DIY organizer skin,

Ever wondered about what to do with paper bags with gorgeous prints but you can't bear to use to store junk in? My DIY calendar organizer (from here) has suffered the woes of being haphazardly tossed into my bag - a whole term of it! Time to give it a new soul with a few simple steps the old school way ♥ 

                                    Rope brown twine:   Any Art store, Daiso sells it for $2

                                    Paper bag:                 Free from retail therapy

                                    Clear plastic film:      Leftover from my sister's textbook wrapping

I always make it a point to have an abundant supply of rope twine and parcel paper (the crisp brown kind) because they exude such simplistic charm which I simply adore. Besides, you can always ink on the parcel paper to transform it into something personalized; and  It's also really useful for pretty much any situation.

Pick a side you're happy with, start cutting and wrapping it around your organizer (you can even use an exercise book!) Remember the protective plastic film, if not it wouldn't weather through the term. And viola new skin, so pleased with it even though it's something so simple :)

DIY Red velvet cupcakes,

Spent an afternoon two weeks ago baking cupcakes after raving about the Red velvet ones during the exam period. Took inspiration from a bunch of Martha stewart's recipes (you know you want to click on the link) and hey presto, Red velvet cupcakes with blueberry fillings and cream toppings with walnut. I promised to share the recipe so here goes:

2 1/2 cups of cake flour, sifted

2 tablespoons of Cocoa powder (I used Van Houten pure soluble cocoa)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of salt

3/4 cups of sugar

1 cup of vegetable oil

2 eggs, room temperature

Beet root juice (for red colouring)

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar 

A handful of blue berries

A packet of shelled walnuts

Modern recipes usually use deep red colouring but beet root gives it that organic au naturale feel, rather than having chemicals doused into the batter. You can use your hands to juice out the pigment betains from the beet (gloves are highly encouraged), and you add as much as you want until you achieve the desired shade :) And because I used beet, the baking soda would have to be reacted with vinegar first because the alkaline environment would change the red pigments to a more bluish state. (Correct me if I'm wrong here!) I'll let the pictures do the talking.

If you can infer the consistency of the batter, it was rather moist. The batch didn't turn out very fluffy, perhaps due to insufficient mixing (time to invest in an electric mixer hee) I still have so much to learn. As for the consistency of the cream, electric mixers will definitely give you the best (I mixed manually)

Christmas season is coming, and I'm so excited! The Christmas tree is up, but the feeling hasn't really sink in yet. And even though it really means the advent of the upcoming school term, it's one of my favourite holidays where we can all give thanks for the year and look forward to renewed promises to the next ♥ 

P.S. Do share your baking experiences or recipes if you have any, would love to know!