Sugary Flower

Owly Bento

2012-02-15T22:08:00.005+08:00

This was what The Muffin had in her lunchbox today:

Top: Cheese and Vegemite roll; dried cranberries; half a banana.

Bottom: Owls made from Truefruits, with sprinkle eyes and candy-coated choc chip beaks. They are perched on a branch cut from a Simply Fruit bar, with spinach leaf leaves and dried apricot moon. Plus three strawberries.

In retrospect this was probably way too much food for her for one day -it sort of looked half empty, but because there was a lot of dried fruit, I guess it was "bigger" than it looked. She did eat most of it.

Anyway, she loved the little owls!

I will be linking this to What's For Lunch Wednesday over at BentoLunch.net.

Once Upon A Time...

2012-02-11T18:48:00.005+08:00

...there was a beautiful, clever, funny little princess. Her mummy called her The Muffin, even though that wasn't really her name ('cause that would be weird).

And this year, she turned five.

For her first ever "friends" (or kids') party, she wanted a Princess Party. She chose this theme approximately 50 weeks ago, after having spotted the photo on the box of my Wilton's Romantic Castle Kit. Yes folks, she tailored her entire party theme around her choice of cake, and has been planning it all year. This Is So My Child.

In fairness, she is also a big Cinderella fan, so I'm sure that helped her decision somewhat.

We decided on purple, pink, white and silver as the colour palette (unoriginal, but Oh So Princessy)...

There were savoury foods, obviously, but really who knows (or cares) what they were? Let's be honest: it's all about the sugar.

I was pleased with how the cookies turned out, even though I didn't notice until JUST NOW that I failed to add the white outline to one of my shield/coat-of-arms cookies! But as far as I'm aware, neither did anyone else, so I am choosing to believe that.

There were also cupcakes, simply frosted with raspberry buttercream, and each topped with either a silvery-purple sugarpaste crown, three sugarpaste blossoms, or a Wilton's princess cakepop pick (they work well on cupcakes!).

I almost always make fruit skewers for parties, as they provide a healthy option whilst generally still being hugely popular. This time I wanted them to be a little prettier than usual, and I must thank my mother for stepping in and cutting all the little flowers and things out (even though the whole time she was saying "This is taking For Ever", and "I still don't really get what these are supposed to be"). In the end I think they looked great! (Thanks Mum!)

We had really pretty Paper Eskimo "Princess Girl" balloons, (but not the spotty ones, because I used those for the Spotty Party last year) and I even went all Martha Stewart and made these big tissue paper pompom thingies:

And can I just say: So Much Easier than I thought they were going to be! Instructions at yes, you guessed it, Martha Stewart. I see a lot more tissue paper pompom thingies in my future...

And oh yeah, here is the cake:

This was made with the Wilton Romantic Castle Kit, so there is significant plastic. Also as you can see, the design is fairly simple. I had originally planned to pipe little green leaves around the flowers, and a leafy border around the bottom of the whole castle, but I just ran out of time. Funnily enough though, in some ways I think I'm quite happy I didn't add anything else - I think it has a kind of pale purity that might have been lost by the addition of another colour. (Yes, that is my story and I am sticking to it). Plus my little princess and her friends all LOVED it.

The little flowers were cut from sugarpaste with a blossom cutter, each with a tiny silver cachou in the centre. The little crown over the doorway is a candle. All the other pink and purple bits are royal icing sprinkled with sanding sugar.

On arrival, the kids all decorated their own crowns (the templates for which I found here).

This is The Muffin's finished result:

The little princesses (and one very handsome prince!) played musical cushions, pass-the-parcel, and Find Cinderella's Lost Slipper. When the time came to leave, they all took home a loot bag filled with lollies, Disney Princess lip gloss, a castle hair clip, princess stickers, and a pretty eraser (and no, I didn't give the boy lip gloss! He got a toy horse, eraser, and knight-and-dragon stickers instead).

My little Muffin had the best time! I'm sure that in years to come, she'll be wanting parties at the newest coolest party place, or wanting to hire hundreds of dollars worth of party entertainer, but I love that for now she is just so happy to eat pretty cookies with her friends. Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

Over the Rainbows

2012-02-06T12:06:00.008+08:00

Finally as promised, here are the photos of my beloved Muffin's fifth birthday party - the first one, that is!

(nb: Cake pop idea from Bubble & Sweet)

The Muffin had decided that she would like "a night party" with the family, just like the big girls (her older cousins) have. This is generally a simple get-together, where everyone brings some sort of finger food along to share for dinner. We decided on a Rainbow theme for this party, partly because it's a bright, happy and Super Easy theme to do, and partly because The Muffin and I had both fallen in love with Sweetapolita's Rainbow Doodle Cake post, and really wanted to try it out.

So I baked the cake, following Sweetapolita's recipe. The only change I made was that whilst I did fill the cake with lemon Swiss meringue buttercream, I thought it would be too soft for the outer frosting layer. It was 39 degrees Celsius on the day of the party, and SMBC is just too soft for Australian summers - I learned that the hard way! So I coated the cake in white chocolate ganache (Planet Cake style), before covering it with white fondant.

Then I let The Muffin loose with my food markers. She had a lovely time!

(please excuse the extremely attractive great cavernous hole left by one of the fattest birthday candles ever...)

When the cake was cut, it really did cause a sensation!

One thing to keep in mind if you decide to make this cake: whilst it is easy, it does take a really long time to bake (unless you have heaps of tins the same size). I only have two 8-inch cake tins, so I had to bake the cake in three batches. Not difficult, just a bit time consuming, that's all.

Another idea I'd been dying to try out was one I found over at Bubble and Sweet. Her little smiley cloud cake pops are so adorable! My version turned out a little messier (I stuck the rainbows on in a hurry while the party was actually on - I know, I am just So Organised) - but I was still really happy with the result! The Muffin helped me make the little rainbows out of fondant, too.

The Muffin and I also made some small rainbow-shaped cookies and iced them with white icing. Then when they were dry, we drew rainbows on them with the food markers! We were very pleased with these, and I couldn't believe it the day after the party when I realised: We Had Completely Forgotten To Serve The Cookies!!

So I had an idea: as The Muffin started Pre-Primary on her actual birthday, she was taking cupcakes in to school to celebrate with the class. A little change of plan re cupcake paper colours and decorations, et voila:

Rainbow Cupcakes!

Our table decorations were very simple: we simply had one helium balloon in each colour of the rainbow, each tied to a clear cellophane lolly bag with just a few lollies and a very simple novelty (it was a gesture - we don't do full-on goody bags for family parties). These we lined up along the back of the food table so that the balloons floated in a line next to each other in rainbow colour order. It looked surprisingly effective!

We had great fun with this party theme, and the best thing was how excited The Muffin was at being able to help with it all (and I think she did a great job, too!)

Of course, the following weekend (ie yesterday), she also had a Princess themed party with all her little friends - but that's another story...

Muffin Tin Monday - Happy Birthday!

2012-01-31T00:13:00.002+08:00

Wow, this week is a huge one for The Muffin - not only is she having two birthday parties, but she also has her very first ballet lesson, and starts Pre-Primary!

Her actual birthday is later in the week, but she was so excited about her Rainbow-themed birthday party tonight (which I'll post about tomorrow), that she wanted a Rainbow Birthday Themed Muffin Tin for lunch:

Top Row: Carrot sticks; Grapes; Birthday Cupcake (and it is actually cake - I cut it out of a thin layer of cake, using a cookie cutter. The little rainbow is made out of sugarpaste - we made them to put on cakepops for the party, and had some left over).

Bottom Row: Apple stars with one of the offcuts; Ham and cheese Birthday Present sandwich; Yoghurt with Rainbow sprinkles.

The After Shot:

It probably looks like she didn't eat any carrot sticks. She actually did, but only two. This surprised me a little, as she has been liking carrot sticks lately. I think the little cake was just too hard to wait for!

To see what other mums put in muffin tins this week, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

2012-01-26T15:13:00.004+08:00

It's Australia Day! The Muffin has been wanting to make the next recipe in her ABC of Kids Cooking book, and it just happened to be "L is for Lamingtons," so we decided today was the day!

The origin of the lamington is hotly debated (particularly between Aussies and our friends from New Zealand!) - for several interesting versions of its origin, go here.

But no matter where the original lamington was created, and whether it was an accident or a burst of inspiration, Aussies have been happily munching on them for decades, and claiming them as our own.

They are super messy to make, but lots of fun!

To make your own lamingtons, you will need some sponge cake (traditional), or butter cake (increasingly showing up in recipe books). This is cut into cubes, and dipped into a thin chocolate icing before being dredged in coconut. The recipe I used today can be found on the Woman's Day website (they produced the cookbook).

Whether you are spending the day having a barbecue, watching the fireworks, or just eating yummy lamingtons and trying to keep cool, I hope you are doing so with friends and family.

Happy Australia Day!

It's Not Easy...

2012-01-24T19:44:00.003+08:00

... except that actually, it really is!

This bento is a great example of the fact that cute food Does Not need to take hours to make.

Mr Frog was made using my Frog Prince Lunch Punch (from the SandWishes set). The butterfly, reeds, and water are all simply sliced green apple. Then I finished off with some spinach leaf Lily Pads, and some Frog Eggs (peas).

(also included was a tadpole I hand-cut out of cheese, but he apparently decided to hide whilst the photo was taken. On the up side, it made a lovely surprise for The Muffin when she found him under a lily pad).

I'll be linking this to Bento Blog Network's "Green" post - check out the other green bentos here.

Muffin Tin Monday - Purple Problem!

2012-01-23T19:18:00.004+08:00

You may or may not recall a muffin tin I did a while ago, which was inspired by a book called "Chicken, Pig, Cow Horse Around", by Ruth Ohi. The Muffin loves these books (so do I!), and for a while now she has been suggesting another Chicken, Pig, Cow tin, based on one of the other books in the series.

