Ice Cream cupcakes

My sister's sister-in-law made these cakes for her little boy's birthday party and thought they looked fab so sent me the link - here. The video to help with the icing's pretty good too.

My sister's staying with me tonight, so we've had a go and they're ace. I used my own cupcake recipe and cooking times and temperatures and they seemed to come out fine - much to my surprise. Baking in cornets?? I think I need to use slightly less mix in the cornets so they don't rise quite so much, and I also needed to use a bigger piping nozzle so that the whirly topping looks more in proportion to the cornet (and so hopefully the flake stands better in the icing!) but otherwise they taste fantastic!

Coffee kisses

I made these biscuits this morning. The recipe suggests sandwiching them together with buttercream, but as mine came out of the oven slightly (ahem!) different sizes and they tasted great on their own I left out the buttercream. They are quite light and deliciously chewy - although need to see what they're like tomorrow, that's usually a good test of quality in my cooking!

Anyway, my aunt visited today, tried one of the biscuits, and said 'oh, these are nice. I used to make some like this, called coffee kisses. I used to sandwich them together with buttercream!' Brilliant.



175g self-raising flour
100g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
2 teaspoons instant coffee
1 egg

(plus buttercream if needed)

Preheat oven to 170C/160C-ish fan/325F/gas 3.

To make the dough in a food processor, put the flour and sugar into the bowl and pulse a couple of times to just combine. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Dissolve the coffee in 1 teaspoon boiling water. Beat the egg until frothy and mix in the coffee. Pour into the processor and run the machine until the dough just comes together.

Tip the dough onto a work surface and divide into 16 pieces. Flour your hands well, then shape each piece into a neat ball. Arrange them well apart on the prepared baking trays (covered with greaseproof baking paper) and bake in the heated oven for 12-15 minutes until light golden and firm to the touch.

Leave to cool for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Use the buttercream to sandwich together in pairs.

Duh!

We have a very fancy- rice cooker, that also steams, slow cooks and makes porridge. I tried to steam some fish in it tonight without putting in any water. Took an embarassingly long time to work out what the problem was....

Cherry, almond and lemon mascarpone tart

Made on request for my husband's birthday this weekend in lieu of a more traditional cake. I will be making this again!

375g block dessert pastry (I made my own sweet shortcrust)
about 700g cherries, stoned (I think I only used about 500g in the end - just need enough to cover the top of the tart)

Frangipane -
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g golden caster sugar
100g ground almonds
1 egg
splash of Disaronno or Masala if you have it

Mascarpone mix -
2 x 250g tubs of mascarpone
zest and juice of 1 lemon
140g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting

1. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to just thinner than a £1 coin (I used Rachel Allen's tried and tested roll out between 2 sheets of clingfilm technique). Use to line a 22cm loose-bottomed tart tin, leaving an overhang on the sides. Leave to chill in the fridge on a baking sheet. To make the frangipane, whizz everything together in a food processor until combined.

2. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line the tart case with baking parchment and beans. Bake for 20 mins, then remove parchment and beans, lightly prick base with a fork and continue to bake for 10 mins until pale and biscuity. Spread the frangipane over the base and return to the oven for 15 mins until cooked. Remove from the oven, trim the sides of the pastry and leave to cool completely.

3. Beat the mascarpone with the lemon zest and juice and the icing sugar. Spread over the frangipane. Arrange the cherries on top, dust heavily with icing sugar, remove from the tin and serve.

A few thoughts on the weekend

Saturday afternoon - packed the boys off to Nanny and Grumps for the afternoon, evening and night. Woohoo! I practised my DIY skills by putting the blackout blind in the boys' room back up - well, I was forced to! Leigh said that as I knocked it down, I had to put it up... But he did help me with the drilling, which was much appreciated. Blind still up.

We went out for a meal to the lovely Restaurant Sat Bains in the evening - extravagant, but oh so good. Even caught a glimpse of the man himself in the kitchens as we were leaving. The best part about the evening - actually having time to spend time getting ready, rather than my usual last minute check in the mirror to make sure that none of my hair is sticking up in a strange direction. I even painted my nails, which I haven't done for ages. Not a particularly bright or noticeable shade, but somehow just having painted nails makes me feel a bit different. Like a bit better version of myself who's actually made an effort with her appearance!!

Sunday morning saw the double treat of a lie-in AND breakfast in bed. Yum. We picked up the boys and took them to the shopping centre for a bit. They got a bit overexcited in Lakeland, and a rather desperate shop assistant tried to pacify them with stickers - which read 'Buy 1 get 1 free!'

