Author Archives: keryn

Feb 20 2013

Citrus body scrub recipe

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Body Scrub makes a great activity for a Spa Party or Spa Party Favor

For my daughters Pacific Beauty Spa party I scoured Pinterest for recipes for products we could make as a party activity.The body scrub turned out to be an absolute winner.

This is an image of oranges used in the body scrub recipe.

As soon as I ran out I had to make more for myself and started to adapt the body scrub recipe so now I think it’s even better. It’s become a beauty routine essential, and so easy to make out of basic pantry supplies! This recipe will make enough for a small party favour bottle full for around 10 guests or 3 large Mason Jar size pots for your own personal supply.

You’ll need

  • 4 cups of white sugar
  • One orange
  • Enough neutral vegetable oil (like canola) to cover the sugar
  • Essential oils: Sweet orange, bergamot or patchouli oil work well with orange

This is an image of orange sugar.

Put your sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and grate the rind of one orange into the bowl with it. Turn the mixer onto low and allow the rind and sugar to blend together for about 5 minutes. This will release the oils in the orange zest and give you a wonderfully fragrant and golden colored sugar.

Transfer the sugar/orange mixer into a bowl and cover with oil so that all the sugar is wet.

Mix in the essential oils of your choice and transfer to clean, air tight jars.

Visit our Etsy shop and add a Printable Party Ideas label as the finishing touch!

Feb 13 2013

Macaroon Mess

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Macaroon Fail? Never fear, Macaroon Mess is here!

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I must have made hundreds of Macaroons by now. I’ve even taken a night class to learn their secrets. But they are tricky, fickle things and even now probably two thirds end up in the reject pile. They still taste great of course but maybe they are cracked or have peaks or horror of horrors not passed that number one macaroon test – no feet!

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So I end up with tins full of macaroons that eventually go stale and get thrown out. Seemed like an awful waste. While prepping for our latest party I had a brain wave – the Macaroons taste great, look pretty why not create a twist on an old classic – instead of Eton Mess why not Macaroon Mess. Now someone may have come up with this before but if they haven’t I hear by coin it! If you’re not familiar with Eton Mess it’s a heavenly mix of crushed meringue, strawberries and cream. Another one of those serendipitous happy accidents like brownies that have found their way into our most favourite recipes.

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How do you create a Macaroon Mess?

Part of the beauty of the dish is it’s really easy and if you have a great clear glass trifle bowl it will look spectacular. It’s simply a matter of layering. Starting with cream, sweetened with sugar and essence, either vanilla or an appropriate flavour for you other ingredients, add a layer to the bottom of your bowl.

Next some fruit. This mess was for a “Twisting by the Pool” baby shower. Our colour theme was blues, greens and a punch of yellow for an accent. So I picked fruit that fit that theme. I used a mix of fresh and canned pineapple and folded lemon curd through the juice to thicken it and balance the sweetness. You could use a berry compote or stone fruit but make sure they are thickened a little so there isn’t too much juice that will just end up curdling your cream.

Then add a layer of Macaroons. Crumble and crunch those little suckers up and sprinkle them over the fruit. Repeat this sequence until your bowl is full or you’ve run out of ingredients. Save a layer of cream and a sprinkle of Macaroon crumbs on the top. The Mess will start out with chewy crunchy bits and the longer it’s left they will melt into a marshmellowy sticky ribbon of pretty colour. Have fun with your colour, flavour and fruit combinations. My family have given it the definite thumbs up.

Printables shown in the photos are available from our Etsy shop.

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Dec 23 2012

Gingerbread Houses – tips and tricks

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Most years at Christmas time I try to get around to making a Gingerbread House. It’s one of those traditions my kids just love. This year I had a house full of 6 kids ranging from 7 to 12 that worked in pairs to create 3 beautiful houses. It was a fantastic activity that they all enjoyed and kept them entertained for hours as the planned and meticulously decorated their creations.

