Happy Friday everyone!  Jenelle here, with my first ever Food Friday post… a bit daunting really, given all the culinary talents of our wonderful team here at the Shabby Shoppe, but I will give it a whirl and see how we go!!  I do love to bake and my kids are always at hand to crack the eggs, mix the ingredients, lick the beaters and do a taste test.  Thus,  my end product always looks a bit ‘rustic’ shall we say, but I do believe the process is the best part and we always have fun together in the kitchen as we go.

So, with Easter fast approaching, I thought it would be a fun activity to bake and decorate some biscuits (a.k.a. cookies) with my kids.  We have a huge collection of plastic cookie cutters in our cupboards, so we sorted through them all and found some that would suit our Easter theme!  Here’s a photo of our finished biscuits, then I’ll talk you through how you can make some too.

One of my ‘golden rules’ when cooking in the kitchen with the kids, is to make sure I am all prepared before I even tell them we’re going to be cooking!  Otherwise they get far too excited and can’t wait to start while I am still running around trying to get everything out, find ingredients and more often than not I have my head stuck in the Tupperware cupboard and eggs starts cracking on the floor behind me!

So here’s what you’ll need to have out and ready to make these yummy Easter Biscuits.

• Mixing bowl
• Food processor
• Baking/Parchment paper
• Rolling pin
• Sieve
• Cookie cutters
• Piping bags
• Tea towels for sticky hands
• Baking trays lined with baking paper
• Wire cooling rack

Ingredients

• 175 grams (6oz) unsalted butter
• 200 grams (7oz) caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 and a half teaspoons vanilla essence
• 375 grams (13oz) plain flour
• Royal Icing to decorate (or any store bought icing/frosting you can pipe onto your biscuits)
• A variety of confectionery/sweets for decoration

Hands are washed, equipment and ingredients are ready, so now it’s time to start baking!

1. Line 2 baking sheets/cookie trays with parchment/baking paper.
2. Blend the softened butter, sugar and vanilla essence in a food processor until smooth (I used the plastic blade on my food processor, but check the settings in your processor’s user guide if you are unsure).
3. Next, add the egg, egg yolk and sifted flour.
4. Process this until it forms into a smooth dough.  I needed to work the dough a little myself on a floured surface to bring it together nicely.
5. Then, wrap the dough in foil/parchment/baking paper and chill in the refrigerator for around 30  minutes.
6. Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Farenheit).
7. Take dough out of fridge and unwrap.  Roll it out onto a lightly floured surface to about a quarter of an inch thickness.  (This got a bit tricky with the kids, but we used our hands a bit  and got there in the end!)
8. Cut out your Easter/Spring shapes (eggs, chicks, bunnies, flowers, butterflies etc) and place them on the baking trays.  I found it easier to flour the cookie cutter each time so it didn’t stick to the dough.
9. Pop them into the oven for around 10-12 minutes, then cool them on a wire rack.

While they are cooling, you can make your icing.  I made a Royal Icing mix that I found here, which uses egg whites.  It came out pure white in colour and adding food colourings also worked well with this mix.  If, however, you would prefer not to use egg whites, I found another recipe mix for Royal Icing here.  I simply scooped the icing into small, plastic zip-lock bags, snipped the corner and piped the icing around the edges of our biscuits.  Before the icing set (royal icing sets hard once air dried), I placed a mixture of sweets on top to help decorate them!  You could use tiny marshmallows for the bunnies’ tails, rainbow choc-chips, sprinkles, cachous, chocolate chips… the list is endless!

Last of all, we had fun bagging up the decorated biscuits to give away as Easter treats.  The Shoppe’s Sprout Confection Collection has some gorgeous tags and neat gift boxes you could use to package up these sweet treats.

Thank you so much for ‘indulging’ me in my first ever Food Friday post!  As a little treat for reading along, I’ve made up a 4×6 recipe card you can grab as a free download.  I used a card from the Shabby Shoppe’s Made from Scratch recipe templates, along with papers from Sprout and some cute stickers from Sprout Easter Additions.  Just click HERE or on the image to download.

I do hope you have a wonderful weekend ~ we’ll see you back here on Monday with our latest Layout of the Week winner.  Have you uploaded to the gallery this past week?  It may just be you!  We are always on the lookout remember!  Until then, happy scrapping everyone!

JenelleFood Stuff, Free (not desktops), Uncategorized 5 Comments

Hello everyone…Kylie here! :o)  Dropping by to share this month’s project SCRAP 2012 templates (two separate templates to create a ’spread’) with you all! YAY!

