children’s party – Bangers & Mash

Our ghastly Halloween showstopper

October 26, 2016January 14, 2017Posted in Cakes and biscuits, Competitions and challenges, Puddings and desserts, RecipesTagged ao.com, bake, baking, baking with children, cake, children, children's party, GBBO, great british bake off, halloween, party, showstopper7 Comments

Every year I watch the Great British Bake Off and every year I feel inspired to get the kids in the kitchen to join me in creating some crazy, outlandish showstopper-style masterpiece*.

The problem is, and I know I’ve said this before on the blog, but I’m just not a natural-born baker. That’s not to say my bakes don’t taste good. Nine times out of ten they most certainly do. But all too often they just don’t look good. And that’s the whole point of a showstopper, isn’t it? To impress? To wow? So perhaps our attempt this year at a ghoulish bake for Halloween is more a pause-glance-and-nod-approvingly before moving on than a full-blown stop-them-in-their-tracks-in-awe showstopper. The children loved it though, and that’s what’s most important.

*easily interchangeable with ‘monstrosity’, but quite appropriate really for this time of year. Continue reading “Our ghastly Halloween showstopper” →

Love heart double chocolate cupcakes

October 9, 2013October 24, 2017Posted in Cakes and biscuits, RecipesTagged children, children's party, chocolate, cooking with children, cream cheese, cupcake, dr oetker7 Comments

There’s been a bit of a baking frenzy in our house recently. There was a PTA cake sale at my daughters’ school last week and we decided to get all creative with these love heart cupcakes with a double chocolate and cream cheese topping. Jess hates buttercream so cream cheese is a good alternative.

Sometimes I just can’t be bothered to bake for the cake sale and at the last minute we’ll resort to buying plain fairy cakes or biscuits, which the kids will decorate with gaudy-coloured icing and a few sprinkles. But other times I go the whole hog. And this was one of those times. I was definitely spurred on by my earlier success with a classic Victoria sponge and also by a big bag of chocolate goodies from the kind people at Dr Oetker. My youngest daughter Mia, who is a self-confessed chocoholic, couldn’t believe her luck when she opened up the parcel.

Dr Oetker are running a competition, challenging UK bakers to come up with their most creative chocolate cupcake and I thought I might try my chances. One lucky baker will win the fantastic prize of a trip for two to New York City, the home of the cupcake. The closing date is 17 October 2013 if you fancy having a go too. Pop over to their Facebook page for more details on how to take part. Having seen the other hugely impressive entries, I don’t think I have even the slightest smidgen of a chance of winning anything but it’s the taking part that counts, as they say.

The cupcakes were a big hit at the school cake sale. Admittedly they’re a bit more of a faff than I’d usually go in for when it comes to decorating cupcakes but it was worth it to see the children’s faces when they spied them. And if you fancy a pretty-looking sweet treat, the love heart cookies on their own seem to go down rather well with the little ones.

Love heart cookies

Makes around 40 cookies – so you’ll have plenty left over to enjoy later

250g butter, softened
140g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
a drop or two of red food colouring
300g plain flour
pinch of salt
25g dark chocolate
hundreds and thousands

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract. Add a couple of drops of red food colouring and combine well.

Sift in the flour and salt and mix thoroughly to form a dough. You’ll need to get your hands in at this point.

Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking parchment until it is roughly half a centimetre thick.

Use a small heart-shaped cutter to cut out your cookies, or work freehand using a sharp knife.

Line a baking tray with more baking parchment and carefully lift the cookies onto the tray, spacing them apart a little.

Bake in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes until just firm to the touch. Remove from the tray and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Place the dark chocolate in a small bowl and melt in a microwave. Using a teaspoon, drizzle chocolate onto each love heart cookie and then sprinkle on some hundreds and thousands.

Chocolate chip cupcakes

Makes 12 – six chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate chips and six plain cupcakes with dark chocolate chips

125g butter, softened
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self-raising flour
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp cocoa powder, mixed with a few drops of water into a paste
25g white chocolate chips
25g dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

Put the butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla extract into a food processor and whizz until smooth. Add the milk and mix again.

Split the mixture equally between two separate bowls. Into the first add the cocoa paste and mix in carefully. Then add the white chocolate chips and stir until well dispersed through the mixture. Into the second bowl of plain mixture add the dark chocolate chips and again stir in.

Line a 12-bun muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the cupcakes are springy to the touch and just golden on top.

Remove the cakes from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Double chocolate and cream cheese marbled topping

100g cream cheese
200g icing sugar
75g white chocolate
75g dark chocolate

Scoop the cream cheese into a large bowl and sieve in the icing sugar. Beat together until thoroughly combined. Place half the mixture into a second bowl.

Place the white chocolate and dark chocolate into two separate bowls and melt in the microwave. Add the white chocolate to one bowl of topping mixture and the dark chocolate to the other. Combine well.

Place alternate spoonfuls of white chocolate and dark chocolate topping into a piping bag until it is full. Swirl a generous amount onto each of the cupcakes.

And finally, top with one of your pretty love heart cookies.

Disclosure: Dr Oetker provided me with a complimentary selection of cooking chocolate and cake decorations for this post. No money exchanged hands and all opinions are totally my own.

In the parcel I received 72% Extra Dark Fine Cooks’ Chocolate, 26% White Fine Cooks’ Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Chips, White Chocolate Chips, and Hundreds and Thousands, all of which I used in this recipe.

Floral honey party sandwiches

May 30, 2012Posted in RecipesTagged birthday party, children's party, floral, flower, honey, hundreds and thousands, Le Frufru, party food, recipe, sandwich7 Comments

Sometimes I am unashamedly girly and I make the most of the fact I have two young daughters as a good excuse to play with pink, fluffy, sparkly, flowery things.

When I happened upon Le Frufru’s beautiful blog recently, as I traced the source of some pretty pictures I’d come across on Pinterest, I fell in love with her sugary sweet sandwiches for children’s parties. I had to give them a go myself. My photographs are nowhere near as beautiful as the originals but you get the general idea.

I haven’t had the opportunity yet to actually make them for a party. I simply made them to give to the girls at tea time. And you can imagine how much they enjoyed them. Especially the way the hundreds and thousands clung to their lips as they took a bite.

Le Frufru’s blog is written in Italian and so I’m not entirely sure how she made her sandwiches but it doesn’t look complicated, does it?

I made mine by firstly trimming the crusts off white bread. Next the slices were cut into small squares and spread with butter. Using a flower-shaped pastry cutter, I cut out floral holes in half the squares and spread the remaining squares with runny honey. Finally I topped the honey slices with the floral slices and sprinkled into the hole a generous amount of hundreds and thousands.

Despite there being no baking involved, I’m entering these dainty little sandwiches into the Tea Time Treats blog challenge organised each month by Lavender & Lovage and What Kate Baked. This month Karen at Lavender & Lovage is hosting and the theme for May is Floral Flavours & Flowers. I thought my girly nibbles might (just) fit the bill.

Whether you make them for a girlie birthday party, a Jubilee street party, a dolls’ tea party or just a plain old back-from-school treat, I hope you enjoy! And of course you can use any shaped cutter you fancy, and use chocolate sprinkles instead of the classic hundreds and thousands.