Halloween at Our House

We celebrated Halloween slightly early this year with my now-annual kids Halloween party. Saturday saw my two dressed up and excitedly awaiting the arrival of their cousins. I had prepped everything super early (unusual for me!) so I could relax before the impending chaos ensued. I got a hot chocolate and 3 biscuits down before I received a text from my sister in law to say her little ones were on the way!

We had a fun few hours and only one tantrum (from my little miss annoyingly!) First we had a go at 'pin the tail on the witches cat' which was a hit with everyone apart from Midge (because she didn't win) my nephew Z won this first game with his being so very close to the circle! Next up we played pass the parcel with a slightly more calm Midge. Knowing there are layers of chocolate to this game helps me immensely! My niece G won this game (twin power!)




After a couple of games we unveiled the food which didn't last long. They're only tiny but boy, can these children eat. I had a plate of sausage rolls and some Jaffa cakes left over plus crisps from my massive bowl so I was rather impressed to be honest! The winner this year was definitely my pumpkin with hummus dip. What do you think?


Last thing on my Halloween agenda was to face paint. This always goes down well.

G


Midge



Little Z


Even T wanted in on the action so she ran off with my painting sponge!


Calm was restored once half four rolled around and all little people were dispatched safely with their party boxes. All I had to deal with were two little monsters covered in face-paint and on a sugar crash! Here's to next year!

CupcakeMumma

My Week That Was Instagrammed 9!




Last week was a great week with plenty of things to look forward to. It's a shame we had to have all the heavy rain but by the sounds of it there is a lot more to come!

Let's just snuggle under that duvet for a second and catch up on what we got up to last week at Cupcake Towers.

  • I have drunk so much hot chocolate this week it's just insane, I can't get enough of it in this weather. I started Monday with a big mug of Cadburys hot chocolate with marshmallows and it felt good!
  • This week was happy mail week. I received a few cards ready for Tuesday and I'm sure there's more there than previous years which is amazing. I love birthday cards! I also received my craft box which was okay, just not my favourite theme so far. I got a free bottle of miniature baileys in the post too which I'll be handing to my mum because I don't drink.
  • I baked some yummy dark chocolate chip and vanilla cupcakes as well as whipping up a cake for the great bloggers bake off final.
  • There was a surprise package of goodies for the little ones but you'll have to wait for our review to find out more, it's colourful that's all I'm saying!
  • I watched the schools harvest festival which was as usual very good. I was a bit put out that midge wasn't easy to see throughout the performance so there are no photos of her this year but I caught her cousins singing their hearts out so that made up for it a little bit. On Friday I accompanied year 1 and the staff to a local farm. We saw lots vegetables and animals and all had a great time.
  • On Saturday I put on my children's Halloween party for my two and their cousins. We all had a good afternoon with party bags, face paints, Halloween themed party games and lots of food.

What did you get up to?

Cupcake Mumma

Dark Chocolate Cake - Free From


I can't believe this week was the final of the Great British Bake Off but it was and so it brings me to my bake for the week: a single tier wedding cake.

The final saw 3 hopefuls battle it out to win the Bake Off title and one of these battles included a three tier wedding cake. Now, going for three tiers in this challenge would be wasteful on so many levels which is why I decided to stick with the theme but be sensible with the amount. Here's what I came up with:


A dark chocolate chip sponge cake which is, as usual, both gluten and dairy free.

This sponge is completely straight forward in that you use:


  • 6oz doves farm self raising flour
  • 6oz Caster sugar
  • 6oz soft dairy free butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3-4 tablespoons coco powder
  • 1 packet of dark chocolate chips



I added all my ingredients together and stirred until I had a good, runny consistency. I placed my cake in two separate, greased sandwich tins for 20 minutes on 180 degrees.

To decorate, I used most of a packet of fondant icing to include my attempt at two little bird cake toppers! I used white icing to finish off the bottom of the cake and write 'Mr & Mrs' sadly not in the best handwriting I've ever done on a cake but it's not bad.

