How to make a Peppa Pig Cake

Peppa Pig Birthday Cake

Peppa Pig - described by Jason Mansford as a 3rd parent to his little girls they love and watch it so much!

My little girl loves her too, so for her 3rd birthday she had a Peppa Pig cake.

Lots of people have admired the cake, so here are some outline instructions on how to make a Peppa Pig Cake

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You will need

• A Peppa shaped tin

Get the tin (link to ebay seller who also have a range of other great tins)

 

For the cake

• 6 medium eggs
• 350g caster sugar
• 350g marg/butter
• 300g self raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• (Optional) chocolate chips

For the icing/decoration

• 80g marg/butter
• 300g of icing sugar
• Splash of milk

• 500g of pink icing (Renshaw)
• 250g of red icing (Renshaw)
• Small amount of white icing
• Small amount of black icing

Pre-coloured icing can be bought in Tesco (or for more choice/pack sizes try Hobbycraft/online)

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Making the cake...

1. Pre heat oven to 160C
2. Grease the tin (perhaps consider using a cake release spray - available from Tesco)
3. Put the marg and caster sugar into a large bowl and mix well
4. Break eggs into a measuring jug and beat with a fork
5. Add about a third of the flour and a third of the eggs and mix in
6. Add the cocoa powder, some more flour and some more egg and mix in
7. Repeat 5 until all the egg, flour and cocoa powder is incorporated
8. Finally stir in the chocolate chips
9. Cook for 30 minutes, then check and if necessary cover with tin foil before returning to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
10. Wait 10 minutes after taking the cake out of the oven before turning out onto a large cake board or tray

Before baking

Baked cake

Naked Peppa Pig cake before decoration

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Decorating the cake...

Start by making buttercream with the icing sugar and marg and then roughly covering the cake. This will make the cake taste better and the icing stick.

Next roll out the pink icing to about 3mm thick, making sure that there is sufficient icing in each direction to cover just over half the cake, and the edges.

Don't worry about the neck edge being straight or smooth as this will be covered by the red icing anyway.

Then use a sharp knife to trim around the edges

Next roll out the red icing.

Use the cake tin to gently mark the shape of the body into the icing - again make sure that there is sufficient icing to cover all sides.

This mark will also allow you to neatly cut the neck edge with a knife before lifting it onto the cake

The hard part is now done!

All you need to do now is add the finishing touches.

• Mix a small amount of pink and white icing together and then make a disk shape for each ear and the nose
• From the red icing still rolled out on the worktop, cut a smile (I used the neck edge)
• Mix a small amount of red with either pink or white icing and make a disk for Peppa's rosy cheek
• Make two arms (see picture below)
• Finally add two eyes and two nostrils
• Then you're done - just use a damp paper towel to wipe any stray buttercream/icing sugar off the edge of the tray

Really simple fresh churros (donuts) recipe

Last weekend we took our little family to the beach, where my daughter discovered fresh donuts and loved them!

Today I've just looked up how to make them and actually it's much simpler than I expected. Doesn't need as much oil as I thought either (although I wouldn't make them with my daughter "helping" as it does still need a cm or 2 of hot oil)

You will need

• a small mug (to measure ingredients)
• a sauce pan (to make the mixture in and then fry the donuts in)
• A tablespoon (measuring)
• A wooden spoon (mixing)
• A slotted spoon (retrieving donuts)
• Paper towel (to remove excess oil)
• A piping bag and large nozzle (or whatever they're called!!)

• 1 mug of water
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 mug of flour
• 3 eggs
• sugar (and perhaps cinnamon) to coat

Let's do it!

• Add the water, butter and sugar to the sauce pan and bring to the boil
• Reduce the heat and then slowly add the flour, stirring all the time
• Continue stirring until a dough is formed and cook for 2 minutes

• Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes (this is very important or you will end up scrambling your eggs at the next step!)
• Now add the eggs one at a time, stirring constantly. If it looks like it is all going lumpy - stir harder/faster, or get an electric whisk out!

