Think Pink - Mini Strawberry Cupcakes

Tomorrow my daughter's nursery is holding a Think Pink day to raise money as part of  Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As well as inviting all children to dress in pink for the day they are holding a Pink themed bake sale.

Making a mess...

Of course we wanted to do our bit, so tonight after work we rolled up our sleeves and had some messy fun in the kitchen making some cakes. Now I have to tell you my little girl was rather excited; not only does she get to wear her pretty pink ballet clothes for nursery tomorrow ( I predict a lot of pirouettes!) but she also got to sprinkle icing sugar all over the kitchen floor today! (As that is of course the best way to make strawberry icing!)

We had a lovely time baking, and I realised that it had been a while since we had made cakes together. I always worry about the mess and the squabbles over whose turn it is to stir the mixture or lick the bowl but this evening showed me that my two little monsters can actually work really well together, they were really sweet taking turns and made a great team.

Educational...

It was a learning experience too as they counted out the mini marshmallows and Ben encouraged Elizabeth with her counting, helping her to get up to 15! This was the first time I had seen her accurately count that high and it was heart warming to watch her big brother helping her.

I think the part they enjoyed the most was the icing. We made a makeshift piping bag by chopping a corner of a ziplock sandwich bag and we all made an attempt at decorating the cakes, I won't tell you which ones I did...

So how did we make them?

We used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe I found on the BBC food website, but adapted it to add some strawberry food flavouring in place of vanilla essence so they tasted pink!

After baking the cupcakes and letting them cool we made some buttercream icing using softened butter, icing sugar and the tiniest drop of red food colouring and a drop of strawberry flavouring, I'm not sure if the colour turned out as pink as I had intended, but after posting a picture on facebook I was told it looked like angel delight so it can't be that bad!

The children had one each after dinner as a reward for all their hard work and the rest have been packed away for the bake sale tomorrow. I hope they help to raise some money...

An extra Day...

So it's February 29th and this day only comes around once every four years. (But I don't need to tell you that because like myself you probably will have been subjected to not much else in the media today! #slownewsday ).

Now I don't know anyone with a birthday on this notable date and I've not heard of any special proposals today but I have seen lots of 'extra' day promotions and offers! Which is always a good thing of course, I love a good deal!

But all this talk of a 'free day' got me thinking. What would I do with a genuinely 'Free' day?

If I had an extra 24 hours that no-one else got, how would I use it?

I'm always moaning about not having enough hours in the day and fitting in family life with a full time job and my 'hobbies' (such as blogging, managing the local madeformums network and being involved in other local groups). I regularly find myself wishing that time would stop so I could get more done! (Does any one remember watch a show called Benard's Watch as a child? I want that watch!)

I feel like I miss out on so much with my two little monsters now that I'm back at work full time. By the time I get the bus to nursery to pick Elizabeth up, then walk twenty minutes to pick Ben up from after school club, before walking home and making dinner I'm lucky if I get to actually spend an hour of quality time with them on a week day... Although nothing can get in the way of bedtime story time, that takes priority over everything! And is often the most enjoyable half hour of my day!

Then there's the simple things like finding time get a hair cut (not been done since last June, and very badly needed...) or even having a bath with some of the gorgeous smellies that I was given at Christmas and was so excited about at the time but two months later are still in their packaging on the bathroom shelf...

Or sleep... When I've been over committed a bit recently (my hubby says I take too much on and I'm inclined to agree with him at the moment!) I've found myself up till 4am catching up on writing and then up again at 6am to get the children ready and go to work., Obviously this is not good!!

And then the boring things like catching up on the housework, tackling the mountain of ironing, strip washing the nappies, sorting out the spare room or putting together the IKEA wardrobe we bought nearly two months ago, not very exciting to think about but still things taking up a large part of my 'to do' list...

Not too mention finding some alone time with my husband, who works equally as hard. It feels like we are ships passing in the night at the moment, both constantly on the go until we go to bed , me often having to stay up to finish bits of and on the few occasions we do go to bed together we're that exhausted we fall asleep before our heads even hit the pillow!


So rambling aside and going back to my original thoughts what would I do with a 'Free' day all to myself?

How would I prioritise all of the above? Knowing me I would probably end up procrastinating all day and spend the entire time on facebook and twitter!!!!

Thank you!