Kung Foo Panda is great. The fight animation is simply amazing.

Finally an Odd One Out competition - here are the last 4 eggs laid by the chickens...

More cupcakes

After my cupcake making and decorating course, I was inspired to try a few random cupcakes, this made all the easier by one of the tips I picked up - using the same weight of ingredients as the eggs. So it is pretty straightforward to make a 1 egg batch of cupcakes, you just weigh the egg and then use that weight for everything else. I needed to remember to reduce the amount of other liquid (like flavouring) going it, as we used 3 eggs on the course, but otherwise this worked well and meant that we could produce 12 cupcakes, 4 each of 3 different flavours. Great!

Leigh, Zachary and I made a batch each - Zachary wanted chocolate cakes, I tried out my idea for an amaretto and cherry coke cake, and Leigh took charge of a margarita cake.

Here is Zachary's chocolate cake - when we got to the stage of adding the flour, we added a tablespoon of cocoa powder first to the scales, then topped up to the required weight with flour. It came out really well, and apart from a bit of mixing (and my hand in the finish on the icing), Zachary did it all himself!



The next one is my idea for a margarita cupcake, which Leigh made - lime in the base and tequila added to the icing.



The lime cake was lovely, although I only suggested using lime juice (as the limes had previously been used in some strawberry and lime margaritas...) and I think it would benefit from some zest as well. The icing - well, this might sound a little strange but I could feel the tequila more in the back of my throat than actually taste it. May need to add more if I want to keep it alcoholic, or it could just be a lime cake.

I love Amaretto and cherry coke to drink so thought I'd have a go at this combo (with apologies for the slightly wonky icing!).



The cupcake course leader mentioned that she makes Bacardi and coke cakes, and just uses a tablespoon of coke as flavouring in the cakes so I thought I'd give this one a go.

Couldn't really taste the cherry coke very much so I would be inclined to try out cherry syrup next time. The amaretto in the icing, again ended up more a suggestion than actual flavouring, so I added a little almond essence, which enhanced it.

However I think in the future, unless I needed it to be alcoholic, I could keep it just as a cherry bakewell cupcake and use essence only.

Breathless Cars

Heard this on Chris Evan's breakfast show on radio 2 a few weeks ago. Really like it!

Calke Abbey

We took a trip to beautiful Calke Abbey on Sunday. The estate is huge - when you arrive, you drive into the Park (which has it's own entrance fee) and then into the Stables area. In the Stables area are a children's play area, shop, restaurant, and the visitor reception, from where you go through another gate to get to the house and gardens. We have been to Calke twice before, although didn't make it past the Stables either time!

This time we got through and it was great. The information leaflet describes it like this -

"Calke Abbey is a Baroque house built on the site of a former priory and completed in 1704 for Sir John Harpur. The family name changed to Crewe and then to Harpur Crewe and the family wealth was accumulated through clever marriage and the proceeds of land ownership. Throughout the generations the family displayed a range of eccentric characteristics from being strangely reclusive to fanatical collectors. The National Trust has decided to show Calke as a graphic example of 'the decline of the great country house' that occurred during the early to mid 20th century."

This is a pic of Sir Vauncey Harpur Crewe's room - apparently the family living here before the National Trust took over hadn't been able to throw anything away!



I really enjoyed visiting the house - it seems strange but I got more of a feel for the house and what it must have been like to live there with it all decaying and in decline, than if all the rooms had been show-rooms. There were some gorgeous features (I particularly liked the fancy drain pipes!) and the family were indeed fanatical collectors - glass case upon glass case of shells filled many of the rooms (like the bedroom above - all those cases on the left) The kitchen was also fab, getting a really good look at the old oven and range and the equipment. We couldn't take the pushchair in so Leo was walking, which meant that we saw a few of the rooms at a brisk trot rather than having a good wander, but it was still fun. There was an I-Spy sheet for Zachary to fill in and he loved that.

The gardens were beyond the house and although we didn't get a long look there, we could see how busy they still are, full of vegetables and flowers.

We also had a bit of fun managing Zachary's toilet requirements...2 al fresco wees! At least the people who saw him seemed to find it funny rather than slightly offensive! But a great day out.

It all started so innocently...

I thought the boys might like to do some handpainting this morning. Got them aproned and wellied up (note, all activity to take place in the safety of the garden), spread out wallpaper for them to use. Lovely.

