Popcorn is one of the easiest and healthiest snacks to make. It also provides entertainment for a good block of time. You don't even need an air popper or any other fancy contraption to make your own popcorn. All you need is some oil, popcorn kernel and this:
Then using a palette knife, I spread the blue and red (OK, so it's pink) frosting on top of the stencil as shown below.
After carefully peeling the stencil off the cake, I ended up with this.
To finish it off, I filled in the gaps and frosted the rest of the cake with the white frosting. You could use a straight frost tip and a piping bag. Since I had neither of those on hand, I used medicine syringe dispensers. They were a bit of a pain to keep refilling, but the size of the tip was perfect for filling in the small gaps. After filling in the gaps and outlining the logo with the syringe tip, I used a palette knife to frost the rest of the cake. 
Since I found the recipe online, I figured it was okay to copy here. There is a chocolate glaze to go with it, but I never make that, just the cake. I made the last batch into cupcakes, which work well, but it's even easier to mix it all in the 8x8 pan.Prep Time: 6 mins
Total Time: 31 mins
I've really enjoyed gardening the past couple of years. Even though I have a very small space to work with, I try to make the most of it. Gardening this year, however, have proved a bit challenging. I've planted a tomato plant, herbs and a couple of pepper plants in pots on the patio. My pepper plant hasn't fared too well, since my two year old decided to try his pirating skills on it. Every pepper that might have even had a chance has been pulled off. As I was taking a picture of it, the little terror himself came and pulled the entire plant out of the pot. I realized that this was not the first time this happened as I discovered a load of buried treasure (About 5 more very immature peppers were peeking their little heads out).
Yesterday I used the snow peas and spring onions as inspiration for my Asian noodles and Teriyaki chicken.
I didn't measure anything, as usual, but I'll do my best to estimate.With my older boy in school now, finding healthy and tasty after school snacks has never been more important. Many parents bring snacks for their children to eat straight after nursery, and N would often stare longingly at the treats they were given. Usually it’s sweets (gummy, boiled, etc), chocolate, biscuits/cookies, crisps, and ice cream from the ice cream van. My favourite are the gummy sweets in the shapes of teeth and toothbrushes, very ironic. Anyway, I have the challenge to have healthier snacks that are appealing enough to the boys to keep them from demanding what the other children have. The next few blogs are going to be some of our favourite healthier snacks.
I often just bring some crackers, maybe some squares of cheese and fruit. Once in a while I pack some chocolate buttons (small circles of chocolate about equivalent to a chocolate chip). Four is enough to make them happy, and then they’ll eat their crackers or other healthier snack I packed with it.
I always try to have homemade ice lollies on hand, for when they start asking for ice cream. To make homemade ice lollies, you need good ice lolly molds, and the best I’ve found are the ones from IKEA. I’m sure you could find similar ones elsewhere, but they have all the important components: basically, the individual molds sit in a stand. This way, you can make a whole batch, and then use one or two at a time. The molds where they are all attached are no good.
To make fruit ice lollies (Popsicles), I make a fruit smoothie with either fresh or frozen fruit, then pour the smoothie into the molds. My smoothies vary depending on what I have in the house, but usually consists of fruit (bananas, mango, blueberries and strawberries all work well), some natural/plain yogurt, and milk. If I have it on hand, I also like to use some silken tofu (gives it a real smooth texture and adds protein). The quantities of each are really to taste. Just add what you think is good, blend it all together (I use a stick blender), and then taste, and add anything accordingly. The consistency needs to be runny enough to pour easily into the molds.
I’ve also made chocolate ice lollies, which my boys (especially the younger one) love. For that one, I use a bunch of bananas, a bit of yogurt, milk and cocoa powder. If it’s not quite sweet enough, you can use a bit of powdered chocolate milk mix as well.
These are so much better than regular ice-cream, and my boys love them.
Anywhere outside of the UK, British food has a reputation of being bad. Although it may not be as exciting or exotic as other countries, British food can be good. It's simple, and rather homely, but it can be good. One of our favourite things to eat here, are pasties. The boys love the vegetable pasties from Gregg's bakery, and when we visited southern England, we had some great Cornish Pasties. It's a great thing to eat on the go, and a lot of fun for the boys to eat. 
