Tails’ Blography

So! Yesterday I had an urge to make some hot cross buns…so I did! And they came out great! I even did a squeal of joy when I saw them after I took them out of the oven.

Ingredients:

Buns:

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup castor sugar
• 1 packet of yeast
• 1 pinch salt
• 1tsp of both nutmeg and cinnamon
• 200g raisins and fruits (diced, the larger raisins pop out of the dough while you’re kneading it)
• 60g butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups warm milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Crosses:

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 cup water
• Melted apricot jam for basting

Method:

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. You dont have to sift the flour if you knead it enough. Make a well in the centre and pour in the wet ingredients (mixed beforehand in a jug). Mix with a spoon til incorporated.

Knead on lightly floured surface for 10min or until elastic and smooth. I did mine for 5min. Leave in bowl to dbl in size (approx 1 hr). Knead again and roll into a sausage shape. Cut into 16 or so pieces and roll into balls.

Place in a lined pan, and they can be close to touching. Leave for another 30 min to rise some more.

After 30min, baste dough balls with jam. Make a paste from 1/3 cup flour and 1/4 cup of water (dont thin this down more like I did). Scoop it into a ziplock bag, snip a corner and squeeze a cross onto each dough ball.

Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 20-25min or until golden on top. Remove and leave to cool for 10min before serving.

Leave to cool for 10min and then serve! Clearly my oven bakes unevenly lol as some are more golden than others The ones at the back left look downright anemic but they were more browned in person!

PS: Orginal recipe from the very entertaining One Pot Chef! Some great recipes on his channel guys! Check them out!

Posted via my HTC!

I did three takes of this card tutorial because I ran out of time (turns out 7min30sec is not enough to make a simple card – eep!) and fumbled my words.
    In the end, some stuff was already done to save on video time but if you do want clarification on anything, just ask! If you havent already, watch my How-To video on Heat Embossing which is used in this card.

Supplies:
:: 1x bright green A5 card, folded in half, with 1″x1″ window cut/punched out
:: 1x light green paper, cut to fit inside the card (eyeballed)
:: 1x 1″x1″ aluminum foil, decorated
:: 1x 2″x2″ white card, stamped/decorated
:: 1x yellow card, slightly larger than the white decorated card (eyeballed)
:: 1x funky coloured paper band (eyeballed, but roughly 1″x4 1/2″)
:: Easter greeting sticker/stamp

You could also make variations of this card with landscape folding, adding brads or ribbons, changing colours, adding more windows and foil, adding a leaf insert instead of the glued page, and lots more. I’d love to see your creations!