Surprise its Sunday

Can't believe its Sunday already!!! Boooooo Hisssssss - we are having such a great time and today Kim, Brian and Corey fly back to Ireland and Leeanne, Chris, Sienna and Tate drive back to Birmingham and us Tsamplakos's are left in an empty home!!!

On a Sunday/Monday Leeanne and I send each other all our favourite things we have seen and taken pictures of over the week! And so i thought i would share some of mine with you all

 Yummy Baileys hot chocolate! Great Present idea!!

Elf on the Shelf - its nearly time!!! eeeeeekkkkkkk love this idea!!!!

 These trees look super easy to make!!! Some card rolled into a cone shape and some pom pom ribbon glued on!!

The perfect way to make heart shape cupcakes! Pop a marble in the baking tray x

 This is my tree inspiration this year i absolutely love it!!!

These candles are sooooooo coool - and look super easy to make!!

Ok so i just had to put this pic up! Its Sunday which means its Monday tomorrow and we all need a smile xxx

And this one is for me and lee as we need to start running like 1 month ago!!!!

 What an absolutely perfect way to explain about Father Christmas when our children are older -  must remember this one x

You can make this on a smaller scale with baking trays but i lobe this huge oil drip pan for the play room!!!

 Wow the beautiful Duomo Catherdral in Milan! Nick and I are going there in a few weeks for our anniversary - i hope it snows!!! xHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH

 

 This looks fab! you can buy these letters in Hobbycraft - paint any colour and glue gun together!!! Perfect!!!!

















Wow - not sure if this works but wow!!! Let me know if you try it and it does!!!

















Hope you all have a fab Sunday

Apple Pie Pops

Jades mummy ran a coffee morning this Wednesday for The White Lodge Centre in Chertsey. It was a lovely day and turn out despite the rain and lots of pennies were raised!

As with any coffee morning there were lots of delicious treats on offer! I had offered to make something to bring too and decided to make some apple pie pops and oreo truffles!

Im going to share with you the apple pie pop recipe on todays blog!

Now i must say that i totally made this up and as i'm on another crazy diet this week i couldn't actually taste any of them but i was assured they were yummy and they look super cute so thats all that matters right?

So to make 24 pops heres what you need:

2 packets of ready rolled shortcrust pastry

1 jar of apple sauce

Granulated sugar

cake pop sticks

Circle biscuit cutter.

So basically this was the easiest thing ever, all i did was on some baking paper sprinkle some sugar then place on one circle of cut pastry (cut with the cutter) then spoon a small amount of apple sauce into the middle. Then sprinkle some sugar then place another pastry circle on top then sprinkle some more sugar. Then you need to put your cake pop stick in the middle and get a fork and press down all the way around to seal the edge of the pie. Next thing to do is to pull out your cake pop stick! Don't put them in the oven with the apple pies like i did on first batch!! Pulling out the stick will leave a little hole ready for you to pop the stick back in when they are fresh out of the oven.

One you have filled your tray with your baking paper on it, pop them in the oven on a medium heat for about 20-25mins but be sure to keep checking them! When they look ready pull them out of the oven and pop the cake pop sticks back in. Then leave to cool and bish bash bosh your all done!

These would be super cute at a party or for little party favours! You could even add some cinnamon or choose a different filling?

Let us know if you try them!

Love 

L xx

Great British Scone

Yummy scones with fresh cream and strawberry jam are one of my all time fave coffee and cake treats!

Im not the best baker in the world, just ask Jade about my Cadburys creme egg choc brownies. To be fair i think its my oven as its so old you cant see the temp on it anymore. So i pretty much have to guestimate everything! But anyways these scones are super duper easy to make, even i can do them and they probably only take 20mins max from start to finish!

Enjoy!

Love
L xx

Made by me and all delicious and edible and everything! (yay me)

Classic Scones with Jam and Clotted Cream

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 350g self-raising flour, plus more for dusting
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 85g butter, cut into cubes
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 175ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• squeeze lemon juice (see Know-how below)
• beaten egg, to glaze
• jam and clotted cream, to serve

Method

1. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Tip the flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder, then mix. Add the butter, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar.
2. Put the milk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 secs until warm, but not hot. Add the vanilla and lemon juice, then set aside for a moment. Put a baking sheet in the oven.
3. Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a cutlery knife – it will seem pretty wet at first. Scatter some flour onto the work surface and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s a little smoother. Pat into a round about 4cm deep.
4. Take a 5cm cutter (smooth-edged cutters tend to cut more cleanly, giving a better rise) and dip it into some flour. Plunge into the dough, then repeat until you have four scones. By this point you’ll probably need to press what’s left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four. Brush the tops with beaten egg, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray.
5. Bake for 10 mins until risen and golden on the top. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking, generously topped with jam and clotted cream. If freezing, freeze once cool. Defrost, then put in a low oven (about 160C/fan140C/gas 3) for a few mins to refresh.

Banana Bread Bonanza !

Happy Saturday!!!!

Last Sunday my husband went to golf early doors and woke the whole house up looking for things (does this sound familiar?) So up we all get pre 7am and i'm thinking right what can we do to make this morning go a bit quicker?
I wonder if there is anything i can make with those 2 brown bananas in fridge that no one will touch?

So i googled and came across a lovely Banana Bread recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery!

We happened to have most of the ingredients except the light brown sugar so i used caster sugar as the point was to have fun and not make a culinary delight!

So Honey (age 3) dons her apron and get busy cracking eggs and mixing ingredients! It was super easy and she really enjoyed doing all of it! I had it warm with butter and Earl Grey and my nieces had it for dessert with Ice Cream - it really was yummy

Enjoy 
J x 

Banana Loaf

Makes 8-10 slices
Ingredients
270g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
200g peeled bananas, mashed
280g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
140g unsalted butter, melted

A 23 x 13-cm loaf tin, greased and dusted with flour
Preheat the oven to 170oC/325oF/Gas 3.

Put the sugar and eggs in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat until well incorporated. Beat in the mashed bananas.

Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger to the sugar mixture. Mix it thoroughly until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated into the egg mixture. Pour in the melted butter and beat until all the ingredients are well mixed.

Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth over with a palette knife. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour, or until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.