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Showing posts with label Celebrations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebrations. Show all posts

The Last Minute Easter Hunt

This year we put all the  Easter eggs into brown paper bags. Then decorated these with a vintage Easter picture glued on the front. Next punched a hole in the bags then tied up  he bag with ribbons. Very exciting for the children as they had so much fun unwrapping the bags to see what was inside...Yes there were too many Easter eggs, we all got a bit carried away. All this was done at the last minute....in fact it was a hit and one of the easiest Easter hunts we have done.

Sometimes simple is just best...

Vintage bunny pictures on brown bags, © Google
Our big chocolate bunny posed for photos...We bought the cake and then
decorated it with a yellow and green bunny decoration.

Our Easter Hunt

The girls this year were the 'stars of the show' for the Easter Hunt. My grandson declined, his age is in double digits now, I guess he's become too grown up for the Easter Hunt. He just wanted his chocolate eggs in a big brown paper bag, he was happy with that.

The Lindt Bunnies were a hit.The band and bell from the bunny, was used
as a bracelet by the girls.

Easter Cake

This years Easter cake is a Lemon Yogurt Cake,  page 176, from the cookbook 'fast, fresh, simple' by Donna Hay (2010). I did not make this delicious cake, my daughter did. I just gave the orders as to how I wanted it to look for the children. She did do a good job too, it was exactly how I wanted it to look...Lucky I wasn't banned from the kitchen!

,
'Donna Hay's' Lemon Yoghurt Cake





Minecraft Dessert for Hungry Children

Very popular with young and old...




You Need:


Cadbury Flake Chocolate bar Treat Bag  (bag of 12)
1 packet Chocolate Dots (Sun Valley)
1 packet of Oreo Chocolate Cookies
1 packet of Chocolate Chip Fudge Cookies
1 Green Jelly 
Clear plastic cups (glass would be fine too)

I used FarmBake Chocolate Chip Fudge Cookies (in the big bag).  I then measured out enough for a packet of biscuits. Ground both the Oreos and the Double Fudge cookies into a crumbly mix with  the Breville Mini Whizz. Then I added some Chocolate Dots to the mix (I didn't measure these just guess work). I wanted the mix to resemble dirt...

Next I made a Green Jelly to the instructions on the back of the packet. I use slightly less hot water. When it has cooled I pour the jelly liquid into a flat pan then let it set in the fridge. When it is ready cut the jelly up into squares.

Now pour the dirt mix equally into clear cups, then place the cut up green jelly on top. Next place a Flake brick on top on the jelly. There you have it...a perfect dessert for a Minecraft Party!

I thought I might have needed smaller cups as these went narrow at
the bottom. But boys with spoons you know they managed to
 get every crumb out!

Minecraft Birthday Party

I confess I've really slowed down with my sewing, other things keep getting in the way like Minecraft Birthday parties...I guess I'm lucky I get to have a lot of input into my daughter's son's birthday party. Perhaps that's something to do with the fact that I used to spend my time chopping and cutting resources for children.

I left it a bit late to organize, so some things didn't happen. Like baking the Birthday cake, it was bought instead, and the Pinata never got made. Thank goodness imagine how many lollies there would be....too many!

The only thing is with a Minecraft party you are
using a lot of lollies so it is certainly a
'high sugar party'.

For a theme party Minecraft is a pretty easy one, (well if you like making props). Google is your friend here, because there are so many resources out there. Some are free and there certainly is plenty of information and ideas when it comes to Minecraft Parties on the Internet. Just check out the many boards on Pinterest. A good site for resources is here also.


Treasure Map made on the computer and printed out.
The potion mixing table....

I used familyshoppingbag.com. for a lot of the decorations like the banner, food labels, drink labels.

Enderman Bags were made buy gluing Enderman eyes
(found on Google) onto paper black bags from
 Party WorldThen making labels using
 a Minecraft Font.
I downloaded the bunting from here. Then printed out.
The Balloons I bought off Trade me. There was some
good Minecraft Resources so I bought a few,
 like badges, stickers etc.
I laminated the print outs and used fizzy lollies
 as counters for the Minecraft Bingo Game. 
Some of the Minecraft food labels I stuck to small
skewers to place in the food
Just water, but the bottles were very popular. I made some
other potions too. 
 How we played the Minecraft Chocolate Game...

