in doing so you end up with a nice star pattern over the surrounding table, ground, walls and yourself.

3.) When taping the part of you shoes that you DON'T want paint on, be excessive. To much tape is not a bad thing, it's a good thing and should be wholeheartedly recommended.



 I am of course not an artist/artistic/able to hold a paint brush the right way up (Not really, but my Tardis is pretty dodgy)

I think they are the perfect Geek Shoes (although I am considering making a Harry Potter pair) and I will probably wear them everywhere until they fall apart :)

I watched this clever YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny_pl2UvRPc 
I visited these: http://miss-sunday-girl.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/diy-galaxy-shoes.html
                       http://www.leawesome.com/2012/09/diy-galaxy-shoes.html

DIY Lipgloss

Yep, this is me. Slacking off again. Wait! This time I have a slightly realistic excuse.

Senior EXAMS (Feel the horror sweep over you)

 I still have to pass High school....pass University...Slowly build up working skills until I have a good enough salary to afford Lint Chocolate again (Which I currently 'borrow' from Mum) and then I might have time to blog again....maybe :)

Presently I have Biology leaking out my ears (I'm hilarious) So I took a quick break to make this:

My very own Lip gloss!

My wonderful relatives & friends give me lots of make-up. Unfortunately not all of them suit me, but thanks to my superior Internet surfing skills I found some DIY lip gloss recipe's and muddled them up into my own version. 

Most of the recipe's I found asked for beeswax, which I collected (and melted) from a bee's nest which fell down during our last storm. If you don't have a handy fallen nest around (or the bee's want their nest back!) You can buy it from....um....a shop.

You will need:

 2 teaspoons of beeswax

2 tablespoons  of bath oil

5 drops of an essential oil

A couple of old/unappealing Lipsticks

Instructions:

1.) Melt the oil and beeswax together in a glass bowl in a hot pan of water. Do not allow any water in the oil and beeswax mixture.

2.) Stir in a bit of lipstick/s until you like the colour and brightness. The lip gloss will be a lighter shade on your lips then whilst it is melting. Ensure that the lipstick is completely melted and stirred through.

3.) Add the essential oil to the mixture and stir briefly.

4.) Pour the lip gloss into small containers and leave them with the lid off to cool.

As evidence that I have not been completely slacking off from my craft here is my Mum's Birthday Cake. She requests the exact same dark chocolate cake every year (not that I blame her, its delish!) so this year I decorated with frozen raspberries and her favorite chocolate biscuits. 

I used dark chocolate gnash to 'glue' the biscuits to the cake. It tasted wonderful and looked like a cute little chocolate well.

Ta-da!

Coconut Biscuits

I've been away from my blog for a while, I'm blaming Senior classes, a new school and the obsessive dedicated reading of Beautiful Creatures (I watched the movie today, it was fabulous!). However I have not been slacking off from my craft, just slacking off from blogging about it.

I made this last week, and a double batch vanished within 24hours. They were scummy, light, melt-in-your-mouth flavoursome and impossible to resist.

I am a big fan of coconut, so I made sure they had a very strong coconut-y flavor. They aren't very healthy (Oops!) but I am so in love with their taste, they are going in my 'Fabulous Recipe" folder anyway.

Ingredients

1 cup of self-raising flour
1 1/4 cup of shredded coconut
1 cup of fine sugar
1 room temperature egg
1/3 cup of butter

Step 1.)  Melt the butter in a small saucepan.
Step 3.) Stir the flour, coconut, sugar and egg together in a large bowl.

Step 4.) Pour the butter into the bowl, and form the mixture into little balls. ( If the mixture doesn't come together, try adding a little more melted butter)
Step 5.) Place the balls on a baking paper coated tray. Take a fork and press the biscuits flat.

Step 6.) Cook at 180 degrees until light brown, remove from oven and allow to cool.

Enjoy!

Pistachio Spread

Pistachios are delicious. A wonderful more-ish snack for lazy days when you don't feel like cooking.

Today, I am stuck at home. Why? You might ask. Well, after 3 months of drought, empty rain tanks and stifling heat. We are now enjoying a flood. The large river which runs through the centre of our town has turned into a giant lake.

This does happen several times per year so it's not as if we weren't expecting it. However with school starting tomorrow and our house being on the other side of town, my little brother is behaving as though he just ate a kilo of sugar.

