Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

A Huge Catch Up..

I haven't posted a thing in ages! Time has seriously flown by. Looooads to say...

I've spent my time focusing on getting my finances in order, so I've seriously cut back on jewellery supplies, I've sold alot of my non-sparklerose things through Ebay and car boot sales, and stopped shopping for any girly things I don't need. It's been going for a few weeks now, and although I would love to go on a big shopping trip, watching my bank balance improve is extremely motivating. However, we are having some treats, such as a London daytrip, and I did purchase a naughty bag, but generally they are at a minimum. Our focus is to save loads of money for our future.

Due to my little world being busier than usual, my time to sit and relax with beads and tools in my hands are becoming rare. I still enjoy it, and I love the things I make, but I definitely will be taking a backseat from it, for now anyway. I would love to explore other options of handmade goodies when I do have more time, and I'd like to remove the pressures of advertising/promotion that inevitably come with a small ''business''. I basically want to inject the fun back into it, and the best way for me to do this is to supply shops, as I'm doing with Milkwood Gallery, so for now, that'll be my main focus. I think when I started last year I tried to run before I could walk.

However, there will be more items to show in the future, when I'm finished with my other missions, and I will maintain an online shop as well as supplying. But for now, I'm somewhat taking a proper break :)

My missions:

- To sort myself out financially, from overtime in work, selling old things, being a cautious & thrifty spender.
- To get our flat looking perfect, by de-cluttering and reorganising sections of it.
- To generally focus on my life here, I still have more settling in to do.

So, here's what I've been upto the past few weeks...

We visited London on a very sunny Saturday and we decided to go to the Southbank Centre Square for a chocolate festival. We bought a box of delicious macaroons in the yummiest of flavours, like lemon & lime, and Malibu (very fruity). He also got us some huuuge cookies that tasted almost like flat circle brownies with loads of chocolate chips. I nibbled mine on the tube as we were heading to Kew Gardens. We spent most of the afternoon there. We're planning to make a daytrip there at some point.

I baked cupcakes :D and then decorated them badly with chocolate chips. They were meant to be like hearts, but it failed me. The buttercream was incredible, I finally got the consistency right, and the flavour was awesome. Just a dash of strawberry jam gave it a lovely strawberry flavour and a very faint pink colouring.

I did however purchase this very naughty bag from Cath Kidston. The boyfriend passed me some money while we were in the store, and told me to buy myself something, so I bought this :D I have sold alot of my older bags though, so I have been somewhat 'good'.

I've also started to clear alot of my toiletries. I seem to be part of a large amount of people who have hoarded loads of toiletries, like myself, and alot of people are talking about cutting their collections down. I started taking photos of the things that I've used up, so far for April I've got 12 photos. It's motivated me to use things I've held onto for no apparent reason, like samples and miniatures. Apart from things like toothpaste, shampoo+conditioner, and facial-based things, I haven't needed to buy any toiletries at all. The worst bit is the amount of lotions and body butters I have, eek.

Wow, I've written a ton, I'm going to stop now ;)

I've been seriously considering creating a blog sale for some of the things I'm selling. Any thoughts? :)

Love,
Fiona x

Friday, 18 February 2011

Decorative Jar

Sadly, I'm feeling pretty under the weather today, ick. I'm relaxing before my shift at work later, hoping it'll fade away.

Inspired by Jessica at Such Pretty Things, I decided to create my very own cupcake case jar (you can see her post about it here). I have no intention of using the cases, I just wanted something decorative. But Jessica, who bakes alot, finds it useful for storing the cases. I think it's an excellent idea, decorative or practical :)


I used an empty glass coffee jar and lots of little multicoloured paper cases :)

Love,
Fiona x

Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Cupcakes!

I wanted to show the cupcakes I made for Valentines, they're not actually that Valentinesy at all, but there we are ;)



I used a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, but I sorta got confused between bicarb of soda and baking powder, ahem. The sponge was literally, sponge, in the 'boi-ing' sense, but it was hilarious. At least they looked pretty :D The lumpy bits are marshmallows, so they were actually meant to be there, ha. I can't say I'm the best at baking these days...

