Jikana Damaru

Butterfly blueberry cheesecake

Blueberry Cheesecake (makes 3 butterflies)

Chocolate butterfly case

Ingredients
600g white chocolate
Blue food colouring

Cooking instructions

Temper and colour white chocolate
Coat inside of silicone mold with chocolate
Leave to set in fridge overnight

Biscuit base

Ingredients
8 digestive biscuits or Graham Crackers
6 tbsp caster sugar, ("superfine" sugar in US)
100g unsalted butter ( Sweet butter )

Cooking instructions

Coarsely grind biscuits
Melt sugar in saucepan until it begins to caramelize
Add butter, stirring continuously
Add ground biscuits and stir
Tip out onto greaseproof paper and leave to cool

Blueberry sauce

Ingredients
300g blueberries
2 tbsp caster sugar ("superfine" sugar in US)
1 tbsp water

Cooking instructions

Place blueberries, water and sugar in a pan and heat on medium heat until blueberries begin to soften
Place in cup to cool

Cheesecake filling

Ingredients
400g cream cheese
600ml double cream ( heavy cream )
6 tbsp icing sugar ( powdered sugar)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 vanilla essence

Cooking instructions

Whip double cream until stiff peaks form
In a separate bowl whisk cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract until smooth
Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mix
Fill chocolate lined mould with cream cheese mixture
Sprinkle over biscuit mix
Leave in fridge overnight
Turn cheesecake out onto plate, by placing mould upside down and carefully peeling it away
Spoon blueberry mix around edge of cheesecake
Dust lightly with icing sugar

As I have to have a gluten free diet, I use gluten free biscuits.

Silicone Butterfly cake mould

Have a sweet day!

Ahoy Matey

A friend is celebrating her little boys 3rd birthday this weekend with a Pirate party. We got talking today about cakes as she is still to decide exactly what to do so I thought I would search for some cool pirate themed cakes and this is what I came up with. Can't wait to see how the party turns out as she always throws such wonderful (and stylish) kids parties.

Butterfly themed tea & cakes

I spent this Valentine's day at my adorable niece's Christening. My sister's wedding was butterfly themed so she asked me if I could make some butterfly cupcakes in pink and turquoise with which to decorate the Christening cake. Well, how could I refuse! I adore little Molly and wanted to make the day really special for her.

As is tradition in England, the bride keeps the top tier of her wedding cake for her first baby's Christening. To decorate the cake I removed the original organza ribbon and crystal trim and replaced it with a single row of polka dot ribbon and pink rik-rak. I then attached the pink and blue iced butterflies with a spot of royal icing. My Mum made a second square cake and iced it for the bottom level. On this level I used two rows of polka dot ribbon and pink rik-rak and attached butterflies as above.

I will soon be posting the recipes and how to make all the butterfly themed goodies!

Have a sweet day!

Introducing Petunia...

Is she not the most delightful thing you have ever seen?? I met her on Sunday and just could not wait any longer to show you. These are her friends Zinnia and Hyacinth!

Their {just as delightful} creator Nancy had a stall at the same market as I, last weekend. Her children's fashion label Wolf and Willow is truly an amazing sight.

Nancy personifies the handmade revolution to a tee.

You can easily see that every item is made with so much thought, love and care.

Wolf and Willow designs are based on genuine vintage sewing patterns from the fifties, sixties and seventies and are {almost} too good to wear. Her collection consists of vintage inspired children's clothing, soft toys, bedding and accessories.

I especially love this Prancing Pony Pinafore

In her description of this dress she says "I make precious things that children will treasure and remember long after they are grown".... well Nancy this is certainly one of those.

Nancy will be working on a very special tee for Miss Louise so it won't be long before I can show you a few more photo's of her work

Why not pop into her Etsy store, Blog or Facebook page and say hello!

All images are from her blog

My Office

When I was designing the office in our new house I kept going back to the same picture everytime - one that had lots of storage, a place for my computer and somewhere that was bright.

Here is the photo I showed our cabinet maker ...

And here is the result ...

Lovely shelves that fit all my folders and boxes.

A desk in the middle of the room where you can do paperwork (or scrapbooking).

Another wall of bookshelves and cupboards for books, photo albums, scrapbook supplies, magazines (my husband gets a small section of this side for his pile of "things").

A dedicated space for my computer with doors underneath that can open and you can slide your chair under (sorry the doors are closed in these photos but you can open the doors and they slide back under the bench and it turns into my computer station)

I love my new office so much that I spend hours in here - I also have a thing for kikki-k boxes and folders and I love pink!

Bubby Makes Four...

Dear friends,

I have a not-so-secret-anymore to share with you. Something amazing, surprising, exciting, and maybe... just a wee bit frightening?

It would appear that in late August bubby will make four!

Yes folks, a miniscule mini-me is growing inside of me at a rapid rate of knots, and plans to join us in late August. I am thrilled of course, but two under two? Am I made of strong enough material?

A little over year ago, I recall all too clearly my obstetrician pressing a birth-control prescription into my (still fluid swollen) palm. I was then 7 weeks postpartum and assured him there really was no need. I would never EVER be doing this again, in fact I could not imagine why ANYONE would go back willingly and do it all again. When I got home, I tossed the prescription into the garbage. Falling pregnant with Fern had been, quite frankly, a horrific nightmare with many many many fruitless and heart wrenching months of nothingness on that tell-all-pee-stick before finally our prayers were answered. I expected it to be the same this time, when and IF we ever decided to go through it again.

But life can serve you up a whammy sometimes, and literally 5 seconds after my, you know, 'systems' returned to normal at the end of last year I fell pregnant. Just like that. And that is apparently how it goes, its just this stuff normally happens to other people. You know? I am humbled.

Anyhow, I've decided (for now) that seeing the only reason I can think of to find out the sex of the baby is for decorating purposes, I've decided that this time I will keep it a surprise. That I can come up with an inspired, gender neutral nursery an interior designer would be proud of. We'll see!

But let's play a little game. I want to know what YOU think - girl or boy? Leave your prediction in the comments section and after I have the baby, I'll randomly draw from the correct guesses. The winner will receive a handmade monkey softie. I am currently sewing two - one for a girl and one for a boy.

Here's a picture to give you a clue of the gender:

(yeah right, its my baby and even I cant tell one end from the other?!?)

Love your camera

today I had the privaledge of attending Angie Baxter's first photo workshop. It was a day of learning, photographing & many tips on how to use my camera in many different ways. I highly recommend this workshop & getting to spend a day with the amazing photographer Angie Baxter - lunch was yummi too!

Take your photos from "So-So" to "Stunning"!!
Discover the Tips and Tricks of Pro Photographers
Do you have beautiful subjects but difficulty 'getting the shot'? Do you feel you aren't using your camera and your creative side, to it's full potential? I am excited to offer a One Day Workshop that will teach you all you need to know to start taking brilliant photographs of people.

How to Work your Camera
Lighting, Composition and Elements that make a fantastic photograph
Creativity and Inspiration
Tips on Photographing People of all Ages
The easy way to Digitally Process your Images

here are some of my photos from today