Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Acorn & Will Winner!

My contest ended yesterday and I just picked a winner using random.org and I am delighted to announce the winner of the Acorn & Will Giveaway is...

Drumroll please? Without further ado, the lucky winner is...

Molly of the sweet blog Birdie Blue. Please e-mail me your details.

Congratulations Molly, you will receive a £35 store credit for Acorn & Will.
Thank you to all of you sweets that entered, to my loyal followers and new friends.

I will be doing this again! It is so much fun!

Have a sweet day!

Pastel silicone bakeware

Image by Decorology

1. Technique silicone 6 piece collapsible muffin & carry case
2. Technique 3 piece silicone baking set by Cooks Essentials
3. Technique 7 piece individual muffin and round cake pan by Cook's Essentials
4. Technique 20 silicone standalone muffin moulds and baking board
5. Technique 3 piece novelty chocolate mould set
6. Technique 3 piece silicone baking set by Cook's Essentials

This week in my series of posts, "Fridays Finds", I bring you a selection of pastel coloured bakeware. I will be definitely putting the muffin carry case on my Christmas wish list!

Have a sweet day!

The sweetest prints

This week on "Wonderful World of Etsy" I am featuring the cute 'Sweets for the Sweet' prints from Pugly Pixel. I just love the prints and the way she features them.

Have a sweet day!

Pear and maple gluten-free cupcakes

Pear and maple gluten free cupcakes (makes 12 muffin size cakes)

Ingredients
60g white butter, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
110g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 fresh pear, cut into small chunks
60ml maple syrup
150g (1 cup) self-raising gluten free flour


Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C (325-350 deg F).
2. Line muffin tray with paper cases.
3. Beat butter, flours, eggs, cinnamon, maple syrup and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour.
4. Stir in pears.
5. Divide mixture among cases.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
7. Place cakes on a wire rack to cool.

Maple Frosting (covers 12 muffin size cakes)

Ingredients
60g white butter, softened
4 teaspoon maple syrup
100g icing sugar (2/3 cup powdered sugar)
green food colouring


Cooking instructions

1. Beat butter, icing sugar, food colouring and maple syrup with an electric mixer until the mixture stands in peaks.
2. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle.
3. Pipe on top of the cakes in small peaks.

To decorate (12 muffin size cakes)

You will need
Roll on white icing
Flower blossom plunger cutters
Pink sprinkles

Instructions

1. Lightly dust surface with icing sugar, knead icing till soft and pliable.
2. Roll out white icing using rolling pin to be between 3-5mm thick.
3. Cut out 36 medium and 36 small flowers using flower blossom plunger cutter.
4. Lightly dampen undersides of the small flowers with water using a small paintbrush and place on medium flowers, push pink sugar strands into centre of flowers.
5. Place 3 flowers on the centre of each cake.

Have a sweet day!

Halloween Chic

Page 1

• House of Smith's
  

Page 2

• Skeleton Candle Decorations, Better Homes and Gardens
• Petrifying Perched Birds, Better Homes and Gardens
• Spiderweb Chandelier, Better Homes and Gardens
  
• Putrid Potion Arrangement, Better Homes and Gardens

Page 3

• Haunted Gathering, Better Homes and Gardens
• Ghoulish Glasses, Better Homes and Gardens
• Good Housekeeping
• Jacket Required, Better Homes and Gardens

Page 4

• House of Smith's
• Pottery Barn
• Pottery Barn
• Unnerving Napkins, Better Homes and Gardens

This week on Scrapbook Dreams, I share with you the gorgeous images I have found of chic Halloween decorations. A palette of black and white with touches of greens and browns. Maybe a look for Halloween next year?!

Have a sweet day!

Halloween Treats

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some delightful Halloween cupcakes with these gorgeous pics. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The cool chocolate skeleton reservoir dogs by simon.anderson
  
• The yummy looking lolly kebabs by The Bird Bath
  
• The wonderfully iced Mummy Cookie by Pinwheel Bakery
• The cute Bride & Groom ghosts by sophisticatedcupcake
  

Have a sweet day!