My school is on the same side of town as us, so I still have to go (weeps silently). To cheer myself up I combined two great loves (Pistachios and spreads) to make this:

 I wondered around on the Internet looking for an exciting spread I could make within my minute concentration range....and couldn't find one which appealed to me particularly. Grasping at some key points in all of the recipes I found, I came up with my own delicious version:

In this spread I used:
2 tablespoons of onion
1 garlic clove
1/4 feta cheese (most of the recipes suggested blue cheese, but I didn't have any)
1/2 cup of Greek yogurt
1/2 cup of pistachios
1 teaspoon olive oil

Step 1.
Mince and fry the onion and garlic in olive oil.

Step 2.
Combine the onion & garlic with the yogurt in a food processor. Lightly process then add the feta cheese and pistachios. Process until smooth.

Step 3. Lightly toast some bread and serve with pistachio spread.

Enjoy!

Honey Bread

I woke up this morning to rain! We have been hoping for rain for weeks. Our lawn was brown, and our geese were grumpy. Now our geese are running around honking, and our water tank is finally filling up.

To celebrate I made Honey Bread. Warm from the oven, and spread with butter it is a delicious rainy day food. Thanks to the hot bothersome weather I haven't been able to do much baking, but now that it's raining I am free to bake at last!

To make Honey Bread you will need:

3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup milk
2 cups Self-Raising flour
Oil spray

Step 1.
Grease a bread tin with butter or spray with oil. Set the oven to 180C.

Step 2.
Mix the sugar, honey and milk together. Add the self raising flour and stir until smooth.

Step 3. Pour the bread mixture into the greased bread tin and cook for 30min. Turn the oven off and leave the bread inside for 10-15min.

Slice warm from the oven, spread with butter and eat.

Tip: Honey bread is best eaten the day it is baked.

DIY Sock Bun

I recently re-organised my clothes cupboard and was un-surprised at my collection of lonely socks. Ah-ha! The sock monster strikes again!

What to do with my all my one-some socks?  The 35C+ weather and my un-tamable long hair (I'm growing it for the formal)  made the decision for me; Sock buns. Easy, suitable and a non-time consuming project.

For this project I used:
A thick, knee-high sock
Scissors
A hot Glue-gun
A pen and ruler

Step No.1
Rule a straight line across the sock, just under the heel. Cut across the line and discard the foot.

Step No. 2
Start rolling your sock up, beginning at the elastic end. The longer your hair the bigger your rolls should be.

 Step No. 3
Fold the leftover edge down, and glue with your hot glue gun (Alternatively you can hand sew it down)

Step No. 4
Turn the roll so that the ragged edge is on the inside.

Then use it to make a super cute bun!

Mango Smoothie

In my wonderful country town we are currently 'enjoying' a blend of 37C-40C. Thankfully our old house was built with this sort of weather in mind, and our house is staying at a slightly more reasonable temperature.

Whilst I am definitely not basking in the delightful heat, I am happy that I finally get to follow the lead of Miss Indie who has been making an array of smoothies. I have been very impressed by the ingredients she has used, but I'm going to try her Peanut Butter & Jelly recipe another day and stick to an old favourite of mine.

Mango Smoothie

I love mango's. I learnt pretty quickly that it's a hate or love situation, I'm yet to find an in-between-er....So if mango's aren't your thing, steer clear of this recipe because the mango flavour comes out prominently .

You will need:
A blender
Mango cut in chunks and frozen
1/4 cup of milk (I use slightly less)
Frozen berries
 A drizzle of honey/sugar

1.Blend your mango and milk together until smooth.
2. Add honey/sugar to taste
3. Pour into a tall glass and top off with some frozen berries.

Cold, scrummy and healthy!

Statement Collar

 
I love burda. I think it's the coolest fashion magazine for those who like to make their own stuff, rather then buy it.

Unfortunately the rest of the my family, the female side, feel the same way. This is when my Mum pulls rank, and gets to browse it first. Next is whoever happened to be on the scene when my little brother gets the mail.

"Mum! Mum!" (running into sewing room) "Can I read burda after you!" (Pokes tongue out at other sister).

Anyway, the most recent burda (1/2013) had a page on Peter Pan Collars. The brief tutorial shows how to remove a collar from a guy's shirt and make into a cute accessory.

