Cupcakes for Charity 2011 - April

April

A tad late here sorry. I did do the sale on the third week of the month, but between Easter and looking for a new place to live, things have been pretty hectic around here.

So belatedly here are my Easter cupcakes! I made vanilla cupcakes, with a caramel filled chocolate Easter egg baked inside, and sweet sweet butter cream frosting.

Each Cupcake was topped with little speckled chocolate eggs. All proceeds I raised went to Animals Australia, a national animal protection organisation. They have a great mission statement:

"Animals Australia believes that we can create a better world for all through promoting kindness to animals. Our goal is to significantly and permanently improve the welfare of all animals in Australia."

This was my mid-morning snack this morning, it was tasty tasty! Strawberry Pocky is the best.

Things I love right now.

With the cooler weather coming early this year, there are more blankets going on the bed. I love my first ever crochet blanket, which I think I forgot to blog about when I finished it last year. Bit crooked, but I love it nonetheless and I look forward to beginning a new one this winter.

I love my little box of brightly coloured threads. I've been slowly but surely working on belated birthday and baby shower presents. The list is still rather long, but I hope to have some time over the Easter long weekend to knock off a few more projects.

I love our local Roller Derby League. This is a logo of my favourite team, The Salty Dolls. The very team that a friend of ours recently got on to, so made it extra important to go along and support them. I am not a sports loving person at all, but I find the derby games are really exciting and fun to watch.

I love home made sushi. People at work always ask how I manage to make them, and I have to say once you've done it once and know how, it's really easy! No harder than putting a sandwich together, the only thing that takes a while is cooking the rice and having the patience for it to cool. I mainly make tuna or teryaki chicken ones.

Lastly, I love these two stinkers. They have been confused by the recent day lights saving time changes, and have been waking me up at ungodly hours of the morning for breakfast, and are ready for dinner way too early as well. There's a whole lotta meowing going on in the kitchen!

MOAR DINOS!

I got these three dino's from a car boot sale a month or so ago. I loved them, luckily the guy had quite a few of them, as I'd never had enough money for the set. So when I finally did have the spare change, I headed straight for his stall! I love the Dimetrodon the most out of the three. Each one is about 2.5cm. So cute!

The Handwriting Game

Becky from Strumpets Crumpets recently nominated me to play The Handwriting Game. My handwriting is pretty messy most of the time, but sometimes when I have a nice pen I can write neatly. I have to write a lot of nursing notes at work, and a nice pen can make the difference to my day!

1. What is your name / blogger name?
Jessy, or apparentlyjessy

2. What is your blog URL?
www.apparentlyjessy.blogspot.com

3. Write "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog"

4. Write Your Favourite Quote
"Game Onnn!" From Waynes World

5. What is your favourite song?
3 Libras - A Perfect Circle, a really beautiful song, you should listen to it if you haven't heard it.
(If you listen carefully, you might get a clue as to how I came up with my blog name)

6. What is your favourite music right now?
I have lots of favourites, and a wide variety of tastes, but I've been listening to Sia and Temper Trap a lot lately.

7. Is there anything else you would like to add about your handwriting?
Meow! I draw that kitty a lot, have done for years, one day I'd like it tattooed on me, really tiny.

8. Choose Thee Bloggers to follow suit:
Danelle - One of my first blogging pals
Donna - One of my newest blogging pals
Holly - One of my favourite bloggers

Loki is Growing!

My little loco Loki is growing fast! This is the stare I get whenever I am eating something, it's like he is trying to hypnotoad me into giving him my food.

Cupcakes for Charity 2011 - March

March

This month the 3rd Thursday conveniently fell on St Patrick's Day. I made up Chocolate Guinness cupcakes with coffee butter cream frosting. I have always wanted to try out the beer cake thing so this was the perfect opportunity. I only made 2 dozen cupcakes to sell this time, as I'm a bit tired of desperately trying to convince people to buy the last few. Murphy's law, these cupcakes sold out REALLY quickly, and lots of people were upset they missed out. I seriously can't win!

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes - Recipe from Annies Eats.
Makes 24 large cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup stout (Guinness)
16 tbsp. unsalted butter
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used Self Raising Flour and omitted the salt and baking soda)
2 cups sugar
1½ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners. Combine the stout and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs and sour cream to blend. Add the stout-butter mixture and beat just to combine. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed just until incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 to ¾ full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Frost as desired and nom nom nom nom.

All proceeds were donated to the Red Cross Japan and Pacific disaster appeal, instead of my usual animal charity, as while sick on the couch I watched probably too many hours of the disaster footage, and I really felt like I needed to do something for the people who were so lovely to us on our holiday in Tokyo last year.

How lovely is this fundraiser print from Etsy seller This Paper Ship. I think its great how crafty and creative people band together to help each other out in times of need.

Thrifting Finds

I've managed to go to several Sunday morning car boot sales this year. I mainly go there to buy cheap fruit and vegetables from local farmers (half the price of the supermarkets). Sometimes I'll come home with some good loot, sometimes I'll find nothing at all. These are my favourite recent finds...

These wooden cat salt and pepper shakers are just so lovely, and were actually a find from late last year. I bought them from a man who had hundreds of salt and pepper shakers, his mother had collected them her whole life, and when she passed on he didn't know what to do with them all. So selling them seemed like a good idea, and I am glad, as I found these beauties amongst them all.

I had to buy this vintage ice cream tin, despite it not being all that nice on the inside. The design on the top was so intriguing and cool, who knew Sunkist made ice-cream!? Apparently they did in the 60's. And well, isn't the red dancing elephant on the side so sweet:

Lastly, this was a recent find. I was drawn to it because of the cute red rabbits. When I opened it up it seemed to be some sort of clutch purse, or maybe jewellery box. The seller wasn't really sure what it was meant for, she let me have it for $2!

The inside compartments are separated by these shrimp, such a strange animal to pair with singing rabbits! Once I clean it up a bit I think I'll use it for storing sewing bits and pieces in.

Thrifting is so much fun. Have you found any bargains lately?