Budget make up ~ my essentials

Hello! 

This week has been so long and I have been feeling quite deflated, anxious and just relatively bleh. 

So to make myself feel a little bit better I've been wearing make up most days. 

I have a relatively simply everyday makeup routine. I keep it natural, usually with big lashes. 

I cleared off my vanity space and went through all of my make up and was pretty bummed out when both of my mascaras where dried up and no longer usable. One of them was almost brand new. 

I rummaged through my body shop kit and found the Body Shop Big and Curvy Mascara and brushed it on my lashes, building up to 2 coats. 

I am so disappointed to say that not only did it clump, it also stung my eyes and left me red eyes and watery. 

Not exactly the look I wanted to achieve. 

So my mission today was to drag the BFF around the mall to find this particular beauty brand that is not only excellent but it also super inexpensive. 

I snapped up 2 different types of their mascaras and a concealer for the grand total of $12.95au 

Essence brand has so many different mascara options and then a waterproof counterpart for each. 

The packaging is enticing and each has it's own function. 

I chose an everyday one and one for when I'm going out and I want some super long lashes. 

The Multi action mascara is perfect for everyday use, gives a nice curl and a thick coat. 

I'm not a fan of waterproof mascara and the fantastic panda look you get when trying to remove it. 

This mascara was $4.95 and I love it. I don't even need to use my disgusting 20 year old lash curler (I'm not kidding it's ancient and it's grossly caked in makeup) 

I'm such a fan of this product and I don't have to worry about spending $30 on an awesome mascara and having it go bad like my last super fantastic mascara. It's so cheap I can replace it monthly if I so feel the need. 

(How long do you keep yours for? How long is the life of a mascara supposed to be?) 

Tha second mascara is great for a going out make up look. Giving a fatter more voluptuous lash. 

Maximum volume mascara has a super cool flexible head to help get into the corners without poking you in the eye. 

The brush is shaped like a whisk almost it looks pretty cool and does a fantastic job at giving full coverage. 

I'm sure I've rambled on too long about mascaras now so I'll move on to my next purchase which is a concealer. 

Stay natural concealer has a twisty bottom and a built in brush it's perfect for under the eyes, sides of the nose and any red spots you might have. 

The product I have been using is body shop lightening touch luminating brush on brightener for dark circles and shadows around the nose and I have to say the essence concealer does a much better job of highlighting those dark areas. I like the body shop one, it's light and you can't feel it on your skin but it has no staying power. 

Another product I use around my eyes is Simple's make up remover pen. It's perfect when you get too excited with your eyeliner or for when you look up before your mascara has dried. Gets in there and quickly cleans it all up. 

I use a vitamin C serum as a primer. It's made by the body shop and makes my skin so smooth. Providing a perfect base for my BB cream. 

That's it! 

I don't get too heavy on the make up just enough to give me a nice fresh look and give my self esteem a little boost. 

You can go wrong with budget beauty, when you know which ones to pick. 

Enjoy xx 

Stacey 

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

          

Hi guys,
This is a follow on from my Red Velvet Cupcake recipe that I posted a few days ago.
This is a very simple frosting and contains more cream cheese and less butter than a usual cream cheese frosting.
Its has a lovely light texture but still has the lovely tang on cream cheese along side a hint of vanilla.

          

Firstly as you may know you have to give frosting the time to whip, if you don't your frosting will not be light or fluffy it'll be grainy and quite possibly too sweet and difficult to pipe. 
You have to firstly whip the cream cheese and butter together until they are combined and pale, this will take around 5 minutes, if you see the yellow of the butter you must keep going. Scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl the whole time.  
Measure and sift or whisk your powdered sugar and on a slow speed begin to add the powdered sugar by the tablespoon. When you have all the sugar in and combined then you amp it up to high speed and whip for a further 5 minutes, adding the vanilla halfway through.
After 5 minutes this is where you will know if it is just right or if you need to add a teaspoon or 2 of milk in to thin it out a little. 
You want it thick and creamy for piping and a little thinner for filling and icing a cake.

{INGREDIENTS}
250 grams Cream Cheese at room temperature.
5 & 1/2 Tablespoons Butter softened
5 & 1/2 cups Icing Sugar 
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1-2 teaspoons milk (if needed)

Cream butter and Cream Cheese until pale and combined, slowly add in the powdered sugar on a slow speed and whip on high for 5 minutes until light and airy adding the vanilla halfway through.
Add 1-2 teaspoons milk if needed to thin frosting to desired consistency.
Pipe onto Red Velvet Cupcakes and enjoy. 

