Back to Basics

Sometime we forget that the simplest things, the old fashioned things, are the things that can keep our little Monkey's entertained for hours.

I'd been out shopping back in January on a rare occasion without either of the Monkey's, yes all on my lonesome, it was awesome! (Mommy's you know what it's like, nothing better than a few hours without the incessant questions and jabbering of Monkeys in tow)While I was out I spotted two pairs of scissors, you know the kind that cut in patterned wavy lines- when I was little that meant, zigzags and only zigzags- but here were two that were a little different. I snapped them up, with the thought that at some point I'd need to entertain the Monkeys on a rainy day.

This was that rainy day, I fished out some coloured paper the new scissors, the box of crayons and a glue stick. With my fingers firmly crossed I set it all out on the little table, and prayed it would keep them out of trouble for at least 10 minutes.

Too my utter amazement, it was hours of entertainment. Littlest Monkey was having the time of his life working out how to cut, he littered the floor with hundreds of tiny bits of paper from cutting to his hearts content. 

Monkey-Moo One surprised me with an art work, not quite sure why we needed meteors crashing into the house but he worked quietly away for such a long time trying his hardest to get the shapes cut  just the way he wanted and colouring in all the extra little details.

I'm so pleasantly surprised at how such a simple activity brought them so much joy!

Sunny Weekend Mornings.

Blue sky and bright sunshine, after all the blustery winds and rain this winter and top that off with two Monkey-Moos letting us sleep in till after 8am - Is simply the most perfect way to start the day!

Sunny mornings call for impromptu batches of banana muffins! (do you really want to argue?)
Since it was still "Valentines" month, what better muffin cases to use than these gorgeous heart ones I received for Christmas. (all the way from New Zealand I should add)

You remember the vegan recipe I totally rave about. Well that's the way I started the morning. Filling the house with a warm baking smell. (I'd like to claim that it would remind me of mom's kitchen, but lets face it, she was never one for baking unless it was necessity! Don't get me wrong, she can whack out a batch of totally to die for muffins, biscuits, and loaf cakes, she just wouldn't choose to bake without a reason)

You can find full recipe and method here

Cup of tea and freshly baked muffins and we are ready to start planing our day. 

We couldn't possibly waste the glorious weather! Wellies on and out into the sunshine,we head off to our nearest city farm. We weren't the only family with that idea this morning.

It was busy.
Monkey-Moos didn't seem to mind. Owls,bunnies and cows, a couple pigs some sheep, horses and goats plus a stroll round the community garden and time to head home for lunch with four pairs of really muddy wellies!

Oat and Chocolate Chip Cookies

So last week was half term and I had two sick little Monkey-Moos, saying that, it's was just a cold and fever, croaky voices and snotty noses. But top that off, I was trying to work too. Slightly less successful on the working front than I'd have liked to be, so late nights at the computer it was! (when do I get a half term?)

We started off the week with two Monkeys that didn't really want to Do anything, a little Lego building and then begged for a movie which they curled up under blankets to watch.

Then a day that they both felt much much better (although to hear littlest Monkey-Moo croak you'd think otherwise). Not wanting to head outside as it's still a little cold (and I'd rather they get a bit better first) I thought a batch of yummy homemade cookies would keep them busy and help make them feel a little bit better too (comfort food! )

It was meant to be a team effort but Monkey One disappeared shortly after popping the butter in the bowl, and built Lego instead. So little Croak (as I've decided he should be known for this post) and I set about measuring out the rest of the ingredients, and making up some yummy oat cookies.

I don't often bake Oat cookies with Chocolate chips, as I simply prefer raisins, but for once the batch of cookies was not about me! Croak was being such a good little helper, and once we had one batch of plain Oat cookies in the oven, (yes, plain ones for me, I wasn't about to miss out entirely)
we set about adding in some chocolate chips to the mixture. 

Success! The Monkeys loved them!

Here's the recipe for those of you that want to have a go!

170g unsalted butter (or baking marg)
130g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
130g self raising flour
120g oats
60g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170'
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs one by one, beating well.
Sift in the flour and fold in with the oats. Now's the time to add your chocolate chips.
Spoon nice rounded teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking sheet. They tend to spread so don't put them to close together.
Bake for 10-15 minutes in the centre of the oven.
Makes about 35 cookies depending on how much you heap that teaspoon!

Enjoy!

Superhero hullabaloo.

Monkey-Moo number one is Seven! It's happened so ridiculously fast! He wanted a Superhero extravaganza, and at the last minute, while I was in full superhero swing, decided this needed to incorporate a pizza making party too!

A week ahead of the party I was happily sewing up superhero masks and packing up superhero party bags.
Our lovely niece (aged one) was recipient of the cutesy pink mask, since she was the only girl in attendance!

I hadn't used my sewing machine in years, and yet still found the instructions and templates very simple to work with. 

