Looking for Corporate Gift Ideas?

Does your business or workplace give out gifts to clients, staff members or anyone else? Choosing handmade and locally made products would be a great way of rewarding those people you want to give gifts to while showing your support to local businesses. Feel good gifts on all levels :)

Here are a couple of sweet design ideas that you could choose for this years Christmas season.

Hand Stamped Peg Magnets - these wooden clothes pegs can be stamped with words of your choice (up to 10characters will fit) and are then attached to strong magnets. They're great for keeping the fridge, magnetic noticeboard or other magnetic surfaces tidy and pretty all at the same time. You could get your companies name stamped on them, or words that say something about your product. Or pick one of my pre-designed options. You can choose how many pegs you want in a pack too. The ideas are endless. 

Or you could choose pegs that match your colour scheme, or a random assortment of coloured designs so everyone gets something different.

Bookmarks - Fabric covered buttons attached to a giant clip, these make great gifts. Choose a fabric that matches your colour scheme or an image that matches your organisations theme to personalise these gifts.

Security tags - These will funky up any workplace. Fabric covered buttons attached to reels, they have a slide clasp on the back for attaching to the waste band and a dome clip to attach your keys or swipe cards to the tag - the dome clip is on a retractable cord so you can pull your swipe card away from your waist when you need to use it (its about half a metre long).

Prices are negotiable depending on the quantity but all are under the $10 per item mark. Email sweetdesignsnz[@]gmail.com to enquire.

How to have your cake & eat it too!

Its nearly September! And September means Birthday Month! And that means I HAVE to eat cake right ;)

So this year I thought it'd be fun to share the baking love around a bit with a Baking Swap.

If you enjoy baking and eating baked goods, and live in NZ this is for you!

What will happen:
You register (details below) by Friday 5th September
I sort you in to swap groups & give you the addresses of up to 5 other people.
You bake (biscuits, cakes, fudges what ever you enjoy making)
Then you split your baked goods into 6 (you need to keep some for yourself!), package them up and post them to the 5 people you're swapping with.

Then sit back and wait for baking to arrive at your place, make a cuppa to enjoy with the baking, and consume! (or invite friends over to help you - share the baking love even further)

To register:
Email sweetdesignsnz@gmail.com with your name and address (make sure you put Baking Swap in the subject)

Please note - Baking needs to have been swapped by September 30th 2014.
You don't need to send a whole batch of baking to every person - that'd be a lot of baking! 

If you have any dietary requirements, you're not excluded! Join in too, make sure you let me know in the email what they are, and i'll try and match you all up :)

This is not a competition about who does the best/fanciest/prettiest baking - this is about sharing the enjoyment of giving and receiving home baked goodies. A little bit of love to get Spring started :)

AND as an added bonus, all people who participate in the Baking Swap will go in the draw to win a Sweet Designs Oven Mitt :) (may not be exactly as pictured due to the way the fabric repeats)

Have you a Spring in your Step?

I find Winter a bit tough and long to be honest. The lack of sunshine eats away at my mood and it becomes much harder work to be positive about things. So I really love it when we get a lovely sunny day - especially if I get to hang out on the boat with my husband :)

I also really like when signs of Spring start appearing. It might be a little on the early side for some of these flowers but I'm really excited to have been able to pick this bunch of flowers from my garden - really feels like spring is here! (I'm ignoring the fact that another Stormy Southerly is forecasted for tomorrow!) 

These flowers really smell like Spring too :) 

Are you a Winter fan? Or more into Summer like me?

Recently I made a Passionfruit cake for my mother-in-laws birthday. I really like the flavour of passionfruit but I'm really not that keen on the pips!!!! I was super happy to find this recipe that gives an easy way of removing the pips.

I was a bit pushed for time so I wanted a simple way to decorate the cake (and I've made quite a few cakes for my in laws now its hard to keep coming up with new ideas!) This time I was inspired by Bluebell's use of real flowers. So simple & sweet, don't you think?

