10 ways to amp up hot chocolate - mmmmm

I had the best time putting together this article for eBay's Mum's Business website - 10 Luxurious Ways With Hot Chocolate. I used the good stuff - Belgian Callebaut dark chocolate (thanks Dad), and went to town on amazing toppings and flavourings using items you probably already have in your pantry (I did!).

Head over to Mum's Business for the full article and super-easy recipes for: basic hot chocolate, white hot chocolate, malted hot chocolate, turkish hot chocolate, honeycomb hot chocolate, flake hot chocolate, aztec hot chocolate, chai hot chocolate, hazelnut hot chocolate, salted caramel hot chocolate, and gingerbread hot chocolate. You know you want to!

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin | Bondville

It's a Hot Chocolate kind of day

 Just add marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles. Or rainbow sprinkles!

Image: Steph Bond-Hutkin

Catherine Martin for Ferrero chocolate goodness

And speaking of goodies, this is a Ferrero Roundnoir.

YUM! It is just one of many, many (53!) round chocolatey balls of goodness that I kindly received from the good people at Ferrero. They have released a limited edition gift box full of Rocher minis, designed by Australian costume designer doyenne Catherine Martin.

Behold the hamper in all its glory:

And behold the glam art deco box that will be storing sequins, fabric squares, needles and thread for my craft club/book exchange/girlfriends get-together nights. Cos all those 53 choccies are now in my tum. Oh dear. Thanks Ferrero!

Just in time for Mother's Day you can find the Limited Edition Catherine Martin for Ferrero gift boxes in the Ferraro Boutique online store.

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin

Easy Easter goodies to bake with kids (and my first macarons)

If you are looking for some easy baking activities to do with the kidlets over Easter, I've put together an article for eBay's Mum's Business that might be just for you. The girls and I made all these goodies together - they are all simple and great to keep them busy over the long weekend.

There are some cute bunny cupcakes to make with things you might have around the house:

(take out the toothpicks before serving to the kids, of course).

Or some super-easy mini chick cupcakes:

And how about some Rocky Road for Dad:

Chocolate muesli bunny tails:

And my piece de resistance! My first macarons:

To make it super-easy to make with kids, I used the Donna Hay macaron packaged mix with a few adjustments:
1. add 2 drops of yellow and 1 drop of red food colouring to the egg mix to make peach-coloured macarons
2. swap out the dark chocolate for white chocolate to make light-coloured ganache to sandwich between your macaron shells

Have you tried making macarons yet?

Head over to Mum's Business to read the whole article. And have a super Easter and Passover weekend!

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin

Happy Chocolate Father's Day

Happy Father's Day. And happy World Chocolate Day! Yes, you can combine the two with lots of chocolate for Dad. Perfect.

I thought you'd like this pic. This is a special shout-out to my Dad too - this is one of my Dad's chocolate fountains at my sister's post-wedding brunch last weekend. It was glorious. Dad runs a great chocolate fountain fondue business in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, providing professional chocolate fountains and warm, melted Belgian Callebaut chocolate for weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, engagements, trade shows, business meetings and all sorts of events.

Dark chocolate is the most popular, but there is also milk chocolate and white chocolate to choose from (and pink or coloured if you wish!). Our girls have been so lucky to have chocolate fountains at their birthday parties and the kids and adults alike have all loved it. We like to dip strawberries and marshmallows on skewers, and ginger and pineapple are pretty fabulous too.

Enjoy your chocolatey Father's Day!

Steph
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Image: Steph Bond Hutkin