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  • RECIPE: Baby cupcakes with sprinkles

    RECIPE: Baby cupcakes with sprinkles

    Baby cupcakes with sprinkles

    THE O’Brien family loves baby cupcakes for a few reasons.

    1. They last longer. Mum: “You can only have one. OK?’’. Princess Ella: “But I want two, mum. Please?’’ Mum: “OK, you can have two.’’ In effect, she’s really only having half a cupcake in total. Genius.
    2. As a result of No. 1, there’s more for mum and less guilt when I have four… or eight!
    3. They just look so damned cute. Don’t you think?
    4. You can turn your back to your child who’s busily drawing, pop a whole one in your mouth and chew quickly without them even noticing. Again, genius!

    Makes

    48 mini cupcakes

    Ingredients

    • Canola or vegetable oil spray
    • 200g butter, softened
    • 1 3/4 cups caster sugar
    • 1 tsp vanilla essence
    • 4 eggs
    • 2 3/4 cups self-raising flour
    • 1 cup milk  

    Icing

    • 50g butter, softened
    • 1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
    • 2 tablespoons milk
    • Pink food colouring
    • Hundreds and Thousands

    Method

    Preheat oven to 180°C. Oil four 12-pan muffin tins (if you only have two, like us, then you’ll need to cook in two batches).

    Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla essence with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined. Add the flour and milk and stir with a spoon until just combined.

    Spoon mixture into the muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

    For the icing, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until pale. Gradually add the icing sugar while beating. Add the milk and beat until combined.  Add pink food colouring sparingly. Apply icing to the cupcakes with a butter knife. Dip the top of the cupcake into a plate of Hundreds and Thousands.

    Tell us, how do you like to decorate your cupcakes? If you have link to your favourite cupcake recipe or photo of your own decorated cupcake, feel free to share it.

    If you like this recipe, you might also like Chocolate Brownies.

  • FEATURE: Five super techniques for losing the pacifier … for good!

    FEATURE: Five super techniques for losing the pacifier … for good!

    Losing the pacifier can be tough

    A PHOTOGRAPH of famous preschooler Suri Cruise sporting a dummy at age four attracted much comment this week. It inspired this week’s poll and sparked a bit of a conversation on our Facebook page.

    One of my favourite contributors, Barb, joined in on the conversation and had me crying from laughter. So we had to share it. “I knew of a girl (school age) who had a dummy and would carry it in her pocket at school and go to the loo for a quick suck a few times a day.’’ Hmmm, I’ve heard of people hiding out in the toilets to feed some strange habits, but dummy sucking?!

    Feli from My Life In Mono also had a cute tale to tell. “Mum told me that I was on the dummy at age four. She weaned me by telling me the dog ate my dummy and that was that’’.

    Exactly when your child loses the binky is really a personal choice. For Princess Ella, who was only ever allowed her dummy at bedtime, it was two and a half years due to the seed of Baby Holly being sown. It happened pretty easily, thanks to flagging the idea with her weeks in advance and being positive about it. But every child is different.

    If you’re in the midst of losing the pacifier or about to, here’s some suggestions. We had success with a combination of the first two.

    1. Tell them how the Dummy Fairy will come and get it one night to take it to a li’l baby who needs it more than they do. This idea makes them feel like they’re helping someone else.
    2. Provide them with a gift (either from mum and dad or from the Dummy Fairy) in return for the pacifier. It’s always fun for them in the weeks leading up to it to guess what the gift might be.
    3. Just go cold turkey.  Yes, surprisingly this sometimes can work, especially when they’re really young.
    4. Cut the tip off the pacifier. The child is unable to suck and loses interest. Prepare for the fact they may carry it around with them for a while though.
    5. Tie it to a helium balloon and release it into the sky or pop it in the post (addressed to grandma, maybe) so it can be delivered to a baby who needs it more.

    Getting rid of the dummy can be tough. Share with us your story of losing the binky.

  • Lesson for wives No. 4: Bras are for boobs

    OK, THIS may not be a lesson just for wives. In fact I think the main culprits of this disturbing trend are probably not in steady, long-term relationships, but it is an important lesson to be noted nonetheless. Although one of the recent culprits I witnessed was indeed pushing their pram up the street when I saw them commit this heinous crime.

    “What is the crime?’’ I hear you shout. Well, when did it become OK to use your bra to hold you mobile phone?

    Seriously, I am not joking, in the past week I have seen about 10 women at different times poke their mobile phone into their bra instead of their pocket. It’s a growing phenomenon. I wasn’t even aware Target sold bras with built-in mobile phone holders these days (and if they aren’t, then on the evidence, maybe they should start).

    Ladies, while it may be convenient, it looks downright ordinary and if you think otherwise we blokes might just start sticking our Nokia’s down the front of our Bonds hipsters … um, though I’m not sure I’d then want to stick the phone to my ear without giving it a good wipe down first.

    Now, I can hear you all thinking “well, what are you doing looking when women do this?’’. Well sorry, but frankly it’s hard not too. It’s especially disconcerting when standing, waiting for service at a shop beside a lady when her boobs start ringing to the tune of Lady Gaga’s latest single.

    Please, remember boobs are for bras and mobile phones are best kept in pockets or those expensive things designed for carrying stuff you girls love so much – yep, handbags.

    Read more Lessons for wives.

    Rewinding with And Then There Were Four.

  • FEATURE: Activities for preschoolers

    FEATURE: Activities for preschoolers

    DURING the week, tweets kept popping into my @ThreeLil Twitter account by northern-based mums battling 30C-plus heat. Here we were rugged up like Eskimos as we toasted our toes by the heater.

