{Feature Friday} Plenty 'o' Pockets

This weeks Feature Friday brings Plenty 'o' Pockets into the Spotlight! 

Trudie is the talented lady behind this gorgeous business... how cute are these horses! Trudie started making handbags, but aren't we glad she switched to horses! I love the matching fabrics, the detail, the buttons on the side... so adorable. 

I asked for her secrets to making them, of course she didn't tell me. She works closely with her mum who finishes each of the horses, attaching the heads to the sticks. 

So many fabrics and combinations... my favourite are the floral ones.

 You can find Trudie and all the Plenty 'o' Pockets horses at the Belle Bazaar Markets in Mt Gravatt, Brisbane. 

The horses are also stocked at the Belle Bazaar Boutique, also in Mt Gravatt. 

You can read more about Trudie and her business in the next issue of the Belle Bazaar Magazine. 

For any more information follow her on facebook!

{Tutorial} Spider web cupcakes

This is one of the easiest and most fun things to do with cupcakes and the kids! 

Grab a packet cake mix, and make a batch of cupcakes. 

Ice the cupcakes with chocolate or vanilla frosting. 

Cut a tiny 2-3 mm hole in the corner of the icing bag. 

Then draw a little dot in the middle. 

Draw another two circles around the middle dot, like my son did in the picture below. 

Starting in the middle, drag the toothpick out to the edges, so that cupcake looks divided in half. 

You must do it from the middle though. 

Then drag it across, and then across on the diagonal, like you are writing an asterisk. 

Reverse the chocolate and vanilla to get really cool effects.

What kind of Halloween is it without a tiny pink flowery spider??

Have fun cupcake decorating with the kids!

Kids Cupcake Classes

We launched our kids cupcakes classes this week on the Gold Coast. This is our little group at Gov's Espresso, this great cafe with a backyard space out the back which includes a huge sandpit! The kids love it! So mums can grab a coffee and relax before or after the class.Or have a browse through the fabulous vintage and chic furniture they have. 

The first theme was 'beach' cupcakes. Here are the ones I made. 

I have specially designed the class for the kids, to give them a chance to be creative and develop their kinaesthetic skills. The older kids (6 and up) can do most of it with just my instructions. The little ones can do it too but benefit with the help of their adult (mum, dad, gran, aunt). So they are a great activity to do together. So here are the rest of the pics, cupcakes made by kids aged from 3 to 11! How well did they do!

If you're on the coast, our classes run every Tuesday at Gov's Espresso, which is on the south bound side of the Gold Coast Highway at Mermaid Beach. They cost 20$, you take home 6 cupcakes and they run for the hour, starting at 11am. 

New themes coming each week, book your place online www.jamosiesweet.com

{Feature Friday} Little Tots Frilly Bots!

So it's been a while since I did a Feature Friday article.... and this week I thought it was time to get on with it! So this week, I have for you... another fabulous business on facebook... Little Tots Frilly Bots! Now if you can't work it out from the title, this business is all about nappy covers for babies!

Now I wish I had access to these when my rug rats were babies because they are so adorable! I can remember looking for nappy covers when my boy was born in 2007 and all I could find was bright colour expensive cloth nappy covers! How cute is this jungle one?? It has purple ruffles on the back to match those adorable elephants with pink flowers on their ears.

So who is behind all these cute covers then?? Meet Jen. Like me, Jen found it hard to find nappy covers after her little girl was born. So she got sewing, and created her own line of nappy covers that met all her needs and wants: something frilly, something versatile, something light and something inexpensive. All her nappy covers are only 15$ including postage! Gotta love this one with ice-creams...

Now Jen must obviously have a creative streak in her, because all she makes is nappy covers, but there are so many. You have to take a peak at her facebook page... I tried to pick my favourite ones and had to stop myself from picking them all! There are a huge range of designs for boys...one of these covers is even Christmas themed!!

...and Jen does custom orders as well. Check out these next ones....these are my favourite... you know I am a sucker for vintage pink roses....

...and I can't NOT put a cupcake nappy cover in!! Come on! ;)

So how does Jen make all these and stay home with the kids? They motivate her to make her business grow so she can stay home with them. Easier said than done... this-stay-at-home-with-kids gig is difficult.... I'm only even writing this post because the rug rats are in day care today!! But to work from home as well, it's a tough job!  These little creatures we all love so much are hard work!! Love this, my son, now 4, still sleeps like this!