I've really enjoyed joining in with Jenny and Helen and I think there may be more baking on my horizon! I'll leave you with a photo of the cake after it got 'Little A'd!'


CupcakeMumma

Impromptu Family Day Out:

Taking full advantage of a rare weekday off school because of the teacher strikes, Jay and I organised ourselves early and we all set off for the train station to have a lovely few hours at Penzance.

I bought 2 Christmas presents for family and Jay treated me to a new pair of jeans (they're peach which is totally new to me!) but they look really nice on which I wasn't expecting! We looked around the charity shops and Midge bought this wonderful, well loved child's rucksack with her pocket money.


 She also bought herself and Little A some chocolate buttons to share (I didn't tell her to which was very sweet)

Jay bought some toys for Little A, a fire truck and a tractor which helped an overtired  meltdown for a bit. The meltdown was soon forgotten on the return home as both children loved their train journey:


And Midge brought her little friend Red Ted along for the ride:


So, with train rides, chips on the sea front, shopping and being together as a family we had a good day off the school run. We had a great day actually and I hope you did too despite the fact these strikes can throw up some issues for us parents.

CupcakeMumma

My Week That was Instagramed 8!


I've been taking less photos recently so am trying a new way of laying out my weekly posts. Let's see if it inspires me to keep up with our weekly goings on because it is great to look back on.


Last week involved:
  • A play date with my niece who was all tired and cuddly. She had a lovely day once Little A stopped snatching his toys back!
  • Midge had a brilliant parents evening which we were both so proud about. Before we went into the hall we let them both burn off some energy in the school playground where I took this lovely picture of A.
  • We got some vampire fangs from the local store which both my two loved. They cracked me up running about with them and making spooky voices. They seem to of developed the same love for Halloween as their Mother.
  • We lit a candle to remember all the babies, born or sadly not, who have passed. It was sad but it felt nice to participate in the 'wave of light' to show parents that we were thinking of their little ones.
  • I won a prize last week! A fab little balloon vampire which will be great for Halloween. My front room was decorated on Friday and I love it!
  • We enjoyed a day in Penzance on Midges day off due to the strikes. We took the train and did some Christmas shopping as well as charity hunting. I bought my niece a lovely jumper and slippers for Christmas.
  • Little A and I had a nice Autumn walk back from the shops on Friday. He loved running on the green and kicking the leaves so I've decided to do it before all the leaves disappear and make way for winter!

As usual I'm linking up with Hannah, so do pop along and check out some more great photos and busy weeks.

CupcakeMumma

Ideas for a Fun Halloween!

I love Halloween. My birthday falls two days before the occasion, so as a child every year was a fun, fancy dress party to celebrate. You could say I have nothing but fond memories (and I've been egged!)

I wanted to share with you all some fun ideas we do every year along with my annual children's party. Feel free to share yours with me too, after all, we all have our own traditions and what not so i'd love to hear how you celebrate Halloween.

The first one is a sure way to get the children excited and I love doing it: face paints!


 Midge last year.

It's always nice to make toffee apples (or chocolate apples) but have you tried marshmallow apples? Seriously tasty:


Another treat for any cool Halloween party table are these angel delight cups coloured with food colouring and sprinkled with chocolate Oreo biscuit. Draw a face on the cup or add decorations for extra fun:


Who doesn't love a good pumpkin carving session?! I do the carving in our house; it's 'my thing:'


Get some glow sticks out, turn the lights out and wave them around to create bright and wicked patterns. Use your camera to catch some really great glow stick movements like these:


Finally, one which you may or may not want to do: visit your local graveyard


Spooky....

How do you celebrate Halloween? Do you trick or treat? ( we don't but we do have sweets for those who do) or are you a shut the house up and pretend no ones home kind of family? I'd love to know.

