Not sure what to do with that lovingly created gingerbread house? Why not make it into a tasty gingerbread and butter pudding? My romantic Valentine-themed gingerbread house needed to make room for my Easter-themed gingerbread house but I didn’t want to throw it away. The gingerbread was quite thin so I thought it might make a delicious gingerbread and butter pudding. Here’s what I did. You need: a gingerbread house, deconstructed a couple of slices of bread, buttered 1/2 pint of skimmed milk 100ml double cream 2 eggs 1 spoonful of granulated sugar Method: deconstruct your gingerbread house, removing any…
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The sun is shining so I thought I would make some daffodil inspired biscuits. Daffodil biscuits for spring I baked simple biscuits using a gingerbread kit from Morrisons. The kit contains a gingerbread mix with a cutter, a tube of white icing, a sachet of golden syrup and raisins, so all you need to provide is butter and 2tsp of water. The mix made a satisfying dough which came together really easily and smelled lovely. The golden syrup made it quite sticky so I used plenty of flour when rolling out the dough. Instead of using the enclosed cutter I…
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I’m glad that gingerbread is no longer a seasonal food. Last week I spotted some mini gingerbread men in someone else’s shopping basket in M&S so made it my mission to try some too. Today was the lucky day and I grabbed a box whilst searching for something for dinner. The packs contain 12 mini gingerbread men and the branding is lovely and simple, similar to the Christmas tin of gingerbread biscuits I bought. The 12 mini gingerbread men are nicely packaged and delicious! As with most biscuits they didn’t last long once the packet was opened. I had a…
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To celebrate St Patrick’s Day we made some four-leafed clover biscuits and decorated them with a simple line of green icing. I always know we’ve made something that looks interesting when I see my son’s arm reaching up to grab a biscuit from the plate when he thinks I’m not looking. St Patricks Day biscuits We tried a new gingerbread dough for these biscuits – Gingerbread cookie dough from Cake & Biscuits. This was really cheap and it showed, difficult to roll without crumbling, it cut badly, tearing every time I tried to lift the shapes from the floured board…
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I have the tiniest kitchen, it is actually smaller than our bathroom, yet I spend an increasing amount of time in it. Aside from preparing seemingly endless meals for the four of us, my week isn’t complete without some baking. As space is so precious it’s really important that the products I use are both practical and stylish. The one product I must have is decent scales. I’ve gone through a few in the pursuit of perfection but my Brabantia digital kitchen scales do a great job. Most importantly they are compact – essential in my tiny London kitchen. They…
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I spotted a new product on the supermarket shelves last week, Tesco Easy Home Bake Gingerbread dough. I quickly hid it in the trolley before my husband could start muttering that we didn’t need to try another product! We tried this out when we fancied a bit of home baking and made some biscuits. It’s simple to use – roll the dough, cut your required shapes, place on a greased baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes. The easiest biscuits ever! The dough is advertised as sweet and crunchy, which I was a bit sceptical about, but they were sweet…
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Before children Valentine’s Day was spent in bed or on a romantic break in a European city. Now the day starts early and ends early with no hope of a romantic meal for two. This year we decided on cards only, no gifts. We decorated with an origami heart garland. The children gave daddy a homemade Valentine card which I blogged about earlier. I also made a card from an old book. I cut out a heart shape and sewed it onto a plain card with red thread. Finally we iced some gingerbread hearts which we had bought from Morrisons…
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Last year it was all about the felt, this year it’s all about the edible gingerbread house! I had an Ikea Pepparkaka Hus which I had bought to make over Christmas and never got round to building so it seemed like a good time to make it and decorate it for Valentine’s Day. The kit contains ready baked and stamped house pieces – front and back, two sides, two roof pieces, four small pieces to make a chimney and printed instructions. It doesn’t contain any icing or sweets to decorate but the instructions helpfully contain a recipe for icing. The…
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A couple of weeks ago I came across a great challenge – the PinAddicts Pinterest Challenge. The idea is to choose something from your Pinterest boards to create and link up each month. As I am addicted to Pinterest I just knew I had to join in, the only choice was what to make? I searched my boards and decided upon something for Valentines Day. I couldn’t resist baking some gingerbread men and decorating them as a Valentine treat for my husband. Love is not lost in our household (despite a 2 and 23 month old trying their very best!).…