I don't know about anyone else, but my Dad doesn't throw clothes out. He is horrified when Mum threatens to throw out his clothes because they have holes in them. "Throw it out? Are you kidding?That shirt had at least another 10 years in it. The hole isn't even visible from the front."

I didn't even bother asking Dad if he would donate a shirt to me, instead I made my own collar.

I made the collar out of a vintage fabric (donated by Grandma, she bought it 35 years ago) and added a cute bow which I hoarded from the top of a Birthday card. (I may have a compulsive'I could use that one day..." problem, but hey, every other crafty person I know has it too!). Then I coaxed (Tea, Chocolate Sundae and lots of compliments) my Mum into sewing a button loop on for me, and added a little button to the other end.

Cute huh?
To bad I forgot to take step by step instructions. I pinky promise that when I make another (eyeing cute grey fabric in fabric stash) I will do a detailed tutorial.

Sponge Cupcakes & Peppermint Cake Pops

Christmas is almost here, and its time to bring out the sugar.

This delightful Christmas cup is full of Candy Canes, Sponge Cupcakes and Peppermint Cake Pops. I claim no credit for the candy canes, I bought them at the shops. However the Cupcakes and Cake Pops are my unoriginal creations.

Sponge Cupcakes:

You will need:

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup flour

1-2 drops vanilla essence 

a cupcake tray filled with patties

1. Beat the eggs until thick and bright yellow. 

2. Beat in the sugar gradually, until well mixed. 

3. Sift the flour and fold into the mixture gently.

4. Add the vanilla essence, and pour into cupcake patties.

5. Cook at 180C until lightly brown on top.

I iced my cupcakes with pink butter cream using an "AVANTI" icing gun. You might like to try crushing candy canes and sprinkling them on top of the icing.

Peppermint Cake Pops:

You will need:

A bowl of crumbled cake  (I made a double batch of sponge cupcakes and crumbled half of them warm from the oven)

A large spoonful of jam

Melted dark chocolate (approximately half a  standard block of chocolate)

4 candy canes

Lollipop sticks or short marshmallow sticks.

1. Crush the candy canes roughly on a chopping board.

2. Stir the jam and cake together and roll into small balls.

3. Melt the chocolate over a low heat.

4. Dip each stick into the chocolate and insert a chocolate coated end into each ball. Freeze for 10 minutes.

5. Re-melt the chocolate and dip each cake ball in, making sure the chocolate is even. 

6. Whilst the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle the crushed candy cane over the cake pops and stand in a cup. 

7. Once all the cake pops are coated and sprinkled, freeze in the freezer.

 

Cinnamon Scrolls

I happened to come across a recipe for Cinnamon scrolls on the Internet. It didn't take long for my mouth to start watering, and with a few tweaks to the low-fat recipe they were delicious!

To make these sugary treats you will need:

1 1/3 tablespoons of yeast

1 cup of milk

1/4 cup of white sugar

3 cups plain flour

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

Sticky Jam cupcakes

My sister hates Sticky Date pudding. In her opinion, dates are not edible. I on the other hand, love the goey delicousness that makes sticky date pudding so wonderful. When the request for cupcakes came, I knew I had a challange:

Make sticky date cupcakes- without the dates.

I decided to adapt a chocolate cake recipe, as most chocolate cakes have jam in them. If I could subtract the coco and icing suger from the recipe, I should have a sticky cupcake recipe.

So I did,

I was a little worried over the mixture colour, as grey sludge does not look like an appealing cupcake mixture. However, once the cupcakes were cooked they turned a nice brown colour.

My adaptions weren't entirely perfect (Big surprise!) as the cupcakes were super sweet. I coated them in Dark chocolate gnash, and added frozen chocolate flowers on top: Perfect!

To make these cupcakes you will need:

1. 75g butter at room temperature

2.125g  caster sugar

3. 2 eggs

4. Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

5. 1/2 cup blackberry Jam (Or if blackberry isn't to your taste, another jam will work fine)

6. 1 and 1/4 sifted self-raising flour

7. 1 teaspoon sifted bicarbonate of soda

8. 2/3 cup of milk

Step 1. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Take 3 cupcake trays and fill them with patty pans.

Step 2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mix master/ or similar. Add the eggs gradually, and beat in the vanilla and jam. 

Step 3. Turn the speed down to low (1-3) and add the combined flour and bicarb soda alternatively with the milk.

