Easter treats

Last week I was asked by Countdown Supermarkets to come up with a couple of Easter baking treats to share. I do my weekly groceries shop at Countdown using their online delivery service (LOVE this service) and have done so for a few years now so it was great to be asked to share some ideas! I'm all for baking that is easy and that appeals to kids so I chose two recipes that will be handy for you to have-  it's always good to have an easy cupcake recipe for kids parties or celebrations/ holidays/ birthdays, and a basic sugar cookie recipe will always come in handy too. So my two recipes are:

Easter Egg Nest Chocolate Cupcakes

and

Easter Egg Cookies

Thanks to Countdown I was able to buy the goodies in this pic to make my two recipes- they have a huge range of Easter treats in store now, plus they always have a great range of baking and decorating products. 

I spotted so many great Easter eggs for the kids when I was in there the other day so I thought I'd share some of them with you as well...

All Blacks easter egg, Peter Rabbit, Lindt Pirate Bunny and Easter Egg, Fire Station easter egg box

Ferero Rocher Bunny (one for us mums :), Kinder Surprise Maxi egg with toy, Robin Edible Eggs (comes with pens that you can decorate the eggs with), Mr Men book and easter eggs

I also spotted these cut out bunnies - only $4 for 25 sheets of them which I'm going to use for my next kids craft class, and would also be ideal for teachers! Countdown also had some cute little buckets so I bought this mint one for our easter egg hunt.

So here are my recipes...

Easter Egg Cookies

Kids will love these as they can have fun decorating them using icing pens and cake decorations.

125g butter, softened

1/2 cup of caster sugar

1 egg

half a teaspoon of vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

1 cup self raising flour

Icing pens ( I bought the box of glitter pens and the trio of chocolate icing pens)

Soft sugar pearl cake decorations

Pettinice ready to roll fondant icing

Water or glucose syrup

Preheat oven to 160 C or 140 C fan

Line two baking trays with baking paper

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix

Add the flours and fold in to form a dough

Place your dough on a piece of baking paper and add another piece of baking paper on top

Roll your dough to about 5mm thick

Using an easter egg shaped cookie cutter cut out eggs and place on the prepared baking trays

Re-roll dough and repeat until you've used all the dough

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden

Cool on a wire rack

Roll out a chunk of the Pettinice icing as thin as possible and use the easter egg cookie cutter to again cut out egg shapes. Use either water (brush onto the back of the fondant eggs) or glucose syrup to stick the fondant egg to the cookie. This is optional- you could just leave the cookies as is to decorate.

Decorate using the icing pens and sprinkles

Easter Egg Nest Chocolate Cupcakes

These delicious chocolate treats are perfect for Easter and your kids will love the little nest of eggs!

Makes approx 18 medium sized cupcakes

1 and a half cups of Self Raising Flour
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup of milk
2 eggs
125g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract.

1. Preheat oven to 180oC conventional or 160oC fan-bake. 
2. Line cupcake tins with 18 cupcake cases
3. Melt butter. 
4. Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat on medium speed for five minutes

5. Spoon tablespoon size into muffin tins or cup cake cases.   I find an ice-cream scoop the perfect size to fill the cupcake cases- one big scoop per cupcake is enough.

Bake for approx 15 minutes or until cakes spring back lightly when touched- or check using skewer. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

100grams softened butter

2 cups Icing Sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon hot water

1. Cream the butter until pale and fluffy

2. Beat in the icing sugar ( I use an electric beater) one cup at a time

3. Add the hot water if needed

4. Use an icing bag with icing tip (you can buy these at Countdown- look for 'disposable icing bags' - they come with different icing tips.) Cut the pointy part of the bag off (see pic) 

and place tip inside the bag and push it through the hole you've cut.  

Fill up the bag with the chocolate icing

5. Ice your cupcakes

6. Decorate using broken pieces of flake to make the nest, and add two mini eggs on top, or one mini creme egg

I hope you like these recipes - would love to hear if you make either or both of them! Countdown is going to help you with that by giving every mousehouse reader a $5 off voucher to use with your next online order! (just put the code in the box that says 'coupon code' at check out)

Here's the code : YUM

And check out Countdown's Pinterest Page for loads more delicious recipe ideas http://www.pinterest.com/countdownnz/ 

and for Easter recipes their "Eggscellent Easter" pin board is full of great ideas!  http://www.pinterest.com/countdownnz/eggscellent-easter/

Happy Easter!

