Washi Tape Cake Toppers!

When the Little Girl gets back from pre-school we have just over two hours of peace before we need to start the school run...and then chaos seems to reign! Our peaceful afternoons are my favourite part of the day because we have a rule only to do lovely 'Little Girl' type things such as wrapping bits of ribbon around barbie dolls, colouring, drawing family members (all with long eyelashes and lipstick) etc.

The Little Girl's favourite thing to do, however, is cooking and we have progressed from jelly to fairy cakes. Such are her cake baking skills that age 3 she can break eggs perfectly only getting a tiny bit of shell in the mix...which adds a bit of crunch! To our cakes we usually add pink icing made with icing sugar, a bit of water and pink colouring but we had a bit of white chocolate left in the cupboard so decided to use that.

We melted the chocky and then added a glug of double cream turning an ordinary cake topping into a very posh sounding 'ganache'. This basically means that the chocolate is quite silky looking and sets sticky rather than hard. We added 'micro' chocolate eggs and hundreds and thousands...yum!

Next stage of the decoration are the flags. The Little Girl is as equally excited about a plain sheet of A4 as her mother and set to making a 'no expense spared' white paper flag...

...and promptly selected the largest cake as her own...that's my girl!

Now if any of you arty/crafty bods out there in blogland have not heard of Washi tape you're in for a treat. It's basically decorative masking/paper tape which is ever so slightly transparent. Go to the Washi tape website for inspiration. Washi tape is brilliant for young children because you can rip it and re-stick it.

Anyway...we decided to make little flags for our cakes. Just cut a little piece and stick on the top of a cocktail stick....

Fold it over so it sticks to the other side and snip a little triangle out to make a flag shape...

Looks gorgeous on little cakes..!

A Beautiful Birthday

The Big girl has had a fantastic birthday and I can't tell you how glad I am. Last year she had a tummy bug on her birthday and spent the whole of christmas in bed with suspected swine flu. It was a bit touch and go yesterday when she came home from school with a head ache...was it going to develop into anything? Could it be the curse of red letter days that had blighted her two most favourite occasions? After a glass of water and a packet of calpol she was feeling much better. She woke up early this morning with a spring in her step, delighted in her pressies, big (a bike), and small (some 'moshi monster' stickers) and skipped off to school in a birthday bubble of happiness!

The Little Girl and I made this cake for her which contains a rather delish filling: 25g icing sugar, sieved, mixed with a teaspoon of vanilla extract, 250g mascapone, 250g squashed raspberries..yum! We made a topping with icing sugar, orange juice and pink colouring and scattered with raspberries and daisy wafers. Big Girl was delighted! We sat in the garden with best friend Rose, Granny and Grampy and scofted a big slice each.

On another note, the abundance of wildlife in our garden has been both a source of delight and horror over that last few weeks. Today a kestral flew into our chicken run and got stuck so flapped around for about an hour. Despite the bird's obvious distress, is was amazing to see it up close and personal like that. Grampy managed to shoo it out and it went on it's way only slightly ruffled.

We've also taken great pleasure in the nesting blackbirds in the trees around our house. They have been teaching their fledglings the ways of the world this week and have been using our garden as their playground. They've become so tame that one even landed on the Big Girl's leg! We also have barn owls, hedgehogs, masses of goldfinches, long tailed tits, swifts and swallows, tree creapers, mining bees, lesser spotted woodpeckers, bumble bees, butterflies and buzzards...to mention a few.

The 'horror' part occured yesterday with an unwelcome visitor. I went to open the chicken run and found our bantams dead...along with our big orpington cockeral. This time not a fox but a suspected mink or stoat attack. It was really quite horrible and so sad. The worst thing is that I would love to get some more hens (ex battery hens preferabley) but I cannot take then on with the risk of subjecting them to even more trama. I would want their time with us to be full of the happiness they deserve but how on earth can I stop a mink? They can squeeze through tiny little holes... can any thing be 'mink proofed'? I think I will have to consult my oracle and fellow Girl Guide Leader, Ann, who knows all about stuff like this. Maybe we could trap the stoat/mink and release somewhere else? I'll keep you posted...

Oreo Brownies and sunshine

We had such a lovely day today. Big Girl had her friend round for a sleep over and spent all morning giggling about some rather rude outfits which were created for the Barbies. Granny and Grampy popped by for a cup of tea. Poor Granny spent much of the morning as Little Girl's horse, remaining 'tethered' to the table whilst Little Girl ate her lunch! No need to report this to the NSPCG as I think that Granny was quite compliant...! The Big Boy spent much of the day raising the height of the tree swing so that it is impossible for any one to get on it. Big Girl then planted strawberries and Little Girl watered all the paving slabs in the greenhouse. Margo and Jerry (the bantams) ate my lovely purple crocuses and Mr Wild Ink fell asleep early as he'd spent much of the day drinking real ale... and the sun shone!
The highlight of day, however, were these brownies which Little Girl and I made. I saw them on Lorraine Pascal's Baking made easy and have been meaning to make them ever since. It's a fantastic recipe as the smooth gooey-ness of the brownies contrasts with the chunks of crunchy, dark Oreo.

Recipe for Lorraine Pascal's Brownies with Oreos
165g Butter
200g Dark Chocolate, broken into little pieces
3 Eggs plus 2 Extra yolks
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
165g Soft Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Plain Flour
1 tbsp Cocoa Powder
A Pinch of Salt
154g Oreo Biscuits, broken in to quarters
Icing Sugar, for dusting
20cm square tin

Preheat Oven to 180 c or Gas Mark 6

1. Melt the butter and add the chocolate, stir until melted.
2. In a large bowl whisk eggs, yolks and vanilla until light and fluffy then add sugar in two additions.
3. Pour the melted chocolate in around the sides of the bowl, add flour, cocoa, salt and a third of the oreos, combine thoroughly.
4. Pour into a greased, lined tin and bake for about 25 mins. If you put a knife in the middle it should still come out a bit gooey (unlike if you're making a sponge cake). Turn out when cool, cut then dust with icing sugar. Enjoy and try not to eat them all in one go!