Ramdan Mubarak

Having spent the first 9 years of my life in a Muslim country (Kuwait), the month of Ramadan was a very different affair. But even when we moved to the UK, I still remember some amazing times.
Some of my fondest memories are of Eid when I was in school. I loved that the whole family would go for prayers in the morning and when I say the whole family I mean aunts, uncles and cousins the whole lot of us. After that we would all get together at one of our houses for a spot of lunch and then go home to get changed into our next outfits for dinner which would normally end up being at our house.
These days, everyone is too busy to get together. Most of us are married and hardly any of us get together anymore. The ones that work don't want to take the day off due to the uncertainty of what day Eid will fall on as it's all based on the lunar calendar and the most of us ladies are reluctant to go for prayers as it's so impractical.
I struggle to think of what my kids will be like and how they will get excited about celebrations in our religion. I want the excitement I had to be the same for them. Living in a western society it's always going to be a struggle. Don't get me wrong, I love living here and I embrace every part of it, I'm the biggest kid and the first to put up a Christmas tree. I love Easter egg hunts. Obviously, none of these celebrations have a religious meaning for us but I see no harm in enjoying them with the kids.
So, thinking about it for a few years now I decided that Zak and my niece Sofia and nephew Hayder was old enough to start learning more about Ramadan/Fasting etc. When brainstorming for ideas, I realised very early on that the Christmas Advent calendar had the right idea. They interact with it and receive a treat everyday and here is what I came up with.

I bought these little boxes online from Crafty Capers. In hindsight, I would probably have gotten bigger ones as these don't really have much room for treats but then that would have meant getting a bigger frame to put them in and I'm not sure I could have found space for those.
I bought some decoupage paper pads from Hobbycarft, for the tops of the boxes I drew around the outline of the lids, cut them out and stuck them on using PVA glue. Once they had dried I used rub on numbers from Sticker World to date the boxes. It is so hard to find number stickers appropriate for this kind of thing. I wasn't entirely happy with the sizes but that was my own fault, I was in a rush to get them made before Ramadan began.

Once I had worked out the best layout I bought some frames to fit all the boxes in, I got 20"x16" frames. Using some of the same paper that I used on the boxes lids I covered the backboard and left the mount in too. Once that had dried I stuck on the boxes using UHU glue.
I wrote out a question for each day that would teach the kids a little bit about Ramadan/Islam and with a little chocolate I filled each day.

And voila, the frames were complete....

Ideally, if I had more time I would have made a Ramadan sign for the top. Hopefully I can do that for next year. The best thing about these calendars is that they can be used every year, the only thing, would be to refill the sweets and once the questions were no longer appropriate they can be easily replaced with harder questions.

Ramadan Mubarak to you all.

Mr Miller

I'm sure you will agree with me when I say there is always one Teacher that really sticks with you no matter how long ago you left school/college/university. Well for me that was my A-level photography teacher Mr.Miller.
He was the teacher everyone loved, the one that managed to be cool and teach us at the same time. Although I loved all my classes, photography was the one I looked forward to the most. Over the years I often thought of him and wondered whether or not he was still teaching but never actually did anything to find out.
By chance, through my sisters contacts I found out that he was retiring. When she called me to ask if I would be interested in going to his retirement party I jumped at the chance. Instantly I knew what cake I was going to make him too. For awhile I have been wanting to make a camera cake and this was the perfect opportunity.
Surprisingly, it was far easier to make then I thought it would be and I was very happy with the outcome.

It was so nice to see him and amazingly he had hardly changed. Even more surprising was the fact that he REMEMBERED me. It's been around about 15 years and he actually remembered me.
He absolutely loved the cake, so much so that he made me walk around the party and showed it to all the guests. He was honoured that I made the cake but little does he know the honour was all mine. Just to show him a little appreciation for what he did for me at school.

Me, Mr.Miller and Mona (my sister)

 He sent me an email a few days later with the cutest story of the Cakes journey with pictures:

Follow the cake

103 arrives home safely after having lens eaten by rowdy party goers
travels in car with own seat belt
Takes a rest in the kitchen while we get plates and a knife
We are now into the controls and pentaprism housing,
Cake rests in fridge over night
Next day full on - soon cake gone
RIP

So this blog is dedicated to all the those amazing teacher that changed our lives and especially for Mr.Miller.

Thank you for everything.

Rockin' Rocket Party

Zak's 4th Birthday.

