Squint Cushion Giveaway

I'm so pleased to announce a giveaway of a $300 bespoke Squint Limited cushion courtesy of the My Deco Boutique US!

My Deco US is an interior design website full of inspiration for home decor. You can build 3D room sets, create mood boards and decorate pictures. Shop the largest selection of furniture in the US in the shop by room and find unusual finds for your home from a selection of British designers in their boutique. For more info, sign up to the US My Deco Facebook page.

My Deco was launched in the UK in February 2008 by Brent Hoberman, co-founder of lastminute.com – one of Europe’s most successful dot com companies. With an "aim to make it quick and easy to find exactly the right item for your home. Whether your look is vintage Vegas kitsch or modern monochrome, we’ve brought together over 800 of our favourite home retailers - from big brands to niche boutiques – to help you find what you’re looking for. Sometimes choice is not enough, so we’ve added expert advice, 3D room planning tools and a community of over 100,000 people who are passionate about their homes to share advice and ideas."

To enter, please visit My Deco US and then leave a comment below letting me know 'who is the brain-child behind Squint?'. The giveaway ends on Saturday, May 21st at 10pm (GMT) and I will randomly select and announce a winner on Sunday, May 22nd.

To increase your chances of winning this fabulous prize, you can gain one additional entry for doing each of the following:

• tweeting about this giveaway
• blogging about it
• following/subscribing to the Torie Jayne blog/twitter

For the first two, please leave a comment below with the link to your tweet or blog post.

This giveaway is open to US readers only but don't worry as next week I have a new exciting giveaway for UK readers!

Good luck and have a sweet day!

Easter chocolate simnel cake

Easter Chocolate Simnel cake (serves at least 10)

Ingredients

• 225g (1 cup) unsalted butter softened
• 225g (1 cup) light muscovado sugar
• 4 eggs
• 225g (1 cup) plain white gluten free flour
• 125g (2/3 cup) glace cherries, chopped
• 350g (3 1/2 cups) luxury dried mixed fruit
• 75g (1 cup) slivered almonds
• 50g (1/2 cup) Hotel Chocolat organic cocoa powder
• 100g Hotel Chocolat dark chocolate drops

Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 140 deg C (300 deg F)
2. Line and grease 20cm cake tin
3. Roll out 125g marzipan to 5mm thick and cut into a circle the same size as the cake tin, leave to one side
4. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour
5. Gradually beat in eggs
6. Stir in flour, glace cherries, dried fruit, almonds, cocoa powder and chocolate chips
7. Divide half the mixture into the cake tin
8. Place circle of marzipan on top
9. Spoon rest of cake mix on top
10. Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes
11. Place cake on a wire rack to cool

To decorate (one cake)

What you will need

• 500g white marzipan
• 500g white ready to roll icing
• Green vanilla buttercream
• Icing sugar
• 3 tsp apricot jam
• 6 white fondant bunnies
• 4 blue fondant butterflies
• 4 pink fondant butterflies
• 24 large fondant flowers
• 16 small fondant flowers

Equipment

• Cake stand or board
• Rolling pin
• Cake smoother (optional)
• Sieve
• Icing bag or bottle fitted with Grass icing tube no.233

Decorating instructions

1. Place cake on stand upside down so top is completely flat
2. Knead marzipan into a ball
3. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out marzipan to 5mm thick
4. Melt the apricot jam
5. Brush cake with apricot jam
6. Lift up marzipan using rolling pin
7. Place on cake and smooth out so entire cake is covered in marzipan
8. Cut off any excess, leave to dry for 24 hours
9. Knead roll-on icing into a ball
10. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out roll-on icing to 5mm thick
11. Lift up icing using rolling pin
12. Place on cake and smooth out so entire cake is covered in icing (I use a cake smoother to give it a polish and professional finish)
13. Cut off any excess icing from base of cake
14. Spoon green buttercream into a piping bag or bottle fitted with no.233 nozzle
15. Pipe buttercream grass in a circle on top of the cake
16. Push fondant bunnies into grass so they form a circle, push one small fondant flower between bunnies, alternating the colour of the flowers
17. Pipe buttercream grass in a circle on the outside edge of the top of the cake. Push one pink butterfly and three flowers into grass, repeat with blue butterfly and so on, until you have used all the butterflies
18. Pipe buttercream grass around base of cake
19. Push three large flowers and two small flowers into grass, repeat until there are no gaps

Have a sweet day!