CupcakeMumma

Gluten & Dairy Free Carrot & Raisin Cake

This week I bring you a delicious gluten and dairy free carrot and raisin cake for week 8 of the Great Bloggers Bake Off with Jenny and Helen. It's not a novelty cake but it is a free from cake with a vegetable in!!



I wasn't sure I'd like this cake to be honest but it was SO GOOD! If you'd like to bake this cake then the recipe is below. Enjoy!

Ingredients
175g light muscovado sugar
175ml sunflower oil (I was caught out and used vegetable oil but luckily it was fine!)
3 large eggs
140g grated carrots (about 3 medium)
100g raisins
grated zest of 1 large orange
175g self-raising flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp ground cinnamon

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180C and line your cake tin
  • Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Mix a little then stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.
  • Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices. Stir all the ingredients but dont over mix. It should be runny but all nicely blended together.
  • Pour the mix into your tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre.
  • After the cake is cooled you can mix together some icing sugar and water to make a thick icing to drizzle over the top and sides.


CupcakeMumma



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Our Random Day Out

Do you ever get those days where you wake up and just feel like going out somewhere, anywhere. Well, on Monday my Hubby certainty did because after Midge was dropped off, myself and Little A found ourselves running behind Daddy for a train to Truro. The reason for this spur of the moment trip turned out to be for the sole purpose of going to a sports store for replacement goal gloves. Hmm..

On the train having a snack

I'm actually really glad I braved the boredom because we found my brother a really cool Christmas gift and Midge some new school shoes (can you believe her shoes only lasted a month? It's not even half term yet!) all this came to just under £10. Oh yes, hubby did get his replacement gloves (which he would not have needed had somebody not stolen his other ones..) just in case you were wondering.

We bought a few bits from some charity shops too which is my favourite past time. Midge got a Mermaid Barbie for £1, Little A saw Patrick from Sponge Bob sitting on a shelf so we bought him for £1.50. Jay bought me a great laze-about-the-house jumper- it's got The Breakfast Club on it; my favourite film!

We had some yummy chips in the town square before doing a bit more browsing to waste the time. We tied the whole trip in with picking the children up from school so it worked really well for us.

Truro Cathedral

The best things about these trips are that I always feel a little closer to my Husband. I also love how happy Little A gets when he sees his 'choo choo' so sweet! I'm hoping to have a lot more spontaneous trips in the near future.

Cupcake Mumma

Reasons to be Cheerful

This week hasn't gone too badly so far which is obviously a very positive thing. I hope the weekend will bring some fun though! This week my reasons are:

1. Midge has lost another tooth! That's about 5 now. I wrote this post a while ago about playing the tooth fairy. I really do enjoy the whole milestone of losing teeth and getting a shiny coin under the pillow in the morning.

2. Last night was our first night all in new rooms. Little A was my biggest worry because he's never not shared a room. Midge had a wobble but I sorted that with some fairy lights. Little A slept really well after a few tears and shouts but woke at 5am which is very early for us! We are now in the attic which is lovely but very cold!

3. Another one for Midge. I opened her reading record yesterday to find a post it note informing me she's been moved up a level in her reading!! Anyone who knows me, will know how worried I've been about her getting behind but thanks to some lovely bloggers and reassuring tweets my mind was put at ease and well, you were all right. I'm so proud of my little girl.

4. I was featured in a Britmums Positively Inspirational Round Up last week which made me so happy. Thank you to Mama Syder who wrote this lovely round up. I discovered some new blogs while reading through.

Do you have any reasons to be cheerful? If you have a moment, do head over to Michelle's blog to see everyone else's positive posts.

CupcakeMumma

Reasons to be Cheerful at Mummy from the Heart

My week that was Instagramed 7!