Step 4. Pour the mixture into the cupcake trays and cook for 15 minutes or until brown.

Step 5. Turn the cupcakes onto a wire tray and allow to cool. Ice and eat!

  P.S.I left some of the cupcakes un-iced and they were deliciously sticky!

Rainbow Cupcakes

When I was little ~ 11 and under~ my favourite ice-cream was rainbow. As a kid I never bothered trying other flavours, I was firm in my understanding that there was No better flavour then rainbow.

I've moved on. Today I eat the delicious and mature flavours of macadamia and raspberry.
However every once in a while I have an urge to make cook something pretty, not because I'm craving cake (Although I was!) , but because pretty food makes me smile.

A faint trace of my early ice-cream choices still remains, so I made Rainbow Cupcakes.

I know right? Feel those cupcakes cravings consume you~ and go make your own.

You will need:

A cake/cupcake batter ( I used the plain cake recipe from The Common Sense Cookbook)

4 different food dyes

A cupcake tray

Cupcake cases

A lot of spoons (I used about 6)
 4 small bowls

1. Take the bowls and fill them almost to the top with cake batter.

2. Stir a different dye into each bowl, until the colour is evenly mixed.

 

3. Start with one colour and place a small spoonful of batter in each cupcake case. Repeat with all of the remaining colours.

4. Even out the top of the cupcake,and very gently shake the tray until the batter is in the cupcake case shape.

5. Bake for 20min or until a fork comes out clean when stuck in a cupcake.

Ice and eat!

Chickpea Fritters

These delicious fritters are healthy and nutritious. When I make them for my family we have them hot in bread rolls with salad and Greek Yogurt, or cold in lunches.

To make these chickpea delights you will need:

1 cup of Self-Raising flour

4tsp of coriander seeds

2tsp mild paprika

a pinch of salt

pepper (to your taste)

3tsp cumin seeds

1/3 cup of water

Olive oil

One small onion (diced)

2 eggs

600g can of chickpeas (drained)

1.Grind the coriander, pepper, paprika, salt and cumin into a fine dust. Take a food processor and mix the flour and spice mixture.

2.Whisk the eggs and water together in a separate bowl, and add to the dry mixture.

3. Process this mixture with the chickpeas and onion until it is blended to a smooth consistency.

4. Coat a non-stick frying pan with olive oil and place on a low heat. Drop heaped spoons of batter on the pan, and cook until golden. When both sides are evenly cooked transfer to a warm plate and serve.

Enjoy!

Super Quick Ice Cream

 Last weekend I made this ice-cream.

It is wonderful and super-duper easy!

It's kinda a cheats way of making ice-cream cause it doesn't start from scratch. However it is very quick and tastes delicious! 

You will need:

Some cheap- vanilla ice cream

Strawberries/ Tinned apples

A teaspoon of sugar for ever two scoops of ice-cream.

Take all your ingredients and process them in a blender/food processor. When the mixture is smooth, pour it into a sealed container and leave in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours.

Perfect for a hot Summer afternoon!

P.S. A friend of mine has a mulberry tree, and she made a sorbet with the fruit.
When she gave me some of the sorbet I found it a little too sweet, so I used this recipe to make ice-cream (Minus the sugar of course). It was fabulous!

A Leather Hair Bow

Cute isn't it?
This darling bow looks delightfully simple, but the truth is it took me over an hour to make.

This was my first try at this particular bow, and I thought it went rather well. It involved a few minor glue-gun burns (Ouch!) and a whole lot of fiddling, but was completely worth it.

I started off with two leather lengths, approximatedly 7cm in width, and 24cm in length. Like so:

I then took one legth of leather and hot glue-gunned the long edges down.

This step looks really dodgy but don't worry this isn't actually visible in the finished product.

I then measured the centre of the strap of leather and drew a line of hot glue down it. I folded the straps ends into the middle and held it down until dry.

 I cut another leather strap from the other orginal length of leather(I know, I did waste a rather large rectangle of leather...Whoops!) about as long as my folded strap.

This is where the fiddeling comes in. I had to fold and bend the leather vigurously before I was able to get the two round typical ripples in the front of the bow. Pinching the bow tightly in the centre to keep the shape I wrapped my little strap around the centre once, glued and cut off the excess leather.

Once the bow was completely dry I was free to admire my hour and a bit of work.

Lovely isn't it?