Then I thought it would be a good idea to bring out a bucket of soapy water so that they could wash hands before going back into the house. As soon as I brought it out, Leo had his hands in it. Lovely. Then he had his hands in his hair. So Zachary, not wishing to be outdone, screamed with delight and leapt over to the bucket to copy his brother. chaos ensued!!

To be honest, after Leo had done the first set of hair handprints, I just let them get on with it because, let's face it, he was going to need a shower anyway!!! And after carrying him up to the bathroom so that he didn't touch anything, I needed one too!

Cupcakes

For my birthday earlier in the year, Leigh paid for me to go to a half-day cupcake making and decorating course. It was today and it was great! Run by the lovely Strawberry Cupcakes.

There was about 15 of us, and we started the day by making the cupcake mix and then these were baked for us while we had a play with sugar paste and making fancies for the tops of the cakes. Now, while I can manage colouring sugar paste and cutting out shapes, when it comes to sugar roses I am completely inept. I understand the theory perfectly, but it's all a bit delicate for my sausage fingers! So I'll stick to the butterfly stamper.

Once the cupcakes were ready, we made butter icing and then piped onto the top of the cakes, finally decorating them with the flowers and butterflies we made earlier.

It was really good and I picked up a few tips. Now I usually make my cakes with butter, but we used margarine today and to be honest I haven't been able to tell the difference taste-wise. It might be noticable if I tasted a butter one and a margarine one side by side. We also added a flavour to the cupcake mix - about a tablespoon of one of the syrups you use to flavour coffee! I didn't realise you could use those in baking, but they came out really well.

Also the tops of the baked cupcakes were lovely and flat - I can never manage this at home! The course leader said she thinks it's because she cooks the cakes for longer at a lower temperature - 150C for a fan oven, and 25 minutes baking. I'm going to try it for my next batch.

I was hoping to get a good reliable recipe for a frosting too as mine never seems to quite come out right. Again, we used margarine rather than butter, but otherwise the recipe was the same as I use at home. It must just be a practise thing - getting used to when the mixture looks right for piping. The piping was fun though - and I must remember to use bigger nozzles because the piping looks much better, and the disposable icing bags were very handy!

We were also talking about interesting flavour combinations for cupcakes and I've a few ideas to try out now...

Leo's Flirtation Technique

As successfully deployed at least 3 times at Dylan's birthday party this afternoon.

Approach target (ahem), lady, and give winning smile. On receipt of return smile, pull slightly at t-shirt in what would appear to a casual observer to be a slightly distracted manner, but is in fact a cunning and subtle way to show off a very cute tummy. Wait for appreciative response, then wander off with a wave and a bye bye. Maintains air of mystery until the next meeting...

Baked Alaska

Rah! Baked on Tuesday and came out a success! Leigh's homemade ice-cream was ace (vanilla and strawberry), the meringue was gorgeous and it was accompanied by Nigella's butterscotch sauce. Was very nerve wracking watching it in the oven trying to work out if I could see ice-cream seeping out of the bottom, but was all fine. We served it to table on the baking tray it had been cooked on but it would probably have been better if it had been transferred to a plate first. As soon as the first slice was taken, the rest slid slightly and came into contact with the hot baking tray causing the ice-cream to start melting and the meringue to lose some air. Not disasterously, but it would have kept a bit longer had we transferred it immediately.

It was totally yum! Best part is that it won't keep, so we (sadly!) had to eat the whole lot in one go. Shame.

Here's the ice-cream on biscuit base



Covered with meringue pre-cooking



On leaving the oven



And a slice of loveliness!



I'm going to set out the recipe as I made it, so there are slightly different instructions to Rachel's.

Baked Alaska (Rachel Allen)

1 litre home-made ice-cream

For the biscuit base -
25g butter at room temperature
25g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1/8tsp vanilla essence (we've got a jar of vanilla sugar at home [caster sugar with some left-over vanilla pods in it], so I just used that instead of adding the vanilla essence.)
60g plain flour
Pinch of baking powder

For the meringue -
3 egg whites
Pinch of cream of tartar
200g caster sugar

1 litre round heatproof pudding basin

When Leigh made the ice-cream, he lined the pudding basin with clingfilm, and then set the ice-cream (after churning) into the bowl, wrapped the cling film over the top and then put the whole thing into the freezer to set. This meant that when I came to put the pudding together, I didn't need to mash the ice-cream into shape and leave it to re-freeze. Also the ice-cream came out of the bowl easily later, without messing about waiting for it to thaw slightly, using hot water to help ease it out etc.

