Reasons to be Cheerful: Cakes, Butterflies and Coming Last! #R2BC #BeMoreWitWitWoo

I am day late joining in with Michelle as we were out all day yesterday at Ambleside Sports! That will be a video and a blogpost so watch this space... Meanwhile here are this week's reasons:
1) Home Baking
Sometimes its the simplest things that make us happy. I love rustling up a simple batch of cupcakes using our tried and tested recipe. This time I used butter and they were so tasty they were gone in a day:

2) Butterflies

I am so pleased with my bee and butterfly friendly garden. Seeing these beautiful creatures flitting about is a delight to behold. There have been a few varieties too as I tracked for the Butterfly Count:

3) Guinea Pigs

As I am constantly putting the boys out on the grass I am enjoying spending more time with them. This time it was Splodge who posed beautifully:

4) Outdoor Theatre

I had a lovely evening just with my daughter at Williamson Park for the Duke's Theatre promenade production of The Three Musketeers. Plenty of laughs as well as sword fights with some stunning backdrops:

5) Being more Wit Wit Woo

I was blown away by the likes and comments when I joined with Swim Suit Saturday to celebrate the life of Kate Sutton:

In honour of Kate Sutton @witwitwoo who died this week at the age of 48 we are embracing her attitude and going out of our comfort zones! So a rare sight me in a swimsuit... #bemorewitwitwoo

A post shared by Becky Willoughby (@lakessinglemum) on Jul 21, 2018 at 1:45am PDT

I embraced this attitude by actually taking part in the mums' race yesterday. I knew I would be last but just went for it... and yes I was about a metre behind everyone else. My celebration was probably a prize winner though! And look I got this as an award for taking part:

Recipe: Cheats Jam Tarts

Here is my cheat's recipe for easy jam tarts! All you need is some Jus-Rol pastry (remember it needs 45 minutes out of the fridge):

and some jam:

Pre-heat the oven to 180C or gas mark 4 whilst you cut out the tarts:

Recipe for a fun Saturday

1) Bake cakes together

We used yesterday's easy recipe to make a total of 24 cakes. Half were iced and half turned into butterfly cakes.

2) A trip to town

The children took their bikes and I walked quickly along the river (spotting snowdrops and birds on the way) into the town centre and locked up the bikes near the library:

Once in town we chose some books from the library, bought a take away from McDonalds and walked along to visit my grandmother at the other end of town. Great to be able to easily visit her in her lovely new home. We came back via the bookshop and Argos as the children had some Christmas tokens and money left to spend.

3) Time with extended family

We took the majority of our baking efforts for an afternoon with some of our extended family. It's lovely having family so close by and extra special when others are up for the weekend so we can see them too. Lots of fun looking back at old family photos though there were some hideous ones of all of us (the 1980s is a decade fashion forgot!).

4) Earthflight

The evening ended with a family viewing of Earthflight. We all love these incredible BBC documentaries about birds. Such amazing footage and lots of fascinating facts.

What's your recipe for a perfect Saturday?

#AnchorElevenses: Simple Fairy Cakes

Sponsored Post

The lovely people at Anchor have asked some of us parent bloggers to share our favourite elevenses recipes. They are hoping to revive the good old elevenses tradition. Regular readers will know that I love baking with and without my children so here is my little contribution Simple Fairy Cakes:

1. Heat oven to 190 C (fan 175 C)
2. Pop paper cases into a 12 hole cake baking tray
3. Get a large mixing bowl
4. Sift in 4 oz of self raising flour
5. Add 4 oz caster sugar
6. Add 4 oz margarine or butter
7. Add 2 medium eggs
8. Add pinch bicarbonate of soda
9. Add few drops vanilla essence
10. Mix together until mix drops off a spoon
11. Share between the 12 cases
12. Bake for 15 minutes in the oven
13. Once cooled decorate

For more ideas for Elevenses pop over to Anchor's Facebook page or follow them on Twitter.


All the entries on this are being put into a competition to in Anchor 125th Memorabilia so hope I win!

#TheGallery: The Kitchen

 

Another lovely challenge from Tara with the theme of the kitchen this week. Now the kitchen is really the heart of the home and I love to spend time in there either cooking on my own or with the children. Here are a few pictures to show what a wonderful time we have there:

We love baking treats for others

Pyjama days are perfect for making cakes

Nothing like a stoneware bowl for mixing and colourful melamine for ingredients

Saturday Recipe Swap: Easy Peasy Fairy Cakes

On week 2 of this recipe blog hop I am after your easy baking recipes that you do with your children. Please post your link and then add the blog hop code to your post. Can be a new post or one from your archives! Look forward to trying some out :-)


Easy Peasy Fairy Cakes


This is something I regularly do with and without my kids and it is so easy that my 7 year old can do it herself (except putting in oven obviously!).

1. Heat oven to 190 C (fan 175 C)
2. Pop papercases into a 12 hole cake baking tray
3. Get a large mixing bowl
4. Sift in 4 oz of self raising flour
5. Add 4 oz caster sugar
6. Add 4 oz margarine or butter
7. Add 2 medium eggs
8. Add pinch bicarbonate of soda
9. Add few drops vanilla essence
10. Mix together until mix drops off a spoon
11. Share between the 12 cases
12. Bake for 15 minutes in the oven
13. Once cooled decorate

For variations:

• substitute 1 oz self raising flour for cocoa powder and instead of vanilla essence add a teaspoon strong coffee
• Add 2 oz of chocolate chips or dried fruit

Please come and join in the blog hop. I loved trying out last week's recipes!

#SilentSunday: Home Baking