Megan

DIY Personalised Photo Art

If you would like to make your own personalised photo art for your child here's a quick 'how to'- (I'm writing how to do the ones with the writing down the side of the child but as long as your child wears a blank t-shirt you could follow these instructions to do one like Amelie's). These are such a great way of capturing your child's personality at a certain age, and looks fantastic framed and on the wall! These ones are A4 size but you could always do smaller or larger.

1. Take a photo of your child in front of a blank wall-  it doesn't have to be white as you can change the font colour so you can still see the words. You want room on one side of your child to type the words so when you take the photo make sure you have some blank space to the left or right of your child (i.e. don't take the photo with your child in the exact centre).

2. I use a Mac computer so I download my photo into iPhoto - you might like to play around with the exposure to brighten the photo background ( I forgot to do this with Jack's so I'll be reprinting it as the background has come out quite grey even though he was against a white wall).  

3. Now open up the application 'Pages' (or similar word processing application) 

4. Open a new document, add the photo from the 'media' tab onto your page and stretch it to make it as big as the page

5. Choose a font and colour and type the words down one side of your child. I use a separate text box for each sentence so I can play around with the size to fit it next to the photo.

Here are some sentence starters for you...

'who likes'

'who loves'

who plays'

'who needs

'who wants'

'who sings'

'who doesn't like'

'who says'

'who watches'

'who makes'

'who wants'

Any questions please ask, would love to hear if you make one!

Megan x

DIY Pin Board with Scotch® Expressions Tape

For my last project as part of the Scotch® Expressions Tape 'Back to School' campaign I was asked to come up with a tutorial for making a school pin board using Scotch® Expressions Tapes.  I loved doing this as I think pin boards are a great addition to a child's bedroom for their treasures and keepsakes, and to keep them organised and tidy as well! I remembered this noticeboard tutorial I wrote a few years ago now http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/my-creative-space-handy-noticeboard.html with the plastic pocket along the bottom of the noticeboard and it made me think I could do the same thing, but much easier and quicker, with the Scotch® Expressions Tapes, in particular the Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape. So here is a tutorial for how to make this colourful and practical pin board for your child, or even for yourself- a bigger one would be great as a family organiser with a calendar, household essentials, and a place for invitations, cards, school notices etc…

DIY Pin Board with Scotch® Expressions Tape Tutorial

You will need:

*a pin board - this square one is from Warehouse Stationery- you can also find them at Spotlight, or office supply stores, or go to Bunnings and get a sheet of Pinex and cut it the size you want.

*Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape- I used their cute red and white polka dot one- you can find all the Scotch® Expressions Tapes at Warehouse Stationery

*Scotch® Expressions masking tape - I used this lovely coral red coloured one

* Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape- I used their bright neon pink washi tape

* Scotch® Expressions Magic Tape in multicoloured polka dots

* bulldog clip

*hook push pins (I got these from Bunnings in the picture hook aisle)

*push pins

*PVC clear tablecloth plastic for the pocket- enough to cover the width of your noticeboard plus enough to go around the back of the board, and height of around 10cm plus enough to go around the bottom of the board

1. Cover your pin board with the Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape

2. Lay your piece of tablecloth plastic across the bottom of your board

3. Flip your board over and use pieces of Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape to attach the plastic to the board- don't pull it too tight as that will make it tricky to get things in and out of the pocket.

4. Flip your board back over and tape a stripe or two of Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape across the top of the pocket.

5. Use your Scotch® Expressions masking tape and Scotch® Expressions Magic tape to make some dividers on your board (I layered the magic tape on top of the masking tape).

6. Use a push pin to attach your bulldog clip to the pin board.

7. Choose where you would like to put the push pin hooks on the board.

 

8. Pop some things in the pocket that your child uses regularly, and let them choose a few things they would like to put on the board- certificates, photos, a timetable….anything goes!

