Category Archives: Food

Mar21

Cupcake Monsters

Posted on March 21, 2014 by TodayWeDid

With some frosting, lollies and fudge writing gel, we turned our plain vanilla cupcakes into monster treats. Big L cooked the cupcakes for us and then we decorated them as a family. It was lots of fun, and we ended up with some awesome cupcakes!

The kids enjoyed spreading the frosting onto each cupcake, though A kept leaning through the work area, and ended up with three shades of frosting all over her. She even tried licking some of it off her elbow!

Spreading the frosting.

Adding mini marshmallows.

Once the frosting was completed we used a range of lollies, including some strawberry jellies, mini m&ms, yoghurt buttons and mini marshmallows, and some writing fudge, to create our monsters. L used some frosting to stick mini marshmallows together to create long horns. Big L made a Cookie Monster cupcake, complete with mini cookie in his mouth. A just liked using lots of m&ms and marshmallows (and eating them when she thought we weren’t watching!). I used the writing fudge to add pupils to my monsters’ eyes.

Big L’s attempt at making Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.

Feb2

Stegosaurus Cake

Posted on February 2, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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The kids have been interested (possibly obsessed) with dinosaurs for a long time. Yet again this year, L asked for a dinosaur cake for her birthday, and a dinosaur themed party. I think this is the fourth year running I have made a dinosaur cake for her. The first couple were epic dinosaur scenes, with waterfall, stream, beach, trees and lots of little figures. It took hours and hours to create, so this time I offered a simpler dinosaur cake. L asked for a stegosaurus, so a stegosaurus it was.

Initially, Big L made two round butter cakes for me to use. I created the body, head and tail from these cakes, and then I used two halved double choc muffins for the legs. I cut one of the cakes just past the half-way point, to create the centre piece of the body, which I flanked with semi circular pieces of cake from the other cake. I shaped these pieces of cake to create a curved body. I used the left over cake to build the body into a nice dome shape, with a tail at one end and a head at the other. I know it looks a little choppy using the little pieces to get the shape I wanted, but once it is covered in butter cream, it looks very different. The cake is built up on our cake board, which is just a sheet of plywood covered in aluminium foil.

Stacked up in position.

Stuck together with icing.

L and A helped Big L make the butter cream icing. L now likes to use the mixer, despite years of her running from the room whenever we turned it on. A doesn’t much like the noise, but it has never stopped her from seeking out a beater to lick when the mixing is done.

L chose to make the stegosaurus purple and pink. The initial batch of blue butter cream was used to stick the loose pieces of cake together before starting the main icing of the body, and wasn’t seen on the outside of the finished cake.

I carefully spread the purple butter cream over the body, making sure not to miss any sections. I used a spatula to pat the icing all over the body to give the icing a rough texture. After I’d spread pink butter cream over the head, tail and legs, I also roughened this icing with the spatula.

The roughened texture of the butter cream on the body of the stegosaurus.

The completed icing layer.

Then it was time to decorate! I used square wafer biscuits as the back and tail plates. The spikes on the end of the tail were chocolate bullets. I cut some chocolate bullets in half and stuck them on the front of the legs to make toenails.

For the face, I had some fudge writing icing in the fridge, which I used to make a smile on the stegosaurus, and then we added two choc chips for eyes and two mini choc chips for nostrils. L called the finished cake Stegi, though naming it didn’t prevent her from eating any of it!

This was a really simple stegosaurus cake that the kids loved. And it tasted good too!

Stegi the Stegosaurus cake.

Jan26

Pizza Pinwheels

Posted on January 26, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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Pizza pinwheels.

Along with snacks for the kids lunchboxes, I also like to have snacks for Big L’s lunchbox too. He doesn’t mind a range of cakes and cookies, but for a savoury change, I made him some pizza pinwheels. These are very similar to the cheese and bacon pinwheels we made a few days ago.

After defrosting the puff pastry sheets, I spread one with tomato pizza sauce, and the other with BBQ pizza sauce. To these I added grated cheese, shredded ham, and sliced mushroom. The kids can help with this bit. Sometimes I add other pizza ingredients like pepperoni and pineapple, but I didn’t have these today.

Ingredients.

Ingredients laid out on the puff pastry.

Each sheet of pastry is rolled up into a log, and the edge pinched together to seal it. Then the log is cut into slices, and each slice is transferred to a baking tray covered in baking paper. I add a little grated parmesan to the top of each pinwheel before putting them in the oven to cool until the pastry is golden and the cheese is melted.

These make for a delicious snack or light meal. They freeze well, but for a crispier finish, after defrosting them, I would pop them in the oven for a little while to reheat.

Sliced up log.

Laid out ready to cook.

Jan25

Frankfurt Octopuses

Posted on January 25, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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This is a fun and interesting way to serve cocktail frankfurts. A friend of mine served these at an undersea themed birthday party last year, and I just had to try them for myself.

Frankfurt octopuses.

Surprisingly easy to make, the kids often ask for their frankfurts to be made into octopuses now. I use a sharp knife to cut into each frankfurt starting from about half-way up, slicing through the bottom half length-ways. Then I turn the frankfurt around and cut it through again, so now the bottom half is in quarters lengthways. Then each quarter is cut in half again to make eight tentacles. I have found it just as easy to cut through the two opposite quarters of the frankfurt at the same time, as it is to tackle each quarter separately.

Cut up ready to cook.

Cooking in the pot.

Once the frankfurts are cooking, either on the stove top, or in the microwave, the tentacles will start to curl up and out, giving the frankfurts an octopus look.

