Made famous by Sex and the City (Carrie and Miranda devoured these cute iced treats in one episode while sitting outside the bakery window), Magnolia Bakery in New York City (401 Bleeker st at 11th for those of you heading that way!) is reputed to churn out the best cupcakes in the whole of NYC!

Anyone up for a bit of baking? If so, here's the original Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe. Ideal for birthday parties (though you may want to go easy on the icing for the kids...classic Magnolia cupcakes are loaded with the stuff!), picnics or just as an afternoon treat for mum- they're a good excuse as any to eat a cupcake (like you needed an excuse!).

Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes (depending on the size of your cupcake papers and muffin tins)

CUPCAKES:

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing. Ice the cupcakes with Vanilla

Buttercream icing (recipe follows)
Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.


In Australia try My Little Cupcake (Ben Boyd Rd, Neutral Bay, Sydney) www.mylittlecupcake.com.au
or Cupcakes on Pitt (Pitt St, Sydney) www.cupcakesonline.com.au

We think this ipod cradle for your baby's cot is one of the greatest products we've seen in a long time! The iCrib sound system locks onto the side of your baby's cot so you can download and preprogram special listening sessions for your bub! There's a night light on it too which fades into an array of soothing colours and you can select music only, nightlight only or both at the same time. Made by an American company they're not yet available here (boo hoo!) but don't worry- we're on the case!!

From the crafty site Loobylu (listed on our links page as a fave site) comes it's sister site for kids aptly named Kiddley!
Filled with lots of weird and wonderful, inspirational and creative ways to entertain, enthuse, educate and excite your little one, Kiddley is sure to delight (particularly if you're still battling through the school holidays and starting to run low on ideas to keeping the kiddies occupied!)

While realistically television is a staple to nearly every child's daily life these days its nice to find a source of inspiration for fun and entertainment that doesn't include pressing any buttons- just glueing, pasting, cooking, cutting, painting and much more!

The Kiddley flicker group is a cute idea- share photos of your child, or craft projects your little one has been working on with the world.

For more Crafty ideas than you can fit into a Spotlight/Lincraft store (!), we also love:
www.kidscraftweekly.com
www.rookiemoms.com

We won't admit to reading the social pages in the sunday paper before the world news or preferring a gossip/fashion mag to the financial review...but we will admit to loving this site!
Go Fug yourself is the bitter rantings of two girls- Jessica and Heather- who believe that celebs with poor style should be publicly outed, shamed and made to try better next time they step outside their front door.
Their postings are akin to nasty school yard gossip- but we simply can't tear ourselves away. They may be mean, but they're seriously funny.
Fugly celebs the girls love to hate include Chloe Sevigny ("Sevigny is one of the reasons this site exists; she is my nemesis in the fugly world, the person whose taste and appearance are constantly praised and rewarded...despite the fact that she dresses like she found some stuff on the floor... any floor... and decided to don it"), Kirsten Dunst ("British Glamour published its best-dressed list recently, and sneaking in at No. 10: Kirsten Dunst.The magazine apparently thinks she is "quirky" -- with which we agree, if by "quirky" you mean "either saggy, or geriatric/homeless.") and Jessica Simpson ("People. I thought we had an AGREEMENT. I thought we were going to pretend that Jessica Simpson DIDN'T EXIST. I feel like we TALKED about this, and I CRIED, and you all AGREED that she was OVER and I wasn't going to have to LOOK AT THIS ANYMORE").
But they aren't all bad- they have a section called Unfuggings where they give snaps to those celebs who have come good (Scarlett Johansson and Christina Aguilera have both recently been Unfugged)...awww, its enough to make you all warm and fuzzy inside!
Check it out at...
www.gofugyourself.com

Here's one for the new daddy's out there! Daddy Types is a blog site for dads- whether they be stay at home or otherwise. Its a forum where you can chat to other new dads (about stuff like how to fix the foam handle on your bugaboo?), find out about cool stuff (products and services) for being a dad and just generally reach out to other guys who are daddys. It makes a fun (and rather insightful) read for mummies too! There's also a links section for lots of other interesting sites for dads to check out.
check it out at www.daddytypes.com