Cinnamon and Apple Cupcakes

When i am feeling kind of antsy, restless, frustrated, and annoyed, i like to pace around my kitchen and busy myself with some form of baking. Tonight i had a craving for apple and cinnamon muffins/cupcakes. I have a recipe that will make your mouth water, it make 12 delicious muffins or 21 tasty cupcakes depending on what size you like.

Ingredients for cupcakes
2 cups plain flour
1 tbs baking powder (sounds like a lot but is necessary)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup of brown sugar
2 medium apples of your choice, peeled and grated
125g butter/margarine, melted and cooled
2 eggs
3/4 cup of milk

Ingredients for icing
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp butter (room temp)
2 tsps milk
1/4 cup icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a muffin or cupcake tin with melted butter or cooking spray.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the grated apple and the brown sugar. Mix the eggs, milk and butter separately and then add to the dry ingredients. Stir through, but only enough so that it is mixed. Over mixing will result in firm muffins.

Spoon the mixture evenly into your muffin/cupcake tin. Place in the oven and bake for 20 mins. Allow to cool and then ice.

I'll admit they don't look like the most appetizing cupcakes, but they taste pretty good. The icing is the key, it's really tasty.

Petunia
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Hi friends

Ok, i really have been a busy Petunia lately. I've been crafting left right and center. I've knitted, i've sewn, i've worked out my own cute little patterns. And i even managed to make an AMANDA PALMER DOLL. But she will need an entire post dedicated just to her, she is after all one of my favorite singers. So for now let me introduce you to Clementine, Maggie and Skip. I worked out the patterns myself, and had a lot of fun hand sewing them. Very simple and easy, felt is a lovely fabric to work with when it comes to toys.

Skip and his little cotton tail and love heart birth mark. He is an orange rabbit ostracized by his warren, and has come to make friends with some other irregular little creatures.

Clementine is a giraffe, quite irregular in color, and has misplaced her splodges. She likes apples and staring at yellow objects. Maggie is a kitty, plain and simple. Blue because her previous owners thought it funny to bath her in permanent dye. 

My blind, deaf and mute lady was an experiment. I like her, she can stay. My mouse was also an experiment and turned out quite nicely, her skirt was fun to make.

Belinda the bunny and Eee the ghost. Belinda is one of my faves with her cute little scarf and sultry bunny eyes.

I haven't named these two little critters. The whale now belongs to Ellen so perhaps she might give it a suitable name. :)

A strange little family.

 Hope you like my odd little darlings. If you want to buy any make an offer and i will happily negotiate.

Petunia
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Australia day, Sam's birthday and 13 years since we moves to Sydney

It was a very pleasant Australia this year. Spent the first half of it at my friend Sam's 21st birthday brunch, and the rest of it at home lazing about with Ellen, my mom and my silly cats. Here are some cute photos of my outfit, which i just adore, and some extra bits and pieces.

Dress: Dear Golden Vintage

Shoes: Nine West

Head band: Hot Dollar

This gorgeous ring was a Christmas present from Ellen, 

isn't she such a sweetheart?

Om nom nom...

The birthday girl :)

This is what orange cats do on Australia day.

Petunia
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Apologies.

Gah! I haven't posted in a long while. Many apologies....well to my maybe 1 loyal reader :P I am knitting things, and i want a whole pile before i post about them. They are uber cute, so hope you like when they arrive.

Petunia

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Petunia's been busy in her onion patch

I was a busy little beaver this Christmas, making cute little softies for my Christmas tree, and a little friend for my bestie. It's fun sewing, especially when the final product are adorable little creatures. Below are my gorgeous little blue reindeer, there is also a brown one that i made for Ellen but i forgot to photograph him before giving him away.  

And below is a mister Arnie the gingerbread man. I made him for my bestie Lachlan, who received some disappointing presents this year and needed something cute and pretty. Thus Arnie came to be. I was very proud of this softie actually, i came up with it all myself, made the pattern from scratch, sewed it so neatly and it turned out great.

If you would like one of these little sweeties made do let me know. I will charge $20 excluding postage. Also, if you have any particular animals you'd like made, just tell me and i'll work it out. 

Petunia

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The delights of Christmas

So each year we celebrate Christmas Eve in the typical continental style. We had roast turkey, and a leg of ham for the first time (being Jewish it's rather odd you see), and some delicious salads, and crispy potatoes and roast veges and homemade stuffing and desserts of course. Miss Ellen joined us, as well as dads friend Alan and moms friends Hilda, Horus and Aislin. It turned out to be a truly delightful evening ending with a game of monopoly and present exchange.