Until next time 
Stacey xx

Family Update...

          

Hey ya'll!
It's been a while. We've had a fair bit going on it the Clark household.
Let me fill you in on the catastrophe that I call parenting. Beetle is now 5 1/2 going on 15. Emotionally fragile and dealing with quite a few complex emotions I can't even begin to understand.
We've had breakdowns at parties over cake, after school because she didn't want to leave the classroom for active reading time and at home because well.... We looked at her. That's right people, we LOOKED at her.

So we look to be coming out the other side of this, don't ask me how. I don't even really know what was going on for a lot of this phase, seriously I was 5 minutes away from calling a therapist. 
We had a week off school with a cold, Lots of cuddles, favourite dinners and just major down time and would you look at that. Back to "normal". 
Phew! 

Now, Husband is stuck in job he quite frankly would like to see the back off but we are in the middle of a mining slump and if you've still got your job you are one of the lucky ones. So we soldier on, we wait for fly in day like it's the holy grail and when we see Daddy come out of the terminal we all cheer for joy and get ready to have whole week with Daddy. Yay!
Today is day 6, we are all tired the weather is terrible and we have 1 more sleep until Fly in day. Best day of the week! 3 seasons of My Little Pony and coffee mornings spur us on, we will survive we will get there. 

Monster is turning 4 in October and is the complete opposite of Beetle. She is how my sister would say "A rager" my little rageoholic! The two major things she has control over in her life, food and toileting, she has chosen to use against me. 

       

Now I have to say we have implemented a rewards chart and I don't want to get ahead of myself when I say "I think it's working" (knock on wood) but "I think it's actually working" 
When it was looking like she was never going to use a toilet again. Never going to eat and or feed herself again. 1 little stuffed "Pinkie Pie" MLP has changed the game. 
She wants that Pony, she wants it bad. I have the power! YES! 

          

Throw in the power of a rainbow coloured lifesavers ice block as a treat for going number 2's and we have a formula that cannot fail!! (knock on wood again).
You see I don't want to jinx myself but I m pretty confident.

So you see it's all been a little bit stressful around here but we've been soldiering on. 
It's nothing that a thousand other families are struggling with also. So if I've said it once, I'll say it again... ask your friends and family how they are doing regularly. Sometimes all we need is for someone to just listen. 

           

Until next time, be good to one another.

Stacey xx 

Roasted pumpkin soup

It's been awhile since I've posted and a lot has been going on.

Firstly and most importantly we've moved! I'm not talking just down the road either, we moved from Perth in Western Australia to Leinster which is located in the Goldfields of WA. 

It's been a huge transition, it's a very small mining town with very limited facilities. So organisation is the key to living out here. But so far we are really loving it. 

The reason for the move was so that we could see Hubby every day and it's been great. The kids are loving it, the school is great and we are fitting into life out here really well. 

Now this recipe has been in my drafts for a while, inspiration and desire have been running low and I thought I'd do some housekeeping and finish the things I've started. 

So I give you the worlds easiest roasted pumpkin soup. 

3 ingredients and you are done. 

1 litre of chicken stock and halved and roasted butternut pumpkin and a couple of roasted onions. 

It's as simple as scooping out all the deliciously caramelised pumpkin flesh and squishing the onions out of there skins. 

Adding them into the stock and using a blender or immersion blender to make it smooth and delicious. 

That's it short and sweet. 

Add seasonings and spices as you wish. 

It doesn't get much easier than this and although it's missing a final picture and a bunch of effort, I've finished the post and I feel good about finishing what I started. 

There may or may not be more recipes to come. I hate to just leave my blog sitting here unloved so we will see.

Enjoy guys. 

Stacey xx 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

       

Today I am doing some baking for a close friend, I wanted to do something special and at the same time something quick that I can make whilst still keeping and eye on my 2 monsters. 

Red velvet cupcakes are usually reserved for a special occasion due to being quite technical to make.

I have tried many, many, many different recipes and they always seem to have a vinegary taste to them. This recipe doesn't call for vinegar so it always tastes delicious and you just throw it all in your mixer and mix the crap out of it. They still have the wow factor that you would expect for a special occasion with out being difficult to make. 

