French skipping

Do any of you remember doing French skipping when you were young? Something reminded me of it a while ago and I want to introduce it to Sophie now that the weather is getting better.

I always remember collecting lots of elastic bands to make a decent size loop. My sister is six and a half years older than me so we really didn't play much together as I was growing up, so French skipping was a great game for me to play on my own - I would just attach the ends of the elastic loop around the open gates at home and have fun trying to perfect the "routine".

I can't remember it all now but a little research brought up some suggestions that seem familiar ...

How to play

Find two friends, or one friend and an inanimate object. One person jumps, the others have the elastic round their legs. Three levels of difficulty - low (ankle), medium (mid-calf) and high (knee).

Rhymes

‘Chocolate cake, when you bake, How many minutes will you take? One, two, three, four.’

On ONE: jump up and land with left foot outside the elastic loop and your right foot inside.
On TWO: jump up and land with both feet together inside the elastic loop.

On THREE: jump up and land with both feet outside the elastic loop.
On Four: jump up and land sideways to the elastic, with your left foot on top of the back elastic and your right foot ahead (in front) of the front elastic.

If the current player doesn't manage to do the correct jump their turn is over and play passes to one of the people inside the circle of elastic, who then tries to outdo the previous player.

Here are more of the rhymes:

‘England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales Inside, outside, inside, on!’

You have to jump in a sequence. The first one is seven times, the second one is six times and so on.

• Sevens - facing one end, with one foot inside the elastic and one outside, you jump sideways so that the other foot is inside, then back again (seven jumps in total). If you touch the elastic, you are out.
• Sixes - facing one end, with one foot either side of the elastic (i.e. straddling the elastic). Jump and land with both feet inside the elastic. Six jumps in total (three in, three out). If you touch the elastic you are out.
• Fives - facing sideways, stand on one side of the elastic with your feet together. Jump forwards onto the other side of the elastic. Then jump backwards to the original side. Five jumps in total. If you don't end each jump with both feet firmly on the piece of elastic you are out.
• Fours - facing sideways, one foot under the elastic and one standing on top of the elastic. Jump to the other side, landing with one foot under the elastic and one on top.
• Three and Two are lost in time although I'm sure you can make them up as you go along!
• One - was twisting your legs around the elastic and then jumping high, so that the elastic had time to snap back into place, and landing with one foot on each piece of elastic.

I would love to hear if anyone can remember any more rhymes/actions for French skipping that I can teach Sophie ...

Moshi Monster party - the cake

Sophie decided she wanted a Moshi Monster birthday cake with individual moshlings on top rather than a cake in the shape of a moshling (which I was hoping for, as it would have been much easier!). I contacted the ever helpful Fans of Cake Baker on Facebook for ideas and some lovely ladies kindly supplied photos of cakes they had done. I had an idea of what I wanted to do and thankfully one of the photos matched the vague visions in my head and helped solidify the final design.

I started making the moshlings in fondant about three weeks ago, as I knew that they would need some time to harden up. I found some images online and then shrunk the images to the size I wanted the actual moshlings to be. Sophie and I chose six (as she was six): her favourite, Oddie the doughnut; Justin's favourite, Hansel the gingerbread man; and four others that she liked and I thought might be possible to make. I was very pleased with the finished moshlings, all except for the cupcake Cutie Pie which was the only one that I felt wasn't quite right.

I chose to make chocolate sponge (like soil under the green hill) and baked four layers to give me the height; I really need to invest in a set of matching cake tins as I only have one 9" tin which meant I had to mix and bake, mix and bake x 4. This was time consuming but did mean that each layer cooked perfectly.  I added a bit of fun by colouring the buttercream between each layer a different vibrant colour: blue, pink and yellow.

I also mastered a new skill by covering the cake and board in one go (rather than covering the board first and then the cake separately). I thought this might be tricky but it actually worked much better than I had hoped. 

I then decorated the cake with a few simple things (after all the moshlings were the main decoration): a fence, gate and some flowers. I embossed the strips of "fence" with a curly embosser (I don't have a wood effect one but will invest in one at some point) which added a bit of texture to the fence. The gate required a bit of thought to get it looking right but I was pleased with the end result. 

I added flowers growing up the fence and used Sophie's Buster's Lost Moshlings book for inspiration. These included an orange mushroom tree and some star blossoms in pink and blue. I added royal icing stems and leaves to these and glued some shimmery nonpareil around the bottom of the cake and in pools around the flowers.

