Lots of people donated yummy cupcakes, cookies, pies, tray bakes, brownies and other treats for us all to enjoy throughout the day.  We were able to put all of our cake tins, moulds, and decorating tools to good use!

Everyone was incredibly generous and through the Charity Bake Sale and other donations we managed to raise over £230 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Betterware - Laura

Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding

• 50g soft butter
• 6 hot cross buns
• 1 tablespoon of raisins
• 1 tablespoon of golden sultanas
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 350 ml milk
• 50 ml heavy/double cream
• 2 large free-range eggs
• 25g sugar
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pre heat your oven to 180C

Grease a roasting dish with a little butter.

Cut your hot cross buns in to halves then again into diagonals.  Use the remaining butter to spread the pieces thickly

Place the bun pieces butter side up into the base of your pan, overlapping as you go.

Lightly sprinkle a little nutmeg, cinnamon and a few raisins and sultanas.

Repeat the layers until the dish is full.  Sprinkle the rest of the raisins and sultanas on top.

Betterware - Laura

First of all you’ll need to bake up a batch of cupcakes.  We used chocolate so it would look like the dirt.

Chocolate Cupcakes

For the cupcake

• 115g Self Raising Flour
• 115g Butter
• 115g Caster Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 4 Tablespoons of Cocoa
• 2 Tablespoons of Milk.

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees and line your cupcake tray with cases.

Add the sugar and butter to a food processor and beat together.  The add the eggs and milk.  Mix well

Sieve in the flour and cocoa powder and mix until combined.

Add them to the mixture and stir until combined.

Divide the batter between the cupcake cases and place in the oven for around 12 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean when placed in the middle.

Leave to cool thoroughly.

Next you will need to make some green buttercream icing.

Buttercream Icing

• 200g butter
• 500g icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• Green food gel colouring.

In a large bowl place the butter and beat until smooth

Sieve in the icing sugar, half at a time.  You may want to cover your bowl as the icing sugar will fly everywhere!

Beat on full power until smooth.  Add in the vanilla extract and gel colour.  (We advise using gel colours rather than liquid as it can change the consistency of your icing.)

Fondant Bunny

Follow our infographic for a detailed tutorial in how to make your fondant bunny.

Take a piece of sugar paste and roll it into a large ball, this will be the body.  Roll another piece for the tail.

Take another two equal sized pieces and manipulate into the shape of the bunny’s feet.  The easiest way to do this is to roll your piece into a ball then squash it using your finger.

You will need to colour a further two pieces with pink colouring to form the pads of the bunny’s feet.

Using your sugar paste modelling tools, score 3 lines on your bunny’s feet to make “toes” repeat this for the pink pads.

Using edible glue or a little water, brush a little onto the feet and adhere the pink pads to the bottom.  Leave to dry.

Meanwhile take the bunny’s tail and brush with edible glue then roll in white sprinkles.  You don’t need to cover it completely as one half will need to be stuck on to the body.

Once the different components are dry apply a little more edible glue to the feet and stick to the body.  You may need to hold each foot in place for a few minutes to ensure they stay in place.  Do the same for the tail.

Now you have your bunny!

Putting it all together

Using your green buttercream icing and a grass piping nozzle pipe “grass” on to the top of your cupcake.

Take your fondant bunny and place him in the grass.  Try to place him near to the edge rather than the middle.

Finish your cupcake by make some little flowers using these daisy plunger cutters in different colours and pop them in the “grass”.

And you’re done!

Betterware - Laura

If you were to Google “Simnel Cake” you would find many stories of it’s origins.  The most popular being that it was invented by a cantankerous old couple called Simon and Nelly who combined left over dough and plum pudding then fought over whether it should be boiled or baked.  Another tale is that the cake was a test – girls would bake the cake on Mother’s Day and if it is still delicious on Easter Sunday then she was considered a good baker.

The Simnel Cake is also suppose to signal the end of lent, decorated with eleven marzipan balls to represent the Apostles, all except Judas.  Whatever the history, all we know for certain is that this cake is very moreish!

