Owl Cupcakes

Just wanted to pop in to share these cute owl cupcakes I made for the bake sale at Zack's schools Inflatable day tomorrow.

Owl Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 box of cake mix (plus eggs, oil, water, etc)
1 tub of chocolate butter cream
24 brown M&Ms
12 orange M&Ms
24 giant milky bar buttons
12 giant cadbury chocolate buttons

Directions

Bake cupcakes according to the package directions.

After the cupcake have cooled spread with a layer of chocolate butter cream.  Place 2 giant white buttons for the eyes topped with the brown M&Ms. Slice a giant chocolate button in half and place above the eyes for the eyebrows and finally an orange M&M for the nose.

Kelly x

Afternoon Tea at Annley House Tea Room

On Sunday my wonderful mum turned 70.  To celebrate we decided to go for Afternoon Tea at the Annley House Tea Room in Latchingdon.

The Tea Room is situated in a barn at the back of a residential house and is beautifully decorated with lots of homely touches giving the place a wonderful cosy and relaxing atmosphere.

The afternoon tea was absolutely delicious, freshly baked scones with strawberry preserve and clotted cream, homemade cakes and a selection of sandwiches and mini rolls presented on a traditional tiered cake stand with your choice of a pot of tea or coffee.

  

As well as afternoon tea, on the menu was a variety of breakfast and lunch options including a  selection of sandwiches, paninis, jacket potatoes and all the home made cakes on display all looked amazing!

Al fresco dining is also available in the tea room court yard - I think this would be lovely on a beautiful summers day!

Annley House Afternoon Tea

Selection of sandwiches & mini rolls

Smoked Salmon

Egg Mayonaise & Cress

Chicken Mayonnaise & Cucumber

Prawn & Lemon Mayonnaise

Cheese

Strawberry & Champagne Cupcakes

Strawberry Profiteroles

Freshly Baked Raisin Scones with

Devon Clotted Cream & Strawberry Preserve

Pot of Tea or Coffee

My mum and I had a wonderful time and would will be definitely be coming again! 

Kelly x

Blackwater Country Show

On Sunday to celebrate Father's Day we went for a day out at the Blackwater Country Show which is set in Heybridge just outside Maldon.

The show is situated around a picturesque lake and included lots of activities and entertainment. The main show ring held a host of displays throughout the day from Sheep Dog Displays, Scottish Bagpipes and Drums to Birds of Prey.

The surrounding fields held many stalls selling a variety of crafts, gifts, plants, food and drink stalls and many of them selling local produce such as pies, bread, cheese and fudge - I brought a delicious sparkling wine from New Hall Vineyard and a bottle of Cox and Quince Apple Juice from Daymans Hill Farm .

There was also lots of activities to have go at - including a climbing wall, kayaking, clay shooting range, archery and the boys particularly Zack had a great time sitting on the fire engines and tractors and feeding the hunting hounds treats.

There was also a variety of vintage cars, military vehicles, a viking village and tractors and farm animals on display to wander around and look at.

 

The show was also extremely dog friendly with lots of canines of all shape and sizes enjoying the day out - there was even a novelty dog show and many demonstrations including Newfoundland dog rescue and the Essex Police Dog Unit. Josh was in his element shouting doggy and cuddling and stroking all the dogs.

A brilliant day out for all the family and we will definitely be back next year.

Kelly x

School Bake Sale

Tomorrow is Zack's school summer fete and today we needed to bring in donations for the bake sale so I needed something quick and easy that I could throw together quickly when I got home from work last night so I came up with these two super easy creations.

Pirate Treasure Cupcakes

Batch of cupcakes made with Betty Crocker classic vanilla cake mix in pirate cupcake cases, swirl of Betty Crocker Chocolate Frosting topped with a chocolate coin and pirate themed cupcake pick.

Cookies in CD Envelope Pouches

I purchased packets of cookies from the bakery in Asda, wrapped them little cellophane bags and popped them in a paper CD enveloped with a cute printable I got from here

Kelly x

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

As a working mum I find when I get home from work I have very little time to get dinner on the table and my slow cooker makes my life so much easier! - our dinner is cooking whilst I work and is ready to serve when we get home!

We love Mexican food in our house, especially fajitas but I find they can be quite time consuming to prepare so slow cooker chicken fajitas have become a favourite and they are so easy to make.

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients:
3 or 4 chicken breasts
1 red onion
2 peppers
1 lime
Fajita Kit

Directions:
Chop your red onion and peppers into strips and place half of them in the bottom of your slow cooker

On top of that place your chicken breasts and sprinkle half of the fajita season mix together with the juice of half the lime

Turn over your chicken and add the rest of the fajita mix and remaining half lime.

Add the rest of the peppers and onions

Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 6 hours.

Take out your chicken breast and dice them up

Put them back into the slow cooker and stir.  Then turn the slow cooker to the warm setting until you are ready to serve

We like to serve ours with grated cheese, salsa, guacamole and sour cream but you could add any topping you like.

And fajitas are on the table in super quick time and so easy to prepare!

What do you cook in your slow cooker? I would love to hear about your recipes.

Kelly

Gift Hampers

Next weekend is Zack's pre school summer fete,  I love helping out with the school fundraising so I am making some hampers for the raffle.

The two hampers I am making are a Pamper Hamper and a Movie Night Hamper, but the ideas for different hampers are endless! and apart from making great fundraiser items they would also be a wonderful gift especially for those difficult to buy for.

You can make a hamper on any theme - Food themed hampers such as Italian or Indian, Afternoon Tea, Chocolate Lovers, Gardeners and you don't have to use a gift basket - you could use a gift box, wooden crate, garden trug - whatever you like.

If you shop around and plan carefully the hamper can also be cost effective as well - for example alot of the things I picked up were from Poundland, Home Bargains and a few unwanted gifts I had lying around.

Here are the 2 hampers I made, instead of a basket I used the lids from 2 boxes and covered them in wrapping paper and finished them off with cellophane and curling ribbon.

Pamper Hamper

Included:-
Mini Bottle of Wine
Radox Bubble Bath
Radox Shower Gel
Box of Malteasers
Facepack
Mini Bayliss & Harding body polish
Impulse Body Spray
Clarins Body Lotion
Few samples

Movie Night Hamper

Included:-
x2 popcorn boxes
Haribos
M&Ms
Mini Wine & Bottle of Beer
Popcorn
Box of Malteasers
Galaxy Chocolate
Can of Diet Coke & Coke

Do you make gift hampers? I would love to hear what you put in them?

Kelly x

Nevendon Manor - Hatters Wonderland

Today Zack and I tumbled down the rabbit hole to the Hatters Wonderland at Nevenden Manor with a few of his school friends and their mums.

I was totally blown away with this magical experience.  During the hour long tour you accompany Alice as she guides you around the beautiful manor gardens meeting all the characters from Alice in Wonderland as the story is told in various scenes during the walk.

The attention to every detail was amazing, as was the talent actors and actresses who made the experience truly enchanting for both kids and adults - the four children in our group were totally immersed in the make-believe world of Alice!

There was also some lovely touches like the gazebo in the car park where you start and finish the tour which served very reasonably priced tea, coffee and soft drinks (£1 each), bags of sweets £1.50) and themed face painting (£3)

I would throughly recommend the event and I cannot wait to go to the next event in August - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

For more details on all the events visit the Nevenden Manor website

Kelly x