New Photo Shoot

Today we are sharing with you a few images from our latest shoot. We took over 450 photos, and most of these won't go to print or go on our website so if we didn't put them up it would be such a waste! Hope you enjoy. Above: Chocolate Rick Rack Placemats and Runners with Bamboo Bowls

Gum Leaf Rick Rack Placemats and Runners with Plain dyed Wisteria Napkins

Plain Dyed Green Tablecloth and Napkins with Olive Branch Rick Rack and Bamboo Bowls

Plain dyed Chocolate Napkins and Bamboo Bowls

Plain Dyed Wisteria Tablecloth and Napkins with Gum Leaf Rick Rack Placemats

Home Beautiful: Plum Cake

Check out this gorgeous photo from the April edition of Home Beautiful magazine.  Its a cracker shot of our bamboo chopping board and the recipe looks amazing too! You might recall that back in February Caroline baked a plum cake with fruit from her inlaw's orchard, so seeing this shot made us feel like we were very up with the times! 

Friday!

Well its been a busy week here at Dandi HQ, Friday has come around too quickly! We've received some new samples, done a photo shoot for our new catalogue, and been given some superb coverage in Home Beautiful April. For this reason we were too busy to blog but we hope to have some more dandicrafts and favourite recipes for you in the coming weeks so stay tuned. The above image is a teaser from the photo shoot, no dandi product in it as it was a lighting test, but a nice image nonetheless! Have a great weekend!

Beauty and Lace Interview

Mindi's designer profile was recently listed on the very girly, very fun beauty and lace blog

Check it out here

New Books!

Mindi accidentally slipped over and bought three new cookbooks... time to pop on a pini and get back into the kitchen!

Caroline's Home Beautiful

We are delighted to blow our own trumpet and tell you we have an 8 page spread in this months Home Beautiful. Rush out and buy it now to see a sneak peak at the Dandi team busy working on our new creations and enjoying a few cupcakes and pot of tea to help us along!

It was a really fun day and we would like to say a huge thankyou to Home Beautiful Magazine for letting us get involved

Tea Towel Wrapping

Manuela came up with this clever, reusable wrapping idea for baked goods. Take one dandi tea towel or fabric napkin, place home baked treats in the centre of the reverse side and tie up with pretty ribbon. Looks just lovely and the receiver can use the wrapping after the goodies are gone!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Recently Dandi donated some of our tea towel seconds to schools for art class materials so young crafters could discover their hidden talents. Here is a beautifully embroidered tree from a very talented crafter Yolanda Prentice. We think Yolanda is a Dandi designer in the making, and she is also Caroline's neice! You wouldn't believe it but she is only 9 years old - so much talent for such a youngster! Watch this space!

You can make friends with friands

Today's post is Mindi's favorite thing to bake, friands. They are delicious, easy, and look amazingly professional when dusted with a little icing sugar. Try these out as the perfect afternoon tea snack!

Orange & Poppy Seed Friands

Makes 12 Friands.

Ingredients

1/2 cup plain flour (or gluten free plain flour, for gluten free friands)

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 cup almond meal

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Zest of 1 orange

Juice of 1/2 orange

5 egg whites, beaten till lightly frothy

150g melted butter (or nuttelex for dairy free friands)

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease 12 friand moulds or line moulds with friand cases

Sift Flour and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl. Stir in almond meal, poppy seeds and orange rind.

Stir in egg whites, melted butter and juice.

Divide mixture evenly among friand moulds. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through and golden brown.

Dust with icing sugar and eat warm or wait til cool and dust.

Friands can be stored for up to a week in an airtight container in the fridge, or frozen and reheated.

Variations: Jaffa Friands - Omit the poppy seeds and add two heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder for yummy choc- orange flavour. Lemon & Poppy Seed Friands - substitute orange rind and juice for lemon rind and juice.

Dandi Studio: Inspiration Wall

It is the beginning of Autumn and with the new season comes new inspirations. Today we thought we would share with you some snap shots of our ever changing inspiration wall, which is currently very vibrant and Summery, before we change it up for the colder months. We are always on the lookout for new ideas and trends and when something grabs our attention we put it up on our inspiration wall to observe for a while. Its like a big changing artwork and it really brightens up the studio. 

Above - blue/green section, Below - red/pink section