cookie monster

Nom

I've been being all January and taking a long, hard look at our eating habits. It's so easy with kids to slip into a routine where every meal is based around wheat and cow's milk, the two things we are supposed to try and have less of. Not to mention the horrible hidden sugar in everything from bread to baked beans. So it's been a month of learning new, quick recipes and making things from scratch, and actually it's been really fun. I got this fab Gwyneth Paltrow cook book, which is full of super fast, mega tasty family friendly meals and snacks. I must have made about 15 of the recipes so far and have yet to be disappointed. I know, I know, everyone loves to roll their eyes at Gwyneth - and she invites it, to a degree, with the inclusion of phrases such as "Like a prize, a perfectly ripe avocado emerged from Gwyneth's carry-on" errrm - but I bloody love her, especially for this book. Seriously. Try it. 

I've been loving the soups, the endless avocado and quinoa feasts, but sometimes you need a cookie. Especially if you are a hyperactive smalley. Or a little boy with a lunchbox. So today Indy and I baked up a batch of invented biscuits, and they were so completely delicious that I had to share… 

Raring to go...

Monster biscuits

110g gluten-free plain or self raising flour (we use Dove's Farm)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
75ml coconut oil
3 tbsp raw honey
75ml maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
grated zest of half an orange 
50g oats
50g grated carrots
50g raisins
1 mashed banana

Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl, and set aside. In a big bowl, mix the coconut oil, honey, maple syrup and vanilla. Try not to let your toddler eat it all at this stage - this is the most challenging bit of this recipe. Add the egg, the orange zest & mashed banana and give it a good mix.

Next add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well incorporated. Then mix in the oats, raisins and grated carrot. Indy was pretty into pinching these out of the bowl too… Once all is mixed, add dollops (approx 1 tbsp) to a cookie sheet - ours is nonstick (but a bit haggard) and we didn't bother greasing it, which worked out fine.  Bake at 170C for 12 minutes, then place on a rack to cool. 

Having made this kind of "healthy" biscuit before, with varying degrees of success, I wasn't expecting them to be so incredibly tasty. They were soft and sweet and tasted like the best home made oatmeal raisin cookies I've had. And they were quick to make, and a fun activity with a crazy toddler. Hopefully Gwyneth would approve, too… 

Christmastime 2013

Sparkly mince pies, breakfast cronuts, prezzies galore, venison feast, baked alaska, dancing, wine & merry times… Happy Christmas 2013, and hello 2014!

indiana's christmas wishes

What every almost-two-year-old requires from Father Christmas...

1. The blanket of dreams to go on her new 'big girl' bed... by Roxy Marj

2. A book that looks suspiciously like it might be about her... Wild by Emily Hughes, £11.99 here

3. The means to dress up like Marie Antoinette in this princess dress... by H&M, £34.99 

4. These rainbow boots that I actually want for myself... by Nathalie Verlinden from Sugar on Snow

5. A Fisher Price record player so she can spin me some tunes during our daily dance offs... available on ebay

6. A new winter hat to keep her head warm whist she plots her next adventure. One with fur ears seems reasonable... 29 euros from Bobo Choses

And... this completely beautiful cherry play kitchen  in which to whip up some treats for her mama, $289.99 from Palumba 

Pablo's Christmas Wishes

What every 4-and-a-half-year-old wants this Christmas...

1. A skateboard, so he can at last join the big boys in the skate park... £74.99 by Dusters California, available here. 

2. Badass tattoos (sort of)... from Tattly, $5

3. Make Your Own Robot, with designs from David Shrigley, Donna Wilson & others - these are loads of fun and look fantastic... by Laurence King, £17.95

4. Some snuggly thermal pjs, especially these beauties... from Goat-Milk, from $40

5. A Ninja Turtle! Every 4.5 year old really really wants a hero in a half shell... £9.50, available here 

6. Something to wear on his feet that's not school boots or wellies. These Feiyue sneaks are totally perfect... 55 euros

And...anything by Oliver Jeffers

Home sweet sweet sweet home

Pablo has been on a mission to get a candy cane unwrapped, under any circumstances, and he finally hit on a successful angle when he begged to build another gingerbread house ("mum! The candy canes need to be the gateway!") Last year we bought this awesome mould from Lakeland and had so much fun decorating it, so I couldn't refuse! Plus the candy canes do make a perfect gateway... This year Indy joined in too and they both took the whole thing VERY seriously, with only the occasional pretend cough to sneak a sweetie or murmur of "mmmmmMMMM!" as Indy licked yet more royal icing from her fingertips... If you can get your hands on one of these moulds from Lakeland they really are fantastic and make the whole process very easy and painless, with beautiful results. If you're feeling brave you could also just make your own templates! I added some cute little clay figures and deer from my grandmother's Christmas cake tin, and the kids decorated with sprinkles and sweeties galore, plus some glittery pumpkin seeds. 

crush of the week

Indiana is getting a new bed for Christmas. We will need a lot of luck and patience once she is released from behind the cot bars, but she is convinced she is a grown up and therefore both confused and furious about plonked in her own little prison night after night…so it's time. The bed is bought, and I've invested in *hours* of very important (& not at all indulgent) bedding research. It turns out there's a bit of a gap in the market for beautiful, affordable girl's sheets that aren't very gingham or covered in ballerinas, but a handful of really lovely designs at the exquisite-but-a-bit-of-a-treat end of the spectrum. There's Lulu & Nat with their magical rainbows and neon butterflies,  and these perfect pink clouds from The Little Baby Company…but then I stumbled upon the ultimate...