Making the biscuit base - need to do this ahead of time as it has to cool completely before you put the pudding together.

Cream the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk (and vanilla essence) and beat until combined. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix until all the flour is incorporated. Bring the dough together in a ball, slightly flatten it with the palm of your hand and place in a plastic bag or wrap in clingfilm. Allow to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

When the dough is ready to roll, preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/165ish fan. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface, sprinkle on a bit more flour and roll out keeping it round and giving the dough a quarter turn each roll to prevent it from sticking to the surface. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1cm.

Measure the diameter of the pudding basin and cut out your dough 3cm wider than the basin. (see my careful cutting on the photos! Not.) Carefully lift the dough onto a large baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for about 8-10 minutes or until pale golden. Allow to cool, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. When cold, return it to the baking tray.

Before you prepare the meringue, preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7. In a large, spotlessly clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add half the caster sugar and the cream of tartar and whisk until stiff peaks form and the meringue is satiny and glossy. Fold in the remaining sugar with a metal spoon.

Ease the ice-cream onto the biscuit base. Quickly spoon the meringue thickly and in peaks over the ice-cream, spreading it down to the base and covering the edge. Place immediately in the centre of the hot oven for 3-4 minutes or until the meringue is set and pale gold in colour. Serve straight away!

Rabbit towel

It is finished and I'm really pleased with the result. I added ears, a nose and whiskers to the hood, 4 paws and a tail to the main towel. As I mentioned in a previous post, I did have some trouble appliquing the paws, but found the answer was just to decrease the thread tension further. Down at 1, the stitches came out much more evenly, and although it was still difficult to feed through the needle, I used some curtain lining material to back them behind the main towel and this seemed to provide a smoother surface for feeding through the machine. I have since discovered there is such a thing as stabilising fabric which actually washes out and is useful for appliquing towel as you can get an even smoother surface.

I found out a lot of this in stages as I was attaching the paws - so the first one is a bit dodgy, and the last one is pretty good!

I've also attached a button and loop to this towel, which I found in the latest issue of Making magazine - they've got a hooded towel 'make' in there and the button is great. Zachary likes it so much he's ordered one for his bear towel. I also think that using the button may help me make a better fireman towel, because I'll have something more resembling a coat for buttons without having to attempt another poncho towel and get myself wound up with the double bias binding and making sure the head hole is the right size!

Here's a photo of the towel laid out



And modelled by Zachary





And Obi-Wan Kenobi!

Toilet Tales

Now that Zachary is au fait with the whole toilet-using thing, I thought I might share some of our recent experiences.

The first thing to say is that if there is ever going to be an awkward time to be needing the toilet, Zachary will undoubtedly need it, and not be able to hold on. On the hard shoulder of the motorway in teeming rain (thank you Leigh for sorting that one out). At the supermarket when you've just reached the point in the store which is furthest from the toilets. Or in a cafe, just as you've all sat down, removed coats, got Leo in a highchair teas have arrived - this usually necessitates removing Leo from highchair, asking waitress to watch the table and not clear it, gathering valuable belongings and making a dash for the loo!

I also have fun choosing whether to try the cubicles or a disabled loo. Now the cubicles have the advantage that I'm not blocking the disabled loo, but if Leo is out of the pushchair, they're a bit tight on space for all 3 of us. Often what happens is that as I turn to help Zachary, Leo runs amok in the rest of the toilets. Today, I caught him running past our cubicle holding a toilet roll which looked suspiciously soaked through. We left hurriedly!

Cubicles are fine if I'm on my own with Zachary, but are a fairly public arena for those times when he asks "what are you going to do Mummy? A wee or a poo?" My changing to subject skills are being rapidly and finely honed.

The disabled loos are usually bigger and better if we're all three, and if I need the loo as well. Unfortunately, Leo is now tall enough to reach most locks and handles on the disabled toilet doors. Which are unreachable when you're sitting on the toilet. Today as I sat, Leo unlocked the door. I asked Zachary to lock it again - Zachary looked on and laughed! After a bit of shouting he did eventually re-lock the door, and then it was a battle of wills between the 2 of them who would win. Fortunately Zachary won! This time.

Au Revoirs

My mummy lifeline for the last 2 years is moving to Cardiff today. So I am quite sad about that. But trying not to be - looking forward to visits to Torchwood land hopefully!!

