Here’s a little sneak peek at a few of the adorable new cabochons I recently got… I can’t wait to turn them in to rings, earrings and hair pins!
Archive | April, 2012
BFC Easter Party
14 Apr
As I mentioned in a previous post, some of the girls I work with (and the rest of the extended Barefoot Contessa family) had an Easter party a few weeks ago. We all had a great time and filled up on some very, very yummy Easter-themed treats (I made pink ‘ombre’ cupcakes if you recall)
Unfortunately the lighting wasn’t great, as the party took place after work at 7pm – so I apologize the pictures aren’t super great. Also, I have to admit, the best pictures are actually on Barefoot Contessa‘s blog – take a peek.
I also apologize for the fact that that’s all I have to say about the party right now… I have been writing this post in-between making 42 (yes forty two) teacup candles while waiting for the wax to melt and frankly I’m exhausted.
Easter Cupcakes
10 Apr
I seem to be on a Easter cupcake roll this year! First I made pink ombre cupcakes for the BFC Easter party, and then this past weekend I made chocolate cupcakes as a post Easter dinner treat.
I adapted this recipe from a cake recipe that has been eaten and enjoyed by my family for years – it is the cake that makes birthdays complete and occasions really feel like a celebration. I was originally going to make the cupcakes for a friend’s birthday, but ran out of time before the party (she had a cake though don’t worry!) and so the ingredients I bought wouldn’t go to waste, they became Easter cupcakes instead (since there’s usually a lack of chocolate at Easter and all…)
Both the cake part and the icing are made from scratch, so this was no easy feat, luckily I made sure my mum (the baker of almost all cakes previous) was on hand to help put out any fires that arose (figuratively thank goodness). It turns out that I’m a messy baker, especially when baking from scratch in a small kitchen, and in the interest of not completely ruining my phone or camera there aren’t really any pictures of the baking process. To make up for it, I shall share my most favourite chocolate cake (and now cupcake) recipe with you all.
Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake
Bake at 350 F (180 C)
35 minutes to make one 9 inch layer cake
18-22 minutes to make cupcakes (this recipe makes about 32 cupcakes when I did it so I imagine you can to half it!)
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (sifted)
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk (or yogurt – if neither is available, then you can add milk to 1 tbsp vinegar to make 1 cup; let stand for 10 mins)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup boiling water
Grease two 9 x 1 .5 inch round layer pans; line with wax paper. Grease wax paper and dust with flour; tap out excess flour.
(For cupcakes, cupcake liners work just fine)
Sift flour, baking soda and salt in to a bowl.
Combine oil, buttermilk, cocoa, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well.
On a low speed with electric mixer, or by hand, add flour mixture to cocoa mixture, alternating with boiling water beginning and ending with the dry mixture (aim for at least 5 alternations according to my mum) do not over-beat. Batter with be thick. Divide batter evenly between pans.
Bake for times outlined above, or until (cup)cakes spring back when lightly touched with your fingertip.
Cool (cup)cakes in pan for 10 minutes. Loosen around edges, turn out, and peel off wax paper (if necessary). Cool completely. Fill and frost with rich chocolate frosting
Frosting
- 1 package (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate pieces
- 1/2 cup evaporated milk (though, you can use normal and it will taste just as good)
- 3/4 cup butter
- 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
Place chocolate pieces, milk and butter in top of double boiler. Place over hot water, stirring until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
Whisk in icing sugar. Place double boiler top in a bowl filled with ice cubes and water (if you don’t do this, it will take about 15 – 20 minutes of beating to get the icing to the right consistency). Beat with an electric mixer until mixture lightens in colour, begins to lose its sheen and is of good spreading consistency. Don’t give up as your beating – the lightening takes 5 to 10 minutes and is well worth the effort!
Pink ‘Ombre’ Cupcakes
8 Apr
looks yummy from the outside...
...but everybody knows, it's what's inside that counts!
It’s been far too long since I blogged! I have been meaning to do this post for about a week now, but have been busy with the Easter party, birthday celebrations and, oh you know, life. Anyways here are the pretty pink (almost) ombre cupcakes I made for the BFC Easter Party! To up the pink factor I used the cupcake liners I made before. Just like the liners before them, the cupcakes didn’t turn out quite like I thought they would (I’m not sure if I’m liking this trend that seems to keep happening) but they looked pretty – and tasted yummy – all the same!
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to make the cake batter from scratch, so a box mix had to do. I just followed the instructions on the box, divided the mixture in to three bowls, added different amounts of food colouring to make the varying degrees of pinkness and then scooped them in to the cupcake liners from darkest to lightest, baked and voila!
I would however recommend doing a dark bottom, medium or light pink middle and a plain top. As you can see the two lighter pink shades just kind of blended together and so it didn’t really look ombre… hence the quotation marks in the title.
A few tips:
I would recommend leaving the most batter in the plain or lightest batter colour bowl, because it’s far easier to just make the batter darker rather than lighter. Trust me.
Try to find a thicker cake mix – it makes things much easier when trying to layer the colours. I used Betty Crocker French Vanilla mix for these pink ones and it was thicker than the plain ‘White Cake’ mix, which I used for the disastrous purple ones (not even going there) and the pink ones actually look like they have layers.
Although there was one success story…
Julia got the best one of the bunch! If you look closely you can see all three colours – yay!
little wren
Hi there, I'm Lauren. I make a line of cheerful accessories and home decor that combine my love of vintage treasures and pretty little whatnots.
This is my little corner of the internet where I will share news about my Little Wren line along with my love of crafting, baking and vintage finds.
Hope you enjoy!
