A family of robins on our Christmas cake

I know I am very late posting about Christmas still but I wanted to share our Christmas cake for last year.

This year I decided I would do something a little different with our Christmas cake and make decorating the cake a family affair. So one morning we all sat down (including Mr Snowballs) and each of us made a little robin to sit on top of the cake.

I had already covered the fruit cake with marzipan and white fondant and added an icy blue pond and a big brown log.

The robins were very simple to make. All you need is:

- 1 x big ball of brown fondant (body)

- 2 x small balls of brown fondant (wings)

- 1 x medium ball red fondant (chest)

- 1 x large ball red fondant (hat)

- 1 x small ball yellow fondant (beak)

- 1 x medium ball white fondant (hat fur)

- 1 x small ball white fondant (hat bobble)

- edible glue/ cooled boiled water/ vodka!

1. Take the big ball of brown fondant and flatten slightly on the bottom so the robin stands up.

2. Flatten the two small balls of brown fondant to make the wings and attach to the sides of the robin's body using the glue/water/vodka.

3. Flatten the medium ball of red fondant and attach to the robin's body for the red chest.

4. Shape the yellow fondant into a beak and attach to the robin's body at the top of the red breast.

5. Slightly flatten the medium ball of white fondant to create the fur trim on the hat.

6. Shape the large ball of red fondant into a cone and bend the top over to create a Christmas hat shape.

7. Attach the small ball of white fondant to the end of the hat.

8. Using a cocktail stick (or similar pointy object) give your robin some eyes!

We also made a fir tree using a large cone of dark green fondant and a pair of scissors to create the texture (by making small cuts in an upward direction around the tree) and covered it in dark green glitter, It was topped with a gold star (fixed to the tree using a small piece of dried spaghetti). The pond was coated with piping gel to make it look icy and the robins were placed around it.

Finally, we added little brown branches, holly leaves and berries around the bottom of the cake and a sprinkling of glitter and icing sugar for snow.

The Snowball family did a great job with each of their robins and I hope this will become a new family tradition  - next year penguins or polar bears? What do you think?

© 2015 Nicola Noble & Little Love Cakes: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Magic Elves 2014

So January had been and gone and I have only just managed to find the time to post the update  about our Christmas visitors.

Sally and Colin came with us to visit Father Christmas. He was very pleased to see them and asked if they had been behaving themselves (and if Sophie and Justin had been behaving themselves too!)

That night they staged an identity parade to find the imposter Father Christmas!

Colin donned his work clothes again to make some cute wooden elf gift tags.

The following night they were found hiding under a big box with another book Katie's London Christmas, to go with the other Katie in London books we have.

This was followed by Boingy and bunny being taught how to write "Elves are our friends"

I think the toy soldiers had had enough of all the naughtiness and decided to tie Sally and Colin up for trying to steal some marshmallows ...

On Christmas Eve morning, Sally and Colin were hiding behind the curtains with new nightclothes for Sophie and Justin. This has become a bit of a tradition.

Sophie and Justin said their goodbyes to Sally and Colin on Christmas Eve night and gave them extra cuddles as they went to sleep ...

... only to discover them still with us on Christmas morning! They were hiding behind the sofa with some big presents from Father Christmas (I'm sure it was them that hid it and not something FC would have done!). It seems they were allowed to stay a couple of extra days to make up for missing the first day due to the snowstorm.

Sophie and Justin really enjoyed having Sally and Colin help them open their presents and playing with them with their new toys. They stayed a few more days and then one morning, Sophie and Justin woke up to find a little thank you note and some sweeties and snow and they'd gone!

