I have such a backlog of things to blog that I think you’ll be inundated this week with posts!

Firstly, I wish all the Dads in your life a Happy Fathers day. I didn’t get to see my own Dad yesterday so I can’t blog what I made for him, hopefully I can remedy that tomorrow. Truth be told I don’t know what I’d do without my Dad, he’s an absolute superstar and a great Papa – I know that my kids and my niece absolutely adore him. I just wish he didn’t live almost an hour away!

Secondly I had to share this little photo of my niece. Bad Auntie Vonnie gave Bailey a marshmallow twizzler in Starbucks on Saturday while her Mummy was on the phone and therefore powerless to do anything about it. Isn’t she a cutie-pie?

Thirdly! I made these cookies a few weeks ago and the kids devoured them almost as soon as they were in the cookie jar so I figured I should pony up the recipe. This makes loads, although the recipe suggests it’ll make 14.

You will need:
100g/4oz butter, softened
100g/4oz light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
150g/6oz self-raising flour
85g/3oz (approx 3 tubes) smarties (I used the mini smarties)

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and creamy, then beat in the syrup.
2) Work in half the flour. Stir in the smarties with the remaining flour and work the dough together with your fingers. Divide into 14 balls and place them well apart on baking sheets. Do not flatten them.
3) Bake for 12 minutes until pale golden at the edges. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container for up to four days (if the little horrors in your life let them last that long!)

Posted under baking, knitting, sewing, with the kids

Greer is settling into family life and proving to be a very laid back kind of child – very like her oldest brother Findlay, and nothing like Nairn and Erica were as teeny tinies. So much so that I’ve actually been granted time to bake a little this week. I’ve thrown together one of my Cherry Bakewell cakes using raspberry jam instead of cherry, a batch of smarties cookies and the most gorgeous cinnamon apple upside down cake using Apryl’s recipe. I’ll blog the smarties cookies recipe tomorrow when I find the scrap of paper I wrote measurements down on

I had a bit of a freak out a few weeks ago over the state of the boys’ bedroom with the result that we dismantled their bunk beds this week and installed brand spanking new cabin beds complete with storage space *swoons*. This of course meant there’s been spare bits of bed lying around the house whilst Bob got the grunt work done.

This is what happens when you leave a mattress on its side on the stairs. The toddlers get it, pull it over and spend the day doing this:

I promise I do dress them occasionally

Posted under baking, family

This post was written by Vonnie on May 27, 2009

Tags: bake, baking, cinnamon apple upside down cake, erica, Nairn, recommendations, smarties cookies