Snack Time: Popcorn

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:

A large pot with a lid, and a stove to cook it on. My boys love to stand on stools and watch the popcorn pop (a glass lid is good for this). After the popcorn is done, I'll pour it into a large bowl, and then we have fun finding shapes in the popcorn. Some popular ones are an octopus, a hedgehog, dogs, and rabbits. We've also found one that looks like an octopod, a flower fountain, and an elephant riding a bicycle.

Home-made stove-top popcorn

1-2 tsp oil (one with a high smoke point like veg oil or coconut oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pot)

1/2 cup popping corn

Heat the oil in a large pot on the highest heat until the oil just starts to smoke. Pour the popcorn in, and cover the pot. Immediately start shaking the pan back and forth, or in circles across the burner and quickly as possible. The object is to keep the kernels and popcorn moving so they don't burn on the bottom of the pan. Keep shaking the pan until the popcorn is nearly finished popping (you'll hear a couple of kernels popping every couple of seconds). Remove from heat, and immediately pour popcorn into a large serving bowl.

You can add different toppings to the popcorn at this point, like melted butter or salt. However, we just eat it plain.

Enjoy! If you make some popcorn too, let me know what fun shapes you found.

Transformer Cake

For my son's 4th birthday this year, we had a Transformer party. Most of the party food was just normal stuff (no red and purple coloured foods for me thank you). Of course, I always try to have some healthy food with all the junk food. I served vegetable sticks and tortilla chips with hummus dip, fruit slices, and cheese sandwiches. For the adventurous eaters, I made Bahn Mi with teriyaki chicken. For anyone who's wondering, the Bahn mi is our favourite baguette sandwich.

We also had cake and ice-cream. For the cake I made a two layer round zucchini/courgette cake, with a cream cheese frosting. Before adding the icing sugar, I separated two small amounts of the frosting mix from the main, and added blue or red food colouring to each.

I copied and enlarge this picture of the Autobot logo, and printed it up, and glued it to the back of a cereal box. Then, using an exacto knife, I cut out the sections of the picture to form a negative image stencil. (I had to leave a couple of strips to connect the middle triangle).

After layering the cakes, with cream cheese frosting, I spread a thin layer of white frosting on the top. Then I placed the stencil on top, pressing it down to ensure total contact.

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.

Here is the end result. I was pretty excited that it turned out so well.

The ice-cream was also homemade (unfortunately I didn't get a picture if that), but it was pretty good. I found this recipe for ice-cream that doesn't require a machine, and I just had to try it out. I made strawberry ice-cream and cookies and cream ice-cream. Since I didn't have quite enough Oreo cookies, I even made the chocolate cookies from scratch.

I tweaked the recipe according to the ingredients I can get in the UK, but was basically the same.

Home-made Ice Cream without a machine

1 container single cream (284 ml)

1 container double cream (284 ml)

1/2 to 1/2 cup (8 0z) milk (optional)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

flavours/topping/mix-ins of choice

Whip the creams and milk until stiff peaks form (it's best to use an electric whisk or mixer if you have one). In a separate bowl add the toppings to the sweetened condensed milk. If you want two flavours, divide the condensed milk into two bowls first. Fold the whipped cream into the condensed milk mixture, until combined well. Place mixture into a freezer safe airtight container and freeze6 hours or until firm. If you are using an ingredient that is rather heavy (like my diced strawberries), they tend to sink to the bottom. It's a good idea to mix the ice-cream after a couple of hours, when it is more solid, but still mixable.

Chocolate (Oreo) Cookies

I can't remember exactly where on-line I got this recipe, and I didn't include the frosting, just the biscuit.

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons butter, at room temp

1 large egg

Mix the dry ingredients together, then beat in the butter and egg.

Place the dough by rounded teaspoons onto a baking tin lined with parchment paper, and flatten slightly.

Bake for 9 minutes at 375 degrees F (190 Celsius).

If using in the ice-cream, place required amount of cookies into a bowl, and crush with the end of a rolling pin.

6 Minute Chocolate Cake

My mom discovered this chocolate cake recipe in my Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook when she was here after the birth of my second boy. It has since come to be my go to chocolate cake recipe.

As the name suggests it only takes about 6 minutes to mix together (from scratch). Other pros about this cake, you use a minimal amount of dishes, all the ingredients can be found in your food storage or store cupboard, and it's a great cake to make with your kids. Not only is it really simple, but you can talk science as you watch the vinegar react with the baking soda, and since there's no eggs in it, you don't have to worry about salmonella when you lick the spoon and bowl afterward!

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.

6-Minute Chocolate Cake

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup cold water or 1 cup brewed coffee
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions:

Prep Time: 6 mins

Total Time: 31 mins

1. 1 Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. 
   
3. 2 Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and sugar into an ungreased 8 inch square or 9 inch round baking tin.
4. 
   
5. 3 In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure and mix the oil, water or coffee and vanilla.
6. 
   
7. 4 Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking tin and mix the batter with a fork or small whisk.
8. 
   
9. 5 When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. Pale swirls will occur where the vinegar and baking soda react. Stir just until the vinegar is even distributed throughout the batter.
10. 
    
11. 6 Bake for 25-30 minutes. Set aside the cake to cool.