Jubilee Cake-Off

This is for all you cake fans out there.  Yesterday the village ran a cake-off to raise funds for the jubilee street party.  I had totally forgotten about it until I was reminded on Friday night so ours was a bit of a rush.

Here is our entry.

I was amazed at how many people entered.  Each entry was £2.00 with categories for ladies, men and children.  The judging was a little weird but it was fun and I am pleased we decided to enter.  We didn’t win anything but hey its the taking part that counts.

ABC biscuits.

When I was on Pinterest the other day I came across these really cool scrabble cookies courtesy of When Adobo Met Feijoada.

Image: When Adobo Met Feijoada

Ever since I saw them I have been itching to make some.  Here is my attempt.  I think I need to get a thicker pen.  I made mine a bit bigger as Mimi is a bit too small for scrabble.  

For my biscuits and icing I used a recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Cookies and Biscuits book.  If you would like to make these then When Adobo Met Feijoada have got an excellent tutorial with step by step instructions.  I think I need to work on my icing skills!!!!! I think that these would make a great treat for Mimi's packed lunch.

Chocolate Fudge Cake.

Last night we had a few of our friends round for dinner and I really fancied the idea of making a Chocolate Fudge Cake.  I have tried making them before but I can never get them as moist as the ones you buy in the shops.  For a while I have been following The Crazy Kitchen.  It is a great source of ideas and inspiration for cooking with toddlers.  Yesterday I on The Crazy Kitchen I found the most amazing looking chocolate fudge cake.  It looked so delicious I just had to try it.  I was also intrigued as the cake mixture used Greek yoghurt (one of my favourite foods) and bicarb of soda.

We got lovely and messy.  Mimi wasn't interested in baking yesterday until she heard the mixer going and saw all the chocolate!  She said it tasted fizzy, it must have been the combination of the yoghurt and the bicarb.

Recipe: The Crazy Kitchen

Here is our end result.  I was a bit worried when I added my frosting as it seemed really greasy (I am not sure if it was supposed to be like that) but once it started to set it disappeared and left you with a super scrummy topping.  Not only that but it was super easy to make.  Some recipes are so complex and confusing that you feel like a failure before you have even begun.
With the idea of it being served up at dinner I decided to decorate it with mini eggs for Easter.  Then I had a random idea that I could turn the eggs gold by painting them with some gold food colouring I had left over from Christmas.  I was a bit disappointed as they weren't gold gold, but I liked the colour all the same.

Yum Chocolate Fudge Cake and Whipped Cream!

The review on The Crazy Kitchen said 

 "This cake has got to be the best and one of the easiest chocolate cakes I have ever made." 

  

I totally agree, this really was the easiest chocolate fudge cakes I have made and what's more it was deliciously moist.  I will certainly make this again.

Baking / Roast Chicken Pie.

Yesterday whilst most places continued to bask in the spring sunshine we were under low cloud and a chilly easterly wind. Originally I was considering a trip to Dungeness (for our D week) but with all the panic buying at the petrol station I thought better of it.  So instead we decided to do some baking, this is fast becoming one of Mimi's favourite activities.  Often one of the first things she asks me when she wakes up is "are we baking today".  Whilst this is great for Mimi it is not such good news for my waist line!!!  Yesterday was not a good Weight Watchers day!

First up we made a Chicken Pie with some left over roast chicken we had earlier in the week.  I meant to take a photo after I had cooked it but I forgot.  Mimi had fun helping make it but by tea time she was fast asleep on the sofa in front of Toy Story!!  

Shortcrust Pastry:

The ratio for making shortcrust pastry is half fat to flour.   I had some left over pastry which Mimi played with.

12oz plain flour
3oz margarine (I used Stork)
3oz lard (I used Cookeen) Previously I have used Trex but I think that Cookeen gave a much better end result.

If you wanted to you could use all margarine but your pastry will be stiffer and more yellow.

You need to rub in the fat to the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs then slowly add 2-3 tablespoons of really cold water.  Bring it together into a dough and then wrap in cling flim.  I then placed mine in the freezer for about 45mins or so whilst I then made my pie filling.


Pie Filling:

Left over roast chicken
I small onion finely chopped
1 stick of celery finely chopped
A good shake of freeze dried tarragon
2 tablespoons of butter
1 glass of white wine
250ml of water & 1 chicken stock cube
A splash of whole milk for glazing and a good splash to make your pie filling creamy
1 table spoon of plain flour.

Melt one table spoon of butter in a saucepan add your chopped onion and celery, fry lightly until translucent, then add your tarragon and continue heating for about a min.  Remove from the heat and place neatly on the base of your pie case.  Then cover with your left over roast chicken.

