Best of my days

I found a gorgeous idea from Under the Sycamore called Best of My Days": it's basically a diary but with a twist.

The idea behind it is that you find something that has made you feel good/special in each day and write this down at the end of the day. That way, when you are having a not-so-good time you can pick up your Best of My Days and remind yourself that things aren't always so bad. It also helps you focus on the positive which hopefully brightens every day just a little bit more.

So this is for those of my friends going through a tough time at the moment - I'm thinking of you and hoping that next year will bring you lots of fun and special times. xx

Elf update 2

Our elves have been very busy getting up to all sorts of mischief. Since the last update, they have:
- hidden in a cupboard after emptying all the tins and food out

- had a race on the police car and "green sheep" - and all to play for on the last race

- dressed up as Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi and recreated the famous battle scene in our picture

- played Where's Moshi (Sophie's favourite game)

- pretended the bath was a swimming pool, complete with swimmers, goggles and toys

- propped the ironing board against the sofa, covered everything with white sheets and used a tray to toboggan down

 - had a tea party with some teddy friends, Santa and Frosty

- played We wish you a merry Christmas on the piano at Nana's house when we went for early Christmas

 - watched Christmas movies with popcorn, chocolates and lemonade

 - had a cotton wool snowball fight with one of the Santas

 - made paper snowflakes

 - played with all Justin's cars and set up a ramp for them to race down

 - made music with wooden spoons and pots and pans

 - built a huge tower out of wooden blocks under the kitchen table

 - took a balloon flight by attaching helium balloons to a basket

 - took all the presents out from under the Christmas tree

 - got the stockings out and fell in trying to put some chocolate coins in

Not long now until the big day when they make their report to Father Christmas and head back to the North Pole for a well deserved break ...

This year's Christmas cake - 2011

I have just finished decorating my Christmas cake and overall I am quite pleased with the finished look.

I bought a ready made un-iced fruit cake from M&S and then had to remind myself what I had been taught on my cake decorating course last year about covering with marzipan and icing. I think I got it right: I filled the imperfections/dents in the cake with small balls of marzipan then made apricot glaze which I spread onto the cake before covering with a thin layer of marzipan; I then rubbed some vodka over the marzipan before topping with white fondant icing. I left it for a week for the fondant to harden slightly and the cake was then ready to decorate.

I had decided some time ago that I wanted to do something with gingerbread men. When it came down to it I just couldn't get inspired but I trawled the net and pinned them all to a board on Pinterest and ultimately found a greetings card that I liked the look of.

The next thing to sort was the gingham. There is a group on Facebook (Fans of Cake Baker) which contains the most helpful cakey people and I asked them for advice. Within about five minutes of posting my question, I had a selection of helpful responses, of which one was buying a cake topper sheet of fondant with red gingham printed on in edible inks. This arrived within two days of ordering and I then set to putting the design together.

I cut a square of the gingham and attached it to the cake with water. My gingerbread man cutter turned out to be too small so I printed out an image I liked, cut out the template and cut around that onto the gingerbread coloured fondant (made from chestnut brown and yellow colouring). I then made some red buttons with my button mould and cut some stars out in the gingerbread coloured fondant and attached these around the cake alternating with some gingham stars. I created the gingham ones by sticking the gingham topper to a thin roll of white fondant and cutting the stars from this. I was using a plastic cutter so the shape was not as clean as I would have liked but I think it would work better with a metal cutter.

I had to stop at this point and although I was pleased with how it was coming together, I really felt that it wasn't looking very Christmassy.

Thankfully, my lovely sister-in-law suggested that I put a santa hat on the gingerbread man and that finally gave me the inspiration I was looking for. I added some ric-rac on the legs and arms and a holly decoration (not edible) on the hat. 

I finished off with some pearl lustre spray. It was my first time using this in an aerosol form and I went a bit mad and also held it a bit close in some places so it pooled and left tide marks. It also gave the white fondant an antique feel which sort of works for this design. 

The sad thing now is that I promised my sister that she could have half the cake for her Christmas celebrations - but where do I cut it? Think she can have the legs!

Merry Christmas everyone - I hope that you all have a fun holiday period full of yummy food.

© 2011 Nicola Noble

Beetroot brownies

Mr Snowballs has decided he wants to juice! So I ordered a juice box from Abel & Cole and this lovely box of fruit and veg came with a ridiculous amount of beetroot. I can't bear beetroot - the earthiness is something I have never developed a taste for. Rather than force myself to drink gallons of pink, earthy juice (although I do have to admit that in moderation and seriously diluted with other things such as carrot, celery and ginger it's okay) I searched for recipes to use at least some of the remaining beetroot up. I came across a beetroot brownie recipe on BBC Good Food website.

The comments all say that the beetroot makes the brownies really moist, so I decided to make them using gluten free flour, in the hope that the moistness of the beetroot compensated for the dryness that is gluten free baking. I also didn't have the right amount of dark chocolate (the recipe states 200g of 70% cocoa) but did have 130g of 100% pure cocoa (the unbelievable Willie's Supreme Cocoa) which I thought would work well.