Homemade toffee sauce

We have a meeting of Pudding Club on Tuesday with 2 extras. In a change to the norm, we're providing the dessert and I'm hoping to produce a Baked Alaska - Rachel Allen's recipe suggests that this might need to be practised a couple of times, but I'm not wasting a litre of ice-cream for each practise/horrible ice-cream mess in the oven! Leigh's assured me that as long as the meringue covers all the ice-cream, I'll be fine.

Anyhoo, to accompany this, I thought I might make a toffee sauce. Our usual go-to recipe is one of Nigella's, but I came across this one recently and it looked worth a try. Partly because it looked dead easy and partly because it would mean I don't have to go and buy any cream. Hee hee. I tried it this evening and it was a good job I did.

Attempt 1 went in the microwave, timer set for 4 minutes. After 3 and a half minutes I realised that what I thought was steam gently rising from the remains of the roast chicken we'd had for dinner and which was standing by the microwave, was in fact acrid smoke billowing from the microwave resulting from boiling, burning sauce. I think our microwave must be more powerful than Wartime Housewife's but there's no indication in the recipe. Lingering smell from burnt sauce.

I was ready to give up but Leigh persuaded me to have another go and it went better this time. I checked the sauce every 30 seconds and after about 2 and a half minutes it seemed done. Tasted okay and the boys certainly liked it! On reflection though I probably should use unsalted butter next time and it could have done with maybe a few more seconds. It may have been easier to just do it in a saucepan after all. Going to go with Nigella for the dinner. Safer. And nicer!

The internet isn't always cheaper

I've made a list of 'house' bits and pieces (mainly fripperies it has to be said, like replacing missing door handles and sorting out the hole in the pantry door!) which I'd like to get sorted over the summer. One of which was to get some canvas prints made of 2 or 3 photos from our garden to hang in a lovely big blank space in the kitchen. Did a bit of flapping on the internet and it appeared that for a 12" x 12" canvas, most internet places (including the supermarkets) were charging around £30. And then postage. So I was going to put it on the backburner, but there's a chap who advertised in our local Post Office that he would put photos onto canvas and the examples up in the PO looked all right.

Rang him - £18. Yes, £18. Ordered them. Delivered today and they look great. Now to hang them...fortunately Leigh has offered to do this!

More crafting

Having a go at another hooded towel for one of Zachary's friends. This time it's a rabbit and I'm trying to keep it simple! Have attached a white hood to white towel, and this evening I made 2 ears (pink and white) and appliqued a pick nose to the hood. Just need to add a tail, some paws and perhaps some whiskers.

I think it looks okay so far - definitely easier than trying a tabard one again, although applique on towels, even with a sewing machine is a bit tough! I was also going to try to be really thorough and overcast the edges of all the towel sections to try and prevent too much fraying but had to give up on that. Overcasting round curves was very tricky and I gave up in the end.

Overcasting uses the same stitch as applique (a satin stitch) so I thought I'd be okay, but I have to use a different presser foot in the machine to make sure the stitching stays as close to the edge of the material as it should be, and that foot has a central couple of bars, which the stitches are stitched over. Normally when appliqueing round curves, you lift the presser foot as the material starts to curve and adjust the material to keep everything going neatly. With the stitches running over the central section on the overcasting foot, I found that I couldn't turn the material. I'm sure there must be a way to achieve this - perhaps just trying to use a 'normal' presser foot, but I just left it as the edges were going to be hidden inside the ears. Fingers crossed!!

Chocolate Cake

I came across this post by Wartime Housewife and thought I just need an excuse to have a try. My Dad's birthday this week seemed ideal! So cake made this afternoon - I was very good and followed the recipe to the letter, right down to the rubbing in. It seems to have come out a bit overcooked at the edges but I'm hoping that when we sample it tomorrow, the middle will be okay.

I used the mock cream she suggests to fill it and then had a go at icing 'happy birthday' on the top. Hmmm, maybe a candidate for Cake Wrecks??? Anyway, good news is, I'm booked on to a half day's course in cupcake decorating in a couple of weeks so hopefully things should get better!



Also on the subject of my Dad's birthday - got the apron done at a local printers (their price plus the price of an apron from eBay was in total half what I would have paid ordering the whole thing on the internet) and it looks great.

Train nut

When Zachary was small, we bought him a wooden train set, and then thanks to generous relatives (most notably Uncle Jamie), the set has grown and we now have quite a few bits and pieces for it - trains, track and lots of buildings, people and animals. Zachary however has never really been the sort of boy who sits and plays with trains or cars for a long time. Don't get me wrong, he loves the train set and when we get it out will play with it, but only for a short while.

