Roses are red, violets are blue, give your partner a Love Heart tin that says ‘I love you.’ Swizzels Matlow, the makers of Love Hearts, are launching a new Valentine’s Day collection including a limited edition heart-shaped retro tin full of Mini Love Hearts and an ‘I Love You’ tube of sweets. The British confectionery giant has produced just 100,000 vintage style tins that are destined to become a collector’s item. The tins are available nationwide at a recommended retail of £1.99 while stocks lasts. Sarah-Louise Heslop, Marketing Manager at Swizzels Matlow, said: “Valentine’s Day excitement is building and we’ve…
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My husband hates the fact that I occasionally buy packet mixes. I think they’re perfect for keeping in the cupboard and whipping out if you need to produce some cake in a hurry (and they’re usually better than shop bought cake!). The latest addition to my cupboard has been Wright’s Ginger cake mix which I spotted on a recent shopping trip. Wright’s Ginger cake mix is a complete mix that contains a blend of unrefined sugars to produce a traditional style Ginger cake. It contains everything you need to make the cake, only requiring the addition of water and oil.…
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Big Brother takes a real interest in the kitchen and food which I want to encourage. So when I spotted a delicious looking recipe for Chocolate-Beet cupcakes in the latest issue of Gurgle magazine I thought we would try it together. It required a bit of thought as we needed to buy raw beetroot, cook them and leave them to cool before we started baking. BB loved mixing the ingredients together and tasting the raw mixture! This was quite a messy recipe but a great way of getting your child to eat healthily! The recipe can be found in the…
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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…