The MARCH templates are nice & bright, and extra cheerful!  We so hope you love them as much as we do!! :o)  And for something a little different I’ve added a longer panoramic-style photo space on the single page…fun, fun!  What if you don’t end up having a photo to fill this space? ~ you might like to divide the space into two or three photo spots, or even clip it with some paper and then layer a framed standard-sized photo on top.  Remember a template is just a kick-start to your own creativity…so feel free to play, play, play!! :o)

You can click on the image below…or, CLICK HERE to download the your NEW templates!!

New to project SCRAP? …well then, if you are not familiar with our little scrap project (if you ARE familiar with it, skip this paragraph, as always, lol)… THIS POST is a great place to learn more!  Also, if you click on the PROJECT SCRAP 2012 category (on the right side of the blog)…you can ALWAYS easily find ALL posts related to the subject!  It’s your go-to place if you want to keep up with everything in 2012!  But, as a quick little reminder… here is the project in a nutshell:::

I hope you are having lots of fun taking your pictures each week…can’t wait to see them all scrapped and gorgeous!!  Be sure to post your finished March layouts in the new 2012 project scrap GALLERY!  SP & I, the team, and all our fabulous gallery members and visitors, well, we ALL love to see how everyone works with the latest project SCRAP templates… as well as all the beautiful Shabby Shoppe products! :o)  SP will be doing her March ‘check-in’ in a few weeks time… and will, of course, be sure to include some wonderful gallery inspiration using the latest templates…so stay tuned for that post!  (Let’s hope she’s been able to catch-up on her scrapping…love me some Shabby Princess layouts!! ;o))

THANKS a bunch for stopping by the blog today!  Make sure you visit again tomorrow…Jenelle has a special treat for us!

KylieFree (not desktops), Uncategorized, project Scrap 2012 18 Comments

Hello again! Kylie here! :o) oh, and happy March everyone!!  How about we start off the month with some template challenge fun?!  I couldn’t think of a better way to start…can you?!  Our little monthly challenge sure is growing up fast…happy twenty-first!  And to ‘celebrate’, this new easy-as-pie template says it with ‘paper’!  Yes, paper (albeit digital!)…and layers of it!

I hope you enjoy scrapping this new template.  And remember, a template is just a starting point…a little jumpstart to your creativity.  So by all means, add to it, take off some elements (not that there’s too many on this one! – for a change!! LOL!), rotate it, shrink it… SCRAP IT YOUR WAY!  To help your layout grow into something special – just add your beautiful photos and their story, your scrapping style, and of course, all those sweet Shabby Princess products.  Perfect! :o)

To download…CLICK HERE (or simply click the preview image below)!

Now, let’s go over the GUIDELINES for our template challenges here at the Shoppe?!  Then be sure to keep scrolling for some fabulous inspiration from our team…oh did we have some FUN, and then some!!

The ‘deadline’ for this challenge is APRIL 1st :o)  We will announce the template challenge winner on April 5th, when we share Template Challenge TWENTY-TWO!  As you probably know, we now announce the winner on the same day we debut a new template challenge.  The ‘winner’ of the challenge will receive a $25 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe!  Please note that for our template challenges… we select the ‘winner’ randomly – so everyone has a chance to win… beginners and experienced scrappers! It’s a great way to jump in and give digi scrapping (and templates) a try :o)

In order to be entered into the template challenge – you must post your layout in the Shabby Shoppe’s gallery (in the SHOPPE BLOG CHALLENGES gallery) and then post a comment HERE at our blog (on this post only) with a link to your layout in our gallery. This will enter you into the challenge :o)  Please keep in mind that all layouts must contain at least 75% SP product (purchased or free).  To be eligible for the challenge – you must scrap with the easy-as-pie layered template!

We also have several fun ways for you to obtain ‘EXTRA’ entries to the challenge (please note that in order to qualify for any EXTRA entries – you must first complete a layout with our easy-as-pie template and submit that to our gallery and blog) :o)

• For an extra entry, leave a SEPARATE comment letting us know that you have one of our blinkies (available by clicking on the blinkies link in the sidebar) either on your blog or in all of your forum signatures (be sure to include a link to your blog or signature in your post).
• For an extra entry, leave a SEPARATE comment letting us know that you have facebooked or twittered about our template challenge (don’t forget to include the link in your post).
• For an extra entry, leave a SEPARATE comment letting us know that you have blogged about our template challenge (again, be sure to add your blog link to your post).

So, that means that you have the possibility of entering the challenge up to 4 times!  Just be sure each entry is a separate comment, as we will be using a random number generator to choose the winner.  Be sure to get your entries in by MIDNIGHT (eastern time) on APRIL 1st, and again…the winner will be announced in early April (the 5th to be exact)!

