TokyoTombola, or how to get your fruit to Cosplay!

The heat is still here, but at least I don't have to work today, cause after working night shift (and having quite a bad shift) I've barely slept in the morning...


So, here I am now, with a cup of coffee (I know, heat & coffee) and working on yet another blog entry! Finally, I'm getting a bit more regular on the blogging, though I'm afraid that next week I'm having quite a busy schedule, so I don't know how much blogging I'll be able to squeeze in...


You already know about my love for my fruit pouches I got from the crochet genius that is Tom from Tokyotombola, and how it's helping me avoid snacking at work and eating more fruit, which is generally a very good thing. But what you don't know yet, is that now I've added a third pouch to my collection, that will not only help protect my fruit, but will also help it indulging in a bit of Cosplay!


Scratching your heads yet? Well, the explanation is quite simple, Tom has outdone himself, and has crocheted two amazing sushi fruit pouches! A red ebi and a pink ebi, and after a bit of trying to decide which one to get, I grabbed the red ebi pouch! If you're wondering what ebi sushi is, well, ebi is a jumbo shrimp on top of a ball of sushi rice!








So that's exactly what this pouch is, a red crocheted jumbo shrimp opened butterfly style, on top of the whitest rice ever crocheted! It might seem silly, but I can't help but marvel at how shiny & white the pouch is! So much, that I've decide to reserve it to special occasions, cause I don't want it to get too dirty too soon if I just dump it every day on my filled to the brim, bag that I take to work.









If you're wishing you could have got it before me... well, the pink ebi is still available at his shop, so hurry up and grab it before someone else does!


I know have to nag Tom to work on some crocheted maki pouch, or even a Californian roll! Mmmmm, all this talk about sushi is making me want to eat sushi now! I must go to the Japanese restaurant soon!

Chocolate Cupcakes & Flying Bird Botanicals Cacaos!

Hello everyone!


Happy Friday (for those who have the weekend off)!


Yesterday I promised you a blog entry today about the chocolate cupcakes and here I am, going to fulfill the promise!


These amazing chocolate cupcakes are made with only the cupcake part of the AMAZING recipe for Mocha Cheesecake Cupcakes that the brilliant Tom from TokyoTombola sent me along with my fruit cozies! I have to say this recipe is the one that has made me fall in love with baking & cupcakes!


This recipe calls for cocoa powder, and since a while ago I got myself an amazing set for the chocolate lovers from Flying Bird Botanicals with three organic cacaos: Chokola, Cacao Especial & Lavender Mint Cacao, so I decide to go and try using the Cacao Especial, and damn, it does give it a super nice touch! I'm thinking of also using the other two, the Chokola to give it a bit of a more spicy taste, and the Lavender one, just because! Can you tell I like making these cupcakes?




Here goes the recipe!:

Tom's amazing chocolate cupcakes!

Ingredients:

- 125 g self-raising flour
- 100 g caster sugar
- 25 g demerara sugar
- 125 g butter (unsalted) room temperature
- 50 g cacao powder
- 60 ml whole milk
- 2 large eggs

Method:

- Line a 12 muffin tin with the muffin/cupcake cases.
- Put the over on 180ºC/350ºF ready to put tin on middle rack
- Cream butter and sugar
- Beat in eggs, one at a time
- Mix in cocoa powder
- Mix in flour
- Mix in milk, beat until smooth.
- Divide mixture between muffin cases.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes (mine are ready at 20 min) or until a toothpick inserted comes clean/ they spring back to the touch.






You could always frost them, but I love them as they are, and so did my sis-in-law, brother and nephews that devoured them too fast yesterday for me to take pics!




Confession: I was too busy eating with them to take the pics too! ;)

On Cupcake Moon obsessed!!

Hello there!


How did you Monday go? Mine went pretty well, and now that's past midnight over here in hot Spain, I spent the last hours of my Monday baking some awesome cupcakes!


I've had this Mocha Cheesecake cupcakes for quite a while, since my dear Tom from tokyotombola sent it to me, along with my brilliant fruit cozies!


This was my first time making cupcakes with frosting/icing, cause all my previous baking had been muffins and plum cakes. So, they're not perfect in their looks but by Toutatis! they do taste YUM!



So with these lovely cupcakes I wanna show off the awesome cupcake wrappers I got from the brilliant Deb of OnCupcakeMoon, along with amazing thank you cards and the cutest Snow Angel Penguin tags!






You all know I found Deb through the also brilliant Rhi of RockyTheZombie, and actually I should say both me & Deb must be two of the most loyal RTZ customers! Rhi knows that anything she makes in a medium, she should make twice, so we can both have one! ;)


Well, my first order from Deb's shop made me fall in love with her artwork and cards, so shortly after, I asked her to make me a set of thank you cards in Spanish (and another in English) with my favourite of her designs, the Skully Cupcake! There's a lot of super cute stationery out there, but all in English, and I have a bilingual life! So I need cuteness in Spanish! And Deb made me the most awesome cards ever!






And of course, as I've already mentioned, some super cute Snow Angel Penguin (I'm sure the name is self-explanatory, but it's a super cute penguin making a snow angel!).




Aaaand the cupcake wrappers! I got a set of the girlie skully wrappers, and a mixed set of boy & girl turtles! Do you love them as much as I do? Well, not only they're available at Deb's Etsy shop & website BUT you can also win some if you head over to her blog for her Cupcake Wrapper Giveaway!



I've only done one cupcake for photography purposes, but tomorrow I'll be dressing them all up for my friends dropping by for coffee & chit chat!







And this just the beginning, Deb & me have been working on some secret plans that I can't wait to show you off, in another proper blog entry once I get everything! One hint, I'm sure you all guys will love it!

Tokyotombola!!!

Hello there everyone!


Finally I'm sitting here AND updating the blog! Cause, just the old sitting up in front of the laptop I do every day, but having the motivation to update the blog... that's quite another thing!


But today, aha! Today I have found the motivation! I still don't have my tripod (*grumble, grumble*) but today I got awesome goodies in the mail, and one of the parcels was quite awaited! How is it that a package from the UK can take longer to hop over the channel than a package to cross the whole Atlantic from the US? Postal services mysteries...


After my last vacation I gained a lil weight, enough for my jeans to feel a lil more fitted than I'd like, so I've decided that I needed to make sure I do eat healthy, which means cutting on eating out or watching what I eat more when I do, AND cutting down the snacking at work. So, what can I do to NOT eat snacks at work? Well, bring something healthy to eat with me, and what's more healthy than fruit? Not many things, so I decided I'd bring apples and oranges to work, cause they're two of my favourite fruits, but I thought that they might get squished (I do carry a lot of stuff in my handbag) but then I remembered a shop that would be the solution to my woes: Tokyotombola!


All that went through my mind while listening to Iron Maiden on my way home from work one night, so when I arrived home, I went straight to Etsy and Tom's shop where I couldn't choose just one, so I got an orange cozy and a hot pink apple cozy! ;)




Those two finally arrived today, after a long stay in customs during public holidays last week, I'm sure... and I just had to take pics of them and show them off! They're just B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T!






Just for giggles, I used the orange cozy for an apple and the pink apple for an orange, aren't they such a cute idea?






If you think size would be a problem, don't, each of them can fit a good sized apple/orange without even a burp!






I bet my co-workers will be envious when I bring it/them/damn, which one to choose? tomorrow!




And in case you love them, and are thinking about how much you'd love a blue apple with spots, just convo Tom, he'd be sure to make something custom and perfect for you & your fruits!


And if you are super duper nice, you may even get the most awesome recipe for Cheesecake cupcakes in existence, as I did! ;)