Gluten-free strawberry choc chip cupcakes

Gluten-free strawberry choc chip cupcakes (makes 24 cupcake size cakes)

Ingredients

• (4.5 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon (1/6 ounces) natural vanilla extract
• 250g (2/3 cup) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 250g (1 cup) self-raising flour
• 150g (5 ounces) Blended fresh Strawberries
• 175g (6 ounces) Hotel Chocolat milk chocolate drops

Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C (325-350 deg F)
2. Line muffin tray with paper cases or baking tray with silicone cases
3. Beat butter, eggs, vanilla extract and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour
4. Stir in flour, blended strawberries and chocolate chips
5. Divide mixture among cases
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes
7. Place cakes on a wire rack to cool

To decorate (24 cupcake size cakes)

What you will need

• 24 white fondant bunnies
• 56 small fondant flowers
• Green vanilla buttercream
• Grass icing tube no.233
• Icing bag or bottle

Instructions

1. Spoon green buttercream into a piping bag or bottle fitted with a nozzle attached
2. On top of the cakes, starting at outside edge and working in circles, pipe buttercream by squeezing a small amount onto cake at 90 degree angle, then stop squeezing and pull up and away at various angles when icing strand is long enough (about 3 cm)
3. Push fondant flowers and bunny lightly into iced grass

Have a sweet day!

Buttercream grass

Vanilla buttercream frosting (to decorate 24 cupcake size cakes)

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
• 600g sieved icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk
• Green food coloring

What you will need

• Grass icing tube no.233
• Icing bag or bottle

Instructions

1. Whisk butter until smooth and creamy
2. Gradually whisk in icing sugar, 100g at a time, so the mixture is smooth
3. Whisk in the vanilla extract and 1 tbsp milk at high speed until fluffy and stands in peaks
4. Spoon into a piping bag or bottle fitted with a nozzle attached
5. On top of the cakes, starting at outside edge and working in circles, pipe buttercream by squeezing a small amount on to cake at a 90 degree angle
6. Pulling up and away when icing strand is long enough (about 2 cm) stop squeezing and pull tip away at various angles
7. Repeat until cake is covered
8. Push fondant flowers or bunny/butterflies lightly into iced grass

Have a sweet day!

My Easter Table 2011 Part Two

Easter chocolate bunny

My Easter chocolate simnel cake

Banoffee cupcakes, mint choc chip cupcakes

Strawberry choc chip Easter cupcakes

Hand-made chocolate butterflies

In yesterday's post I shared with you some of the photos of my Easter table with links to all the posts I published about my decorations and sweet treats. In part two I am sharing more pics of my Easter table, this time revealing the posts still to come. So stay tuned for gluten-free recipes for cupcakes and cakes and more chocolate goodness! One day I hope to get the posts done before Easter but for now I will have to live with them going out after Easter!

Have a sweet day!

My Easter Table 2011 Part One

Easter Butterfly Bird Houses

My Easter Tree, Easter Hanging Butterflies, Découpage Eggs

Easter chocolate lollipops

Butterfly Floral Napkin Holders

In my Easter table part one I am sharing with you pics of my Easter table with links to my posts about how to make, where to buy, etc. the parts to my Easter table. Tomorrow I will share with you more photos with what is yet to come!

Last Monday I hosted my Easter tea party. I had stayed up late Sunday night piping and decorating the cupcakes after an afternoon of playing in my folks' garden with my niece and nephew. I woke up early Monday morning to a beautiful sunny day. As the weather was gorgeous, which is so rare in rainy old England, it seemed a shame not to enjoy it. As I set up my Easter table I made a last minute decision to make my Easter table more like a dessert bar inside and set up the garden furniture outside.

As usual, I had not finished taking all my photos as the guests arrived. So, whilst I poured Pimm's for the adults and juice for the kids one of my sweet guests took over from me on the photo helm. Thank you Liam!

Although my guests didn't get to sit in front of their little bird house place settings, they got to take them home. Molly was especially delighted by her pretty pink one that matched her bunny outfit!




Have a sweet day!

The Royal Wedding Cake

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you photos of the Royal Wedding cake made by Fiona Cairns using the Joseph Lambeth technique. The photos come courtesy of the official Flickr account of the British Monarchy who have been on Flickr since March 2010!

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The cake in it's full glory in The Royal Wedding Cake
• A close up of the delicate iced flowers in The Royal Wedding Cake
• The beautiful iced roses in The Royal Wedding Cake
• Setting up The Royal Wedding Cake

The couple also asked McVities to make them a chocolate biscuit cake!



Have a sweet day!