Jikana Damaru

Glass bunny

I saw this glass bunny butter dish and had to have it! I filled it with the tiniest Cadbury Mini Eggs.

On the left is a normal sized Mini Egg, and on the right a tiny one.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I love everything in my kitchen to colour co-ordinate, so I have several storage buckets in pale blue. I thought the 'EGGS' one would make a great container to put my chocolate Easter nests in to take around to my family.

Chocolate nests

It's a tradition in my family for my Mum to make chocolate nests every year and hide them in the garden for us to find. I decided to make some of my own this year. Now that my siblings and I are adults I decided to make "grown-up" Easter nests with dark chocolate instead of the usual milk. Here's the recipe I used:

Chocolate Easter nests (makes 24 muffin size nests)
200g 85% cocoa dark chocolate (I used Green & Blacks)
125g cornflakes
250g mini eggs

Line muffin tray with paper cases
Break up chocolate into small pieces and place in microwave bowl.
Melt chocolate in microwave on full power for about 1-2 minutes (the exact amount of time needed will depend on the type of chocolate being used so remove and stir the chocolate every so often to ensure it heats evenly).
Once the chocolate is melted, remove from microwave and gradually stir in cornflakes so they are completely covered in chocolate.
Spoon mixture into paper cases and make a hole in the center.
Fill hole with mini eggs and leave to set.

Eat and enjoy. Yummy!

Kitchen wish list

Today, I looked for pale blue and pink kitchen utensils to match my existing sets. Here are some of the items I found that I'd love to add to my collection one day. It's nice to dream!

Rolling pin from Sil-Pin.

Set of 12 Miniamo 'Pastels' Silicone cup cake cases.

Triple-tiered cake/fruit stand in pale blue. I already have this in pale pink but would like to combine the two in a display.

Traditional jelly moulds in pastel colours.

Kitchen baking utensils

I love everything to colour co-ordinate, like my cute kitchen cupboard, so all my baking and kitchen utensils are mainly in pale blue with hints of pale pink.

The tray above was my first purchase from Cath Kidston, over 10 years ago, from her first shop in London’s Holland Park. I fell in love with all things Cath Kidston that day!

On the tray is a lavender bunny cutter and a pink floppy bunny cutter. The small whisk is from Nigella Lawsons Living Kitchen range, which I love as she does lots of kitchen accessories in pale blue. The measuring cups and spoons I picked up in Woolworths in South Africa because I thought they would match my colour theme. The pink spatulas are from Marks & Spencer, but sadly they only stocked them in that colour for one season. The pink and white spot muffin cases and edible shimmer powder I found in a local store.

If you are looking for pink kitchen utensils then you have to check out Pink Princess (all items above).

Nigella Living Kitchen and CKS kitchen utensils

If it's pale blue you're after try Nigella Living Kitchen range (top row) and CKS (bottom row).

Luxe loungewear

I received my new Hush Summer '09 catalogue last week and wanted to share just how lovely their stuff is. This year I am definitely buying the beach bag!

Easter bird houses

As it's coming up to Easter, I thought it would be fun to make myself some Easter-themed decorations. I'd already made some Easter birds and Easter mushrooms, but I also wanted some place settings for the table.

Thinking about the place settings reminded me of some mini wooden bird feeders that I'd bought and decorated for Christmas a few years ago. But that's another story, and one that I'll come back to later in the year.

As birds are synonymous with Easter, I bought another six of the bird feeders thinking they'd be perfect as the place settings. So, here's how I went about decorating them...

The feeders come in a pack of six. I ordered one box as I wanted one for each table setting.

I removed the rope from the top and painted each feeder in a water-based white wood primer. A couple of coats were needed.

I decided to paint the roofs and bases in colours from my Easter sketch book. I took it with me to the DIY store, and found tester pots in the following colours: Woodland Glade, Willow, Ice Pink, and Amethyst (all Focus matt emulsion).

I painted the roof and base of each feeder a different colour, and masking taped the areas I wanted to keep white.

Continuing the bird theme, I found some mini birds nests, which I attached to the centre of each house with PVA glue.

For the tops, I made some new hanging loops using ribbon. I knotted the ends together and PVA glued a bead in place to stop the ribbon slipping through the hole at the top of the feeder. After feeding the ribbon through the hole in the feeder, I glued it in place.

Finally, I filled the nests with mini foil covered chocolate eggs and, Voila!

Now my place settings are ready for Easter. I can't wait to decorate the table this Sunday!