Leo is a different story and seems much more keen on pushing cars and trains around with accompanying noises! So we got the set out a couple of days ago, and with the help of both my boys, we built the longest track we could!! It stretched the entire length of our front room. Marvellous.



But we had no way for the train to be turned round at the end of the track, other than picking it up and turning it ourselves. That got me thinking it might be nice to get a turntable. For Leo to use with the track. Of course.

So yesterday, I headed out for a walk with Leo and we made it to the wooden toy shop round the corner, where conveniently I wanted to buy a birthday present for one of Zachary's friends. The toy shop stocks a lot of parts and accessories for wooden train sets... As we were there, my eye just happened to spot a 4-way turntable, not too expensive, and also a couple of splitter tracks in a packet. Hmmmm.

So, those bought, came home with Leo and built mega-track! It was brilliant, and Leo had a good time. Which is of course why I bought the pieces. Not for me to play with at all. Honest!

My Little Helper

I made a cake this afternoon and gave Leo some things to play with while I made it - a bowl, a spoon, about a tablespoon each of flour, sugar and ground almonds. Sadly I was too slow to get the money shot of him with the bowl actually on his head...



Gladly, I had not put any wet ingredients in for him to mix!!! But, cake made with no complaints from Leo and a quick Dyson all over soon sorted it out...

Creamy Vanilla Rice Pudding

Easy peasy yum yum yum! Chosen because we have a glut of milk after being away at the weekend and only drinking 1 and a bit of the 4 delivered on Friday, with 2 more delivered this morning! I did ask Leigh to make smoothies, but as the day began miserably and cold, rice pudding seemed a better idea. Day warmed up, rice pudding still made.



Shown here served with Leigh's strawberry conserve, which he describes as "strawberry conserve disaster (candied fruit plus syrup instead of jam) . But it's perfect for mixing with yoghurt, rice pudding, making strawberry milkshakes...nothing wrong there!

One note to make - don't expect the liquid to go thick like Ambrosia's rice pud, it doesn't. But that didn't in anyway stop it being delicious.

(Rachel Allen - Bake)
Serves 4-6 (2 if you have no will-power!)
75g short-grain rice
2 tbsp caster sugar
700ml milk
150ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
soft dark brown sugar for sprinkling - optional

1 litre pie dish

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/I used 160ish for my fan oven.

Place the rise and sugar in the pie dish, mixing together and spreading evenly over the base.

In a large saucepan, bring the milk and cream to the boil. Add the vanilla extract and carefully pour over the rice and sugar (the author says she usually does this while the dish is sitting on the rack in the oven).

Bake in the oven for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours or until the rice is soft. Serve.

A present for Dad

This is about a present for my Dad's birthday, so if my dad is reading this (although very unlikely) - STOP NOW!!!

I was a bit stuck for ideas. My Dad enjoys cooking and my sister suggested getting an apron with a photo of the boys on the front. Great idea I thought, so this afternoon I set about trying to get a photo.

I got them both into aprons, Zachary has a matching chef's hat so that was donned too and I got out some mixing bowls and plastic spoons and whisks to set the scene. I explained that they're doing some pretend baking so that I can get a picture for Grandad's birthday. I start to take one or two pictures, quickly realising that both boys have ants in their pants and aren't going to sit still for anyone! Blurry photos coming out.

Then Zachary decides that he needs to know where the pretend eggs are for the pretend baking. Specifically where they are. 'They're pretend, they can be anywhere,' won't cut it! So I tell him the eggs are on the table by the bowl and we continue. Then I decide the boys are too far apart so try to move them closer together. Zachary then won't smile and pulls mardy face



and also at this point, now that he's within range, Leo decides that actually, Zachary's baking bowl and spoon selection is far better than his. Cue stealing of bowl and fighting between them over who gets to use which utensils. Nice.



I still wasn't totally happy with the pictures I had so tried again from another angle, by which time...well you can see!



Gave up, although found this picture in the results



It'll be fine!

Double whammy!

Look at the size of the egg I found in the chickens' nesting box this morning!!! (the photo shows it next to one of a normal size)



Huage!!!
And it was a double-yolker. Yummy!

Chocolate Banana Bread

I asked Leigh what sort of cake he would like this week and his only stipulation was that it had to use a loaf tin liner. I came across this in my Great British Baking book. Delicious sample slice eaten today - preparing to eat it with custard tomorrow!!