Thank you lovely Mummies for readng my posts and making the mymummyspennies facebook community such a fabulous page!

As promised now we have reached the amazing figure of 1500 likes I have picked one lucky fan at random to win this very gorgeous Stretch the Giraffe from Lamaze! I wish I could give all you lovely Mummies a prize but the very lucky winner this time is....

Vickie Jackson

Congratulations I hope your little one enjoys playing with it! Elizabeth loves hers! Please email your address details to mymummyspennies@gmail.com and I will get it sent out to you!

If you weren't the lucky one this time then don't worry as we have lots of new competitions coming soon!

Don't forget you can follow on twitter @mymummyspennies and subscribe by email to be the first to hear about the latest posts!

Win a trip to Lapland to meet Santa!!!

A trip to lapland to meet Santa is any little boy or girl's dream come true and this Christmas one very lucky child will be given the opportunity to live that dream!

This festive season travel operator Transun have personified Santa on both Twitter and facebook and are offering children between the ages of 2 and 16 the chance to enter a truly amazing competition!

The winner and an adult will be flown to lapland to Santa's secret hideaway and make a private visit to talk with him in his cabin! Plus, a chance to sample reindeer rides, snowmobiles and husky dog sleds!

To enter to win this 'once in a lifetime' prize all your child needs to do is...


Go to the Santa in Lapland Facebook page and send him a picture that shows just how much they love Christmas! They also need to tell Santa in 20 words why they deserve to win!

The competition closes at 10pm on 12th December 2011 so don't miss out!

And if you can't risk your child not being the lucky one then check out Transun's Website to find out about the selection of day trips and short breaks they offer to see Santa in Lapland from just £299 per person...

(This amazing prize package is worth £898 and is a day trip to Lapland for one adult and one child, all day trips and activities are included in the prize, the day trip will commence on the 22nd December so entrants need to be available to travel on this date.)

Christmas Competition to Win 2 lovely personalised Snowmen from Impressions to Keep!

 Although it seems like we have been surrounded by 'Christmas' for months, in shops, online and on the TV, we have now entered December and I finally feel justified in feeling festive! As soon as we are settled in our new house the Tree and decorations will go up (probably before anything else is unpacked!) and my Christmasy mood will be complete!

We have a huge tree to decorate and have lots of plain baubles that are great, but I really love special individual and handmade decorations. So each year we go to craft fayres and buy a couple of new decorations for it so we will build up a collection and by the time the children are older our lovely tree will be filled with special decorations that conjure up memories of their childhood Christmases. Hopefully these can then be passed on and used on their family trees for years to come!

Amongst their many offerings of beautiful personalised gifts the lovely Impressions to Keep have these beautiful ceramic snowmen that can be personalised with a name or message of your choice! These would make a very special addition to any tree and would be cherished for years to come!

These lovely snowmen are just £7 each and you can check out the full range of Christmas items on the Impressions to Keep Facebook page.

But personalised gifts are not just for Christmas (as they say) and the lovely Impressions to keep offer all sorts of precious handmade gifts and keepsakes. Ranging from silver fingerprint jewellery to hand painted and personalised ceramics they have something for all occasions and all budgets! Prices start from as little as £5 and every item is handmade by former RAF mum of two Emma who started up her business as she loved buying keepsakes to capture memories of her boys' childhood but realised that she could do these better and cheaper!

And So Impressions to keep was born! Why not pop over to the website and take a look? If you can't find what you are looking for then do get in touch with Emma on facebook or by email as she is happy to create something bespoke and is always on the look out for new design ideas!



Competition now closed!

The very lucky winner is......


 kath vlcek


Congratulations Kath! Please email your details over to mymummyspennies@gmail.com and I will pass them on to the lovely Emma at Impressions to Keep to arrange your prize!  


The lovely Emma has kindly offered Mymummyspennies readers the chance to win two beautiful personalised snowmen in time for Christmas!

To enter please....

- leave a comment below with your favourite Christmas Memory
- like Impressions to keep on facebook
- like mymummyspennies on facebook

For an extra entry please share on facebook, twitter or forums (please leave an extra comment below stating where you have shared)

You can copy and paste this to make sharing even easier if you wish....

'I would like to win 2 beautiful personalised snowmen with @mymummyspennies and @impressions to keep http://bit.ly/sWKDD7'



T’s and C’s

· winner will be selected by random draw

· open to residents of UK only.