This was fun!

The Chocolate Game consisted of using a Steve Mask, already made from the last dress up day at school. A block of Chocolate wrapped in a Minecraft themed paper (easy to make). A big dice covered in a Minecraft picture on each side. For example, Steve, the Pig, and Enderman instead of numbers. Steve was our six on the dice. For those familiar with this game you will know you have to throw a six in the game to be able to eat the chocolate.

When a child threw 'Steve' with the dice they got to put the Steve Mask on, take the knife and fork, and cut up the Chocolate block, and then EAT the squares of chocolate they cut. But they can only continue eating the chocolate until the next 'Steve' is thrown....Then the child who has thrown 'Steve' has a turn cutting the chocolate up to eat (he has to put the mask on also).

Note:

To avoid disappointment, always have a spare block of chocolate handy to give to those who missed out in the game.

You might also want to change the dice value for winning after a while. For example, throwing a 'Steve' no longer lets you eat the chocolate. Now you now have to throw a Pig to eat the chocolate this round.

This changes the dynamics a bit...So the child who didn't throw a 'Steve' at the party they now have another chance. at maybe getting a Pig (you're sort of helping them along). 

I can tell you when you sometimes change the value of the dice 'Murphy's Law' kicks in and no winning Pig turns up. You still have one child who doesn't get a piece of chocolate in the game...
But don't worry you can sort it because you have that spare block of chocolate...

This is a popular game children  for a group of children.
The Chocolate block is kept in the fridge. This makes
 it harder to cut...

The Birthday Cake was bought from The Naked Baker. It was tweaked a bit to make it look more like a Minecraft Cake.

Actually nobody missed the green icing of last years cake.
Minecraft figurines from Mighty Ape

Christmas Elf Stockings

The Elves are visiting us this year (only because I gave away the Christmas stockings I sewed last year). I had fun making these curly toed stockings, but soon realized my days of making little stockings are just about over. You have to have good eyes for a project like this. Mine are fading slowly for doing the intricate stuff, like applique.

It might have helped if my old Bernina 801 had a light bulb that actually went, and I cleaned my glasses properly so I could see. The pattern I chose to use for the Christmas stockings this year is from Sew-4-Home. You can find the tutorial and  pattern here.


I chose to use the Bernina 801 for this project. It looks rather jaded with
it's paint starting to peel at the bottom.
I stuffed the end of the stocking with a bit of fluff (Dacron). The bells
are off the 'Lindt Easter Bunny'. Just the perfect size... I saved
them from last Easter for the cat's collar. But the cat wears a
bigger bell now.
I didn't use the letter template that the pattern linked you too. I found another
because I couldn't re-size it on my printer...

Easy Minecraft Birthday Cake

This birthday cake was made by the boy's mother, it really was a work in progress...I helped and made the cardboard pig, Creeper and some other blocks. But because I'm not Minecraft savvy, my pig didn't have any legs, he was just an oblong (I did wonder what the other pink blocks were for). Not to worry his mother figured it all out and she made sure the Minecraft piggy had legs...

 Resources needed:

*Small figurines: I purchased Steve, Enderman, with blocks from Mighty Ape
*This Chocolate Cake recipe was doubled for a big cake...
*A 23cm square metal tin was used to bake the cake in
*Cardboard Pig, Creeper, Blocks sourced from printouts from  Google Images
*Icing for the cake: Replace the Cocoa with green food colouring
*Icing Set with a nozzle that makes the green icing look like grass
*Gold wiggly candles
*Giant Licorice Allsorts from supermarket bulk bins...
* Covered base board for cake, this one is silver...
Note:

The sides of the cake were not iced, though this could be done with a dark Chocolate Icing. With much debate and my input his mother squared the side of the cake up using a serrated knife. She left the sides of the cake uniced, it's a very dark cake. The reason for this was there really was enough icing on the cake. Too much sugar, plus food colouring is not too good for children, well for this boy anyway....

