One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

I love to bake but honestly the washing up of bowls and dishes afterwards, not so much. So I am so happy that I have found a way to make these chocolate cupcakes using just one bowl! No more one bowl for dry and another one for the wet ingredients, and they still come out wonderful - taste and texture wise.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup espresso

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup white sugar

½ cup cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 egg

¼ cup canola oil

 

You will also need:

Mixing bowl

Hand whisk

measuring cups

measuring spoon

If you do not have espresso you can make one by adding 2 tsps of instant coffee (we use Nescafe decaf) to 1 cup hot water. Set aside to cool.

1. Preheat oven to 170degrees centigrade.

 

2.  Whisk together the sugar, egg and oil in your bowl.

3. Add the cocoa powder and whisk

 4. Add the espresso and whisk

 

 

5. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Then whisk! ( You kind of get the picture now right.. it's whisk whisk whisk! )

 



6. You will now have a smooth batter

 

7. Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake pans ¾ full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Audrey I miss you...

To my forever fashion icon and inspiration

Audrey Hepburn

May 4, 1929 - January 20, 1993

In a world where women strive to look and dress like Kim Kardashian, I miss the likes of Audrey Hepburn...

For more Audrey follow the links below:

Time-tested Beauty
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-chahine/happy-birthday-audrey_b_5263596.html

Timeless Style Lessons from Audrey
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/audrey-hepburn-style_n_3780087.html

Audrey Hepburn Style
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/04/audrey-hepburn-style-photos_n_3214396.html

Homemade Play Dough

Everytime we bought clay or playdough they turn hard and dry after a few days. Also since kids like to mix colors the clay usually turn out to be just one big brown blob. Buying new ones often can put a pretty dent in the budget. So I googled if we can make our own playdough and turns out there are a lot of recipes for homemade playdough. I tweaked the recipe to suit whatever is always in our pantry. The original called for cream of tartar and glycerine. Here's the recipe:

Homemade Playdough

1 cup flour

1/2 cup table salt

1/2 cup hot water

food color

Mix everything. It's going to be quite sticky. If you find it dry you can always add a bit more water. Turn it out on a light floured surface and knead/mix until smooth. You can always add a bit more flour if mixture is too sticky or water if it's too dry. 

 

Have fun! 

Party Themes

We like to do themes during birthdays. We have done Jungle Safari, Ferrari Racer, TinkerBell, Colors of Autumn and camping. We have done the camping theme twice. They like it so much since we play a lot of games and we all sleep together in our living room. This is the camping pack that I did from our last camping theme birthday

Recently we had a mexican fiesta. We had tortillas, nachos, fruits in skewers and chocolate cupcakes. 

Hope these gave you some ideas on your next party =)

Homemade Cards

The princess and I made a get-well soon card for her teacher. It's very easy to make and she had fun putting them together. As she is a preschooler, I had to do most of the cutting for her. But for an older child you can just draw the patterns on paper and let them cut it on their own.

Materials:

• Colored papers
• Paper doilies
• Scissor
• Glue Stick

Cut colored papers into the following patterns:

     Red = Heart

     Pink and Yellow = Flowers

     Green = Grass

     Light Green = small circles

     Paper doily = cut a small strip from the side

Glue the paper doily on the right hand side of the folded blue paper. Stick the "green grass" on the bottom part. Arrange the flowers alternating the colors and put the small circles at the center of the flowers. 

On the inside we glued the heart. Make it personal by adding your own notes.