Melt remaining butter in your original saucepan, add your flour and make a roux sauce.  First add your wine and let it bubble for a few seconds then gradually add your chicken stock and a splash of whole milk until you get the desired consistency.  Pour your sauce over your chicken and finally cover with a pie lid.  Glaze with a splash of milk and pop in a pre-heated oven for 45-mins.

Then we made some cheese straws for Mimi's play-school packed lunch.  I used a recipe I found on the internet from all recipes.  I have used it before and it always produces good results.  However I thought that 450g of cheese was a bit much so I only added about 300g and to bind it together I added a splash of cold water.

Mini Blackberry and Apple Pies

This afternoon Mimi and I made some mini blackberry and apple pies.  We made them to put in Mimi's packed lunch box tomorrow.  I think I have been putting too much chocolate in her packed lunch box!  They were really easy to make.

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees.

Shortcrust Pastry:

The ratio for making shortcrust pastry is half fat to flour.  I made the following, this allowed for 12 mini blackberry and apple pies. 

8oz plain flour
2oz margarine (I used Stork)
2oz lard (I used TREX)


If you wanted to you could use all margarine but your pastry will be stiffer and more yellow.


You need to rub in the fat to the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs then slowly add 2-3 tablespoons of really cold water.  Bring it together into a dough and then wrap in cling flim.  I then placed mine in the freezer for 20mins or so whilst I got my pie filling ready.

Apple Pie Filling:

3 eating apples (I used coxes) peeled and diced finely.

1 handful of blackberries or summer fruits

1 egg lightly beaten

Place your peeled apples into a small pan with a splash of water, heat them over a low heat until softened then add your remaining soft fruit, again heating it until it has softened roughly about 2-3mins.

Take your pastry out of the freezer and grease your bun tin.  Roll your pastry out thinly, then using a round pastry cutter cut out 12 rounds these need to be slightly bigger than the bun tin holes.  Then carefully spoon 1 teaspoon of your pie filling into the centre of each pastry base.  Re-roll your pastry and this time using a slightly smaller pastry cutter cut out another 12 rounds.  Place a pastry lid onto each of your pies.  Using a fork squash the edges together and mark a cross each lid.  Brush liberally with your egg and place in your pre-heated oven for about 20mins.

  

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

As part of our ABC Series we made some Apple and Cinnamon Muffins.  I originally got the Apple Muffin recipe from allrecipes.co.uk but I adapted it slightly.  Firstly I ran out of vegetable oil so I contemplated using some olive oil but thought the taste might be too strong so I melted some butter to make up the quantities.  Then when we were mixing all of the dry ingredients together I added a teaspoon of dried cinnamon.  My apples weren't that big so I just used 4 small ones.  They took about 10mins to make (longer with Mimi helping) and about 20mins in the oven.  They were really tasty and needless to say the have almost gone already.

Dairylea Sandwiches V's Bacon and Cheese Quiche

I am fed up of Mimi always requesting Dairylea sandwiches for lunch.  The only variety we get is whether the sandwiches are cut into squares or triangles.  So this afternoon whilst she was asleep I decided to make her a bacon and cheese quiche for her lunch tomorrow.  Mmmm I hope she eats it!! 

It was really easy to make and considerably cheaper than buying them ready made.

Shortcrust Pastry:

The ratio for making shortcrust pastry is half fat to flour.  I made the following, this allowed for 4 mini quiches (I think it might have worked better if I had made one large one) with enough left over for 12 jam tarts.
8oz plain flour
2oz margarine (I used Stork)
2oz lard (I used TREX)

If you wanted to you could use all margarine but your pastry will be stiffer and more yellow.

You need to rub in the fat to the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs then slowly add 2-3 tablespoons of really cold water.  Bring it together into a dough and then wrap in cling flim.  I then placed mine in the freezer for 20mins or so whilst I then made my quiche filling.

For the filling:
1 small onion chopped
2-3 rashers of bacon chopped
A good grating of cheese
1 teaspoon of parsley
2 eggs
140ml cream
140ml whole milk

Fry the onion in butter until soft, then add the bacon (I cut off the excess fat)
Briefly beat together the cream, milk, parsley and the eggs.
Get your pastry out of the freezer and line the tin you want to use with the pastry making sure you remember to grease it.
Spread out your onion and bacon mixture, cover with grated cheese and then pour over your egg mixture. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 30-35mins at 200 degrees making sure you check them regularly.

A beautiful day.