Call for Sponsors - November 2010

I love posting about interior design, home accessories, crafts, baking, Etsy, and sharing with my sweet readers my ongoing projects including inspirational photos and more. Sponsors are chosen based on their relevance to Torie Jayne readers and the topics covered here.

I am currently looking for sponsors for November 2010.



I also run giveaways, including the fabulous one this week from Acorn and Will, so please feel free to contact me if you'd like to sponsor a giveaway with a product from your store.

If you have any questions you can reach me at toriejayne@gmail.com, and I will respond to all enquiries.

Thank you for your interest in advertising with Torie Jayne!

Have a sweet day!

Skull decor

1. Glitter bones skeleton
2. Small silver skull
3. Mortius skull cruet set
4. Mother of Pearl skull tray
5. Paper chain kit skulls, Skull and crossbones garland
6. Glitter skull

This week in my series of posts, "Fridays Finds", I bring you a selection of Skull decor.

Have a sweet day!

Acorn & Will Giveaway

Back in August I featured the adorable Acorn & Will, an online store selling accessories including bird and animal brooches, floral earrings, bird hair slides, and cute vintage homeware like the array of pastel hued jugs and the prettiest of floral cushions. Not forgetting, of course, the delightful new vintage Christmas range with retro kitsch cupcake toppers, vintage holly print coasters and paper honeycomb trees.

I'm so pleased to announce a giveaway of £35 worth of store credit for Acorn & Will, and it's open to readers worldwide!

To enter, please visit Acorn & Will and then leave a comment below this post letting me know what you would spend your store credit on. The giveaway ends on Thursday, October 28th 2010 at 10pm (GMT) and I will randomly select and announce a winner on Friday, October 29th.

To increase your chances of winning this fabulous prize, you can gain one additional entry for doing each of the following:

• tweeting about this giveaway
• blogging about it
• following/subscribing to the Torie Jayne blog

For the first two, please leave a comment below with the link to your tweet or blog post.

This giveaway is open to readers worldwide.

Good luck and have a sweet day!

Plumo Autumn/Winter 2010

This week for my 'shops i love' page I bring you Plumo, an online boutique selling gorgeous vintage-style products for the home and a boutique-style range of designer clothes, bags and jewellery. Each unique piece is beautifully shot and the whole site is a visual treat, from the pretty facet tealights in washed out vintage shades of smokey grey and berry to the chunky silver coloured metal 1920's paper clips.

Have a sweet day!

Creepy meringues

White chocolate & blackberry meringues

Ingredients
125g double cream (heavy cream)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
50g blackberries, blended
100g white chocolate
24 Mini meringue shells

Cooking instructions

1. Bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan.
2. Remove from heat immediately and stir in chocolate until melted.
3. Stir in blackberries and vanilla essence until glossy.
4. Refrigerate for about 25 mins.
5. Spoon a teaspoon of ganache onto back of meringue and place another one on top to form the ganache sandwich.
6. Spoon excess ganache over the join of the meringues and let drip down.

I made these for my candy table last year. I love how quick and easy they are to make and how effective they turned out.

Have a sweet day!

Blood red Halloween

Page 1

• Martha Stewart Crafts

Page 2

• Bakerella
• Martha Stewart Crafts
• Matt Bites
• Martha Stewart Crafts

Page 3

• Showbiz Gossips
• Martha Stewart Crafts
• Urban Materials
• Bakerella

This week on Scrapbook Dreams, I share with you the gorgeous images I have found of blood red Halloween decorations. I am especially loving the toffee apples with twig sticks. Maybe a look for Halloween next year?!

Have a sweet day!

Halloween Cupcakes

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some delightful Halloween cupcakes with these gorgeous pics. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The cute spooky Ghosts of Cupcakes Past by A Baked Creation
  
• The cool Halloween cupcakes - Bloody Red Velvet by kristin_a (Meringue Bake Shop)
  
• The adorable spidery halloween cupcakes by janislo
• The wonderfully piped ghostly cupcakes by julochka
  

Have a sweet day!

