delicious brownies

I made brownies for some friends today, and I gotta say they turned out pretty darn well....to die for even. The brownies are nice and moist. The frosting deliciously creamy....MmmMmM

My husband started off licking the bowl and utensils...then he was eye-ing the brownies when it was completed. He thoroughly enjoyed them...all 4 squares...


For Brownies:
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 9" square baking pan.
2. In a bowl, stir together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, beat well with a spoon.
3. In another bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Gradually, add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

For Brownie Frosting:
Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Method
1. In a small bowl, beat butter, cocoa, honey and vanilla until blended.
2. Add icing sugar and milk, beat to spreading consistency.

Spread frosting all over the brownies. Cut into squares. Indulge.

Makes a batch of 16 brownies.


2 year old's princess necklace


I handmade this necklace for my most favorite 2 1/2 yr old in the whole wide world. She is not my own but I think everyone who knows her wishes she was theirs...she's just that adorable. My husband and I both love her very much...since she lives very close to us..within 1 minute, there is not a day where we don't want to go and visit, just to give her big hugs and receive a million kisses from her.

So I made this for her since she loves necklaces (as well as Dora, Hi 5, drawing on walls, dancing and just telling us her adventures.. which we dont understand). I think the life span of the necklace was 10hrs. She had tied it around her ankle (need to find out the whole story from her mum..my friend) and it broke...

Guess i will have to make a stack of these to give her over a period of time...

The tutorial where i got this DIY, a blog called to be charmed. I substituted the pearls for faux crystal beads


i want mora!


I'm sooooo in love with these antique Swedish Mora clocks (18th century). They are feminine, lean, tall... and beautiful! I need it one my house now!

I've been seeing these clocks in many french country interior design photos. A lot are in the U.S of A and U.K/Europe. The Mora is making more of a comeback than before!

I'm searching to see where i can find a nice pretty one that can sit in my beach house in Sri Lanka. I just hope the sea-mist doesnt rust the inside mechanism of the clocks.


snap: one


it's wednesday already...hope ure having a good week!

[photo: rae.c]


diy: instyle cupboard

The past week or so, I have been quietly revamping our old, ugly and cheap looking cupboard. It's gone a little lop-sided/bent from the heavy-usage its been through over the years and because it's cheap... I couldnt do any sanding, re-painting cos it's originally laminated.

Since I didnt take an initial picture of the cupboard before starting the work, I had to cheat and do some photoshopping magic. The doors and drawers are pasted with articles from Instyle magazine and then protected with transparent contact. I finished the rest of the cupboard with black contact paper which had a wood grain effect.


It was an easy job, just required a bit of patience. Now it looks as good as new.