Maya's 3rd Birthday Japanese Tea Party

Looking through Maya's great selection of toys and wonders we have collected over the past 3 years (yes, I can't believe she is 3 already!) it seemed perfect to team everything together... Voila! We had a little Japanese theme in the making.  Cute little Woodland dolls from Lapin and Me, Kewpie, both mini and large picked up from a gorgeous little shop in Copenhagen last year and all the wee little momiji dolls added to the birthday table.  Kewpie is my personal favourite and it seemed just the occasion to use mini K as the cake topper!  I also found this dear little webshop for the yummy Japanese candies.   

I found the lovely vintage kimono fabrics on ebay - cute little stork print in just the vibrant colours I love.

I love the oriental lucky cats and found these gorgeous little erasers which were propped up on the window sill with yummy little treat bags filled with scrumptious treats.

Maya feeling very proud of the fact that she had finally discovered how to blow out the candles on her cake - love her x

Maya's cake was a simple vanilla sponge filled with raspberry jam and a cream cheese frosting! Went down ok as we can see!

These have got to be my favourite from Tofu Cute. Teeny tiny Hello Kitty and friends lollies! :-)

Yes! What can I say - a dressing up party for the Woodland Dolls by the end of the Maya's party! So much fun! :-)

Chocolate Courgette Loaf Cake

You can just imagine the look on hubbies face when he walked into the kitchen with chocolate, flour and grated courgettes on the kitchen side whilst I was getting stuck in!  A work colleague had been left home alone to take care of the house and amazing garden as it sounds....in the meantime, the courgette plants started breeding like anything- yes! We were kindly presented with courgettes (all colours) and marrows on a daily basis for around 2 weeks, so I thought I would give the little beauties a go in this wonderful chocolate courgette loaf. It was absolutely amazing! I was thinking hubby would be a bit unsure, but it seemed to have gone down well! 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful texture and the chocolate i'm sure must have helped!

Ingredients
(Recipe adapted from allrecipes.co.uk
(This recipe easily makes 2 medium loaf tins worth of cake!)

250g plain flour
375g caster sugar
60g good quality cocoa powder
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
4 medium eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
350ml vegetable oil
340g grated courgettes
75g chopped dark chocolate

Method
1) Preheat the oven to 180C.  Grease and line a 20x30cm baking tin/loaf pan
2) In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon (if using)
3) Add the eggs and oil and mix until thoroughly incorporated.  Fold in the courgettes and chopped chocolate until well distributed.
4) Pour the mixture into the baking tin
5) Bake for 50-60minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean.
6) Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Lazy Sunday Sushi Party

Wherever there's a wee get together, there's always space for a bit of bunting.  We were just having our monthly cousin gathering and of course with my turn coming up, I had left everything until the last minute! ooopps!  Ok, I had always just planned to get a beautiful Sushi platter in, but there are always the other bits and pieces to do too!   Somehow, things get done and all goes according to plan.  Maya had fun watching me put together the lovely fan bunting together.  I just purchased some sheets of origami paper from Paperchase and I was off!  We made some little boats too, which Maya stuck to the walls and a lovely paper lantern bunting which I had stored in my cupboard from a few years ago..Oh, how things come in and handy. ;-)  

Yummy Sushi platter from M&S . I must say, I was so impressed and will be giving this a go again soon..

In addition to the sushi, I prepared some very quick bites - chicken goujon strips with sweet chilli sauce, pork meatballs with sticky plum sauce. :-)

Banana leaves! My new favourite toy... I also love the fact that the remaining ones were frozen and have been used for other occasions. Just make sure they are completely thawed out before cutting or using.  Ahh, so that was my very speedy Sushi lunch - will definitely be exploring this one again! :-) 

Lemon Shortbread Cookies

My love of all things shortbread... I stumbled across a recipe from Tartine and thought it was worth a try. So simple, yet a lovely zingy flavour. All sorts can be added to this recipe, you can leave or add the lemon zest depending on how subtle or strong you'd like the flavour to be.  For me, it's all about the zing, so I actually added a little more zest than needed.  The cornflour in this recipe also gives them a lovely smooth texture.  I have in the past gone for the crunchier versions, with the addition of semolina, but this was just perfect.

Lemon Shortbread Recipe

240g unsalted butter, very soft
65g granulated sugar
240g plain flour
70g cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
Zest of 1 and a half lemons
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
30g fine caster sugar

Method

1) preheat the oven to 160C. Line a 6x10 inch baking sheet

2) Mix the butter and granulated sugar in a bowl. Add the salt, lemon zest and vanilla extract and incorporate well.

3) Add in the flour and cornflour until it forms into a dough.  you can use your hands to bring the mixture together.

4) Add the dough into the baking sheet and pat down evenly.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden on top. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.

5)  Whilst still warm, sprinkle with the caster sugar and cut into squares or rectangles as preferred.  You must cut them whilst warm, otherwise it will become difficult to cut through and they will break.  Leave to cool in pan before taking out. Enjoy! 

I actually used a tart tin to bake them in, but either that or a baking sheet will be fine.

Muesli Breakfast Cookies

Wow, these were super easy to make and what a great start to the day or perhaps elevensies, if they make til then!  I adapted the recipe from taste.com.

 

 

3 cups toasted muesli
75g plain flour
100g melted butter 
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

 

 

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.  Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper and lay out muesli onto baking sheets.  Toast for around 5 minutes until slightly golden.  Keep a watch to make sure it doesn't burn.
2.  Remove from the sheets and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.  
3. Combine muesli and flour into a bowl. 
4.  Whisk together the butter, honey, cinnamon and egg.
5.  Add the mixture to the muesli and mix well.  Set aside for 15 minutes.
6.  Using a tablespoon (or teaspoon if you prefer smaller cookies) and add spoonfuls of the mixture to the trays. Flatten.  Ensure you leave an inch gap between.
7. Bake for 10 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.  Allow to cool completely. 

They can be very fragile when transferring to the tray, so you can leave to cool for longer if required.

Flourless Chocolate Cookies

 Wasn't quite sure how these would turn out...What? No flour?!

They were pretty impressive and almost reminded me of a chocolate brownie. mmmmmm

  I have since reduced the espresso powder to the below, as the flavour was quite intense.  This definitely made a difference from the first batch.  

Easy peasy recipe which is great for the beginner too... :-)

Cinnamon Swirly Buns

So, having rustled these up a few times in the past, I thought I would go for the simple cinnamon filling this time. It was an absolute treat, both when just baked and having cooled down...yes, there were still some left at that stage.  The recipe is this one here, but I left out the chocolate and just added the cinnamon instead and left out the choc. Either way they are yum!