The kids like to have tomato sauce with their frankfurts. They dip the octopus’ tentacles into the sauce and bite them off. While they were eating, I heard a lot of “I have a four-leg octopus” and “I have a no leg octopus!”. L even exclaimed she had a “no-head octopus” after she bit the top off her frankfurt.

Frankfurt octopuses ready to eat.

Jan24

Cheese and Bacon Pinwheels

Posted on January 24, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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It’s almost time to return to school for a new year, and I have started the back to school baking. I like to stack the freezer with various snacks and treats ready for lunchboxes, such as muffins, cakes, and slices. One of my favourites are these easy cheese and bacon pinwheels.

Yummy cheese and bacon pinwheels.

More puff pastry, my kids just love puff pastry! While the puff pastry is defrosting on the table, I gather the rest of the ingredients, which is only grated tasty cheese, diced bacon and I like to add a little grated parmesan to the top of each one before cooking them.

Laid out prior to rolling.

I spread the grated cheese over the pastry sheet, and then the bacon pieces, trying to give it a fairly even coverage. This is a great job for the kids, though I have to watch that we don’t end up with all the bacon in one corner! Then I roll the pastry from one edge up into a log, catching all the cheese and bacon inside, and pinch the edge down to seal it. The log is then cut into slices around one to two centimetres in width. These slices are placed on their sides on the baking tray (I always use baking paper on the tray for ease), I add the grated parmesan then put them in the oven until they are golden.

Rolled up ready for slicing.

Sliced up.

Ready for the oven.

These are delicious little savoury bites, and they freeze quite well, though the pastry will not be as crispy after defrosting as it would be straight from the oven.

Jan24

Pigs-in-Blankets

Posted on January 24, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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Pigs-in-blankets are a great finger food for kids parties, and they are super easy to make!

Cut up into eights.

A frankfurt waiting to be rolled into its pastry blanket.

I buy the puff pastry in frozen sheets because I’m not much of a cook, and I’ve never managed to make my own puff pastry successfully. It is also much easier and quicker to buy frozen puff pastry. I let it defrost for a few minutes before cutting each piece in half across, and then in thirds or quarters lengthways, making six or eight rectangles of pastry out of each square pastry sheet. When the pastry sheets are cut into eighths, each frankfurt has a little less pastry on it, so there is a little bit of red poking out the ends of the pastry blanket.

Ready for the oven.

L helping me to roll the pigs.

Onto each piece of pastry, I placed one cocktail frankfurt and rolled them up, just like in a blanket. I pinched the edge of the pastry down, and then popped them on a tray in the oven to cook until they were puffy and golden.

Cooling down before eating.

Ready to eat!

These go down very well with the kids!

Jan22

Fruit Kebabs

Posted on January 22, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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With all the lovely summer fruits out at the moment, we have been eating a lot of fruit salad. The kids would probably live on fruit if they could. Instead of just cutting up the fruit and mixing it together before adding it to bowls for everyone, today we decided to make some fruit kebabs.

It was pretty simple. I washed the fruit and cut it into chunks and put them on a tray. We had watermelon, pineapple, two types of grapes and strawberries. I left the grapes whole. Any fruit firm enough to be threaded onto skewers would have worked, but these are the fruits we are enjoying at the moment.

Threading a strawberry carefully onto her skewer.

Adding a grape.

I discovered I only had jumbo skewers, rather than the standard sized ones in the drawer, so our kebabs were a bit bigger than normal. The kids also made some mini-kebabs with toothpicks, which really only fitted a couple of pieces of fruit. Soaking the skewers in water for half an hour or so can reduce the incidence of little splinters from the skewers coming off on the fruit, but I didn’t do that today as the kids were too impatient to wait. Luckily for us, no splinters!

I let the kids make their own kebabs by threading on whatever pieces of fruit they wanted. A found this quite easy, but L often threaded her pieces of fruit too close to the edge, and some of them broke and fell off. They made a couple of kebabs each, and then there was all the fun of eating them!

Finished fruit kebabs.

Some mini-kebabs.

Nov1

Spider Drinks

Posted on November 1, 2013 by TodayWeDid

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We made another type of spider on Halloween too, this time an edible variety. When I told L there would be spiders for desert she became a bit worried, and told me she didn’t want any red-backs because they are poisonous. That gave me a bit of a chuckle.

Ingredients.

The kids had never had soft drink spiders before, so they were fascinated when Big L put ice-cream and lime soft drink on the bench. Big L placed a scoop of ice-ceam in the bottom of some plastic cups, and then slowly added the lime soft drink. The kids loved watching the combination fizz up. Both kids were keen to try them, L really enjoyed it, while A thought it was icky. Not a big surprise though, since she doesn’t like soft drinks either, but we were happy she tried a new food.

We used straws to drink the spiders, and we all had fun trying to create enough suction on the lump of ice-cream with the straw to lift it out of the soft drink. Lots of laughs when Big L dropped his ball of ice-cream and it splashed back into the drink spraying his face with green speckles.

Oct12

Marshmallow Sculptures

Posted on October 12, 2013 by TodayWeDid

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Marshmallow and straw building.

We practiced our architectural skills using marshmallows, plastic straws and toothpicks. It was lots of fun, and the kids loved eating the marshmallows once they were finished 🙂

Marshmallow and toothpick house.

L discovered that the toothpicks worked better than the straws, as they were shorter and stronger. She also found that using triangles as her base shape created a stronger structure that could be built up much taller than those made with squares.

After the tower building was complete, both L and A made some original sculptures using the marshmallows. I particularly liked L’s ‘Cat doing splits’.