• Next put about 1-2cm of oil into a pan and heat
• Spoon the batter into your piping bag
• To check if the oil is hot enough, drop a small amount of batter into the oil. It should puff up and bubbles form all around it.
• Once the oil is hot enough, pipe short sausages of batter directly into the oil

• Once the donuts are a light golden brown on all sides, remove from the oil and place on paper towel to remove excess oil
• When all of the batter has been cooked, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Your donuts should be light and fluffy on the inside and just slightly crisp on the outside. Yum Yum!!

Simple freshly made donuts (churros) recipe

 

 

Really easy (but seriously impressive) bakewell slices

This bakewell tart looks really impressive with its clear layers, but by using bought short crust pastry it is actually really simple to make

You will need

• Rectangular tin
• Ready rolled sweet shortcrust pastry
• 4 tbsp of cherry jam (or raspberry if you can't find cherry jam)
• 200g butter or marg (plus a little for greasing)
• 200g caster sugar
• 100g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking power
• 50g ground almond
• 1/2 tsp of almond extract
• 10 glace cherries
• 200g icing sugar

Getting started

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
• Grease your tin and cut the pastry to fit the base, press it gently into the corners and then prick it all over with a fork to prevent it rising too much

 



The use the paper the pastry came off to cover it, and then add baking beans (or pasta)

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until just cooked, and then remove the paper and beans/pasta and then return to the oven for another 2 minutes

Spread the jam over the pastry and set aside while you begin to make the filling

 

• In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, ground almond, flour and baking powder and mix.
• Break the eggs into another bowl, add the almond extract and beat

Slowly incorporate the eggs into the large bowl and mix well until you have a loose cake mix

• Pour this slowly/gently over the pastry (to prevent disturbing the jam layer) and then place in the oven
• After 35 minutes check how things are going and if the middle still wobbles but the edges are cooked, loosely cover with tin foil before returning to the oven for a further 10 minutes

• While the bake is cooling, slice your cherries in two and mix the icing sugar with a little water. Do this slowly, so that the icing has some movement and will slowly run off the back of the spoon but is not too wet.
• Spoon the icing onto the cake and spread to the corners
• Decorate by laying the cherries out in a grid pattern

• The cake can then be cut between the cherries to make slices (2 cherry halves per piece) or smaller squares (with a cherry in the centre)

Finally serve and allow people to admire the perfectly formed layers!

Quick baby update

Afraid there have been no posts for a few weeks (due to the birth of baby Oscar) but here are a couple of photo updates

Megan and Oscar wearing their introducing new baby t shirts

Oscar's finished Quick, cheap, simple personalised nursery décor

Introducing a new baby

We're expecting a new baby, which will be a total shock to our little daughter who has been the centre of the world for the last 2 and a half years!

 

With that said however, she appears to understand a lot more than we originally gave her credit for. Her current favourite expressions are "Mummy has a baby in her tummy" and "Megan's little brother".

 

So as well as the buying of gifts from baby to toddler, and toddler to baby, I thought it would be nice to make these T shirts, reinforcing the importance of Megan becoming a big sister and the baby being her new little brother.

 

 

They took me about 15 minutes to make and approx £5-8 including the blank T shirts.

 

 

You will need

• Fabric transfers - I purchased mine ready printed from e-bay for £2.50, however, the paper can be easily purchased online or even from Tesco (currently £3.50 for 7 sheets). If you go for this option, you'll also need a colour printer.
• 1 plain baby grow  - I purchased a 3 pack from Tesco for £3.25
• 1 plain child's T shirt - £2 from Primark
• A sharp pair of scissors
• Iron
• Hard surface - not an ironing board

Lay the design on the T shirts just to check it will fit!

 
Then carefully trim off as much of the blank paper as possible leaving a 2mm boarder.

