Easter Island cupcakes

So i found this fantastic Easter Island Moai head ice cube tray and thought it would be really fun to make use it to make chocolates to decorate cupcakes and I am so glad I did. You can get your own on Amazon.  I thought these were perfect at Easter time as a slightly quirky take on the holiday and bringing back a little excitement of tropical island, summer holiday memories since the weather is starting to pick up.... was starting to pick up...we've gone from 24degrees to -3degrees in the space of a week in the UK

I made a really simple bog standard sponge cake and a simple green butter cream for this recipe.  I did make a slight mistake with the Maoi heads in that I didn't fully shake and tap down the hot chocolate so some air bubbles formed (see pics below). Its not perfect but I kind of liked the effect, as it made the chocolates look more like the weather beaten mysterious heads of Easter Island.
The heads are very heavy (like the real things) so although mine held up just with a thick butter cream, you may want to consider pushing a cocktail sick into them for extra support.
The little pink flowers are just a small bit of fondant I had left over and I used a tiny little cutter to get some pretty blooms. I think they look like Sakura flowers and a nice little nod to another great spring which I adore - the cherry blossom festival in Japan. 

 I'm thinking of trying a mojito cupcake using a Routin-1883  syrup I have in mojito flavor or passion fruit  (again with a flavored syrup) and Malibu flavor cupcake decorated this way to really get the summer vibes going!

My icing skills still need improving but over all I'm very happy with them! They are a great quirky alternative to all that messy chocolate/shreadies bird nest ideas you find at Easter and no need to waste precious mini eggs!

A little note on Easter Island.

Easter Island is a fantastic little speck of  volcanic rock flung miles and miles away from the coast of Chile. Its historical inhabitants built thousands of the Maoi heads all over the island and seemed to deforest the whole island in order to do so, which lead to wide spread famine and the near eradication of life on the rock.  
Easter Island is certainly on my top 5 places I would love to visit! 

Knit for Battersea Dogs home.

Photo by Laura O'Farrell/Battersea Dogs home

Its going to become evident that there are a few things I hold dear in life. Baking and knitting are loves of mine, but really and truly my heart is owned by a dog. I am a fool for them, I'm the person who will stop traffic and risk a bite to save a stray, as I type I've let my own dog curl into my lap in such a way that i can only type a single letter at a time with one hand, but do I care?  

So I came across this story in the Guardian I just knew it was going on this blog straight away and straight to the top of my project list.

Battersea dogs home  is in central London  and cares for literally thousands of unwanted and unloved dogs every single year.
They have just launched a campaign for us knitters of the British Isles to knit blankets for these poor dogs and show them the love all dogs deserve. Many of the dogs do very poorly in kennels and become stressed or require extra T.L.C after vet care, these dogs are often found fosters homes and this is where our blankets come in.  The idea is that these blankets become little comforters for lost, homeless pooches to take with them to foster homes and then when they do find their forever home they take them with them as a little token of stability and normality to help settle in.

The pattern is by the simply brilliant Lauren O'Farrell of Whodunnknit and is avalible for a free download.

The pattern is quite simple, and involves plain and paw print design knitted squares joined together (I'm sure if your not ready for paw prints a plain blanket will not be turned down) Its also not a terribly expensive knit requiring around 125g of acrylic DK wool.   The pattern is available at the above links but I'm going to pop it here too.

You will need -

• Yarn: A total of 125g of colourful acrylic DK in as many colours as you like (each square uses about 5g of yarn)
• 4mm knitting needles
• One tapestry needle to sew squares together
• One lonely dog to give blanket to (Battersea will provide these for you. They have plenty)
• Comforting canine thoughts to think while you knit (very important)

Abbreviations: K = knit. P = purl.

Finished size: approx 50cm x 50cm (20" square) Just add more squares for a larger blanket.

Photo by Laura O'Farrell/Battersea Dogs home

Skills you will need: Knitting. Purling. Very basic sewing up for joining squares. 

The Purly Paw Print Patchwork Blanket is made up of 25 squares, knit in simple knit and purl. Ten plain squares, five tiny paw print squares, five medium paw print squares, and five HUGE paw print squares. Sew them all together et voila! A comfort blanket for a homeless hound who is feeling ruff...

Plain squares

Cast on 23 sts
Row 1. K across
Row 2. K across
Row 3. K across
Row 4. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Row 5 and all odd numbered rows. K across
Row 6 and all even numbered rows to row 38. Repeat row 4
Row 35 to 37. K across

Bind off. Make ten of these squares.

Small paw squares

Cast on 22 sts
Row 1. K across
Row 2. K across
Row 3. K across
Row 4. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Row 5 and all odd numbered rows. K across
Row 6 and all even numbered rows to row 10. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Rows 12 and 14. K2, p6, k2, p2, k2, p6, k2
Row 16. K2, p3, k2, p8, k2, p3, k2
Row 18. K2, p3, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p3, k2
Row 20. K2, p6, k6, p6, k2
Row 22. K2, p5, k8, p5, k2
Row 24. K2, p6, k6, p6, k2
Row 26 and all even rows to row 34. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Rows 35 to 37. K across

Bind off. Make five of these squares.