Today we decided on Chicken, Pig, Cow And The Purple Problem.

This is another lovely book by Ruth Ohi - this time, Cow has decided that other cows are not purple, so she shouldn't be, either. After the ensuing adventure, Cow learns that it is okay to be different, and that her friends don't care what colour her spots are, as long as she is still Cow.

Top Row: Bread and butter Squirrel with two string cheese baby squirrels; Bread and cheese Chicken (not nearly as good as the Chicken in my last CPC tin); Lollipop Pig.

Bottom Row: Bread cow (two, actually, stacked); Mixture of yoghurt, a little cream cheese, and a tiny bit of black food colouring - oh, and a spinach leaf; Crushed cashew nuts.

Pig was made by sticking a pink jellybean onto an Allens Lollipop, and adding heart shaped sprinkles for ears.

Not sure about these string cheese squirrels, but The Muffin was convinced:

But the real fun was recreating part of the story, when Cow finds some grey mud, some brown seeds and a leaf, and proceeds to become "more like a real cow"...

This was VERY messy, but lots of fun - and she ate the cream cheese! Normally she won't touch the stuff, but diluted heavily with yoghurt, it was apparently fine. She was quite shocked to hear there was cream cheese in it (after she'd admitted to liking it!)

The After Shot:

I was quite surprised she didn't eat more of the cashews. I think they were maybe just a bit too messy this way. Normally she'll eat heaps of them (whole, that is).

To check out what other mums put in their tins this week, go to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Lots of sweeties coming up on Sugary Flower in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

Weirdy (and Not-So-Weirdy) Snowman Cookies

2012-01-20T12:26:00.008+08:00

Firstly, in the interests of full disclosure, I would like to admit that I have never even seen an actual realio-trulio snowman. There, I said it. I did make a little sort of icy slushman about thirty centimetres high once when I was little, and that was the only time I have ever been in the snow. And I was wearing shorts and a Tshirt. Yeah, we don't really do Winter-With-A-Capital-W here in Australia. And that's a good thing, 'cause I hate being cold.

But you know what? I do love snowmen. There's just something about them that can be so cute. So despite the fact that it's currently about 34 degrees Celsius here, my little girl and I decided we want in on the Snowman Celebration being held by the incredibly talented Georganne of LilaLoa...

Actually, we made these last week especially for this purpose, I just haven't had a chance to post about them yet:

Are they the most weirdy snowmen you've seen lately? I actually do have a proper snowman cutter, but thought it might be fun to try using a Christmas bauble cutter instead - thus giving my snowmen teeny little pin heads.

I think they're a bit weird, but kind of cute.

If you like your snowmen a little less peculiar, there's also these that I made last September (part of my winning Royal Show entry!):

So happy Winter to those who have it! And whether you do or not, you should definitely click on over to LilaLoa, and check out the other snowmen at the party!

Muffin Tin Monday - Ballet Shoes!

2012-01-17T19:20:00.005+08:00

Whoops! I totally forgot to post my Muffin Tin Monday meal yesterday! We did make one though. As we were going to buy my little ballerina her Very First Pair of Real Ballet Shoes, I decided on a Ballet Shoes theme:

Top Row: Ham ballet shoes (made with cookie cutter); Spinach leaf tutu (stuck together with Vegemite. Looks a bit like a Tinkerbell dress, come to think of it - hmmm, must remember that); Cranberry muffin (gasp - what's this? An actual muffin in a muffin tin???)

Bottom Row: Carrot sticks; Leftover macaroni cheese (with peas & spinach); Banana pointe shoes.

I am Vomiting that I did not get a separate photo of the banana pointe shoes - they were a last minute addition to the tin, and they were so awesome! Because I had (out of laziness) cut the endy bit off the banana, instead of extracting The Dreaded Black Bit with my fingers, the ends of the "shoes" were flat. Which meant that They Stood Up On Their Own!! Ahem... Yes, I was a bit excited. But not nearly so excited as The Muffin was - it's her dream to go en pointe one day...

The After Shot:

She ate about half of the macaroni, and again about half the carrots, but scoffed everything else (and asked for more macaroni cheese for dinner later on! So she did like it - I think the cranberry muffin was just too much of a temptation).

To see what other Muffin Tin Mummies all over the world are doing this week, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Big Pretty Bow On A Cake

2012-01-14T23:17:00.004+08:00

Yep, that about sums it up.

I made this cake for my stepmother's birthday. It consisted of two 6-inch lemon cakes (each split and layered with home made lemon & lime curd and lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream), stacked to form a tall cake.

Isn't it pretty? Just don't look too closely... I had dramas with this, largely because I was dumb enough to think SMBC was an excellent choice of base for the fondant to sit on. In the middle of a Western Australian Summer. Why do I not learn???? So yes, there were definitely imperfections.

So let's just concentrate on the bow, shall we?

(Note to self: Learn to use iron on background material for photos. Because, you know, that's more important than ironing my family's clothes. I really hate ironing. My husband made peace a long time ago with the idea that if he chose to buy clothes that require ironing, he was also choosing to iron them...)

This is my first attempt at a Planet-Cake-style standy-uppy bow (as opposed to a lie-y-downy bow, like this one). And I am pretty happy with it. Also, I actually thought it was pretty easy to make, to be honest. I was expecting it to be more difficult, but it all just seemed to come together - yay! Don't you just love it on the odd occasion that that happens?

Hope your weekend is as fun as ours is turning out this week! In a few days: Weirdy Snowman Cookies!

Muffin Tin Monday - Happy New Year (One Week Later...)

2012-01-09T19:56:00.004+08:00

It's Muffin Tin Monday - and I was a bit lazy with my theming this week. For some reason, The Muffin chose today to say "Let's have a New Year theme!" Which is pretty funny really, as she's never even been to a New Years Eve party, and didn't really know herself what this theme would involve. Plus, you know, New Years happened over a week ago. Still...

Top Row: Strawberries from our garden (with a music note pick, because you have music at parties); Candy cane (because New Years Day or thereabouts is when we take down the Christmas tree and redistribute any leftover candy canes that were hanging on it); Apple stars (topped with one of the slices I cut them out of, because that was pretty too).

Bottom Row: Party hat shaped French toast; Yoghurt with star sprinkles and tiny silver cachous; Banana slices.

The After Shot:

The Muffin isn't that big on French toast, so I was quite impressed that she ate one whole "hat", plus the bobble off the top of the other. Everything else was yummy.

To see what other mums did this week, click on over to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Muffin Tin Monday - Leftover Bugs

2012-01-02T19:56:00.003+08:00

It's the first Muffin Tin Monday for 2012!

The Muffin got this cute silicon muffin tin for Christmas, and she couldn't wait to use it, so we did a bug theme for dinner tonight. It was also kind of a "leftovers" theme :o)

Top Row: Banana Bee with prune head, apple wings, and royal icing eyes; Leftover sausage.

Middle Row: Apple Dragonfly; Fairy bread Butterfly with royal icing eyes.

Bottom Row: Leftover (home made) Hawaiian pizza; Leftover (home made) potato salad.

I love this picture of the Bee:

"Heeeeeeeeeelllllllllp meeeeeeeeeee!!!!"

The After Shot:

This tin was not a challenge at all for The Muffin, as she likes all these foods anyway. Next week I might pop in a few things she's not so keen on, and see how she goes!

Too see how other Muffin Tin Mummies began the new year, click on over to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog. Or for more of my Muffin Tins, check out this post and see what other people liked here last year...

Okay, So All The Cool Kids Are Doing It....

2012-01-02T18:34:00.003+08:00

I've never done this before, but seeing as how everyone else seems to be, and seeing as how it's possible someone who's new to Muffin Tin Monday might want to see some of my older tins, I hereby present:

Sugary Flower's Top Five Posts of 2011 !

Or perhaps I should say, top five posts written in 2011 (some of my most consistently popular posts are really old ones). In fact, my most popular post ever of all time (and consistently most popular Every Week) is actually a cake related one (the My Little Pony Castle Cake post). But that was a post I wrote last year. This year, it's all about Muffin Tins...

1. Muffin Tin Monday - Horsing Around
I loved this tin - and the author of the book it was based on commented on my post! How Exciting!!
2. Muffin Tin Monday - Baby Beluga
This muffin tin was based on one of the catchiest kids' songs ever...
3. Muffin Tin Monday - The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This has to be one of the most popular book-related themes - heaps of people have done it, but here's our version.
4. What's For Lunch Wednesday - Ballerina Bento
A very simple bento lunch that The Muffin took to kindy one day.
5. Muffin Tin Monday plus Bonus Elephant Bento
Not sure whether the MTM or the bento made this one popular, but The Muffin just loved all the elephants!2011 was a huge year for The Muffin, what with starting - and finishing - Kindy. She has grown up so much these past twelve months, and I know I'm going to be saying that again in twelve months time, but still it's true! One of the ways in which she has really grown is in her willingness to try new foods, and also the likelihood of her liking them has increased. I believe that Muffin Tin Monday has really helped in this regard (as has watching Australian Junior MasterChef), but I guess it's also just part of her growing up. Don't get me wrong - we still have issues with most green vegetables, and her favourite meat is still sausages, but her second favourite? Is duck. Really. And she's still four (just). So I guess what I'm saying is, if you have a SUPER fussy picky eater on your hands (and believe me, The Muffin absolutely used to be), don't give up! There is light at the end of that Very Long Tunnel.

Happy New Year! Here's hoping 2012 is a great year for us all...

Christmas Day (Gimme Some Sugar)...

2011-12-27T21:51:00.008+08:00

Okay, so I didn't get a chance to do another post before Christmas - hands up who's shocked. Noone? No, I thought not. I swear, I left everything so late this year - Never Again. (or, you know, never again until next time...)