So asking a three year old what party he wants for his birthday isn't always the best idea. Garanteed they will pick something that is not easily bought for. Now i'm not one to shy away from craft projects but when I have no time the last thing I want is to do just that.

So what does Zak want for his birthday party. A Rocket Party! The first thing I do is to get on the computer and start searching rocket parties other mums have done and thankfully blogged about. There are some great resources out there.

Firstly, I had to decide on the whole theme and that starts with the invite to the party. After alot of trawling through website, I took bits from lots of different websites and came up with a red and white rocket (red is Zak's favourite colour).

I was really pleased with the way they turned out. I bought black envelopes and made sticky lables which followed on the theme of the rocket.

Next I had to think about the party favours and found these Rockin' Rocket Favors and they were perfect. I used red foam instead of card for the fins and the tops. Lastly, I threaded some butchers string through the tops to make it easier for the kids to carry their party favours.

I looked for different decorations to make for the party and came across this Fourth of July Confetti Popper Rockets.  So there I was, collecting all the empty toilet rolls I could get my hands on. They were surprisingly easy to make and I loved the final outcome. Although, I do still have bits of confetti in all four corners of my garden.

I wanted to sting them up in a line so that the children could each grab a pull but never got a chance to even use them let alone sting them up. We ended up doing it after everyone had left but Zak and his cousins loved it. I did transform Zak's play house into a rocket too but unfortunately didn't get a before and after photo. The main reason was to get each childs photo through the window but again that didn't happen either.

One of the classic games for any kids party is "Pin the tail on the donkey". The beauty of the game is that it can be adapted to any party theme you can think of. After thinking long and hard I decided on "Land the rocket on the moon". I painted a canvas and printed out the same rockets on sticky labels as per the invites for the children to stick to the canvas.

Another classic is pass the parcel. I remember the day when all you got in between the paper was a forfit and the only person to win anything was the last one standing. These days you have to put sweets in each layer and to make sure that each child gets one just to be fair. As I didn't know exactly how many children were going to be playing I decided on making a rocket for the kids to pass around. It did have the capabilities of popping open at the bottom to fill with your chosen sweets at the last minute, but I didn't have to do that as my sister was kind enough to make little packages for each child.

I did make a lot more stuff but didn't get a chance to use it, not that the kids noticed.
Zak described to me in detail the kind of rocket cake he wanted, the main request being the size. Apparently he wanted a cake so big he needed a chair to get to it. As I had decided on making smaller cakes and desserts for the kids to eat I made the bottom half of the cake out of cake dummies and just covered it in icing .

I loved the idea of making the Pusk pops into rockets aswell. I know it was a little over the top but I love  how simple it was to do and how perfectly is fit in with the theme.
All the party photography is the work of my  very talented sister Mona of Mona Naem Photography, check out her website for some amazing pictures.

Zak had a great day and is already telling me next year he wants a Spiderman party, and so the research begins.

Doughy Goodness

So the other day I was out shopping and got myself the very talented Edd Kimber's "The Boy Who Bakes". I have been meaning to get it for some time but haven't even been shopping let alone baking. However, as I stood flicking through the book waiting to pay, I came across the picture of soft, lightly golden doughnuts sat on a marble worktop tossed in powdered sugar. Love at first sight doesn't even begin to describe how I felt. Instantly, I knew this was going to be the first recipe I made from this book.

For some time now I have been craving homemade doughnuts. bringing back memories of my mother frying up that delicious sweet doughy goodness. She couldn't find the recipe she used but nevertheless with the Internet these days you don't need old recipes there is an abundance of new ones for you to find and perfect. As I hadn't got around to looking yet, this was the perfect opportunity to try the books recipes and of course "taste test".

So later that day....much later, Me and the other-half sat watching TV start to crave something sweet. Now with both of us trying to be good there wasn't much in the cupboards. With the doughnuts still very much in the front of my mind, I casually mentioned that there was a doughnut recipe in the book that we could try. Even before he had finished saying the words "sounds good", I had swiped the book off the coffee table and run into the kitchen to see if I had all the ingredients needed.

YES, things were looking good, as I skimmed through the recipe I realised I had to leave it to chill the fridge for an hour. One whole Hour! Seeing as it was 11pm, I looked defeated at the OH, we couldn't possibly make these at this time.... Could we? "Hell YES!" was his answer, I knew there was a reason I married him.
So there I was, at 11 measuring out all the dry ingredients into a bowl.

Measuring out all the wet ingredients into a jug ready to whisk up.