Medium paw squares

Cast on 22 sts
Row 1. K across
Row 2. K across
Row 3. K across
Row 4. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Row 5 and all odd numbered rows. K across
Row 6 and all even numbered rows to row 8. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Row 10. K2, p6, k2, p2, k2, p6, k2 
Rows 12. K2, p5, k3, p2, k3, p5, k2
Rows 14. (K2, p2) across
Row 16. K2, p2, k3, p8, k3, p2, k2
Row 18. K2, p3, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p3, k2
Row 20. K2, p3, k, p2, k6, p2, k, p3, k2
Row 22. K2, p5, k8, p5, k2
Row 24. K2, p4, k10, p4, k2
Row 26. K2, p3, k12, p3, k2
Row 28, k2, p5, k8, p5, k2
Row 30. K2, p7, k4, p7, k2
Row 32 and all even rows to row 34. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Rows 35 to 37. K across

Bind off. Make five of these squares.

Large paw squares

Cast on 22 sts
Row 1. K across
Row 2. P across
Row 3. K across
Row 4. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Row 5 and all odd numbered rows. K across
Row 6. K2, p5, k2, p4, k2, p5, k2
Rows 8 and 10. K2, p4, k4, p2, k4, p4, k2
Row 12. K2, p2, k, p2, k2, p4, k2, p2, k, p2, k2
Row 14. K2, p, k3, p10, k3, p, k2
Row 16. K2, p, k3, p2, k6, p2, k3, p, k2
Row 18. K2, p2, k2, p, k8, p, k2, p2, k2
Row 20. K2, p5, k8, p5, k2
Row 22. K2, p4, k10, p4, k2
Row 24. K2, p3, k12, p3, k2
Row 26 and 30. K2, p2, k14, p2, k2
Row 28. K2, p3, k12, p3, k2
Row 30. K2, p4, k10, p4, k2
Row 32. K2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Rows 34 to 37. K across

Bind off. Make five of these squares.

Finishing

1. Darn in all the ends. Sigh. 
2. Spend ages arranging the blanket squares in any order you like. Oooo pretty! 
3. Make yourself a cup of tea and put a good film on. You're going to be sewing squares together for a while. 
4. Sew squares together. 
5. Keep sewing. 
6. You're done. Woo hoo!

Once you are done you can either take it over to Battersea yourself, they are open to the public everyday or alliteratively pop it in the post to the following address.

Dog Blanket Appeal
Battersea Dogs & Cats Home 
4 Battersea Park Road 
London
SW8 4AA

Finally do follow Battersea Dog and Cat home and Laura O'Farrell on Twitter

I scream, you scream we all scream for.....

I made these a while ago for my sisters birthday and thought I'd pull them out for my new blog. The recipe is orginally from Bake and Decorate by Fiona Cairns . Its a lovely big book full of pictures and instructions on how to make even the dullest cake a stunning work of art. 


These are sweet little cupcakes in disguise as ice creams!  



They are so simple to make and yet so effective, sure to get the wow factor at any occasion that requires cupcakes (read any occasion at all then). These were loved by everyone from my 90 year old grandma to the 3 year old little boy who lives next door 

To make this recipe you will need the following ingredients:


For the sponge 
120 g / 4 oz self raising flour

120 g / 4 oz butter - softened

120 g / 4 oz caster sugar

2 medium eggs

For the butter cream

• 140g/5oz butter softened
• 280g/10oz icing sugar 
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• few drops food colouring and or flavoring
  
  Presentation 
  
  
  Flat bottomed ice cream cones available in most supermarkets
  Sprinkles 
  Flake chocolate bars
  
  (makes around 15 cones)

Method. 

Sift the flour and baking powder together, twice preferably

Beat in the soft butter, eggs and sugar

Mix for a couple of minutes until smooth and slightly pale
Carefully add the mixture to the ice cream cones, (i found it best to use a piping bag to prevent any sponge mix burning on the sides) roughly fill them half way up.

Bake in the oven for around 20 mins at 180c or until a skewer comes out clean. (yes you bake them in the cones. I know it seems weird but trust me it works) 

Take them out the oven and allow to cool! 

mix together the butter and icing sugar with a little dash of milk to soften. separate the mixture into different bowls and add your choice of flavour and coloring. then simply pipe your icing onto the cooled cupcakes to look like ice cream and decorate accordingly. 

You really can go to town with these cakes, any cake and frosting combo would work. I chose a classic vanilla, mint choc chip and a cherry swirl (although the swirl bit didn't quite work). Id love to try an tangy lemon and rich chocolate fudge next time though.  

Also please follow me on Twitter for more little snippets of joy