We hope to see you again next Christmas and thanks for a fun time Sally and Colin x

So here's a round-up of the elf antics this year:

1 - Telegram from Elves saying they are stuck at the airport due to a snow storm and that the should be arriving tomorrow
2 - They arrive in their felt bags with snowflakes everywhere
3 - Blank letters to write Christmas lists with a special felt envelope to post them to Father Christmas
4 - Reading The great dog bottom swap book to all the doggies in the house
5 - Playing connect 4 (big version with big elves)
6 - Playing connect 4 (mini version with mini elves)
7 - Hiding under the duvet with the Big Book of Crazy Mix-Ups
8 - Toasting marshmallows over playmobil pirate fire (mini version with mini elves); Large marshmallows on a plate with a sign Eat me
9 - Toasting marshmallows (big version with big elves)
10 - Toymaker Colin made wooden dancing elf ornaments
11 - Making snowmen from toilet rolls and hiding in the cupboard
12 - Cookie Maker Sally made Pecan & caramel plaits, followed by pretzels
13 - Elf crime - drawn on Mr & Mrs Snowballs' faces in the night
14 - Sally in her cookie outfit with a big plate of cookies for Cookie Monsters
15 - Naughty or nice list for teddies
16 - Trying to steal money from money boxes - wearing burglar masks with an envelope labelled Swag and climbing up a rope to get to them
17 - Sunbathing, wearing sunglasses, sun cream, towels, glass with straw and picture of sun
18 - Playing toss the marshmallows into the Costa Coffee Christmas cups
19 - Toymaker Colin making wooden elf gift tags
20 - Father Christmas Wanted poster and identity parade of all the Father Christmases in the house
21 - Hiding under a big box with another book Katie's London Christmas
22 - Teaching teddies - "elves are your friends" written on black/whiteboard
23 - Captured by toy soldiers and tied up
24 - Hiding behind the curtains with new nightclothes
25 - They got to stay for a few extra days as they were delayed at the start of December

© 2015 Nicola Noble & Little Love Cakes: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Twinkle, twinkle little star - Christmas gifts for BFFs

Each year I organise for Sophie to give some of her friends little Christmas gifts.

Last year we made "stained glass window" gingerbread biscuits ...

... the year before it was marshmallow snowmen gifts ...

and the year before it was reindeer noses:

This year I came across some pretty sparkly ribbon bracelets in a local shop. I bought one for each of her three BFFs (and one for her of course) and as an extra bonus they came in matching chiffon bags.

We personalized them with a sparkly star (template made by Sophie) and added a poem:

Twinkle twinkle little star

Thank you friend for who you are.

Bracelet sparkling like that star

Friends forever, that's who we are. 

© 2014 Nicola Noble & Little Love Cakes: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas ...

It's that time of year again when we get little visitors to our house ... Sally and Colin, the Magic Elves, joined us again for what is turning out to be another fun and mischievous December. I cannot believe that it's their fourth year with us!

They didn't arrive on the 1st December this year as they were snowed in at the North Pole, but they did manage to send Sophie & Justin a telegram to let them know they were arriving soon, posted down the chimney with a few snowflakes still attached.

The next night they provided blank letters for Father Christmas, a gentle reminder for the children to write their letters. They also gave us a lovely felt envelope to pop the letters in to make sure they reached FC super quick.

They then got Father Christmas to read The Great Dog Bottom Swap story to all the doggies in the house. Mr Snowballs has been telling us all that story for years and it is good to see it's actually real!

Sally and Colin then decided to have fun on our half constructed Christmas tree with a game of Connect 4. It looked to be a tie...

We are not sure what happened on the sixth night, but we woke up the next morning to find that Sally and Colin had shrunk and were playing mini Connect 4. It was a tie again!

 

Sleepover at the Grandparents found them hiding under a cushion den under a duvet...

Back home again and they had a marshmallow toasting session over the playmobil pirate campfire, using pirate swords as skewers.

We were beginning to wonder if Sally and Colin were ever going to return to normal size again, when we discovered them during the day with a bowl with some giant marshmallows and a note Eat Me! Sophie and Justin obliged and ...

 

... hooray, the next day they were back to normal. Still toasting marshmallows but this time normal size elves with normal size marshmallows!