Simnel Cake Recipe

You will need

6 inch cake pan

For the almond paste

• 250g caster sugar
• 250gground almonds
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon almond essence

For the cake

• 175g butter or margarine
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 175g plain flour
• Pinch salt
• Half a teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 350g mixed raisins, currants and sultanas
• 55g chopped mixed peel
• Half a lemon, grated zest only
• 1-2 tablespoons apricot jam
• 1 egg for glazing

Start by making the almond paste.  Add the sugar and ground in a bowl, then slowly add a little beaten egg until you achieve a fairly soft consistency.  Add the almond essence and knead until the paste is smooth and pliable.  This should take around 1 minute.

Roll out a third of the paste to make a circle roughly  6 inches in diameter, put to one side then save the rest for the topping.

Preheat oven to 140C then grease and line a 6 inch cake tin.

To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and mix well.  Gently sift in the flour, salt and mixed spice a little at a time.

Add the mixed dried fruit, peel and grated lemon zest.  Mix well.

Put half the mixture in to your cake tin, smooth down with a spatula then lower your circle of almond paste on top.  Add the rest of the cake mix and smooth down the top.

Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes.  Use a cake tester in the middle of the cake to see if it’s baked. If the tester comes out clean then your cake is ready.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack

Once the cake has cooled, brush the top with apricot jam.

Divide the remaining almond paste in half and roll out a circle to cover the case with one half and use the other half to make 11 small balls.

Place the circle of almond on top of the cake, crimping the edges to decorate.  Then place the balls around the edge.  Brush the top of the cake lightly with a little beaten egg

Preheat your oven to high, place the cake on a baking tray and grill for 1 minute or until the top of the marzipan begins to brown.  You can also use a cook’s blow torch if you have one.

Betterware - Laura

One of the items that we are most excited about, is our Bunny & Egg Chocolate mould.  It allows you to create perfect 3D figures for the tops of your cakes.  So to try our new mould out we’re making a Easter Egg and Bunny Cake

First of all we made a chocolate cake covered with chocolate ganache ready for our 3D Easter shapes to sit on.

Chocolate Cake Recipe

• 230g Caster Sugar
• 230g Butter
• 4 eggs
• 230g Self Raising Flour
• 8 tablespoons of cocoa
• 4 tablespoons of whole milk

Take  a 6 inch cake tin and grease lightly with butter or cake release.  Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

Start by beating the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs and beat together until thoroughly combined.  Add the milk and beat again

Gently sieve in the flour and cocoa, don’t try and force all the bits of cocoa through, if it doesn’t fit through the sieve dispose of it.

Fold in the flour and cocoa until combined then gently spoon in to your cake pan.

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before decorating.

For the chocolate ganache

• 250g good quality dark chocolate,
• 250ml double cream

Pour the cream into a saucepan and place over a low heat. In a separate bowl break up your pieces of chocolate. Once the cream has come to the boil, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Mix together until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is well combined. Allow to cool slightly.

Decorating your Easter Egg and Bunny Cake

Melt enough chocolate to fill your moulds, we decided to melt half milk and half white chocolate.  Leave the chocolate to set – the fridge is the quickest way to do this.

Once your cake has completely cooled use a spatula to cover your cake completely in ganache.

Arrange your chocolate eggs around the outside then remove your bunny and egg chocolate pieces from the mould.  Fit them together then sit them on top.

Serve with a nice cup of tea and enjoy!

Betterware - Laura

Easter is also nearly upon us and there’s nothing I like to enjoy more at Easter than a good roast lamb with spring vegetables (aside from the chocolate eggs of course!)  so if you’re getting together with family this Easter why not treat them to a delicious meal.

Roast Lamb with Spring Vegetables

You will need

• 1 leg lamb (about 2kg)
• 2 onions
• olive oil
• 200g  leeks
• 200g peas
• 200g broad beans
• 200g baby carrots
• splash chicken stock or white wine
• 1 bunch tarragon

Pre -heat your oven to 200C

Chop your onions in to thick slices and put in a large roasting tray with 4 tablespoons of water.

