Valentines Day // Mini Honey Yogurt Cakes

 

So, tomorrow is Valentines Day! I plan on painting my nails tonight with red glitter nail polish in celebration. Apart from that, I don't have too many exciting plans. I have pulled a mini lamb roast out of the freezer though & I think these mini honey yoghurt cakes will be a nice accompaniment for pudding.

 

I got the idea for these from my Mum - I went to visit my family in Dunedin last weekend & Mum had made this amazing lemon yoghurt cake for afternoon tea - it was so tasty!

 

I changed the lemon juice to honey, added some vanilla paste & baked these in baking paper lined ramekins. They came out as cute little moist cakes which I dressed up with rose syrup & chopped pistachios with some yoghurt on the side (middle eastern inspiration is my favourite!)

 

The recipe is so easy, so I hope you give these a go!

 

 

Mini Honey Yogurt Cakes

3/4 C White Sugar

1 Egg

1/2 C Oil (I used extra virgin olive oil but canola is good too)

1/4 t Salt

1/2 C Yoghurt (Greek or plain unsweetened)

1 1/2 T Liquid Honey

1/2 t Vanilla Paste (or 1 t vanilla)

1 C Self Raising Flour

 

Heat oven to 180 degrees celsius & grease & line the sides & bases of 6 small ramekins (or a cheesecake tray with removable bases)

Mix sugar, eggs, oil & salt with an electric beater or whisk until thick.

Mix in yoghurt, honey & vanilla paste.

Fold n flour until just mixed.

Scoop into tins (the mixture is quite runny - I used an ice cream scoop)

Bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees, then drop the oven temperature to 150 degrees & continue cooking the cakes for approximately 15-20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cake rack to cool completely.

Serve with rose syrup poured over (or more honey) plain yoghurt & chopped pistachios.

 

Serves 6

 

**To make a lemon version, omit the honey & vanilla paste & add 1 1/2 T lemon juice & the grated rind of 1 lemon. Serve with yoghurt & blueberries.

 

These are so yummy & stay good for 2-3 days (if they last that long!) I really want to go out & find a cheesecake tray now so I can make a whole heap of them...

 

What do you have planned for Valentines Day?

 

Kc



Business Time // Southern Crafters Market

Yes...this post title does sound familiar!! I have just attended another Southern Crafters market here in Invercargill. It wasn't as busy as the first one but it was still pretty good!!

I thought I'd share some photos of my stall. I was really proud of it this time, I put a lot of thought into my display and  think it paid off! I ordered a banner off Vsitaprint and am stoked with how it came out - its huge! I got lots of nice comments so that was cool.

I made 8 flavours of cupcakes (lemon blossom, candy floss, double choc, carrot cake, malty milkshake, rainbow vanilla, peachy bellini and cherry bomb) a chocolate raspberry brownie & gluten free blueberry & lemon friands. Yum!

I made all my business cards myself, as well as the price lists and the cupcake menu's (I'm so pleased with the menu's! They work really well!)

Another exciting thing - my lovely friend Laura made me a website!! So check out Sequin Corner Cakes on the web - www.sequincornercakes.com - she's added all my prices and photos which is pretty cool!

Do you guys have any little businesses on the side? Do you have a stall at a local market?

Business Time // Southern Crafters Market

A couple of weeks ago I had a stall at one of the biggest markets down South - The Southern Crafters Market. It was held in the Velodrome which was pretty cool! I spent the 2 weeks before the market getting everything ready - planning my cupcake flavours, practising my stall set up and buying all the little bits and pieces I needed for the weekend. 

I was up the Friday night before the market until 4am baking and decorating cupcakes and then 2am the Saturday night! It was well worth it though, I managed to sell everything I made and I ran out of business cards and price lists to give to people. I got some awesome feedback about my stall set up too, so even though I was a bit of a Zombie by the end of it I was feeling pretty happy!!

I'm loving the community feel of the markets down here, everyone is so friendly and helpful (I'm always running out of change and asking people to swap me all their coins!)

I hope you've all been having a good month or so, I'm hoping to be able to fit some outfit posts in soon now that it's almost spring and the days are getting longer!

Business Time! // Sequin Corner Market Stall

I mentioned a little while ago I was taking part in some local markets selling cupcakes. So far I've had a stall at 3 monthly markets and it's going pretty good!! (please ignore the unironed table cloth!!)

I thought I would share some photos from the market I had a stall at today. It was a quiet day, although with the temperature still at -3C at 12pm I can understand why people didn't want to venture out! I had 7 cupcake flavours today - Candy Floss, Pumpkin Spice, Double Choc, Orange Sherbet, Banoffee and Peanut Butter, plus a chocolate raspberry brownie. Yum!

The hardest part of having a stall has been figuring out how to display everything nicely. I love stalls that are dotted with different cake stands, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on them plus drive them around all over the place. From my days as a Chef at a cafe I know how the Health Officials like all food to be covered so when I found these plastic stands I thought they would be perfect! Add in some cheap plastic food trays and I'm good to go.