Happiness is a Minecraft Cake made by Mum...

The Weeping Gingerbread House

This year we made a 'Gingerbread House' (from a new recipe and template). The young man requested one and he designed all the windows in the house himself...

You know the saying 'Too many cooks spoil the broth' well that's exactly what happened when we all decided to decorate the house. It was a free for all, we each did a side each using a non-functioning icing set. I was into totally 'overkill', I just put marshmallows everywhere, especially on the roof to try and hide the bad snow job!

Even though the Gingerbread was very tasty and moorish, it went way too soft on the house the next day. The Lollipop windows melted also. I blame the rain and humidity...In the end the Gingerbread House looked like it was a house of tears...

This mixture smells divine. You can find the recipe here.

Firstly though I'll show you how we made the windows...

Making Stained Glass Windows For A Gingerbread House
You need boiled sweets to do this, they have to be crushed, this bit gets messy...But we have found the perfect solution to this, just use wrapped boiled Lollipops. Pam's is the brand used here, they were just perfect.

The job of crushing Lollipops was given to the young man...


Once crushed carefully snip the corner of the wrapper and pour into the cut window...


Use a new Kebab stick to push the crushed lolly into the corner of the windows...



Mixing the crushed Lolly colours is fun too!

Two toned windows....

Baking the Gingerbread House


Windows baked....
Imprinting the roof tiles and cutting with a knife the
hot Gingerbread House pieces to straighten up....
Because we didn't do the base for the Gingerbread House,
their was plenty left over for biscuits

Icing and Decorating The Gingerbread House

Royal Icing
3 eggs whites
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
Icing Sugar  approx 500g. Use as much  or little as I needed

Whisk the egg whites and Cream of Tarter until stiff. Then fold in Icing Sugar beating as you go until consistency you need is reached.

I must admit this Royal Icing is very good for gluing the house together and covering the board. But I  personally prefer a Royal Icing like the one below for decorating my Gingerbread House... Next Christmas I'll know better.

Royal Icing
1 egg white2 ½ - 3 cups Chelsea Icing Sugar1- 2 Tbsp lemon juice

 Refer to Chelsea Sugar for more detail.

Beating the glue icing....
So busy beating the icing I forgot about the rest of the baking.....
Too late... I BURNT it!

Who will help decorate the gingerbread house? The Granny, the Mother and the Child!

This part was easy as this Royal Icing glued the sides easily...
Excuse messy Muffin tin I need a new one...Lollies chopped
and ready for decorating!
Now perhaps we all should have stopped here....Less is more they say!
No we never stopped, the icing was went everywhere,
 especially where you didn't want it to go!
Who will help eat the Gingerbread House?

The children never ate all the lollies....just what they wanted!
The Weeping Gingerbread House

Pavlova's in Paradise

Pavlova's for all occasions that's us here in New Zealand.  Thank goodness most celebrations we have as a family are at the end and beginning of the year. Otherwise we would be making them all year. Here is my recipe.....

Pavlova
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup castor sugar
1 Tbsp cornflour
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup cream
Seasonal fruit

* Beat egg whites and salt till stiff peaks form
* Gradually add the castor sugar and beat thoroughly
* You should be able to turn the bowl upside down and the mixture will not fall out
* Add cornflour, vanilla and vinegar and beat thoroughly
* Line tray with baking paper add pavlova mixture in a a circle shape
* Bake at 125 deg C for 1 1/2 hours
* Turn oven off and leave Pavlova in oven until cold
* Whip cream and decorate it

Oops......just a little crack, still tastes good  though!

This is the other Pavlova I make is a chocolate one, it's Nigella's  Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova....very rich and moreish! The Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova recipe can be found here.

The first time we made a Chocolate Pavlova and it does really taste
best with raspberries......
Chocolate Pavlova, a decadent desert....Strawberries were used this
year, raspberries were so expensive. I did buy some to use on
the pavlova but they went mouldy so quik!

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