I finished by adding Sophie's name and six tall candles and voila, one Moshi Monster cake all finished.

In addition to the main cake, I also made some faux ice-creams. I baked cupcakes in flat bottomed ice cream cones and then piped bright buttercream swirls and added some glitter. Advice on how to do this again from Fans of Cake Baker on Facebook: fill the cones two thirds full with cake batter and bake as normal, then once cool, prick the bottom of the cones to stop them going soggy. Perfect! 

I am pleased to say that the Moshi Monster cake falls into the same category as Justin's monster birthday cakes as one that "just makes me smile". I hope it does for you too ...

© 2012 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.

Moshi Monster 6th birthday party

Has it really been a month since I last posted anything? The silence was due to me working hard for Sophie's 6th birthday and party, but now that it's all over I can get back to normality (?) and give the low down on the fruits of my labour...

Sophie decided some time ago that she wanted a Moshi Monster party and no amount of persuading could get her to change her mind! So after trawling the net and being singularly unsuccessful in finding any ideas to "borrow" I had to create a party from scratch.

I was lucky that Moshi Monster party plates/cups/napkins recently became available and our local Sainsbury's stocked them at a better price than most of the online party companies. But I begrudge paying for invitations, especially when you only get eight in a pack and Sophie wanted to invite 20+ kids. So, as in previous years, I created my own. They seemed to be a big hit with the invitees!

So, the party went something like this (and thanks to our in-house party entertainer Jase who did a fantastic job as always in running the games and entertaining the kids - saves us a fortune not having a "professional" entertainer!) ...

Hanging dougnut game
As the party was straight after school on a Friday I knew I had to get food into the children as soon as possible, so we started with a really old game that has the children trying to eat a ring doughnut hanging on a string, without using their hands. This was the first time the children had done this and they really enjoyed it. I think most of them embraced the challenge and I didn't see any cheating!!

Find the Moshling game

I found some good quality images of moshlings which I put onto a check list for each child. I included the moshling names, as not all the children know as much about moshlings as Sophie does. They then had to find the small pictures of moshlings hidden around the room. Some were obvious, others downright tricky but they all seemed to find them in the end.

Once the game was finished, I collected the check lists and then handed them back out at the end of the party for them to put in their party bags and keep.

Pass the Parcel

I still haven't been brave enough to not put a prize in every layer and this meant that the game went on for what seemed like an eternity. If (and that's a big IF) Sophie has a party again next year, I swear that I will only do a small number of layers and put forfeits in some of the layers (after all they should all be able to read easily by the age of 7).

Oddie, Hansel and Cutie Pie (also known as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred)
We didn't get a chance to play this game, which was a shame as I wanted to see how well the children managed to understand the game but I thought I would include it here in case anyone else wants to borrow the idea.

The children forms teams of three and each member of the team calls themselves either Oddie, Hansel or Cutie Pie. The teams form a large circle with a bean bag in the middle. One name is called and that person has to run around the outside of the circle back to their team who join hands and make an arch. The running team member runs under the arch and tries to get the bean bag before anyone else. That team wins a point. First team to 3 points wins.

In addition to the organised games, I set up a couple of tables with some Moshi Monster colouring sheets and colouring pencils and a selection of temporary tattoos so that the kids had something to do when they had finished their doughnut challenge and Find the Moshling hunt.

The party bags were very simple this year and included:

- a pack of Moshi Monster Mash up trading cards (bought from The One Stop Moshi Monsters Shop with a fantastic 10% discount courtesy of Mummy Bird)

- a postcard from a booklet of Moshi Monster postcards

- and a selection of traditional sweets: black jacks, fruit salad, sherbet and mini love hearts.

The party seemed to go well and all the children seemed to have fun (apart from the birthday girl having a few meltdowns - but hey, who doesn't cry at their own party!) and they did really enjoy the Find the Moshling game and the doughnut game. I don't think I would do another party after school on a Friday ... I do think at this age that they were all tired and that it did impact on the children's behaviour/attention spans.

Next, the cake ...

© 2012 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.

Mini-cakes

It's my mother-in-law's birthday on Sunday and I wanted to make a birthday cake for her. But as they are emigrating to Australia in two weeks time it really needed to be a small cake - enough for everyone to have a slice on the day and be gone.

