A home made bean arch

We made this out of the branches from the tree we had to have pulled down. I love that it is functional and  decorative.

Lego party invite and thank you letters

Hidden design lego brick cake

 Max's fifth birthday and a birthday treat of a trip to legoland meant the obvious choice for the cake was going to be somehow connected to lego.
Trawling the internet for ideas, I couldn't find what I wanted which was a lego brick, but that looked like it was built of lego bricks when you sliced it. I was excited by the success of the polka dot Mr Tumble cake and wanted to experiment more with hidden design cakes. So I had a think and this is what I came up with.
A 'sixer' and a 'fourer'. Basic fondant icing covered rectangular and cubic cake but....

 ...with the hidden surprise of looking like it was built of lego cake bricks!

First I baked 4 food paste coloured cakes. I used Nigella's buttermilk birthday cake recipe from Domestic Goddess which promises a stronger shape holding/weight bearing cake, which I confess I can't dispute!

I divided a square cake tin with parchment to save time. I cut off the browned edges after they had cooled.

I then cut into pieces trying to think what it would look like cut in one direction. And stuck them together with buttercream icing as mortar.

I built up three layers like this.

 This is a close up of the building brick lego, inside cake design.

Colour mixing and mess-free mark making in freezer bags

This is another common idea from pinterest (see Teach, Play, Love- my boys here) adapted to what I had available.

I used large ziplock freezer bags and paint (a lot use coloured hair gel but I don't have any hair gel!). I wanted C to learn to how colours mix to make other colours so I used 2 colours in each bag, and sellotaped the top shut, after expelling any excess air.

C got a lot more from this activity than I expected him to. First of all was the fun of 'squishing', and the fun of 'spreading out' the paint to fill the bag. He used his hand and cars for that.

Then he 'drew' in the paint with an empty pen shell on the table and then we stuck it on a sunny window pain and had a long session mark making with the empty pen, his fingers and even the sellotape roll.  The resulting 'rainbow' looks so lovely on a sunny Spring day!

It was a great success and I recommend it to anyone.

 
 

Bicarb and Coloured Vinegar - Artistic and Scientific!

This was an exercise in trying to improve Max's fine motor skills and strength by using pipettes and syringes to transfer coloured white vinegar into a tray of bicarbonate of soda to make little fizzing mountains of coloured fun!

Crazy Digger flapjack

This is a recipe from a friend who came to stay bearing gifts of a whole tin of these yummy flapjack type cocounutty thingys, which she called Diggers. 

I added some craisins and we renamed them Crazy Diggers;

Mix together 120g plain flour, 225g caster sugar, 100g oats and 80g desicated coconut and 80g cinnamon coated craisins. Melt 120g butter with 1 tbsp golden syrup. Mix 1 tsp bicarb with 2tbsp boiling water and put this into the melted butter mix. Combine all the above and press into a lined baking tray.

Cook in a preheated oven at 160*c for 20mins.

Allow to cool a little before cutting into small squares, then allow to cool completely before removing from the baking tray. 

Homemade Gift - Sightly rubbish (but made with lots of love) macaroons for Mothers' Day.

I decided to make macaroons/macarons for Mothers Day. I followed this recipe from Macaron fetish blogspot. I made one big batch and sub divided into multiple colours to make a rainbow of flavours.
These included;
Pink with strawberry jam
Pink with rose water scented white chocolate ganache
Orange with marmalade
Orange with orange flavoured dark chocolate ganache
Yellow with lemon curd
Uncoloured with speculoos paste
Uncoloured with almond flavoured white chocolate ganache
Uncoloured with almond flavoured white chocolate ganache and raspberry jam (bakewell tart flavour)
Uncoloured with toasted coconut sprinkle and coconut flavoured ganache
Blue with raspberry jam
Light green with mint flavoured dark chocolate ganache
Light brown with coffee flavoured chocolate ganache
Brown with chocolate ganache

I think I was over ambitious for a first time macaroon maker! Some worked and got 'feet' and didn't crack or fizzle or stick to the parchment! Most Did Not! But.... they did taste good non-the-less. They just had 'faces only a mother could love' which was just as well!

Fun things to do for when the boys get back from school - Duplo puzzle- ing clue.

This was another idea I found on a late night pinterest hunt. (See my pinterest board entitled Teach, Play love - my boys here for original source)

Today seemed like a great opportunity to actually do this rather than letting it fester, unacheived on the pin board. A parcel arrived for them so I quickly built a duplo tower, stuck some paper on with pritt stick, wrote my clue and then cut the paper on the brick joins so that they separated into a puzzle.

