Happy New Year everyone! I am glad to be back after a few weeks away from my “home on the web” and thought we would ease into the year with an easy muffin recipe that I know you will love.
Bran and fruit muffins
Category: Snacks
Recipe round up: 10 fabulous edible Christmas gift ideas
Happy Friday! Christmas is just around the corner (eek!) and if the thought of hitting the shopping malls this weekend fills you with dread then this post is just for you.
Personally, I love getting edible foodie gifts. But more than that, I love making and giving foodie gifts. Who doesn’t enjoy receiving a parcel of delicious goodies that have been beautifully packaged and made with love? So today I have rounded up some of my most popular gifting recipes that I am sure you and your specials will love too. And without further ado, here they are:
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A Train Party
October was a rather hectic but very exciting month here at Cupcakes and Couscous HQ. Chaos continued to reign on the home front as renovations went on (we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, hooray!), my sister visited us from the U.K (double hooray!) and we had a couple of special family birthdays – my Dad, and my youngest James who turned two. He is completely obsessed with all things train related and so it was a no brainer as to what his party theme would be. I thought that this week I would share a few snaps from the day, perhaps they will give you a few ideas if you have a train party coming up.
The decor was heavily inspired by a couple of pics I saw on good old Pinterest. There were tons of train party related pins as you can imagine, such fantastic ideas that I probably would not have thought of myself. I went for a blue and green colour scheme and chose the following ideas:
- the snacks were served in a train. I painted disposable foil oven trays with blue and green craft paint, stuck black paper circles on the sides for wheels and strung them together with twine. I then used old cardboard boxes to make a train to go at the front (decorated in blue and green of course), lined the carriages with blue and green tissue paper and filled them up with delicious eats.
- a cardboard “birthday crossing” sign with paper lights underneath, and another sign that said “Platform 2”.
- “Thanks for chugging by” party packs displayed in an open suitcase marked “Baggage Claim”.
- the children played pass-the-parcel with train songs as the music.
- A train craft where the children could glue their own train pictures using shapes that I had pre-cut and cotton wool. (Apologies for the terrible photo!)
For the food I served a selection of nibbles – fruit and bran muffins, pretzels, crudités, train shaped sugar cookies, fresh fruit, cheese and train crossing biscuits made out of wafer biscuits. It looked rather sweet served up in the train carriages.
The main event of course, was the cake. I decided to make a simple round cake decorated with fondant cut outs and topped with a fondant train cake topper. It worked out great as I was able to make all of the fondant goodies a few days ahead of the party (less stress on the day!). I baked the cakes the day before the party, then on the morning of the big day I simply whipped up a batch of icing, iced the cake and popped all the decorations on.
Here are a few more details on how I put the cake together:
- I baked two 22cm vanilla cakes. I levelled off the bottom cake to make it easier to stack the other on on top, but I left the top one rounded to give it a “hilly” appearance.
- The cake was iced with a thin layer of pale blue buttercream icing.
- When it came to making the fondant train I referred to this easy tutorial, adding my own touches here and there.
- I also used fondant to make the train tracks (I used a sharp knife to score lines into them to give them a more woody look), clouds, “tunnels” with rocks around them, apple trees and hills.
- I finished the cake off by piping a little bit of green buttercream icing around the base to look like grass.
If you have a train party planned for your little one then hopefully this has given you a bit of inspiration. If you have hosted a train party lately I would love to hear about it!
Brown butter cupcake brownies
I have a lovely cousin in the U.K. (hi Jules!) and every so often she sends me scrumptious recipes that she finds on the web. A few weeks ago she sent me this link and frankly, if you are going to put the words cupcake and brownie in the same sentence then you are guaranteed to get my attention…I had to try the recipe immediately! It was so darn delicious that I simply had to share it with all of you too.
Sticky lemon and poppy seed muffins
Over the last year I have worked on some very interesting and fun campaigns, and I feel lucky to be able to do this from home. However, this work-from-home scenario is not without its challenges, chiefly in the form of two very busy (but adorable of course) and engaging little humans.
Almond and apricot thumb cookies
This recipe takes me straight back to my childhood. Thumbs cookies were one of the first cookies I mastered on my own and there was many a Saturday afternoon when I proudly presented a batch to the family to be enjoyed with afternoon tea. I do not make them nearly as often these days but they are still a favourite and special because I associate them with happy memories of learning to bake.
Chocolate sandwich biscuits
So today I am grateful for two things. 1.) That I managed to get a blog post together for this week, and 2.) that I am able to string a coherent sentence together. It has been a rough couple of days you see, with the entire family being struck down with an assortment of germs and lurgies. Currently my kitchen counter looks more like a pharmacy than anything else and we are all lacking in the sleep department which is less than ideal. The timing was also unlucky as we had planned to go away this past weekend for a wedding. We did manage one night away in the end but we were not on best form. Never mind, grumble grumble.
Classic chocolate chip cookies
So how were the holidays everyone? Did you have fun? Did the Easter bunny come to visit? The last two weeks have gone quickly – holiday outings and play dates, the build up to Easter and of course lots of egg hunting fun and family time over the long Easter weekend made for a busy time. Then last week we went on a family holiday with friends where we headed to Montagu for a few days. (Can you believe that in all my thirty five years this was the first time I had ever visited Montagu Springs?) We love a good road trip, although sadly the littlest of our troupe decided that he was not enjoying the long drive and expressed his disapproval in a rather loud and shouty manner for much of the way! Other than that little hiccup the trip was loads of fun and turned out to be a perfect spot to take the family. All in all it was a very special holiday and I can’t help feeling a bit sad that it is over. For now, it is back to school runs, packed lunches and the regular term time routine – onward and forward!