250g self-raising flour
a good pinch of salt
150g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter, melted and then cooled
2 medium eggs, beaten
250g peeled ripe bananas - I used 2 and a half
75g dark chocolate, chopped
100g walnut pieces

2lb loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Now I usually assume in recipe books that unless stated, the oven temperature is for a non-fan oven. I therefore reduced the temperature to about 160C but found I had to cook it for 10 minutes longer than stated before the skewer came out clean. I shall wait to see whether this makes the cake slightly dry tomorrow, but if I bake it again (very likely!), I shall use the stated temperature and see what happens.

Mix the flour with the salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the melted, cooled butter and the beaten eggs. Roughly mash the bananas with a fork - there should still be some lumpy bits - and add to the bowl. Add the chocolate and walnut pieces and mix all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and spread evenly. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes, until the loaf is a good golden brown and a cocktail stick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool before slicing. Store in an airtight container.

Baking eggstravaganza!

Prompted by the arrival of some clotted cream through the post (a holiday present from my Dad), and the discovery that we have 16 eggs waiting to be eaten (the hens have been very busy!) it was time for a bit of a bake today.

Started off with some devonshire scones curtesy of Mary Berry - delicious with the clotted cream, and using 2 eggs. We were hoping to have them with some of Leigh's freshly made apple and strawberry jam, but it wasn't quite ready.





Unfortunately, our fridge is far too good and the clotted cream was unspreadable!!!

Then I got the big guns out - Rachel Allen's ham and egg pie. 1 egg in the pastry, 6 in the filling (2 beaten with the cream and ham, 4 resting on top).



Finally, I made Nigella's chicken and bacon pies for dinner - 1 final egg for glazing the pastry top. 10 down, 6 to go and more eggspected tomorrow (hee hee!). More cakes anyone?

The Glorious 4th

Get out your maslin pans and muslin bags - it's jam making time again! Our local PYO (Scaddows Farm) opened its doors today to the strawberry-picking public and we were there nice and early for a good rummage in the plants.

To be fair, Leigh has already made a start on his preserves this year, knocking out a couple of batches of elderflower cordial, some pear and walnut chutney, apple and elderflower jelly, and pear and vanilla butter already! But it was strawberries today. We went to Scaddows last year and got a bumper load of strawberries, and then later in the season they also have raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. So we knew we were onto a good thing. Of course we had our little helpers





although strangely as you can see, Leo's punnet looks rather empty. We soon discovered why



perhaps they should have been weighing children in and out rather than the punnets!

Had a great time and there's now 4 jars of apple and strawberry jam sitting on the side, with another lot of strawberries in the freezer for more jam when more fruits are available, and still more for cooking with and making smoothies. Wonderful.

New places, new adventures

A couple of weeks ago we had a great weekend going out and about. On Saturday we visited Bluebells Dairy in Spondon. I've been wanting to go there for a while as it keeps popping up in local magaziney things, and we had an afternoon to fill...

It wasn't as big as I was expecting, but still very very good. They have their own dairy herd there (obviously...!) and make their own ice cream. So there's a small farm shop and cafe, a great children's play area (slides galore and even a trampoline) and an area where you can feed goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens and other small farm animals. Brilliant.

On the Sunday we travelled out to Staunton Harold. We've been to the Ferrers Centre there before, which is a great craft centre, but this time we also made it to the reservoir (I can't find a specific website for the reservoir, but there are lots of images on Google which link to walking websites and other similar ones).



The reservoir is a beautiful area, there are a few woodland walks nearby, again an ace play area, and some picnic tables. No cafe, but great for a visit.



The Ferrers Centre is a courtyard which is populated with craft studios and shops. It is very lovely and there's a great range on offer, including a chap who specialises in making Victorian-style mechanical models. There was lots I wanted to buy including some great pottery decorated with seaside scenes (here it is on the maker's website)



....managed to exercise a little more restraint this time! There is also a fab toy shop there which is run by volunteers and parents from one of the local schools, to which all the profits go. It has a slightly eclectic range but that is because it's chosen by about 5 of the volunteers, each of them choosing things they like. Including lots of board games - we came home with 2!!! And they served ice cream from the Bluebell Dairy. Fab.