I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like (almost one of the first images of a cake I ever downloaded from the internet and virtually my first pin in Pinterest) and decided to bake the sponge (gluten free so Jase could share it) in small pyrex ramekins, rather than bake a larger cake which would have to be cut to size after baking. A small victoria sponge mix (4oz each of flour, margarine and sugar plus 2 eggs) filled four ramekins perfectly. The only disadvantage of using the ramekins was that they flare outwards slightly, so I did need to trim the baked sponges to be straight-edged, but that was a minor point for something that actually worked very well.

The sponges were quite tall, so I used two cakes and sliced them in half horizontally, creating four layers. This did make quite a tall cake which proved tricky when it came to covering with fondant. The height of the cake (in relation to the diameter of the top) meant that the fondant hung in pleats around the bottom when I placed it on and it started cracking towards the bottom of the cake when I began to smooth it. The first attempt cracked so much that I decided to lift it off and start again with another piece. This worked much better and although it still cracked a little, I was able to cover these cracks with the pink fondant bow around the bottom of the cake.

I was pleased with how the flower on the top came out, although I should have left the layers to dry slightly longer as the petals started breaking away from the middle part of the flower. This didn't show when it was all put together and I was pleased with how the petal edged looked after I had "frilled" them.

I had two other sponges left so decided to make one more (smaller) cake and the decoration for this was also inspired by a Pinterest pin (two pins in one go - my pin to make ratio must be quite high!)

This one has a dahlia type flower on the top made from cutting mini marshmallows in half diagonally and dipping in edible glitter. The glitter only sticks the inside cut part, and the result is a pretty, glittery petal. I then put a blob of buttercream on the top (I wasn't going to make royal icing just for that) and placed the "petals" in circles, starting at the outside and working my way in. Again, such a simple but very pretty cake.

And for those of you keeping count (I only used three of the four sponges I baked), I filled the last sponge with lemon curd and buttercream and we all shared it for tea!

© 2012 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.

Princess castle cake

My neighbour mentioned yesterday that she wants to make a princess castle cake for her daughter's birthday and I immediately lent her my cake bible (Debbie Brown 50 Easy Party Cakes) with the most gorgeous and simple castle cake in it.

I made this for Sophie's third birthday. Where Sophie's second birthday Miffy cake was a starting point for my home made/decorated cakes, this cake paved the way for the more polished and detailed cakes that I strive to make today. 

The bonus on this cake is that you use ready made swiss rolls, which can be bought from any supermarket, so the focus is totally on the decoration. This was the first time I covered the cake board and I wrapped the fondant over the edge of the board (rather than edge with ribbon, which I now think 

gives a neater finish - and is actually much easier!) 

The castle consists of three large swiss rolls and five mini jam rolls. Two of the mini rolls get a third taken off the top and that extra third gets added to two of the other rolls - this gives a range of heights for the mini towers adding extra interest to the cake. Each of the rolls (large and small) were then covered in buttercream and wrapped in white fondant. The join doesn't need to be perfect as you can arrange the towers with the seams hidden in the middle. A circle of fondant was then cut and placed on top of the rolls and the edges lightly smoothed. I cut a strip of fondant to wrap round the top of each of the larger towers and used a fork to make the indentations. 

Then the fun began ... each mini tower was topped with a pyramid of mini marshmallows in lovely pastel colours (bought from Lakeland). These were "glued" together with edible glue (CMC powder mixed with water). The white fondant was dusted with pink lustre dust to add a blush of colour and silver balls were glued around the cake like arrow slits. I used a slightly darker yellow fondant for the front door and some triangular windows. I also found a bag of fun marshmallows at our local corner shop and used these as extra decoration. Fantastically, the "stripy" shaped marshmallow made wonderful flowers when cut into slices. Silver balls were also pooled around the bottom of the castle.

Even four years on, I still love this cake, with its lovely colours and simple design.

© 2012 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.

Miffy cake (or where is all began)

I can't believe my little girl will be 6 in less than one month - where has that time gone? So in a reminiscent mood I thought I would post about the first birthday cake I ever made for my little ones.

I always thought I could do a decent job of any birthday cake but for Sophie's first birthday we opted to get a "professional" to make her a chocolate number 1. The resulting cake was disappointing and so I decided that I would make the cakes myself in future. Sophie's second birthday had a Miffy theme and I wanted to make her a cake to fit the theme. I opted to do just the head and ears (rather than the whole body) and wanted to try covering it in fondant icing (which I had never used before). My wonderful mother agreed to help and we set aside two full days to bake and decorate the cake.

