Anchor Butter is bringing back Elevenses! Well… It never really went anywhere, it’s just been a little forgotten. They want to empower people who feel the need to have a nice little sit, with a cup of tea and a nibble at around 11 o’clock. I love baking so was happy to bring back elevenses in our house by whipping up a batch of gingerbread biscuits using yummy Anchor butter. Here’s a link to the gingerbread recipe, just in case you want to make some yourself. Giveaway The lovely people at Anchor have given me some gorgeous items to offer…
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As a busy mum of two I am happy to cut corners where possible. I love anything that saves me time so loved the look of a gingerbread dough block which I came across in Sainsbury’s recently. At £2 for a 350g block it is quite expensive but great to keep in the fridge if you have unexpected guests coming round and need to whip up some biscuits without getting your hands dirty! You need to keep the dough in the fridge and remove 30 minutes before you want to start baking. It’s quite a heavy dough and was quite…
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Back in the summer I attended a parenting blog camp called Cybermummy where I had my photograph taken with a group of other pregnant bloggers for a ‘bloggers calendar’. To get my hands on a copy of the calendar I need to write a simple blog CV. So here goes… I started my blog back in 2005 to be a part of the online craft community which inspired me to dust off my sewing basket. Over the years I’ve sewn, baked, got married and had two lovely children and I love the way my blog charts all the ups and…
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Today was the second day I managed to juggle two children on my own and to celebrate I thought I would also do some home baking! Big Brother loves gingerbread as much as I do so we used the gnome breadmen shaped cookie cutters which we were recently sent to try. Not your usual cookie cutter, the humble garden gnome is back and this time they’re taking pride of place in our kitchens. These fun new Gnome Breadmen shaped cookie cutters are great for the whole family to enjoy; whether you’re baking, decorating or eating them! We slightly adapted the…
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I’ve never tried parkin before but knowing it was some kind of ginger cake was happy when offered some of Lottie Shaw’s Seriously Good Yorkshire Parkin to try. It’s described as “a ginger cake predominantly baked using oatmeal and a perfect blend of syrup and black treacle”. It contains no artificial life enhancing ingredients but the syrup preserves the cake for up to 12 weeks! The packaging was lovely, the parkin was baked in its own tray and smelt divine. My only criticism was that the portion could have been larger – I didn’t realise parkin was so delicious and…
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I bought some gingerbread puddles from Hotel Chocolat and, although they taste delicious on their own, thought I would use them in baking. This was a good excuse to try out the classic cupcake recipe from the Primrose Bakery but make my own buttercream using the gingerbread puddles. The cupcake recipe is simple and so delicious they almost didn’t get iced 🙂 I baked them using the new Primrose Bakery app which was quite fun. The app was nice and easy to use but has a special feature which I haven’t seen before, basically you can wave your hand over…
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I recently treated myself to a copy of Queen of Crafts, a great book full of recipes and ideas by Jazz Domino Holly. It’s a lovely book to flick through for some inspiration although there aren’t many new ideas in it. However, a recipe for button biscuits caught my eye. I love buttons, have a huge stash to decorate my sewing projects, and thought biscuit buttons would be fun to make. I used my own biscuit recipe, divided the mixture into two and added blue and yellow food colouring to both halves which I picked up at Iced Inspirations, my…
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On the 19 September 2010 I started a Day Zero list: a place to record my goals, discover new challenges, and gain motivation to achieve them. I have a list of 100 things I want to do over 1001 days. The list is due to be competed by 16 June 2013. I’ve been busy this month with baby stuff so it doesn’t feel like I’ve had much time to complete any of my actions! 11. Identify 100 things that make me happy this wasn’t too hard and I made it into a pretty word cloud with wordle 13.…
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I love Halloween and have been on the lookout for inexpensive craft and baking items on the high street. Fortunately Poundland is on a mission to make it easy and cheap for everyone to have a happy Halloween. With growing popularity for the holiday, it’s easy for kids to get swept up in the excitement, often leaving parents not knowing where to start. So Poundland has come up with some ideas to set you off in the right direction. If you’re throwing a Halloween party there are a whole host of decoration and dressing-up products from Poundland, which make it…