So again…here is your newest Easy-As-Pie Layered Template! <–click this to download OR click the preview image at the top of this post :o)

Your download includes:

• 12×12 Layered psd template with drop shadows (you can opt to turn them off or use your own)
• 12×12 Layered TIFF template with drop shadows

In the event this is your first time scrapping with a layered template – SP has created a quick and simple tutorial on how to use our Easy-As-Pie templates in PSE and PS.  You can find it HERE.  We’ve tried to cover the basics, but if you have any questions, please let us know and one of the Shabby Team Members will do their best to answer it.

Time now for that inspiration!

I couldn’t stop playing with no. 21…it’s so quick and easy to whip up a fun page.  I ended up with three! LOL! ;o)  I tried to stay pretty close to the original template design…but, I also took a little more time with one of them and added a few more clusters and extras.  That’s the best thing about templates…making them your own!!  My first page is a little tribute to Spring.  When I was working out what to do with the template and all those paper strips, my first thought was Darling Paper Collection, naturally!  Which lead me to its Shoppe product page and to SP’s beautiful flower girl layout.  I’ve always adored that layout and it was all the inspiration I needed to get these pics scrapped.

The next two are a couple of lil’ life snippets!  Although, after the pretty pastels above they do look very beige…but nonetheless, the memories are much, much sweeter!!

Kim and Jenelle also went for those ‘late summer’ tones…I can soooo feel all the warmth and sunshine goodness!

And Rosy and Casharina created layouts all pretty in pink!  Aren’t they sweet together!

Thank you ladies! :o)  You can visit the Shabby Artist Gallery  anytime for a closer look and for more information about each layout – we will be uploading throughout the day/night.

…and, now that you have had a little peek at the new template and some of our ideas…we can’t wait to see what you come up with! :o)  Have FUN!! and…

{ Remember to link up to this post only to enter template challenge TWENTY-ONE }

And now it is time to announce the winner of TEMPLATE CHALLENGE TWENTY! – HOORAY!!  This time round, the ‘lucky’ random number was actually ‘lucky’ no. 7… and that means that lala777’s adorable TEN MONTHS layout was selected! :o) What a great page!  And doesn’t the photo tinting look so cool…and oh so cute!  CONGRATULATIONS, lala777!!  You should have received a $25 gift card to the Shabby Shoppe in your email box (be sure to check any spam folders) this morning…ENJOY the shoppe-ing and thanks for joining in the challenge fun! And, as always…THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the last challenge. We really do appreciate it and enjoy seeing all the love and attention you give our little easy-as-pie templates!!

Thanks for checking in with us today…and hope that you have bunches of FUN with this newest template!  And, of course, we will be back, same time, same place on Monday with LOTW!  Have a great ‘end of the week’!  Bye for now! :o)

KylieFree (not desktops), Template Challenges, Uncategorized 65 Comments

Happy Friday everyone!  This is Kim here to share one of my favorite sweet treats with you.  This one has some history for me.  My grandmother was quite the baker and made and decorated wedding cakes.  She was the one who made all the birthday cakes growing up.  Somewhere along the way she made a Boston Creme Pie and I fell in love!  It has been my birthday treat all these years now, and recently I finally made one myself with her recipe.  Now, it’s not exactly a “quick and easy” treat, but it’s well worth it for a special occasion!

So what is Boston Creme Pie?  It’s actually not a pie, it’s a cake.  I got interested in where the idea came from, so I found out that it dates back to 1856 when a French chef working at a Boston hotel started playing around with a recipe.  It probably was called a pie because at that time, most people would have had pie tins instead of cake pans.  They were probably baked in the pie tins and cut like a slice of pie.

 Now here comes the yummy part… how to make a Boston Creme Pie.  There are a number of different versions out there.  I am going to share my grandma’s recipe, as I think it is absolutely the best (and I am not biased at all – LOL!)

OK, let’s get started!  You will need to prepare 3 different parts to the cake before you can put it all together. 

1. Yellow Cake:

Different recipes call for different kinds of cake as the base of this dessert.  What I grew up with was a yellow butter cake.  You can either do a box mix to keep it simple or find a from scratch yellow cake recipe.  I baked mine as one layer in a 9×13 inch pan. 

 After the cake is completely cool, split it into two layers.  In case you haven’t heard this trick for splitting a cake, here is what I did.  I took a small knife and ran it around the edge of the cake, making a groove on all sides where I wanted the cake to split in two.  Then I put a piece of thread (you could use dental floss for this too) all the way around the cake in the groove made by the knife.  I brought the ends of the threads together, then crossed them and pulled the thread through the cake so it made the split.  This is a good way to get a clean and even split. 

 Once you have the two layers, place a piece of waxed paper between them and freeze.