Now you do need to add quite alot of Red food dye to this recipe today I am using Wilton Gel colouring in "Red (no taste)". I purchased this from my local Kitchen Warehouse store and it cost my $4.99 AU, I have used Americolour "Red Tulip"before and found that i had to use the entire bottle which exceeds 2 Tablespoons.)

You can omit colouring and just have the flavour without the colour and that is perfectly okay. You will just be missing out on the beautiful colour of these cupcakes.

Whilst we are on the subject of colouring, if you are throwing a party with a theme you can add any colours. I have made them yellow with red and blue frosting for a Snow White party before and they were a huge hit.

Before I start I like to put all my dry ingredients into a large bowl and give it a good whisk, this save me having to sift it all. You can do the same with your wet ingredients if you like but I just like to have it all measured and ready to add in. 

Whisk dry ingredients to remove and lumps and to combine well.

          

{INGREDIENTS}

2 & 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour

1 & 3/4 cups sugar 

1/4 cup Cocoa powder

1 Cup Water

200 grams Butter softened

3 Large Eggs

1 TB Red Gel Colouring (you can add more or less as you desire or omit completely) 

1 Tsp vanilla 

2 TB oil (I used rice bran oil)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 

Add all ingredients into your mixer and mix on low speed until just combined. scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and continue to mix on high speed for 5 minutes, the mixture will look like and fluffy,

Fill Cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 15 - 20 minutes. 

Looks delicious doesn't it? Throw it all in and turn the mixer on. 

           

Wilton "Red no Taste" gives a gorgeous colour as you can see in the background.

            

This is a super easy and delicious recipe especially when topped with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting that will be in my next post. 

I made these cupcakes with alot of love and I am so happy they could bring a little joy to a sad day. 

This recipe Yields 2 dozen cupcakes. I under baked my first batch so I only actually got 12 :)  

           

Please try it out for yourself and enjoy.

Until next time 

Stacey xx 

FIFO: {saying goodbye again}

                                               
Fly out day. Ugh it's disgusting actually. 
Not only am i cleaning up a weeks worth of sweeping the housework under the carpet, I'm dealing with the emotional aspect of being apart for another swing. 

We should be used to it we've been at it long enough, the kids are old enough to understand where Daddy goes and what he does when he gets there.
It's a lifestyle that when done right can work really well. We seem to be a bit out of sync with it all at the moment. Budget falling apart, routines all over the place and I'm a routine kind of girl.
So we spend our week doing the school drop offs and pick ups. We have the odd coffee morning and we try to find things to fill our weekends up without spending to much money or getting in the way of every other "normal" families time with their husbands enjoying their weekends off. 

Today after dropping Hubby off at the airport, the girls and I had our usual chat about how we will miss him and how sad we feel when he goes away and I  had a little sniffle and surprised myself with how sad I felt and how I hadn't felt that way since we first started dating 8 years ago when I would be alone for 2 weeks while he was away for work. 
I feel miserable and lonely, putting the kids to bed and feeling completely alone. Oh woe is me. 
I guess we are all allowed to feel a little sorry for ourselves at times and I guess I should consider the other feelings I have.

1) I feel incredibly grateful. I can stay home and take care of our children and give them the time and love that they deserve. I have a wonderful husband who works hard to support us and get us the things we need, a place to live, food to eat clothes on our back.

2)Pride. I have 2 gorgeous little girls who are well adjusted and more often than not they are happy. They are healthy and smart and they love each other and us, their parents.

3)Anxiety. Am I doing this right? Am I raising my children the right way? Do I give them nutritious meals? Will they grow up and be successful?
Also, am I safe here? As a part time single Mum, are we safe staying here without a Daddy/ Husband to protect us? Is the fire alarm working? What do I do if our elderly fur baby decides it's time to cross the rainbow bridge? 

Being away from the family has got to be harder for hubby than it is for us and can't be easy living so far away from anything, eating camp food that is neither exciting or tasty and just plain old missing your family, home, pets and your own bed. 

Are we gonna be okay? Yeah. Are we gonna be happy about it? Nope. Are we used to it? Most of the time. 
Fly in Fly out is not for everyone but we make it work most of the time and the rest of the time we just have to make sure we send extra texts, Facebook messages and phone calls. 
Making sure we tell each other that I love and miss you is the easiest way to make everyone feel special and it's always heartwarming to hear that you are being thought about.