· Facebook is no way affiliated with this competition.

· If the winner does not contact me within 3 days of their name being chosen another winner will be drawn.

· Competition will close 9pm Friday 9th December 2011 and will be announced on here shortly afterwards

· The prize is as stated and no cash alternative will be offered 

Marbled Ghost Cakes and A wizard at a disco? It must be Halloween....

Although Halloween isn't officially until next week, as most children will still be on half term my son's school hosted their Halloween Disco last Thursday! So this was to be Ben's first proper Halloween party!

I was slightly worried as he has always had quite a considerable fear of anyone dressed up! We have not been able to visit Santa's Grotto since his very first Christmas (when he was just 4 months old and didn't really know what was going on!) and our trips to see his favourite characters such as Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam have always ended in disaster with a screaming child clinging to me for dear life!

But over the past few months he has improved, although he still gets a bit funny if he sees some totally dressed up with their head covered, he's much better with normal dressing up costumes and I think we may even be able to attempt a Grotto this Christmas!

So after deciding he was brave enough to go, Ben needed a costume for the disco. As you may remember we ran a great competition with Fancy Dress Outfitters earlier in the month and they were kind enough to send Ben a costume for the disco and for us to review!


While browsing through their website I could not believe the vast array of costumes they had! The choice in both Adults and children's Halloween costumes is extensive! Knowing that Ben would not want to wear a mask or have his face completely covered I narrowed the choice down to a few I felt were suitable and let Ben choose. I was not surprised when he chose the Wizard!

The costume arrived very quickly and was well packaged. Inside the postal packaging the costume had it's own resealable bag that fastened with poppers which is ideal for storing it between uses! The Smiffy's Wizard Costume we ordered came in 3 sizes to fit children from 3 - 9 years. As Ben is a rather tall 4 year old we have chosen age 4 - 6.

                  


The costume itself consists of three pieces, a blue hat with two stars and a moon printed on it and a star dangling from the top, a blue cape with a collar, fastening at the front with velcro, again decorated with stars and moons and a beard that has two velcro tabs to attach it to the hat.

Ben was very impressed and wanted to wear this to school the day it arrived! The hat fitted well and wasn't too 'floppy' the cape looke great over anything! (he tried it on with a cardi and jeans but wore it over a smart shirt and trousers fot the disco!) The beard did really last long on the velcro but Ben was facinated with it and kept holding it up to his face and saying look I'm Daddy! (btw I don't know where that cam from as Daddy doesn't have a beard, stubble sometimes but never a beard!)


I really do like this costume, it is good quality, folds up small to store and can be worn over normal clothes. It should also fit be a while so will get plenty of use! With it being a wizard costume it is not unique to Halloween so can be used on other occasions when Ben can wear fancy dress. (and I'm sure it will be regularly used to 'dress up in' when playing at home too! For £13.09 this costume is great value for money!



We are going to a local Halloween festival on Sunday so Ben will be wearing this again and I'll share some more pictures then!

Fancy Dress outfitters are the one stop shop for fancy dress costumes and all things party! They offer a fabulous selection of children's and adults costumes and accessories for all occasions and to suit all budgets! With costumes starting from under £10 and sizes suitable from 1 year up to 14 years (and adults too!) they really are the ideal solution! Buying a costume is much more cost effective than hiring one as it can be used again and again and even passed down to younger siblings!

Fancy Dress Outfitters have delivery starting from just £3.59 (or FREE for orders over £50) and if you've left it until the last minute then they also have a next day delivery option available too!

They can also be found on facebook and twitter too so pop over and follow them for the latest news, offers and competitions....

So the costume was sorted we just needed to make a contribution to the disco! These are the choices we were given... buy a raffle prize, put up some decorations, before the disco, tidy up afterwards, help out during or provide some cakes!

As lack of childcare ruled out some of these I decided Ben and I would have some fun making cakes together so After school on Wednesday we decided to make some Spooky Halloween marbled Ghost cakes! These are really simple to do and taste yummy!

You simply make two separate mixes of sponge cake, one vanilla and one chocolate, then spoon them together into the cake cases! The mix it to create a funky marbled effect!

After baking for 15 minutes and leaving to cool, we added a haribo ghost sweet to each cake on top of some gory red icing!

Ben had lots of fun making these and couldn't wait to take them to school the next day!