Easter Bonnet

Grandma got the girls a Go Create Easter Bonnet Decorating Kit for their Easter present. I think the Tesco Go Create range is pretty decent and good value for money. Elizabeth and Rebecca are both at a good age for doing that sort of thing now.

Basically the box had all the supplies and instructions to make the hat they had in their picture. I told the girls they could do their own thing, but they were happy to do as instructed. It probably took about 3 hours in total, there was a lot to it. Elizabeth, rightly suggested that it would have been easier if the foam items were stickers. That would have cut down the time probably by 2 hours! I was really impressed that the girls had the patience to do the whole thing. We did stop for one break and they decided to finish it up just when I had given up and tidied everything away!

The girls were very happy with their finished hats. They wore them out the next day and want to take them to the childminder's and school and nanna and grandad's etc so they can show them off.

Southwold

We had a day out at Southwold yesterday and it actually stayed sunny!

We arrived at lunchtime, so first stop was chips on the Pier. We all had the battered sausage and chips. We aren't really fish eaters, so that's usually the easiest thing to order when getting fish and chips. They were really tasty, the batter was excellent!

Next we went down to the beach. The girls went barefoot and chased the waves for a while. I got soaked taking a photo of them.

We walked along the pier and had a look at the old and weird arcade games, we watched the water clock, we laughed at ourselves in the silly mirrors and we found Nanna and Grandad's plaque.

Then we walked up to the lighthouse, which was closed but that was probably a good thing as you have to be 1.1m to climb it. Elizabeth might have got away with that, but not Rebecca.

We finished up our day with ice creams back at the pier. Elizabeth had bubble gum and chocolate flavoured ice cream and Rebecca had strawberry and chocolate.

A lovely day out with the girls.

Easy Sausage Rolls

Easy Sausage Rolls

When buying sausages for the family, I find that one pack is not really enough for the 4 of us and 2 packets are too many. So I decided to use up my left over sausages productively this week by making sausage rolls.

What you need:

• Some sausages - I had 9 leftover chipolata sausages
• A packet of ready made frozen puff pastry. Defrost and let it get to room temperature
• 1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Roll out the pastry to about 40cm by 30cm.

Cut it into 3 long strips 3 x 40cm by 10cm

Take the skin off the sausages and lay them along the length of the pastry strips

Egg wash one side of the pastry strips and roll the pastry around the sausages

Cut them into small sausage roll sizes, so about an inch long

Put them into the fridge to let the pastry harden a little, about 20 minutes

I scored my pastry on the top, but that's more for decoration than anything else I think.

Egg wash all the exposed pastry

Cook in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown

Elizabeth had these in her packed lunch the next day!

Recipe Recommendation Lemon and Raspberry Cake

Made this thanks to @RichardPBurr . Looking forward to eating it after tea. #MothersDay pic.twitter.com/KV39tL9ye2

— Fiona (@ChosenMum) March 15, 2015

I'm sending you elsewhere for this week's update. I follow Richard Burr on twitter. He was a finalist (and my favourite) in the last series of Great British Bake Off. He posted a link on twitter for a fantastic cake to make for Mother's Day. It's a lemon sponge cake with raspberry buttercream icing.

Here's the link: Mother's Day Recipe.

If I was to make it again I would be tempted to use at least one less lemon and I would only make about two thirds of the quantity of icing, because I had enough left over for half a dozen cupcakes.

I found that the lemon in the sponge overpowered the cake and I could not taste the raspberry in the icing.

But it was a gorgeous cake overall and I went back for seconds (and thirds!)

I was delighted to be included in Richard's tweet later in the day about lots of people making his cake.

Chuffed to bits with how many people made my #MothersDay cake this weekend. Go to http://t.co/5MvgwZAtOe for recipe 🍰 pic.twitter.com/8vhXANZrUu

— Richard Burr (@RichardPBurr) March 15, 2015

Chicken Satay Skewers

Chicken Satay Skewers

When it was Chinese New Year I bought some ready made Chinese snacks to have with the girls for lunch. One of the snacks was chicken satay skewers. Elizabeth loved them, so I thought I'd make some from scratch.

I started with Annabel Karmel's recipe for chicken satay, and tweaked it a little:

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts cut into smallish cubes
• cocktail sticks

Marinade

• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 4 tbsp chicken stock
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 garlic clove crushed

Sauce

• leftover marinade sauce
• 4 tbsp chicken stock
• about 50ml water
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• Black pepper

Method

• Mix together the marinade ingredients. Put the chicken in the marinade and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
• Thread the chicken onto the skewers. Save what's left of the marinade for the sauce.
• Cook in the oven at 180°C for about 18 minutes, turning them once.
• Meanwhile put the leftover marinade sauce in a small saucepan. Add the chicken stock, water, chili powder and pepper. 
• Bring to the boil to make sure any raw chicken that might have remained gets cooked off. 
• Let it simmer for 5 minutes or so, until it has reduced a little.

This was so tasty and just the right size for children. Great party food too!

If you tried the chicken satay skewers, let me know what you think. Leave a comment below.
Also, I'm always looking for new ideas for baking/cooking, if you have any suggestions, leave a comment!

