Your keys deserve more respect. Without them you’d be locked out of your home, your car, your secret diary and that big chest of treasure you’ve been hiding.
Show them some love with a new Momiji key ring. You can find them right here. Which one will you choose?

If you can’t stomach another mouthful of Easter egg may we suggest adding a little variety to your diet and squeezing in a few cupcakes? Our lovely Joanna Zhou has been using her Momiji cupcake cases and whipping up a storm in the kitchen. She sent us a few photographs along with her secret recipe for the perfect cupcake frosting. It sounds a bit strange to us, but she swears it’s magic. Let us know your verdict if you give it a go. You can pick up your set of cupcake cases right here. Take it away, Joanna...

Momiji Buttercream Frosting for 12 cupcakes

This recipe creates an extremely fluffy icing that also holds its shape well. The 'secret' is adding roux, better known as the base for a bechamel sauce to regular buttercream. Sounds strange but it works...just try it!!

Roux:
50g butter
2 tbs flour
250ml milk

Buttercream:
175g butter
150g white sugar
Vanilla essence
Food colouring (optional)

1) Melt the butter over a low heat and stir in the flour to create a roux. Use roughly equal amounts of both to get a soft paste. Cook very gently for 5 mins, stirring all the time to prevent the mixture from burning.
2) Pour in the milk and increase the heat slightly. As the mixture warms up it will start to thicken. This might take a few minutes so keep stirring to prevent it catching on the bottom of the pan and burning.
3) You might know this process from making bechamel (white) sauce for lasagne. For this recipe, keep heating the sauce until it becomes very thick, almost like wallpaper paste. This might take 5-10mins. Take off the heat and cool down to room temperature.
4) In a bowl, beat together the remaining butter with sugar until fluffy. Add a few drops of vanilla essence to taste.
5) Once the roux has cooled down, beat it into your frosting spoonful by spoonful until you like the texture. It should be like very thick whipped cream, and be able to hold small peaks. You may only need 3/4 of the roux mixture.
6) If you want, add a few drops of food colouring to make a nice pink or pastel green!
7) Place the frosting in the fridge for about an hour to firm up.
8) Spoon into a piping bag and swirl it over your cupcakes! Try to squeeze the bag with one hand and guide it in an inwards spiral with the other.
9) Finish your cakes with sprinkles, sugar flowers or grated chocolate.

As the nights draw in and the cold wind blows, we thought we would cheer you up and put a spring back in your step with a super sale, after all everyone loves a sale!

So we’ve chosen some of your favourite zakka and reduced the price.

Why not spoil yourself?

Big news. Joanna Zhou cupcake cases have arrived and are now available at a shop near you (or online just click here)

By way of celebration we’re devoting today to all things bakey and cakey.

So if you fancy yourself as a bit of a Delia or Nigella then grab your bowl, wave your whisk and get ready to whip up some tasty treats.

You will need…

For the cakes – 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 125g/4oz caster sugar, 125g/4oz soft margarine, 125g/4oz self-raising flour

To make them look lovely – 25g/1oz softened butter, 45g/1¾oz icing sugar, food colouring, sprinkles or sweets

All you have to do is…

1. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat them together (with a whisk) until there are no lumps.

2. Line a cupcake tin with momiji cupcake cases (hyperlink this) and half-fill each case with the cake mixture

3. Cook the cakes for 18-20 minutes until they are golden brown and nice and springy!

4. Leave them cupcakes to cool

5. In the meantime you can make the lovely buttercream. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the butter, then beat it with a wooden spoon until the two are mixed together. Just a few drops of food colouring, whatever you fancy. Go easy though, you won’t need much.

6. All you need to do now is cover each cupcake with the buttercream and decorate with sprinkles or sweets (or both…)

7. Then lastly but not leastly put a Joanna Zhou cupcake flag into the middle of each cake and tad-ah! Perfection.

Take a picture of you and your cupcakes on cupcake Tuesday and send it to us at smiles@momijishop.com

The person with the best picture will receive a surprise prize.