baking

My Sunday Photo – Baking

October 6, 2019 by Anne Sweet 13 Comments

My Boo has always loved baking. She loves cookery programs and is always willing to help in the kitchen. But most of all she loves making cakes and cooking. Today’s photo is blast from the past.

Photo of Boo baking, with a large bowl of cake mix and shes licking the spoon — *Who doesn’t love licking the spoon?*

I think this photo captures Boo perfectly.

Baking with Bee Berrie

We were talking the other day about the last time we went to London with the kids. I’ve been since I’ve been in a wheelchair (And hated it) but the kid’s have not been for years now. The last time I went on my own with Boo for cookery class with Bee Berrie when I was a Happy Eggs Ambassador in 2015.

We woke up at 5am to get the train to London in time for the class that started at 9am. I had woken with a migraine hangover but I knew I had to do this for Boo. We drove to the station and caught a train to London, where we then caught tubes to the place we needed to go.

Boo spent the whole morning baking cookies and cakes and we had such fun. When it was over we had about four giant boxes to carry back to Birmingham.

After leaving the class, laden down with boxes, we managed to take a wrong turn and got horribly lost. I put all the boxes down outside a shop and tried to find a map to see where we had to go. The shop owner came out and asked if he could help. He gave me a big bag for my boxes which made things easier. (It’s not wonder I got lost the boxes were so big I couldn’t see where I was going!) Then he gave me instructions on how to get to the right tube station.

Baking Cookies

Yesterday Boo said she wanted to bake, she hasn’t done so for a while. So I went in the kitchen to watch while she got all the ingredients she needed, weighed them and baked chocolate chip cookies all by herself. I’m so glad that she’s not lost her love of baking. I may ask her to make a cake today 🙂

Here’s the cookies she baked yesterday.

a plate of chocolate chip cookies that Boo Baked by herself. — *Chocolate chip cookies*

We Survived Half Term

November 6, 2018 by Anne Sweet 8 Comments

Last week was half term and for us it was pretty relaxed. I love having the kids around, they are not too demanding now that they are older and it’s just nice to have their company. I’ve been thinking a lot about mortality lately, especially as a really lovely lady I know has been told that she has probably just three years left. It certainly makes you think. And I just want to spend as much time as possible with my family close by.

Halloween

We hadn’t planned much this Halloween as Graham had to take Ash (the kitten) into the Vets for his operation. Only, I got the time wrong and he was too late, so Ash still has his manhood intact for the time being.

This means that there was no-one to take the kid’s trick or treating so I made it up to them a little by baking cookies and letting them decorate them with spooky creatures. They had loads of fun. It’s funny how a simple gingerbread man cookie cutter can be used to create monsters. The other cookies I cut out free hand.

a collage of three photos showing in 1. a green iced monster, in 2. skeleton, ghost, witches hat and monster cookies and in 3. a plate of different decorated halloween cookies.

They also enjoyed answering the door with a big bucket of sweets to hand out to all the visitors.

Bonfire Night

The rest of the half term week was fairly quiet with us staying in and keeping warm and occupying our time with homework, laptops, and lego. I just enjoyed not having to get up and rush around in the morning to get everyone ready for school.

Our friends invited us over to their house for fireworks on Saturday night. There was no bonfire but plenty of explosions to enjoy.

If I’m honest, I’m not a huge fan of garden fireworks and after the first few the Little Man decided he couldn’t handle the noise (he does have sensory issues.) So we watched from the window. I had to go in because the cold and noise was making me feel ill too. Pretty soon, Boo joined us along with two of our friend’s kids. I was surprised at Star who stayed out and enjoyed every minute, she’s never enjoyed fireworks before. But she was with a good friend which I guess made a difference.

The sparklers were a better hit, and so were the hot dogs that were served. Overall, it was nice to catch up with friends and do something different.

Back to School

Monday saw the kids going back to school. We had everything sorted, clothes, homework, p.e. kits, school bags etc the day before. It still turned out to be a manic morning. What is it about school mornings that things just don’t go smoothly?

The kids going back to school made me think about our friends, the ones we spent Saturday night with. When we lived in our old house, all of our kids went to the same school and that’s how we met.

