Gift Challenge: Easter Success!

So Easter has come and gone, and the long, long, long weekend has too (Sparky unfortunately had to work, so it wasn't so long here, but we made the most of it nonetheless) and I'm happy to report that I didn't stumble at the first gift challenge hurdle. I ended up gifting everyone with homemade presents this year!

I just made up little parcels for each of the families and included homemade chocolates in different colours/flavours, as well as some homemade Easter biscuits - some were Easter eggs with marshmallow in the centre, others were chocolate-dipped and others had 100s and 1000s sprinkled on top. By all accounts (mine included - I had to sample the merchandise first) they were pretty tasty!

  

I already posted on my chocolate making, and the recipe for the biscuits was super easy. It was actually the first time I'd made cookie-cutter biscuits before so the dough-rolling part was new to me, but simple all the same. Here's the recipe if you're keen to try it some time:

You'll need:


125g butter, cubed
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1 cup SR flour

1. Preheat oven to 160C and line two trays with baking paper.

2. Cream the butter and sugar. Then add the egg and vanilla, beating well. Fold in the combined flours, forming a soft dough. (Mine was quite crumbly at this stage, but when I kneaded it together it stuck well).

3. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of baking paper, kneading/rolling it together to get a good dough consistency. Cover with another sheet of baking paper and roll out to around 5mm thick.

4. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and pop onto your prepared baking trays.

5. Bake in batches for around 10-15 minutes or until golden.

To make the marshmallow filling you need:


bag of marshmallows, halved (although this depends on the size of your biscuits, larger ones probably would need a whole marshmallow)

1. Pop a few biscuits on a plate and top with a marshmallow. Microwave for 10 seconds and then sandwich with another biscuit. Easy, sticky and tasty!

My Gift Challenge Begins

A couple of weeks ago I challenged myself to make every gift purchase this year either handmade, homemade, vintage or repurposed. Easter is nearly upon us, and while we're not huge on Easter gift giving here, we do have lots of nieces and nephews and couldn't not get them something chocolatey.

So I decided to make the chocolates myself. I found some cute chocolate molds at House and bought a few packets of chocolate melts. I already had some food colouring on hand, as well as some sprinkles. It was totally time-consuming and totally delicious, but I think it was a success.

Actually, I know it was a success because we have eaten them all and I need to make another batch.

But basically I melted half a pack of melts at a time (in a double boiler situation) and coloured the white chocolate with a couple of drops of green, pink and yellow food colouring, to give that cutesy, traditional pastel feel. I also made a lot of milk chocolate eggs (much tastier than the white chocolate, I have to admit) and sprinkled the backs with different coloured '00s and '000s.

Just a tip, err on the side of underfilling your molds rather than overfilling. They get a chunky looking edge to them if you over-fill.

Apologies for the lack of photos, but I was too busy licking spoons to take many shots. I'll take some of the finished presents though, I promise!

As for packaging, I have a drawer-full of pretty paper and bags I've been given gifts in over the years (who doesn't? I swear those things multiply) so I'm sure I'll find something in there that I can use.

If nothing else, I know this exercise works out cheaper than buying Lindt bunnies for everyone. All up, I made (and consumed) enough chocolate for everyone and it cost around $20, including the reusable molds, so I'm well ahead money-wise. Just a few hours poorer time-wise!