On their tenth night with us, Colin showed us what his job at the North Pole is, by putting on his work clothes. It turns out he is a toymaker, and he made two wooden dancing elves. Thankfully the paint was dry by the morning.

The Elves hid very well the next night - they were in the bathroom cabinet and they had decorated some toilet rolls to look like snowmen ...

It was Sally's turn to show us her job at the North Pole, when she donned her Cookie Maker apron and chef's hat and made some yummy pecan and caramel plaits for breakfast. Sadly, the kiddies didn't  ike them,  so she whipped up a couple of pretzels while we were all out, ready for the post-school hunger pangs.

On the 13th night, Sally and Colin were very, very naughty. They decided it would be funny to draw all over my and Mr Snowballs face. The children thought it hilarious, us not so much. I only forgave them because it washed off. Thank goodness they didn't find the Sharpies!

Sally was Cookie Maker again the next night and made some yummy white chocolate cookies for our resident Cookie Monsters. Sally and Colin obviously didn't want to scare them, as they were hiding on the other side of the kitchen window watching them.

They decided to make a list on the white board of naughty or nice teddies. Sophie and Justin's best favourites were on the Nice list, but I do think Sally and Colin were a little harsh on the Naughty list - after all Sally had just made cookies for Cookie Monster and it's not Kiwi's fault he jumps on Sophie's bed - he can't fly!

Being mischievous again, they donned burglar masks and had bags labelled Swag, then climbed some ropes to steal money from Sophie and Justin's money boxes. I think they must have run out of time though as they didn't manage to get any ...

Two nights ago Sally and Colin were obviously dreaming of warmer climes and set up a sunbathing spot: suncream, tall drinks, sunglasses, coconut and "sun'.

And last night, they somehow managed to get hold of some cool snowmen and Father Christmas cups from Costa Coffee and played a game of toss with giant snowball marshmallows and mini marshmallows.

I can't believed there's only one week to go until Sally and Colin head back to the North Pole with Father Christmas but there is still plenty of time for Elf-tastic frolics ...

© 2014 Nicola Noble & Little Love Cakes: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look. 

Christmas craft fair - more Christmas decorations

I haven't had a chance to write a blog post for a little while and although Christmas seems such a long time ago, I wanted to share the last of the Christmas related crafts we made for our school Craft Fair.

We had some plain white tiles which we made into Christmas decorations. I added the letters NOEL in red glitter paper and silver sparkl snowflakes to some ...

... and I decorated others with Christmas trees in pink and green glitter foam.

I painted the edges of the tiles to give a neat finish: cream on the Noel tiles and green on the Christmas tree tiles.

I was inspired once again by something I found on Pinterest: a simple tree made by folding a semicircle of card. I used the large scallop Bigz die which I then cut in half. It took me a few attempts to get the fold just right but once I had a template, the folding was very quick and easy. I added a glittery star to the top of each tree to finish it off.

I then punched two small holes at the top of each tree and threaded the trees onto some bakers twine for simple bunting. I found it was neater to add the star after the tree had been threaded (see the two pictures above for the difference).

I also cut some letters out in matching paper, punched two small holes into the top of each letter and threaded onto the twine. The only one that caused me problems was the A as I couldn't get the two holes next to each other - making the letter slightly lopsided!

I also made a simple Christmas card with the folded tree, although I didn't make any to sell at the fair. 

The last Christmas thing we made was some cute reindeer food. Some muesli and edible glitter was put into small bags then sealed using the Top Note die folded in half and stapled over the top of the bag. A red glitter circle for Rudolph's nose, white circle eyes with a black dot in the middle and some leafy antlers and it was ready to go. All finished off with a cute poem found via Pinterest! These were incredibly popular at the Fair and we even had people asking for some afterwards ...

We did make lots of other things for the fair (not Christmas related) and I'll be posting details of these soon! 

© 2014 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.