My very tall brother and tiny mom.

The table ala Ellen and Astin.

That dress cost me all of $5 from the Bondi markets, i am still in shock.

 Not only did i spend a lovely Christmas with the family, but boxing day has become the annual Friend Christmas. It was a delightfully warm day, spent at my friend Elyse's house. We ate, we talked, we took photos, we drank, and eventually we exchanged Secret Santa presents. Was a lovely day, very fun and silly as usual.

My best friend Alice. 

The lovely ladies and Kit (aka El Diablo) the ladies man.

My bestie's Lachlan and Elyse.

I love this outfit SO much. The dress is from Dear Golden Vintage, the shoes from Senso, the belt a random little Christmas stocking present.

Merry Christmas!

Petunia

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On the first day of Christmas, my house was sparkly...

I am sitting here singing along to Christmas songs and editing the pretty photos of my gorgeous Christmas tree. December is happy this year, well...happier than it's been some years. My to-buy list is slowly getting smaller, i'm am enjoying ticking presents off, all i need to do now is wrap, tag and distribute. Tehehe.

Our Christmas tree this year is Hanukkah themed and just looked delightful with it's shocking blue lights and glimmering silver and blue decorations. The bushes around our house are decorated too, with gold and green and red and pink and basically anything that didn't work on the tree. It's such a festive house this year.

Now other than decorating my house like a madwomen, i have also had the pleasure of baking some delicious Christmas delights with the kids i nanny.

Petunia

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Shoes!! *happy sigh*

So the quarterly Senso Sample Sale (Yes it need the capitals to emphasise the sibilance- i'm such an English nerd) was on this past Thursday-Saturday. Of course i went...twice, and wound up buying 2 pairs of heels, a pair of flats and a pair of boots. Haven't photographed the flats as they need a bit of fixing. Do tell me what you think of the rest though.

I just could not resist this cherry red summery pair of heels.
And for $50 they were a bargain!

Although these have a broken buckle they were well worth the $30
i paid for them as they fit like a glove and are SO comfortable.

BOOTS! You just don't find boots this soft, gorgeous or well made.
It almost makes me a little sad that i have to wait so long
until next winter. Well worth the $250.

I've also made some recent etsy purchases, which is naughty cause i am trying not to spend money, but i needed them i swear. I'll post them as soon as i have had a chance to take some piccies.

Petunia

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YUM!

Sadly i have no photos to go along with this recipe, but my goodness i don't think it needs any. I was experimenting in the kitchen, as i often do, and i came up with this tasty recipe for an Asian inspired broth. I hope you love it as much as my mom and i did.

Ingredients for stock:

6 cups of water
6 chicken/vegetable stock cubes
1 large mild red chilli (de-seeded and sliced in half)
A few stalks of corriander from the roots to just before the leaves begin.
6 large slices of ginger
2 large garlic cloves (chopped)
1 palm length of lemon grass (chopped into 1 inch pieces)
A few lime leaves
1 large chopped spring onion (chopped roughly)
Chicken frame general chicken pieces

Ingredients for later on:

Decent bunch of corriander leaves (chopped finely)
Chilli (if you want additional heat)
1 big spring onion (chopped finely)
A few cherry tomatoes (5 per serving)

Place the stock ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Strain stock and place back on the heat. Add the corriander leaves, spring onion and cherry tomatoes. If you have added chicken pieces you may add them now, they are not essential. Remove the pieces of ginger,  lemon grass and lime leaves from the discarded stock and place back in the soup (it's nice to chew on the fragrant bits and pieces while you drink the soup). Optional additions include Chinese broccoli  and noodles. Personally i like egg noodles, but thin rice noodles work nicely too. And my mom added a small slosh of coconut milk and fresh lime juice, was actually quite a nice addition.

Let me know what you think.

Petunia
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Sydney weather has been less than co-operative lately. But in between the showers and hail, by some small miracle, we have been blessed with a few sunny days. So, of course, my crazy but loveable mother decided we needed some brightness in our garden and so instead of bring meat home one afternoon we arrived back with a boot-full of flowers.

Naturally the cats did very little to assist in the planting process. Guess the option to laze in the sun and explore the garden was too tantalizing.

Couldn't resist taking a snap of my mom struggling with the weeds in the unkempt flower bed. Oh and the stunning Jasmine that has filled my courtyard with the smell of spring.

The icing on the cake that is my now bright and bubbly garden, are these lovely little petunias! But luckily these petunias are not lonesome, nor are they stuck in a garden bed with onions. They are a little bedraggled at the moment, simply because we've had far too much rain lately for their liking.

Petunia

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