Yesterday, I seem to have a day off from writing on my blog. I am not sure why just that I was extremely busy doing other things. I did supervise my children making their teachers presents last night for the end of term. They made Cupcakes which we squashed and squeezed into apple shapes before one child poured the red chocolate on and the other child stuck the worm into the cake ( a [amazon_textlink asin=’B0065223Z2′ text=’gummy worm’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’wwwlovetobake-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’4ddfd01a-6c7b-11e7-a0be-291c59c214c1′]). “An apple for the teacher” of course.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of their cakes as they took them in this morning rather excitedly. Needless to say, my children enjoyed seeing if their teachers could recognise what the cake was supposed to be – only one teacher guessed correctly. The other teacher was told by my son it was an apple with a snake coming out of it. Hahaha. 🙂 Both my youngest children have had a good year and very good teachers and I really appreciate what they have done. I like when my children make a present for their teachers at the end of the year and I hope the teachers appreciate the effort that the child has made. Although, I supervised the mixing and baking of the cakes it was the children’s ideas for the decoration – and it helped that I had some [amazon_textlink asin=’B0061TXSR6′ text=’red candy melts’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’wwwlovetobake-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’7250e20b-6c7b-11e7-abef-edac66139b90′] in the cupboard.
Back to today, I need to bake something for the children as a treat as the Brownies which I made last night are just about gone. They were like vultures last night when I sliced the brownies up. I may make some Flapjack as I know I have a big bag of porridge oats to use. I am still looking for my Peanut Butter Brownies recipe which I used in my market days so I haven’t baked anything with peanut butter since the other day. Other than that I don’t think I have much time to spend in the kitchen today but I do want to make a Coconut Cake as a treat for the husband to take to work this week. However, I can’t decide what to use as a filling in the cake because I don’t want to go down the buttercream or jam route. I want to try something different like a [amazon_textlink asin=’B003WOF0MY’ text=’fluff’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’wwwlovetobake-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’90d9cf6a-6c7b-11e7-b8e8-e75501ffc9b9′], meringue or a white marshmallow type of filling.
Tomorrow, is “Junk Food Day” in the USA. I love that they celebrate junk food. My favourite junk food which I always try and have when we go anywhere is Nachos with all the toppings. I love guacamole, nacho cheese sauce, salsa and soured cream. Now I am hungry and thinking about what I can make for dinner tonight. I am wanting to make Sloppy Joes for the children to try this week but I need to buy some minced beef for them. I am going to make a meat free version as I tried it in a restaurant the other day and I think it is something my children will enjoy. In fact, I may put the [amazon_textlink asin=’B00BCHH4MC’ text=’slow cooker’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’wwwlovetobake-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’c2f51472-6c7e-11e7-adc0-95a9779e77fa’] on now with the ingredients in for “Meat Free Sloppy Joes” and that will be dinner sorted. This will be my Junk Food Day celebration and I will share the recipe tomorrow with some photos.
The one thing which I can add today is my icing sugar article to my ingredient page as I keep writing these articles and never adding them so I am trying to play catch up on my ingredients.
Icing sugar
Also known as powdered sugar. It is made from milling granulated sugar and adding cornstarch which prevents clumping but as soon as the box is open the moisture will start to move in and then you have to sieve the icing sugar before you use it. This is a common problem that you just have to live with when you are using icing sugar.
This is mainly used in the making of butter creams and icings. Also as a decoration to baked goods. It is very sweet to the taste and therefore butter cream I think is always over sweet. It can not be substituted for granulated sugar in the making of a cuppa due to the anti caking agent which is added to it.
It is also used in the making of fondant which involves mixing the icing sugar with egg white. This is also used for making royal icing. It is used to make homemade marshmallow which I have never made before but it is something I would love to try.
My first ever use of icing sugar which would be making glacé icing when I was a little girl decorating cakes with my Grandma and Mam.