Strawberry Buttercream Frosting....

Oh my goodness...

This frosting is divine!

There's no artificial food colouring in it at all...

Only pure delicious strawberries!

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

With beaters - whip together 1 cup of soft butter 

3 and a half cups of icing (confectioners) sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

and 3-4 tablespoons of strawberry syrup.

 I made my own strawberry syrup which is simply 1 cup frozen strawberries 

that is simmered over heat until soft,

 mushed with a bit of help from my potato masher, 

and strained through a sieve...

(Blend the left over pulp for a fab smoothie 
with a scoop or two of icecream, 

a tablespoon of sugar and milk.  

YUM!)

So all you do is beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and syrup...

It looks a bit greyish to start with...

but just beat it...
 and beat it some more...
and a wee bit more..

Until it is thick, fluffy and the palest pink!

I baked a simple butter cake to test this frosting on, and it was perfect!

It would work well as a piped frosting, but I didn't have time to do this...

Basic Butter Cake:

125 grams soft butter, 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

3/4 cup superfine caster sugar

2 eggs

BEAT until creamy...

then add...

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour 

and 1/2 cup milk.

Place in a greased 19 cm cake pan. 

Bake at 180 Celsius for 20 minutes 

or until cake skewer comes out clean.

Cool, then frost.

(Note: this recipe makes a small cake 

so increase quantities if large cake is desired.)

Birthday Cupcake...

Delicious passion-fruit cupcake

Iced with passion-fruit butter cream icing...

Decorated...

with sweet fondant  and sugar pearls! 

Who needs a cake when you can have a birthday cupcake?

Blue fondant butterflies...

Gorgeous paper case...

 On a beautiful antique plate...

This plate is 'Paragon'

Pretty, don't you think?

Fine bone china, made in England.

Birthdays are a time to celebrate...

With a cupcake made with LOVE!

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#cupcakebirthdaycake #cupcakebirthdaycakeideas

Stamped Gourd Bowl...

On my previous post about painting the back boards on the bookcase/shelf, 

you may have noticed the decorated gourd...

Many have asked me how this was done...

Here's a quick tutorial:

Paint the whole gourd (Cutting into a bowl comes later!)a base colour. 

 Here I have used cream.

Then stamp (I used a large shell stamp from the 'Stampin Up' range) 

using permanent black ink,

 spacing the shell stamps around the gourd as you go. 

 I guestimate everything...no rulers used!

Wait for it to dry.

Use a very sharp cutter to cut around the top of the shells, 

thus creating the bowl.

Paint the inside of the bowl.

Then using a sponge swipe contrasting colours of paint randomly around the gourd.

I used a bright yellow, brown and a gold.

Do your detailing.

I painted a border of brown.

Touched the shell stamp design  up with some bright yellow, 

and painted bright yellow around the cut edge of the gourd.

Join the shells and accentuate the top border using a permanent black marker pen.

When completely dry coat with clear varnish.

And there you have it.

Have a go if you can source a gourd.

They are so much fun  to paint and decorate.

#gourdart #gourds