Blue Hawaii cupcakes

Blue Hawaii (makes 12 muffin size cakes)

Ingredients
125g (4.5 ounces) butter, softened
150g (5.2 ounces) caster sugar
2 eggs
225g (8 ounces) self-raising gluten-free flour
1 cup blended pineapple
3 tablespoons light Rum
2 tablespoons Blue Curaco


Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C (325-350 deg F).
2. Line muffin tray with paper cases.
3. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour.
4. Beat in eggs, flour, blended pineapple, rum and Blue Curaco.
5. Divide mixture among cases.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
7. Place cakes on a wire rack to cool.

To decorate (for 12 muffin sized cupcakes)

Ingredients
226g (1 cup) unsalted white butter
3 tbsp coconut milk
375g icing sugar (3 cups powdered sugar)
Blue food coloring
12 Maraschino cherries
12 chunks fresh coconut

Instructions

1. Beat butter, coconut milk and colouring.
2. Slowly beat in icing sugar, until soft peaks form.
3. Fill piping bag with the blue frosting and pipe in swirl on top of cakes.
4. Push cocktail umbrella through cherry and into side of cake.
5. Place coconut chunk on opposite side of cake to umbrella.

Have a sweet day!

Halloween candle light

1. Haunted house tea light holder; Pink tea light
2. Skull candle
3. Black glitter candlebra
4. Skull head candles
5. Black skull candle
6. Haunted house tea light holder

This week in my series of posts, "Fridays Finds", I bring you a selection of Halloween candles.

Have a sweet day!

Candy apple supplies

This week on Wonderful World of Etsy I bring you black, white and pink candy apple supplies. I need to get some of those bright pink jimmies!

1. Edible silver sanding sugar sprinkles
2. Editions de Tokyo tape, set of 3
3. Bakers twine in black and white
4. Edible black sanding sugar sprinkles
5. Trick or treat cupcake liners
6. Pearlized silver jimmies
7. Double-faced hot pink satin ribbon
8. Edible pink jimmies cookie and cupcake sprinkles

Have a sweet day!

Anthropologie October 2010

A few weeks ago I went to Fashion's night out, and visited one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie. With a live DJ set and complimentary drinks, we had a wonderful evening browsing all three floors of delights!

My favorite item was the enormous pale wood chandelier resting on the vintage kitchen table. Oh, and the gorgeously intricate lace necklace in the palest of creams! On leaving we were given the latest Autumn catalog full of beautiful inspiring images like the top three pics.

To see more of my in-store pics from the night, see my Flickr set Anthropologie London.

Have a sweet day!

Candy apples

Toffee Apples (makes 9 apples)

Ingredients
9 apples (I used Braeburn)
9 wooden sticks
192g caster sugar (1.5 cups superfine sugar)
255g glucose syrup (3/4 cups light corn syrup)
1/3 cup water
2 teaspoons pink liquid food colouring

Cooking instructions

1. Wash apples and remove the stems. Push a stick into the apples.
2. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
3. Place water, sugar and glucose syrup into a heavy based saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved.
4. Place candy thermometer in pan and boil until temperature reaches hard crack (300 deg F).
5. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in food colouring.
6. Dip apples into the syrup one at a time, tip pan to completely coat apple.
7. Place on baking sheets to set at room temperature.
8. Sprinkle with glitter, sprinkles and push marshmallows or mini chocolate beans into the sides.

Coating the toffee apples in chocolate

Ingredients
Dark chocolate
white & pink M&M's
Pink edible glitter

1. Temper dark chocolate (click for instructions).
2. Spoon chocolate over apples.
3. Sprinkle with pink glitter.
4. Push M&M's into chocolate.
5. Leave to dry.

I used the black & white stripe masking tape to cover the sticks, and the lace tape to seal the small sandwich bags around the candy apples that I had placed in cupcake cases.

For more of my Halloween candy ideas, check out my Halloween page.

Have a candy sweet day!