We bought a spice rack several months ago with the intention of finding some little jars and making our own labels for them. As is often the case, we start off with good intentions but then life gets in the way and more important tasks come along! It was also delayed because we found some jars but then made the mistake of not buying the at the time (I think we weren’t in a position to carry them home safely), and then typically they weren’t there when we went back! Making these labels for the jars is a nice and easy craft project that you could easily complete on a week night. I decided to use the stamps that I used for our wedding invitations, which came from Pretty M on Etsy. I think this would make a lovely Christmas gift, or perhaps a wedding gift (we did something similar a couple of years ago and our friends were really pleased with it!).

If you want to have a go, you will need:

A spice rack, and as many air-tight jars as it will fit
Some pretty patterned papers
Some plain coloured paper
A glue stick
Some alphabet rubber stamps and ink pad (or a nice pen if you’d prefer to write the labels)
Some sticky-back plastic
A pencil and ruler

I started off by selecting the papers to use for the jars. I decided to use these lovely designs from the Victoria and Albert Museum, which actually came in a pack of scrapbooking paper from WHSmith (a long time ago – not sure if they still stock them!).

Then I stamped the names of the herbs and spices on some cream paper with pink ink, and cut out a 5 x 4cm piece of the pretty paper.

Just for ease, I glued the paper lightly together, and then stuck the whole thing onto the jar with a bit of pritt stick. This is to make sure that it stays in place when being covered with sticky-back plastic – this will keep it water tight.

When moving on to the next label, it’s a good idea to line the jars up to make sure that the labels are even!

The last thing to do is to fill up your jars and then you’re ready to go!

The post DIY Spice Rack appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

This recipe is another from Tom’s mum and it is really simple, but as with all hot cross bun recipes it does take a lot of time. But it is well worth it to have freshly made hot cross buns and Easter and they will make your kitchen smell amazing!

Ingredients

340g/12oz strong white bread flour
55g/2oz light muscovado sugar (I used dark because, as usual, I realised I didn’t have any!)
2tsp mixed spice
Half a tsp of grated nutmeg
Half a tsp salt
2 packets easyblend yeast
55g/2oz sultanas
55g/2oz mixed peel
6fl oz warm milk and water mixed (I used about 4 fl oz of milk and topped with boiling water)
1 egg, beaten
55g/2oz melted butter

Method

1. Put all of the dry ingredients and fruit into a bowl and mix well.

2. Add all of the wet ingredients and mix well – the mixture will be sticky! Cover and set to rise for about 2 hours in a warm place (as it rises you’ll hear it sound like Rice Krispies when you’ve just poured the milk on!)

3. Turn out the dough and knead, before dividing into 12 and shaping into buns. Cut crosses in the top and place on a baking sheet and leave to rise again for about 40-50 minutes.

4. Bake in a preheated oven at 425F/220C/Gas mark 7 for 20-25 minutes, but keep an eye on them because mine cooked rather quickly!

5. Whilst still warm, glaze the buns with 1tbsp sugar dissolved in 1tbsp warm milk. Put the kettle on and enjoy whilst they’re warm!

Now, you may be wondering why my buns have weird shapes on…well, I found a really cool thing on pinterest about making bunny bread and I had an idea that I could try it with hot cross buns – to make hot cross bunnies! But it didn’t quite go to plan and I think they look more like hot cross stegosauruses…but they taste good! The bunny bread looks like this:

Mine looked like this when I made the ears:

Maybe it was the fruit in the buns that made it difficult?! I don’t know…will have to try another time! Whether you make hot cross buns or try your own hot cross bunnies, I hope you have a very Happy Easter!

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