Next was time to set about getting all the cupcakes ready. Back to my Pinterest board. There wasn't really one pin in particular that inspired the Avengers cupcakes, but more a mashup of several pins I'd seen.

I was very pleased with the results, and at the last minute ditched Thor and doubled up all the others- mainly as I was running out of time and the cake had cooled and I really needed to move onto icing that.

Monkey-Moo was over the moon with Ironman! It was by far his favourite! Little Monkey-Moo was all about my Captain America version, since I'd substituted the A for a star! He is a funny one that Monkey-Moo.

Right back to the cake! I was blown away by one I'd seen (and yes, it too is on my Pinterest board!) but realising that my skills were not up to that challenge I set about creating a similar, simpler, smaller cake! (here's the inspiration)

Paper, pencil and freehand drawing, I came up with a template for the Avengers faces, trying not to make them too scary, and to keep them in a similar "cartoonish" fashion.

 

I simply rolled out the fondant (store bought, coloured fondant) cut around my templates and set the pieces of fondant together until I was happy with the facial construction. The eyes were trickiest, but in the end both Monkey-Moos and I were happy they looked as they should!

 

Ironman and Thor were last to be constructed (juggled is more appropriate, as I was cooking dinner at the same time by this stage!)
Once the cake was iced in a lovely light blue, I set about "pasting" the faces at regular intervals around the cake, all the while trying to cover the "faults" and "folds" in my unskilled icing techniques! Eek!

Final touches with a few orange stars, and I think the cake was good enough to impress a room full of six and seven year olds!
 

 

It wasn't until the middle of the night, that I sat bolt upright in bed, realising that I'd completely forgotten to do Thor's hair!

 

After a lot of fun, stretching pizza dough and making some really wonderfully strange pizzas, the party was in full swing! All the boys were having so much fun, dressed up as Superhero's (mainly Ironman, although Thor and Captain America did make an appearance)  And then as quick as a flash, it was time to do cake!

 

We had one very pleased Superhero!

And one really exhausted Mom of Two Monkey-Moos!

Autumn leaves

Here's a post I started sharing in the Autumn, then Christmas and party planning took over and I totally forgot about it.

It was raining, and had been for days (feeling more like weeks) and the dreary walk home after dropping Monkey One at school was proving very little fun. Then I stopped for a minute and thought, it would be great to make use of those leaves. Monkey-Moo needed no encouragement to partake in this little game.We oooh'ed and ahhh'ed at the different colours, the shapes and sizes.

I was left juggling an umbrella and all the collected leaves. (apparently little Monkeys can only hold two wet leaves at any given time)

We arrived home, rather wet and later than usual, we place the collection out on the table to dry. I had to keep turning them so that both sides dried enough not to mark the paper. And Monkey Two kept a close eye on them through the morning, regularly updating me on which were still wet, or "little bit nearly dry"

A couple hours, cups of tea and school collection later, we got all the crayons out, our sheets of paper ready, and I set about demonstrating how to make leaf rubbings. Monkey-Moo loved it! Bigger Monkey-Moo didn't want to miss out either, and soon joined in.

What a great way to transform our we Autumn Days, and stay (mostly) dry!

Banana muffins- the Vegan ones!

This lovely sunny Sunday morning was calling out for some wholesome Banana goodness! I just couldn't resist making up a batch of these wonderful muffins. This recipe is one I'm always asked for, and it's simply a "No Fail" one for sure.

I've adapted and changed the original recipe to suit mine and littlest Monkey-Moos tastes. As an added bonus it's VEGAN friendly!

So in this glorious winter sunshine, I'm happily going to share, but do be aware that my amounts are not precise nor exactly the same each time. Occasionally I heap the sugar, sometimes I increase each ingredients just a little, and as a result some batches are not quite as good as other, fortunately none have ever been BAD!

It's simple and quick and often whipped up in a hurry for a mid morning baked snack. We do love our banana's and there is never a shortage of ripe ones in our home.

You will need:
4 Small ripe bananas or 3 Large ripe bananas
a cup of sugar (white or brown, whichever is handy)
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
pinch of salt
2 cups of flour
1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

optional extras
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Walnuts
raisins
a little monkey helper!

Preheat your oven to 180'
Mash the banana's with a fork, mix in sugar and oil.
In another bowl combine Salt, bicarb, flour and cinnamon, as well as any other optionals you fancy. Lastly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix.
Spoon into muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes

Allow to cool on a wire rack before you sink your teeth in!

