We also sprayed them with edible silver shimmer spray (left over from Christmas!) which gave them a metallic look.We're really pleased with how they turned out! And just by using (mostly) things that were left over from other baking projects!

The kids asked if we could make some cupcakes, I said of course we could! I had Christmas cakes in mind, however, they had other ideas, haha. Ellie wanted to make Frozen cupcakes and the boys just wanted to decorate there cakes with whatever was on offer - a bit of everything! So that's what we did. I already had a cupboard full of cake decorations and ingredients which were left over from Ellie's birthday. We made Frozen inspired cupcakes and the boys just decorated there in any which way suited them. I think I'll make some Christmas cakes on my own this week and surprise the kids with them, hehe.



To make the frozen inspired cakes me used:

120g of self-raising flour
120g caster sugar
120g of butter (or margarine) at room temperature.
2 medium size eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract.

For the icing I used:
Icing sugar
Water.
Food colouring

Decorations: 
Snowflake decorations(I got mine from Asda)
Silver ball cake decorations (or decorations to suit.)
Silver shimmer spray (optional)

- Makes twelve cakes.

We preheated our oven. I put ours on gas mark 4 and left that to heat up while we prepared the cake mixture.

1) After we'd measured out all of our ingredients using the ozeri kitchen scales, I creamed together the sugar and butter until it went a pale yellow colour.
2) I folded in the flour to the butter and sugar. Adding a little flour each time.
3) I stirred in the vanilla extract. (Ellie poured in the vanilla extract while I stirred)
4) Next up the kids gave the mixture a little whisk (they took it in turns)
5) We poured the mixture into the cupcake cases - half filling each one.
6) We popped them in the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes I popped in my thermapen (you can use a skewer but I didn't have any) to make sure the cakes were cooked. They were because no mixture was left on the probe of the thermapen.
I transferred the cakes to a cooling rack and while they cooled we made the icing.

A photo posted by Sara ♡ (@sassyserrz) on Dec 20, 2015 at 11:10am PST

I used normal icing sugar and water. I didn't measure it, I simply just poured in some icing sugar into a mixing bowl and kept adding water until the icing was the consistency I wanted. I made ours quite thick. I left some white and made some blue icing too, using the same method but adding a drop of blue food colouring.



The kids had fun decoration these! We did also make some random ones, too! The boys didn't want to make frozen ones. I sprayed them with the silver shimmer spray after, which left them with a shimmery, sparkly finish. I feel like the photos do the cakes no justice.

A photo posted by Sara ♡ (@sassyserrz) on Dec 20, 2015 at 11:57am PST

And some random ones the boys decorated. Oh and Ellie made a cat one also. She's crazy about cats, just as I am, haha.


What are your favourite festive snacks to bake? LEt me know in the comments, I'm always on the lookout for new festive recipes. :)

Sarah xXx

Did you know it's national baking weekfrom 13th - 19th October? I didn't know that until this morning to be fair.

Anyway.

We made Halloween cupcakes on Sunday! I know it's a little early to make Halloween cakes but you know? Cake is cake and we love cake. I had so many Halloween cake decorations left over from last year, I thought I would use them up before opening the new cake decorations.

I used my good old cupcake recipe that I posted here. Only, instead of using vanilla falvouring, I used caramel (because I had no vanilla), the kids REALLY loved the caramel flavoured cupcakes!


I also had a lot of other cupcake decorations to use up, so we made some random ones, too!



We're going to be doing some more Halloween and Autumn baking over the next couple of weeks. I love baking at this time of year and to be honest, I really need to get back into baking.

Have you baked anything tasty lately? Let me know in the comments!! :)

Sarah xXx

Ingredients:
200g crushed corn flakes
200g milk chocolate
Mini eggs/sweets for decorating.
Cupcakes cases.

First of all we broke the chocolate up, put it in a glass bowl and I melted it over a boiling pan of water.
(you can also melt chocolate in the microwave)
Once the chocolate had melted we left it for a few minutes while we crushed the cornflakes.
We put the cornflakes in a freezer bag and crushed them using a rolling pin.
We then added the cornflakes to the melted chocolate and stirred them in.
Then we filled the cupcake cases half way with the chocolate/cornflake mixture & added the mini eggs.
We then left them on the side to set for a couple of hours.



Linked up with creative mondays
 Linked up with Sunday Funday
Linked up with Tasty Tuesday
Linked up with lets be friends  
Linked up with mini creations
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Me and the kids made 'slime green cakes' for Halloween. I used this recipe and just added green food colouring & Halloween decorations! They are the kids own creations, the decorated them entirely themselves!


This post is linked up with The Sticky Fingers. This week's theme in Halloween.

Pour the mixture into the cake cases.


I am really getting into baking now. I've never been very good at baking but practice makes perfect! Home made food is so much better that brought food. Ellie really enjoyed helping bake cakes as you can see in the picture. I might try baking biscuits next time.. Wish me luck, lol! If you have any easy baking recipes you'd like to share with me, please leave me a comment. I'd love to try your recipe.

As most of my regular readers know, I am no good at baking. I can COOK but I can't bake to save my life! Well, I've decided it's  time to change that, so I am trying out some really easy baking recipes. I'm really enjoying teaching myself to bake. The other day I tried very easy flapjack which has then inspired me to try raspberry jam slice. I used This recipe and it turned out great...Apart from I didn't add enough topping, I know for next time now though. It tasted great and the kids loved it!
Here's how mine turned out:

I suck at baking, I honestly do. Every time I attempt to try to bake cookies, they never really look or taste like cookies. Even the pre packaged stuff I seem to mess up! Same with cupcakes... However, I have decided I need to practice baking, so practice I will do.
So, starting easy. Very easy. I decided to attempt flapjack. Every time I make flapjack it always falls apart and is just way, WAY to crumbly. I know that's how some people like it but, well, I don't. And nor do the kids, they're always like "but it makes too many crumbs and I don't like it" lol.  However, this time was different. It hasn't fell apart!!! It doesn't fall apart when I pick it up. It's the perfect texture, too. AND, it tastes good!
Here's what I used and did, in case anyone is interested. (This is totally what I call, 'Sarah Proof'. LOL!)

Ingredients: 
130g Brown Sugar
125g soft butter
250g porridge oats
3-4 table spoons of golden syrup. (I used 4 in mine)
Grease proof paper.

Method: 

Preheat oven, I have an electric fan oven and pre heated at 180 degrees.

Add all the ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix until the mixture is sticky/sticking together. You can use a food processor but I don't have one so I used a good ol'e fashioned mixing bowl and wooden spoon.

Add the grease proof paper to the baking tin.

Add the mixture to the baking in. Use the back of the spoon to flatten the mixture down. (I then used a fork to give it a bit of texture, but using a fork is optional) Then I cut/scored into twelve squares.

Place in the oven and bake until golden brown. (Mine was in the oven for about twenty minutes.)

Wait until cool, cut the squares carefully. Ready to eat!
(Store in an air tight container)


My next attempt is (apparently) 'easy raspberry slice'...  Wish me luck!! lol.

Sarah xXx

(P.S Do you have any easy recipes you'd like to share with me, I'd love to have a go at baking your easy recipes.. Remember they need to be 'Sarah Proof' haha.)