And I mean really late. Like, I started decorating my Christmas cake at 10pm on Christmas Eve. Luckily the design I had decided on was a simple one, so it was actually doable:

And then I forgot to take a photo of it before I stuck a knife in it. Sigh. Still cute though, right?

NB: The idea for the "North Pole" sign came from "the decorated cookie", although she used a lollipop stick with washi tape, whereas I used a candy cane with the curved part chopped off.

Other goodies we enjoyed on the day included a pavlova with lemon cream and cherry syrup, topped with fresh cherries and raspberries...

The idea for the pavlova's unusual shape was taken from my Donna Hay magazine, where it was called a "Christmas Wreath" pavlova (although hers had a totally different flavour profile).

And yes, it's a terrible photo - I'm sorry about that, but that's the trouble with not being able to take photos at night... (Although guess what? Thanks to my beloved husband, I Now Can!!! More on that later...)

My four year old daughter and I also decorated a gingerbread house this year:

I'm a bit ashamed to say it is an IKEA flat-pack model - but there is a reason for that! I was totally going to bake my own house to decorate with The Muffin. Then I saw that IKEA was having a decorating competition with their flat-pack version, so I thought I'd do two - an IKEA one by myself (in order to attempt to Win The Competition), and a "proper" one to decorate with The Muffin. So I bought one. Flash forward to a week before Christmas, the competition deadline had passed me by, I still hadn't finished my Christmas shopping, and I had four other desserts still to make for Christmas. So I devised a cunning Revised Plan: Bugger Having Two Gingerbread Houses, Stick With The Prefab.

Anyway, with the pressure suddenly turned off, The Muffin and I had such fun decorating this, and my mum joined in too. This side of the house (the front) is the most stylish, so I'm sure our little house wouldn't have won any awards! But that's not really the point, is it? The point is, I had fun with my little girl, and we both ate too many lollies. And what could be more Christmassy than that?

Hope you and yours had a fabulous Christmas, and that Santa was good to you (he certainly was to me!)

The End of The Beginning

2011-12-22T23:36:00.005+08:00

Here in Australia the end of the school year happens right about now - our long Summer holidays happen over Christmas (obviously. You know, on account of it being Summer...).

Anyway, the point is, my little girl has Finished Kindy. She'll be heading off to Pre-Primary next year. And whilst I'm actually not one of those people who says "wow, the last five years has gone so fast", I must admit that my baby is getting to be quite a big girl now!

So here are the thankyou/Christmas gifts I made for The Muffin's teachers:

The sleighs are chocolate cookies (made from LilaLoa's recipe, which is Soooo Good), held together with royal icing. To make them, I used a sleigh cutter for the sides, and a square cutter to make the little squares and rectangles I needed for the inner "box" part of the sleigh.

See?

It was actually easier than I thought it would be. I kept the decoration of the sleighs simple, as I didn't want to have to burst into tears if they all just fell to bits, but I needn't have worried.

The little sleighs are filled with home made goodies - gingerbread snowmen/trees, rum balls, lime and Malibu truffles. Also each had either a candy cane or a Starlight mint.

The kindy held a graduation morning tea to celebrate the end of kindy, so I took cupcakes:

They were white chocolate cupcakes with lemon vanilla buttercream, and I made the decorations from sugarpaste (with a little CMC added, so I guess technically modelling paste?) Please forgive my ultra-dodgy photo, clumsily doctored using Picnik! As per usual, I was in a rush and didn't get a good photo before the event...

Only two days 'til Christmas! I have one or two more yummy things up my sleeve, so hopefully I'll have time for another post before the big day... Hope your Christmas preparations are going well!

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas Times Two

2011-12-20T23:04:00.003+08:00

Okay, so I missed Muffin Tin Monday, again. But we didn't miss out on doing muffin tins, I've just been super ~~disorganised~~ busy the last week or two, what with (among other things) the END of kindy, the leadup to Christmas, and the Great Nit Debacle (oh. my. lord, I am so over washing bedding...)

So anyway, the point is, here are our muffin tins from the last two Mondays!

Last week: Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer tin:

Top Row: Carrots (reindeer food); Rudolph banana sandwich with M&M nose; All Of The Other Reindeer pasta (Elk pasta from IKEA).

Bottom Row: String cheese nibblets with Rudolph's Nose Pick (ew, just realised how that sounds...!); Yoghurt snow; Tomato sauce for dipping pasta in.

The Muffin wanted to know what the cheese nibblets were (to do with the theme). My mother (bless her little cotton socks) said "They are reindeer footprints", which my child was delighted with. Probably because Nanna said it. So thanks for that Mum, because I was drawing a blank! Probably would have said "snowballs" or something.

The After Shot:

Everything went except a few carrots.

This Week: Snowy theme (The Muffin's idea):

Top Row: Cranberries (because they are generally Christmassy); Prunes (tenuous link: Prunes are dried plums, ergo voila: Sugarplums!); Marshmallow snowman with pretzel arms.

Bottom Row: Apple salad; Snowman ham & cheese sandwich with ham & cheese details; Yoghurt snow (again. Yes, we are getting mileage out of "yoghurt snow" this year. But today it was All Sparkly And Glittery, although you can't see it in the photo.).

The After Shot:

This tin heralded the beginning of our school holiday MTMs. This means that this tin was The Muffin's lunch, rather than just a snack. I was mildly surprised she left some salad. I know, this shouldn't seem surprising, but The Muffin actually loves this salad (it's the only one she does like, mind you, so don't go getting all jealous or anything). All it is, is grated apple and carrot, plus chopped English spinach leaves, with a squeeze of lemon juice. Super healthy, and normally she scoffs it. The apple and lemon makes it quite sweet, so it's a good way to get some raw vegetables into non-salad eaters. I think this tin was just a lot of food for her, to be honest.

To see what other mums fed their small people this week (and indeed last week), why not head over to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog?

This is our last tin before Christmas Day, so if anyone actually has enough leisure time to read this before the Big Day, Merry Christmas! Hope you & yours have a wonderful and safe day.

And if you come back here later in the week, you will see Cupcakes! And Christmas baking!

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas Treats

2011-12-05T23:35:00.002+08:00

Okay, so very briefly, as it's late and I'm knackered...

It's Muffin Tin Monday! Today I was doing Christmas baking, so when The Muffin got home from kindy, she had a Christmas Treats themed tin:

Top Row: Banana slices with candy cane cutouts; Pear with a gingerbread man pick; Mini pudding truffle (recipe here - and this time we tried out the new Cadbury Melts, and they are sooooo much better than Nestle!)

Middle: Little cup with various sprinkles.

Bottom Row: Ham and cheese "clothes"; Gingerbread man shaped bread and butter; Candy cane.

The idea of the little bread men was that she could use the cheese and ham clothes and the sprinkles to create her own little people. Here's what she came up with:

I particularly liked her little man with its hat. She said the white star was for its mouth ("because I ran out of round sprinkles") but I think it So looks like a little moustache! :o)

The After Shot:

The Muffin loooooved this tin! I have a cute theme planned for next week, too, and hopefully I'll be able to include some more challenging foods in that one! (do I dare incurring her wrath by including cucumber again??? You'll just have to come back next week to find out!)

To check out what other yummy mummies served up this week, go to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

I Made Cupcakes.

2011-12-03T20:03:00.002+08:00

These ones were my first attempt at something I've been thinking about for a while. In the event, they Were Not Worthy. But the icing was sensational: Rose Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I used Sweetapolita's SMBC recipe, and seriously, I could eat a bowlful of this stuff with a spoon...
These ones were rich pear and chocolate cupcakes with coffee buttercream, topped with a macaron shell. They were yummy.

So there you are. Not terribly exciting, I guess, and the Search For The Topkapi Cupcake continues, but at least it's cake, and not just snack foods in a muffin tin! :o)

Around here, the Christmas Baking has begun, so stay tuned for more sugary goodness in the next few weeks.

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas (#1)

2011-11-29T11:18:00.004+08:00

It's Muffin Tin Monday (or it was yesterday, anyway)! In our house, Christmas preparations are picking up speed, and it's not even December yet! But The Muffin is Incredibly Excited about it, plus my shopping isn't as organised this year as it usually is, and we've got a Christmas party happening at our house this year, so there's a fair bit to organise...

Anyway, the point is, I decided to start our Christmas themed Muffin Tins this week, so we get to do a few of them before the big day. This one was a bit of a rush job, I shall do something more creative in the weeks to come!

Top Row: Apple Christmas tree; Apple Christmas bauble; Popcorn "snowflakes" with a puffy green pick.

Bottom Row: Pikelets (Reindeer footprints?); Yoghurt "snow" with vanilla, cinnamon & Christmas tree shaped sprinkles; Plum "Pudding".

I was very pleased with how the "Plum Pudding" turned out - it's just a whole small plum, with a bit of yoghurt drizzled on top, and holly made from a craisin and apple skin. The Muffin was thrilled with it. Upon discovering it was not the dessert, she wanted to know where the dessert was. I told her she had to find it by eating the other things. Eventually she discovered that the green pick was poked into a white marshmallow (hidden by all the popcorn). She found this simple little hide-and-seek aspect great fun.

The After Shot:

Enough said, I think! To check out what other mums did for Muffin Tin Monday this week, check out the Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Coming soon: Cupcakes!

Muffin Tin Monday - Two For The Price Of One!

2011-11-22T10:36:00.003+08:00

In our house, we Never Ever miss a Muffin Tin Monday. It's just too much fun (and The Muffin does remember!) However, we do get busy. So sometimes I do miss a Muffin Tin Monday linkup. Like last week. Sorry about that.

But the good news is, that means this week you get Two Muffin Tins For The Price Of One!

