How to ~ Making Your Own Chocolate Lovelies

I know that Valentine’s Day has long gone, but I wanted to show you the present I made for my husband.  I felt that it could be it useful as a gift idea for the man in your life {is it just me or are boys notoriously difficult to purchase presents for?} or anyone else special to you that you want to show love to.

Chocolate usually goes down as a great present for the young and old ~ but half the problem with buying chocolates is that it just seems so impersonal.   That’s why I decided to ‘make’ my own for the hubby.

He happens to adore liquorice all sorts, actually any type of liquorice, so I thought that I would start from there and see how I went!

Supplies:

~  Chocolate to melt down

~  Candy to dip in the chocolate {I used liquorice}

~  Bowl & Saucepan to melt chocolate in

~  Piping bag or substitute

~  Non-stick baking paper

~  Tray/plates

~  Space in your fridge

~  Wrapping paper/cellophane/sticky tape/scissors 

Step 1:  Lay out all of your supplies ~ things are going to get messy!

 

 

 

 

Step 2:  Melt your chocolate in a bowl.   The method is really simple; just fill a saucepan with water, put the bowl on top and set to boil.

You can melt the chocolate in a microwave, but I find it easier not to burn it using the pot method.

Note:  Be careful not to let any of the boiling water get into the chocolate because this will ruin it as it causes the chocolate to separate.

 

Step 3:  Lay out your candy on non-stick baking paper so it’s ready to cover with melted chocolate.   You can do this while the chocolate is melting, but do not forget to keep an eye on the pot so all the water does not boil away. 

 

 

 

Step 4:   Piping time!   If you do not have a piping bag, it isn’t a problem.  Just spoon a decent amount of chocolate into a sandwich bag, and cut one corner. 

Cut a small hole because you can always make it bigger, but you can not make it smaller!   Then pipe away to your heart’s content.

 

 

Step 5:  Cover your candy with chocolate.  I dipped half of the liquorice all sorts in the chocolate bowl for more ‘coverage’ and piped squiggles of chocolate on the other half.

 

 

 

Step 6:  Make some truffle chocolates.  Okay, so I have to confess ~ I was not planning to do these, they came around because I made a mistake.

I wanted to see if I could improve the chocolate flavour with a bit of milk and butter.  The only problem is that the milk acted like water and separated the chocolate.  I do not know if it is because of the temperature  {I put the cold milk in} or because it was a liquid.  

Either way the chocolate was pretty much ruined for piping/dipping so I squeezed the mixture into little squares and popped some coloured choc chip decorations on top.  My suggestion for making proper truffles instead of mistake ones is to try this recipe, or this one, or any other you might like to taste!

 

Step 7:  Pipe a chocolate valentine for your sweetheart.  ^ u ^    I just did a heart shaped outline and then filled it in.   I wrote “I ♥ U” in chocolate chips for a special message. 

 

 

 

*Sorry ~ I forgot to take a photo!*         Step 8:  Put your chocolates in the fridge until they have set.

 

Step 9:  Wrap your chocolates up.   I wrapped my ‘valentine’ separately with a lid underneath it so it didn’t snap or break.

I put all of the liquorice in an banana split bowl I bought from Woolworths, but you could use a heart shaped box if you want, or an ordinary bowl; it really depends on what you think up.

 

    

Step 10:  Give your yummy handmade chocolates as a gift and watch them disappear!   Or, alternatively you could keep them for yourself and watch them disappear……  > U <  

xox,

bonita

Boots ~ Outfit Seven

I actually wore this outfit on Saturday to a picnic with my life~long friends.  It was a really nice day for the middle of winter ~ the sun was bright and even better, we had pie!  My amazing sister decided a while ago to take up pie making as a hobby and we all benefit from that one!

She makes the most delicious pies from scratch.   Pastry, filling and all.  AND she uses her own recipes.  O.O  Her pies are so tasty and yummy….   Her Christmas Apple Pie is delightful and I adore the Pear and Lavender one she cooks.  Lucky us; we get to sample her delectable creations.  I swear cooking is such a great hobby. 

Mmmmm…… Pie. 

      

      

Okay, I will stop getting distracted with food.

Here is the outfit I wore!

