Double icing swirly whirly girly cupcakes

Darling boy had his first primary school christmas fair today, and as one of life's 'joiners' I'm on the PTA (parent teacher association) at his school.  Donations were requested for the cake stall- what honest self respecting christmas fair doesn't have a cake stall?) Happy to oblige, I made rocky road, with chocolate, biscuit and marshmallow, topped with more marshmallows and glitter being a perfect winner for children.

I also made these cheeky cupcakes, vanilla with swirly whirly double icing.  I fancied a challenge and so went with the double icing- just what every mum wants to do, late on a school night!  I thought something out of the ordinary might sell well, and I was right.  The lovely receptionist at Darling boys school told me my cupcakes were selling "like the proverbial", which is what every charity baker wants to hear.

These are a few of my favourite things

A recent visit to marvellous mum and dads took in a trip to Bekonscot Model Village.  A place of my childhood, and such fun.  It was as sweet and enchanting as I remember, and as luck would have it, Darling boy and Little brother were enraptured by it too.  The model village is so lovely, stuck in a time warp and featuring the excellent naff puns that always raise a grin.  You can also pretend to be a giant, which is a great past-time.

Spooky bat cookies and gingerbread cupcakes

Holy bat biscuits robin! I made these iced bat cookies, and dotty star cookies for Little brothers preschool halloween party.

Darling boy and little brother were very sweetly dressed for the fancy dress parade in matching bat costumes with wings,  and our newest addition wore a cute pumpkin teeshirt, as at just 10 weeks, she is a bit little for dressing up just yet (however come christmas it will be a different story!) I opted for Vegas witch in a long hot pink wig and pointy hat.

I also bought along gingerbread cupcakes, topped with a lemony cream cheese frosting for the grownups and they went down a storm.  Perfect with a hot cuppa, gingerbread seems a great flavour for halloween, spicy and warming, perfect for braving a gaggle of goulish preschoolers.

Superhero's super birthday cake

It was Darling boy's 4th birthday this weekend and, being nuts about Spiderman, Superman and all things 'super', he had chosen a superhero theme.  We went all-out for the fancy dress, and, as last time when the theme was pirates,  the kids and grown-ups all dressed up.  We had prizes in various categories, from best superhero accessory, to best mini-skirt in a superhero capacity.

Huge amounts of fun were had by all, lots of chasing around and dashing about- all brilliant stuff.

The cake I made for Darling boy was chocolate- to Darling boys request- was the same recipe as I used for Handsome husbands Granny's 90th birthday.  It was iced in blue buttercream icing, with the customised logo made from royal icing and cut out with an art knife.

The accompanying superhero cupcakes are lemon, with matching stars and home-made superhero comic book style cupcake flags.

It's a cupcake, but it's healthy...almost

Darling boy's school had a party and I was more than happy to bring along some cupcakes (for the grownups, the kids had more than enough cake!)

Wanting to do something different from the usual treat of chocolate and the crowd pleaser of vanilla, and feeling spicy, I went with carrot cake.  These are topped with a cinnamon buttercream which keeps it cakey, but the cake itself is a low fat recipe and of course the carrots in the cake make them healthy, innit.

Volcanos on the school run

Questions from Darling boy this morning on the school run included; what is a volcano? what is an earthquake? what is inside a dinosaur? what is inside concrete?  He is 3 1/2 years old.


All these tricksy questions meant I took a wrong turn on the school route- which I have driven 4 times a week for a year, so taxed was my brain.


I searched a long way back to my geography lessons and came up with an answer to the volcano one which involved the words 'magma' and 'lava' and me describing it like a mountain with a big straw in the middle which goes into the centre of the earth, where it is so hot, the rock has turned to liquid. I hope this is right. My answer to the one about earthquakes involved the word 'tectonic plates' which I said were like jigsaw pieces- though I got a bit vague on why they rubbed together and got wobbly. I really couldn't remember why they do this.