First, last week's tin. The Muffin has been quite interested lately in the idea of Disneyland. I can't quite remember why we started talking about it, but I ended up showing her my photos of when I went there, and she was fascinated. And then, the contestants on Junior Masterchef got taken to Disneyland, and that was it. She was hooked. We had an elaborate Sylvanian Families Disneyland set up all over the lounge room for a week, complete with "Splash Mountain" (a slide made with pillows down from the lounge), "Sleeping Beauty's Castle" (Zhu Zhu pet castle), "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad" (a small train set with Megabloks "mountain" in the middle), and the list goes on. Okay, I'll admit it - it was actually kind of awesome. I had fun too. :o)

Anyway, so last week's Muffin Tin just had to be Disneyland themed:

Top Row: Banana person (this was not part of the theme. I had run out of ideas at this stage, so I shoved some sultana eyes in half a banana and said "look, this naughty banana person has jumped into your Disneyland tin!" She thought this was hysterical, and kept shrieking "Oh dear, what a naughty banana person!"); Peach Big Thunder Mountain (yes, I know. Rather a lot of imagination required); Mickey head shape made from a tiny choc chip cookie and two mini licorice allsort circles.

Bottom Row: Mickey Mouse and Daisy Duck head Vegemite sandwiches; Yoghurt with red, white and blue stars (we talked about these being the colours of the American flag, and that Disneyland was in America); Mickey Mouse head pikelets (with sultana eyes & nose, and Gourmet Writer mouth).

Here's a closeup of Mickey and Daisy:

I have a Disney cookie press kit, bought by my mother a thousand years ago at Disneyland, so I used a couple of the cookie stamps to cut these sandwiches out, then added sultana and Gourmet Writer details.

So it wasn't the most elaborate Disney tin - it was kind of a last-minute idea - but she loved it. As evidenced by The After Shot:

But wait, there's more!

This week's tin has a Seasons theme. The Muffin helped me come up with ideas for this one:

Top Row: Summer - Pancake Sun (with maple syrup hiding underneath in a little cup); Winter - Popcorn Snow; Spring - Fairy bread Flower with mini M&M centre.

Bottom Row: Summer - fresh Peaches (which are only available in Summer here); Winter - Yoghurt Snow with blue sanding sugar Frost; Autumn - Cheese Leaves.

Yes, I am very aware of the irony of teaching my daughter to associate Winter primarily with snow, when we live in Western Australia (where it has literally never snowed at ground level. Very rarely we may get a tiny bit on our highest mountains, and it melts virtually immediately). But the thing is, snow is so much easier to represent with food than rain is, and I was feeling lazy. We did talk about the fact that we don't get snow here.

The After Shot:

If you'd like to check out what other mums did this week, head on over to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog. Why not make one yourself next week? (hey, you don't even have to have a kid....!) :o)

Muffin Tin Monday - Kindy

2011-11-07T20:38:00.003+08:00

The Muffin has been talking about doing a "Kindy" theme for Muffin Tin Monday for a while now. She asked about it again today, and considering she only has five or six weeks left of being a kindy kid, I thought it was probably time!

The muffin helped with this tin, as it is intended to represent some of the things she likes about kindy.

Top Row: Strawberries (representing Fruit Time); ABC pikelets (representing Reading and Writing); Yoghurt with sprinkle face (representing "Making Friends", or "Playing with other kids". Actually this one was not her idea - she's quite shy - but she agreed to it.)

Bottom Row: Banana slices (also representing Fruit Time); Cheerios (representing Hula Hoops); String cheese carved into pencil shapes (representing Drawing).

I forgot to take an After Shot, but she ate the lot.

To see what other mums fed their small people today, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Muffin Tin Monday - Hallowe'en (and Bonus Bento!)

2011-10-31T20:44:00.003+08:00

It's Hallowe'en! The Muffin has been so excited about it this year, which is actually pretty funny, because most people here don't even celebrate it. But The Muffin figured out early on that Hallowe'en = Lollies And Cookies. And she was totally sold.

So this tin really isn't the healthiest one ever - but hey, it's Hallowe'en.

Top Row: Cadbury Screme Egg; Twisties Ghosts; banana slices.

Bottom Row: Carrot ghosts; Strawberry Ghost (a whole strawberry dipped in white chocolate, with mini choc chip features); Jelly orange (the juice from the orange is made into jelly, and then put back into the scooped-out orange skin halves to set).

The After Shot:

She ate everything except two carrot ghosts and a smidgeon of jelly.

To see what other mummies made for their little monsters today, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

But Wait - There's More!!

Bonus bento: this is what The Muffin had in her lunchbox today:

Pumpkin cookie (somewhat overzealously decorated by The Muffin herself - for some more of her Hallowe'en cookies - and mine - see the other post I wrote today);
Ham and cheese sandwich Ghost, and string cheese ghostlets.
Ham and cheese sandwich Witch Hat;
Sliced apple with Jack-o-Lanternish face, which I quite accidentally arranged into a head-and-body shape (I was just trying to fit it all in), and then added sultana hair after I noticed.

Hallowe'en Fun

2011-10-31T19:48:00.003+08:00

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! Or, you know, everyone who celebrates it. Actually Hallowe'en is not that big here in Australia. It's after eight pm as I write this, and we've only had one set of trick-or-treaters knock at the door...

The thing is, a lot of people here dismiss Hallowe'en as "an American thing" that is "not relevant to us". I find this kind of funny, because a) Hallowe'en did not originate in America, and b) having fancy dress parties and eating cute and funny-looking cookies is Completely Relevant to me, at any rate! Others object to Hallowe'en on religious grounds, which is fair enough.

At our house, we do celebrate Hallowe'en. We don't take it at all seriously, and we don't even always have/attend a party - we just think it's a bit of fun. And an excuse to make these:

I got the idea for these from the Donna Hay feauture in our weekend newspaper, but I lost the picture before I made these, so I have no idea how close mine are to the original...

Also:
Awesome, brilliant idea from LilaLoa, executed somewhat haphazardly by yours truly. You should check hers out, they're great.

The whole set:
I didn't do lots of different types this year. We weren't having a party or anything, so these were pretty much made for Husband to take to work, plus some for us to eat. The green "eyeball soup" cookies are a Sugarbelle design, although I decided to make my eyeballs out of sugarpaste so that I could have all different sizes. Check hers out here. For the pumpkins, I just kind of did my own thing (not that it's very original or anything, but I kind of like them).

Oh, and these are some of the cookies The Muffin decorated:

I was quite impressed with her Jack-o-Lantern, especially since she used a piping bag (usually she uses a squeezy bottle, which is much easier for her to control).

So the moral of this story, ladies and gentlemen, is this: No matter what your beliefs, no matter what you think of All Hallow's Eve and those who celebrate it, remember this: Life Is More Fun When It Involves Cookies.

Thank you.

Muffin Tin Monday - Yummy Foods

2011-10-24T16:38:00.002+08:00

This week's theme (for me) was "I have leftover potato and various halves of pieces of fruit etc in the fridge and I can't think of a theme they fit in with and frankly I'm feeling a bit lazy". So, feeling that this would not fly as a theme suggestion in The Muffin's view, I suggested a "Yummy Foods" theme. This involved me dragging out all the stuff I wanted to use up, and letting The Muffin choose.

She had to choose at least one vegetable, at least one fruit, and at least one protein. Here's what she ended up with:

Top Row: Leftover steamed potato; Salami arranged into a "flower"; Bertie Beetle (from her showbag).

Bottom Row: Apple slices arranged into a "flower"; Vanilla yoghurt; Banana slices.

The After Shot:

This tin, whilst not the most exciting one ever, was still well received (and why wouldn't it be, considering she chose what went into it?), and declared yummy.

To see what other mum did this week, go to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Royal Show Entries 2011

2011-10-21T09:11:00.005+08:00

Wow, I can't believe I'm posting this so LATE. I'd been planning to post about these toward the end of Show week, while we were away on holidays. But I found myself trying to upload things using Husband's mobile phone's internet connection, which was So Slow that I gave up. And since we got home, I just seem to have been awfully busy!

Anyway, enough excuses - on to the sugary goodness...

I entered into three Classes at the Perth Royal Show this year: Decorated Biscuits (cookies), Patty Cakes (ie cupcakes), and Macarons.

The macarons were a nightmare. I made about twelve batches of the little buggers, wailing "Why did I write "macarons"? What On Earth Was I Thinking??" My macaron issues could easily fill a whole post, so I won't go into it here. Suffice to say, my macs tasted fine, and looked okay, but I was never in danger of winning any prizes! The ones I entered were the plain coloured one (at the front), and the back two pinks (the darker ones).

I was far happier with my cupcakes and my cookies. For the cookies, I decided to go with a Christmas theme:

All the decorating is royal icing, except the holly on the pudding, which I made from sugarpaste. I was really happy with how these turned out, and the judges must have agreed, because I Won! Woo hoo! The competition was a lot stiffer this year than it was last year, so I was really pleased.

Finally, for the cupcakes I decided on one of my favourite themes: Alice in Wonderland. After many preliminary sketches, and much elimination, I settled on these six designs:

You know how so often you have a clear idea of how you want something to look, and then when you make it, it doesn't turn out that way? Well this cupcake turned out Exactly as I'd imagined it - don't you Love It when that happens? I realise the Alice-Down-The-Rabbit-Hole cupcake design is not exactly an original one - it's been done by many, many people, including Planet Cake - but I've noticed that most of these designs use just a couple of flat white frills. I really wanted my Alice to have lots and lots of extra-poofy, voluminous petticoats.

Shhh - don't wake the Talking Flower - she might think you're a weed...

And don't tell the Queen that we've been Painting the Roses Red:

With all this cake, would you like a cup of tea? Or perhaps just half a cup...?

I also made a Bread-And-Butterfly with some little flowers, and a tabletop with a "Drink Me" bottle and tiny gold key.

