Happy Easter!

this was taken last year, a few weeks before maisy went up to heaven to live in carrot land.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." 
John 11:25-26

Easter is all about new life, new beginnings. I have decided to give the blog a little makeover! The name is now switched to icing-for-joy.blogspot.co.uk. Want to know why? Head over to the "about" tab! 

Happy Easter everyone.

DIY: paper flowers

Do you remember these little pretty things? Well I have finally got together a DIY post for it! They are uber simple to make and look so delicate and dainty. 

I'm thinking of making a bunch for a baptism next week too - it's not very often you get pretty flowers made from paper!

I came across this cute DIY from pinterest, where most of my time goes. I could not bear to pass it without cutting a bit of my own paper! 

Supplies: coloured paper (purple and green here!), scissors, gluestick, green wire.

I guess the pictures are quite self-explanatory, but here's a few steps!

1) cut a 7cm x 21 cm strip from the coloured paper. Split into three sections whilst keeping the piece of paper intact.

2) make tight rolls on each of the three sections.

3) make small equal cuts to make frills.

4) cut a bit of green wire and glue and wrap the frills around it.

5) cut a zig zag shape from green paper and twist around the green wire.

6) tra-da! If you make a bunch of them, you might want to tie a bit of tissue paper and ribbon around it!

What do you think of them? Flower that will never wilt!

Insta-thursty: Week 9

The days are drawing nearer to exams and I guess the only thing keeping me going are my friends and family - my mum would bring me some pudding when I'm prepping for my art exam and my friends at school would stay amazing and make me laugh till my tummy aches.

Luckily, with all these exams I still have time to admire the beauty around me and do a little bit of DIY-ing and photography. As promised, I shall be sharing a DIY post for the paper flowers soon. Stay tuned!

my beautiful friends

flowers and chocolate from mother's day on Sunday

a quick meal at Jimmy Spices

dessert at Jimmy Spices

a recent painting for my art coursework

<center> <a href="http://dustingoficingsugar.blogspot.co.uk"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjZ5QzyOu3w87hZ0GjpGniAUQwYrlDIVa2AzMs7Q9pVer-Oe6ZcB4SUoT9sH4QfgONP8kVz95cZuAnJprig6nZ-m24Q6wmgyn_pZQh3QzvwagdvfBkbzNGI7uWANoAYhjvJAWIQczZxko/s720/insta%2520thursty.jpg"></a></center>

Mother's Day

A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep 

soundly in them.

 - Victor Hugo

Thank you mum, 

for treating me oh-so-special from day one

for teaching me the right ways

for listening to my whining

for smiling each day when I come home from school

for clearing up the mess after me

for helping me discover the world around me

for guiding my faith

and for your tender loving care.

I love you.

Flowers are a common gift to show your love to your mothers. However, I did not like the idea of getting a bunch of flowers for them to start drooping during the next few weeks, so I decided to make my own flowers this year - using paper, so that these flowers can be kept forever. Hopefully, I'll get to post a tutorial on it soon!

Yesterday, me and my family went up north for a family gathering and of course, for my mum to celebrate mothers day with my grandma. We brought along a box of cute chocolate cupcakes which my mum could't resist upon seeing on the supermarket shelf. And as it seems like my mum has kind of bought her own chocolates,  not to worry! - we had that sorted with a good box of thorntons ;)

Daily.

The sun rises, the sun sets. Days come and go. For me, I expect this month to fly by very quickly with exams fast approaching. I am slowly discovering the beauty of nature as spring is just a turn round the corner - the daffodils in the garden are slowly poking their heads out and the sun says goodbye a bit later on in the evening. I wake up in the mornings and the pain of turning on the lights to wake me up is not needed anymore as the sun is already beaming through the window.

I wanted to share a few images I took of the sky this week. Recently, I have been quite engaged in snapping a few shots of the sky - there's a sunset everyday, but it makes a different appearance each evening and every sunset is so unique. I always feel the urge to capture the roaring sky, taking out my camera every five minutes as I find that a different pattern is painted in the sky in just the time space of a few minutes; it never fails to amaze me.

Daily, I would come home from school and after a bit of snacking, get to the bottom of my pile of work. As time swiftly goes by, I would realise the sky unleashing streaks of red and tones of orange. I always take a pause as I soak in the beauty of the sky. If you see me on instagram, you would know I am a big fan of those beautiful skies I see in the midst of working hard. I really hope that in the next couple of weeks where there may be less freedom in how I use my time after school, I can still take a breath away from it all whenever the fiery sky reveals itself :) 

Cranberry Bundt Cake

Monday meant going back to school for me after a whole week off. Although I spent pretty much the last 5 days being sick and ill, the rest was devoted to a bit of relaxation of baking. Oh, and an ickle bit of homework and revision! 

There's really nothing better than a warm cake for tea. I had been on the hunt for new recipes on pinterest when all of a sudden, I came across this cake. The smashing pink icing told me to click on it. So I did. Of course, it had to be the day when there happens to be no cranberry juice in the fridge. "Oh well" I thought, the cake looks so amazing that the icing may be unnecessary! 

This cranberry cake didn't come along easy - I had no fresh cranberries either for the filling. But what I did find, were a large pouch of dried cranberries. I used them to fill the cake instead, along with a handful of toasted almonds that I coarsely crushed up.

Thank goodness for my determination to bake this cake, as the crumb of it was surprisingly loose and I really like the hint of cranberries which makes it seem a whole lot healthier as well! For now, it'll be a break from baking as I head on for another few more weeks of school before the easter holidays :)

Nutella Cupcakes

There's something about nutella that always makes me feel excited for breakfast. Maybe not the most healthiest of breakfasts if I were to smother Nutella all over my toast every morning, but chocolate before school always gives a healthy smile :)

These cupcakes were a must-do as soon as I saw it in the recipe book. They were literally a moist, chocolate cake with a nutella filling and crammed with chocolate.

Every once in a while, I like to go back to baking cupcakes because they were the roots of my baking history. When I was around four, I would help my mum stir the cake batter or pour the sugar in. When the cakes were smelling delightful and cooked, I would help with the decorating - a simple glacé icing and sprinkles.

I find that these silicon moulds are becoming my new favourite for baking up cupcakes. They are eco-friendly as they can be used many times and also saves the hassle of stocking up paper cases, which means cramming more junk into the baking cupboard. Win-win!

Nutella Cupcakes

Ingredients:

375g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
25g cocoa powder
100g brown sugar
125g melted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250ml buttermilk
250ml nutella
handful of chocolate chips (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan. Grease 12-hole muffin pan
2. Sift dry ingredients in large bowl, stir in butter, eggs, buttermilk and choc chips if using.
3. Divide 1/3 of mixture among holes of muffin pan, top each with 1 tbsp nutella, top with remaining muffin mixture.
4. Bake for 20 minutes. Stand for 5 minutes, turn top-side up onto wire rack to cool.