Super Cute Filled Gift Chocolates Recipe

by VioletLeBeaux | Oct 6, 2014 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Tutorial

I have a lot of friends with birthdays around this time of year so I always struggle with little things to add to their gifts. This year I’ve been making a lot of filled chocolates using my tray from Daiso.

You can get these little trays at any cake shop but I like this one from Daiso because it is silicon and therefore easy to wash and get the chocolates out of.

This tray can only do two chocolates at once, one macaron shape and one heart shape but it’s really cute so I don’t mind having to do them in batches.

You need:

White chocolate
Gel food colour
Icing sugar
Flavours, I’m using strawberry

Step one is to melt the white chocolate. I just do it in the microwave in a ceramic container rather than a double boiler. If you’re using the microwave then heat it to about half melted, 10 seconds at a time and then just stir until it’s fully melted. The ceramic retains heat so it will easily melt the rest of the chocolate.

Add a drop of food dye and mix it really well. As white chocolate contains more fat it will separate with liquid more easily so make sure to use gel not liquid colour and mix very vigourously.

Now pour chocolate to the line in the tray. My tray’s lines are quite inaccurate so I usually ignore it.

While the chocolate is still hot add the top part of the tray and press it down until the chocolate hits the top.

Refrigerate until it’s totally solid again.

In the mean time let’s make a simple filling. Pour out some icing sugar (maybe 2 table spoons) and add a drop of flavouring.

Mix well and add a few drops of water. Mix between each drop of water so you can be control of what consistency the filling has. Chocolate ganache makes a delicious filling too for something a little less sweet. You want it to be a fairly thick consistency but not lumpy and hard.

Pull out your chocolate halves and fill each with icing.

Add a tiny amount of white chocolate with a toothpick to the halves so they stick and then press them together.

Back in the fridge to set a little more and they are ready to eat!

Yum yum, I prefer to eat the left over melted chocolate still in the bowl, there’s nothing better than melted white chocolate 😀

These make perfect little gifts and it’s always nicer to get something handmade with some thought in it!

Let me know if you make some!

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week Emerging Designers And ShopHop Snapshots

by VioletLeBeaux | Oct 4, 2014 | Life

I was lucky enough to be invited to some of the events for Melbourne Spring Fashion Week this year and it was so much fun! The first event was the Emporium Shop Hop and it was pretty much a big shopping night where each of the shops in Emporium had mini attractions inside.

The buildings were all lit up beautifully.

There were fashion shows in all of the tiny alleys between shops. Amazing fashion show in an alley that kind of smells like horse poop = so Melbourne.

Inside Emporium, Michael Kors dressed me up in their big jackets, I couldn’t quite bring myself to put the sunglasses on for some reason!

There were heaps of little stands dotted around the place with snacks too. Popcorn!

Michel Kors had the cutest little handbag shaped cookies and Mimco had chocolates and a claw machine game for their members to play.

Later in the week Celina snagged us tickets to the Emerging Designers Runway which is basically where the students from the fashion universities put on their final runway presentations.

I loved how many flowers there were everywhere, it really made this stubbornly long Winter feel more Springish!

At home while deciding on outfits we had this conversation…

Violet: Hmm, adding a scarf to my bag… too much?

Celina: Hmm probably a bit over the top…

Violet: You’re definitely right.

Celina: Am I wearing too much glitter?

Violet: Hmm maybe tone down a tiny bit.

Celina: Good call!

Of course when we arrived everyone was WAY more over the top and over dressed than we were!!

We were in the second row with awesome seats!

It was interesting, everyone there seemed to know each other already so it was like coming to a family reunion.

And the actual fashion! It was so creative and I wish I had been able to see some of the pieces up close because there were so many tiny details.

Each student had around 10 looks.

The model in the top right’s jacket is made out of security tags!

A lot of the collections seemed to use very squishy textures, the model below was even carrying a huge pillow.

I found it hard to photograph because I didn’t have a zoom lens with me but this was very impressive, the whole thing was made from perspex!

And the final show stopper outfit, her dress was massive and very detailed.

And the final walk through.

After the show finished we decided to have a look through the rest of the fashion areas still open that late at night.

There was a bar and a DJ with areas set up to get your hair and make up done.

Super fun!

It was a really awesome week! I found the whole thing very inspiring, it made me want to get my sewing machine out and make something amazing! It’s hard to be uninspired when you’re around so many people who are creative!