Consumed

I am consumed with wedding stuff at the moment and don't have much to post about. 

See you on the flip side. 

Maybe.

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Pic by Kikitography
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Getting baked with Tracy: peppermint crisp cupcakes!

So as you know by know, last weekend was my kitchen tea and bachelorettes {or hen party} and for the tea, which was held at Die Werf, my bridesmaid, Tracy baked the most delicious peppermint crisp cupakes. Oh my goodness, I had to stop myself from eating more than one - but also had to cajole myself to eat at least one - guilty conscience and all, you know! 

Tracy, the amazing person that she is, remembered that peppermint crisp tart is one of my vices, my favourite pudding and ultimate self-reward, so used this as her prompt for the flavour of the cupcakes. Guys, believe me when I say that it was beyond delicious! 

In fact, it was so tasty that almost everyone asked me for the recipe, so I decided to share it here today.

Light Fairy Cupcakes

       {roughly makes 12}

       Batter

       (500 ml) 250 ml cake flour

       (2 ml) 1 ml salt

       (12.5 ml) 7 ml baking powder

       (150 g) 75 g soft baking margarine or butter (salted butter is fine)

       (200 ml) 100 ml sugar

       (2) 1 large egg

       (+/- 50 ml) +/- 25 ml milk

       (2 ml) 1 ml caramel essence

       {the measurements in brackets are if you would like to double the recipe}

        Icing
        450 g icing sugar

        250 g soft baking margarine

        2 ml vanilla essence

        2 ml almond essence

For the cupcake batter: Preheat oven to 220̊C. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder into a medium bowl. Soften margarine/butter with a wooden spoon in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar to margarine/butter one teaspoonful at a time, beating well after each addition using an electric beater. The mixture should be light and crumb-like.  Beat the egg lightly with a fork. Add it to the mixture using the  same method when incorporating the sugar. The mixture should be creamy and a lighter shade.  

 Fold in half of the dry ingredients and a little milk. Be gentle. Do not mix in the dry ingredients as this will remove the air that you have worked into the mixture.  Fold in the rest of the dry and ingredients and milk. Add vanilla essence. The mixture must be a soft, dropping consistency. If it seems too dry,  add a drop of milk. Fill the paper cups with a about a dessertspoonful of the mixture. Bake at once for 10 to 15 minutes. 

Cool on a wire rack and decorate as desired.

Now for the stuff that made it so good! Tracy explains that she cored out the middle of the cupcake and proceeded to add whipped caramel treat in the hole. It was such a delicious surprise!

For the icing, Tracy used: 250 g margerine; 500 g icing sugar; 5 ml mint essence; 15 ml water and colouring of course. She then mixed it up, spread it and topped it off with broken peppermint crisp chocolate bars. 

Bon appetit!

Light Fairy Cupcakes

       {roughly makes 12}

       Batter

       (500 ml) 250 ml cake flour

       (2 ml) 1 ml salt

       (12.5 ml) 7 ml baking powder

       (150 g) 75 g soft baking margarine or butter (salted butter is fine)

       (200 ml) 100 ml sugar

       (2) 1 large egg

       (+/- 50 ml) +/- 25 ml milk

       (2 ml) 1 ml vanilla essence

       {the measurements in brackets are if you would like to double the recipe}

        Icing
        450 g icing sugar

        250 g soft baking margarine

        2 ml vanilla essence

        2 ml almond essence

- See more at: http://waitingformeg.blogspot.com/2012/09/getting-baked-with-tracy-fairy-cupcakes.html#sthash.jcSbrQxP.dpuf

Light Fairy Cupcakes

       {roughly makes 12}

       Batter

       (500 ml) 250 ml cake flour

       (2 ml) 1 ml salt

       (12.5 ml) 7 ml baking powder

       (150 g) 75 g soft baking margarine or butter (salted butter is fine)

       (200 ml) 100 ml sugar

       (2) 1 large egg

       (+/- 50 ml) +/- 25 ml milk

       (2 ml) 1 ml vanilla essence

       {the measurements in brackets are if you would like to double the recipe}

        Icing
        450 g icing sugar

        250 g soft baking margarine

        2 ml vanilla essence

        2 ml almond essence

- See more at: http://waitingformeg.blogspot.com/2012/09/getting-baked-with-tracy-fairy-cupcakes.html#sthash.jcSbrQxP.dpuf

Light Fairy Cupcakes

       {roughly makes 12}

       Batter

       (500 ml) 250 ml cake flour

       (2 ml) 1 ml salt

       (12.5 ml) 7 ml baking powder

       (150 g) 75 g soft baking margarine or butter (salted butter is fine)

       (200 ml) 100 ml sugar

       (2) 1 large egg

       (+/- 50 ml) +/- 25 ml milk

       (2 ml) 1 ml vanilla essence

       {the measurements in brackets are if you would like to double the recipe}

        Icing
        450 g icing sugar

        250 g soft baking margarine

        2 ml vanilla essence

        2 ml almond essence

- See more at: http://waitingformeg.blogspot.com/2012/09/getting-baked-with-tracy-fairy-cupcakes.html#sthash.jcSbrQxP.dpuf

{My Kitchen Tea} The invites

Can I tell you something funny? I was invited to my own kitchen tea and bachelorettes! And I love it. I think my friend's would have liked to keep it a surprise until the day itself, but I would have driven them crazy with questions and would have gone mad. So, to make it very special, they gave me a super special invite!

The sweet box was filled with all kinds of treats, including nougat!! which is an all time favourite of mine, and my favourite flavour of tea - chai. It also had the goodies I would need on the day, my sash, a mask, my entry ticket ;) Unfortunately, I was sick as a horse when they brought the goodies to my house and thus, there are no pictures of me in this post. Narcissism much?

The set also had a sweet little vintage teacup and saucer in it, and I just had to use it immediately. How cute are my bridesmaids? 

I chose them well!

Forty Days

In high school, we counted down the last 40 days of our last year, our farewell to Matric and 12 years of school. We were allowed to get dressed up - I was a fairy - and run rampant on the school (well, sort of). We marched to school in the early hours, walked around, had a speech - made by two of my good friends, one in a cow costume and the other dressed as the Grim Reaper, and then proceeded to have a picnic on the hockey fields, where some people had a little more than juice and chips.

Today, I am again counting down 40 days, but this time I am not counting down to independence. This time, I am counting down to the biggest change in my life, the scariest challenge I am about to face. But at the same time, I am ecstatic, excited out of my mind, jumping and running and cartwheeling type of excitement. In 40 days, I will marry the love of my life and start a new life with him - my own family. I cannot wait to walk down that aisle and promise to love Flip for the rest of my life.

And to be honest, every relationship has their ups and downs, and every now and again we have a little tiff, but that doesn't change anything about the things our relationship is built on: trust, love, faith and respect. I cannot wait to embrace every little detail about these last 40 days of wedding preparation! Nerves may get the better of me at some point, but I will see it as part of the deal.

Ek is lief vir jou Flip, jy is die as waarom my wereld draai!