Red velvety cupcakes

I made red velvet cupcakes for the first time the other day and it came out full of red awesomeness! This recipe is quite easy to follow if you want to try it out too. Unfortunately my icing thingamajig broke so I had to apply the icing with a knife. I don't think it came out too bad. The best part is, it makes your whole mouth red, inside and out!

Red Velvet Cupcakes: (makes 24 cupcakes)

2 large eggs

375ml (1 1/2 cups) castor sugar

250ml (1 cup) buttermilk

375ml (1 1/2cups) oil

30ml (2T) red food colouring

5ml (1t) white vinegar

5ml (1t) vanilla essence

687ml (2 3/4 cups) cake flour

10ml (2t) cocoa

5ml (1t) baking soda

1ml salt

Icing:

125g (1/4 butter)

750ml (3 cups) icing sugar, sifted

5ml (1t) vanilla essence

a little milk

Set oven to 180 C. Beat eggs and castor sugar until light yellow.

Add buttermilk, oil, food colouring, white vinegar and vanilla and beat together well.

Sift cake flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt two times.

Mix flour-mixture with egg-mixture until well blended.

Place 24 cupcake wrappers in muffin pans and divide batter between them. Only fill each holder until 3/4 full.

Bake cupcakes for 15-17min. or until done (determine this by inserting a toothpick into the centre, when it comes out clean (not wet) the cupcakes are done!)

Remove cupcakes from pans and let them cool on a wire shelf.

For the icing:

Cream butter until light yellow. Add icing sugar and vanilla essence. Beat until creamy.

Add a little milk if needed. Ice the cupcakes and enjoy!

Ze French corner - Franschhoek

I recently visited Franschhoek again after 8 years and almost couldn't believe my eyes. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Even more magnificent than I remember. It felt like I was dreaming the whole time (and it wasn't the wine). The streets are so clean and the houses well-kept, the town is surrounded by mountains and vineyards and when driving over the Franschhoek Pass I felt like I wanted to fly across the valley to take in all the beauty.

I visited the Chocalaterie (Huguenot Fine Chocolates) and bought 3 truffels. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of those as they were gobbled up too quickly. For lunch I had pancakes with mince and banana and a glass of Porcupine Sauvignon Blanc at Essence Restaurant and Coffee Bar. Oh it was so nice.

Franschhoek saturates the senses.

The Present Project

presents from me to Giselle

presents from Giselle to me

Hello dear blogreaders (all 5 of you).... it's been about a month since I last blogged and I'm so glad to be at it again! I want to show you the pretty presents I received form Giselle from http://www.lavenderbluebeauty.blogspot.com/

Both of us, along with many others, took part in Angie's Present Project. We were teamed up and everyone had to send each other gifts. It was lots of fun getting to know each other and deciding on what to send. I sent Giselle a handmade leatherbound journal, a crocheted winter bracelet and buttons! She LOVES buttons so I snatched some vintage one's from my grandma's tin...heehee. I also made her a bunny card for Easter.

Giselle sent me some of her lovely handmade jewellery, including a button necklace, button earrings and bracelet. She also made me a very fancy card and wrapped my presents in pretty pink polka-dot paper 

(wow lots of P's!). That's me in the bottom pictures adorned with my new jewellery and wearing my mother's 80's lace top.

My heart wanders

WoW.

What I have seen regarding this book takes my breath away. It is so beautiful. And dreamy.

It inspires me to dream in detail and believe more in the possibility of my dreams actually happening.

I so enjoy finding good things in this world.

And this book is certainly one of them! 

View more pictures here:

http://www.piajanebijkerk.com/my-heart-wanders/

A perfect day

Today was a perfect day. I delivered some stock, got paid, walked around in the city, took photos and found two treasures in the form of second hand books. Plus they were really cheap! The first one is called "Diana+: True Tales & Short Stories" and the other one "A Little Gallery of Hoppner". I have no idea who Hoppner is but it is full of really pretty illustrations. And then there's the Diana+ book, what more can I say. So cool. It tells you everything about the Diana cameras and has a wide variety of lomographic examples. Total cost = 30 bucks.

I smile :)

Vintage button journals

I decided to use pretty vintage buttons on some of the journals I recently made. I found them in a tin given to me by my grandmother. It belonged to her mother so its definitely vintage!

Let's go sailing

background picture by carolynshope

Lets go sailing.

Let's get a bite to eat.

Let's talk about movies.

Let's go to sleep.

lyrics by the moldy peaches "jorge regula"