We baked a round cake then trimmed it to be slightly oval and cut two ears from another piece of cake. Despite the number of images of Miffy everywhere, it was quite hard to create a template as each of the images has very different ears (it's true - take a look for yourself!). I opted for an image of Miffy with more rounded ears and cut the template out of paper. I then placed these on the sponges and carved around the different pieces.

I still feel proud of the finished cake and even with more experience there aren't many things I would change (except for the uncovered board!). I twisted a rope of fondant and placed this to hide the join between the ears and the head and then added little flowers to make it prettier. I also stacked some fondant flowers to stand the candles in - rather than putting them in Miffy's head - ouch!

Overall, a very simple but cute cake which was the start of my cake journey!

© 2012 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.

Herman, the German friendship cake

I recently saw one of the school mum's passing on a strange bowl of gloop to someone and, my curiosity piqued, I had to ask her what it was. She told me that it was a German friendship cake and that if I wanted she would "grow" me one but that it would take a week or so. 

I forgot all about it but 10 days later she duly handed over Herman with a printed sheet of instructions and off we went.

This is Herman on Day 1

Herman (as he is affectionately called) is a sour dough and you have to look after him for 10 days, stirring daily and feeding him twice before baking him. The mixture bubbles away in a very satisfying fashion ...

But why is he called a friendship cake I hear you ask? Well, before you bake him, you split him into four portions. Portion 1 gets baked, portions 2 and 3 get passed to friends and portion 4 grows you a whole new "Son of Herman".

I baked Herman today, adding apple, raisins and almond flakes and he smells and looks delicious.

I had difficulty getting him out of the tin and he broke apart but that could be that I was too impatient and didn't wait until he was fully cold or that I didn't line the tin with greaseproof paper which would have stopped this. As a result I haven't been able to get many presentable "fingers" but never mind - the crumbs taste just as delicious and that way I don't know how many pieces I have actually eaten and so don't need to feel too guilty!

The sons of Herman have already been adopted (one is being called Hector and the other's name is still to be decided) and I hope that their new families have as much fun with them as I have with Herman!!

Below are the instructions I was given.

German Friendship Cake (Herman Cake)

What to do if I give you a Herman cake.

Hi, my name is Herman and I’m a sour dough cake. I'm supposed to sit on your worktop, without a lid on, for 10 days, during which time you should feed me. 

You should not put me in the fridge or I will die. If I stop bubbling, I am dead.

Day 1: Put me in a large mixing bowl (2+ litres) and cover loosely with a tea towel or cling film.
Day 2: Stir well
Day 3: Stir well
Day 4: Now I need feeding. Add 1 cup each of plain flour, sugar and milk. Stir well
Day 5: Stir well
Day 6: Stir well
Day 7: Stir well
Day 8: Stir well
Day 9: I’m hungry again! Add the same ingredients as Day 4 and stir well. Now divide me into 4 equal portions. Give portions 2 and 3 away to friends with a copy of these instructions.
Keep portion 4 for your next cake and follow these instructions to grow me again.
Day 10: Now you are ready to make the cake:
Stir well and add the following:
1 cup sugar 

1/2 tsp salt
2 cups plain flour
2/3 cup of cooking oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 cooking apples cut into chunks
1 cup raisins
2 heaped tsp cinnamon
2 heaped tsp baking powder 

Optional extras like cherries, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut etc

Mix everything together and put into a large greased baking tin. Sprinkle with a 1/4 cup of brown sugar and a 1/4 cup of melted butter.
Bake for 45 minutes at 170‐ 180C.

When cold cut into finger pieces.
The cake freezes well and is also delicious warm with cream or ice‐cream.

Thanks to the website Herman the German friendship cake for also posting instructions on how to start your very own Herman.

Starting Your Own Herman
Ingredients:
460g flour
500ml milk
230g sugar
90ml warm water
2 tbsp active dry yeast

Instructions:
Sprinkle 1tbsp of sugar over the warm water
Sprinkle the yeast over this and leave in a warm place for around 10 minutes, as it grows to twice its size
Mix in the milk, sugar, flour to the yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon
Cover the bowl loosely with something like a tea towel
Keep in a warm place and stir. When you are ready, follow the 10 day cycle to make your Herman cake.