0 Special Recipe | Nanaimo Bar Cupcake from Butter Baked Goods

Photo by Janis Nicolay

Today I'm excited to share a very special recipe that came about as Andrea Mazandi of west elm and I were corresponding and planning the upcoming Etsy Pop-Up Shop at west elm event this coming Saturday here in Vancouver.  Andrea having heard of our famous nanaimo bars here in Canada was keen on including something similar for the event and I being a fan of cupcakes joked "a nanaimo bar cupcake"!  Andrea contacted Butter Baked Goods and well, the rest is history! So today, Rosie of Butter Baked Goods was kind enough to share the recipe with us - which I can hardly wait to taste (they sound amazing)!   Fun fact: Butter Baked Goods, a very popular bakery here in Vancouver has a new cookbook coming out soon which should be not only super-delicious, but beautiful as well, as it's photographed by local interior and food photographer, Janis Nicolay (a contributor here at Poppytalk and one of our Etsy Pop-Up Shop vendors)!  So now to the recipe!

Nanaimo Bar Cupcakes

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups whole milk
¾ cup sour cream
½ cup coffee, room temperature
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ¼ cup dark cocoa
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsweetened coconut
¾ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

11 Free Download: Botanical Prints

Speaking of botanical prints, this weekend I made us some wall art for our kitchen as we were all getting tired of staring at blank walls and longed for a little more coziness inside! I've been admiring vintage botanical prints for some time and found some really pretty ones that I thought might work - nice for the summer?  I fixed them up a bit in photoshop and created pdf's to print out (thinking to share with you also if you so wish)!  These are all 8.5" x 11" making it easy for any printer.  I just taped mine up temporarily with gold striped washi tape till I can pick up some frames (probably white - like the RIBBA's from IKEA that I photoshopped the images into below). I'm thinking of also trying to make some poster sized ones with some of these as well - hope to share those with you soon too!  (Wouldn't these also make really pretty wrapping papers)?  Links to downloads below.

Download:

Fig. 1 | Fig. 2 | Fig. 3 | Fig. 4 | Fig. 5 | Fig. 6.

Images courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library.

1 Beautiful Botanical Desktop Wallpaper

While working on a project recently, I came across some beautiful botanical images.  This one caught my eye, and I decided to turn it into a desktop wallpaper for myself.  I thought you might like it too - so E uploaded it for you over the weekend.  Here are the links: 1024x768 and/or 1280x1024. Happy Monday!


Images courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library. 

5 Weekend Project : Brass Chandelier

Perhaps you've seen this DIY already, but just in case not, here's a pretty amazing chandelier DIY from the folks at One Kings Lane.  Stylist Megan Pflug offers up a step-by-step guide on how to make this beautiful brass piece inspired by a design by Københavns Møbelsnedkeri. She mentions she put this beauty together in less than an hour and that it was just like playing with tinker toys! Apparantly the hardest part is ordering the brass pipe parts. Get the how-to by clicking here.  Via Hodge Podge.

13 Deeply Saddened and Let's Help

I only heard today the tragic news about Whip Up's Kathreen who sadly lost her life while swimming with her partner Rob Shugg who is still missing at Coral Bay, Western Australia.  Kathreen and Rob were swimming, while their children were visiting friends on the beach when somehow something went terribly wrong.  And now their two beautiful children, Otilija and Orlando are without their parents. I can't imagine what their family is going through.

Kathreen was one of my first blog acquaintances back when I started Poppytalk in 2005 and we collaborated at times, guest blogged for one another and supported each other's blogs up until this terrible news.  I had just emailed her asking if I could interview her about their family adventure, which if you were following like me on her instagram, was an amazing one with her husband and two children.  She emailed back, "would love to"! And I was just starting to think up questions to send her way.  So of course when I heard this terrible news, I was quite simply devastated and cannot stop thinking about it.

As a parent, I feel quite compelled to help her children.  And the global community has already risen to the ocassion.

I take these words from Pip Lincolne's blog post about this:

"If you'd like to do something to help, please head here. The family has consented to a trust being set up for Otilija and Orlando, Kathreen and Rob's much travelled, awesome kids. It's something we can all contribute in a small (or large) way at a time when many of us are feeling a bit powerless.

Kathreen was a blogging pioneer in Australia. A champion of handmade and a founding pillar of the craft movement here in Australia (with a reach that was undeniably global.) She profiled countless crafters and artists through her amazing blog Whipup and the books she wrote. Her voice will be sadly missed, but not forgotten."

Our hearts go out to their family. So unfair. So so tragic.

UPDATE: You can now contribute via PayPal. The email address is otilijaandorlando@gmail.com. Hopefully this will remove some of the international barriers that have been encountered.