Easter Weekend 2016

I can't believe it's been a week since Easter finished already! Easter rivals Christmas as one of my favourite times of the year to bake and I think I always end up eating more goodies post Easter than I do post Christmas. 

This year on Easter Sunday I organised an Easter Egg Hunt for my family, mainly inside but I got to hide a few outside before the rain arrived. After an Easter lunch we had a gingerbread house decorating contest, Sean & I made the perfect little house for the Easter Bunny. We never got around to doing this at Christmas so I thought as we had some time why not make Spring ones instead! 

I wore those adorable Lindt Gold Bunny ears all weekend, I didn't want to take them off and I'm already excited to bring them out again next year! 

I'll be sharing more details on my Easter Sunday outfit on the blog later this week. 

Easter Treat Party

Now that you have baked baskets full of delicious Easter Treats it's time to invite some friend's over and share the yummy goodies with them! 

These pictures are from last year, as I didn't get a chance to share them over Easter with you all back then, I thought I would save them to share and it's been fun to look back on these pictures from a year ago! You can bet I'll be back in the kitchen again tomorrow baking up goodies for this weekend. 

I set up a cute Easter table displaying the cookies and nest cakes on cake stands and the blondies in a ceramic Farmer's Market basket I found in TK Maxx, all surrounding a little Easter tree we've had for years. We always have plenty of the little yellow chicks around the house at Easter time too, it wouldn't feel quite like Easter without them! 

Hang some burlap bunny bunting (DIY found here) and you are party ready! I even invited a little golden friend to join in, I had to watch him though, he was after those blondies! 

Easter Mini Egg Cornflake Nest Cakes

Mini Egg Nest Cakes are an Easter classic in my opinion and I have been making them for as long as I can remember, you can whip these up in a matter of minutes, you just have to wait for them to set (or you can just eat them warm with a spoon hehe)

Makes around 12 nests

Ingredients

100g cornflakes (or you can use shredded wheat or Rice Krispies) 

100g milk chocolate

50g butter

2 Tbsp Golden Syrup 

Cadbury Mini Eggs

Method

Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a bowl and mix well (sometimes I just use chocolate, it works just as well in my opinion)

Mix in the cornflakes, making sure they are all covered in the chocolate

Spoon into cake cases and top with 3 Mini Eggs

Leave to set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes

Tomorrow I will be sharing an Easter Cookie recipe with you all! 

Easter Cadbury Mini Egg Blondies

Last Year on Good Friday I spent the morning baking lots of Easter Sweet Treats, some I took on a picnic with me later that day and the rest I saved for a little party on Easter Sunday.

I thought I would share with you all the super quick and easy treats I made that will be perfect to whip up this coming weekend.

These blondies have made multiple appearances on the blog & Instagram in various different varieties and they are always a big hit! 

makes a 9×9 pan

Ingredients

1 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 c. butter

1 c. brown sugar, packed

1 egg, beaten

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 c. chocolate chops

1 – 1 1/2 c. Cadbury Mini Eggs (or Easter coloured M&M's)

Directions

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Melt 1/3 c. butter. Place it in a mixing bowl then add 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar; mix well and cool slightly. Add egg and vanilla and blend well.

Add the flour mixture a little at a time, mixing well. Mix in about 2/3 c. of the Mini Eggs and 1 c. of chocolate chips.

Spread in a greased 9×9 pan. Sprinkle more Mini Eggs on top (about 2/3 c. more, or desired amount).

Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees. *Double the recipe if you would like to make it in a 9×13 pan.*

I'll be sharing some more simple Easter recipes all this week on the blog and then showing you the cutest table set up for a little Easter Treat Party, you'll get a sneak peek in the recipes post! 

Chocolate Mice

Sugar mice are one of my favourite treats to find in my stocking at Christmas time. Last year my mum purchased these moulds, but we are yet to perfect making sugar mice in them! So instead we used them to make chocolate mice (almost 100) for my Mum's Fall ploughman's event at work recently and I thought they'd be perfect for Halloween treats, so I made a batch to use for myself!

You will need:

*Mice Moulds
*Chocolate
*Something for tails, e.g. string, liquorice laces

And then you just cut some tails and lay them in the mould, melt the chocolate and pour it and and let the mice set in the fridge over night and turn them out of the moulds in the morning.

Stacey's Smiles

Happy Friday everyone! The first week back at work after a break always seems like a long one but I've made the most out of every evening this week to make sure I don't get those post holiday blues!

I finally decided to get a Twitter account for my blog again so you can now follow me here @Fiveminutestyle

You can also find me over on the iPhone app Pose under FiveMinuteStyle

And if you don't already follow me on Instagram you can find me under Spark1988

H&M Trousers, Zara Tee, Rebecca Minkoff Bag

Enjoying a Caffe Caramella

An early morning made better by some Oia Jules & Spike the Punch!

New Essie Polishes from TK Maxx

Multiplying Homemade Chocolate Mice

Let's Get Crafty: Christmas Goodies

These are just some of the super quick Christmas crafts I made with my mum for our craft stall we had earlier this month!

We added some glitter and buttons to these giant gift tags for that always needed added bit of sparkle!

We added little 3d Christmas characters to plain pegs to make card garlands!

We had lots of Christmas stickers to use up so we just added them to plain gift tags, these were a great hit and we sold them all!

My mum also made some Christmas cakes to sell, along with some plaques for people to use on their own cakes! I helped make marzipan fruits (which I forgot to photograph) and we made these spiced Christmas chocolates and boxed them up and added little gift tags so they were all ready to give as gifts! These were the first ting we sold out of, we definitely needed to make more! 

We also painted signs and made some little memo chalkboards, along with with some seasonal marmalade and filled stockings with goodies! I also should have taken some pictures of all the things my little sister had cross stitched, she made cards, Christmas decorations, lockets paper weights and little gift bags!