Friday 27 April 2012

Extreme Easter Makes and tech bites back

Again - long time no blog posts.... this time it was because our home tech decided to go kaput big time. Firstly my much loved 9 year old olympus camera gave up, swiftly followed by the just as ancient (in tech terms) home pc. So we have spent our spare time (and my craft time) rescuing and reloading all our programmes and files on to a new family pc.

I did have to make time late on Easter saturday to make my two daughters an Easter present each, as we had forgotten to ask the Easter bunny to bring some appropriate gifts. So after drawing up a simple template and raiding my felt box, I sewed and glued two little bunny egg cosys - cute and sort of practical.

Glue used - PinFlair silicone glue

Flowers cut using Sizzix original flower die

For Easter Sunday sponge cupcakes were decorated by my daughter and nephew with chocolate butter icing nests and Cadbury mini eggs.

I also made little Cranberry Simnel cupcakes based on an old recipe from Mrs Beeton’s Everyday Cookery book, with a nugget of marzipan baked inside - these were then topped off with marizpan flowers.

4oz Stork margarine
4oz light brown sugar
1 1/2 oz golden syrup
2 large eggs
6oz plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon mixed spice
11oz mixed currants, sultanas, cranberries
2oz marmalade
2-3tbsp milk

This was mixed together like an all in one, starting off with the eggs, sugar, flour, salt, spice and margarine in a bowl. All the other ingredients were placed in a food processor until the bulk of the fruit had been chopped up small (but not pureed). This mixture was then added to the bowl and beaten (with electric whisk) until all ingredients had been incorporated (but not over worked). The mixture was then spooned into 12 muffin cases, and a large hazel nut sized nugget of marizpan was poked into the centre of each cake.

The cakes were then baked for about 25 minutes in a preheated fan oven at 170 oC.

After being left to cool on a wire rack the tops were brushed with warm apricot jam and a marzipan flower and fluffy chick were added.

 

So all in all not too much crafting to write about - may be I’ll get more time next month....


Scrappage put together using Serif Craft Artist and my own Easter Digikit...