Here's the whole set:

Most of the decorations are modelling paste, except the key, the red "paint", the "butter" and the little flowers' centres, which are all royal icing. The "Drink Me" topper (shown here sans cupcake) was sitting on top of a buttercream swirl for the Show to heighten the tabletop look.

Anyway, in case you're wondering - yep, these won their Class too! :o)

Muffin Tin Monday - Hearts for Dinner, and a Clever Little Cookie

2011-10-10T18:15:00.003+08:00

Happy Muffin Tin Monday everyone! This week we were out at lunch time, so we went for a simple Hearts theme for our MTM, at dinner time:

Top Row: Sausage; Spinach leaf hearts; Yoghurt with heart sprinkles.

Bottom Row: Cucumber hearts, and carrot sticks; Shepherds pie; Banana chips.

The After Shot:

Madam was Not Amused at having to eat a piece of cucumber. I reminded her that the rule of Muffin Tin Monday (in our house, anyway) is that she has to eat one thing (or a bit of it, if it's big) from each compartment. You should have seen the performance, facial-expression-wise. This kid should be on the stage. But she Suffered through one small piece of cucumber, all the same. Probably scared I wouldn't let her eat the banana chips if she didn't. :o)

To see what other mums fed their kiddies this week, check out the Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

But Wait - There's More!

Look what my Clever Girl did:

These were The Muffin's entry into this year's Perth Royal Show (decorated cookies class). She received no help at all with these - mixed her own icing colours and everything. She didn't get a prize, but the judges said she came very close to getting the Honorable Mention over an eight-year-old - and she's only four! I think they are beautiful, and I am a Very Proud Mummy.

Muffin Tin Monday - Show Day!

2011-10-03T23:20:00.003+08:00

Today we went to the Perth Royal Show! To say that The Muffin has been looking forward to it is a Massive Understatement, and we had a fantastic day. As we had lunch and dinner at the Show (we stayed for the fireworks, which were Awesome), we had our Muffin Tin Meal for breakfast:

Top Row: Yoghurt with vanilla; Banana slices.

Middle Row: Weetbix Bites (berry flavour); Weetbix Bites (apricot flavour).

Bottom Row: Home-made muesli x 2.

The After Shot:

This was a pretty big breakfast - all those little compartments of different cereals add up! So although there's a bit of muesli and milk left over, she actually ate really well.

Oh, and by the way, we actually did do Muffin Tin Monday last week, but I was soooo busy with my Royal Show baking (which I will post about later this week, I promise) that I just didn't have time to link up. But I thought it might be appropriate to put last week's photos up today too, as our theme was The Royal Show! (did I mention The Muffin was hanging out for Show Day? Seriously, we have heard nothing else for weeks...)

So here's what we had last week:

Top Row: Fairy bread Ducklings (representing the baby animal nursery); Strawberry Shortcake Showbag containing strawberries; Macaron shell with a ferris wheel drawn on with Gourmet Writers (representing Sideshow Alley).

Bottom Row: Yoghurt with sprinkles (representing the Dairy Pavilion - one of our favourites, as they give out heaps of yummy samples); two Apple People in a teacup (representing the Spinning Teacups ride, which is The Muffin's favourite); Bread and cheese Horse with a cheese "Best In Show" ribbon (representing the animals on show).

Here is a better look at the "Showbag":

I just folded up a piece of baking paper and popped a Strawberry Shortcake sticker on (seemed appropriate to the contents, which were fresh strawberries). Two fitted in, and I popped a third one underneath the bag.

The After Shot:
'Nuff said.

Go to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog to see more Muffin Tin yumminess!

Lolly Shop Cupcakes!

2011-10-01T19:06:00.003+08:00

The Muffin and I decorated these for our cousin's 10th birthday party, and christened them "Lolly Shop Cupcakes"!

There are Freckle cupcakes (no frosting, just melted chocolate spread on thinly and covered with 100s & 1000s), twisty marshmallow cupcakes (with pink cherry flavoured buttercream frosting), Jelly Belly jelly bean cupcakes (with lemon buttercream frosting), Mini M&M cupcakes (with chocolate buttercream frosting), and Mini Licorice Allsort cupcakes (with chocolate buttercream frosting). The cupcakes themselves are light and fluffy lemon cake.

Yum!

Muffin Tin Monday - AARRRR!

2011-09-20T01:15:00.005+08:00

Ahoy there, me hearties, an' a very happy Talk Like A Pirate Day to ye!
(yes, technically I'm an hour and a half late for this in my time zone, but surely ye wouldn't be the kind o' bilgerat who'd hold that against me, now would ye? Nay, I thought not).

As ye might guess, there was only one theme our Muffin Tin Monday snack could possibly have had today!

Top Row: Spinach leaf palm tree with pea "coconuts"; Cheese (writing done with Gourmet Writers); AAARRRR - Treasure!!! (a chocolate coin).

Middle: Pikelet skulls.

Bottom Row: Banana slices hoistin' the Jolly Roger; Buried Treasure; Apple skulls.

The "buried treasure" was chopped tinned apricots, hidin' beneath a layer of plain yoghurt. The Muffin requested "pirate sprinkles". I suggested a little red sanding sugar, which met with her approval.

Diggin' fer gold!

And, The After Shot:

The Muffin wrapped one pea in a spinach leaf, dipped it in the apricots, ate it with the most hilariously disgusted look on 'er face, and then cut a deal: She'd eat all the rest of the leaves, if she didn't have to eat another pea. Aarrr, ye can't argue with that. Clearly peas be still not a favourite!

Did ye do anythin' fer Talk Like A Pirate Day this year? I know there's at least one other Muffin Tin Mum who did - go to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog to check out all this week's links!

Muffin Tin Monday - Sports

2011-09-12T16:46:00.002+08:00

The Muffin's school athletics carnival is this week, so we decided on a Sports theme for Muffin Tin Monday. Now, this one was a bit of a challenge for us, because with the exception of dance, we're not exactly the most athletic family! But we did our best:

Top Row: Winner's ribbon made from fairy bread (banana flavoured sprinkles); Apple stars; Butterfly cookie (tenuous theme link: one might see a butterfly whilst one is outside playing sport. Oh dear, I know - but The Muffin decorated this cookie herself and really wanted it in the tin).

Bottom Row: String cheese nibblet "Tennis balls" with a tennis player pick (made with a sticker); Yoghurt; Soccer ball Vegemite sandwiches.

Here is a closeup of the Winner's Ribbon:

And here is the After Shot:

She came home really hungry and ready for this snack, and it was full of things she likes, so I wasn't surprised it all went. Not the healthiest tin ever, but you get that - we'll do better next week.

What did you do for Muffin Tin Monday this week? I'm heading over to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog, to find out...

Muffin Tin Monday - Tweedilee

2011-09-05T21:58:00.003+08:00

Late last week, my daughter fell in love. Big time. With this bird:

This very cute puppet was crocheted for her by my mother (isn't she clever?). The Muffin thinks it is the most wonderful thing ever to grace the world with its presence (except maybe icecream. And chocolate). She has christened it "Tweedilee". As you can see, Tweedilee got her own Muffin Tin Meal this week, so I decided to make The Muffin's tin Tweedilee-themed...

Top Row: Apple slices; Tweedilee Vegemite sandwich with cheese crest & tail (coloured in with Gourmet Writers); Half a hard-boiled egg (which Tweedilee has hatched out of).

Bottom Row: Apple sauce with "birdseed" (a mixture of sunflower and pumpkin seeds); Waffles (hearts, to show that The Muffin and Tweedilee love each other); Yoghurt with "Tweedilee feathers" (purple sprinkles).

The After Shot:

This tin was great fun. I was pleased (and a bit surprised) to see that she ate the seeds up no problem at all. Granted they were covered in apple sauce, but still... She enjoyed dipping the waffles in the yoghurt and apple sauce, and then ate the rest with a spoon when she ran out of waffle. About a third of the yoghurt was left (I might try giving her less yoghurt next time, as she's left some a few times in a row now).

To see what other mums did this week, check out the Muffin Tin Mom's blog. What do your kids like snacking on?

Happy Fathers Day!

2011-09-04T20:08:00.003+08:00

My dad loves fishing. So it was ~~pretty lucky~~ Completely Planned that I had some fish cookies to take over to his place today. (I must admit it was partly because I've been wanting to make some Under The Sea cookies for a while now anyway...)

This little guy's stripes were done using the wet-on-wet technique. This isn't something I do a lot (usually pretty much just for spots), so I was quite happy with how it turned out.

Here he is again, along with some of his friends (for a better view of Crabby, see yesterday's post):

I also made another purple and teal striped design, with the black outline sanded with black sanding sugar, but I wasn't overly happy with how it turned out, so I didn't photograph it. Funnily enough, that one turned out to be Dad's favourite! Oh well...!

Hope all the dads out there are having a great day. And a big Happy Fathers Day to my dad, who I love lots. And also to Husband, who is the best daddy in the world in The Muffin's eyes (and in mine!). Because I think any grown man who is happy to attend his little girl's dance lessons, play My Little Pony for hours on end, and improvise various Disney Handsome Prince roles as required, is pretty much a Superhero.

Crabby Cookie

2011-09-03T19:10:00.004+08:00

Over the last few days, I've been up to my ears in almond meal, egg whites and icing sugar. Yes, the macaron bug has struck again....

But I also managed to squeeze some of these little guys in:

Isn't he cute?

He has some little fishy friends, too, so stay tuned for pics of those in the next day or so...

Hope your macs are treating you better than mine are... grr...

Muffin Tin Monday - Circles

2011-08-29T19:03:00.003+08:00

This week, The Muffin suggested Circles as her Muffin Tin Monday theme, and I was quite pleased about that, because it ~~required very little effort~~ fitted in well with the foods I was planning to give her.

Top Row: Apple slices; Gold kiwifruit (looks greenish in the picture but was actually bright yellow); Chocolate coated raspberry.