What a fab day.  Can we believe that 3 weeks ago we were all shivering under -6.
I have been attempting to tidy the house most of the day, I even managed to get Mimi roped in to some polishing!!  Needless to say I haven't got very far!  Instead we spent some time in the garden blowing some long lost bubbles which we found in my tidy up, face painting, playing shops however you wouldn't want to pay Mimi's prices.  A cup of tea was hundreds of pounds! Mimi did come up with a very cute version of a cappuccino using my cotton wool face pads.

Mimi is wearing her new jumper from Next.  We have a big problem with
her refusing to wear a jumper/cardigan.  This one stayed on nearly all day.

I think Mimi must be growing at the moment as she seems to sleep quite a bit.  This afternoon I managed to get her down for an afternoon nap.  Wow what to do with my spare time?!?  I persuaded Mike to keep an ear out for her (I thought I'd best make this point in-case people thought I had left my baby home-alone) and decided to pop to Sainsbury's on my bike to pick up a few bits for tea.  On my way out I saw a single magpie..........  Half way into town I remembered I had forgotten the bike lock!  I ended up at the little hardware shop which seems to sell everything - I didn't fancy risking getting my bike nicked in town.  In a way I probably spent less than if I'd got to Sainsburys.

When Mimi woke up we decided to make some Weight Watchers Rock Cakes from my new cook book - (We adapted them slightly as we didn't have any cherries) They were surprisingly tasty however the recipe said that the quantities would make 30 - all I can say is that they would have been big enough for The Borrowers.  I managed to get 17, so instead of them being 2 pro points mine probably ended up nearer 4!!  They tasted fairly good (if double the points) and went perfectly with a cup of tea.  Mimi had fun playing with my brother who is off to Trinidad on Friday for a few months.

Last week I entered a survey with Mumsnet about the new film We Brought A Zoo which is opens on the 16th March.  Mike and I have been lucky enough to be selected as part of the Mumsnet panel to attend a preview in London next Friday evening.  I am so excited so watch this space for my review.  

Weight Watchers Apple & Raspberry Sponge

Having been to Weight Watchers on Saturday and buying my new recipe book I thought I would give a couple of recipes ago.  The first one I had high hopes for were the butternut squash rolls.  I am not too sure what I did but mine definitely did not look anything like the ones in the book.  Mine wouldn't have looked out of place on the beach, they had a distinctive rock type look and texture.  I was planning on uploading the photos but on this occasion they have gone in the recycle bin along with the rolls.  What a waste of time, money and effort!  All was not totally lost, this evening for dessert (Mike always has to have a dessert!) I made a fab apple, raspberry and blackberry sponge.  Not only did it taste good it was really easy to make.

Basically it is fruit baked in the oven with some golden
syrup and a swiss-roll style sponge poured over the top.

  

A bit of colour on a winters day.

Check out those colours !?!?!?

This morning we took a trip out to Mama Feelgoods with my friend A from work.  We stopped for an expensive coffee in their deli cafe (£2.95 - more expensive than Starbucks!) however whilst we were there we became inspired by their beautiful bakery shop.  With Mike away on business Mimi kept asking to bake a cake for his return.  Having spoken all morning about "Pink" icing we finally settled on an attempt at making a "Rainbow Cake".

I think I made it sink!  I think I added too much baking powder and opened the oven too soon!  Hey ho!  I was impressed with the vibrancy of the colours and think I will give it another go, but next time I think I will try and do the layered versions I have seen.

Like this one I found on Whisk Kid

I used the following recipe:

Rainbow Cake
Food Colouring of various shades, (we just used the primary colours and mixed them together)
175g Caster Sugar
175g Self Raising Flour
175g Butter
2 eggs

Cream the butter and sugar together
Add the eggs slowly continuing to beat the mixture
Add the sieved flour and fold the mixture together.

Divide the mixture between a number of dishes depending on the number of colours you want.  Mix in your colours and spoon the mixture into the tin.
Bake in the oven at 160 degrees for about 30mins.

When I left work I was lucky enough to be presented with some lovely gift vouchers for Fenwicks.  I am going to keep these safely and add them to my wallet fund.  35 of 101.

Mulberry Long Locked Purse.

No 35     Save up and buy a beautiful wallet (maybe a Mulberry)

Keeping up with my 101 in a 1001 Mimi and I have been to the local hardware store where we brought a bag of seeding potatoes which we are going to carefully set out in a tray tomorrow.  Having learnt from last years experience where Mimi muddled up the different varieties I brought; this year we just opted for one the "Winston".  Apparently they can produce show winning crops!!!

Now we just need to sort out the vegetable plot and decide what else we want to plant!