I remember one day, some 7 years ago, I was waiting in the school playground with a baby Little Man in his pushchair. It was nearly time for Boo to finish her day at nursery. Then this man, who I don’t ever remember seeing before, came over to me and started telling me about how he’d fallen off his bike and hurt his knee.

He then proceeded to lift up his trouser leg and show me the hurt knee. Then he showed me his hurt elbow and I remember thinking ‘who is this strange guy showing me his body parts in the school playground?’

After that, he sought me out every day in the playground and spoke to me, it turned out that our three children were all very similar in age. Before long, they were knocking on our door in the morning and we were walking to school together.

Over the years we have become good family friends, despite us both moving house and school. Of course I don’t see them every day now, but it’s still nice to catch up when we do.

The #ItsOK Linky

Weekend Box of Dinosaur Activities, a Review

February 22, 2018 by Anne Sweet 1 Comment

The Little Man loves structured activities and he loves receiving a Weekend Box in the post. This Weekend Box was dinosaur themed and he really couldn’t wait to get started on it.

If you are unfamiliar with The Weekend Box it is a subscription service where you can receive a box addressed to your child every other weekend, or once a month if you wish. In each box you can choose to have either two or four activities and each one comes with everything you need. (You may need scissors though.) Having the things supplied means no rummaging around to find stuff.

I do have a huge box of craft bits and pieces at home but nothing excites The Little Man more than a box in the post and he’s much keener to get on with it.

Dinosaurs

The box we reviewed had four activities and was dinosaur themed. The activities come in coloured wallets, generally blue, green, red and yellow. Also provided is a booklet with all the instructions, a sheet of stickers to put in the booklet when each activity is finished, a certificate for your child when the activities are completed, a little cartoon to finish and a colouring page.

Let’s start with a joke;

Q. What do you call a sleeping dinosaur

A. A dino-snore!

The Blue Bag

The blue bag contained everything you needed to make a dinosaur claw. This involved cutting out a template, drawing around the template and cutting that out. Adding little finger nails which were provided as stickers then threading a ribbon through it so you can tie it onto your own hand to look like a dinosaur claw.

a little boy with a green dinosaur claw made of card tied to cover his hand.

The Little Man with his dinosaur claw

The Little Man really enjoyed this activity and loved his claw.

The Green Bag

This activity was making an egg hatching to reveal a baby dinosaur. Boo was keen to have a go at this and set about drawing an egg and adding a baby dinosaur.

First the cracked egg was drawn on white card and then she cut it out. I pushed the paper fastener through the card so that the two halve of the egg would open and close. Then Boo drew a dinosaur head onto a piece of green paper. The egg and dinosaur were decorated and Boo was really pleased with her work which, apart from the paper fastener, she had done all by herself.

a decorated egg with a little baby dinosaur inside

Baby Dinosaur hatching from it’s egg.

Yellow Bag

In the yellow bag was a Clothes Peg Dinosaur and this was rated as the most difficult activity. First The Little Man coloured in the clothes peg with the black felt tip provided. While he was busy doing this I cut out two rows of dinosaur teeth on the white sticker paper provided. Then we used the template to cut out a dinosaur head on red paper. I stuck the teeth onto the peg and The Little Man stuck the head pieces on. The end result was a cool looking dinosaur which actually roars.

The Little Man holding his dinosaur peg head

A Dinosaur that roars!

The Red Bag

This bag contained everything you needed to make Dino Egg Nests. We were provided with a little amount of chocolate, a small bag of Rice Crispies, four mini eggs, a sachet of honey and two cupcake cases.

The instructions said to melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water, but we put ours in the microwave for speed and ease. Then we stirred the Rice Crispies into the chocolate and when they were all coated we added the honey.

They were then put in the fridge until set.

The Little Man and Boo couldn’t wait to tuck in!

We had great fun with our weekend box and now you can try a mini box ( 2 activities) for free or a bumper box (4 activities) for just £1. Just follow this link where the discount will be already applied https://www.weekendboxclub.com/af/deliver

Here is a little video we made;

We have been fans of the Weekend Box for four years now, you can see our first review themed St Patrick’s Day here, our Chinese New Year box review here,

Our Mini Weekend Box review here,

And a special Face Paint Box review here.