So if you are with your family today give them a hug, be thankful that you are all together and if you have anyone in your life who's family does FIFO, call them, text them or better yet give them a hug and tell them that they are doing a great job. 

                         

It's not easy but someone has to do it.
Until next time....
Stacey

Lily's 3rd Birthday and Finding Nemo Party

                      
Last Year in October my baby turned 3, much to my dismay, there she goes growing up without my permission.
We wanted to throw her a big birthday party and we wanted to theme it with her favourite thing on earth at the time, Finding Nemo.
Lily is obsessed with Nemo, Dory, Marlin and Bruce. She can't get enough. We even did her room up as part of her birthday present, painting it a gorgeous shade of blue and decorating it with her favourite characters.

So a Nemo themed birthday seemed like the best idea and we ran with it.
I was on ebay and etsy for months leading up to the event, buying table cloths and ordering invites and trying to keep it within budget.
I wanted to make the perfect cake, and I had been working with fondant a little more regularly and I felt confident enough to tackle this cake that I had found a tutorial on spoonful for.

                  

It took me around 12 hours to make this cake from start to finish including making my own marshmallow fondant. The tutorial for the top tier of this cake is here.

It wasn't big enough for all of the guests so made a bottom tier, surrounded by cookie crumb sand and gumpaste seaweed.

Very easy but time consuming. I was really very proud of my attempt. 

                  

I kept the food very simple opting for healthier food where possible whilst still trying to please the conventional guests happy with sea themed cracker biscuits and blue jelly with little fish lollies inside, cupcakes with little Nemo rice paper toppers I found on eBay for around $3.

                  

                  

This watermelon shark was super fun to make, I found a youtube clip that me and my Mum watched over and over until I felt confident enough to get in there and make it without chopping my fingers off or stabbing myself in the eyes.

We had halloween candy hanging around so we swiped 2 jelly eyeballs out of it and hey presto you have Bruce. 

                    

Miss 3 was so happy and had the best time! The party went off (almost) without a hitch and I would only make a few changes. First being, don't inflate the helium balloons until the day of the party and secondly, look for that perfect back drop earlier to avoid disappointment. It would have improved my photos and really capped off how great the table looked with the shells and all the blue bits and pieces that made it look amazing.

                    

This was the first party I have ever put together like this and I now know that it is all about organisation and simplicity. You don't have to go overboard and spend alot of money, pick your theme early and start collecting things early. 

Thanks to Mum and Dad for providing the venue when I didn't have a suitable place to hold it. 

I'm glad everyone had a great time and I look forward to organizing Miss 5's Monster High themed birthday in December. 

Also a very happy Mother's day to all the mum's out here being spoilt today, have a wonderful day.

Until next time...

Stacey xx

Frugal Friday : {Health Conscious Easy Mac 'n' Chicken}

        

Thank God is Friday! Woot!! Woot!!

Oh Wait I'm a parent and I don't really get a weekend. Bummer!

Oh well chin up and soldier on is what i say because I have a solution to the Mummy guilt we get when it comes to the end of the week and you know what!? We're all tired and can't be fluffed making dinner!

Wait! Don't reach for that Box of Kraft Mac and Cheese just yet. You know the one i mean in a dark blue box with that powdered cheese or chicken flavouring aka "chemical shit storm". 

                              

You can make your own in 10 minutes! 

4 Ingredients. 

I've done the experimenting, the kids have done the taste test and you know what it's Easy and it's YUM! 

Take 2 Tablespoons of Plain flour and 2 tablespoons of butter, put them into a saucepan and turn the heat on. grab your wooden spoon and stir it as the butter melts. 

                   

Did you make a paste? Is it lump free? Yes? awesome! you've made a roux. No? keep on stirring, you'll get there! 

Ok so you have your nice smooth roux, stir it over a low heat, you have to cook the flour out, meaning you don't want the taste of raw flour in your sauce. 

At this stage you might wanna switch to a whisk.

Get 2 cups of Chicken stock, Homemade, out of a carton, concentrated paste, I don't care just don't use powder that stuff is disgusting! 

                   

Now pour the stock over your roux whilst whisking, don't go too fast you want to incorporate the stock into the flour and butter mix, once you've added it all in keep stirring until your sauce is thick and smells amazing!