My first week as being a stay at home mum has gone reasonably well.  Mimi and I have sat down to eat together 4 nights this week and tomorrow I am going to implement my reward chart - smiley faces and black clouds!!!  I am looking forward to next week when Mimi is back at play-school.

Bird Cakes

For Christmas I was given a bird table.  We originally had it in the middle of the lawn but it kept getting blown over.  I was disappointed by how few visitors we got.  So we moved it and we have had an influx of Robins, Blue-tits, Great-tits and Blackbirds.  Occasionally we see the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on the tree outside the office.  With Mimi's obsession with baking I decided we would make bird cakes for the birds in the garden.  Obviously you need to be careful with the hot fat but it cools really quickly once it has been added to the breadcrumbs and seed.  I placed a whole heap of stale bread in the food processor, some I put in the freezer for when we are next making fish cakes and the rest we made bird cake with. 

If you don't have a bird table you could punch a hole in the bottom of the yoghurt pot, pull through a piece of string or wool and tie a knot, then firmly pack your birdcake on top of it.  Either that or you could use a fir cone which you have tied a piece of string to and then pack the bird cake into the gaps.

I hope that you have as much fun as we did.

Finally here comes winter!!!

I think that February is going to be payback for our recent exceptionally warm weather.  Early January I walked home from town with just my body warmer and a light weight jumper, now our house is so blimming chilly I am contemplating sleeping in my body warmer.

However I do love the snow and it was great to watch Mimi playing in it.  She was very cute, when she went out the front door she kept saying "Crazy", "This is really Crazy", "Help me help me I'm really stuck".  Bless some of the snow drifts up here were up to her waist.

Yesterday was the first time in a week that the temperature has risen above freezing however the wind chill makes it feel considerably colder.  Between us and France is the English Channel the beach and a field so when the wind blows from the East or North East it howls in.  Our kitchen is currently about 11 degrees.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

All this snow is great but with it being so cold outside for little ones means that you have to think of indoor entertainment.

So we made "Pink" (our favourite colour at the moment) butterfly cakes. 

Then we made a cardboard monster and guess what??
We painted it "Pink"!

Our obsession with dresses and tights continues and is continuing to stress me out especially when the weather is so cold.  I took Mimi to have her feet measured yesterday for new slippers and ended up buying slippers and shoes.  We ended up choosing the most hideous coloured pair of Kicker Boots ever.  We have had Kicker Boots before and they were great, so its not the choice of shoe just the colour.  The thing was they were in the sale (probably for good reason) however for little feet you just want something warm and waterproof.  Slippers were much easier as there was a limited choice but we decided to go for a lovely pair of pink flowery ones by Startrite.  We have had a pair before and I having tried others I have concluded that the little Startrite ones are good value for money.  They have a firm sole with tread which means if they go outside its not the end of the world and much more importantly they have support around the heel to prevent them from walking on the side of their foot.

New Slippers - Guess What?
They are Pink!

    

New Shoes - Check out those cool colour!!!

At least they go with the dress.
Jury's out on leggings and socks!

 Yippeee I have one day left at work.  For the first time ever I am hoping that we don't get more snow tonight as we are planning on going out tomorrow night for a few drinks and I would quite like the school to be open.


 

At a loss - modern technology!

How did we all survive before the internet and even more so pre-broadband?  Our connection went down on Friday.  We finally managed to get it reconnected last night!  My poor husband is trying to run a business from home which is internet dependant.  So much is done online these days that I too have been at a bit of a loss.  I couldn't book in for spinning at the FitnessMix, check my Weight Watchers pro points or most importantly ensure that I had transferred enough money into my bank account to cover the bills.

Whilst I am on the point about technology I really considered all of my options when choosing my new phone.  After much deliberation I finally opted with the HTC desire as it seemed like the best option for the money.  However just lately I have become very jealous of iphone users and wish I had shelled out the extra money.  Whilst I think the android app market has improved it is seriously inferior to the iphone.  What brings me to this conclusion is that there are several apps I would like to download but they are all only accessible on the i-phone.

Instagram allows you to take photos with filters on
your phone and then share them online

I would really like to use instagram (just think how good this would be linked to my blog), the weight watchers app and the Annabel Karmel app but unfortunately I can't and I am feeling increasingly frustrated.  According to the online forums instagram is coming to the android SOON!!   I think that Weight Watchers could make far more use of their website and apps and I am surprised that they have not created an app which lets you scan the bar-code of a product in the supermarket which tells you the pro points value.  I have emailed them to complain and they said that they have a team working on it!  However I have now been waiting a year!