Bottom Row: Dried figs; Yoghurt with round sprinkles (and some purple jimmies, which The Muffin desperately wanted on her yoghurt, and justified by saying "they are circles from some angles, Mummy", pointing out that the ends of each jimmy are circular. Which I thought was quite clever, so I went along with it); Sweet potato chips.

The After Shot:

The apple and chocolate all went, plus most of the yoghurt. The other three items were all new foods for The Muffin, and she willingly tasted - and liked - them all. Score! I was particularly impressed with her reception of the kiwifruit, as she won't touch green kiwifruit with a bargepole. I don't think the yellow variety is destined to be her favourite thing ever, but she did like it.

Not sure why she didn't eat as much as usual - she's had a bit of a cold the last few days, so I guess she just wasn't very hungry.

To see what other mummies (and possibly daddies?) did this week, go check out the Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Recipes, Bleeding, and Drawing on Cookies

2011-08-27T18:53:00.006+08:00

So even though I really love my usual sugar cookie recipe (which is Peggy Porschen's), I thought I might try out Sweet Sugarbelle's recipe (on account of I think she is a Cookie Goddess).

I had had a hankering for cinnamon cookies for some reason, so instead of adding "flavouring", I added three teaspoons of ground cinnamon. The result was these:

And they were pretty good. The texture was very soft (almost-but-not-quite cakey?). The flavour was nice - a little sweeter than my usual recipe (quite a few of them never made it to being iced). And they worked well with the cinnamon. Another good point is that the dough does not need to be chilled before baking, so it's a good option if you're in a rush.

Honestly? I think I still prefer Peggy's recipe, flavour and texture-wise. But Sugarbelle's is good too - like most cookie reviews, this is just a personal preference. And I'd happily eat either.

Anyway, so I had a bit of a disaster when decorating these - I decided to outline my designs with black, as I really like the look of it, plus it makes life easy as you don't have to mix several different colours of piping-consistency icing. I have heard people talking about their black icing "bleeding" into their colours before, but this was the first time I have ever had it happen. It was horrendous. Seriously, these cookies were Uuuuuugly. So I pretty much gave up in disgust, and we ate them all.

But there were a few cookies that survived, because all I had done to them was iced them flat, planning to pipe designs on afterward. So the bleeding is there if you look for it, but it's not nearly so obvious. So when earlier today, my Nanna dropped in for a cuppa, and these were all I had in the house, I grabbed my Gourmet Writers and said to The Muffin, "Quick! What should I draw on the cookies?" She said "Birds, Mummy! I want little birds!"

Voila - These were scribbled on in the time it took to boil the kettle. So yes, they're a bit rough. But imagine what you could do if you actually made an effort!

This has to be the easiest way ever to decorate cookies. So you know, if you're ever ~~feeling lazy~~ short of time, it's an option.

Hope you're all having a good weekend - I promise there will be more sugary goodness here next week, as well as the usual Muffin Tin Monday post!

Muffin Tin Monday (and Bonus Bento) - Cinderella!

2011-08-22T19:40:00.002+08:00

This week, The Muffin's school is celebrating Book Week. Today, the kids were all invited to go to school dressed as their favourite book character - and of course, The Muffin chose Cinderella.

This is what I sent with her for lunch:

In the top layer, she had strawberries (because princesses get to eat as many strawberries as they want, right?), and dried dates on mouse and dog picks (as these animals appear in the story).
In the bottom layer, dress and sparkly glass slipper sandwiches, both with ham and cheese. Also little birds made from carrot and cheese (again, standard issue Cinderella fauna).

After kindy, it was time for Muffin Tin Monday! Again, I went with the Cinderella theme:

Top Row: Strawberries; Apple slices with hearts cut out; a macaron shell with a line from one of the songs in the Cinderella movie (written on with Gourmet Writers).

Bottom Row: Another sparkly glass slipper sandwich, this time with Vegemite (I know you can't see the edible glitter, but you're just going to have to trust me - it was sparkly); Yoghurt with a few heart sprinkles in Cinderella blue; a Mouse and a Bird carved from string cheese.

I was quite proud of my cheese animals:

The Muffin had especially requested that this tin include a mouse, so I thought cheese might be easiest. Then I decided to try carving a 3D one out of a string cheese. It was very easy, and worked out so well that I had a go at doing a bird as well (mice and birds being Cinderella's only friends at the beginning of the story).

Chirp.

The After Shot:

This one was a no-brainer. She already likes everything that was in it, and loved the Cinderella theme. The cheese animals went first, which I must admit to feeling quite gratified about!

To see what other mums fed their small people this week, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

What's For Lunch Wednesday: Ballerina Bento

2011-08-17T16:18:00.003+08:00

The Muffin loves to dance, and wants to be a ballerina when she grows up!

Earlier this week, I made her this lunch for kindy:

A Vegemite and cheese sandwich (two halves, stacked), with a cheese and ham ballerina (made with my new ballerina cookie cutter). A clementine with a flower cut out, and a piece of fruit leather (cut with the same cutter) popped into the hole. Four olives on music note picks, and a Le Snak (she doesn't get these all the time, but she loves them, and I'm secretly hoping that eating that soft spready cheese occasionally will eventually reconcile her to the idea of cream cheese, which I wish she liked).

The Muffin was very pleased with her ballerina sandwich.

I am linking this to What's For Lunch Wednesday over at BentoLunch.net - go and check it out to see some other cool lunches!

Muffin Tin Monday - Ponies!

2011-08-15T19:03:00.002+08:00

It's Muffin Tin Monday! For this week's snack, we did a pony theme...

Top Row: Pikelet horseshoes; My Little Pony Fruit Tail; Apples.

Bottom Row: Apples; Pony Vegemite sandwich with sprinkle tail & mane; Carrot.

The apples and carrots are Ponies' Favourite Snacks, hence their inclusion. The carrot is actually out of our garden - I thought it would be cute to pull an immature one out and include it in this tin as a Pony Snack.

The Fruit Tail is quite cute:

Despite being included in the muesli bar/"healthy" snacks section at the supermarket (!), these are essentially lollies. Sure, they're made with a bit of fruit juice. But let's not kid ourselves here - they're lollies. Basically they are like a lolly snake, with a molded shape at one end - there are different licensed characters available, one of which is My Little Pony. They smell yummy, but I can not comment on the flavour, as I was not offered a taste.

The After Shot:

The only thing The Muffin was unenthusiastic about was the carrot. She requested (and got) some tomato sauce to dip it in, but still wasn't keen. I had a little bite, and can kind of see what she meant. The carrot was a bit too immature to be nice to eat raw. So not a bad effort on her part, really.

To see what other mums did this week, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Muffin Tin Monday - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

2011-08-08T16:52:00.004+08:00

Lately The Muffin has been loving The Very Hungry Caterpillar book, by Eric Carle. So today I decided to do a Very Hungry Caterpillar Muffin Tin Meal.

In the book, the little caterpillar eats:

One apple:

Two pears:
Three plums, Four strawberries:

Five Oranges:

And on the sixth day, he eats a feast, and has a tummyache...

On the seventh day, he eats a nice green leaf, and is no longer a little tiny caterpillar, but a great big one:

Our whole tin:

Top Row: One (slice of) apple; Two (pieces of) pears; Three "plums" (actually three pieces of date, as I thought I had prunes, but didn't) and Four strawberries (actually four strawberry halves, so two in total).

Bottom Row: Five (segments of) oranges; One slice of salami, one piece of (not-so-Swiss) cheese, a lollipop from The Muffin's loot bag stash; One nice green (spinach) leaf and a rice cracker & Vegemite caterpillar.

The After Shot:

No big shock here. She likes all these foods anyway, and she very much enjoyed munching through the tin in the same order as the caterpillar does in the book. I read the book to her as she went, stopping to give her time to keep up with the caterpillar!

To see what other muffin tin mums are doing this week, check out the original Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Cupcakes for a Little Star!

2011-08-04T19:26:00.003+08:00

Remember those red velvet cupcakes I put in the freezer the other day? They are no more.

My cousin's daughter celebrated her 8th birthday the other night, so I took the rest of the cupcakes along. I decided they needed something a bit bright and sparkly (because the birthday girl is bright and sparkly!), so I sprinkled the frosting with pink nonpareils, red sanding sugar and pink edible glitter.

From there, I did two different "types" of cupcake: the ones in the white papers were popped into a gorgeous shimmery red "Little Star" cupcake wrapper (I bought these on sale some time ago for just such an occasion as this), and topped with a red coloured white chocolate star.

The ones in the red papers were topped with chocolate lollipops. These were really easy to make, and the kids went mad for them. All I did was melt some dark chocolate, put blobs of it onto some baking paper using a teaspoon, and add a lollipop stick. Then I sprinkled them with some pink nonpareils and edible glitter, and popped them in the fridge to set. Once they were set hard, I added some red chocolate stars to match the cupcakes, but you could put anything on them. Or even just leave them all sprinkly and sparkly.

And the verdict on the frozen cupcakes? They were just fine - I would say this is a viable cupcake to freeze. (Although obviously there's Nothing Like a cupcake that's just come out of the oven, I do like to have Ready-To-Go cupcakes in my freezer for ~~when I'm feeling lazy~~ unexpected guests.)

Hope you are all finding something yummy to eat this week! Later this week: Cookies!

Muffin Tin Monday On A Stick

2011-08-01T19:21:00.003+08:00

So I had grand plans for this week's Muffin Tin - it was going to be a super-cute Very Hungry Caterpillar tin. But I didn't have pears. Or grapes. Or plums. And the orange that looked so nice on top while it sat in my fruit bowl was mouldy underneath. Grr.

So instead I took inspiration from the Muffin Tin Mom herself, and did this Muffin Tin On A Stick!

Top Row: Banana and strawberry kebab; Yoghurt with vanilla and toasted coconut; Sherbet straw from The Muffin's loot bag stash.