            

    

 

Accessories  ~  Hair bows {Best & Less}     Scarf  {Thrifted}    Cuff  {Diva}         Top  ~  Primark {Scotland}        

Skirt  ~  Thrifted  {$7.00, good eh?}         

Tights  ~  SES         Boots  ~  FSW {years ago ~ can’t you tell by the worn heels?}

 

I love those boots.  The biker/cowgirl style is really sweet ~ not too girly, not too western.   I do not really wear western at all, so this is about as close as it gets.  {I figure that if I want to wear clothes that look like I should be riding in them, then I will ride.   Therefore, I won’t wear western as “going out” clothes, but actual yard gear.  It gets really dirty; as anything that goes near a horse will.  : / }

Unfortunately they really need re~heeling.  They are so worn down.  The problem is that even though I have a ton of shoes {please don’t ask the count, I don’t know and probably don’t want too….  That way I can stay in denial and keep acquiring new captives for my wardrobe} I wear them all to death.  I have at least three pairs that need new heels desperately.  I shall have to visit the cobbler asap.

One last piece of news ~ my camera arrived from Cannon finally!!  *does a dance*  I am soooo excited, so expect quite a flood of photographs.  I want to play with every setting until I know exactly what it can do.  

Oh, and sorry about the terrible lighting in the above outfit pictures ~ winter sun is really bright… 

xox,

b.

Let them eat cake ~

Mmmm….   Cake.  It all started yesterday afternoon.  I was cleaning up and decided instead of stripping the chicken carcass for the dog I would make stock with it and cook soup for dinner.  {Because that is sooo much easier than pulling bits of chicken off the bone.  I wonder how my mind can be so illogical sometimes…..}

Ooh!  I forgot!  I haven’t introduced my family yet!  DH and I have a mini family consisting of two children ~

an 8-almost-9-year old Siberian husky, Amabelle,

and a 10 year old Standard bred gelding, Copper.

  

Anyway, back to the story!  I’d gone for a ride on Copper ~ a quick warm up in the arena and then a lovely trail ride with my Dad on Rusty {our other horse} and Amabelle.  When I came back I somehow managed to get all ambitious.  Not only was I going to make my own soup {without a recipe no less} I was going to bake a cake.   Now, for all the accomplished cooks out there that doesn’t sound like such a big deal.  But this is me in the kitchen ~

Yes, that is a plate of burnt food….    My poor husband hasn’t starved yet, but we have had more ready-made meals {such as pizza, pies and chips!} than I’d care to admit.   I’m just not the greatest at culinary stuff.  So when I say that dinner and a cake is ambitious for me, I mean it. Things started off reasonably well, I tried a Walnut cake, but the thing is I made it with coconut flour.  It was a bit of an experiment to say the least.  Cake mixed, tinned and ovened; it was all good so far.  Now it was vegetable time.

I got the piles of veggies chopped {DH likes his soup to be chewy.  >  >} and all was going relatively well until I went to ice the cake.  It had come out the oven, cooled for fifteen minutes or so, but when I put it on the rack, it broke in half.  And I was all ~ “Uh-oh, this doesn’t look good at all…”   Then I tried a crumb of the cake and it was GROSS!!  As in, “Eww ~ what is that?!??” gross.  I chucked it in the bin.  And panicked.  I promised cake!! {Ok, more like bribed cake in return for DH doing the dishes.  Well, the dishes were done and there was no cake to be seen…}

I flipped through the DH’s family recipes we’d been given as a wedding present but all of them took too long ~  I had twenty minutes until DH came home for tea and I wanted the cake in the oven before that.  Plus, I wasn’t sure we had all the ingredients.  Okay, back to cake book with the failed walnut recipe.  The only thing that looked reasonably easy was the sponge cake.  Although I had heard that they could be difficult… 

I gave it a wack anyway and to my surprise, it was a success!!  I’ve never been able to cook well under pressure, so I was amazed when it turned out so well.  So happy!!!  Now for the photos to show off my purty cake.

    

       

    

Yes, it tastes great!!!  One cake, two people:  yummmm……

I will never be a master chef, but one day I hope I can cook a proper meal {at least two courses} without getting flustered or burning the food, or having to throw  mistakes out.  One of these days!

xox,

b.