Something colourful and cheery for a cold, dreary day in the UK. I have made some really unusual things over the years, so much so that I wanted to reminisce about them and share some with you.
I made some shortbread cookie men that you could hang onto a cup. An unusual idea as the cookie was there all ready for dunking in the lovely cuppa. These little cookies hung on the side of your mug waiting to be eaten with your cup of tea. Some hung on with two hands and some hung on with one. They were fairly easy to make and very fun too. They had shocked faces on them to signify that they were getting a bit hot and bothered just hanging there. 🙂
Another novelty bake which I have made over the years were ice cream cupcakes which featured a cake in a cone decorated to look like an ice cream. These sold especially well in the summer. I would position these at the front of the stall to catch the eye of the children passing by who would then ask their parents for one. This technique worked very well. I would decorate them with flakes like a 99er and with sauce just like “monkey’s blood” (what we had when we were children). These were a bit fussy to make but well worth it.
Other novelty bakes have been the scary finger cookies which I make for Halloween . These are shortbread fingers decorated with jam and a flaked almond for a finger nail. These were a good idea for the Halloween stall at the market and sold extremely well. When making these ones I left my children to it and my eldest let her imagination go wild. She started to make toes and thumbs with cuts and grazes aplenty. The more horrible these fingers look the better.
There are other bakes which I have made along the way which have become the norm now, such as , cake pops . Little balls of cake smothered in chocolate and decorations. These I made every week for the market but as the seasons changed so did my decorations. For Halloween, I made pumpkins, witches and black cats. For Easter, I made eggs hatching , chicks and bunnies. For Christmas, I made baubles, trees, and presents.
I once made a giant ginger bread house which I sold on the market. It was very cumbersome and difficult to transport but it looked very good. It was gift wrapped and everything.
The gingerbread has become a regular thing now for my children to make presents with for their teachers at Christmas. One year we had a 3-D Chrismas tree with decorations , a 3-D dinosaur with a see through tummy (a sweet was used to melt in the hole that my daughter had built into her design), and a 3-D angel. Needless to say I think the teachers were quite taken aback by the thought which had gone into the designs. Sometimes the homemade presents designed by the children are the best.
Finally, pushpops my favourite by far. I saw these on facebook , then I found the containers to make them into. There are so many different combinations of flavours and decorations that you can make in these pushpops. Lots of fun to make and sold really well. I made these for birthday parties and as wedding favours. Very popular and intrigued lots of people at the market as I spent lots of time at the market chatting to people about them.