Passionfruit Cake

Ingredients

•       ½ cup passionfruit pulp 

•       ½ tsp vanilla essence 

•       1 tsp baking soda 

•       1 ½ cups flour 

•       2 tbsp golden syrup 

•       1 tsp baking powder 

•       125g butter 

•       ½ cup sugar 

•       1 cup milk 

•       1 egg

Icing

•       1 tsp melted butter

•       1 cup icing sugar

•       2 passionfruit (strain pulp)

Method

Place the pulp and milk in saucepan. Heat to lukewarm, then add the baking soda. 

Cream the butter and sugar then add golden syrup and egg. Mix well and then add the vanilla. Strain the pulp through a sieve into the creamed mixture. Add the sifted flour and baking powder. Place tin and bake at 180 degrees C for 40 minutes.

Here's a printable version of this recipe :)

Cake for One.

Recently I've been trying to reduce my sugar in take....I have good days and not so good days! I'd quite like to adjust my taste buds to not 'need' dessert every night but I'm not there yet. In the mean time I mix it up a bit, sometimes having real (sugary) desserts, chocolate etc and sometimes I make Paleo style (sugar & carb free) desserts or baking.

Recently in a novel (a trashy chic lit book called Smitten if you must know - I don't really recommend it, but I'm still getting the hang of finding good e-books to get out from the library so my reading list is a bit hit and miss quality wise at the moment!) I came across a recipe for a Sugar/Carb free Mug cake - you know, 1 serving of cake cooked in a mug in the microwave. I've tried it a couple of times now and I do quite like it - its not that sweet, so if you're really after a sweet fix I'd suggest adding more sweetener. I've also been serving it with "The Collective Dairy's" Blood Orange Yoghurt, as I didn't have any cream, but I think cream would go better (would give it more decadence).

Give it a go and let me know what you think!

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Sugar Free Mug Cake

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Almond Flour
2 tsp Xylitol (or more depending on how sweet you'd like it)
1 Tbsp (heaped) Cocoa Powder
1 egg
1 Tbsp Butter/Coconut Oil
1.5 Tbsp Milk or Cream
Splash of Vanilla Essence
1 Coffee Mug

Mix all dry ingredients in the mug, add egg and blend thoroughly. Add milk, oil (I melted mine first so it mixed smoothly) & vanilla. Mix well.
Place in 1000 watt microwave for 90 sec) 
Do not cover mug. Cake will rise.
Let cool and place on a plate. Serve with a little whipped cream on top.

Enjoy!

Valentines Day...

Are you into Valentines Day or are you someone who doesn't care for it? 

I understand peoples comments about it being over commercialised, and that we should celebrate/show our love every day rather than on one particular day. I agree. However, the thing I wonder is - Do you actually take the opportunity every day to let those who you love know it? Do you celebrate it on other days? Too often it seems that days pass by, things get taken for granted or we assume people know they're important to us. To me Valentines Day isn't just about telling our partner/lover that we love them, its a chance to appreciate our friends too. And if we do take the opportunities during the year to make sure they know they're loved, then there's no harm in telling them again is there ;)

And yes, like most holidays & celebrations Valentines Day is over commercialised. Its up to us as consumers to decide how much we buy into it tho. No one ways we have to go spending lots of money, falling for all the marketing ploys, or putting pressure on ourselves to live up to some perceived expectations. We can make our own cards, or write sweet notes, take the time to have a heartfelt conversation. We can make gifts, do some baking, run errands or buy something thoughtful that doesn't cost the earth....(and if we're going to buy something what better than shopping local and handmade....Felt is a great way of supporting NZ artists).

I love snail mail, so for some of my friends (especially out of town ones) I like to pop something in the post for them, and this year I baked some heart cookies to give to my husband and also to some friends :)

The cookies are Chocolate Cinnamon from this recipe.

Are you doing anything for Valentines Day this year?