Tag Archives: Halloween

Trick or Treacle?

Although we don’t take the children trick or treating I can’t resist making some sweet treats with them. This Halloween Lyle’s has revamped their traditional black treacle with the name ‘Trick or Treacle’ and turned the entire tin into a pumpkin head. It’s a really lovely collectable item so I snapped one up to go with my Lyle’s ‘Happy and Glorious’ Golden Syrup from the summer. They make great pen pots!

Trick or TreacleDid you know you can use black treacle to make lots of yummy treats? There are some great recipes floating around for Halloween – how about Witches’ ribs with Vampire toast for a savoury treat or popcorn toffee apples if you have a sweet tooth?

I thought I would make something we could all enjoy so had a look through the recipes on Lyle’s website and made some delicious Sticky Ginger Fairy Cakes. The recipe said it would make 12 but we ended up with 24, it’s a good job they taste good.

sticky ginger fairy cakes

Whilst we were baking this afternoon we were listening to a preview of the new CBeebies album which features all the best songs from the channel. It’s a 50-track, 2 CD collection and includes songs from their biggest shows and characters. We enjoyed listening (and dancing!) to our favourites, such as Andy’s Wild Adventures, Postman Pat and Justin’s House.

For the first time ever you can get some of the biggest songs from the CBeebies Presenters too. So if you’ve ever longed to sing along to “The Birthday Song” or my favourite “It’s The Weekend”, you must buy this album. You won’t be able to stop yourself humming along!

Lyle’s Limited Edition ‘Trick Or Treacle’ features three collectable pumpkin designs which will bring even more theatre to the baking experience. Lyle’s Trick or Treacle is currently available in Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda and Waitrose stores nationwide.

The CBeebies album is out on November 5th and would make a great gift for any pre-schooler.

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Win a Halloween party kit with Duracell

I’m sure we’re not the only family who go through a lot of batteries. The toddler has some really noisy toys and he often has a little pile of toys waiting for daddy to replace their batteries when he comes home from work. I was recently contacted by Duracell  to see if I wanted to take part in a fun Halloween challenge.

We were sent a Halloween party pack with everything we needed to hold our own spooky party, including decorations, music and games to play in the dark made, which were made even spookier by using a torch, run by part-powered batteries that had been rescued from the recycling stream.

To help prevent future batteries being sent to the recycling bin before their time is up, we were also sent a pack of Duracell Ultra with Powercheck. The unique built-in Powercheck technology is like having x-ray vision, allowing you to see the power left inside so you can squeeze out every last drop of available battery juice. It’s as simple as pressing the white circles on each side of the battery and the gauge will indicate how much power is left.

Watch one of the most iconic bunnies, the Duracell Bunny, transform into an impressive light
sculpture, showcasing how batteries which people have presumed ‘dead’ could still have useful power
inside and can be given a second life.

The video was produced by Duracell to demonstrate that a staggering one third of alkaline batteries
thrown away may still have up to 67 per cent of usable power left inside.

Giveaway:

To get you into the Halloween spirit I have an identical Halloween party kit to giveaway to one lucky reader of the gingerbread house. The party pack includes a torch, Halloween projector torch, 100 Hits Halloween CD, a crafty kit to make your own Halloween mask, Halloween decorations, and of course a pack of Duracell Ultra Power AA batteries.

For your chance to win take a look at the video and answer this easy question about the sculpture. How many reclaimed battery operated devices make up the Duracell Bunny’s tshirt?

For an extra entry tell others about the competition using the Retweet button below or tweet this message: I want to #win a Halloween party pack with Duracell and @gingerbread_mum

For a final extra entry subscribe to the gingerbread house via RSS or follow me via Networked Blogs.

Small print:

The prize consists of a Halloween party pack. The giveaway ends October 26th at midday. The winner will be selected at random from all the correct entries received and notified by email or their twitter handle. The prize is as stated: no cash alternatives are available. The prize will be sent out by the PR company who will try and deliver the prize in time for Halloween. This competition is open to UK entrants only.

*****The winner is Maria Jane Knight*****

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Spooky marshmallow treats

We’re not big on celebrating Halloween but I can’t resist making some Halloween treats. I received a box of Ghostbusters Stay Puft Quality Marshmallows from my favourite sweetshop Cybercandy and thought I would turn them into spooky marshmallows.

stay puft

The marshmallows were tightly squeezed in the box, so I emptied them out and let them breathe and regain their shape. I then sorted out the best, evenly shaped ones (size-ist, I know) and got to work with my edible marker pen.

spooky marshmallows

What do you think of my spooky Halloween marshmallows? A great quick craft for kids big and small!

spooky_marshmallows

Ghostbusters Stay Puft Quality Marshmallows cost £7.50 for 5oz of quality, sugary puff. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man first appeared in the 1984 film Ghostbusters and this box features the happy Mister Stay Puft on one side and the angry (yet still fluffy) Destroyer of Worlds on the other.

Cybercandy sell the best candy from all over the world and have four branches in London, as well as stores in Brighton and Birmingham, or you can always shop online.

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