Time for a little Pink

 



It's October and everyone is busily raising money for Breast Cancer. Dear hubby happily volunteered my cupcake making services for works Big Pink Bake Off,  not that I mind really as it's something to keep me busier than usual and a chance to attempt some icing ideas I've not done before.( really I'm just happy to avoid doing the housework for a day or two)

I'm teaching myself cake decorating, and so am not at all equipped with any real decorating tools.  Fearful that this will end in disaster as I attempt to make ribbons, I set the lovely Louise of Cakes from the Heart some questions which she was more than happy to answer. Armed with some new knowledge  and expert tips, I head out to buy supplies (pink icing and some edible shimmer dust)

Trusty wooden rolling pin in hand, I roll out both white and pink "ready to roll icing", using my standard cookie cutters a few toothpicks and and a knife, I set about constructing cupcake toppers and Breast cancer pink ribbons.

Monkey-moo didn't want to miss out on all this fun I was having, so I set him up with Playdoh and his own rolling pin and shape cutters. Once he was occupied, I continued to roll, cut and mould the icing shapes. Pleased with the selection I had, I laid them out over night to set.





Making the cakes was a crazy day, not only were teachers on strike, meaning TWO Monkey-moos at home, but I'd also managed to offer my services to take 3 other little monkeys to football that afternoon. Up against it, time wise I thought it best not to deviate from my "ole faithful" cupcake recipe. And besides, it has never let me down!

Sticking with the Pink theme, I whipped up two batches of batter, and coloured the one batch pink.(not making it easy for myself when the clock is ticking am I?)

Mini pink and white marbled pink cupcakes produced by spooning first white mix into each case and then some pink and swirling lightly with a fork. (I hope they come out as envisioned)
In the oven they go!

Once cooled, I rush round mixing up strawberry butter cream icing and piping it onto the cupcakes. (the clocks ticking, nearly time to collect boys and get them to football, one eye on the clock, one on the cakes, tick tock)

Completing with sliding the cupcake toppers into place, and feeling rather proud that I've got it all done before running three boisterous boys to football!

 

All boxed up and ready for the Big Pink Bake off!

 

Birthday 3 for Monkey-Moo

Little Moo is about to turn THREE, three....can that be true? Where on earth does the time go?
 



Recent weeks have been spent trying to work out what cake the little Moo would like for his special day...we've been round in circles, from pirates, to trains, buses and ducks, cars, camper vans and Minions...but finally settled on the Hungry Caterpillar.
                                              

Thanks to Pinterest, I've found a fairly simple and effective Hungry Caterpillar cake to attempt. Take a look at the original, I hope mine does it proud!

   To construct the caterpillar, I baked two batches of my trusted cupcake recipe, and for the cake, decided to go with the fabulous Betty Crocker Devils Food cake mix, it never fails to please! With two Monkey-Moos Chocolate cake is always the requested favourite, and I find that Betty never makes a dry cake at all! Go Betty, you rock! 

Using butter cream icing, I made up two batches of a lighter green and a very dark green for the body.
Fortunately I thought to grab a couple spoonfuls of butter cream icing before adding the green, and coloured some dark yellow and left just enough to sandwich the two cakes together and do a crumb coat for the face.



Piping bags in hand I set about dropping spoonfuls of dark and green icing into the icing bag ( I should have used two bags inside a third to get the swirled two toned effect I was after) and iced all the cupcakes, even the ones I knew I wouldn't use (just in case there was any emergencies-Eek)

I used Poppy Red ready to roll icing/fondant to do the face, rolled it out and popped over the crumb coat. I've not yet mastered that skill, and so was left with a few folds that I tried to hide. More practise needed using fondant I think!

I had some lilac icing/fondant left over from a cake a month before so moulded it to shape and rolled it for the feelers.

During the deciding phase I had purchased some black icing/fondant for the wheels of either bus or camper van, so this came in handy when I remembered the caterpillar needed some feet! Simply moulded and flattened them by hand, simple!

I arranged the all the cupcakes, continually referring to Pinterest for guidance and placed the head,feelers and feet as needed.
I'm proud of my cake.
Birthday Monkey-Moo LOVED it!

The go-to cupcake recipe

Whenever I need to whip up a batch of cupcakes for school fairs, church bake sales or simply because Monkey and Moo need keeping busy on a rainy Saturday morning. This is my "go-to" recipe. It's adapted from this little gem The BIG book of Baking.

The recipe I use is a standard fairy cake recipe, I make a few subtle changes to get it just the way we like it, particularly I like to add flavouring, occasionally colour, and changing the method slightly. 

You will need 

115g unsalted butter or baking margerine

115g caster sugar

2 large eggs

115g self raising flour

5ml vanilla extract or other flavouring(I favour Caramel essence, but use whatever you like)

Here's what to do. 

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (I'm getting lazy since having Monkey-Moos so use the electric mixer instead of elbow grease)

Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add the flavouring with the last egg addition.

Fold in the flour until just mixed. Don't over mix. 

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases. Filling to about three quarters full. 

Place in pre heated oven 180' C for 15-20 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean. 

And the finished result awaiting the decorative icing skills of two little MonkeyMoos. 

Enjoy!