pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Are you getting Ali’s life art newsletter? Cuz it is pretty darn lovely, ya know. this week she has been talking miniBOOKS, to use her capitalisation. When I see it that way, I always want to whisper the ‘mini’ like the kid on the skittles advert, then shout the ‘books’ like I might very well be thrown out of the library. Anyway, on Monday, she challenged anyone out there to make a little something highlighting their five fabulous favourites of the moment, with the idea that we would all start posting them today. this, clearly, is mine.

my book is a tiny concertina from bazzill basics, with a fab green and pink print paper designed by rhonna farrer for autumn leaves, a label stamp designed by tia bennett for fontwerks, a daisy stamp that is the part of the current free gift with scrapbook inspirations, those classic PSX letter stamps, diddy flower jewels from heidi swapp and some pink ric-rac, ribbon and staples.

Just got a new printer as the old one has given up the ghost, so to pick my favourites, I went through my ‘favourites’ folder of photos and got excited to print them right then rather than burn them to a CD and take them to be printed. Instant gratification. I let the photos dictate the favourites, but five grabbed me pretty quickly so that worked. {My favourites shown here…favourite coffee – pret is totally winning me at the moment, favourite band – love this shy photo from the little summer gig, favourite treat – my favourite cupcake photo so far…always trying to beat it, favourite flower – all about daisies lately and the easy, gushy one…my favourite person. Aww.}

Gotta love this little book for fitting in the palm of your hand but still having mega space for journaling. The back of each panel carries a little status report on how long each thing has been a favourite, how I discovered it and how long I think it will last.

I am going to use this idea again next month when I start my kitchen-counter-album-collection. Which is fun to say, but really just means I want a little set of paper things with a home in my little kitchen. I’m working on my cupcake book, but that’s a bigger album. I want some little things on my kitchen counter. Before we had furniture (which was almost the first year I lived here…it’s a long story) I used to sit on the kitchen counter to read while I heated something in the oven (see, we are also talking pre-cooking days). Now that it’s getting cooler, I love to stay in the kitchen while things are cooking…so some reading material would be cool. Random perhaps, but fitting.

You can see more life artists at work here.

Thanks for the push, girl.

xlovesx

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it’s getting cooler (except not today) and i’m starting to embrace autumn. it’s a tough thing to do, but i’ll come around. even if the shoes are not as comfortable.

so the other day we had porridge for breakfast. which i still call oatmeal in my head but porridge aloud. ‘cause it’s england and all.

but my favourite thing about oatmeal (because it’s not the done thing with porridge, really) is stirring in chunks of brown sugar and then having the glory of eating one spoonful of hot brown sugar because the chunks haven’t melted into the oats just yet.

i wanted this in a cupcake. but i didn’t want oats in my cupcake. because a cupcake with oats to me…is a muffin. not a cupcake.

this is what i came up with. sugar rush, yes. but also yummy, we think.

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

ingredients:
250g unsalted butter
400g sugar
200g self-raising flour
100g plain flour
50g dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup double cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 180C. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.
Use a mixer or electric whisk (or lots of arm strength) to beat butter until creamy and even.
Add white sugar and mix until fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix.
Add flours, milk and cream in stages to make it easier to mix. Mix until everything is smooth and even.
Then fold in the brown sugar—do not mix, just smash it through with a spatula to mix in the giant lumps, but you still want some little pockets of sugar that isn’t mixed. That’s the oatmeal effect.
Fill liners 3/4 full and bake for about 22 minutes (more time for big cupcakes, less time for minis).

Makes 30 regular sized cupcakes.

Brown Sugar Icing

75g dark brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
150g unsalted butter
400g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix milk and brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then simmer for ten minutes to thicken. While this cooks, sit the butter in a bowl to soften.
Remove sugar mix from the heat and stir for about a minute, then add to the butter and mix in until the butter is all melted.
Add the vanilla.
Add the icing sugar in stages, mixing as you go, and tasting to see if it is too sweet for your taste.

This will be soft enough (in hot weather, too soft) to pipe but sets up quickly in the fridge. Pipe then stick them in the fridge and they will set as they are just melting down the edges of the cupcake.

After eating, be aware of crash to sugar low due in approximately 25 minutes!

xlovesx

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School is back to full swing. As of tomorrow, we will have been through the full two-week timetable with all the year groups. Two of my classes are just straight-forward knowledge seekers, which is fabulous. The other three are able but very hard work…like Bart Simpson’s attitude with Lisa Simpson’s intellect. And let me tell you, thirty Bart Simpsons in one room is a little bit knackering.

But I love this. I’m big on the And what have you learned today? (like that wasn’t already obvious) so the other day instead of asking, I handed out post-it notes. They all wrote something and posted it on the door as they left. All but one post-it was academic I learned to say “I did” and not “I done”. I learned about exposition and resolution for story writing. and the non-academic one has caused more than a few laughs from people stopping by my classroom I learned not to feed the dog next door at break time. Well, he asked why the dog was barking. So I had to explain, didn’t I?

Can you imagine how horrible it would be to be my child? I can imagine them rehearsing their answers before walking up to the front door. If I haven’t learned anything today, I bet Mum will kick me out of the house! Well…whatever makes you learn.

xlovesx

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this week: buying real furniture (as in not out of the ikea catalogue), surprise {un}birthday parties and excellent electrical storms. life is good.

so is this recipe from chocolate & zucchini. if you have never made this, you must. it is super easy and super yummy with the most amazing melty texture. fabulous.

but i also have a penchant for almond slants on things. for months i could not find any real almond extract and the artificial stuff tastes of more chemicals than a neon pink bottle of panda pop. but bless williams-sonoma. they had the real stuff, and i have been waiting to open it. so patiently.

