Easter baking

Hi Fellow Crafters

Yesterday the kids woke up thinking it was Easter Sunday and they were ready to go egg hunting :-) So you can imagine their disappointment when I told them they still had to wait another whole week. I decided that to lessen the disappointment,  a fun Easter related activity was in order. My boys love baking so I decided to whip up some Shortbread cookies, with their help, in the shape of Easter eggs for them to decorate.

This is a very simple one I use.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
600 grams plain flour (sifted)
240 grams icing sugar (sifted)
420 grams butter

How To: 
1. Cream icing sugar and softened butter together well.
2. Add the flour and mix well. (I use my K-beater attachment during this step) 

3. Roll the dough out on a well floured surface. Either into a sausage and cut into circles or roll out flat 
    and use cookie cutters.
Bake at 180C for 10 to 15 minutes.


When it came to cutting out the cookies I wanted an egg shape but don't have an oval cookie cutter. I needed to get creative and this is what I did. 
1. I took a plastic cup.

2. I squeezed the top lip of the cup until it formed an oval.

3. I used this to cut out my oval "egg" cookies.

I also had a bunny and a chick cookie cutter which we used as well. 

For the decorating I decided to make some running icing so the boys could "paint" their "eggs". For this I took three bowls and placed a cup of sifted icing sugar into each I then got the boys to add food coloring and water and stir. The water was adjusted after stirring to make the icing runny enough for use.

The boys then got decorating.

And viola- painted egg cookies, bunnies and chicks.

Needless to say the boys had a blast. What a surprise, a lot of icing was consumed before it even got onto the biscuits!

Happy Easter Crafting.

Easter crafting with the kids

Hi Fellow Crafters

I had some ingredients left over from Bakers day with my class so I decided to make some bird nests (cute for Easter crafts) with my boys this morning.

To make the nests:

Ingredients:

100g  butter
4 Tsp syrup
200g  cornflakes
300g  cholcolate broken into pieces
marsh mellows
jelly beans/ chocolate eggs
(makes about 15-20 large nests)

Method:

1. Over low heat melt the butter, syrup and chocolate together, stirring continuously.
2. Add the cornflakes a little at a time, into the melted mixture, mixing well after each addition.
3. Let mixture cool slightly.
4. Scoop mixture into hand rolling it into a ball.
5. place into a cupcake liner and with your thumb press down in the middle to form an indent.
6. place eggs into your nest and if you like a little chick (I used a marsh mellow decorated with food
    coloring pens).

Happy Crafting