Hi all! Just a quick post to share a quick idea as Easter 2014 commences!
As you may be aware, I am in the midst of a sugar detox using Sarah Wilson‘s book I Quit Sugar For Life as inspiration. On a mission to Easter-fy one of the IQS dessert recipes (the gorgeous Choc Mint Slice), I took a look at my pantry cupboard and was struck by a very simple idea.
And this is it…
CHOCOLATE BUNNY BUTTONS, IQS-STYLE
INGREDIENTS
A couple of squares of melted (86%) chocolate*, or 20g (which contains only 2.6g of sugar)
Some organic almond meal
A few raw, organic cocoa nibs
Some organic toasted slivered almonds
DIRECTIONS
- On a piece of baking paper, draw circles of the same size (mine were approximately 2cm in diameter) spaced a couple of centimetres apart with a marker pen.
- Flip the paper over, place on a flat tray/plate and, using a teaspoon, dab some chocolate in each of the circles to form a disc (not too thin, not too thick).
- Stick two slivered almonds of similar size and shape (it helps to have pairs ready beforehand) at the tops of each chocolate circle. These will be your bunny’s ears.
- Sprinkle all chocolate discs liberally with almond meal. You may need to pat it down very gently. This will create your bunny’s furry face.
- Take small coco nibs (or cut larger ones in half with a small kitchen knife) and stick somewhere near the middle of each disc to form a nose.
- With a toothpick, dab tiny dots of melted chocolate on either side of the nose to create your bunny’s eyes.
- Transfer your tray/plate to the fridge to let your bunnies cool and set. This won’t take long.
- When you’re ready to decorate your cakes/cupcakes/cookies/slices with bunny buttons, they should be very easy to remove from the baking paper. Adhere them by dabbing a small amount of melted chocolate where you want to attach your bunny and then gently press it down.
*I am sure vegan chocolate could work too!
Bunny button production line (this bit is messy, but I promise you they clean up alright!)
So what’s the “Instafame” bizzo I was referring to in the title of this post? Well, it’s an unexpected spin-off from having posted a picture of my “Easter pimped” Choc Mint Slices via Instagram that saw Sarah Wilson herself (!!!) seemingly liking my idea, reposting* my image via her Instagram profile and giving me a lovely shout-out… which, in turn, generated a very generous response from her followers (of which there are over 60, 000!). A little while later, CleanCheatsOfficial picked my idea along with two others as their “pick of the very best cleancheats approved clean Easter treats!”
I know it’s probably rather sad of me to be touched by this, but having only “gone public” with my Instagram profile 10 days ago (and being a real newbie when it comes to Instagram), I am rather thrilled to have connected/had contact with some people who are hugely inspirational to me right now*, Sarah Wilson being one of them. I truly don’t want to be a person who relies on validation from others in order to make me feel good about myself (as I know that kind of feeling good is false and fleeting), however, having kind support and encouragement in any form means a great deal to me, especially when I have a tendency to trivialise my own “little domestic pursuits”.
Happy Easter to those who are celebrating! MM xx
*I feel like I am too new to Instagram to use terms like “regram” in some vain attempt to appear social media-savvy, but my brother assures me that this is what the act of reposting via Instagram is known as! I am a total tech-dork!
**Poh Ling Yeow, whom I adore, is another such person.
