Cookies and cream bark, and peppermint bark. Christmas treat time

We love to make bark - it's so easy and fun, and there are so many variations and possibilities.  And it always taste so good!  We started, way back when, with classic peppermint bark, and wanted to make a fresh batch for this Christmas.  I did it with milk chocolate, because I had another idea for add-ins for the white chocolate...

We started by crushing the candy canes as best we could with a rolling pin.

And when we'd been in Australia back in October, I'd seen some Christmas coloured M&M's and just had to buy them.  I had felt they would come in handy for something around about December-time, and this seemed the perfect use for them.  

Add in some candy snowflakes, pop it in the fridge for a few hours and crush it up a bit, and Christmas 2014 peppermint bark was born!

Then it was time to try out that new idea I had - strawberry Oreo bark...  We had seen some Strawberry candy canes and bought them specifically for Mini-2, as she isn't keen on mint at all.  Once they were crushed, we added in some crushed mini Oreo's to the mix.

 I added some holly and Christmas tree sprinkles and popped this tray in the fridge too.

Cracked up and popped in a tin lined with baking paper and this new version of bark was ready for dessert too.  Merry Christmas one and all 

4th of July is red, white and blue fun!

We're not American.  Don't have any specific ties with America - though there is an Uncle living in Tacoma. WA and a good friend living in NYC, and another good friend who used to live here in Dundee but is now back in VA I think.  And I follow a few American bakers, like Bakerella, The Girl who ate Everything,  Created by Diane, Pint Sized Baker, Rose Bakes and so on .  And I am part of an American baking group on Facebook, so see a lot of American style cakes and 4th of July ideas in my Facebook newsfeed and in the emails I receive to my baking/work email address.

So actually, America does seem to feature quite heavily, hmmm.  Anyway, a lot of great red, white and blue ideas have come my way recently, some trickier than others, and I fancied trying my hand at some of them.  These looked fun and easy, and the girls wanted to help with some of it too.  They would have helped with all of it, but it was warm and sunny outside and they were desperate to try out the new Slip 'n Slide that we'd bought last weekend.  

Don't know what this is?  Oh, you're missing out!  My siblings and I had a yellow one when we were growing up and used it loads!  Mind you, we did grow up in Melbourne, Australia, where they know how to do Summer.  Months of daily temperatures from 25-40c and sun - glorious warm, yellow sun!  Ahh, takes me back, ha ha.   Anyway, it's a plastic rectangle mat that goes on the grass and it has a tube through the middle of the mat that is poked with holes.  You attach the garden hose to the mouth of this tube and water sprays over the mat, through the holes and kids run up to it then slide along it on their tummies.  Make sense?  Kids love them!!

So, getting back to the baking.  I decided to go for two things I'd seen on my newsfeed from Facebook...  A variation on this Red, White and Blue Cookie Bark and some patriotic Marshmallow treats.  What fun they were to do, and easy too!  And oh my gosh, I had a sneaky taste of the bark - it is amazing!!!  We decided that adding Oreo's would be too much, and what a tasty decision that was.  The salt and crunch of the pretzels goes really well with the sweetness of the white chocolate.

You lay out the pretzels underneath (and Oreo's, if you're going to use them), then add the melted white chocolate over the top.

Then you carefully, or otherwise, place your selection of red and blue M & M's over the top before the chocolate sets.  I didn't think we'd have enough chocolate M & M's so used the crispy ones too.  Mmm, great idea methinks.

 Here's the finished product, all ready for the fridge.

 And here it is ready to eat, cracked into pieces for ease of nibbling.  Mmmm...

For the marshmallow treats, we even had real American wax paper - oooh!

These were a bit fiddly to do, but easy enough.  Although by the time I got around to them, the girls had had their hair-washed and gone to bed.

So they'll be a lovely surprise for them, and our friends coming to play after lunch, for tomorrow! 

 And here's wee funny for you.  Sadly, it's not that funny for me, ha ha

Now we are six

Jack loved the birthday cake I made him last year, which was kind as it wasn't one of my best.  But I have improved since then, I hope, and was thrilled at the chance to bake again for him.  He wanted the same cake this year, but with a number 6 on it (as he was planning to be older this time) and different candles (his Mum figured that was her department, haha).

We chose vanilla sponge with strawberry jam and coloured vanilla icing again, and I happened upon a lovely birthday card when out and about last weekend that inspired my colour choice.

And then a few days ago, I found a bag of M & M's that was just red, white and blue - serendipity or what?!! 

So these big beauties made the number 6 for me, and it was then the task of separating out all the red and blue M & M's in a normal pack or two of sweets to see if I'd have enough to make the border around the base of the cake.  Woo hoo, I did have enough!!

And don't you think these leftover M & M's would make lovely autumn-themed decorations for something?? 

 

Peanut butter M&M cookies for Felix

We're off to see our friend Felix tomorrow, and his mum is offering lunch with our playdate.  I offered to bring something, and she suggested dessert.  Not a problem!

We haven't been shopping since the weekend before last, as we found many years ago that shopping weekly worked for us, and have a list on the fridge for additions throughout the week.  So with regard to what to bake and bring, it necessitated a quick scour of the ingredients and dredge of the memory to figure it out.  And cookies won!

The recipe is scribbled on a torn back of orange envelope and stuck into a blue book - seriously.  My friend Catherine copied it out of her Guardian weekend supplement many years ago, once we'd successfully made it with our then just-turned-two year old Mini-1's.  It's a quick, easy and basic recipe using flour, baking powder, two sugars, a bit of butter and roughly 100g of 'extras' - in this evening's case they were M&M's and a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter.  Other times they've been chopped apricots, oats, choc chips, lemon zest etc etc.

I had checked with the girls earlier in the day to see if they wanted to help make them, but both said no, because they didn't want to share them!  Not very charitable at all, and not the way we'd like them to think.  Suffice it to say, I started baking once they were in bed/asleep.

And a mere hour later (most of which time was taken up with 4-5 batches at 9 minutes each) we have the delight that is nearly 4 dozen small coloured-dot-studded cookies - yummy!