Easter cookies and cupcakes ideas!

Are you ready for Easter yet? If you haven't finished your festive meals, here are a few suggestions of something sweet, of course! One of my biggest pleasures in life is to bake cakes and sweets, so whenever there is a major holiday coming up, it is natural of me to post some recipes on this blog. Decorating cakes is so much fun! So here I am with some Easter inspired cupcakes and cookies recipes, I hope you will love them!

 

I searched all around Pinterest for some inspiration and took some idea from there and decided to create some sort of bunny shapes from frosting while making the ears from sugar paste (or marzipan).

Then I made some Easter egg nests - these are my favorite! -  a few other bunny tails and the ones with strawberries were meant to represent carrots dug up from the ground, but my glazing technique failed me this time and it did not stick to the strawberries, so let's pretend  they are carrots, ok?

I also made some gingerbread Easter egg cookies, now I cheated a bit with these, because I used a dough mix from the store and did not make it myself, but I promise you I spent more than three hours decorating these!

I worked with four bowls or frosting, each in a different color and I messed up my kitchen with glaze, tiny butterflies and food coloring, but I so loved the final result, I mean, the whole designing process gave me such satisfaction!

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Easter is all about pastel colors and fun shapes, so creating these was so much fun for me, just looking at them brings me such joy, I bet that by tomorrow they will be all gone, at least I hope they are delicious too!

Here are the ingredients I used:

For the cupcakes dough: your basic 150 g flour, 120 g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 100 ml milk, 100 g butter and a bit of almond extract - my favorite.

Mixed all these and bake them for 25 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius

For the frosting - I used the same frosting for the cookies and cupcakes:

180 g of mascarpone cheese, 200 ml of whipped cream, a bit of vanilla extract.

You also need food coloring and various cake decorations, you can find them at the baking department in any hyper market.

I hope you like them and I will leave you by wishing you a very happy (and delicious) Easter!

A few Christmas gift ideas

 

Christmas time is approaching us rapidly so I thought that an article with a few gift ideas is just perfect for this occasion; there are 15 days left (yay!) so be sure to find your presents in time to avoid the mayhem from the Christmas Eve. I know I used to search for the perfect presents on the day before Christmas Eve and it was simply chaotic.

I absolutely adore the idea of tiny gifts hidden in globes, I think they are just perfect for this holiday, so how about this adorable one I found in H&M that contains...socks! But not any socks, Christmassy ones with penguins with glittery hats? They are lovely and also, only $6 !

Next one contains a few eye makeup products, some eyeshadows, a black eyeliner and a black mascara - both in mini versions - they are great for travel especially! I found these in Douglas (this beauty retailer has the moooost amazing holiday offers) and you can get it for about $10.

The Benefit Frisky Six mini set is one of the many options they offer. All the products are in miniature version and they are great to offer to someone for a first try or just for yourself to keep. This box costs about $38 which is the price of one item only in full size! Available in Sephora.

This box includes:

Sun Beam Highlighter

Lolli Lip Balm

Lolli Tint - works for lips and also as a blush

Sugabomb Blush

They're Real Mascara -  one of their most famous mascaras

I mentioned about Onecklace before, they create personalized jewelry, you know, name necklaces, earrings and bracelets, but they also have other type of jewelry including the popular chokers! A little glow on our skin can make us look so glamorous and well, Christmas is all about glow right?

I don't know how many of you know about Yves Rocher but they are one of my favorite skin care brands! Especially during the holidays, they offer limited edition Christmas shower gels, hand creams and body lotions, they also have them available in gift boxes at a special price.

Pictured here is the Cranberry and Almond hand cream and the Clementine and Spices shower gel -  the scents are simply delicious!

Back to Douglas, I told you they have amazing holiday offers - this one is from Les Delices, a set of body care products with a scent of Rasberry Macarons - yes, it is as delicious as it sounds! The set comes in a cute pink house shaped box and it includes a shower gel, a shower sponge, body lotion and a bath foam.

Last but not least, how about some tea? For all you tea lovers, Basilur is a brand that offers the most delicious tea ever created. Black or green with so many different sublte flavors, but not only is the tea that is amazing, but also the packaging! Just look at that brilliant box. This one is from their holiday edition, they also have other adorable collections, based on a theme or by season. I really can't recommend them enough!

I hope you like my ideas, I'll leave you on that note and wish you Happy Shopping!

Four ideas to recreate designer looks on a budget

You know that feeling when you see a designer's collection during Fashion Week, you see an outfit that you love head to toe and want to wear it in that instant? Not all of us have a infinite budget to spend on high end clothing items, but we have imagination and if we really want, we can recreate some of the outfits we see on the runway without breaking the bank account. 

Here are some of my favorite looks for this season, a bit of glamour, a bit of velvet - I'm so glad it's back in trend!, clash of prints an more importantly - color! One cannot live without color. 

 I hope you like my suggestions, can't wait to hear your thoughts!