In our southern hemisphere climate it can be a challenge though. Usually December in Auckland is hot and humid and some of my Gingerbread houses in the past haven’t faired well. My last attempt I’m sure would have been condemned by the local council and was only held up by lots of internal cheats like cans of food keeping the roof from caving in.

This prompted me to make a much improved house this year and of course it starts with the Gingerbread. I found this recipe from Sweatopia worked really well. In fact the whole post and video were really helpful. It needs to be strong and humidity proof. Sometimes that doesn’t equal great taste but we liked this recipe. The molasses is a good complement to the sweetness of the icing and candy. If you don’t like the taste of molasses golden syrup, corn syrup or a combination of the two should work. Though your gingerbread will be a lot lighter in color.

Sweatopia gingerbread recipe

Stained glass windows

This is a technique that I saw years ago and have been meaning to try and finally did this year with quite a bit of success so I definitely recommend trying it. When your gingerbread walls are cut out use a small cutter (I’ve used a small circle and a small snowflake) to cut out windows. Then using a mortar and pestle smash up a few boiled sweats, clear if you want transparent or colored for the more stained glass effect. Sprinkle the crushed candy into the window spaces and bake as normal. Allow the pieces with candy windows to cool completely before removing from the tray. Also a word of warning the candy windows can be quite sticky and I found I was able to remove them more easily from the baking sheet if I used a silicon liner rather than just waxed paper – that tended to stick to the candy. You’ll get a lovely translucent glow through your house and if you wanted you could put electric tea lights inside to even light it from within. Unfortunately in my experience the glass doesn’t last too long – a couple of days at most – then it will start to melt.

Main tips

  • Start with a good and proven recipe
  • Roll the gingerbread quite thick, about ¼ of an inch, much thicker than for cookies.
  • Leave lots of time to chill the dough, both during and after it’s cut out. This makes it a lot easier to work with and you can cut much neater shapes
  • Use a pizza cutter and a metal ruler

I also used Sweatopia’s royal icing recipe which worked really well. The addition of extra cream of tartar and Wilton’s meringue powder makes an icing that sets really hard and keeps your house together.

Sweatopia’s royal icing recipe

When constructing your house give your self plenty of time between each stage. The longer you can leave the walls to dry before you put on the roof the better and stronger house you will have.

Decoration

What I’ve found with party’s follows with Gingerbread Houses – having a color scheme and sticking to it generally gives you a better look. This is a bit of a hard concept to get across to kids it they are helping you so I usually just let them go for it and you’ll be amazed what they come up with.

I’ve included my own template for a small house. If you have a group of kids this is a good size and you can make four out of the Gingerbread recipe above.

Template Small Gingerbread House

Dec 15 2012

Biscotti recipe

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Ginger dark chocolate biscotti

Biscotti makes a great gift, it’s easy to make, goes a long way and keeps well. My biscotti recipe has ginger and dark chocolate, one of my favourite combos.

This is an image of ginger and dark chocolate biscotti

Ingredients

  • 2¼ cup of plain flour
  • ½ tsp of baking powder
  • 3.5oz of ground almonds
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chips
  • 1 cup glace ginger chopped
  • 3 eggs
  • ¾ cups of castor sugar
  • tsp of vanilla essence

Method

Heat oven to 350°F.

Sift flour and baking power together and mix in chopped ginger, ground almonds and chocolate.

Whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla essence.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and poor in the egg mixture and mix till combined. The dough will be quite wet so tip out onto a lightly floured and divide in two. Roll the two sections into long sausage shapes about two inches wide and 12 inches long. If the mixture is really sticky you can use cling film to help roll the dough into shape.

Put the two logs of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with baking paper with a little room between each to allow for some spreading. Bake for 25 minutes.

When cooked allow the logs to cool completely before cutting. Once cool cut into .18 inch thick slices diagonally down the log. I found using a serrated bread knife using very little pressure, just letting the knife do most of the work gave the smoothest most event biscotti.

Place the sliced biscotti back onto the cookie sheet in a single layer and cook for a further 15 mins. Keep a close eye on them to make sure they don’t over brown. Cool on a wire rack.