Marshmallow Frosting

I’ve been following The Creative Chick Parade over at The Girl Creative and am so enjoying all the various crafts being shared.

How it works is, you merely link up a craft you’ve created and posted about on your blog. It can be an old post or a new one, it doesn’t matter. You just have to link up to the theme for the day.

Well, today’s theme is recipes and I recently stumbled across a really yummy frosting for cakes. It works especially well on cupcakes. If you pipe it on, it stands up beautifully – much like soft serve ice-cream! And the taste… well it tastes just like gooey soft marshmallow fluff! {In South Africa we get Cadbury’s “Sweetie Pies” chocolates with this marshmallow goo inside – and this frosting tastes just like it!}.

 

4 large egg whites

1 Cup ordinary sugar (white or brown)

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

Place all ingredients except the vanilla essence into a bowl which you can place over a pot of simmering water.

{You could use a double boiler here instead}

Whisk the egg white mixture constantly over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot to the touch. {It takes around 5 minutes}.

Pour the mixture into a bigger bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. {Add the vanilla while beating}. After 3 minutes, the mixture will be lovely and fluffy.

{I used my Kenwood food mixer}

I love using disposable piping bags – {or you could even use a plastic bag} without a nozzle, I simply piped straight out the end of the piping bag directly onto the cupcakes.

Don’t you love how they look – and so yummy!!!

Hope you try this recipe. It sounds like a bit of work, but really it takes very little time and effort and they are so easy to pipe as the icing is very soft and much easier to squirt out than buttercream.

Furniture make-over

I love old things. {I guess if you are familiar with my blog you should know that by now huh?}. I wanted my studio to be really ‘shabby chic’ and vintage-looking, with lovely French and English style inspiration.
My studio is still a work in progress (it probably always will be LOL!), full of pretty things that are simply “me”, with splashes of my favourite colours, roses, vintagey objets d’art and loads of storage space {self-confessed hoarder here!!}. I needed a cupboard for my scrapbooking papers, but I didn’t want another dark wood cupboard like the one I already had; It would simply make the room too dark. I needed colour.
So here’s what I did…
I didn’t want to spend a fortune so I bought this pine “armoire” (mine was raw unfinished wood, not stained like this example).


I found this one with doors lined with wire mesh. Perfect! I then painted the entire cupboard in a pretty French-inspired “duck egg blue’.




Then I grabbed my trusty oil paints (Raw Umber) and mixed a little drop with some raw linseed oil. I rubbed it all over the painted cupboard, taking care to get into all the grooves to get an aged patina. As I applied the linseed oil mixture, I also rubbed some off with a cloth to ‘knock back’ and age the blue paint colour.
Once the painting was complete, I replaced the ordinary round wooden door knobs with a pair of old looking rings. (I removed them from the cabinet prior to painting).
I also wanted the contents of the cupboard to be protected from dust. So I measured the inside of the doors and grabbed some pink and white toile fabric I had in my stash and measured it to fit the inside of the doors to cover the mesh. I stitched a hem all around and stitched velcro tape at the top and bottom.
I then staple-gunned the matching velcro strip at the top and bottom of the mesh inside the cupboard, then attached the fabric inside.
Very important! You want to remember to attach the velcro to the RIGHT side of the fabric! {Not like me- not thinking! Too much of a hurry!  – LOL - I had to undo my stitching and re-attach the velcro to the RIGHT side}. This is because you want to see the RIGHT side of the fabric through the mesh on the outside of the door.
I then hung two pretty flower and bead door tassels off the door handle rings to finish it off. I love how it turned out! {I never made the door tassels, but they actually would be so easy to make}.


I balanced little wooden words which I bought around 3 years ago in the USA (I think from Hobby Lobby) {knew I’d use them somewhere!} on the little ledge along the cabinet. The other two are “Love” and “Believe”. I stacked some vintage wooden Coca Cola crates on top to bring in a bit of the darker wood again.
Will post some more studio pics soon…

Veronica

                         

Sew cute blouse to make!

Spring is here! We haven’t quite packed away the winter woolies yet as there is always a chance of one of those pesky cold fronts moving up-country from the Cape. Heck, we’ve even had one in November! But oh boy it is good to be smelling jasmine & lavender and seeing a haze of bright Spring green everywhere outside and of course, being able to wear lighter and brighter summery clothes.
Today I discovered this really cute blouse pattern and just had to share as it is super-easy! Once you’ve purchased the pattern, it’s a case of downloading it and then reading the easy-to-follow instructions.
There is no actual pattern to print or cut out, you simply follow the measuring instructions and cut directly on the fabric and voilà! The blouse is called the “Amelia shirt” and is by Frogs Legs and Ponytails (love the name!)
Another great thing about this pattern is that you cam make it to fit any size. Make it for yourself, your daughter, or even a doll!
I love that tie at the neckline. It has arguably a little Anthropologie feel to it. (I love Anthropologie and we don’t even have shops here in this country {sob!!} I fell in love with it on our London trip in June and I am smitten! –Please if any Anthropologie marketers read this- please send a couple of stores out here to South Africa! LOL!)
So getting back to the Amelia blouse… If you also want this fab pattern, click on the picture and it’ll take you straight to the website…

Speaking of the website, there are so many gorgeous projects to tackle over at “You can Make This” that it’s worth staying a while and browsing. There’s even a “free’ section with loads of quick things to make.
I’m off to find some cute fabric to make this blouse and I’ll share a pic as soon as it’s done.
Have a great weekend, and also pop over to The Girl Creative to add your bloglink on New Friend Friday so you can join in the Party Blog- so much fun and a great way to bring people to your artsy crafty blog.