valentines day

Boo Bakes a Valentines Cake

February 6, 2017 by Anne Sweet 11 Comments

We were asked if we wanted to try some cake decorations from Cake Angels and they couldn’t come at a better time. Boo had been nagging for ages to bake a cake and was so excited over the decorations she couldn’t wait to get started. Her stipulation was that she wanted to bake it all by herself with no help.

She knows the basic of sponge cake making where you have the same amount of ingredients, that’s same flour, butter, sugar and eggs. She also knows that you can mix it all together as one but that Mummy prefers the creaming and folding method for a nice springy sponge.

She decided that her cake would be chocolate and that she wanted to cover it with a basic buttercream before decorating.

I prepared the kitchen and got the ingredients ready for her to weigh and she was off, with very little intervention from me. I set up the camera to record her and we have two videos, one of her making the cake and the other decorating it. I do hope you will take a peek, they are not that long and she was keen to do them. It would be lovely if you would consider giving the videos a like on YouTube and maybe subscribing to our channel.

Here is the first video of the cake baking.

Boo’s Chocolate Valentines Cake

Ingredients:

8oz self-raising flour
8oz unsalted butter
8oz caster sugar
4 eggs
1tbs cocoa powder

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4
Put the butter and caster sugar in a bowl and mix until creamy
Add the eggs on at a time and beat into the mixture
Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix
Pour into an 8″ round tin which has been greased and lined with baking paper
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean
Leave to cool and then decorate.

Here is the Second Video with Boo Decorating the cake

Ingredients:

4oz of soft unsalted butter
8oz icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract

A selection of decorations,
we used sugar sprinkles, icing roses and white flowers from Cake Angels

Method:

Put the unsalted butter in a bowl
Sift in the icing sugar
add the vanilla extract and mix

cover the cake and then decorate. I think Boo did really well, what do you think?

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Boo really enjoyed her baking and cake decorating sessions and will be back soon with something new, of that I’m sure. Do leave a comment if you wish and remember to follow our YouTube Channel for more videos.

Disclosure: we were sent some cake decorations from Cake Angels for our cake.

My Sunday Photo – 5th February 2017

February 5, 2017 by Anne Sweet 15 Comments

Boo has been pestering me for her to make a cake for a couple of weeks now. She wanted to make it all by herself with no help. Then I was sent a bunch of cake decorations and there was just no holding back Boo. So 9 am yesterday morning she got baking!

Apart from reaching a few things from the cupboard for her and leveling off the cake (Which involves a large knife) I did nothing, she did it all herself and we have the video to prove it!

So here it is, in pride of place for my Sunday photo this week. A gorgeous moist chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and lots of romantic decorations. All Boo’s work, what a clever girl!

Boo proudly showing off the cake she made by herself

I guess I’d better get her application in for Junior Bake Off!

Three Easy Makes for Valentines Day

February 8, 2016 by Anne Sweet 13 Comments

We don’t normally celebrate Valentines Day, we think that you should show how much you love someone every day! However, the kids are already talking about it so I thought I’d let them do some Valentines Day makes and have some fun. Any time they spend away from the screens is a bonus.

My Little Man is always saying I love you this much and stretching his hands as wide as possible, so I thought that this idea was perfect for him.

I Love You This Much Card.

First we took a piece of card and the Little Man drew around his hands. He chose corrugated card which was not ideal but it was his make so I went ahead. It was difficult to write on though.

I cut out the hands for him…again, if he had not wanted corrugated card he probably would have been able to cut them out himself.

The next step was to write ‘This Much’ on a strip of paper and then fold it concertina like.

Then I wrote ‘I Love You on the front of one of the hands

Finally, the little man glued the strip to the back of each hand and joined them together.

You gotta love him 🙂

The next project was a bit tastier!

Chocolate Sweethearts

These are really simple and tasty. Boo helped me to make them.

Ingredients:

200g white chocolate

some sprinkles

chocolate M&Ms or similar

a heart shaped chocolate mould.

Method:

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot (not boiling) water

Into the chocolate mould pour a few sprinkles and add a couple of m&m’s

Pour the melted chocolate over the treats and leave to set.

Finally we finished with some biscuits:

Strawberry Heart Biscuits.

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

300g plain flour

1 egg

1 tsp strawberry flavouring

pink food colouring

heart shape cutter

Method:

Mix together the butter and the sugar

Add the colouring and the strawberry flavouring

Add the flour and rub into the mixture until you have a breadcrumb texture

Add the egg and mix unitl it all comes together.

Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour

Remove from fridge and roll out into about thickness of a pound coin

Use cutter to cut out heart shapes.

Bake for about 12 minutes at 170C/gas mark 5

Why not get the kids to decorate them!

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Kids in The Kitchen – Chocolate Shortbread

February 17, 2014 by Anne Sweet 3 Comments

Welcome to this weeks kids in the kitchen. Ours almost went pear shaped this week when I had two very naughty children get a little over excited while making chocolate shortbread. More about that later.

First I’d like to say thank you to the Beesley Buzz’ Little Miss T who made some glorious Valentines Day cookies. and also to Broody Me for linking up their amazing American Cheesecake. Double yum!

If you’d like to know more about Kids in the Kitchen it has it’s very own page here. The rules are simple though, just do some cooking with your kids, post about it and link it up. Short or long, old or new, I really don’t mind.

Chocolate Shortbread Hearts.

I’m a big fan of shortbread but I’ve not tried making chocolate shortbread before. I’ll definitely be making it again though. Because it was Valentines Day we decided to make our shortbread into little heart shapes using a chocolate mould.

Ingredients:

260g plain flour
100g caster sugar
40g cocoa powder
200g butter

Method:

We put the the flour, sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl and mixed it around.
We chopped the butter into cubes and then rubbed it into the flour until it became a sticky dough

We pressed the mixture into the mould to bake in the oven at 180C or gas mark 4 for 15 minutes.

Everything was going well but then my little monkeys got a little over excited and began making a terrible mess all over the table with the mixture, which then spread to the floor. I stopped them and sent them to wash their hands and on return I got them helping to clean up their mess. I don’t know what got into them but once they had calmed down and cleaned up they were happy to enjoy the finished biscuits. They are usually quite co-operative in the kitchen, but I guess we all have our ‘off” days. Maybe I’ll still keep cooking with them.