I designed all my packaging labels and used my home printer to print them all out. One day when I'm rolling in dough (heh) I'll probably get stickers made but these will do for now!

I hope you enjoyed this little sneak-peak into my cupcake venture. I have a couple more markets this month, including a big 2 day one which should be interesting! In 2 weeks I'll be going road tripping to Lumsden (about an hour from Invercargill) to have a stall at a market there, then again in august to Arrowtown (near Queenstown) so I'll be all over the place!

The Cupcake Files // Candy Floss Cupcakes

Since I moved to Invercargill I had been thinking about having a cupcake stall at a local market. At least once a week for the last few months I've been coming up with & trialling new cupcake flavours. I thought I would share some of them on my blog, because it is a big part of my life now and this blog is a little slice of my life, right?

I have decided not to share my exact cupcake recipe. I know that seems kind of mean, but I have adapted one I found & turned it into my own recipe which produces the type of cupcake I want to be known for. I've learnt some tips though that I'll share;

1. Don't over mix! It's the same idea as muffins, if you over mix they will be dry & tough.

2. You don't have to bake a filling into the cupcake. Cook it, scoop out the centre & fill with jam, frosting, curd or cream - yum!

3. An ice cream scoop is your friend - you will end up with evenly sized cupcakes - uniform is good!

So these are my candy floss cupcakes. All you have to do is...

a) Make up a basic vanilla cupcake mix. 

b) Before baking add approx 2 cups of candy floss - pulled into small tufts. Gently fold through -  don't mix until whole batter is pink, just until you have swirls of pink through it.

c) Bake cupcakes as per recipe.

d) Frost with candy floss frosting detailed below.

Candy Floss Frosting

115g Butter, softened

1 t Vanilla

60ml Milk

500g Icing Sugar
1 C Candy Floss

Add butter, vanilla & half of icing sugar to a bowl. Place candy floss in a separate bowl & pour milk over - this will melt it. Add candy floss milk to other frosting ingredients & beat until fluffy. Add remaining icing sugar & beat through. Fill a piping bag with frosting & pipe onto cupcakes. I used a 2D tip for these cupcakes.

I recently made some of these for a 7 year olds birthday party! I sprinkled them with a little edible glitter to give them some sparkle. What do you think?

 

Life Lately // New Years Eve Hens Party

I thought I would finally post these! I just got them off one of the girls who had her camera at the hen’s night we had for my friend on New Years Eve. 

Yummy strawberry cupcakes & carrot cake cupcakes both with cream cheesse icing

The day before was one of the Bridesmaids birthdays (my long-time friend!) so I made a double batch of strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing and we had half for her birthday dinner and half for the hens night. I also made some carrot cake cupcakes as I knew the Bride liked carrot cake!

The Brides Sister-in-Law & me! (I'm wearing my lighthouse dress I made)

The completed bendy wax-man

We spent the afternoon playing games, including 20 questions about the Groom the Bride had to answer & making a man out of this bendy wax stuff. We all had to make a limb and an accessory for him. He looked pretty good when the Bride stuck him all together!

 All the girls at dinner

After the games and snacking on some yummy fruit & vege platters, we headed off to a local restaurant – Salt – for dinner. I played sober driver so the other girls could have a drink. After a tasty meal we drove back to where we are staying, had a couple of drinks and cupcakes for dessert and got ready to go to town for the fireworks at midnight! I wore my black sparkley lace dress I had made & my comfortable wedges which made walking so much easier!

Me with my halo at a jaunty angle & my prize from pass the parcel!

Group photo before we left for town

We only ended up staying in town for an hour or so, before the Brides brothers gave us a lift back to where we were staying – pretty cool!

The next day I drove one of the girls to the airport to catch her flight and then headed back to the house where we devoured the rest of the cupcakes & lay around watching movies until late afternoon.

It was a fun weekend! I love the group photos of all of us, we were so busy giggling because it was windy and our dresses were going everywhere!

Outfit Post // Pink at the Races

Yes, I still do outfit posts on my blog! It has been a while though. It’s been a busy few months settling in to my new house, getting used to working by myself from home and planning, photographing and writing my ’12 Days of Christmas’  posts. Phew!

Anyway, this is the outfit I wore to The Invercargill races in the weekend for Andrews work do. It was sooo hot!! It was such a fun day, we were divided up into groups of 5, we put in $20 each and we all picked 1 horse each per race and then put down our 5 horses as a $10 trifecta bet. The group I was in had 3 wins in the first 3 races! By the end of the day we were up $60 on our original group total, so put down $30 on each of the last 2 races. Unfortunately our winning streak was over! But we left with the $20 we started with so it’s all good.

 Dress - Made by me, Pink Fascinator - Spotlight, White Clutch - Diva,  

 White Heels - No. 1 Shoe Warehouse

I whipped up this dress on my sewing machine last Thursday and Friday night. It’s the same pattern as the dress I made for my sewing class, but I free-handed the heart cut out for the back and closed the top piece with 3 little metal closures. I read an article a while ago about a woman who was making costumes for a local event. She said that when she was young in the 1960’s, she would sew a dress on the Saturday to wear to a dance being held that night. I love that idea! Making a new dress for a special occasion. So now I have great plans for dresses for future events...

