Easter cards and baking night

So last night I decided (on the last minute!) that I wanted to make Easter cards for my colleagues. At Christmas we got 3 snow days for the last days of term, so I never got round to even writing Christmas cards for the people I work with! As I actually feel Easter is a more important celebration for me, so I decided that I should use the opportunity to make some cards. The end of term has kind of crept up on me, and although I am in next week doing some revision classes, I won't see the majority of people. So last night, at 8pm, I set about making 15 cards...oh and baking some easter treats too. I really am crazy sometimes!

I spent half the evening bouncing up and down the stairs from my craft room to the kitchen baking my 'best chocolate cupcakes'.

I decided to try and keep the card relatively simple, and wanted a clear Christian message, not bunnies and chicks. I chose to print off the sentiment (Forgiven) and inside verse ("Christ bore our sins in His body on the cross." 1 Peter 2 v 24) as I didn't have any suitable stamps.

I used my trusted Labels 1 die to cut the frames, and improvised with a Waltzingmouse stamp which is actually a branch from Teeny trees, to make the cross. I suppose this could have been hand drawn, but at one stage I was considering embossing it in black. I used forest moss and tea dye distress inks to add some colour, and then inked around the edges of the frame with some more forest moss.

The cupcakes I made last week for the school fair were good, but I still wasn't 100% sure about the frosting I had improvised. So yesterday whilst in Hobbycraft I was perusing the cake books and looking for inspiration. I read the Martha Stewart recipe, but it was too complicated to memorise, so I stuck with the Hummingbird bakery version, which I could easily remember! (300g icing sugar, 100g butter, 40g cocoa, 3 tbp milk)

I must say it was 10x better for piping, and really tasty. I topped them with Asda's tiny little easter eggs.

This is a picture of some of the extra ones I kept at home for Monkey and Honey.

I had some great comments today, and I really do think this may be the best chocolate cupcake recipe, and now with this new buttercream its on a new level! Even I liked it and was tempted to eat a second one (although I love baking, I'm actually a savoury person!).

Well after a busy night yesterday, I'm having a nice relax tonight. Hope you are too!