Bottom Row: Banana and strawberry kebab; Green sauce; Three-cheese and salami kebab.

The green sauce is really just a kind of pureed cucumber raita - yoghurt, cucumber, salt, lemon juice - oh, and a few spinach leaves ('cause I sneak them into Everything whenever I can). All zoomed up with my trusty stick blender.

The three cheeses in the three-cheese and salami kebab were "normal cheese" (tasty cheddar), "mouse cheese" (Jarlsberg - because of the holes), and "bocconcini" (bocconcini). I know, right? She makes up names for the easy ones, but manages the big words with nary a stumble. Cracks me up.

The After Shot:

She ate the lot, with the exception of the green sauce, which went untouched. She said she forgot about it while eating her savoury skewer, which I believe, because she was very interested in all the cheeses. She did not like the Jarlsberg ("Mummy, the mouse cheese tastes funny. It tastes weird. I don't like it"), but amazingly, she said she liked the bocconcini. She has tried this several times before, and never ever liked it before. What can I say? Therein lies the power of Muffin Tin Monday, I guess.

Pinpointing her favourite bit - the yoghurt with vanilla and toasted coconut.

To see what other lucky kids had this week, go to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog. And to see more cupcakes, come back here later this week!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2011-07-31T19:25:00.003+08:00

So here's the thing. I've never really been into Nigella Lawson. Shocking, I know. Maybe the lady can cook, but I don't know, the whole sex siren/chef thing just all seems a bit on the pretentious side for me.

Then I found out that an old friend of mine is moving to Canada, and we were going over to his place to ~~pinch all his extra condiments and vanilla extract~~ have dinner and say goodbye. Which seems like unrelated information, except that I decided to take along some cupcakes with red maple leaves on top - you know, as a nod to the Canadian flag. So in keeping with the colour scheme, red velvet cupcakes seemed like the obvious choice.

And (wait for it - the point of this is coming any minute now!) recently Taste magazine featured - you guessed it - Nigella's Red Velvet Cupcakes. Since I've never found a red velvet recipe that I'm 100% happy with, I figured I might as well give them a try.

I'm so glad I did.

I take it all back, Nigella - sure you might lick your fingers and make lascivious faces at the camera a little more than I like my celebrity chefs to be doing, but boy do you know your red velvet cupcakes.

See how pretty they look, fresh out of the oven? It was almost a shame to frost them. Almost.

I thought the crumb of these cupcakes was divine - light and fluffy, but still moist, and with a lovely flavour (so often I find "light, fluffy" cake tastes like not much really - not so here). Also I was really happy with the bright red colour - some red velvet cakes I've made have not had as much colour as I would like (and yes, I know the original red velvet cake was probably just a reddish brown from the cocoa, but what can I say - this is an area where I am not a fan of subtlety. Bring On The Food Colouring!).

Anyway, I didn't use Nigella's frosting recipe, I just sort of cobbled one together - mostly butter-based, but with some cream cheese added for flavour. It was really yummy, and I wish I'd payed attention to the quantities I used. Sigh. And I coloured some white chocolate melts with red powder colouring, and piped maple leaf shapes onto baking paper. Once they were set, I popped one of top of each cupcake.

My friend was amused. And we all enjoyed the cake.

I'm interested to see how these cakes hold up to freezing (I love freezing cupcakes, it means I always have something home-baked on hand if people drop in for a coffee). Some cakes freeze better than others, so we'll see. I'll be taking the rest of the batch out on Wednesday night, so I'll be sure to let you know how they go.

And if you want the recipe, go here: Taste.com.au. And once you wade through all the over-flowery directions, you'll be glad you did.

Thanks Nigella. And... you know... sorry about not watching your shows and all.

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-07-25T20:58:00.003+08:00

The theme for this week's Muffin Tin Monday is "We Forgot It Was Monday Again And Were Therefore Forced To Somehow Incorporate An Omelette Dinner Into A Muffin Tin". Catchy, eh?

Here's what I came up with:

Top Row: Half a clementine; Banana slices.

Middle Row: Omelette. There is finely chopped spinach mixed in with the eggs (which is why it's kind of green), and the omelette is filled with ham, cheese, olives and peas. I cooked a whole omelette for her, but just added a few slices of it to the tin, figuring I could refill as she ate.

Bottom Row: Carrot flowers; Cucumber flowers.

The After Shot:

I was quite pleased with the vegetable content of this dinner, as sometimes we still find vegies quite the challenge. The Muffin is pretty good with pumpkin, carrot, etc, but not so great with greens. The fact that she happily munched her way through two types of green vegies, plus was coerced into eating a couple of pieces of a third (the cucumber), makes me happy. She ate almost the whole omelette (ie. just over twice as much as what is shown in the "before" tin above), so I didn't push her too much with the other foods. I found a carrot on the floor afterward, so actually only three were eaten, not four. But for me, this dinner was a big success.

To see what other mums did this week, go check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Muffin Tin Monday - Hearts & Flowers Dinner

2011-07-18T19:09:00.002+08:00

Hello and welcome to Muffin Tin Monday, dinner edition!

Once again I sort of forgot it was Monday until this afternoon, so tonight dinner was served in Muffin Tins all round. Husband and I had a 12-hole tin each. The Muffin had this:

Top Row: Peas; Tomato sauce in a heart cup; 2 lamb cutlets (or meat lollipops, as Husband said).

Bottom Row: Heart shaped roast potato; Roast butternut pumpkin with hearts cut out (although you can't really see it in the picture); Roast carrot flowers.

All shaping of vegetables was done while the vegetables were still raw. It was a total coincidence that the heart cookie cutter I used on the potato just happened to be exactly the right size for the heart-shaped cup!

The After Shot:

I was really surprised that she didn't seem too enthused about the meat tonight. She liked it, but only ate about three quarters of one (she loves lamb, and will usually eat two of these, no problem). Tonight she seemed more interested in the vegetables. She even ate quite a big spoonful of peas (pulled a face, and had to be coerced into eating another spoonful, but still - usually she'll eat one pea at a time which is So Painful).

So what did you do for Muffin Tin Monday? I'm heading over to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog, to find out!

Muffin Tin Monday - T is for Tuesday!

2011-07-12T09:18:00.002+08:00

The school holidays have totally messed with my sense of time and space. We completely forgot it was Monday yesterday, and only remembered at bed time that we should have done a muffin tin. So we decided to do a breakfast tin on Tuesday instead.

The Muffin said that since we were doing our tin on Tuesday, we should do a Letter T theme. So we did:

Top Row: Cherry Tomato with Thyme; Toast.

Middle Row: Trail Mix; Breakfast "Trifle".

Bottom Row: Tomato sauce; Hash brown Triangles.

Note: This tin was actually my breakfast. The Muffin's was the same, except she had a smaller cherry tomato, raspberry jam on her toast, and her butterfly shaped tin.

For the "trifle", I layered rolled oats, yoghurt with vanilla mixed in, and tinned peaches:

It was yummy. So was our trail mix, for which I mixed cashews, sultanas, coconut chips, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and a few M&M baking bits (I wanted chocolate chips, but I had run out).

The After Shot:

The Muffin enjoyed this tin. She was coerced into trying a small bite of the cherry tomato (a miracle in itself - she hates tomato), which did not change her opinion of them. Everything else was yummy.

To see what other (more timely) mummies did this week, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

2011-07-11T15:13:00.002+08:00

We have awesome neighbours. The kind of neighbours that everyone wants. The kids (teenagers!) are the kind of kids we all hope ours will be when they grow up, their dad is a really nice guy, and their mum is someone I count as a friend. We've even co-hosted parties together (and that shows true patience on her part, 'cause I'm kind of a control freak where it comes to parties). Yeah. We have awesome neighbours.

And they're moving away.

*pout*

So I made them some cookies.

There was a centrepiece cookie, too, but it had all their names on it, and I'm not sure whether they'd love that being put on the internet.

Anyway, you know who you are.

We really will.

Thoughts On Winter

2011-07-10T15:30:00.004+08:00

Winter is not my favourite season. I hate being cold.

But quite apart from that, I have noticed that in Winter (what with spending 90% of one's waking hours in jeans, and the rest in either black pants, or something similar), it is also a lot easier to let oneself Run To Seed.

Perhaps it is fortunate that I have a child to bring me back to reality occasionally...

Because when, at 10am, your four year old examines your legs and says "Mummy, why are you wearing stockings?", that's when you know it really is time to put down the piping bag, and go and wax your legs.

Muffin Tin Monday - Butterflies

2011-07-05T11:26:00.003+08:00

This week's Muffin Tin Monday was supposed to be Red White and Blue themed, but as Indepedence Day is not an Australian holiday, and also because blue food would have required forward planning, and I was in a rush and completely disorganised, we chose instead (right at the Last Minute) to do a Butterfly theme:

Top Row: Clementine butterflies; Butterfly apple slices.

Middle Row: Half-hearted attempt at butterfly-shaped rice cake with Vegemite; Easter egg from The Muffin's stash (justification: butterflies lay eggs. I pointed this out to The Muffin after she had started eating, and she totally adopted the idea as her own: "oh yes Mummy, that is why I chose it" - hmm. Maybe, but I have my doubts. More likely she chose it because she fancied some chocolate).

Bottom Row: Tamarillo, chopped up small; Yoghurt with vanilla and butterfly sprinkles.

The After Shot: I forgot to take one! So you'll just have to take my word for it. She ate everything, except the tamarillo. This was a new fruit for her (and me!), and she was suspicious from the get-go. "Mummy that fruit does not look very nice. What are all those black bits?" I tried to explain that they were not black, they were dark red, and for my trouble I received The Dark Look Of Suspicious Disbelief. Anyway, I convinced her to try a bit, and she immediately pulled a horrendous face and squawked "Eeeeeuuurgh!" Which I guess means "no thank you, that is not to my taste". Oh well, I can't complain too much - I didn't like it either! (although I did refrain from saying "eeeeuuurgh").