The Great British Bake Off – Chocolate Molten Puddings

October 2, 2017 by Anne Sweet 6 Comments

This week it was pudding week on The Great British Bake Off. We had steamed puddings for signature bakes, molten chocolate puddings for technical and Trifles for show stopper bakes.
Now my miserable family are not keen on puddings unless they are chocolate so I didn’t have much choice but to go for the molten chocolate puddings for my bake.

The next problem was…there are seven of us and most recipes for individual puddings were for 4 or six. So I had to do some adjusting and my recipe makes seven puddings, made in regular ramekins.

If I’m honest, they were not perfect to look at, but they did pass the taste test.

I added a little white chocolate to the kids puddings, both in the middle and on top. For the adults we had to make do with dark chocolate because the white didn’t go very far (or it may have got eaten by a family member when I left it in the fridge!)

As you can see, the white chocolate in the middle was trying it’s best to escape before I took a photo. This was the best of the batch of three, the others had already oozed out. I didn’t manage to make a neat job of spooning the white chocolate on the top either. Trust me, these puddings are alive, they ooze, they collapse they fall apart, all before you get the chance of a good shot….but they tasted yummy. I give them 10 for taste and 1 for presentation!

I’m not sure if you can tell by this photo but the sponge was light and fluffy and the inside gooey. Isn’t that the objective? Okay, I guess looking nice would be good too.

The other puddings fared even worse for presentation…it’s a minus 4 from me! As soon as I took them out of the ramekins they collapsed as the middle bit oozed out. Too much chocolate maybe? I think they might have needed a little more cooking. I was under the impression that they had to be served straight from the oven, which I’m sure contributed to them breaking up.

Here is my recipe (if you want it!)

Ingredients:

200g butter
200g dark chocolate
100g white chocolate (if adding)
5 eggs
100g caster sugar
75gg self raising flour
tbs of cocoa powder.

Method:

Melt the dark chocolate and butter in bowl over a pan of hot water. (or carefully in the microwave) set aside to cool
in a large bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and light
fold the chocolate into the egg mixture
add the flour and cocoa powder and fold in
grease 7 ramekin moulds
divide the mixture between the moulds place on a baking tray. If adding white chocolate put a chunk into the top of the mixture, no need to push it in as it will sink while baking.
bake in a pre-heated oven 180C/gas mark 4 for 10 – 12 minutes
when baked, loosen the puddings and turn out carefully onto serving plates.

Serve them with cream or melted white chocolate sauce.

Great British Bake Off – Cottage Loaf

September 17, 2017 by Anne Sweet 12 Comments

I’m really getting into the Great British Bake Off now, despite the missing Mary, Mel and Sue. It’s all about the baking after all.
This week was bread week and I love baking bread…but I’ve not done so for a long time. The signature task was to bake tea cakes, something I’ve never tried before but I may try one day as I do like a nice toasted tea cake with my cuppa. The technical challenge was a cottage loaf, again I’ve not made one before but I do remember making a mini one many many years ago at school. Finally, the show stopper was a bread sculpture, yes, like I’d have the time, or energy for that!

So, I went for the cottage loaf. I love making bread kneading by hand but with my hands giving me so much trouble lately, it was good to have two little helpers to hand, Star and Boo, who each took turns with the kneading.

The recipe I used was a basic white loaf recipe.

Ingredients

500g bread flour
25g butter
1tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp of salt
1tsp dried yeast
320 ml of warm water

Method:

rub the butter into the flour
add the sugar, salt and yeast,
mix in the water a little at a time until you have a firm dough
knead the dough for 10 mins and leave in a bowl covered with cling film, or a tea towel for about 1 hour
knead the dough again and shape into two rounds, one slightly bigger than the other
Put the smaller mound on top of the larger one and push two fingers all the way through both rounds from the middle of the top round.
leave to prove, covered lightly, for a further 30 mins.
Bake at 180 C for 40 mins, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.