The Perfect Easter Cupcake from Hi Cupcake! Bespoke Cupcakes

Our wonderful first guest blogger has a perfect Easter cupcake! We're very excited to introduce...

Carrot Cupcakes

A perfect Easter weekend treat that contains enough carroty goodness to make you believe you’ve had one of your five-a-day!

INGREDIENTS

220g carrots, finely grated

100g raisins

20g pecans or walnuts, roughly chopped (optional)

Zest of ½ orange

2 eggs

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

120g golden caster sugar

100ml sunflower oil

120g plain flour, sifted

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

FROSTING

30ml freshly squeezed orange juice

Zest of ½ orange

250g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter

Firstly, combine the grated carrot, raisins and nuts (if using) in a bowl. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, oil, orange zest and vanilla extract together well until slightly thickened. 

In another bowl mix together the sifted flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt.  This should be gradually folded into the egg mixture, and then finally mixed in with the carrot, raisins and nuts.

The completed mixture should be evenly spooned out into 12 cupcake cases, and baked (160⁰ fan assisted/ 180⁰ electric/gas mark 4/350⁰F) for approximately 25 minutes, by which time they should bounce back once touched. 

Allow the cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack before topping with the orange buttercream frosting.

Decorate with crushed digestive biscuit and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.

Sit back and enjoy!

Awash with Spring colours

With balmy weather in the south east, toddler and I have taken it upon ourselves to paint in the garden. With very little on the paper and most on ourselves (and the newly laid lawn which is looking at me witheringly-quite literally since a rampant animal seems to have lifted our turf and dug beneath it!) we have accomplished some interesting looking masterpieces! In the event of any peace and quiet I am also building up some less extreme sketches for our fabric 'collection'! There can be nothing more freeing than drawing, as an art teacher I strongly believe that it is not about 'good' or 'bad' art but the unique experience of making one's mark, an original distinct mark that says, I am here in this universe. It should be an affirming practice; I once worked on an education project in a gallery where some scary and rather surly teenagers took part in live art and practical art, as well as art debates with artists. They left chatty and enthusiastic.

So in a quiet moment take sometime for yourself. Grab some paper and try out our Duck Egg masterclass in watercolours...watercolours? Yes watercolours, not the scary medium everyone thinks it is. It's unforgiving reputation is a shame as its easy to blot off and paint (once dry) and it is a little misunderstood. I love it for bold pieces, it is often used for detailed work, but experiment with amounts of water and it comes up with some wonderful effects. For example use a square flat headed brush with little water for marking out bold shadows, once dry use a lighter wash around it in a paler tone for the highlights. Think Hockney landscapes, form far away detailed and intricate, up close a whole swirl of colours and brushstrokes. Try simple subjects such as a garden, buildings, or just the sky. If you can go  to a bluebell wood this weekend, the seaside or the countryside.

Duck Egg takes to the water...

You can if you have to sketch in your drawing in pencil, but take the plunge and try it without, you can get some lovely effects and it is more freeing!

Understand your composition, discover where the centre is, how will it fit- and don't worry if it ends up not fitting on your paper! Tape your paper with masking tape to a solid surface such as a tray.

Have a few paint brushes at the ready and think what techniques you will use...

You might want to start with a basic wash off colour, use a graded wash for sky and sea. Lift off any unwanted patches while wet with some kitchen roll or smooth tissue for a different effect, for clouds etc.

You might also start by blocking in colour. You will use this to build the highlights and shadows on to create perspective so make sure that the paint is not too thick.

Once dry you can then start to add details to your wash, keep looking at the shapes you see and try and not paint what you think you see, it's hard but also therapeutic to turn off and just look. A dry brush can add more detail and you might even want to try scratching into the paint with a clean end of a brush.

For any more inspiration I love this series http://www.channel4.com/programmes/watercolour-challenge/4od   take a look at how differently all the artists paint!

Painting above taken from this lovely blog http://lakelandart.blogspot.com/2011/02/step-by-step-watercolour-bluebell-wood.html

Some crafty ideas for Spring!

So Spring is definitely on the way! Time for a new craft and for re-vamping old furniture in the attic! Give a table, a chest, or even a wardrobe a new lease of life (and at the same time if you want to occupy small hands for days on end over Easter!) through the therapeutic art of decoupage. Decoupage is a decorative technique which is quite simply sticking on paper to furniture and varnishing to create the idea of inlay or painted on designs. This seemingly most genteel of crafts can produce very bold and modern looks for your interior. You can go for striking all over schemes or dainty collections of vintage rose blooms and gold leaf for a vintage country look. Just make sure the paper is not too thin and you varnish well. (For areas subject to less wear and tear  or to make this an Easter craft with little ones you can use PVA glue instead of varnish, but it's a bit less shiny!)

So to get started grab your scissors and choose your images, excess wallpapers work well or for a contemporary vintage look use old maps. Try garden magazines, antiques catalogues (look out for bird prints-these can create a lovely vintage feel) or design brochures. Look out for decorative details to complement the look such as cherubs, ornate leaf scrolls etc.