{seriously, it is a wonderful thing there is no williams-sonoma near me. i only have a small kitchen, after all.}

Chocolate Almond Kisses

Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter
250g dark chocolate
200g sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Heat the oven to 180C. Line cupcake tray with liners. These are mini sized.
Melt chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a saucepan of hot (but not boiling) water. Keep stirring while melting.
Remove from heat and saucepan and add the sugar. Just stir it in—no need for a mixer or a whisk.
Let cool until not hot to the touch.
Stir in the almond extract.
Add eggs one by one.
Add flour and stir until the texture is even.
Fill liners just over 1/2 full.
Bake for about 12 minutes (mini), 18 (regular) or 25 (giant).
Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack.
Once cool, place in the fridge over night. Remove an hour or two before serving, and add icing.

I’ve used two different icings on these—double cream whipped up with almond extract and icing sugar or buttercream with almond extract added. Today we had pink buttercream with a few sparkly sprinkles. But these pictures were prettiest.

Love that there’s no need to use the mixer for these and the melty factor adds a punch of almond. Eeeee.

xlovesx

Comment [4]

Getting back in the swing of things. Both the school day and the shared laptop. Haven’t heard anything from the insurance folk yet. Tedious.

But this week had a Thursday! So the first Cupcake Thursday of the academic year, then.

If you ask my grandmother what kind of cake mix I would pick for my birthday every year from basically the age of 8, she would reply, ‘Yellow – with pudding in the mix.’ Or at least I think she would. Although I am sure they achieved it with lots of chemicals, there was (is?) an American cake mix that claimed on the box to have pudding inside, and it was a very, very moist yellow cake. Something you don’t always get with homemade cake recipes. So with a bit of a brainstorm, I decided custard might work. And apparently it did. They were all eaten promptly and co-worker Adam – lover of many snack foods – claimed they were a particularly good variety of cupcake. So hurrah! Custard in cupcakes is a good thing, I think.

Custard Cupcakes
{makes 12 standard size cupcakes}

Ingredients:
2 medium eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
125g unsalted butter
1 cup Bird’s Custard (I have only tried the one that comes ready mixed in the tub—don’t know if the powder would mix up the same…or if you are in the states and can’t get this, my best bet would be vanilla pudding cups.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 1 if you are not a vanilla fan)
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate soda (baking soda in the states)

Heat oven to 180C. Prepare pan with cupcake liners.
Crack eggs into mixing bowl and stir to break yolks.
Add sugar and mix with mixer or electric whisk until colour lightens.
Add butter and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy.
Fold in custard until evenly distributed.
Add flour, baking powder and soda and mix.
Fill each cupcake liner just over half full.
Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean. (I am sure other people do not use chopsticks for this. I find it more than useful, and Ariel will tell you, we really have way too many chopsticks in our kitchen anyway.)
Cool on a wire rack. Ice only when cupcakes are at room temperature.

For the icing, make up a basic buttercream by mixing unsalted butter with icing sugar and a little bit of vanilla. Then add custard a tablespoon or two at a time until you are happy with the consistency. The more custard you add, the less it will set, even if you refridgerate the icing. So be careful if you have to travel with them—I shall not be responsible for getting custard out of your upholstery! Thankfully, the new girl didn’t mind holding the tray in the car for her first Cupcake Thursday!

xlovesx

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The summer holidays from school have come and gone so quickly – we went back to work full time yesterday, the year 7 students started today and from tomorrow it’s 1000 kids every day until October half-term. But there was time for one last summer weekend. Wiggling in the Woods.

It’s a girly scrapbook weekend with friends in a forest-ish field with oversized insects, sleeping policemen and a gorgeous little cafe. Good times. And productive ones—usually there is more chat at crops than making stuff, but we managed to do both. I started working on my Iceland photos and I’m loving the freedom of a full album just for us. I hadn’t done a double page spread in at least a year, so I felt like I was learning how to walk again, but I managed 4 double pagers and a single one before the weekend was out—and I didn’t even arrive until a day late. A brilliant way to end the summer and a huge public thank you to Janice, who just excels at putting on something that is a perfect fit to our crowd.

I just love making stuff right now. I’m somehow ended up in a really good place, just this minute. Divine.

xlovesx

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Starting with the SAD.

I am now a walking advert for the MacBook pro and its magnetic power cord. Alas, this is my powerbook, which does not have such a genius device to help prevent it crashing to the floor when people like me are stupid enough to trip over the power cord. Thankfully the insides are still working, so on Friday the insurance company shall take her away and fix her up.

Or they’ll decide that’s too expensive and tell me I can buy a MacBook pro. But somehow, I doubt that.

But on to the GOOD.

This is the comment I drew out of the jar:

Lori Says:
25 August 2006, 18:18
I found your site via Wendy Smedley’s blog—this class looks great!

so Lori, you best email me girl because you’ve got a free place on the class!

The class starts Friday, so if you’re sitting on the fence, you best go ahead and jump now! :)

xlovesx

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...we’re heading off for today and tomorrow to visit the boy’s brother and see broken social scene, pearl jam and placebo at the reading festival. we’re back late monday evening.

the only reason that i’m telling you all this is to put anyone’s mind at rest who signs up for the new class between today and monday. i’ll add you to the group by tuesday!

{and i’ll also show the you the horrible picture of how i have killed my powerbook. so sad.}

xlovesx

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