It is a very simple recipe to do and didn't actually take too long to make. I didn't sift the flour properly so the finished brownie had the odd tiny ball of flour but not enough to cause a problem.

And the verdict?

Really good!!! There was no hint of the earthiness of beetroot (I think the 100% cocoa probably helped drown this out) and they are unbelievably moist and sticky. They also have a delightful pink tint to them which is very appealing. I have tested them on a number of people and very few of them have guessed the secret ingredient. I will definitely be making these again - although this time it will probably be with the 70%  chocolate the recipe states as I have run out of my super strength cocoa. It will be interesting to see if this makes a big difference ...

Elf update

Santa's magic elves have been with us for 5 days and have got up to lots of mischief already. So far they have:

- tried to draw a picture of Sophie's favourite cuddly, Boingy, on the chalk board. They caused havoc with the toys whilst trying to climb up high enough to reach

- taken a shower in the dishwasher, complete with soap, reindeer flannel and elf size towel

 - tried to be helpful by decorating the christmas tree, with Sophie and Justin's pants!

- cooled down with some magic snow. They were obviously missing the North Pole ...

I wonder what they will get up to next?

Reindeer noses

As mentioned previously, I am in love with Pinterest ... but as also mentioned, it is easy to pin a million great ideas but not so easy to actually find the time to have a go at them. So tonight I can feel proud of myself for completing my second Pinterest project.


I spotted the very cute idea of a bag of (edible) reindeer noses from A Personal Touch and had to have a go at these for Sophie to give to some of her friends this Christmas.

I bought some gobstoppers from our local retro sweet shop (Sweet Memories of Twickenham) who very kindly picked out all the red ones for me and also a couple of large bags of Maltesers. Then tonight I popped 8 brown noses and one red nose into clear bags and made some labels to go on the top.

I decided to hand draw the labels rather than try to create them on the computer. This goes against the grain of a perfectionist who likes every copy to be identical, but I am pleased with how they came out and think it suits the simpleness of the gift.  I borrowed one of Sophie's glitter gel pens to colour the nose - you can't see the sparkle of the red nose in the photo - and I stamped a few snowflakes in silver. I wanted to get the photos on here tonight so they aren't great quality - I will try and take some better ones in daylight.

Let's hope Sophie likes them ...

© 2011 Nicola Noble

Magic Christmas Elves

Having first discovered about Magic Christmas Elves from Alayna at Alayna's Creations, I really hoped that we would get visited by our own Elves so that they could become part of our family Christmas traditions. I must have been good because my wish came true!

We thought that the elves would arrive down our chimney on the 1 December but they arrived a few days earlier, together with an introductory letter from Santa and the elves' passports and were waiting for Sophie and Justin to discover them in the morning when they came down for breakfast.

Sophie spotted them in the lounge that morning and the excited laughter told us she had found them in a sprinkling of snow with an envelope on their laps. Justin didn't really understand what was going on but joined in the laughter and gave the boy elf a huge cuddle.

The envelope contained the letter from Santa:

Dear  Sophie and  Justin

Thank you for your letters. I have made a note of the gifts you would like and will see what I can do.

As you are now nearly 6 and 3 years old, I am sending these Magic Christmas Elves to stay with you until Christmas Eve. They help me by visiting girls and boys in the run up to Christmas and reporting back on each child’s behaviour. When I arrive on Christmas Eve they will present their report on whether you have been good and then return to my Workshop in the North Pole for a well-earned holiday.Thank you for your letters. I have made a note of the gifts you would like and will see what I can do.Thank you for your letters. I have made a note of the gifts you would like and will see what I can do.Thank you for your letters. I have made a note of the gifts you would like and will see what I can do.Thank you for your letters. I have made a note of the gifts you would like and will see what I can do.

As you are now nearly 6 and 3 years old, I am sending these Magic Christmas Elves to stay with you until Christmas Eve. They help me by visiting girls and boys in the run up to Christmas and reporting back on each child’s behaviour. When I arrive on Christmas Eve they will present their report on whether you have been good and then return to my Workshop in the North Pole for a well-earned holiday.

Be wary! The Elves will explore your house from top to bottom in order to make a proper report; you may have to search to find them each day . I must also add that I have been made aware of prior incidents of Elf Mischief on the part of these Elves. Should any such Elf Mischief occur, please feel free to contact me at the North Pole.

Have fun with with your new friends and see you soon.

Love
Santa

And the passports told us that the elves were called Colin Snow and Sally Flake. They are both 142 years old and were born in Santa's workshop at the North Pole.

Sophie promptly told us that it wasn't snow but was in fact flour (she tasted it). Must have been magic snow!

So now we have two very magical elves roaming our house and getting into all sorts of mischief. Watch this space for a report on all the elf antics over the next month ...