Point Of Inspiration - Modern Eggs

The internet is a funny place - so huge and yet at times it feels likes we're all pulling inspiration from the same pool of creative ideas. This can create some challenges but also, some beautiful results. I love seeing what inspires others but also what it inspires them to create!

Here's a fun duo of modern eggs that demonstrate how the online creative community inspire each other in some delicious ways!

I'm a big fan of Baba Souk and love the seasonal wrapping papers Stephanie creates. For Easter, she shared this fab modern egg print (amongst others - go download them here) designed with Marie-France Auger.

Which then inspired Sara over at Tell Love and Chocolate to bake up these gorgeous Easter cookies. So good, right?

I guess you can have good design and eat it too!

Omiyage Eats

Wait a minute - what's that photo of muffins doing there?

To be honest, if I weren't craft blogging, I'd probably be food blogging. There's really nothing like homemade cookies or a fresh loaf of bread or muffins warm from the oven. You'll notice a theme there - that theme is wheat - which I love, but which doesn't love me! We'll talk about that more in a bit. 

Don't worry - food isn't taking over, but I'm always interested in tried-and-true recipes and what other people eat, so I thought it would be fun to share what we're eating in this space. To get started, here are a few snaps of things we've been eating and loving lately.

Back to those muffins. There are almost always over-ripe bananas in our kitchen - some get frozen for smoothies (nothing improves a smoothie like a frozen banana!) but the rest end up baked into banana bread or banana muffins. While a basic banana muffin is great, we often dress them up - recently I've been stirring walnuts and dark chocolate chunks into banana bread and adding berries to muffins. Those ones are strawberry banana but blueberry banana (or even strawberry-blueberry-banana) are pretty fab too! How about you? What's in your favourite banana bread/muffin recipe?

We're also big fans of pancakes. I don't think I've ever met a pancake I didn't like! (That's a lie - in Brazil pancakes are a savoury dish served filled with ground beef - kind of like a manicotti but with pancake instead of pasta. While I can appreciate a savoury pancake - Korean pancakes are pretty perfect - I'm not sure a meaty filling is my speed!)

For Pancake Tuesday, we had Chocolate Chunk pancakes with coconut yoghurt, homemade strawberry sauce, homemade maple syrup and sliced banana. Oh, and bacon. Of course.  Joy The Baker has some pretty great pancake recipes - these chocolate chunk ones are a favourite as are her Carrot Cake Pancakes should you want to squeeze a bunch of veggies into your morning meal without going the kale smoothie route!

I'd love to hear about your favourite pancake recipe - well, as long as it isn't wrapped around a pile of ground beef!

Despite what these pictures might tell you, I'm trying to get back to a wheat-free diet - not gluten-free per se, just cutting out most wheat. I was off wheat for more than a year but, since we've established that wheat is pretty much the most delicious thing going, I gave in and started eating ALL the wheaty things again. But now I'm trying to get back to not eating all the wheaty things. Again. Are you still following that line of logic?

Anyway, I try to avoid gluten-free things that require alchemy (and things like xanthan gum) and stick to recipes that are simply flourless. I was excited to try making flourless cookies and even more excited that they actually look and taste like cookies! If you are on the hunt for naturally gluten/wheat-free recipes, these peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies are pretty great.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly (because I'm kind of incapable of following a recipe exactly) but even with reduced sugar, reduced vanilla, reduced chocolate and a reduced mixing time, they were a success! I'm happy to elaborate on my changes should you be interested.

Do you have any tried and true flourless recipes? 

Have a wonderful weekend! Hope it's filled with delicious things.

Bunny Bunny

Bunny Ears - Country Living / Bunny Cookies - La tana del coniglio
Bunny Surprise Balls - Martha Stewart / Bunny Finger Puppets - The Purl Bee
Bunny Bags - Oh Happy Day / Bunny Macarons - raspberri cupcakes

Not sure that I believe in THE Easter Bunny, but I sure am enamoured with Easter bunnies! Oh, and this guy too!