To see what other mums are doing this week, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Awesome Giveaway at AllThingsForSale.com

2011-07-01T21:19:00.001+08:00

This giveaway is All Kinds of Awesome. If you win, you get the Lunch Punch set of your choice, plus a Whole Lot of cool new bento toys.

Check it out here.

Or... don't. 'Cause, you know, I want to win.

;o)

Good luck!

The Great Gluten-Free Experiment, Part Two (aka Worst Cookie Photos Ever)

2011-06-29T10:34:00.004+08:00

Seriously, these photos were taken under just about the least ideal conditions possible. The cookies are in a plastic box. They are arranged according to how they would fit into said box in one layer, rather than according to how they would look nice. They were taken by me, crouching down on the ground with the box on my lap. Oh Dear.

But you know what? I'm still posting them. Because I was really happy with this set of cookies. I made them for our table to share at my cousin's daughters' dance concert (the seating was Cabaret-style, around tables, with drinks available, etc). And everyone there thought they were yummy - which is awesome, because these cookies were gluten free. I used LilaLoa's chocolate cookie recipe, and just did a straight substitution of gluten free flour for regular flour.

Success!

And you know what else? I'm really proud of those little Ballerina Bear cookies, for three reasons: firstly, they were absolutely completely my own idea. This is unusual for me - usually I get inspired by something else - an established character, a pattern I've seen somewhere, a piece of clipart, another cookie design. But this one's all mine. Secondly, because I tried a new (for me) technique on these, and it didn't turn out too badly. See the tutus? They're done with one of those ruffle icing tips, and stiff-ish icing. I think it could use some work, but for my first go, I think they're pretty cool.

(please excuse Ballerina Bear's horrid wrinkly arms. By this time it was two in the morning, and I ran out of flood-consistency brown, and I couldn't face mixing more. At the end of the day, these cookies were eaten in semi-darkness, so I figured noone would notice. Except you, of course.) :o)

And Thirdly, because the inspiration came from the cutter itself. Can you see what it is? I haven't bent the cutter at all...

Yes! It's an Easter Bunny cutter, turned upside down! Having been inspired by Sweet Sugarbelle's crazy-creative use of cutters, I've been trying to be a bit more creative with my own. The Muffin and I sometimes get some cutters out and play a game of "What Else Could We Make With This Cutter?" This game is quite fun through the eyes of a four-year-old, and it's forcing me to think creatively, too.

Hope that you're having a good week (and that your photos are turning out better than mine!)

Muffin Tin Monday - Frogs

2011-06-27T19:51:00.002+08:00

Goodness, is it really Muffin Tin Monday again already?

This week, our theme is Frogs:

Top Row: Cut up orange "sunshine"; Sultana "flies".

Middle Row: Green pikelet F-R-O-G; Pear "tadpoles".

Bottom Row: Green yoghurt "swamp"; Bread & Vegemite frog (made with Lunch Punch), with sultana eyes.

The After Shot:

All gone.

For other fun snacks, lunches, and even the odd Muffin Tin Breakfast, check out The Muffin Tin Mom's blog.

Muffin Tin Monday - Tiny Dancer!

2011-06-20T19:02:00.002+08:00

My little girl loves to dance. She really loves to dance. She is quite often to be seen pirouetting and arabesque-ing around the lounge room (and yes, thanks to Angelina Ballerina she does use those words, and knows what they mean).

Each week we go to Kindy Dance Time, which has been fantastic for her - it's not too structured, but just structured enough for her age group (ie they do learn a few basic steps, and they get used to following instruction, but they still get to do a fair amount of ~~running about~~ improvisation, and just having fun). Anyway, this Saturday was no exception, and then on Sunday we also went to the Cabaret performance of the dance school my cousin's daughters go to (well done girls, you did an awesome job!)

Because it's been a very dance-y sort of weekend, we decided to have a dancing theme for our Muffin Tin snack today:

Top Row: Apple stars; Ballerina Bear cookie; Starry banana circles.

Bottom Row: Olives on music picks; Yoghurt with frozen raspberries mixed through (it was quite pink in real life, but this doesn't really show up in the photo); Ballet Shoe rice cake with ham details.

The After Shot:

My little ballerina was very pleased with this tin. She liked everything, although the highlight, as usual, was the sugar component - in this case, the cookie. But she was also extremely keen on the yoghurt, and enjoyed stabbing the little fruit stars with the picks.

To see what other mummies did this week, go to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog. Happy snacking!

Muffin Tin Monday - Wet & Dry

2011-06-13T16:46:00.002+08:00

It's Muffin Tin Monday! This week we did a Wet & Dry theme:

Top Row: Dry popcorn; Wet apple juice; Chocolate frog from The Muffin's stash (frogs are Wet).

Bottom Row: Wet & Dry grapes (ie grapes and sultanas); Wet yoghurt; Wet & Dry chick peas.

The "wet" chick peas were tinned ones. The "dry" ones are these:

They are very dry and crunchy. The Muffin said at first that she liked them, but after eating a couple, she said they "had too much flavour". I have no idea what this means, but I'm going to give her a break and then try her on them again another day. It would be great if she developed a taste for these as they are a nice healthy chip-alternative-type snack. I think they're yummy.

The After Shot:

I was quite impressed that she ate as many chick peas (of both types) as she did - she usually won't eat the tinned ones during dinner (I quite often use them in salads etc). I was also a bit surprised that she didn't eat all the popcorn, but maybe it was all a bit dry for her in the end! She requested (and got) more yoghurt though - about half as much again.

To see what other mummies did this week, click on over to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog!

The Great Gluten-Free Experiment (Part One...)

2011-06-13T09:47:00.002+08:00

So here's the thing. Gluten and I are really good friends. Gluten, dairy, butter, eggs - these are my peeps. And whilst I have made numerous milk-free baked goods, a few butter-free ones, and even the odd egg-free one, I have never seriously considered attempting to bake without gluten.

Until now.

Fear not, fellow lovers of all-things-traditionally-baked - Sugary Flower has Absolutely Not gone gluten-free, or anything else free for that matter (hmmm... maybe artichoke-free. But that's completely by choice). But the bad news is, my mother has. Or nearly, anyway. She has recently been advised (yes, by actual doctors) to follow a low-FODMAP diet. What are FODMAPs, you ask? Well, it stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols. If you want to know more, go here, but essentially it means she can't eat much gluten, or dairy, or a frighteningly large list of other things.

So for my first attempt at gluten-free baking, I chose to use this recipe for sugar cookies from glutenfreecookingschool.com, except I didn't use her flour mix, as I am a) lazy, and b) not gluten-free myself, and therefore not inclined to run about buying lots of different flours. So I just used Orgran gluten free flour.

Result: they were not bad. They tasted okay - not as good as my usual cookies, but my theory is, if you couldn't eat the normal ones, you wouldn't say no to these. I want to try again, using the chocolate cookie recipe from LilaLoa (which is Awesome), and just substituting the flour out. I'll let you know how it goes...

Muffin Tin Monday - Baby Beluga

2011-06-06T14:00:00.005+08:00

We have recently (thanks to Kindy Dance Time) discovered a lovely old kids' song that I had never heard of - Baby Beluga. It's very sweet, and quite catchy, and The Muffin loves it. So this week, our muffin tin is inspired by Baby Beluga:-

Baby Beluga (vegemite sandwich) in the deep blue sea (yoghurt with edible glitter),
Swims so wild, and swims so free,
Heaven above, and the sea below,
And a little white whale on the go.

Baby Beluga, oh baby beluga,
Is the water warm?
Is your mama (also a vegemite sandwich) home with you, so happy...

Way down yonder where the (apple) dolphins play,
Where you dive and splash all day...

Baby Beluga, oh baby beluga,
Sing your little (pineapple with music note picks) song,

Sing for all your (fish nugget) friends,
We like to hear you...

When it's dark, and you're home and fed,
Curled up snug in your water bed,
The (cheese) moon is shining and the (cheese) stars are out,

Goodnight little whale, goodnight!

(words are excerpts from Baby Beluga, by Raffi)

To check out what other mums did for their lucky kids this week, check out the Muffin Tin Mom !

Muffin Tin Monday - Weather

2011-05-31T00:21:00.005+08:00

Lately we've been having a lot of weather around here - as in, lots of different sorts. I guess it's just that time of year - warm and sunny one day, raining and cold the next. So I decided on a weather theme for today's Muffin Tin Monday.

First I got some appropriately coloured cupcake papers out, and popped them in the tin. Then I got all the foods ready on a board, and then got The Muffin to match each food to which colour cupcake paper she thought it should go with (eg Me: "What type of weather is white?" Her: "Snow." Me: "So which of these things goes in the snow?" Her: "The polar bear!")

Top Row: Sunny (clementine segments); Cloudy (cheese clouds cut with a squished flower cutter); Rain (umbrella cookie).

Bottom Row: Cold (frozen berries); Snow (yoghurt in a bear-shaped cup); Hot (or Warm, really - sausage).

The yoghurt polar bear's facial features were cut out using my new nori cutter - yay!!

The After Shot:

I was quite pleased with my idea for this tin, but was pleasantly surprised at how well it went over. The Muffin was quite excited about it - I think maybe because of the matching game at the beginning. She told me this tin was one of the best ones ever!

To see what other mums are feeding their offspring this Monday, go to The Muffin Tin Mom's blog! Oh and by the way, a note to the other MTM mums... if I'm not leaving comments on your blog at the moment, it's not because I don't think your tin is awesome. It's because for some reason Blogger won't let me comment on most blogs at the moment. As in, for the last week. Which is annoying. I keep reminding myself that Blogger is a free service. And I am trying to be patient, I am trying to be patient, I am trying to be patient....