Valentines Cupcakes

We've gone right back to basics for this weeks bake. Sometimes the simple recipes can be the nicest - not everything has to be fancy and exotic!

Ingredients 

 

100g self raising flour 

100g caster sugar 

100g butter 

2 eggs 

15ml whole milk

1/2tsp baking powder 

Red food colour (use as much or little as you want depending how red you want the buns!)

Icing sugar and sprinkle for topping 

********preheat oven to 180degs

Add the butter, sugar, milk, and eggs into a bowl and mix together really well until there are no lumps of butter.

Add the flour and baking powder and mix again. I also added the food colouring at this point - but I did this myself as I use Wilton food gel which is super strong!!

Pop the bun cases into the baking tray and then spoon in the mixture. This is the best time to get a taste of the yummy cakes! 

The buns take around 15-20 long minutes to cook. You don't have to sit and watch them the whole time, but the Zebra likes to! 

Stir a little water and food colour in with the icing sugar and then pour over the buns. Sprinkle on some hundred and thousands. Then grab a cake and shove it in your mouth before mummy can stop you! Serves her right for decorating cakes right before lunch time... 

Happy Valentine's Day Zebras x

Quack Quack!

One of the Zebra's favourite things right now is to feed the ducks, but with this rubbish weather we aren't able to get out often... So we've decided to bring the ducks inside!

The feathers are optional, the craft works well with just the prints, but we love to glue with "tickle-tickles"!

The Zebra is so good at hand and footprints now, she barely needs any help from mummy...

On one piece of card, print two yellow feet, and then two brown hands on the other. Let them dry before glueing.

Spread a little bit of pva over the body of the duck, then stick on any coloured feathers you want!

To make the Mallard duck, cut out a head and neck shape in green, a beak in orange, and glue down a googely eye...

For the rubber duck, use yellow paint to make a big round head, and then stick on the beak and eyes 

They may not be the real thing, but they are cute enough to do till spring! 

Rainbows

The Zebra saw a rainbow in the sky this morning and just loved it, so this afternoon we tried to make our own!

You can use 7 different paints, or just use the base 4 and mix them for the orange, green and violet.

We've been learning colours recently, so I've cut a piece of card into 7 strips to make colour flash-cards.

The Zebra had an amazing time painting all the different strips in every colour! 

And it wasn't just the strips that got coloured! How fab is this backing paper :) 

Valentine's Day Cards

Love is in the air!! I may be single, but that doesn't stop us spreading a little love (and glitter)!!

Missing from this picture is the heart shaped cookie-cutter to make the glitter shapes! If you don't have one, just cut a heart shape from cardboard to use as a stencil.

We started with our hand and footprints! The Zebra just loves getting her toes painted.

On one piece of card, stamp a foot in the middle of the page - this is for the love bug. 

Using black pen or paint, colour in the heel of the foot to make a head, draw on some feelers and legs, and then decorate the body. If you have googely eyes you can also use them! 

For the word art, have two pieces of paper horizontally. On one do the handprint on the right hand side, on the other use two feet to make a 'V' on the left hand side.

Use glue to mark out a L and a E. Cover in as much glitter as you can! Stick the two pieces together to make Love x

 

Using the heart cutter or stencil, glue around the outside several times on the piece of card.

Time to bring the glitter out again!

These would all make a great cards for valentines, or even just to have as a pictures! 

Here's hoping you have a lovely day, what ever your plans xx

Bread and Butter Pudding

Could this possibly the ultimate comfort food? It certainly felt like a treat to me since adapting a low-carb & low-sugar lifestyle!!

Ingredients:

• 25g soft or spreadable butter
• 1/2 loaf of bread
• 50g sultanas, raisins or other dried fruit
• 2 tsp cinnamon 
• 350ml milk 
• 50ml double cream 
• 2 eggs 
• 25g caster sugar
• nutmeg - shake to taste 

****preheat oven to  180degs

It's best to use older bread. As I keep my bread in the freezer to keep it from going stale, I had to remember to leave a loaf out for 24 hours! 

Use grease proof paper to butter the dish. We had to make two puddings so as well as doubling the ingredients, we had two dishes to prepare. 

Butter all the bread and cut into quarters. This was the first time the Zebra was allowed to use a butter knife and she had great fun.

Use a third of the bread to make the bottom layer, sprinkle on a third of the fruit and then shake on some nutmeg. Repeat twice until all ingredients are used and the dish is filled.

Asd the milk and cream to a pan and stir until it's really hot, but do not let it boil!

Whisk together the cinnamon, eggs and 3/4's of the sugar. When the milk & cream is ready, stir it in slowly.

Pour the mixture over the layered bread and then top with the remaining sugar. Leave for at least half an hour to set before you pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.

So tasty and warming - Total stodge but extra yummy!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Happy new year - Chinese new year that is!

Today begins the year of the fire monkey and to respect the Spring Festival we have created an oriental cherry blossom tree.

Other than the usual materials, you will need an empty plastic bottle - the smaller the better!

I used pink, purple and white paint to give a variety of colours, and spread it thinly onto a plate so the picture didn't get lagged!

This is the tricky bit! Using a black marker draw a tree onto card. I drew lots of wiggly lines heading up and out, then made them thicker to look like branches.

Then it's over to the Zebra! Dip the bottom of the bottle into the paint and then stamp all acros the tree to give it the blossoms. She really enjoyed making the pink prints all over the page, in fact she was so engrossed there wasn't a single bit of paint on her toes!!

                     恭喜发财  恭喜發財 

Footprint Butterfly

We are slowly heading towards spring so time to make some bright, pretty crafts!

You can use any paints, but I love these pastel shades for a spring butterfly.

Squirt the paint into lines on a plate, then press their foot straight into it. I had some paper down to dab the excess paint off before printing onto the card. 

The Zebra just adores painting with her feet and had great fun stamping her mark!

Once he prints have dried, draw a butterfly wing shape around one foot. Cut it out and use it as a template for the other foot.

Draw and colour a black head and body on the scrap paper left over and cut it out. 

Glue the body and wings down and stick on some eyes. Twirl a pipe cleaner round a pencil to make the antenna and then stick to the head.

Ta-Dah! A beautiful butterfly waiting for the sunshine.