Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all my followers {and those just popping in :-) }... 

Wishing you all a very blessed Easter time with family and friends, and those travelling, drive safely!

Here's a few Easter ideas for you!

Make a beautiful marshmallow easter cake for your table

Fill hollow candy coated easter eggs with chocolate mousse

And make paper boats to serve your easter eggs, cheese and biscuits or any nibble that you want to put into it :-)

Easter {Vanilla and Marshmallow} cake

This is such a beautiful cake, one that deserves a photo taken of it :-) it looks very impressive {and it's not that difficult}

What you need:
2 basic vanilla cakes
butter icing
400g marshmallows {10 for the middle of the cake}
1 packed of speckled eggs
1 Tablespoon butter

Place the one layer of vanilla cake on the cake stand, and spread half of the icing on the cake.  Cut the marshmallows in half and spread it on the cake.  Cover the bottom of the other vanilla cake with the res of the butter icing.  Then place it on top of the marshmallows.  

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Place the rest of the marshmallows in the pan and stir until melted.  When all the marshmallows have melted completely, pour it over the cake.

Place the speckled eggs on top of the cake.

This is a beautiful cake, but difficult to cut.  So make sure you have a sharp knife to cut it with.  Kids also love it they can pull everything apart.

If you don’t have a recipe for a basic vanilla cake or butter icing here is some out of the “You, Let’s cook book” a very easy cake recipe and only need one mixing bowl :-)

Basic white cake
150 g soft margarine
3 extra-large eggs
200 ml milk
5 ml (1t) vanilla essence
500ml (2c) cake flour
12 ml (2.5t) baking powder
pinch of salt
250 ml (1c) caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C
Grease two 20cm loose-based cake tins with butter, margarine or nonstick spray.
Line the base with baking paper.
Place the margarine, eggs, milk and Vanilla essence in a large mixing bowl and beat well.

Sift the Flour, baking powder, salt, and caster sugar over the margarine mixture in the bowl.  Beat with an electric beater for 1min or until well blended.

Divide the batter between the 2 cake tins, making a slight well in the centre of each.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 min or until a testing skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cakes.  Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.  {makes 2 layers}

Butter icing
150g soft butter
900ml icing sugar
5ml (1t) vanilla essence

Beat the butter until creamy.  Sift in the icing sugar by the spoonful while beating continuously.  Add the vanilla essence and beat until creamy.

HAPPY EASTER!

Carrot cake and brunch ideas

I had my sister's baby shower this week-end and thought I'd share some of the brunch idea's...

For dessert I made a lovely carrot cake {from a previous blog post :-) } it's lovely and moist and very easy!

Some croissants with a piece of wax paper tied with bakers twine just for the finishing touch ;-)

Plain yoghurt, drizzled with  honey and pieces of a seed bar that I cut up and put into the yoghurt.

Serve with a pretty container filled with yummy muesli.

Mini blueberry muffins... {yes I cheated and bought them} and they fit beautifully in the ramekins, so they almost looked like they were baked in them! ;-)

Chocolate mousse {for easter}

I'm not sure if the hollow sugar coated chocolate eggs are available all around the world... but if not i'm sure you can use the hollow chocolate eggs.  I thought this would be a nice dessert for easter to bring in the theme.

What you need:
4 eggs, separated
125 ml castor sugar
25 ml strong coffee
200g dark chocolate
100g unsalted butter chopped into blocks

To start I recommend you "prepare" your eggs :-) by just hitting off the top of the egg with a knife {softly}

Turning the egg around as you hit it until it comes off.

First mix the egg yolk and the castor sugar until it becomes thick and lighter in colour.  
Then mix in the coffee.  
Melt the chocolate over hot water on the stove {double boiler}.  
As soon as the chocolate is melted, start adding the butter one block at a time, until a smooth cream is formed. 
Now mix the chocolate to the egg-yolk mixture.  
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold into the chocolate mixture.  
Let the mixture rest in the fridge for about 30min before dishing into the eggs {the mixture is then less runny}

Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Enjoy!

happy easter

Hope you are all having a very blessed Easter week-end!

Paper boats made in post of December 2012

click here

 great way to brighten up your Easter table!

paper boats

I like making these paper boats for parties. They not only look pretty, but they serve as a small little plate.

What you need:
stapler
ruler
pencil
scrapbook paper
a pair of scissors

They are great for...
kiddies parties to serve sweeties and biscuits
cocktail parties for serving cheese, biscuits, grapes, nuts, olives, french fries and bruchetta
picnics to serve fruit, nuts and nibbly bits... and you can use your imagination for other uses.

Scrapbook paper is lovely to use, they are just the right size to make 6 paper boats per sheet and they are so very pretty. You can choose your paper according to your party.

First cut the sheet in half. Then you have two pieces of about 15.5cm by 31cm.  Then cut each piece into 3 blocks of 15.5cm x 10.3 cm

Now cut two slits, 5cm in length, 3 cm's from each side.

Then you fold the two outside flaps in behind the middle flap so that their corners just touch at the back of the middle flap. Then staple it together.

Cut the top corners to that the ends of the boat is straight.

Now load with your favorite goodies and enjoy!