Paint your chosen piece, wooden boxes are a good place to start if aren't feeling too confident! Small bedside tables also very willing subjects. I had a pine Ikea one which was perfect for my first foray! Sand if needed and paint with your chosen colour, you could try a Farrow and Ball emulsion for heritage looks. (Gold leaf can be rubbed over edges at this point).

From www.housetohome.co.uk (some useful tips on decoupage)

When dry you can place the cut outs where you think they need to go before sticking, make sure you are happy and start glueing on the images by putting the glue onto the furniture or object and smooth out any air bubbles as you go along. At the edges of the furniture you can cut into the paper to allow it to fold over without creases and bunching. Push paper into corners and smooth over.

Once dry apply a couple of coats of varnish or PVA to finish!

A Florentine Fancy: Gardening with Tuscan Style

In a moment of indulgence, when the house was quiet and the washing up was out of necessity (again) soaking, I found with great relish 'A Room with a View'. A marvellous book which is so haunting and whose soul translates well to the film. Who couldn't help but love sumptuous shots of Florence's golden Duomo and the air thick with art, history and heat! The phone rang, the baby cried and chaos was once more restored to our household. However in those snatched moments and with the advent of someone helping us today with the mammoth task of heaving the rubble out of the garden, I decided that since I couldn't paint furniture (my workshop being used as storage for plants that looked very sorry for themselves), I would get to work on adding a Florentine twist to our humble plot!

A fragment from Fra Angelico's fresco of a garden scene from his 'Deposition from the Cross'

 I spent a winter out in Italy and have never quite got over it! I lived in a beautiful terracotta tiled flat in the eyrie of an ancient building, huge flights of stairs and dodgy wiring. (The oven only worked if the lights were off!) I soon discovered it was desperately cold, MTV was the only channel with anything vaguely English and my Italian only really worked in moments of hysteria such as shutting ourselves out of the flat on a snowy afternoon! However, I loved it and the lovely English girl who I been placed with. We wandered around our local greengrocer, being taught vegetables in an extremely fierce and aggressive manner by the owner, I have since forgotten 'melanzane'...We found pockets unvisited by tourists, restaurants alive with locals and food of which I spent most of my budget on and incidentally when I left Florence to travel, I ended up in a convent in Venice on Valentine's Day. I frequently walked up to the monastery of San Miniato, in the hills outside Florence, where behind small windows from the main church you could see the edge of a habit as a monk swept through the cloister and it seemed as if centuries had stood still. There is history in every street and it takes little imagination to be back in the Middle Ages or the Nineteenth Century doing the Grand Tour.

I do realise that a copy of the 'David' might be somewhat overbearing and I am not sure next door would appreciate his muscles rippling up and over their side of the fence so I have decided against my better judgement to employ some sense of restraint!

Michelangelo's David in the Accademia, Florence

However, I have come up with a few planting ideas that might add a few So in my quintessential English Garden, amongst fluffy tea roses and fox gloves and apple blossom there is to be a corner of Italy. In fact, incongruous as it might seem what could be more English! There is so much today in modern gardening that bears a strong resemblance to the ideas from Renaissance planting brought back from the Grand Tour, that the terraces of the Boboli Gardens and the structural elements of planting seemed ingrained in our gardening traditions. So whilst I don't think we can fit a lake and a tempietto, we could have a wispy cypress or a silvery olive tree, boxwoods to line a more formal front garden and over a thicket of evocative herbs such as rosemary and sage, vines can tumble around a seating area. A little bit of history, a terracotta pot here and there and the sense of a secluded archaic grove, just right for some artistic inspiration.

Boboli Gardens, Florence

The Duck Egg Bookworm...

On the dining table amidst the rice cracker packets, tambourine, sippy cups and wires piled precariously high in the middle  out of the reach of unseeing hands desperate for a haul, is my brain. I am sure I left it here...somewhere. Throughout the day in the small snatches of down time I am trying to collect my thoughts for the website and often the afternoon walk is via the antiques shop for vintage finds for Duck Egg! My toddler is a willing companion, as long as the pram doesn't stop moving and we sing loudly to the smirks of teenagers and sympathetic looks of those who have been there and done it!! However, there is one 'me' thing that I don't do enough of and that is to read. I love reading, I loved studying and am complete and unashamed geek. My book choices were often the source of amusement amongst my school friends, who mean the world to me and I am so blessed to be in touch with so many, although they never let me forget the hoards of strange Russian novelists and wonderfully indulgent fin-de-siecle French literature that I had on my shelves in my teenage years. But reading nowadays takes staying power and it needs a specific slot or the washing up and general fire-fighting of our renovation takes over. (Scenes of a deluge last night when I decided to helpfully mend a leak and a toddler thinking all his Christmases had come at once!)

So for those of you who are interested Duck Egg is starting up a monthly readers' club. I am longing to join a book club, but at the moment hours are long and time is short! So in the comfort of your own home, we are going to suggest the book that we are reading each month and a few things to look for along the read! At the end of the month, we'll discuss it (We'd like your reviews!) and choose a new book (suggestions would be fabulous!) You can also tell us what you think via the comments at the bottom of the blog. Hopefully this will inspire us all!

