Hi-
de-hi campers.... well, the weekend disappeared awfully fast I have to say.
D left on Friday just after lunch for his boys weekend away. By the time I picked J up from school, and called past my Nans to borrow a cake stand, it was time to help
Rach get set up at the hall for Saturday's crop...and I didn't leave there until about 8pm, by which time J needed to get to bed. I spent the evening making cupcakes for the next day (recipes to follow, as requested!), and fell into bed at about 1am! Oops.
Saturday morning I got up at 7.30am to put frosting on the cupcakes, cos they're just not as pretty without it, are they?! Then drop J at Mums about 9am, and off to the crop...yeah!
I have to say that I LOVED the classes we did on Saturday, although I was feeling a bit ordinary (have had a stuffed-in-the-head
headcold thing since last Thursday). Our layout in the morning was orange and purple (I know, I can hear you saying 'what the...' ), but it really does look very cool. I will post a pic once I have scanned my layout at work today.
Edited: pic below...
I rolled out the cupcakes after morning class, and then after stuffing our faces we literally rolled into our afternoon class.
The afternoon class was the "All You Can
CrEATe Card Buffet".... what a totally awesome class. All the goodies you need in your kit to make 6 cards, with instructions, and a table FULL of lovely
prima flower goodness and all the
glimmermist a girl can handle! I got 14 cards made by the time I went home. Sweet! Likewise, I will post some pics once I have scanned them at work :)
It was really nice to meet and talk to
Nic Howard in person. Strangely, you kind of feel like you know someone already when you have read their blog on a regular basis, even though you really don't. She is such a cool, laid back chick, and it was just awesome to have her in
Timmers for our classes. Lets hope she wants to come back again some day! Maybe I can bribe her with cupcakes,
teeheehee!
Now I have to say that by the end of the crop, there was not a cupcake to be seen. And I received SEVERAL requests for the recipes, so here goes:
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Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes
60g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 c water
90g butter, softened
1 c brown sugar (firmly packed)
2 eggs
2/3 c self-raising flour
2 T cocoa
1/3 c ground almonds
(you can buy this stuff in little 70g pkts from the supermarket where you find raisins etc)
100g frozen raspberries
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C
2. Put chocolate and water into a saucepan . Over a low heat, stir until smooth. Set aside.
3. Place eggs, sugar and butter in a large bowl.
4. Beat with an electric beater until just combined.
5. Sift in flour and cocoa, add ground almonds. Stir to combine.
6. Next, stir in the warm chocolate mixture.
7. Finally, fold in the raspberries.
8. Divide the mixture into cupcake papers
(I use the straight-sided ones that you can use without using your muffin tins, just bake them on an oven tray)
9. Bake for 40-45mins until firm to touch.
10. Eat!!!! Yum yum yum!
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Caramel Mudcake Cupcakes
100g white chocolate, coarsely chopped
125g butter, coarsely chopped
2/3 c brown sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup
2/3 c milk
1 c plain flour
1/3 c self-raising flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
2. Combine chocolate, butter, sugar, syrup and milk in a saucepan.
3. Stir over a low heat until melted and combined
(I had a few small bits of white choc that just would not combine - not a problem)
4. Allow to cool for about 15 mins.
5. Sift the flours and mix into caramel mixture.
6. Next, stir in the egg.
7. Divide the mixture into cupcake papers.
8. Bake for 30 mins.
9. EAT!!!!
PS - These cupcakes are not your usual light and fluffy cupcakes. Being mudcake ones, they are delicious, but do resemble small windowless buildings, and are very filling. You have been warned!
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Buttercream Frosting
150g butter
250g icing sugar
1 t vanilla
2 t hot water
NB: For the caramel cupcakes, I used caramel essence instead of vanilla, and for the chocolate cupcakes I used 2T of cocoa powder instead of the vanilla. This frosting is very versatile!
Beat together butter and icing sugar until light and creamy. Once well combined, add vanilla (or caramel, or cocoa etc) and hot water. Beat again until smooth.
Best piped on top of cupcakes, and decorated with cutesy sprinkles!
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Well, that's it from me for this post, I will update it once I get my photos sorted. I have another post to do today (when I get the chance) about what D has been up to. In the meantime, I'd better go make some lunches and get to work!
Toodles, B x
This last one (above) is my favourite for the weekend. I am SO not throwing out any old jeans anymore, they are being chopped into shreds for future use, ha ha ha!