Jikana Damaru

soft diffused light

Once upon a time we'd sneak into my parents room to raid mum's make-up bag or the loose change drawer. Now I'm slipping in to take afternoon photos - so nothing has really changed. Here, the voile curtains create a soft, diffused light to compliment the beautiful wallpaper and dark furnishings. I love this room.

Toffee apple milk chocolate truffles

Toffee apple milk chocolate truffles (makes 16)

Ingredients
200g 40% milk chocolate drops
3 tbsp double cream (heavy cream)
1 tbsp toffee apple flavouring
Metallic gold sanding sugar for rolling them in.

Cooking instructions

Place the chocolate drops and cream in a medium sized saucepan on a medium heat.
Stir until chocolate has completely melted and has a smooth texture.
Remove from heat and whisk in toffee apple flavouring.
Pour into small bowl and refrigerate for about 1 1/2 hours, or until set.
Scoop tsp of chocolate mix into your hand and roll into a ball shape.
Roll in sanding sugar to coat.
Refrigerate to store for up to a week (but best served at room temperature).

Hand-made toffee apple flavoured chocolate truffles

Hotel Chocolat sent me some 40% milk chocolate drops to play with. Knowing how much my older sister loves Hotel Chocolat chocolate I thought I would make some chocolate truffles to sit on my Winter Woodland dessert table. I started off with rich milk chocolate ones, then went onto mixing other flavours in them like the delicious Baileys ones yesterday. Now here are some toffee apple flavoured ones using toffee apple syrup I picked up on a trip to Paris earlier this year.

Have a sweet day!

Red and Green Christmas Candy Table

My gorgeous friend Kristy asked me to put together a Christmas Day candy table for her extended family to enjoy at the end of their Christmas celebrations.

Her colour theme was traditional red and green so I used the lovely Vintage Rudolph printables from Kim at The Tomkat Studio which tied everything together beautifully.

I used some great Christmas candy selections including chocolate beans, chocolate balls and rock candy all in red, green and white.

Mini chocolate bars and rock candy sticks were tied with pretty ribbon.

These ever so cute mini candy Christmas trees were a hit with the kids as they got one each.

Candy Canes, Jelly beans, raspberry licorice and a christmas pudding made for one very sweet celebration.

wordless Wednesday

not sure if many of you are around this time of year but I still wanted to continue WW. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas celebrations & are looking forward to a happy coming of the new year. enjoy your Wednesday.

Photos from Christmas

Christmas. Filled with family, love, and chaos! I love the holiday. I wish it weren't over already. But it was good. So good. Be prepared for a lot of pictures in no order what-so-ever!

Christmas was awesome, as always.

We were able to spend time with all these cuties:
Daniel & Dylan

Bailey, Hayden, and Olivia.

This was from Christmas Eve

Notice the pretty necklace from Mandy @ a sorta fairytale?!

We were all very spoiled. We gave and received lots of goodies.

Even Roxy got a few presents in her stocking for being such a good girl. She loved her new sock monkey!

Snuggies were a big hit.

The presents may have put a temporary smile on our faces but the pure long term happiness is because of the time we spend together as a family.

The day after Christmas we did a lot of relaxing. It snowed all day and was super windy and bitter cold so we stayed tucked inside! Here are some photos when I did venture out for a minute!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Back to the daily grind...but happy to have another three day weekend ahead!

Bailey's milk chocolate truffles

Bailey's Milk Chocolate Truffles (makes 24)

Ingredients
200g 40% milk chocolate drops
3 tbsp double cream (heavy cream)
1 1/2 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream liqueur
Bowl of metallic gold sanding sugar for rolling them in.

Cooking instructions

Place the chocolate drops and cream in a medium sized saucepan on a medium heat.
Stir until chocolate has completely melted and has a smooth texture.
Remove from heat and whisk in Baileys.
Pour into small bowl and refrigerate for about 1 1/2 hours, or until set.
Scoop tbsp of chocolate mix into your hand and roll into a ball shape.
Roll in sanding sugar to coat.
Refrigerate to store, for up to a week (but best served at room temperature).

Hotel Chocolat sent me some 40% milk chocolate drops and white chocolate drops to play with. Knowing how much my older sister loves Hotel Chocolat chocolate I thought I would make some chocolate truffles to sit on my Winter Woodland dessert table. I started off with rich milk chocolate ones, then went onto mixing other flavours in them like these delicious Baileys ones!

Have a sweet day!

Christmas Drinks Dessert Table

Hi Everyone - I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas. I am still trying to catch my breath from an incredibly busy few weeks and can't quite believe that after all that preparation Christmas has come and gone once more. We had a wonderful day here and Sydney turned on it's finest weather for a true Aussie Christmas - blue skies for as far as you could see and the perfect temperature so the kids could play in the pool.

Today I have some photos for you of the dessert table for Christmas drinks we held here at our house for Sofia's pre-school. I also put a cheese and drinks table together. We had a lovely evening - the perfect way to end off the school year.