I'm very late linking up with Hannah this week for My Week That Was Instagramed thanks to my big fingers deleting my waiting-to-be-published post! Anyway I'm here now and keen to show you all what we got up to last week:

Monday

On Monday I had a lovely walk to school with Midge who took her scooter. She's looking so tall these days. We picked up our niece and nephews in the afternoon and once we got home O was helping Midge with her math homework which was really sweet to watch. The last picture is a canvas I've found in a local shop which I think will look great above our bed when we move our room up to the attic.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I had a spontaneous walk in the rain and took a lovely photo of one of the streets I walk down every morning and afternoon for the school run. I had a very nice and unplanned lunch with my Dad who finished late at work and caught the bus over. He very kindly bought me lunch so next time I'm buying a lovely large breakfast!

Wednesday


On Wednesday I didn't have much to do other than potter around and play with my lovely little boy who slept for quite some time in the afternoon. In the evening I got out my Halloween decorations from the cupboard to see what I had for this year. I've got a quite  a bit and couldn't help putting some bits up! Since last week I have even more up! Midge had tea with a friend she hasn't seen in a while because they go to different schools. She had a lovely time. I also had my Mum around for the evening which was, as usual, very nice.

Thursday

I have no pictures for Thursday because we had an awful night sleep with Little A. He just wouldn't sleep, nothing wrong with him, just didn't fancy the land of nod last night! I had to cancel my Mummy date because I would've been rubbish company. I've re-scheduled it though so not feeling too disappointed. We mostly napped today when we could!

Friday


Today I locked myself out and the first picture is Little A and I having some serious snuggles to make up for our ordeal. I was really pleased to rest my splintered foot too! We walked our nieces and nephews back to our house after school and took a detour buying them some cake on the way because they're always so good when they're on school run (despite being a little slow but there are far worse things!) I got this picture of them waiting for Jay to come out of the shop. It just cracked me up how unprepared they were for the camera. I spent my evening with hot chocolate and digestive biscuits. Yum.

Saturday  


We had G over for a sleepover this weekend which was lovely. They all had a lot of fun sneaking into the face paint box and ruining them by covering themselves (not just their faces!) in them. I love this photo of the 3 of them happily watching some TV before Little A went to bed. They stayed up fairly late but were so good. I also made these awesome gluten and dairy free choux buns. It's amazing how quick they were to make and they tasted so good too.

Well, that's that. Now to edit some more photos for this weeks round up, phew!

CupcakeMumma

Gluten & Dairy Free Custard Filled Choux Buns

It's week seven of our Great Bloggers Bake Off challenge with Jenny and Helen and it's one I have been dreading. Gluten free and sweet pastry don't exactly fill me with confidence. Suet is hard to come by and doesn't really appeal to me. I wanted to perfect profiteroles but it just wasn't happening so this week I've gone for a dairy and gluten free choux pastry, which on the second attempt was a lot more successful. They didn't rise as much but I've just discovered my oven door doesn't close properly so that's not great!

Because of the rise (or lack of) and my stubbornness to not let this challenge defeat me, I used a dairy free custard piped onto the flatter side of the bun and sandwiched the two sides together. I then melted and drizzled dairy free orange flavour chocolate on the top of the buns. Oh my they oozed and tasted delicious. On this occasion I don't mind the buns not looking great because they were so nice and very moreish too
(I had 3!)

I give you: Gluten and Dairy Free Custard Choux Buns:

Ingredients

75g Doves Farm White Bread Flour
½tsp Caster Sugar
50g Dairy free Butter
150ml Cold Water
2 Eggs
Carton of dairy free custard
150g Cooking Chocolate
3tbsp Golden Syrup

Method

Sift the flour & sugar into a bowl.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add water and bring to the boil.

Remove from the heat and quickly add the flour from the bowl into the water. Beat well to form a soft dough using an electric beater (or wooden spoon)

Beat in the eggs to form a smooth, shiny paste.

Put a teaspoonful of the paste onto oiled baking trays or pipe them on.

Bake your buns in a pre heated oven for 20/25 minutes at 200 degrees

Cool on a wire rack . When cold, pipe custard into the flat side and sandwich together with another half.

