We built a house, a rice crispy house

Now that I  notice cake and baking-related things a little bit more than I used to (small understatement there, you understand) I couldn't help but notice all the mentions of gingerbread houses at this time of year.  I felt it was possibly a bit beyond me, what with the working and kids and their activities and so forth, so picked up a box kit for a rice crispy house at a local supermarket.  We waited for a suitable afternoon and all got down to the important business of house-building...

 The kit gave you all the ingredients in the right quantities, so we just followed the instructions.

They didn't mention what a mess the marshmallow made of your pots though - this looks like it's gonna take some serious elbow grease to wash!

After pressing the prepared mix into the mould, and putting it in the fridge for the required time, we had our house components.  A little bit of icing was used as the mortar, and the house was ready to be decorated! Both girls were given a side each, some extra mini Smarties and relevant sized sweets and got to it.

The line sprinkles were meant to look like sparkly snow, but kinda got stuck along the way, and all over the work area.

This was mine and Mini-1's side, fairly neat and straight.  We tried to co-ordinate our colours so they made lines along the roof panel.  It sorta worked, right?

And here is Mini-2's side.  She used some of the other sweets and went for a different pattern with her mini Smarties.  

And here's a lovely line-up of all the treats we had available to eat on Christmas day itself, made by our fair hands...

Sweet and salty Christmas treat

I love making this traybake.  A few times The Team have even requested I make a double batch, so we can keep one, ha ha.  It really is that good.  Such a taste sensation of salty nuts and sweet chocolate....  Mmmm. A friend's sister is pregnant at the moment, and had fallen in love with a photo from my Facebook page of another traybake and had been craving it.  But I hadn't managed to locate any Reese's pieces for a reasonable price (£1.50 per 50g bag was a tad ridiculous I felt) so the friend chose this one for her.  I delivered it in one piece, and I believe it was cut and placed in a gorgeous Santa tin, to be given as a Christmas gift.  Oooh, what a lucky girl!

Malteser Twirl birthday cake

I know it's been a while, and I apologise, and thank you for sticking around!  But life as a working mum is really rather hectic, I had no idea!  There's just no time for anything to be done well, sigh...  But that hasn't stopped me baking, oh no.

Here we have an unusual request this close to Christmas - a huge, decadent and delicious birthday cake smothered in chocolate buttercream and Twirl chocolate bars and Malteser malted chocolate balls.  K ordered it for her chocolate-mad hubby for his birthday, knowing how much he loves both the chocolates.  I was really keen to decorate this one, the smell at Becca Towers was something else!!

Happy Birthday Mr T (no, not the actual guy from the 80's tv series The A Team) - enjoy your cake.

Cinnamon danish for Sunday breakfast

I love a cinnamon danish.  Or even a cinnamon roll, which I think is a bit softer and more bread-like.  My Swedish friend P, who sadly moved back to Sweden over a year ago, left me with her recipe for cinnamon rolls.  I've yet to try it, but she tells me it's easy and I know it tastes amazing... one day.

In lieu of that, and because I have learnt to treasure my weekend morning lie-ins now, I decided to try out a pre-packaged cinnamon danish recipe.  It's by Jus-Rol, a company who specialise in ready-made pastry and whom we've tried and liked before (and no, this post isn't sponsored by them at all).  They were quick and easy to prepare and made for a super delicious Sunday morning breakfast treat, with a cup of mocha  (milk for The Team).  Enjoy!

You can even see, in this before photo, the fun roll-up tin the danish came out of and the actual real Swedish pearl sugar that P gave us as a parting gift.  Mmm...  tasty!  Uh, this photo isn't of the right item!  Oops, made by the same company, but those ones down there are croissant.  Wonder if I can find the right photo?? Still, you get the idea right?  ha ha