Coconut Almond Cakes//Kids Stuff

Today we had Isla from next door over for some baking; we made coconut almond cupcakes - they had so much fun and they've already even a few each. Here are some photos from our afternoon:

Kristofer pouring in the sugar (I premeasured everything):

 Having a good lick of the beater:

 Cleaning the other beater:

 Isla spooning the mixture into her cases:

 Kristofer spooning his mixture:

 The cakes cooling off, getting ready for decorating:

 Spreading jam on the cakes, before dipping the cakes into coconut and adding a cherry:

 The finished cakes:

Cute huh? We had so much fun, I love baking with kids - it's very different from baking on my own; and quite alot messier too!!!!

I'll be back over the weekend with some creative projects,
V xx

Diabetic Cupcakes//Foodies

Just before Christmas my MIL found out she's diabetic so, with my wife being diabetic also, I set out to create a cupcake recipe that uses lets natural sugar. I decided to use my Ikea cupcake tin, this one is tall, and makes the cutest cupcakes:

 So here's what I used:

Ingredients

4oz stork (or butter etc)
2 eggs (I used medium/large sized)
2oz dark brown sugar (you can just use normal caster sugar)
1.2oz sugar subsitute
3 drops lemon essence
4oz self raising flour
0.1oz baking powder

Method

1. whisk your butter and sugar together until smooth
2. whisk in one egg at a time, with your lemon essence
3. whisk in your flour and baking powder
4. whisk for a few more minutes, then divide into the cupcake papers
5. bake on 190c for about 10/15 minutes (this depends on the size of your cupcake)
6. test your cupcakes with a piece of raw spagetti - if it comes out clean you're done!!!!

These cupcakes are a little less moist than some but I'm working on it - and they do make a yummy treat if you're just trying to cut down on sugar. You could make different variations - I threw in some coconut too.

I had alot of fun making these, it's been a while since I've baked something just for fun - I did lots of baking for hampers over christmas, plus the christmas cake and a commissioned birthday cake so this was nice and relaxing!
I'll be back tomorrow with some knitting!!!
V xo

Quiche//Kids Stuff

Today I have some more baking to share, this time I made quiche with Robbie. I used the same pastry I used for my pie in a jar. We started by weighing out our flour, the main thing I love about this recipe is that kids can help easily - it's just cup measurements!!!! Last summer whenever we would bake Robbie would throw the flour around the kitchen; he doesn't do that anymore - he has grown up so much, and actually pays attention now. Both he and Kristofer are even getting good at cracking eggs.

We made our breadcrumbs, Robbie enjoyed rubbing the butter (stock) into the flour (I know in the US many people use shortening instead of butter/stork etc):

I poured in the little bits of water while Robbie started bringing it together (my computer moved shortly after this!!!!):

We divided our pastry into 4, and started rolling. Robbie loved this part, but kept either eating the dough or rolling it way to thinly:

I blind baked the pastry, went to trim the edges and 2 of the cases fell quite spectacularly apart, thankfully I made too many for the boys tea so it wasn't too tragic:

                                    

I filled the quiche with an egg, milk, cheese and pepper mix; popped them in the oven and waited - I think they took about 30 minutes to cook but I kept an eye on them as I've never made quiche before (Robbie had given up and got bored by this point):

We have the kind of pastry cases where the base comes out, so it's just a case of balancing the whole thing on a glass and out pops a quite lovely looking quiche:

Both boys really enjoyed these; they love to help make their own dinner - especially when they get to play with dough.

I'm off for now, it's yet another busy one today.

V xo

Pie In A Jar//Foodies

I have been thinking alot about teacher's christmas gifts, and I have settled on doing mincemeat pies in a jar - I came across this idea on Pinterest and quickly pinned it to my gift ideas board. I decided to do a trial batch using my homemade mincemeat and the pie crust that the original pie recipe recommends although I did make a few little changes!!

For my pie crust I used:
1 1/4c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c.+ 1 Tbsp. butter - I used stork which I do for all my baking.
Ice water (the recipe calls for 1/4 cup but I only needed about half of that)

I began by rubbing the flour, butter and salt together until I got rough breadcrumbs:

I then poured in a little bit of the water and started mixing with my hands; you should do this until you have a dough - it should not be sticky, that's why you're adding water just a LITTLE at a time.

I then rolled out a small amount of the dough and cut 5 lids out using the jars as cutters - you get that perfect shape.

Then just break off small pieces of dough and pat them on the base and sides of your jar (see STEP 2 for more on that).
I made my mincemeat last year, so it's had LOADS of time to get yummy........ I added a small amount of water and put the mincemeat into each jar:

You can choose to design your lid in any way you like; but obviously you need air holes. In my christmas batch I will be cutting a reindeer but for these I decided to go with a circle:

If you have jars with lids you can pop them in the freezer - obviously your baking times need to be longer if you are cooking from frozen. I decided to cook mine fresh on 190c (375f) for about 45 minutes; I also chose to put my oven when I placed the pies in - so the jars could slowly heat through. So if you're nervous about breaking glass, make sure you do the same.

This is how they looked when I took them out the oven:

I am really pleased with how these turned out, I sprinkled just a tiny bit of caster sugar over each one; they were so delicious!!! My jars were smaller than the original recipe; but worked perfectly. The pie crust could have stretched to 6 jars instead of 5 at this size.

On the same day as practicing pie's I also made some chutney:

We had nearly 600g of tomatoes from our plants; mostly green but a few yellow and reds - I used this recipe; but I did tweak it slightly. I used a mixture of dark muscavado sugar and caster sugar; I used normal malt vinegar but loads of herbs, garlic, celery salt and a sprinkle of chilli flakes and pepper. I also put in about 50ml of marsala wine - this is a delicious wine for chutney's and jam's; I would definitely recommend it. Anyway it made about 6 small jars; so we have plenty for over the festive season.

That's me for today anyway, I have some gift ideas coming up on Pinterest Sunday; a kids recipe and a few creative bits in store over the weekend!!!

V xo 

Pirate Ship Birthday Cake

Happy Monday,
So we are off to Orkney today; infact we have left already so be prepared for scheduled posting for the rest of the week.
So last weekend we had Robbie's 6th Birthday; he had an awesome day and a fantastic party with all of his family. I made lots of vanilla sponges (coloured with purple) and turned them into a chocolate pirate ship cake!!!!
This is the very beginning; building the cake and trying to cut it into a "ship" like shape:

The chocolate buttercream went on; and the cake went in the fridge overnight before being brought out to add some sea and a little knife that just happened to work as a crow's nest:

I added a little pirate from Robbie's happyland pirate set:

And got adding chocolate...... Rolos and Chocolate fingers made windows and oars:

We had malteasers for cannonballs:

I also added matchmakers to add some "real" wood effect, and a flag:

Robbie absolutely loves Pirates and so this cake really suited him; and it was quite tasty. I had so much fun making this one and I've already started planning more cakes!!!
Scheduled post for tomorrow is a feature artist; so pop by for that.
love, V xoxo