I still think about the Easter marble cupcakes...

Easter seems already far in my memories, but this afternoon I was going through recent pictures and my loving thought went to the marble cupcakes I made for Easter Sunday...Yum! They were really delicious, the vanilla and chocolate sponge was light and fragrant, and the vanilla and chocolate buttery icing guiltily rich...
I had been on a dairy-free diet for the previous couple of weeks, but these cupcakes threw any good behaviour nicely out of the window (and I haven't looked back yet!)

The recipe was taken from one of Hummingbird Bakery's recipe books, Cake Days. I tried a number of recipes from this book and they ALL came out delicious. These marble cakes, in particular, were put on the table at 3pm and at 3.05 were finished...
What's so special about cupcakes? To me, it's that  you have in your hands not a biscuit, not a slice of cake, but a whole cake. Just for you.

Easter bunny ears tutorial

Little monkey's nursery REALLY keeps me on my sewing toes...
Wednesday all children are invited to go dressed up as an Easter character...well, bunny or chick, isn't it? Hopefully no children will go dressed as eggs...So I chose bunny.
While I was doing this little project, I got really excited and decided to make it a tutorial, so here it is:






































Materials:

• Pink felt (and other felt, colours of choice, if making a flower)
• Fur (synthetic of course! no bunnies have been injured during this tutorial)
• Thin metal wire

1. Cut 2 pieces of felt and 2 pieces of fur following the dimensions and shape indicated in the picture.

2. Fold and pin the felt pieces only as indicated and sew a dart on the wrong side. Cut excess fabric from the dart.

3. Sew together a piece of felt and a piece of fur as illustrated, but be careful to leave the bottom of the ear open. This gap will allow you to slot the metal frame in. Repeat for the other ear.

4. Optional (but very cute if the bunny ears are for a girl!): cut a flower from some contrasting-colour felt; I've made the centre by cutting a couple of felt circles and stitching them on the flower with a little button. Stitch the flower to one of the ears by hand.

5. With the metal wire, shape a headband with the bunny ears (I've used one of little monkey's headbands for measurements). Be careful to tie neatly the sharp ends of the wire, so that they are safe and cannot hurt.

6. Cut a rectangle of fur (approx 40 x 10 cm), fold in half vertically, and sew all around on the wrong side, but leave a gap in the middle, marking it with a couple of pins. The gap will allow the metal frame to be slotted into the fabric. Turn the fur tube to the right side.

7. Slot the metal frame into the bunny ears and the tube of fur. Sew by hand the ears to the tube of fur, all around the gap.

...and this is me, proudly sporting the finished Easter bunny ears at midnight...never mind tomorrow is another working day! :-/

Let me now how you get along making your very own Easter bunny ears for your next egg hunt...
and happy Easter, of course!