Jen also says we shouldn't just follow our dreams... we should chase them! Never give up, anything is possible if you truly want it to be. I agree. I love writing my Feature Fridays, the replies I get always inspire me to keep going too. It can be a lonely spot at home with little ones, thank god we have facebook, blogging and twitter to connect us all!! So on that note, check out Jen's Little Tots page and say hi!

Have a good Friday everyone!

Party Idea: Marshmallows dipped in chocolate!

So my babies turned 2 and 4 over the weekend and we had a BBQ in the park to celebrate their first birthdays in Australia!

Between markets and supply teaching I totally ran out of time to make a lot of food.... I even bought ready made sausage rolls (gasp!) but I did manage to get these cute little marshmallows done and they ended up being the party hit! The kids and adults loved them! And best of all, the don't break your budget!

They look soooo cute as a table centrepiece and you can do any colour to match any theme! Ralie had a Dora Dora theme, so everything was pink and purple!

You need:
1 pack of Cole's budget brand marshmallows (they are nice and big)
1 block of white cooking chocolate (Supermarket brands are good quality)
oil based food colouring, usually comes in a powder form (abut $3.00 from Spotlight or online cake decorating stores)
sprinkles (Woolies has boxes for $2.00 each, the same boxes are $5 each in Spotlight)
kebab sticks ($3.00 from supermarket)
something to poke kebab sticks in: foam pieces, glasses filled with flour

Directions:
1. Melt chocolate over double boiler and add colour to chocolate, then put into flat bowl or plate with high edges so it doesn't run out
2. Poke marshmallows onto skewers
3. Roll though the melted chocolate and then shake the sprinkles over the marshmallow, turning the skewer around so the marshmallow is covered evenly.
4. Stand upright in foam or glasses to dry overnight.
5. As you can see, I stuck mine in a piece of foam and then in a cookie tin, but they were a nightmare and kept falling over in the car and blowing over in the wind. Lucky they are pretty hardy. I would actually put them in a glass or vase, so they present like edible flowers.

Don't forget you can make these for boys! Woolies and Coles stock big containers of blue and green dinosaur sprinkles for about $5 which is fab-u-lous value, and they look great on orange, blue and green shades!
Have fun!

{Tutorial} How to make grass on cupcakes

The 'grass' is one of the cutest icing effects and can be used for any theme... from enchanted gardens and teddy bear picnics to under the sea!

Here is the low down on the 'grass' nozzles... and how to use them.

Nozzles that give you the grass effect are called multi opening nozzles. There are a few different sizes by various brand names such as Wilton and Ateco. I have the Ateco 234 and Wilton 233. Ateco will give you a bigger grass than the Wilton. But using the Wilton nozzle to pipe lots of grass can give you a very sore wrist!

To get a really good grass effect from either of these nozzles you have to have really really smooth icing. Use icing mixture, which is a blend of icing sugar and corn flour.  The corn flour stops the icing sugar sticking together, so you always get super smooth icing. 

If you need gluten free products, using pure icing sugar but sift it really well, at least once.

Both icing sugar and icing mixture can be used in our perfect buttercream recipe!

Bake your cupcakes just below the cupcake case. The pink case looks bigger than it actually is... it is only about 3mm from the top of the case to the cake. The case holds the grass in and stops it falling off the cupcake. 

Start on the outside and work your way around. Hold the nozzle just about the cake and squeeze, as you feel it hit the cake, gently lift the icing bag up as you keep squeezing, then stop squeezing and pull off. The grass should stand upright. you can see the first grass, it's shorter. I stopped squeezing too early.

 Here are the two cupcakes I did, both with different nozzles. You get totally different effects. The big Ateco gives you really lush thick grass, like a lawn that needs to be mowed...perfect for a teddy bears picnic!  The Wilton gives you smaller neater grass perfect for an enchanted garden. I used the Wilton 234 for the original enchanted garden cupcakes. Hope this is helpful! Happy decorating!

{Custom Order} Little red birds & whimsical bird house!

{custom order}little red birds and whimsical bird house. Naomi made the cake and put my toppers on top for her daughters 4th birthday. I love the mini bunting and the pink, red and white colour scheme.