Why?At the heart of Duck Egg is the community we belong to as an entrepreneur, working mummy and as much as possible ethically responsible citizen. So it seemed fun to extend the community further and the Duck Egg website will provide beautiful interiors pieces, but also a forum where we hope to build a community where you can exchange recipes, gardening tips, local fairs and a jolly, good read. We want Duck Egg to be an experience!

So in amongst those moments we never have,  here is our first Duck Egg ...

Book of the Month

The World's Wife- Carol Ann Duffy

I have known very little about our poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, I vaguely remember a London Underground poster with one of her poem's on a bleary late night tube home, but that was it. This book is extremely illuminating and there is something magical about a well-known story being told from another's angle. In the author's words it depicts our "cultural ancestry".

A few thoughts to follow throughout the poems...

• Have a look at her themes, female responses and ideals, why does she choose who she does?
• What are your views on her contemporary style and setting?

Join us on twitter @duck_egg and follow the bookclub news on (hashtag)duckeggbookclub

(Where is the hashtag on a macbook- hashtag fail...)

Vintage Gardening-Part II: The Scented Bower

So the garden has been cleared and the snow has finally melted and we are contemplating ordering our apple tree.  Ignoring the rather large mound of debris that was cleared from the ground and that looks ominously outside our dining room window, we are planning our planting in more detail. I know I want a wild area of herbs and wildflowers in front of the lawn that will frame our seating area, but I have another obsession. The science of scent. A science which indeed may drive some, like the unfortunate inhabitants of Grasse in 'Perfume' (Patrick Suskind) to great lengths.

My epiphany on the power of evocative smells reminds of a hot summer I spent backpacking around the Greek islands with friends. It was a summer of blue skies, turquoise sea, beautiful beaches and monasteries clinging to mountain sides. It was idyllic, the worst thing we worried about was where the ferry was to take us to the nearest beach. We did stay in some interesting places, and I think the energy of youth perhaps lent us a rose-tinted view, but we spent all day on the beach and returned with warm skin and damp hair before heading out for sunset. Amongst these islands we visited Paros, which is rather favoured by artists. How glorious to live and paint here. It is the island on the east, which is the first stop from the Athenian port of Piraeus. A barren island at first that gives way to  stretches of windswept golden sands. We stayed in a flat, where the odd cockroach congregrated, but we had a small porch with bouganvillia climbing the pillars. On our first evening we were exploring the lively capital of the island which shrugged off it's daytime sleepy stupor and there were markets and shops and bright lights shimmering on the sea front. One of my most enduring memories is from a chance encounter where the four of us were swept with a crowd of tourists into the balmy high-walled courtyard that was a world away from the hustle and bustle of the centre. Suddenly around the corner a beautiful Orthodox church facade rose with majestic arches and in the evening heat the garden was filled with the heady scent of jasmine. Scents are so evocative and as soon as I smell jasmine I am transported to a beautiful evening in Greece, standing in the peace of the courtyard looking at the stars in an inky sky.

(The C4th AD church in Paros http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panagia_Ekatontapiliani)

So I know my first and most important scent that I'll include in huge pot loads is jasmine. It also has a lovely vintage feel to it if included in flower arrangements! So here are a few more scented plants to create a year round old-fashioned scented bower, perfect for trysts and wistful wanderings, whatever your space. (Climbers and bedding plants)

Roses are the quintessential element for a timeless scent, here are our favourite varieties. You could have both a shrub and a climber for big impact of fluffy petals, or you might want to have climbing flowers of a different variety such as a jasmine or rich fragrant honeysuckle.

David Austin is a good first port of call and their 'Scepter'd Isle' or 'Gertrude Jekyll' delivers a soft pink rose worthy of a Burne-Jones painting and a knock out scent punctuated by myrrh.

In your bower you might want to include a few pots bursting with scented blooms, we recommend the delicate scents of a tobacco plant, Nicotiana sylvestris.

Flowering shrubs for winter to keep your arbour smelling beautifully might include the bush honeysuckle or Daphne bholua for sweet winter scent.

Your wall/Your canvas

With half term upon us it got me thinking about things to do out and about in the UK. We have some really spectacular places to visit and especially some pretty amazing inspirational interiors. After spending time in Italy I have a love and appreciation for integral wall art, and I definitely think it is making a comeback in the modern home. Maybe not in the traditional trompe l'oeil way but the popularity of stencilling and personalised quotes stencilled or stuck to the wall and the popularity of nursery murals indicates a shift in interior trends towards the decorate importance of the wall as a canvas. Needing some inspiration we really recommend a trip to Sandham Memorial Chapel with the exquisite and heartbreaking clarity of Stanley Spencer's frescoes. (Open in April, see the website) An artist not largely acknowledged in the British canon of art, the 'naive' quality of his art is oozing with spirituality. This is a chapel that carries on the ancient tradition of murals and frescoes in sacred spaces; there is something medieval and, at the same time, starkly modern about his work. In the wake of the acclaimed adaptation of Birdsong this is a topical and poignant place to visit, as well as providing a unique look at interior decoration.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sandham-memorial-chapel