Sit the lamb on top and rub the surface of the meat with olive oil a little tarragon and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pop in the oven and baste 2-3 times with the juices from the roasting tray as it cooks.  Depending on how you like it, roast for 1 hour 15 for medium rare, 1 hour 30 for medium.

Add the carrots and leeks to boiling water and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the rest of the vegetables and cook for a further 2 minutes or until everything is tender.

Once cooked leave the lamb to rest on a plate for half an hour under foil.

Scoop out most of the fat from the roasting tray and discard, strain the juices in to a large pan, add the stock or white win and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the vegetables and stir.  Add the rest of the tarragon.

Serve the roast lamb with spring vegetables and roast potatoes on a large platter and enjoy

Betterware - Laura

Rainbow Cupcakes

First of all bake up a batch of your favourite flavoured cupcakes (you can find lots of recipe inspiration here)

You’ll need some green glaze icing, vanilla buttercream and some rainbow belt sweets.

Start by making up your glaze icing.

• 100g icing sugar – sieved
• 1 tablespoon of water

Pot O’ Gold Cake Pops

Make up a batch of cake pops (instructions can be found here) the flavour is up to you.

Cover your cake pops with dark chocolate, (full instructions for covering cake pops can be found here) and instead of leaving them the right way up to dry, place the cake pop on a parchment paper, cake pop down and leave to dry.  You may need to hold them steady for a few minutes to make sure they don’t fall over.

Leaving the cake pop this way you’ll form the top  and lip of the pot ready to add your gold.

Once dry remove from the parchment paper and add a little more melted chocolate to the top and dip into your gold dragees.  If you can’t find or don’t have gold dragees you can always use gold sprinkes or yellow sweets such as M&Ms, Smarties or Skittles

St Patrick’s Day Macaroons with Chocolate Guinness Ganache

Macaroons are a little tricky to perfect, but once you have the right tools and practise a little they’ll become easier.  We wrote a post a little while ago on how to make macaroons using a macaroon pan which would be good to refer to before tackling this project.

Start by making the Chocolate Guinness Ganache as this can take some time to set.

Chocolate Guinness Ganache 

• 220g dark chocolate
• 180ml of heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon of Guinness

Chop up your chocolate and set aside in a heat proof bowl.

Heat the cream and butter in a pan over a medium heat, the moment it starts to boil, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.  Leave to stand for 5 minutes then stir with a whisk until smooth.

Add the Guinness then stir again.  Leave to set in the fridge.

Then follow the macaroon recipe, and use green food gel when it asks for the colour to be added.

Once your Guinness ganache has set, spoon into a piping bag and pipe a swirl of ganache on to one half of your macaroon. Grab the other half and sandwich together.

Will you be doing any St Patrick’s Day Baking?  We’d love to see your treats – share your photos with us on Facebook

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This really doesn’t take much effort and very little time to prepare so it’s perfect when you’ve been rushed off your feet all day.

You will need

• 100g Broccoli
• 100g Baby Sweetcorn
• 2 Chicken Breast Fillets
• 1 Bunch Spring Onions
• 1 Red Pepper
• 2 Medium Carrots
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• Black Bean Stir Fry Sauce
• Rice (Optional)

This meal is also best prepared in a Wok.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil then prepare your vegetables, chopping into chunks.

Blanch the broccoli and sweetcorn for about 2 minutes then drain well

- If you are having rice – Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook your rice as per the instructions on the packet.

Cut up your chicken in to bite size pieces.  Pour the olive oil into your wok, once it is sizzling hot add the chicken and cook for around 7 to 8 minutes or until golden brown.  Remember to stir often to avoid burning the chicken

Add the pepper, spring onions and carrots to the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes then add the broccoli, sweetcorn and the black bean sauce.

Heat through for roughly 2 minutes and serve immediately.

Betterware - Laura

Don’t get me wrong, I keep my home tidy, clean and presentable but every now and again I love to blitz through and disinfect, scrub and scour every nook and cranny until there is not a single speck of dirt to be seen.  It feels good to know there are no dust bunnies cowering in the corner and that even on top of the kitchen cupboards (yes a place that never gets seen) is sparkling clean.