Gently melt together the chocolate and syrup, stirring to make a smooth sauce and
drizzle the sauce over your Choux pastry buns and DEVOUR!



CupcakeMumma

mummy mishaps

When Faced with a Locked Door...

You on the outside and your 2 year old on the inside there's that real heart-in-your-mouth moment where you realise that you would move heaven and earth to get yourself, somehow, back to that beautiful little boy calling 'Mumma' from the inside.

Yeah that's right, Einstein here was doing the environmentally friendly act of placing my recycling in the box outside when I heard the bang that made me freeze, just for a few seconds, before running with outstretched arms to my big, thick, un-kickable from the outside door. So what the hell do I do now? I kept panic somehow under a little control. I banged on my neighbors door: not in. Next door haven't moved in yet...Great. Time to introduce myself to a lucky neighbour!

I had no phone on me but was thankfully dressed. I was however letting the 'ladies' hang loose today and running about in my now very wet socks. All I could think of was my little boy bouncing on the trampoline. If he's hurt I can't get to him! If he's missing me I can't comfort him! I knocked on the door and a very kind lady answered saying she would come round the back with me. Well I legged it like buggery! I haven't been around the back of the house yet as we don't own a car so have had no need. When I got there I saw a bolt. Hurrah! A bolt! Crap! It's locked on the inside too! To say my house is well built with security in mind would be an understatement but hey it's good (unless you're in this situation...)

Eventually I had to climb over the wooden fence (I have a splinter in my foot as evidence) as 'frantic mum' (that's me) was really coming out now. Little A had left the garden before I got around the back so I knew he'd be looking for me. As soon as I was in I bolted to my house calling his name. I found him half way up the attic room stairs (the last room left before he could officially assume I'd packed my bags and gone)

We had some serious snuggles after that ordeal but thankfully all was well. The lady was ever so nice and if she thought I was a twonk she was very good at not showing it! We exchanged names, I apologised and thanked her. Little A was none the wiser and went back to running about with his trains and causing lovely, sweet chaos. As for me? Well, I learnt the following:

1. Housework is bad for you. If I hadn't thought about tidying I would not have been locked out. Simple.

2. Recycling is also bad for you. See aforementioned point.

3. Leave latches off if stupid enough to go out again.

4. I can deal with quite a heart stopping 'situation'

Mostly though I realised that not once did I berate myself for this unfortunate accident. I realised I was a human being, going about my jobs and something unexpected happened. A mistake. But it was okay. I felt awful of course, after all my son was one side and I was another. Anything could have happened but I wasn't prepared to hang around and panic long enough for something to happen. I ran, I climbed and I even contemplated doing myself some serious injury by breaking down the back gate because I am a Mummy and my baby is not with me. And NOTHING was going to stop me getting back into that house.

So, anything interesting happen to you today? Any tales to tell to make me feel better?!

CupcakeMumma

Reasons To Be Cheerful

This week is going by at a rather lovely and leisurely pace (can you tell it's been a good week so far?) I have a few reasons to be cheerful this week so I shall go ahead and spread my cheer.

1) It's October! It's turning out to be a rather nice (if not wet!) Autumn, Halloween is just around the corner, I can really go for my Christmas prep because it doesn't feel so far away and the main one, naturally, is that I turn 24 on the 29th! Birthday months are the best!

2) As I said this week has been lovely so far. Monday went well, Midge and I had a good walk to school, narrowly escaping the heavy rain. I let her take her scooter and after having a break and perhaps a bit of a growth spurt she is finally zooming around on the thing. I met my Dad for a spontaneous lunch, seen both parents on the same day, got a new desk from my brother so I can have somewhere to study and write to my pen pals and I spent the day with my Mum on Wednesday.


3) As i mentioned above I had a wonderfully spontaneous lunch with my Pop on Tuesday. He very kindly bought me lunch so the next outing is on me! It was so nice just being us two for a while and it was even better that he just happened to be in town after work and thought he'd call me. My lovely Husband suggested I ask him for lunch and I'm so pleased he thought of it. 
I also spent Wednesday evening with my Mum. It was a soup night, yum! Mum listens to Midge read which is very sweet to see and hear. I also get help with bedtime! We caught up on the Bake Off which I record for her and chatted about life, as you do!