Modern technology aside life in our house has been fairly busy.  Saturday I had a morning on my own - it was amazing and I had totally forgotten what that feeling of "me" time felt like.  I went to have my hair done at The Chair then on to meet K for coffee.  I truly believe that my hair has never looked so good since I have been going to The Chair.  Over the years I have struggled to get a good haircut as my hair is so curly but Katie is just amazing.  I would highly recommend having your hair done at The Chair.  Sunday we had a two back to back birthday parties.  Good job I went shopping in the Christmas sales and stocked up on a heap of birthday presents.

Mimi is becoming fairly independent and will only wear what she wants to.  It is becoming a little stressful and I may have to start hiding some of her favourite outfits.  Not because I want to be mean but because they just don't fit any more and its a bit too chilly to be wandering around with leggings up to her knees.

I just found her neatly lining up her shoes with Mr Doggy on the naughty mat.  I asked why he was on the mat and apparently he had touched the orange shoes hence why they are not paired up!

We made some gorgeous birthday cakes for my Mum.  Mimi had as usual a lovely time baking and I think even more fun eating the end results!!  I asked her last night what she would like to do today and she said "make something".  I suggested a cardboard monster but that idea was dismissed.  "No mummy I want to make a big cake with pink icing."

Birthday Cupcakes!  Yum Yum. Goodbye Diet!

So we have made scrummy brownies from Fay Ripleys book (no wonder it is taking me so long to loose some weight!) and done some painting.  No pink icing but someone had fun!!

How messy?!?  I think that there is more on her face than in her mouth!

Different types of markings using a comb in paint.

Happy Days

Today we had planned to go for a long walk with the scooter however the weather was rather gloomy so instead we decided to make some chocolate biscuits.

I think as usual someone may have eaten slightly more than we cooked!!!  Look at those grubby chops!! We poured the hundreds and thousands on rather than sprinkled them but hey they looked good and tasted even better.  They are really easy to make and unlike a lot of dough recipes these do not contain raw egg so should your little one decide they prefer the dough to the end product its not a major issue.

Ingredients

125g softened butter
165g firmly packed brown sugar
225g plain flour
35g self raising flour
35g cocoa powder
2 tbsp milk
150-200g dark cooking chocolate, melted
hundreds and thousands

Method

1. Turn the oven on to about 180 degrees.
2. Using an electric whisk beat together the sugar and the butter until light and fluffy
3. Add your sieved dry ingredients and mix together. Slowly add a tbsp of milk one at a time (I mixed this all together with a wooden spoon)  Bring it together form a fairly stiff dough.  You can use your hands.
4. Tip your dough on to a lightly floured work surface - to prevent it from becoming too floury I mixed a bit of cocoa powder and flour together.
5. Roll out your dough until it is about 5mm thick and then cut out your choice of shape. 
6. Place on a lined baking tray and place in the oven for about 10-12mins.
7. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.  Whilst your biscuits are cooking melt your chocolate either over a pan of boiling water or gradually in the microwave being careful not to over-heat it.
8. When your biscuits have cooled enough to handle you need to spread (or dip into) the melted chocolate onto the surface of each biscuit and then sprinkle with your hundreds and thousands.   

These biscuits are really yummy however they are not helping me with my weight loss.  Last year I started a list of a 101 things I would like to try and complete in a 1001 days.  For more on my 101 progress click here.


25    loose some weight. -

I have signed up to weight watchers, however after 1 week of what felt like starving myself I attended my second weigh in to discover I had lost the grand total of half a lb!!!  Half a lb, god I felt demoralised.  I had to put two big black crosses through Saturday and Sunday.  I started again on Monday.  Even though I felt demoralised it has made me tick a couple of other things off my list.

40    Eat 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables everyday for a week.
78    To eat breakfast everyday for a week.  


In my eagerness to shift some of my excess weight I have also been out exercising.  I used to go lots before I had Mimi but you know what its like when you have children.  Anyway I have realised just how unfit I am.  I went spinning last week.  It was awful - I felt like some crazy woman who was totally out of control.  My bike was spinning quicker than my poor little legs could go.  The strobe lights were blinding me and the speaker which felt as though it was only an inch from my ear was deafening me.  What is more I paid £6 for this privilege!!!  I am going to give it another go this week however I remain unconvinced that spinning is for me.  I also went to Step and Load on Monday, which I did enjoy however my muscles ache so much today that I felt as though I was coming down with the flu!


This week I have also ticked off

61   To attend a blogging conference  - Okay so I haven't attended yet but I am going to BritMums Live 2012 and I am really excited.  I feel slightly intimidated by some of the amazing blogs I read and subsequently feel a bit nervous about going.  Is anyone else going?