The Big Spring Clean Sort Out

Before I even reach for the bleach I find it’s best to have a real good sort out.  The kind where you end up with bags full of unwanted and never used goods ready for the charity shop and a few more for the tip.

I would advise tackling one room at a time.  To take on the house in one go is overwhelming and you’ll probably give up or get distracted by an old photo album you’d forgotten about (Just me?)  Sort through your things and pile them up in to 4 categories.  Keep, Sell, Charity, Bin.  Be strict with yourself – if something has been living in the back of the cupboard for the last year and you haven’t missed it – do you really need it?  Could you sell it on eBay and earn yourself a few extra pounds?  Better than storing it at the back of your cupboard that’s for sure!

Once you’ve sorted through what you can give to charity, take it straight to your local shop.  The longer you keep it in your home the more likely it is that you’ll dip into it and bring out the old stuff.  Out of sight, out of mind.

Once you know what you want to keep, make sure you organise and store it properly.  A shoe rack can tidy up the pile of shoes you keep by the door and under bed storage can hide away anything you don’t need immediately. 

The Deep Spring Clean

Next comes for what I call the “Deep Spring Clean” Rubber gloves on, duster, polish, brush, bleach, broom and mop at the ready… scrub!  Again take it one room at a time, I usually start with the kitchen, disinfect and bleach every surface, the sink and faucets, clear out the fridge and freezer, scrub the microwave, tackle the oven and hob, sweep and mop the floors.  I also have awkward kitchen door handles, so these little brushes help me scrub the grease and grime from the ridges.  Our Oven Mate Cleaning Gel comes highly recommended.  It’s surprising how grubby an oven can get, but this really does cut through all the grease and grim with hardly any effort.

Don’t forget the out-of-reach and hard-to-clean places such as light fittings, behind radiators, under big appliances and Venetian blinds.
Your windows may also be in need of some TLC.  Smudges, water marks and general grime will all be made more prominent when the sun shines on your windows, reach for the Smear Free Window Foam.  By far one of our best sellers and most raved about products.  It will leave your window clean and streak free, plus a lot of our customers have found other uses for it such as mirrors, shower screens and even granite worktops.

The bathroom generally gets a deep clean once a week so there isn’t really any need to do a  massive deep clean, although I do like to treat the plug holes with a drain cleaner and give the tiles and grout a really good clean.

It’s also a good idea to shampoo your carpets regularly, kill any mites or bugs that could be hiding and to get rid of marks and stains.  Plus a carpet shampoo does the room wonders, it really can make it looks as good as new. (Without splashing out on a new carpet!)

Once your home is looking spic and span, why not invest in a nice air freshener or a diffuser?

A big Spring Clean does sound like a lot of hard work but with the right tools and cleaning products you can halve the time you spend on it.

Betterware - Laura

We are very excited to introduce our new range of Cross Stitch Kits.

Each kit includes everything you’ll need to start your new project, including simple to follow instructions.

Cross stitch is a great way to spend your spare time and create gift that people will love.  Our kits include bookmarks, needle cases, pincushions, magnets and keyrings   They really are the perfect gift idea, either for someone you know who loves to cross stitch or someone who would love the thought of a hand made gift.

Available in various designs including Victorian Lavender, Scotties & Westies, Butterflies & Buddleia and Fuchsias.

Cross Stitch Kits

Cross stitch is easy to do and once you get the hang of it, you’ll have your project finished in no time and what’s  more – you’ll be hooked!  Unlike other hobbies Cross Stitch is quite easy to get the hang of, plus you don’t need to spend a fortune on equipments.  Our Cross Stitch Kits come complete with everything you’ll need.

Our kits are affordable too, which means that you can collect your favourite set and have matching items all made by you!

View our full range of cross stitch sets

Do you like to Cross Stitch?  Fancy having a go?  We’d love to hear what you think, let us know in the comments section or hop on over the Facebook and tell us about your hobby!

Betterware - Laura