And this week is the last week of the Scotch® Expressions Tape 'Back to School' campaign so head on over to the Scotch Australia and New Zealand Facebook Page and click on the 'Back to School' link to see lots more awesome tutorials, plus the chance to win a $100 prezzy card by sharing your own creations! I hope you've enjoyed seeing my three tutorials, including my 

DIY Chore Charts

and the DIY clocks

You can also follow Scotch® Australia and New Zealand on Instagram

instagram.com/scotch_ANZ

and on Pinterest

www.pinterest.com/scotch_anz

Happy crafting!

Megan

DIY Chore Charts with Scotch® Expressions Tape

Last year I shared a '30 day Organised Home Challenge' on my Facebook page.  One of the challenges I shared was making a chore chart to help with morning routines and getting jobs done around the house. A friend Rae shared her cool chore charts she made that she uses with her three children. Here are a couple of pics of them…

So when I was contacted to take part in another Scotch® Expressions  Tape Promotion ' Back to School' and asked to share a chore chart DIY I knew just what to do thanks Rae! These chore charts are super easy and quick to make, and by using pegs you can easily update or change jobs for each child. And kids will really like using them as anything tactile always appeals (pegs are great for little one's fine motor skills too). And it's easy for parents/caregivers to see which jobs still need to be done...

DIY Chore Chart

You will need

* one wooden board per child- these boards were at Spotlight and were only $2 each on sale when I bought mine! 

* Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape or Scotch® Expressions Masking Tape tape 

* Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape or Scotch® Expressions Magic™Tape- all from Warehouse Stationery

*wooden pegs- you can find these at Spotlight, Warehouse Stationery or Dollar Value type stores

*alphabet stickers- again you can find these at the above stores

*marker pens

Step one: using either the Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape or Scotch® Expressions Masking Tape tape  (I used the Scotch® Expressions Masking Tapes), cover your board as in picture below

Step two: using either the Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape or Scotch® Expressions Magic™Tape (I used a Scotch® Expressions magic tape) tape a horizontal line across the top of the board (leaving enough room for your childs name above). Then tape a vertical line from the horizontal tape down the middle of the board to the bottom.

Then if you would like to divide your board into 'am' and 'pm', tape another horizontal line of tape roughly half way down the vertical line. 

Using your alphabet stickers stick the letters of your child's name up the top, and then stick on 'TO DO' and DONE' under the top line. I just used a black marker pen to write 'am' and 'pm' in each section of the board.

Now using a marker pen write the chores you would like your children to do each morning. 

Here are some of the chores I thought of for my three children aged 3, 5 and 7 (some are just for the older two kids). Each day I will aim to put 3-4 chores on each section of the board.

am jobs

Brush teeth

Brush hair

Make bed

Pack lunch and drink bottle

Pack swim bag

Tidy bedroom

Empty dishwasher

Wipe table

Tidy bedroom

pm jobs

Unpack school bag

Set table

Clear and wipe table

Sweep floor

Fold washing

Put away washing

Tidy lounge

The rest of the pegs I'm storing in an old sifter I've got in our kitchen- easy access to the pegs, and I've put some blank ones in as well so I can write new chores when I think of them, or as school sports and after school activities change each day/term.

And Rachael from 'A Snapshot of Life' shared a pic of her chore chart she made after seeing mine when I was working on them on my Instagram page- I like how she typed up the chores and stuck them on pegs- much tidier than mine! She used the same Scotch® Expressions Duct tape that I used to cover some of Amelie's school books the other day- love it!

And if you would like to make some of these yourself, or take part in the Scotch®  Tape Promotion ' Back to School' by submitting your own Tape creations (you'll be in to win a $100 Prezzy card if you do!) then head over to the Scotch Australia and New Zealand Facebook page where you can enter via the Facebook app!

I’m also giving away a bag of Scotch® Expressions Shipping Tape, Scotch® Expressions Masking Tape, Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape plus some other Scotch® Expressions goodies this week on my Facebook page- to enter leave a comment on the post about these chore charts on my page. 

I hope you enjoyed reading these ideas for a DIY chore chart-I have two more blog posts to share as part of the promotion so stay tuned! 

Thanks for reading, 

Megan