I said dinosaurs had organs inside them just like we do, i.e. heart and lungs and livers and stomachs- I hope this is right too, I'm not sure.  As soon as I said it I had my doubts.  By this point, I was hoping to dodge the concrete question, but Darling boy wasn't so easily put off and really wanted to know.  I came up with 'sand and special glue'.  


I told marvellous dad all about these questions.  He laughed and said he could tell Darling boy all about concrete when we go there for christmas- and I just know Darling boy will be hanging off his every word.

Gingerbread men wearing Y-fronts.

Darling boy, Little brother and I went to a friend's house for tea recently and what would be better suited than a team of cheeky gingerbread men and ladies to take along with us.  I haven't ever iced like this before, it's tricky but good fun.

A pink and girly cake, for the new girly in our family (that's extended family folks, don't get excited)

As well as the new chicks which arrived recently, a much more exciting and important family member has been welcomed to the clan.  Handsome husband's uncle and his wife have adopted a 3 year old little girl after years and years of longing for children.  It's such wonderful news and it was a real treat to finally meet her.  They live in Germany which means a recent visit over was our first opportunity to meet the loveliness that is Darling boy and Little brother's new cousin.

In honour of our new cousin's first visit to Devon, I baked her a 'Welcome to the Family' cake.  Since I have two boys, I got pretty excited about the chance to 'go girly'.  I was feeling in a novelty mood, so shaped the cake in the silhouette of our new cousin's initial (making good use of my new bundt tin too)  The glittery pink buttercream icing went down a storm, as did the sweeties all over it and the chocolate sponge inside.

Garden cake, or school cake, but not as you knew it

I've joined the PTA (Parent Teachers Association) for Darling boys fabulous preschool.  The wonderful Head teacher Mrs P and other members of the PTA kept asking me to join and I kept making vague excuses about being really busy.  I did however say to a fellow mum that if I was asked once more the I would probably crack.  Guess what?, she squealed.  I was asked again and relented.  Actually, it's good being on the PTA, someone has to, parties and fundraising do not organise themselves.   I see it as my bit of community spirit, supporting the school.  Plus being a full time mum, I may as well get involved; after all, if you are going to get wet, you may as well go swimming.

Anyway,  it is the school's 30th birthday and at the most recent PTA meeting, Mrs P said she wanted to find someone to make a big birthday cake so she could get the press in to do a feature on the school and it's anniversary.  If only they knew someone who made cakes? (I was sat next to her) The hints were sufficient and I was more than willing to oblige.  It's the least I can do, it's a great school and Darling boy loves it there.

I wasn't given a brief aside from 'chocolate, all children love chocolate', so was able to do whatever I fancied.

I decided on a '30' shaped cake, as I knew it would photograph well (and also good for numeracy, innit)  I was stuck for a decorating theme, until I remembered these darling ready made decorations I had.  I have never bought ready mades before, but the bumblebees and ladybirds are super cute and very unisex.  The school is very outdoorsy too and I hoped the garden theme would chime well.  My new Wilton nozzle came in handy too (number 233 if you are interested).  This was it's first outing and it was a labour of love.  It's a big cake and my hand is still aching.  It took about 5 hours to decorate, from shaping to glittering.

I must admit I am pretty proud of this one.  The school loved it too.  Hooray.

You must be quackers

The in-laws asked if we fancied going along to the village Duck Race.  There would be money on it to make it a more 'sporting' event, and then scones and jam after.  Well, who could resist such an invitation?

I don't know what I was expecting, I had never been to a Duck Race before, but this being the countryside, I had imagined there would be actual, live ducks, somehow persuaded or bribed to run from one end of a course to another, with the winner being the first duck across the line, with hilarious results.

Elements of this were right, there were ducks that had to make it across the line, and there was betting.  But one crucial difference leapt out when we arrived.  The ducks were of the bright yellow plastic variety and came tumbling out of black bin bags into the stream.  Each duck had a number on its bottom and locals were invited to back a duck in hope of successfully pairing with the winning quacker.   Proceeds- as ever- were going to the church hall roof.