Chocolate Marshmallow Crispy Squares

Chocolate Marshmallow Crispy Squares

This week's sweet treat is a minor adaptation of Nigella's Marshmallow Crispy Squares. I used these before when making the Unikitty Treats. They are great for kids and adults, but incredibly moreish, so beware! These treats would be ideal for cake stalls and fundraising, with Comic Relief coming up...

Ingredients

• 45g butter
• 300g mini marshmallows
• 180g Rice Krispies
• 300g cooking chocolate, maybe even more

Method

• Melt the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a low heat.
• Add the marshmallows and cook gently until they are completely melted and blended, stirring constantly.
• Take the pan off the heat and immediately add the cereal, mixing lightly until well coated.
• Press the mixture into lined 32cm x 23cm tin. I cover it with baking paper and press into the corners as it is very sticky. I also use a rolling pin over the top of the baking paper to make sure it is flat.
• Then carefully peel off the top layer of baking paper and leave it to cool completely in the tin.
• Cut it into small squares.
• Melt the cooking chocolate.
• Cover the squares in chocolate, let the excess drip off. Then lay them on a piece of baking paper, silicon baking mat, or even in individual cupcake cases to make them a little more special.

I did not manage to cover all of my marshmallow crispy squares with the 300g of chocolate. But the treats are lovely without the chocolate, so I was happy to have a mixture. You might want to use more chocolate if you want them all covered.

The girls were able to help make these treats. Their jobs were to stir the mixture until melted. Then when they were set and cut up, the girls did all the chocolate work. It was a great mess!

If you tried the chocolate marshmallow crispy squares, let me know what you think. Leave a comment below.
Also, I'm always looking for new ideas for baking/cooking, if you have any suggestions, leave a comment!

Valentine's Day Cake Pops

Valentine's Day Cake Pops

I wasn't going to bake any more cakes until at least May after making Elizabeth's Birthday Cake. However I made an exception for these Valentine's Day cake pops because they're not really cakes, they're cake pops! Plus I've never tried them before so it was a challenge.

Shopping!
I bought some cake pop moulds from Tesco. They were on sale at £1.50. Pretty good as I've seen them for about £7 elsewhere.

I bought red candy melts from hobbycraft. And I also got lolly pop sticks from hobbycraft and a stand for holding the pops while they set, although I've seen people using polystyrene for this.

I watched a few videos: Nerdy Nummies

And Megs Goodies

And I also got some help from a brilliant Step by Step Cake Decorating book I got for Christmas by Karen Sullivan.

I used the chocolate cake recipe from the book. It said that making cake pops was an excellent way of using up leftover cake. LEFTOVER CAKE? WHO HAS LEFTOVER CAKE JUST LYING AROUND!!!

It also said to use 300g of *leftover* cake. And I had no idea how much cake would be 300g. I took a chance and halved the recipe and it weighed 312g when cooked. Perfect!

Chocolate Cake:

87g unsalted, softened butter

87g soft light brown sugar

1 large egg and the yolk of another

62g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp greek yoghurt

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar together.

Add the egg(s) and mix again.

Fold in the dry ingredients.

Lastly add the yoghurt.

Bake it in a greased 7 inch cake tin at 180 degrees for 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. 

Chocolate Buttercream Icing:

62g unsalted, softened butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

150g icing sugar

1/2 tbsp milk

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method: 

Cream together the butter and vanilla extract. Add the icing sugar and cocoa powder, mix again. Add the milk and beat until the icing is light and fluffy.

Making Cake Pops - I made 18 cake pops

• When the cake is cool, break it up into crumbs and mix it with 150g of buttercream icing until you have a smooth dough. Now you can hand mould it into balls or use silicon moulds. Using the moulds was time consuming for me because there were only 5 hearts in the mat, so I could only do 5 at a time.
• Once I had filled my 5 moulds I put them in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then I popped them out and smoothed out the edges, then I put them in the fridge while the next batch were being prepared.
• Next up you dip one end of a cake-pop stick into "chocolate" and insert it into the center of each pop. Leave it for about 30 minutes to set.
• I used some Lindt white chocolate for this. When it melted it was really runny and it did not hold the cake pops onto the stick well enough. So when it came to covering the pops quite a few fell off and we ended up with some very messy (but tasty) pops. I suggest using some of the candy melts instead because that stuff is like cement!
• Then dip the pops into the melted candy melts and swirl to cover.
• When I melted the candy melts the mixture was really quite thick, so I added some water and mixed it thoroughly. Then I put the mixture back into the microwave for 10 seconds throughout the decorating process, in order to keep it quite runny. But this step would have generally been easier if the cakes were more firmly stuck to the sticks.
• And add some sprinkles to finish off.

These were really, really yummy. The girls loved them and ate 3 each last night! I bought little bags and ties from hobbycraft and the girls gave them as gifts to their friends. I will definitely experiment more with cake pops now that I've tried them. Nom, nom, nom!

If you tried the cake pops, let me know what you think. Leave a comment below.
Also, I'm always looking for new ideas for baking/cooking, if you have any suggestions, leave a comment!