Etsy Love - Treetrunks

Well, it's been a little while since I've been able to focus on the blog properly. Thankfully most of my deadlines are over now (except for one dreaded essay!) so I can spend some more time aimlessly searching Etsy.

Lets kick off this week with some Treetrunks love, cause this lil elephant will always have a special place in my heart. And now I'm craving apple pie!

1. Candy Ware Jewelry / 2. homeworkparty / 3. Gone Girly / 4. SHillustration / 5. Black Willow Soaps / 

6. Three White Rabbits / 7. Circle Treasures / 8. Miniature Sweet / 9. characterhats

Robots, Cupcakes, Lobsters & Ninjas

It's always entertaining when I get asked to do several different ideas in one set of Matryoshka, so this set was really fun to put together.

You can see more of my Matryoshka here.

Vegan Apricot and Carrot Cupcakes

Every year me and Ash make each other birthday cakes, this year he asked for carrot cake - his favorite. I've already done a few vegan carrot cakes before and was bored of the old recipe I was using, so I decided to play around with ingredients and this is the result. The dried apricots add a great flavor to the cakes. I like to soak and simmer them in orange juice so when you bite into them you get a tangy, juicy taste of orange.

This recipe is based on this wonderful recipe from The Ethical Chef.

Ingredients:

• 225g Grated carrots
• 170g Dried apricots, cut into little pieces
• 280g Self raising flour
• 150g Cane sugar
• 80g Desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp Ground ginger
• 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• 200g Vegan margarine
• 200ml Orange juice
• Pinch of salt
• A few walnuts to decorate (optional)

Frosting:
I used this recipe for the frosting.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (325F).
2. Simmer the orange juice and chopped dried apricots in a pan for 5-10 mins (until the apricots begin to soften). Allow to cool.
3. Mix the margarine and sugar together in a bowl. Add the grated carrots.
4. Add the cooled juice/apricot mixture, sift the flour, salt and spices in and mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cakes and bake for 12-18 mins.
6. Allow to cool before frosting & decorating.

Etsy Shop Feature: The Nosuch Disco

The Nosuch Disco is a bright and super fun shop. Filled with kawaii inspired creations. The Nosuch Disco specialises in digital prints, greetings cards, badges & phone covers.

The Nosuch Disco was founded by Dave, a UK artist living in Stoke on Trent. Dave is well known for creating the book Waldo the Worm. He likes to create colourful little characters.

What's your favourite No Such Disco creation? The cupcake cat and the fat cat in space are my joint favourites.

Fun & Friendly Finds

A treasury of fun items with a bubblegum pink and blue theme. Of course, I couldn't resist featuring another awesome monster.

1. High Waisted Heart Knickers $30 from KnickerRocker

2. Nerdy Teddy Pin $12 from Hanako

3. Lolita Cupcake Skirt $49.95 from Dash A

4. Unicorn Pillow $38 from My Mimi

5. Leather Neon Pink Necklace $48 from Boo + Boo Factory

6. Hand Painted Stone $25 from Kijo Studio

7. Toad Stool Brogues £60 from PonyChops

8. Gus Big Monster $95 from Cotton Monster

Droooool

I have just discovered the most amazzzing edible cake decorations from Andies Speciality Sweets. I want them ALL! I especially love their toadstools, nuts that aren't nuts and their candy buttons. I definitely need to invest in some of these before baking my next batch of cupcakes.

Butternut squash honey cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!!

I figured because of the healthiness of the butternut squash in these cupcakes it's probably ok to overload them with yummy cream cheese frosting om nom nom nommm. I adapted my recipe from Tooth Fairy Recipes. They taste like little mini carrot cakes and are a great way to enjoy eating veg. If you're struggling to know how exactly to react when you try this cake, refer to 0.45 of this video.

Here's what you need for the basic cakes:

• 230g butternut squash
• 2 free range eggs
• 100g unsalted butter, melted
• 50g natural caster sugar 
• 50g brown sugar
• 80g honey
• 100g self raising flour
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• Orange zest (optional)

For the icing:

• 125g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 50g icing sugar
• 250g low fat cream cheese

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 200c (gas mark 6)
• Peel the squash and cut it into chunks and place in a microwaveable bowl with boiling water. If you life your cakes a little bit more textured like carrot cake then zest a bit of the skin into the bowl too. Cook in the microwave on high power for 10 mins. Drain the excess water and mash up the squash as finely as possible.
• Whisk the eggs and then mix them with the sugar, honey and butter.
• In a separate mixing bowl, mix the flour with baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg (and orange zest if using it). Add the egg mixture and the butternut squash and mix together thoroughly. 
• Place some cupcake liners on a cupcake tray. Fill with the mixture and bake for 20 mins (possibly less in fan ovens).
• For the frosting mix the unsalted butter with the icing sugar until even and then add the cream cheese.
• Wait until the cupcakes are cool to add the icing you duh brain. Add a candied orange on top if desired.