We followed our rubber beauties down the stream, helping them along with a little boot when the stream was shallow.  Little brother insisted on being at the heart of the action and walking in the very cold and very wet stream for the length of the course.  At the end when the winner was declared, we finally persuaded Little brother out of the stream and had to pour most of it back from his wellies.

Darling boy and little brother did themselves proud at the tea afterwards and ate their own body weight in scones, jam and cream.  Pretty impressive since they both weigh around 2 stone each.  It was a lovely, and weird afternoon.  More please!

Adventures in Cake goes POP

I have never made CakePops before, and this year, as my news years resolution was to do something new each month, and was on my way to visit friends with Darling boy and little brother, a flash of genius sparked in the little grey cells.  Ah ha, I thought, CakePops!

For those of you who aren't familiar with this fun cakey things, they are basically a crumbed cupcake, bound together with butter icing, then moulded into a ball, dipped in chocolate and decorated.  They are sugar on a stick and totally yummy.  They are also definitely for children and they went down a storm.  I would probably make them again, as they are a fun way to use up cake that is surplus to requirements (if there is ever such a thing?)

My top tip for making them is to either have some handy playdoh to hand (mouldable clay stuff that kids play with) or, even better, some oasis (the stuff that florists use to make displays)

So, i took some photos thinking the CakePops looked a big like funny little trees. Then i got silly and added one of the boy's toy dinosaurs, just for a giggle.

Vintage finds at the village fete

On my list of favourite things, featuring highly is the village fete.  All those traditional stalls  from your childhood are still going strong, the tombola (where you win back the tins you donated 2 years ago) splat-the-rat, the raffle, the farmyard derby (my personal favourite), skittles, guess the weight of the cake / baby / chicken.  And of course the cake stall.  Turn up late and the cake stall is always totally empty, as it gets raided first, like a tuck shop at midnight.

Well, here in our corner of the world we pride ourselves on a good village fete and ours most usually has entertainment.  Last year it was Morris Dancing men, fearsome fellows with handkerchiefs who bashed the hell out of some sticks and then waved bells at each other.  They were brilliant.  This year we had a chap playing a squeeze box, with his dear lady wife accompanying him on the spoons (I kid you not) and the guitar and a lovely warbly voice.  They were charm itself.

On the jumble stall, I managed to find these totally lovely plates, which I think I got for a quid.  Amazing.  I love them.  And of course we bought millionaire shortbread from the cake stall, and geraniums from the plant stall.  Darling boy and little brother had a marvellous time, winning mini mars bars on the hoopla and larking about with their chums. 

The wonderful thing about tiggers

 Darling boy has been as pleased as punch all week.  He has been in charge of the class mascot, Tigger.  It has been Darling boy's job to take Tigger everywhere, and it is mummy's job (or rather homework) to write up our wonderful, home-spun, creative and wholesome adventures in the class mascot diary....There is serious potential for one up-mumship in this innocent project and can I smell just the tinniest whiff?

We dragged Tigger to the farm, to meet Jimmy and Max.  They joined in the fun at Grandads birthday teatime, had tea with us and joined the zoo of teddies in Darling boys bed.  Tigger is due to go back to school tomorrow, and in a style true to my own homework when I was at school, it's the night before it's due in, and I haven't done it yet!

 

Blue sparkly cupcakes for the boys

A trip to a friends farm for a cuppa and a play called for cupcakes, and since both of us have two boys, blue cupcakes were called for.  Four boys and sugar meant shortly after they were consumed, we were all outside in our wellies for a romp around the farm to see the cows, tractor and hounds.  All good fun.

Darling boy had a marvellous time with his buddy, and Little brother was delightful and delighted as ever.  He loves dogs and my friend's pup was keeping Little brother very amused.  Meanwhile me and my friend had a good old natter and got our boys happy, ready for their tea and tired for bedtime.

Little boys are basically like puppies themselves.  They need tummies full of food and then to romp around with each other in the fresh air.  Being in Devon, there is plenty of that, and it doesn't matter if its drizzling like it was.  The boys don't care and it's what rain covers were invented for.  Now I just need to get myself a stylish outdoorsy hat like my friend has and I will be all set.