                   

Guess what that's it! 

Wait! What's the fourth ingredient? Macaroni of course. 

Cook 1 & 1/2 cups macaroni according to packet instructions.

At this stage I decided that I wanted to add some broccoli so I threw in 1 & 1/2 cups of broccoli florets in with the pasta with 5 minutes left of cooking time.

                      

I drained the broccoli and pasta and poured them into a casserole dish and stirred the sauce through. You can eat it like this or you can take it a step further and add cheese and bread crumbs to the top to add some delicious crunch. 

                     

Cheap, easy and tasty. My kids will eat the entire thing themselves if I let them. I served it with Roast Chicken, carrot and beans. 

                   

After having my husband home for 3 weeks (and we didn't try to kill each other once! FIFO wives, you know what I mean.) we all feel a bit sad and this makes for great comfort food. It's so much better for you than eating out of a box (Even though we all still do sometimes), 

{Ingredients}

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons of Flour (Gluten free works well too) 

2 Cups Chicken Stock 

1 1/2 cups Macaroni

Optional ingredients: 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, 1/2 cup cheese, 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs. 

{Method}

Boil a large pot of water. Once boiling add in Pasta.

In a separate pot add butter and flour and put over a low heat. Stir together a butter melts to form a paste or a roux. Cook the roux for a further 3-5 minutes to "cook out the flour".

Slowly pour in the stock whilst whisking to form a smooth and thick sauce. Cook whilst stirring for a further 2-3 minutes on low heat. 

Once Pasta is cooked remove from heat and drain. Pour the sauce of the pasta stir through and enjoy. 

Serves 4 as generous side or 3 children as a meal on it's own. 

Enjoy! 

Until next time, have a great weekend! 

Stacey xx 

Easy Lunchbox Ideas {Cheesy Vegemite Scrolls}

                 

Hello again,

Here in Perth we are heading back into the second term of school. I hear a resounding hallelujah! For me it hasn't been so bad. 

Hubby took a week of holidays so with him being FIFO that's given us 3 whole weeks of quality family time. 

It's been great we've really taken some serious thought about giving each other time out. Both of us really needed some R&R away to just be and not have to worry about anyone but ourselves. 

I think it's important to have some time to be selfish once in a while. It's important for your sanity. 

Now we are getting back into the mindset of going back to work and school and I was asked by a friend (Hi Brookie!) to do something easy, and cheap for the lunchbox. 

Miss 5 goes to a crunch and sip school (you can find out what that is here) so we are limited as to what we can send to school in the way of baked goods.

These Cheesy Vegemite Scrolls tick all the boxes and I've been making them for so long I think my recipe stands up to the ones you can buy from the bakery.

Yesterday whilst out running a few errands I got the familiar "I'm hungry" from my girls (they act like have never been fed the minute we leave the house).

 I wasn't prepared because A)They'd just had morning tea and B) We were only going to be out for half an hour. 

So I ducked over to the Baker's Delight at our local Mall and picked up a pack of 4 mini Cheesymite Scrolls. The kids were happy and excited and so pleased to get a bought treat and I was happy for them until the lovely cashier rang up my total.... $6.00!! 

Are you effing kidding me? Was my internal reaction. My outward response was a bit different and I parted with my $6.00 thinking, I could have put that money in my savings bottle (I'll fill you in on that another time).

So I set myself a challenge, lets take $6.00 and figure out how many I can make at home. 

Okay so I don't buy fancy flour and I always have a can of yeast in my fridge so taking $6 worth of ingredients out of what I already had was easy. If you have to go out and buy flour, yeast, cheese, vegemite etc it will obviously cost you more. 

                           

I buy Coles brand flour, I pay under $2 for 2kg of all purpose and Self Raising. It's around $1.50 for a kg of Wholewheat flour. 

The Cheese I buy is Coon Tasty Cheese and that I buy in a block for around $9 less if it's on sale.

I buy a 280g Can of Lowan whole foods yeast for around $4 and it lasts forever stored in the fridge. You can get sachets for cheaper but in the long run it costs alot more. 

Vegemite is probably the most expensive ingredient and you don't use alot around 2 Tablespoons. 