If you aren't able to find Swede, or you want a vegetarian version, you could substitute these items with other mixed veg (i.e. peas and diced carrots). That's the great thing about pasties, you can experiment using what you have on hand.
Divide the pastry dough into small balls (about the size of a golf ball for smaller pasties). Roll out into a circle. Place a generous amount of the filling in the middle of the pastry. Bring up the sides to meet, and crimp the edges together. Pierce the top a few times with a sharp knife to let the steam escape when cooking. Place on a baking dish, and bake in a preheated oven at 375 *F/175*c for about 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is golden, and crispy. Let cool, and enjoy!
My younger boy loves to help me in the kitchen, so I thought it would be fun to make a cake showing his love for cooking. I did give him the option of a Mickey Mouse cake or a rolling pin cake. Whenever I asked him, he always told me "roll pin." My first idea was to try to colour some fondant icing brown and cover the whole cake with it, but I couldn't get it the right colour (it turned out kind of a sickly greenish/gray/beige colour). I realized that the cake itself already looked enough like a wooden rolling pin. To finish the look, I made some biscuit/cookie spoons, dipped in chocolate.
I then wet the end of the handle and spoon, place the handle on the end of the spoon, fold the sides over, and pinch together. Then turn the spoon over to finish shaping the spoon. You want the center to be pretty thin with the edges thicker to get the indentation look of the spoon, as they do rise when cooking.
Once the cookies have baked and cooled, you can dip the ends in melted chocolate.250g/9oz strawberries, hulled and sliced, plus extra to decorate
2 tbsp granulated sugar
splash Marsala or orange juice
3 free-range eggs
80g/3oz caster sugar, plus extra for finishing
½ vanilla pod or 2 drops vanilla extract
1 tbsp warm water
80g/3oz plain flour
pinch salt
250g/9oz mascarpone
2 tbsp icing sugar
½ vanilla pod or 2 drops vanilla extract
For the strawberry filling, put a third of the strawberries in a blender or food processor with the granulated sugar and blend well. Transfer the strawberries to a bowl and add the Marsala or orange juice. Stir in the remaining strawberries and chill in the fridge. (The flavour gets better the longer you leave it, so do this a few hours ahead if you can, though if you are ready to go now then a minimum of 30 minutes is fine.)
Meanwhile, for the sponge, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Grease and line a 23 x 33cm/9in x 13in Swiss roll tin or small roasting tin with greaseproof paper.
Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with an electric whisk until the mixture is very pale yellow, foamy and mousse-like. Fold in the warm water with a large metal spoon. (This helps prevent the Swiss roll from cracking when you roll it later.)
Sift over the flour and salt and fold in gently with the metal spoon. (Don’t overmix here or you will knock out the air and the Swiss roll will lose its sponginess. The trick is to incorporate all the flour with as few ‘folds’ as possible.)
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level it gently with a palette knife or the back of a large spoon. Bake in the oven for 10–15 minutes, or until the sponge has shrunk a little from the sides of the tin and feels springy to the touch. Remove the sponge from the oven and turn the cake out onto a sheet of baking paper sprinkled with caster sugar. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then gently peel the lining paper off the sponge and leave to cool completely.
Meanwhile, for the mascarpone cream, mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl.
To assemble the cake, trim off any rough edges of the sponge with a sharp serrated knife to get the sides nice and tidy. Spread the mascarpone cream all over the sponge, leaving a small margin so it does not squelch out when it is rolled. Spoon the macerated strawberries over the mascarpone filling and drizzle with a third of the strawberry purée (reserve the rest).
With the shortest side facing you, begin to roll up the sponge (away from you) using the baking paper to help. Try to do it as tightly as you can for an impressive-looking finish. Once you have rolled it all up, make sure the join is underneath so it does not come undone. Carefully lift onto a serving plate - you can do this with your hands or use two fish slices or spatulas.
Sprinkle with some caster sugar and decorate with extra sliced strawberries. Serve in slices with the remaining strawberry sauce drizzled over.