The transfer paper is transparent, but will be slightly visible, so it's better not to have too much blank space in the design.

The next step is very very important!  

Make sure there is no dust, hair or any other kind of muck between the T shirt and the transfer, then turn the designs over, so that the checked side of the paper is visible and the print is face down on the t shirts.

Failure to do this will lead to the design transferring to your iron rather than to the T shirt.

Now iron the transfer onto the T shirts, holding the iron onto each transfer for at least 30 seconds. Make sure that you go right to the corners and that heat has been applied to the whole design.

Wait a couple of minutes for the transfer to cool down and then carefully peel the backing paper off.

Job done. Two super cute outfits. Can't wait to see my two in theirs!

 

Full patchwork blanket instructions

Please note this page is still in progress and instructions/links do not yet exist for all squares.

 

You will need

• 1 pair of 3.75 knitting needs
• 1 pair of circular needles of the same size (for edging)
• A darning needle
• 1 * 100g ball of double knit wool in each of the following colours

(From top left) - Purple, light pink, dark pink, light blue, dark yellow, dark green, lilac, light yellow, dark blue, light green.

Knitting squares

This blanket is made up of 49 simple to knit squares
Instructions are linked from each of the names below

Ref	Description/link	Number
1a	light blue and dark yellow stripe	6
1b	light pink and purple	6
1c	light yellow and lilac	6
1d	dark pink and pale green	6
2	light yellow parallel lines	3
3	purple diagonal lines	3
4	dark yellow horizonal lines	2
5	Light green ribbed stripes	3
6	Lilac plain	2
7	Dark green moss border	3
8	Light blue moss	4
9	Dark blue moss variation	5

Plenty more ideas for squares can be found on my knitting page

The layout

2	1a	4	1b	7	1c	5
1b	9	1c	8	1d	9	1a
7	1d	2	1a	3	1b	6
1a	8	1b	9	1c	8	1d
6	1c	5	1d	4	1a	3
1d	9	1a	8	1b	9	1c
5	1b	3	1c	2	1d	7

 
(Further advice on sewing laying out and sewing the squares together can be found on the How to make a simple but beautiful knitted blanket page)

 

Edging the blanket

My tip for edging the blanket is to use a circular knitting needle.

The length of the cable is unimportant, as you won't actually be knitting in the round, however having the extra length will make the large number of stitches you'll be working with on each side much more manageable.

• Using dark green or lilac (you'll have most of these colours left)
• Start at the bottom edge and with the right side facing pick up 259 stitches - that is 37 per square (one for each stitch you cast on/off for each square)
• Work one row in moss stitch (alternating k then p for each stitch)
• Increase one stitch each end at next and every right side row
• Continue in moss stitch for 8 rows (don't forget the right side increases)
• Cast off

Repeat on remaining 3 sides and then neatly sew the border together at each corner.

Congratulations - you'll have finished your amazing patchwork blanket.

Most basic squares

These are the simplest squares and a great starting point.  They also make quick "filler" squares, if you are making a large blanket, then a few simple striped or plain squares will help bulk out the blanket and are the quickest to knit.

Basic plain square

They don't come any simpler than this, however, with 2 or more different coloured wools you could still make a beautiful blanket without ever doing anything more complicated than knitting plain squares.

Cast on 37 stitches
Continue in stocking stitch (that is, normal knitting, a knit row followed by a purl row, followed by a knit row followed by a purl row etc etc) for 50 rows
Cast off!

Stripe square

Almost as simple as the plain square - simple stripes!

Choose two contrasting colours, and call them A and B

• Cast on 37 stitches in colour A
• Work 4 rows in stocking stitch (alternate between k and p rows)
• Change to B and continue for 4 more rows. (There is no need to cut the first colour off as you will always change colour on the same side, just make sure that it's not so tight that it's pulling the square out of shape when you next change colour)
• 4 rows in A
• 4 rows in B
• Continue until you have 48 rows (12 stripes)
• Cast off