I hope you all had a great weekend! The weather here has been amazing lately. Invercargill is surprising me! Thank you for all your nice comments on my ’12 Days of Christmas’ posts! I’ve loved reading all your comments, and I hope some of the 50 or so viewers that have visited each day lately have got some new, cheap DIY ideas for their Christmas this year.

Tomorrow night I’m off to Dunedin to watch the Phoenix play soccer and go to a wedding on the weekend. I’m looking forward to it! 1 1/2 weeks until Christmas – woohoo!! 

6th Day of Christmas // DIY Dog Pull Toy

You can’t forget the family dog at Christmas!! I have a Chocolate Labrador called Hershey, she was born on the 4^th of July (cool huh?) last year so she’s about 16 months old. While I love her to bits, I don’t love her amazing ability to destroy any toy we give her!! (Or shoe, or cushion, or sock...)

When we took her to obedience training a while ago one of the women there had a plaited bunch of sheets as a reward toy for her collie. So instead of wasting money on a toy from a store, I’m going to make her these from now on. 

While I could have kept it for Christmas, I love her reaction when I give her a new toy so I couldn’t help giving it to her straight away. She galloped around the house with it, slobbered all over it and dropped it in my lap for me to throw for her. Too cute! (Also, it’s still in one piece so far!)

Just follow this tutorial to make your dog a special pull toy for Christmas out of old sheets or material you have lying around!

You will need;

Old Sheets or material scraps

Fabric Scissors

1. Make a snip in your material about 2.5cm (1 inch) from the edge. (I made the snips in the long edge of my sheet, meaning the short edge was the length of my strips)

2. Rip material strip off main piece of material.

3. Cut the strip in half.

4. Repeat process until you’ve ripped 9 long strips, making 18 half-strips

5. Divide the strips into 3 groups of 6. (I had one all pink, one all patterned and 1 a mixture)

6. Place all strips together and tie a knot at one end and pull it tight.

7. Plait the 3 groups of strips together.

8. Tie another knot at the other end, pull it tight and trim ends to make them even. 

Easy as! You could make one with less strips for a smaller dog, or keep the pieces the full length to make one for a big dog. Hershey is pretty small for a Labrador so this was a perfect size for her. She certainly enjoys playing with it!

Like all of my '12 Days of Christmas' DIY tutorials, there is a PDF version of this blog post here. Simpy click on the link, print out the tutorial and get to work. Easy as that. Feedback appreciated!

Make sure to check out the rest of my “12Days of Christmas” posts for more awesome decorating ideas, recipes, and gift ideas!

Guest Post // A Tea Party

Today I'm guest posting for Rosie over at Such Stuff as Dreams are Made on. She is holding a Tea Party over on her blog to recognise Mental Health Day which is the 10th October. I certainly think talking helps when it comes to depression as I've had my own battle with it in the past . So join in! The party goes all week. Here's a link for more information about Mental Health Day. 

Pop on over and check out my tasty Mini Baked Doughnuts recipe. Yum, yum! I love doughnuts. Every time I go to Melbourne I always go to a doughnut shop. We don't have them here! Well, not in Dunedin or Invercargill anyway. Now I can make them at home! Waaaay better....


I hope your week is going well!! I had a terrible morning yesterday trying to finish off a job for work that has been stressing me out, but I'm on to a new one today so it's looking much brighter! See ya!

Outfit Post // Crochet Dreams

 Head Scarf - Salvation Arny Tay St, Crochet Top - Windsor Salvation Army,  

Black Jeans - Jay Jays, Black Ballet Flats - Kmart

 I found this top hanging on the wall at the Windsor Salvation Army Store a couple of weeks ago. One of the Shop Assistants got it down for me and I held my breath as I checked the price tag...$8. Sold!

It's quite a heavy top, although I can't wait to wear it in Summer with shorts and a bikini underneath. I went for this simple outfit to head into town to have lunch with the bf - I don't think this top needs anything complicated worn with it. You'll also notice I have a scarf in my hair! I've worn 3 of the vintage ones I own over the last week or so, the purple one, blue one and this one which is the green and pink one. Even the bf gave his seal of approval! I'm keen to add to my collection now....

I'm spending my weekend unpacking boxes and tidying up the kitchen at the new house. I've been trying to find a dresser for my sewing room for the last weeks and it's proving difficult!! I don't really want to be living out of a suitcase for much longer, 2 months is enough!

Please bear with me with all the changes I keep making to my blog, I'm trying to find something I'm happy with and a way to present my posts in a tidy and interesting way. I'm also going to get started on a few index pages, one for my recipes, outfit posts, cakes and DIY's (of which I have a few planned over the next wee while!) so I'll let you know when those are up!

Do you have any crochet clothes? What do you have planned for the weekend?