2. Creme Filling:

• 10 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 slightly beaten eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 4 cups scalded milk

Mix the first five ingredients in a separate bowl.  Heat the milk in a pot on the stove until it is scalded, which means just below the boiling point.  Then add the other ingredients and continue heating on medium heat.  While it’s heating, mix with a hand mixer the entire time, until the mixture thickens and comes to a slight boil.  At that point, remove the filling from the heat and cool in refrigerator until cold.

3. Richmond Chocolate Frosting:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 6 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup boiling water

 Mix the sugar, cornstarch and cocoa in a separate bowl.  Boil the water in a pot on the stove and then add the premixed ingredients, stirring constantly until the mixture is thick.  Remove from heat and mix in butter and vanilla.  There you have it… yummy chocolate frosting!  As a side note, this is where I think a lot of Boston Creme Pie recipes vary.  Some of them have more of a ganache frosting, made from melting chocolate.  This one will be more of a glaze, but I really love the way it works with the cake and creme filling.  Give it a try!

Now to finish the cake:

 You’ve probably noticed that each of these three parts to the cake has their own requirements.  It’s best to freeze the cake, the creme needs to be well cooled in the refrigerator, and the frosting is actually easiest to spread on the cake when it’s still slightly warm.  Because of this, I recommend making the cake and filling ahead of time, then make the frosting right before you’re ready to put the cake together.  Once you have everything prepared, spread the creme filling in between the layers of cake, then pour the frosting over the cake, spreading evenly.  You will need to store the cake in the refrigerator if you are not eating it right away. 

 And of course, the last step is the best… Eat and enjoy!! 

Finally, we also have a FREE download of a 4×6 recipe card.  I used a template from the Shabby Shoppe’s Made From Scratch recipe templates, the Clementine kit, and the olive dot paper I love from the Gracie kit.  (For more info on fonts, etc, see the TOU in the download.)  Just click HERE…or on the image, to download!

Thanks for joining me for this sweet treat today!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend, and we’ll see you back at the blog on Monday as Kylie announces our Layout of the Week!

KimFood Stuff, Free (not desktops), Uncategorized 4 Comments

Hi everyone! :o)  It’s Kylie here today and I’m really, really excited to share our new project SCRAP templates for FEBRUARY.  Hope you LOVE them as much as I do and enjoy making them your own…by adding your photos, some papers, a little embellishment here and there, your all-important story-telling…and of course lots of love! 

Have you been taking your photos every week so that you can fill all those cute little photo spots??…hope so! :o)  I started the month off so strong (and have more than enough pics) but am afraid to report that I seem to have run out of puff as not many photo-worthy moments have come my way the last couple of weeks.  In my ‘perfect world’ I’d love to have my two photos to represent each week…all nicely organised and balanced.  But, for some months I know it’s just not going to work out that way, know what I mean!! ;o)  The important thing is to capture and document our week-to-week moments when we can…the special celebrations, the everyday moments…and like Beckie said yesterday ‘who we are in our real life’.  A little peek into our world from month to month!  Struggling to get your photo quota? – take a photo of the book you’re currently reading, a meal you cooked, a flower that’s blooming in the garden, a project you’re kids made, or a new haircut…anything you want!  Remember, this is YOUR book/album…so there are no ‘themes’ to follow, etc.  Just try to think BIG PICTURE and what you would want to remember in a couple of years, five years, twenty years.  That will be different for each of us.

Now, let’s get to the templates… you can click on the image below…or, CLICK HERE to download the your templates (two separate templates to create a ’spread’)!

New to project SCRAP? …well then, if you are not familiar with our little scrap project (if you ARE familiar with it, skip this paragraph, as always, lol)… THIS POST is a great place to learn more! Also, if you click on the PROJECT SCRAP 2012 category (on the right side of the blog)…you can ALWAYS easily find ALL posts related to the subject!  It’s your go-to place if you want to keep up with everything in 2012!  But, as a quick little reminder… here is the project in a nutshell:::

So, that’s it for now!  Be sure to post your finished February layouts in the new 2012 project scrap GALLERY!  We all LOVE to see how you work with our project SCRAP templates and all the sweet Shabby Shoppe products! :o)  SP will be doing her February ‘check-in’ in a few weeks time… and will, of course, be sure to include some wonderful gallery inspiration using the latest templates!  And can I just add that I was so excited to see the new gallery filling up sooo quickly with all the fabulous January pages…you guys outdid yourselves!!  And remember if you haven’t had a chance yet, it’s never too late to upload!!

Thanks for joining us today and be sure to stop by tomorrow!  We are all in for a real treat as Kim will be sharing a delicious family recipe for Food Friday…yummo!!! :o)

KylieFree (not desktops), Uncategorized, project Scrap 2012 19 Comments