Really you can't get more budget than this. You can switch up the cheese and find a cheaper brand and you can switch up the flour and use bread flour or Gluten free flour like Orgran for example. You can also use this dough as a deep dish pizza base, for other types of scrolls including sweet and I like making chunky bread sticks to accompany soup. 

It's very versatile. 

                                         

                               

                               

So you can use your bread maker, kitchen aid or even your food processor it it has a large enough bowl.

I'm going to be using my bread maker.

Lets get started. 

{Ingredients : makes 12} 
1 cup of warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active Dry Yeast
1 Tablespoon of honey (you can use sugar)
2 teaspoons of salt 
2 Tablespoons of Olive oil. (If you don't have olive oil, you can use rice bran, canola or sunflower as a substitute. Please don't use vegetable oil as it is usually a blend of oils including uncertified palm oil.)
2 cups of Bread flour or all purpose flour and 1 tablespoon of bread improver
1 Cup of wholewheat or spelt flour
(+ extra flour if you are kneading by hand)
2-3 Tablespoons Vegemite
1 cup cheddar cheese grated

{Method: Bread maker}
Add ingredients in this order- yeast, salt, flour, bread improver (if adding), honey,oil and water.

                     

Set machine to pizza setting and let it complete the cycle.

My machine takes 45 on a pizza cycle which includes all the kneading and rising. 
{Method: Stand Mixer with dough hook}

In the bowl add your water, yeast and honey. Allow the yeast to activate. you will know that this has happened when the yeast mix has a foamy top.Mix all your dry ingredients together. 
Add the oil to the bowl of the mixer and begin mixing on a low speed.
Slowly add in the dry ingredient mix when combined turn up the speed on your mixer and knead the dough for a further 5 minutes. The dough should come away from the sides of the bowl. 
Remove the bowl from the mixer and the hook from the dough. Cover with cling film and allow it to double in size.
At this stage you will knock the air out of the dough and continue on with the next steps.

                                      

Remove dough from the machine / mixer and on a floured surface roll out a large rectangle. 

I picked up this small jar of Vegemite from Woolworths for a little over $4.00

                       

spread vegemite over the entire base, being as light or heavy handed as you would like. Sprinkle 3/4 cup of cheese over the base and then with the long side of the rectangle facing you, roll the dough away from yourself keeping it as tight as possible.
Once you have a long log, push the 2 ends in so they are flat. Cut as many 1 inch rounds as the dough allows and place them slightly apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Cover lightly with a piece of cling film and allow to rise again they should increase by at least half again. Placing in a warm place will help with the rising process (Mine are on the stove top of my preheating oven). 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 
Once your scrolls have risen sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for 25 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and the dough springs back when you poke it. 

                   

{Simple variations}
Sun-dried tomato pesto or Basil Pesto are great replacements for Vegemite. 
Spread the dough with garlic butter mix (simply 1/2 cup of butter a tablespoon of garlic and a teaspoon of chopped parsley mixed together) either with or without cheese.
Pizza sauce with any of your favourite pizza toppings such as capsicum, onion, pineapple, pepperoni, diced ham or bacon etc to make delicious pizza scrolls or simply use this dough to make pizza bases.
To make a sweet variation you can make a mixture of brown sugar, butter and cinnamon to make cinnamon scrolls top with a glaze.
Add your favourite jam to the centre, or nutella and peanut butter. 
You are limited to your imagination.

This recipe is a favourite in my house, either needing to be consumed on the same day or frozen separately in sandwich bags and consumed within 3 months.

This dough can easily make 2 large pizza bases and you can store the unbaked dough in the freezer in ziplock bags with all the air pressed out of them for around 3 months also, defrost in the fridge overnight.  

Enjoy the simplicity of this recipe and don't be afraid to change it up.

Until next time......
Stacey xx

P.S. Not an Aussie? Find out what Vegemite is here.

Happy Easter! {Carrot sugar cookies}

Well the Easter long weekend is coming to an end, we've survived the sugar high and chocolate meltdowns.

We've endured a breakout of nits and an entire weekend of Miss 3 waking up screaming all night long. 

We've celebrated with our families and our friends (all the while NOT passing on headlice thank goodness).

It's been a lovely weekend. 

I have a very strong opinion on the use of non-certified Palm oil and as a main ingredient in so many Easter Eggs and Easter chocolate we decided not to buy any this year. 

