Homemade Coconut 'Bounty' Bars

When I have failures, they seem to happen in twos or threes.

Thankfully, by some miracle, 
I seem to be able to save the project at hand!
Remember the 'almost failure' with the French Look DIY pot?

http://miabellapassion.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/mod-podge-creation-reveal.html

Well, folks, here is another 'almost' EPIC FAIL
 I thought I would share it with you.
I added the word EPIC as I was pretty sure 
Whilst making these Bounty Bars, they were definitely not savable!

I found a delicious recipe for homemade bounty bars
with SIMPLE picture instructions at 'Not Enough Cinnamon',

http://notenoughcinnamon.com/2012/11/30/easy-homemade-bounty-aka-mounds/

Homemade bounty bars aresometimes known as mounds.

I thought, "Oh, YUM, let the confectionery-making begin!"

It all started off so well.

I gathered my ingredients: sweetened condensed milk, coconut, and melting chocolate.

And into my bowl went:

one cup of condensed milk and three cups of coconut.

It was mixed together as instructed.

So far so good!

But then mistake number one occurred,

I added a bit more coconut as I thought the mixture was too wet!

 Mental note to self for the future...

'Do not overthink things!'

Then I 'squeezed' the coconut mixture - using clean, wet hands into mounds.

Which of course was harder to do, 

because my mixture was now drier than it should have been.

Second note to self:

'Do not adjust quantities - stick to recipe!'

The wee mounds were popped onto a tray lined with baking paper and into the freezer for 20 minutes they went.

Near the end of chilling time, I melted the milk chocolate.

This is where things went horribly, horribly wrong!

The first mound was dipped, and the coldness of it made the chocolate set FAST!

It looked OK, quite smooth, but a little thick, 

so thinking the chocolate needed to be thinner.

Mistake number two occurred.

 I added a little bit of cream to it.

BIG MISTAKE!

IT WENT THICKER!!!

Needless to say, I was grateful a chocolate cake was in the oven, 

and my chocolate concoction was now the ganache to ice it with!

Then melted dipping chocolate attempt number two began.

Dark chocolate this time.

Nicely melted, 

but I still struggled to dip my mounds nicely.

They did not look smoothly coated.

In fact, mine most certainly resembled hedgehogs!

And worst still, one got completely stuck to the fork.

(But that was a terrific excuse to EAT it!)

It's clear I need a few lessons on how to dip confectionery into melted chocolate.

(I think I did not have my melted chocolate hot enough!)

But the good thing is,

they may not look like the perfect chocolate mounds 

created by 'not enough cinnamon' on their Blog,

BUT THEY DO TASTE DELICIOUS.

My homemade coconut bounty bar mounds have a new name:

 'Coconut hedgehogs'!

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Cupcake making for kids!

It was with much fun that we had the pleasure of 'testing' a cupcake kit for kids

for our local Whitcoulls bookstore!
First, we make a batch of vanilla cupcakes
and let them cool before icing them.

You can use your favourite vanilla cupcake recipe or a bought box mix.

 The kit had the smallest rolling pin you've ever seen in it...

cute little cutters, and fondant in pink, yellow, white and blue.

This kit is quite educational, too.
With fondant in primary colours mixed to make new colours,

Yellow + blue = green...
So that's a bit of colour science, isn't it?

 The fondant passed the taste test.

Kids would love the different flavours...

 Pink strawberry was the best!

 The little cupcake stand was a trick to get the cupcakes on...

But this was the end result.

Cupcake making with fondant icing.

Now there's an idea to keep the children entertained 
during the weekend,
or holidays!

Use dyes and flavours with plain fondant on your homemade cupcakes, if you can't find a kit.

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DIY Willow Wreath...

The countdown to Christmas is truly underway, have you been doing any planning?

I thought I had better get a move on with that,

 so I sat down with pen and notepad, and planned away!

Every year I have a colour theme,

and this year it will be the traditional red, dark green and white.

I'm going to make book page butterflies, Scotty dog decorations in white felt, and a decorated wreath.

Those bits will go nicely with the felt reindeer made last year,

and all the other Christmasy things, I have made or collected over the years.

Don't you just LOVE Christmas?

When do you decorate your house?

Are you like me and decorate in the first week of December?

The large willow wreath was today's creation.

 It should be dry enough to decorate in a few weeks.

Here is how you make a willow wreath...

There is a little willow tree in the house paddock at Mia Bella Gardens, so I gathered some of it.

You will need to pick the more flexible new growth.

As well as some thin wire and secateurs.

The next task was to strip the leaves and tips from the willow...

 Then cut some small pieces of wire...

 Choosing some of the longer lengths of willow bend into a circle.

 Using the wire, bind it together in three of four places.

 Don't worry if it's not perfectly round, 

for you will shape it as you weave more willow into it.

 Keep weaving and twisting, poking the willow into the circle.

Give it a squish and help it shape into a circle.

If you have access to willow, have a go at making a wreath...

It is lovely to work with as it is so supple.

It took me about 3/4 of an hour to make this....

Quite therapeutic actually, all that weaving.

 And here it is...ready to hang and dry...

Don't the poppies look pretty framed by my DIY willow wreath?

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