    With summer momentarily disappearing, it enabled Princess Ella and I to rediscover our list of fun indoor activities. Today I thought I’d share some of our absolute favourites (even though the warm weather seems to have returned).

    Ella painting her toe nails

     Fingernail painting and pedicure:

    Ella constantly asks to have her nails painted. She also likes to take over and paint mine. Of course, there’s usually more colour on my feet than my nails. My three-year-old nephew loves this activity too, so don’t exclude the boys.

     

    Craft at the little table

    Craft table:

    The craft table, set up in the corner of the dining room, is constantly filled with pencils, crayons, paper, glue, sticky tape, pipe cleaners, pom poms and well, crafty items. Since Baby Holly came along, it’s been my saviour during breastfeeding. A fellow mum also set up a craft table, but had her house redecorated when the phone rang and her three-year-old ran, glitter in hand.

    Messy craft at the big table

    Sometimes Ella gets to play at the “big’’ table.

    Hair in a braid after playing hairdressers

     Hairdressing:

    Aided with hair brushes, combs, bands and clips, the conversations usually goes something like this: Ella: “How would you like your hair done today?’’. Mum: “Ah, a cut and colour, thanks Ella’’. Ella: “No, I’m not Ella, I’m a hairdresser. Would you like a pink and purple colour today?’’ Mum: “Yes please, hairdresser. That’s exactly what I was thinking’’.

     

    Cooking with Dad in her MasterChef outfit

    Cooking:

    Donning her MasterChef apron, Ella’s requests are usually M&M Biscuits (recipe to come soon), birthday cake (even when it’s not her birthday) and ABC muffins (Apple, Banana and … chocolate, of course).

     Knitting:

    This week Ella asked me to teach her to knit. Sound impossible? Quite the contary. She was thoroughly entertained with her needles and yarn, creating a beautiful big…

    …ending up in knots

    …knot! Our next step may be sewing (with glue, instead of needle and thread). She may just be the next international fashion designer.

    We also enjoy Play Doh, dancing to music, doing household duties (she loves finding the sock’ “mates’’ and using her vacuum), taking photos with her Dora camera (see some photos we took together for Sunday Selection), tea parties, babies (although Ella likes to be the baby more often than not), reading books (particularly from the library), singing songs (with pretend microphones), puzzles and playing cards (I taught her to play Fish, but accidentally called it Snap Now she refuses to let me teach her Snap “No mum, that’s not how you play Snap’’).

    Has this left you inspired? Please share some of your favourite activities with your preschoolers.

    Visit Be A Fun Mum’s Activity Ideas for Children 2-5 or check out her list for Activity Ideas for Children Under 2.

  • FEATURE: Step by step guide to writing a press release

    FEATURE: Step by step guide to writing a press release

    AFTER learning how to put together a press release that gets noticed, are you still a little nervous on the nuts and bolts of writing your release? Do you know how to structure the release, what information needs to be included and in what order?

    Well, this week we’re looking at a step by step guide to formatting your press release.

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Signify whether it’s FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE or EMBARGOED UNTIL …. It’s a good idea to use capital letters and bold, especially if it’s embargoed.

    HEADLINE: This will also be your subject line on your email, so you need to make sure it’s getting your message across. Use boldface. It also needs to be eye catching and interesting.

    SUBHEAD: This one is optional, but can help further with selling your release

    DATELINE: The format is city, state, date. That means the city or town the release is being issued from and the date it was released. So, for example: Devonport, TAS. March 7, 2011 – Then you start your first paragraph here…

    FIRST PARAGRAPH: This is your chance to really grab their attention and make them want to read more. The old “Joe Bloggs has announced the launch of a new blog…’’ is boring. Give it life with an interesting “news’’ angle, while still covering who, what, where, when, why and how.

    BODY: The body of your press release should take on the form of an inverted pyramid – that is, the most important information at the top and then the detail, background etc further down. In many instances, only the first few lines of your press release will get read. Use quotes to add colour. Don’t use jargon – keep it simple. Try not to write more than a page. Say what you mean and avoid fluff.

    BOILERPLATE: Here is your chance to include your bio, where your product is available (if you’re selling one), hyperlinks to your website/blog and email address.

    CONTACT INFORMATION: Sometimes # tags are used to signify that anything below this point is not to be made public. It’s up to you. Regardless, this is where you need to include as much contact information as possible. Include your name, blog title, all phone numbers (some journalists work after hours, so include an after-hours number and mobile), email address and links to your blog/website. If the release is also going online, it’s wise to obfuscate your email address (ie. kellie at threelilprincesses dot com). Otherwise it will get picked up by the spam spiders.

    TESTIMONIALS: Use testimonial quotes at the bottom of your release. It’s a clever way to actually drag people to the bottom of the page – they’ll want to read what the quote says and not just skim over your contact information.

    Next, you need a PR plan. Read how to create a FREE media plan template to step up your PR efforts.

    Was this helpful? What other burning questions do you have about dealing with the media? Let us know.

  • FEATURE: She said what? Part 2

    FEATURE: She said what? Part 2

    She said what?

    PRINCESS Ella was a little slower than most at learning to do the physical things – rolling, crawling and walking. However, when it came to communication, she was king (or is that, queen).

    Now, at three, logically she’s quickly becoming comfortable with one of our prime communication tools, the phone. Often we see her walking around the house, pretend mobile phone wedged between her chin and shoulder, jabbering away with lines like: “I know, it’s terrible isn’t it? She’ll just have to learn’’. Hmmm, where did she get that from?

    Her latest golden quote though came when she was asked to pick up her toys. Her response: “I can’t Mum. I’m busy texting Nan’’. It took all my effort not to laugh!

    So, what line has your little one delivered that’s caused you to bite your tongue this week?

    Read more golden quotes from the She Said What? series.