The boys were so excited to find something so fun out of the blue and even more excited when they realised it was a clue! And then when they found the 'surprise' (a box of lego from the internet, paid for with Olly's birthday money!) - well the roof nearly lifted! Great fun!

Things that entertain a 1 year old - part 2

1. Feeding pipe cleaners into colander holes

2. Joining two colanders together

3. Picking up cut up bits of pipe cleaner with a big magnet

4. Putting all the little bits of pipe cleaner in a bottle

5. And emptying them all out again!

Another not very successful jelly!

In case it isn't clear (which I know it isn't!), this was my attempt to create a spotty jelly! I made strawberry, blackcurrant

Home Sweet Home. Wool wrapped wall decoration

Following a Pin - spot (see here) for a kids DIY Yarn Font. I decided it was just the thing for a blank space in the dining room just as you come in the front door. I have been wanted to do something like Home Sweet Home or Welcome to our Home and this seemed like just the thing.

I didn't do it exactly the same way. I didn't have any wire and I knew pipe cleaners would not be long or strong enough so I used my new found, favourite, lightweight, modelling material..... scrunched up aluminium foil.

Then super simple - tied on scraps of wool/yarn and wound it round and round. I then stuck it to the wall using command strips. And I LOVE it. It is my new favourite thing in the house. It is so colourful and homespun, it can't help but raise a smile and make me feel all warm inside everytime I see it.

Mr Tumble's Spotty Birthday Cake (inside and out!)

The Hidden Spotty Design

Charlie's second birthday already and time to think of another cake! He is mad for Justin and Mr Tumble on Something Special (CBeebies) and so I thought we could have a go at a spotty cake. But that was too dull and so I thought I would have a bash at a hidden design cake and make it spotty on the inside too as a surprise.

I started by making the standard pound cake mix but split up the mix into 6 and added food colouring to make different colours.

I baked these in a mini muffin tray sprayed with cake release for about 15mins.

I then made another standard pound cake vanilla mix. I placed the cooked (and cooled) mini muffin cakes in a standard cake tin and spread the raw mix over and around the precooked ones. I then baked this for 22 mins (a few mins less than I ordinarily would). You have to be careful when testing it, to make sure the skewer goes in the vanilla mix not one of the spots!

I decorated with precoloured fondant icing (as the colouring is more intense than when you add it yourself).

It just so happened that the give away gift for Something Special magazine was a Mr Tumble figurine this month so I stood him next to the cake to alleviate any doubt that it was just a spotty cake!!!

Colourful mini muffins. A.K.A The Spots

The cooked 'Spots' covered in the vanilla raw cake mix, ready for their second bake.

Tank top to Xmas Tree

This is a tank top that all 3 boys have worn and outgrown. Rather than throwing it away I decided to make it into a festive decoration. So I cut up a vague tree shape and sewed it together and stuffed it and stitched a stick in as a stem. I decorated with some of the buttons from Nan's old button tin. I just want to finish it by drilling a hole into a log round so the stick has a base.

Advent parcels

This year I realised we had so many Xmassy bits and bobs, like books and DVDs and singing creatures and such like, that as an extension from last years advent calendars (where I popped a note in with their chocolate to say what Xmas related activity we would do that day) I would make a whole separate advent parcel calendar.
So this is what we did. I pop a note in the pocket to say who gets to open that day's parcel.
Here is a list of what the parcels are;
1. Chocolate Advent Calendars
2. Tickets to go see Santa
3. Christingles
4. Cards to write for their friends
5. 3 Christmas story books
6. Snowy Night story book
7. Xmas biscuit cutters (for gingerbread village making)
8. Mr Hanky - the Xmas Poo
9. Santa Claus the Movie
10. Xmas Sticker books
11. Star for the Tree
12. Nativity jigsaw
13. Singing Xmas Dog
14. Sellotape for wrapping their presents to each other
15. Mince pie tin for baking
16. Elf DVD
17. Santa hats
18. Pere Noel book
19. Ho ho ho'ing soft toy Santa
20. Stick man book
21. The Grinch DVD
22. The story of the Nativity book
23. The Night before Xmas book
24. Their stockings

Xmas Tree Biscuits

For the School Christmas Cake Sale, the boys and I made these Gingerbread Christmas Trees with smarties for baubles and vibrant green icing.