(The Easter Bunny did drop of a Cadbury Freddo Frog Casket to each of our children. Palm oil free of course.) 

So what do you make instead? 

What will the kids love? Something sweet  and something cute - that's what!! 

What does the Easter bunny sustain himself with whilst delivering all of those Easter goodies? 
Carrots?! Did you say Carrots?!

                                  

{Sugar Cookie Dough : Montreal Confections} 

Ingredients
4 Cups of Regular Granulated Sugar
1 Pound of Butter (454 grams) 
2 Tablespoons Vanilla 
4 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
7 Cups All Purpose flour 


Method
In your mixer cream butter and sugar together. 
Add Eggs one at a time until combined.
Add Vanilla.
In a large bowl measure and sift the flour and baking powder. 
Slowly add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until a dough forms.

Split dough into two, shape into discs and wrap and refrigerate the dough for half an hour.

Flour your bench and rolling pin.
Roll out dough to 0.5 cm thickness and using a floured cutter cut out your shapes. 
Place the shapes on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and freeze for a half an hour. 
Bake straight from the freezer for 10- 15 minutes depending on your oven. 

{As you can see this recipe makes a lot, you can halve the recipe. It was way too big for my mixer and I made a huge mess}.

{Tips to remember: Use butter at room temperature, use a bench mixer with a large bowl or a large bowl with a hand mixer. This mixture make A LOT of cookies. I'm not kidding. You can freeze the cookies unbaked for a few weeks. Your Dough may be slightly sticky but you are using flour to roll out and the dough will absorb some of the flour.}

{Cutting out the Carrot Shapes.}

{Spacing the shapes out as they will spread a little when baking}

{Royal Icing}  

Ingredients
8 Tablespoons of water
3 Tablespoons of Meringue Power (I used Pavlova Magic, Yes the one in the cute plastic Egg) 
Icing sugar
Lemon juice.

Method
In a large bowl add your water and meringue powder. Using a whisk mix these together until they a frothy. Add Icing Sugar, whisking until you have a thick paste. There is no measured amount, just keep adding until its thick and glossy.

Separate some of your mixture into 2 bowls add Orange gel paste to one and Green Gel paste into the other. You will need to make the icing into 15 second consistency. To do this you will need to add lemon juice drop by drop mixing until you have a smooth consistency that when you run a spoon through it settles back into a flat top after you've counted to 15 seconds.
I hope that makes sense. I will post a link to a youtube video that I like that gives a great tutorial on 15 second Royal icing here.
One you have gotten your colour and consistency right you are ready to use it on cooled cookies. I use disposable piping bags with a coupler and a number 2 tip for this project.

{If you look closely you will see I've use elastic bands to close the bags and sticky tape over the tip.}

On your cookie pipe a border in orange and flood immediately, using a toothpick you can help spread the icing and smooth it out.

{You can see I've outlined and flooded the cookie, at this point I used a toothpick to spread the icing.}

 Gently shake your cookie to get a smooth result.

{Keep the bottom of the cookie touching your work surface and gently and
quickly shake the cookie to smooth out the surface.}

 Let this crust for 20 minutes, you will see that the icing has crusted because it will lose some of it's sheen. You will need to let it crust before moving on to the green because you do not want the colours to run into one another. 
Using the same technique pipe a border and flood with the green icing. You will need to wait 12-24 hours before packaging and the cookies will set best if left out uncovered in the open air.

{I made so many of these little suckers. They tasted really good too!} 

This was my first time icing cookies like this. 
The recipe I used was from Montreal Confections, I absolutely love her YouTube channel and blog and I was inspired to try something simple like these carrots and really learnt the basics of how to do it from watching the videos. 
It was alot of fun, but it was time consuming and I still have alot of frozen shapes cut out waiting to be baked another day. Next time I do something like this I will do it using my Greek Yoghurt Sugar Cookie Recipe that you can find here. It tastes a lot nicer and even though the lemon juice helps cuts the sweetness of the icing I think that it would really help to use a less sweet dough recipe.

I hope that I have kind of simplified things for you so you can achieve a great looking decorated sugar cookie. It's not something that I see often in Australia but I bet they would look effective on a Party table and I will be looking for excuses to make them again and again for all occasions. 
So do have a go and send me pictures of your results I would love to see them. 
You can email me at staceytimms@gmail.com.

Until next time....
Stacey xx