Lastly, I have a 'Mummy date' today but more on that later! I've known this Mum since college (I was 17 and a pupil and she was (and still is) the receptionist!) she's since had 2 children and one of them is only 4 months. Broody klaxon!! 

I hope you're all feeling cheery now. Please have a look at my Year in Gifts post from yesterday as an extra bit of cheerfulness. It's actually more important to me because it's about making other people cheerful!

Reasons to be Cheerful at Mummy from the Heart

CupcakeMumma

A year in Gifts: August and September

Time just seems to fly away at the moment so once again I'm posting two gifts in one post. Unfortunately both items were posted this month as well but you know, can't leave a month out!

First up is my August gift (or what we'll label August's gift to make me feel better) a surprise gift to a pen pal who's a little down at the moment and having a difficult time. I hope she can have a few minutes to herself to relax, write and sneak a few chocolates without her little ones noticing. My gift won't take away the hurt but I hope to fill at least 5 minutes with some comfort.


Septembers gift is to fellow blogger Amy (well actually it was to her little boy who has just undergone an operation.) I have a little boy the same age so I went with play doh, a cuddly toy (brave as a lion came to mind!) some little robot themed extras and some lovely comfy socks. I've since heard that the operation went really well but he's still a little poorly so I keep my fingers crossed he gets better real soon and they all get back their lost sleep!


There's only 3 months left now of my project which seems crazy. I am looking forward to moving on next year with my Project Kindness because it's going to be very different.

CupcakeMumma

Carbon Monoxide Campaign and Giveaway


Recently you may have seen me tweet and Instagram about Test It Tuesday. Every Tuesday I test my fire and carbon monoxide alarms and I urge everyone to do the same.

Carbon Monoxide is thought to have killed around 50 people and left 200 people, in this country, seriously ill* in 2012. Carbon Monoxide, also known as the 'silent killer' cannot be seen, smelt or tasted. Only a fully functioning alarm can alert you to the presence of carbon monoxide in your home. Only this alarm can save your and your families life.
There are still 35 million homes in Briton that are without a carbon monoxide alarm. I was one of those 35 million last year, because shamefully it was something that was always on my 'to do' list.

In 2012 I started working with Carbon Monoxide- Be Alarmed! and their campaign which opened my eyes to these figures. It scared me. Thanks to them I got a carbon monoxide alarm which is now safely fixed up in my home. My old landlord told me I didn't need one, I've been told not to worry about it but how can I ignore these figures? How can you take the risk any longer?

Preventing Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

1. Fit a carbon monoxide alarm in your home that sounds when the gas is present. This only takes a few minutes but could save your life. Your alarm should be placed in a central location in your home, fixed to a wall at head height, placed on a table or shelf. More information can be found here.

2. Have fuel burning appliances serviced annually by a qualified and registered engineer. If you rent, remember this is your landlord/lady's responsibility.

3.Don't block ventilation and have chimneys swept at least once a year.

4.Know the main symptoms: headaches, dizziness, nausea, breathlessness, collapsing and loss of consciousness. Key signs are if symptoms clear up when you are away from home and come back when you return, or if other people in your home experience similar symptoms.

5. Watch out for soot or a yellow/brown staining on or around your appliance, a lazy yellow/orange coloured gas flame instead of a sharp blue one or pilot lights which blow out frequently.

As part of this campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide, CO Be Alarmed have kindly offered me 5 Carbon Monoxide alarms to give away. The first 5 people to leave a comment on my blog will be sent a free alarm.

Please take a moment to visit the website here for more information. You can also follow CO Be Alarmed on twitter via this link here.
Thanks for reading.

CupcakeMumma
* Research from NHSChoices