But the meal we had was fab in general, thankfully my boyfriend is an excellent cook :P

Hope everyone's having a good week so far!

Love,
Fiona x

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Cherry & Coconut Cupcakes

I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas :D mine was very quiet & peaceful, which was perfect for me.
I also received funds from Milkwood Gallery from my sales, just intime for christmas! I sold two pairs of earrings and a charm bracelet, a total of £21.00, very exciting stuff :D

Anywho, in a previous entry, I mentioned that I was making some delightful cherry & coconut cupcakes.


This recipe is taken from the book "1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats" by Suzanna Tee. I bought mine from Asda when it was £5 :O but you can get it from a seller on Amazon here.

INGREDIENTS
115g butter
115g caster sugar
2 tablespoons of milk
2 eggs
85g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
85g desiccated coconut
115g glace cherries, quartered

TOPPING
225g butter
1 tablespoon of milk or cream
350g icing sugar
12 whole glace cherries for decorating

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/ Gas Mark 4. Prepare bun tin with 12 paper cases.
Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light & fluffy.


Stir in the milk.
Gradually beat in the eggs.


Sift in the flour & baking powder.
Fold in the coconut.
Fold in most of the quartered cherries.

This looks a bit weird to me but still very tasty!

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and scatter remaining quartered cherries on top (I missed this bit, silly me)
Bake in the preheated oven for 20/25 mins.
Leave to cool

For the topping, put the buttercream into a piping bag with a large star nozzle and pipe on top of the cupcake
Add a cherry to each one to finish.

Now for whatever reason they didn't turn out so great for me. The sponge was perfect, very sweet and moist, would make an amazing loaf-type cake. But the buttercream frosting didn't pipe at all and it ran off the cakes. I think I might've used a bit too much milk, eek.

But I'd definitely recommend them, the sponge was delicious :D

***
In other news, we have 10 followers, which means it's time for a giveaway :D yay!
I'll be organising it within the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled for a post detailing more info about it! :)

Love,
Fiona x

Thursday, 9 December 2010

Long Time

Christmas is most definitely on its way, and it's made me busier than ever! Sparklerose is getting terribly neglected, I haven't made a thing in ages now.

The past couple of weeks have been spent doing extra shifts in work, and popping off shopping on my very few days off. One such trip was to London, which was pretty exciting for me, I hadn't been there since I was 18.

I decided to go to The Hummingbird Bakery, once we managed to find it in Portobello Road. And I also went to Laduree, and tried my (first ever) french macaroons :D

The cream cheese frosting is amazing, and perhaps a little too indulging ;)

My fave = chocolate :D

We had an amazing day, filled with tube rides and shopping :D
I popped to Accessorize while I was there, it was much bigger than the one in Lincoln. I got myself a gorgeous bronze toned floral ring, with a rose necklace and a long necklace with charms & roses, very cute.

***
I'm still hoping to hold a little competition, sometime before christmas, although time is running out for posting, so it may be just after christmas. But we're waiting for 10 or more followers, so get following to join in :D It'll be a chance for you to win some of the jewellery from Sparklerose Designs, my handmade jewellery collection.

Anyway, time for housework (hurray!). Hope you're all enjoying the festive season :)

Love,
Fiona x

Tuesday, 28 September 2010

Tuesday's Trinkets

Well hello there! :D

I had a wonderful week away, got tons of jewellery making supplies, and since I wrote I've made loads more pieces, some of which I've fallen in love with ;)

I haven't done any decent shots of the pieces yet, but when I do I will post them here :)

Anyway, as it's tuesday, here are a few of my favourite things this week. These are all from Etsy :)


Chocolate Cupcake Bracelet by MMAGDA
This is so adorable, I love cupcakes so this bracelet instantly caught my eye.

Tutti Fruity Cupcake Earrings by Bead Passion
These polymer clay cupcake earrings are so effective, and must've taken ages to make!

Cherry Blossom Cupcake Necklace by MaruMaru
This adorable fabric button is so cute and girly :D

Anyway, haven't got too much time today, time seems to be flying by and I'm due in work in a few hours, argh!

Love,
Fiona x

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