Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes!!

This afternoon i finally got around to make Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes! I LOVE ferrero rocher chocolates so when i found this recipe on hot to eat a cupcakes blog (found here http://howtoeatacupcake.net/2009/01/ferrero-rocher-mini-cupcakes.html) i knew i would one day have to make them!!

Cupcake recipe adapted from Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman
Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes
Makes 36 regular cupcakes

3 1/2 cups plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
225g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 3/4 cups Nutella (i ended up using a whole large jar and most of a small jar including the filling!)
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules

Ganache
400g semi-sweet or milk chocolate ( i used half and half depends on your taste)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts

Filling
36 whole dry roasted hazelnuts
Left over nutella

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius . Line muffin pan with paper or foil liners ( i used gold foil to give the ferrero rocher feel).
2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes) . Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add 1 3/4 cups of Nutella and blend thoroughly. (Warm the milk in the microwave. Stir in instant coffee until disolved.) Alternately add flour mixture and milk, blending well after each addition (Don't overmix this makes them tough! Blend only until no traces of flour remain.)
4. Using a ice cream scoop (or spoon if you dont have an ice cream scoop) , fill each cup with batter. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
5. When cupcakes are cool, use a round icing tip to remove part of the centre of the cupcake. Fill them with the remaining Nutella and push a hazelnut (whole) in the centre.
6. Make the ganache. Put chocolate chips and cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium hear for for 2-3 minutes, depending on your microwave. Stir gently with a rubber spatula. Heat for 40-50 more seconds. Stir until well blended. Let sit about 30 minutes, or until ganache is spreadable. Stir in chopped hazelnuts and spread on cupcakes.

This is what the final cupcake looked like!! SOOOOO YUMMY!!! A MUST FOR FERRERO LOVERS LIKE MYSELF!

Sewing, sewing & more sewing!!

Yesterday, my little girl woke up with an upset tummy and i knew that we wouldn't be heading out anywhere all day so i set myself up for a day of sewing!! I thought i would try and sew the dolls clothes that i had previously promised the girls! They were excited and so off i went! I decided to make some little jeans with ruffles on the bottom!! Lets just say as a complete novice sewer they took a lot longer than im sure they are meant to but i think i am learning lots and lots about all the functions of my sewing machine and i am sure thats what its all about right!!!

Anyway here is a pic of the two pairs of jeans i ended up making for my girls dolls! Dont look too close they are definitely not close to perfect! In face the edges are quiet messy really BUT they look like jeans and they fit the dolls and most of all the girls were very happy!!!!! So now my next project is...yup...you guessed it!! TOPS!! I just hope they arent too hard!! I will update with pics of the matching tops this week hopefully once i get back into some more sewing!



And one of my little girl who wasnt feeling so well and fell asleep on the couch mid morning! She looked so peaceful



Im off to bake some ferrero rocher cupcakes so ill be back later to share pics!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Our fun, yet exhausting day...


After not leaving the house yesterday due to the extreme heat outside and my need to sew today i thought i would take the girls out for some fun! We went to the shopping centre which had Strawberry Shortcake there for the school holiday activity. The girls got to give her a big cuddle! The girls, especially Caitlyn have been big fans of Strawberry Shortcake for years so they were very excited



They got to decorate a cupcake each (they were given some frosting and some lollies to decorate with)



After decorating the cupcakes and cuddling strawberry shortcake again the girls and i went and had some lunch with my sister Kez who works there! I had told them before we got to the food court no maccas then as soon as they saw aunty kez she said lets go get some maccas!!! Got to love sisters :-) It was great to see her for lunch and lovely to spend some time chatting!

We then went up to my dads and had a big swim in his pool and played for a while



And this was the end result of the day


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

First time at sewing!

Well, today i finally used my sewing machine, that my lovely hubby bought me for Christmas! It was another one of my ingenious ideas, i think i will start sewing! Yes it was that simple in my mind! However after sewing ALL DAY today and still not finishing my first ever sewing project (an apron) i have learnt its not that easy!!

Here are a few pics of my WIP!

This is my setup at the kitchen table, halfway through the days work


This is the pattern i am attempting to make. Notice it says its SO EASY!! Ha!


This is how the apron looks after todays effort! I need to add the pockets and also i think i will add some ric rac or some other sort of embellishment to finish it off!


Here's to more sewing and getting quicker at it!!!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

My little scrapbooker...



Hannah (7), got a scrapbook kit from santa and has pretty much been asking every day since Christmas if she can sit down and scrapbook.  I finally got around to printing the photos for her from her party so that she could complete the scrapbook.  The smile on her face says it all! I think we will be doing more of this...(I know mummy certainly has been neglecting hers!!)


I might even be a rock star....


Yesterday my girl Eleisha, who is 3 years old was dressed up in Hannah's "Hannah Montana" wig and guitar with the headpiece on singing loudly and knowingly to each of the songs! Was a very cute and very typical Eleisha moment and i thought i would catch it with photos, who knows, one day she might be my very own rock star!!

Hope you get a smile out of this!



Well its been AGES since i last blogged!! I have for some reason found the interest and time to want to start blogging again, so lets see how successful i am this time around!  Maybe its just the new year, you know, all the resolutions you make and good intentions you have!  I certainly have plenty of those.

Some of my "resolutions" for this year 2009, are to make more time to do the things that i want to do (crafty mainly!), to be more organisined (two kids at school this year I'm thinking this might be a good res to stick to!!), and to eat much more healthily as a family (more so just knowing what is going into our bodies, less processed and more FRESH!).  I am sure i have more than those, but they are the ones i can think of at this late hour of the night!

Anyway i am going to leave it there for now, i am going to post a couple of photos from the past few days!

More blogging soon...(fingers crossed!)