Boys will be boys

Zachary has now reached the age where the funniest thing he can say to anyone (or anyone can say to him) is "so and so SMELLS!" He finds this absolutely hilarious and it's brilliant - we've been leaving him messages round Animal Crossing on the Wii, and he's been returning the favour (with our help!). I think Uncle Jamie started this off, although he was trying to get Zachary to say "Daddy smells of bums" but luckily for nursery and the public in general, we've managed to get it down to just "Daddy smells!" Today, Leigh was telling Zachary he'd caught a smelly bug from him, and that smelly bugs were only found on smelly boys - Zachary loved this and laughed a lot...although some of the laughing did sound a bit nervous, as though he's pretty sure Leigh was joking, but not quite 100%. Zachary has also been watching 'Ginger Warrior' (that's Ninja Warrior to the uninitiated), and telling us we're going to Bourbon at the weekend - if only...it's Bournemouth!

Leo seems to be unstoppable in the food department, and there have been 3 similar incidents over the weekend. On Saturday morning, Leigh got up with the boys and got some shreddies in a bowl for Leo to snack on before breakfast to keep him occupied, and stave off those hunger pangs. When Leo had finished the bowl, he got himself into the kitchen, up to the table and when Leigh turned round, had got his arm shoulder-deep in the shreddies box! Then this morning, after we'd all had breakfast, cleaned teeth etc, I was washing up in the kitchen, and Leo was up on the chair again, pulled over the leftover pancakes and snaffled one (just like he snaffled the chicken for the pizza topping mid-week). And finally, we were at a garden centre today - I was helping Zachary choose some pick 'n' mix sweets, trying desperately to both fill the bag and at the same time stop Leo reaching into the containers, taking out sweets and simply popping them in his mouth! I missed a raspberry jelly thing that way, but managed to catch a couple of toffees he was parading around. Surely we're feeding him enough???!

Bought on a whim

I'm not a very spontaneous person, and having 2 children has quashed most of what little spontaneity I had - the constant need to know where we are going and what we're doing so that I can be properly prepared has seen an end to that!!!! So I very rarely buy things on a whim (except clothes for the boys!), especially anything arty or for the house. Anyway, one of the first trips I made with the boys after they'd both had chicken pox was to Attenborough Nature Reserve which is close to us, and in the cafe there they were displaying the work of a local artist, who uses pyrography to etch pictures onto wood pieces.

Most of the items weren't really my taste (or superb examples of the pyrography technique...), but I saw one I really liked and just bought it! I never do that! Maybe I was heady with the first taste of freedom in ages and the thought that I hadn't really spent any money over the last few weeks went to my head! Here it is



it's finally been hung up, and what I liked about it was the relative simplicity of the burned picture and more than that, the grain of the wood. It hasn't come out brilliantly in the photo (and the photo appears to have been taken at a particularly strange angle), but the swirls and patterns reminded me of this painting, which is beautiful



I'm still really pleased with my purchase. Which is a relief!

Vegetables as bribery??

Zachary was a great eater when we were first weaning him and would try almost anything. Then at about 13 months, he suddenly stopped wanting to try new foods and stuck to a pretty tight range of food he would eat. Now this wasn't as bad as it sounds as he has always been a great eater of bread, cereal, yoghurts and fruit, the biggest issue was with main meals and we ended up limited to beans on toast, homemade chicken burgers, homemade fishcakes, peas and sweetcorn. So he was getting all his food groups, but after about a year and a half of this, I was starting to get a bit fed up of constantly making the chicken burgers and fishcakes, and it was difficult eating with him at friends' houses or out at pubs (pubs not so bad as chips and beans were always on the menu!).

As he approached 3, we decided to try a crack down on the eating thing and be more firm in encouraging him to try new foods...just as we decided this, Zachary - on his own - decided he was going to be more open to trying new things. Great! This is going pretty well - we now have pasta, carrots, chicken and chicken nuggets, fish fingers, sometimes rice and cous cous, and pork well in hand. The next issue we've run up against though is that although Zachary will try things more readily, actually getting him to finish a meal proves very difficult some days and he will take an absolute age to eat his dinner. Yes, we've resorted to bribery and the promise of computer time with Leigh, and/or pudding has worked reasonably well in the past. Today however...

Zachary tried green beans for the first time and loved them, they were the first thing eaten from his plate. Then we almost got away with using the promise of more beans as his reward for eating the rest of his dinner! (this worked for a while until he decided he really didn't want to finish the rest) Vegetables as bribery - ace!

I'm putting him to work early!

Funnier still was Leo attempting to mop the kitchen using a mop which is nearly twice as big as him...but I didn't get the camera in time and he'd given up by the time I got back with it!!!