Need more bunny? These napkin rings are perfect for subtle bunniness. Your Easter morning egg needs one of these. Or maybe bunny egg costumes are more your style? Either way, I'm sure we can all agree that this rabbit's a cutie!

For more bunnies - and other Easter goodness - hop on over to our Easter Pinterest board!

Happy Pancake Tuesday!

Forget Mardi Gras, Pancake Tuesday's where it's at! Why bother with all the scandalous bead-collecting, when you can put on your stretchiest pants and overindulge in simple deliciousness? Okay, truth be told, if we were in Brazil, we'd probably be all over the spectacle of Carnaval, but since we're not, we're all about the pancakiest holiday around.

We love pancakes around here... actually, we're pretty big fans of anything kinda pancake-ish. Crepes, tortillas, pitas... if it's round, flat & delicious, we're in! We probably eat pancakes once a week and have to say, once you start making them from scratch, you'll never reach for the box again!

There are a multitude of pancake recipes... from simple to extravagant... but for today, we thought we'd share one of our favourites. Pannekoeken - or Dutch pancakes - are kind of like a crepe but a little thicker and chewier and, our favourite part, easier to make! Bonus - you probably already have the ingredients on hand.

Pannekoeken - Dutch Pancakes

Makes approximately six 21cm / 8.5" pancakes.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

1/4 tsp baking powder

Whisk together all ingredients. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. 

Heat your favourite frypan over medium heat. Grease with a small amount of oil. If you're using a nonstick pan, this initial greasing should be fine. If you're using a stainless steel pan, brush on a little more oil between pancakes.

Ladle approximately 1/3 cup batter into the frypan and swirl to cover the bottom. (If batter is too thick to spread evenly, add more milk.) Cook for a few minutes until bottom of pancake is golden. Flip and cook on the other side. 

Repeat until all batter is cooked. 

Pannekoeken are like the blank canvas of pancakes - since they're not sweet, you can choose whether to fill them with sweet or savoury fillings. They're delicious with berries, yoghurt and fruit. Nutella and banana is downright decadent. Or try ham and cheese if you're in the mood for something that isn't sweet.

As for us, our favourite filling is simple cinnamon sugar. Mix together 2 Tbsp brown sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon. Spread the hot pancake with butter, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar, roll & enjoy. We dare you not to eat them all fresh from the pan... we hardly ever make it to the table with this one! 

Happy Pancake Tuesday & happy pancake making!

Will you be eating pancakes today? 

DIY Glitter Tape Cake Topper

On the weekend, I made the yummiest 4-layer chocolate raspberry cake and topped it off with a miniature glitter tape bunting for extra fanciness. Since I can't have you all over for a slice of cake, I can at least share the simple steps to make your own glitter tape cake topper!

You'll need:

• 1-2 paper straws depending on how tall you'd like your topper to be
• glitter tape - I chose peony + cherry
• baker's twine

Steps:

1. Trim paper straws to the desired height. I simply cut one straw in half.
2. Cut equal-length strips of glitter tape - mine were about 6cm / 2.5" long.
3. Fold each tape strip in half. Remove plastic backing. Attach to baker's twine, ensuring twine is placed in the crease before sticking the tape to itself.
4. If desired, cut a small triangle out the bottom of each glitter tape strip.
5. Attach twine ends to paper straws - I simply wrapped the twine around a few times and then tied.
6. Admire your handiwork - just add cake!

Here's what the topper looks like on a real-life cake (or rather, two real-life cakes):

One of my favourite things about adding a cake topper or cupcake flags is that they're a really pretty way of keeping the plastic wrap from messing with your icing when you need to place your cake in the fridge or take it to go. Cute & clever, that's how we like it!

I've never been a huge cake fan - but one of my goals is to be able to make a great looking (and tasting) layer cake. Do you have a favourite kind of cake to bake? Or do you prefer to buy a cake when a special occasion rolls around?