Little Cabari specialise in stunning, handmade linens and other children's decor - including the most snuggly looking sleeping animal rugs, and entrancing wallpapers. The designs manage to be both timeless and playful, with hidden little characters and really beautiful colour combinations. They aren't cheap but they are high quality and the stylish, un-faddy design is worth the investment, if you can. Definitely one to watch, and really really want….

Biscuit Brigade

This blog has been like a ghost town since my last post, which promised a website reveal and cronuts recipe that never materialised. The shame! I promise they are both on the horizon, and will appear one day before the year's end. In the meantime I've been up to my armpits in cake orders and small children, and haven't even checked an email for actual weeks. However, I've been shocked out of my sugar rush by the realisation that Christmas is hurtling towards me. It's just one month away, and I've not even thought about all the festive fun I want to cram in before I wake up in a sea of Quality Street wrappers on the 27th to the harsh realisation that life is once again devoid of reason for overeating, over-baking, random platters of large cheeses and general overindulgence in port. 

So it was that we kicked things off with a gingerbread party! I thought it would be fun to add a bit of nutrition to balance the treacle, and so we attempted the following, which I stumbled upon via this site. 

Spelt and Agave Gingerbread

330g spelt flour 
.5 tsp salt
.75 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
.25 tsp ground nutmeg
.25 tsp ground cloves
113g unsalted butter
1 large egg
80ml agave syrup
80ml treacle/molasses

(if you prefer your gingerbread lighter in colour, use golden syrup in place of treacle)

some of the treacle actually made it into the dough...

The dough is so easy to make that the kids did it all themselves, bar the weighing and measuring, and despite devouring dangerous amounts of treacle along the way it came together perfectly. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, and all the wet (including butter) in another, then just stir them together, at some stage transferring from spoon to hands to squish it all into a ball. We then left ours in the fridge overnight, but you would want to leave it for at least half an hour as otherwise it's too sticky to work with. 

Cutter-sorting kept her busy for almost an hour! Coup!

Next day we had besties Edie & Holly coming over for a dinner date, so we planned a gingerbread baking party beforehand and the kids went to town making some fabulous gingery creations. Roll the dough out to about 5mm thickness, cut your desired shape, then pop on a parchment-lined tray in the oven (170C) for approx 10 minutes. We decorated ours first, with varying degrees of success, with pumpkin seeds, raisins, sugar crystals and bits of orange peel. You could also ice with basic royal icing and sprinkles after they are cooked and cooled, which I did a tiny bit of before losing interest and just eating them. The pumpkin seeds were super yummy baked into the gingerbread. It was lovely to watch the kids really get into decorating - Indy and Holly, despite being the littlest, really focussed on making pretty designs. It took them ages to catch on to the fact that the dough was edible, at which point we had to step in and confiscate it… Such a lovely activity from start to finish, that the kids can really just take over with and isn't hideously messy. Needless to say we all enjoyed devouring them afterwards too… 

dream.....dream dream dream

Very long (week-long...it's a big ask, I know) drumroll please.... as next week I'm going to finally have a proper Cake of Dreams website up! To celebrate I'll be popping a recipe up for my Mexican Chocolate Cronuts. YUP. They are pretty spectacular.... so make sure you check back or your tastebuds will never forgive you. Ever. 

'hot day at the beach' cake by Cake of Dreams

In the meantime if anyone's got an excuse for a party, however weak, check out some recent work on the Facebook page or get in touch via hello@cakeofdreams.co.uk. I would love love love to bake you a cake. Or a cronut. Or ten. Your call.

A lemon cronut and a blueberry bakewell walk into a bar...

hello...

Quite pleased with this cake I made for Holly's 2nd birthday, she's a Hello Kitty fanatic so the strawberry & white chocolate cake was topped with little Hello Kitty meringues! 

Link to a yummy strawberry cake recipe here... 

Cakes to order from Cake of Dreams... hello@cakeofdreams.co.uk

Elmo

I meant to post about this a while back but summer was too unmissable and I indulged in some major blog slacking. Luckily, it's all still going on and so still worth going on about. ELMO - East London Mobile Workshop - is awesome, and it thoughtfully popped along to our local park for a weekend of completely free, very indulgent artsy craftsyness. 

ELMO is a roaming pop up artist's studio, housed in a converted Bedford Bus (it looks spectacular), offering free creative workshops across East London to kids and grownups alike. We spent a day creating some swoonworthy ombre and gold screen prints (Pablo was especially proud of one he made saying "Joy" for his auntie Zara Joy's birthday), but the real highlight was the following day's letterpress fun. The staff were incredibly patient despite the humming gathering of interested folk, and took a real interest in helping us to create some little bespoke prints. Pablo made an "INDY & PABLO" banner with his papa, and I reeled off a stack of temporary Cake of Dreams business cards. The whole experience was a lovely indulgence, and shockingly, utterly *free*. That's virtually unheard of in this town. Keep an eye on them @elmo_works for news on upcoming pop up fun. Next up is Film Making with no.w.here in Mile End. Is 18 months too young to start making movies....?