Combining the two together.

And then came the painstaking task of waiting for the dough to chill for an hour. We managed to wait it out and so it began. Now Edd did tell us to dust the work surface liberally, and he means liberally. There was a bit of a mess with a very sticky dough but we were determined to have doughnuts and nothing was going to get in the way. The dough was patted to a nice 1cm (ish) thickness.

I heated up some oil to fry them but as I don't have a deep fat fryer, I knew this wasn't going to be that successful as Edd doesn't recommend frying without one (the temp needs to be at 190°C). We persisted and with exception to a few dark brown (*ahem* burnt) ones we did manage to make our long awaited sugary treats. The dough is still very sticky and soft so getting them to look as perfect as Edd's picture didn't happen, mine were all a little deformed, but that made me love and cherish them all the more. I dipped them all in powdered sugar as when they are warm the sugar slowly turns into a sweet syrupy coating.
Now, when I was little and my mother made doughnuts I remember helping her cut the centres out with Cola bottle tops and my favourite part was eating the doughnut holes. Bite sized cakey deliciousness.They still haven't lost their charm.

Being a bit of a perfectionist (or some might say greedy), I wanted to make them perfectly, so a couple of days later again at a ridiculously late hour in the day I decided to make some more. Things weren't looking good, when to my horror I had no eggs. So I sent the OH off to go and find some (late on a Friday evening), thankfully he loves me enough to do just that.
I remembered to dust the work surface liberally got my thermometer to make sure the oil was at the right temperature constantly and was thoroughly pleased with the results, and so off I floated into my sugar induced coma for the second time that week.

You have to admit those doughnut holes look so good.....

So here is the recipe:

Doughnuts

Makes: about 10 (but I manged a few more and lots of doughnut holes) 

Ingredients: 

350g Plain flour, plus extra for dusting

150g Caster sugar

1 tbs Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

240ml Buttermilk

1 egg + 2 egg yolks

50ml Vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

Oil for deep-frying

Sugar for coating

Method:

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. In a small bowl whisk together the wet ingredients.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in your wet  mixture, mix together until evenly combined. The dough is very sticky at this stage. Cover with clingfilm and chill for 1 hour.

Dust the work surface LIBERALLY with flour and with floured hands, spatula, basically everything scrape out the dough onto the work surface. Pat into 1cm in thickness. Cut out the doughnuts using 2 round cookie cutters or as my mother did a glass and bottle top. Do not discard the doughnut holes.

Heat your oil to 190°C (this really is a must, in order to avoid undercooked and oily doughnuts). Fry 2 or 3 at a time until they are golden brown on both sides, turning once. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

Roll them in sugar and enjoy warm or at room temp or if your like me slightly scalding because you can't wait for them to cool. 





If you want to find out more about the man himself and some of his other recipes check out http://theboywhobakes.co.uk and I would highly recommend getting his book. Can't wait to try more recipes. I already have my eye on the popcorn flavoured ice cream, nom nom!

May the force be with you!

"Don't you call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease!"

―C-3PO to R2-D2

 

So last year I was contacted by a lovely mother wanting to get a cake made for her son's 5th birthday. The brief was Star Wars. I was a little bit shocking that a 5 year old would know about Star War, but was quickly informed of an animated series that all the kids watch.

Well I can't claim to be a a Star Wars fanatic, so started research on the web. Looking at iconic characters, spaceships etc that could be recreated in cake. I managed to get a few together and after discussing the options with the client. She decided on R2-D2.

By far the easiest of the cakes to make as it was primairily the just a cylindrical cake with a dome on top. The only thing that I really had to figure out was how to make the legs/arms and lift it off the board. I ended up using a RKT (Rice Krispie Treat) for the arms and a small dummy cake to lift the cake off the board.

I was pretty pleased with the end result and more importantly Sam absolutely loved the cake.

"What?! Go on adventures? Explore the galaxy? You must be short-circuiting again! We are droids, after all… Nothing exciting ever happens to us!"

―C-3PO to R2-D2

Howdy Cowboy

So my niece Sofia turned 4 this month and she has a cowboy and cowgirl themed party as you already know she has a small obsession with horses.

I made her some horse shaped cookies and Apple cakepops to give to her frineds as favors.

A cowboy themed cake with a Sofia sherifs badge. She realy loved it.

New Year and a new start

Well, so I haven't been so great at the keeping this up to date.
Hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and New years.

So this year I turned a the big 3-0 and have had a wonderful year so far. Went out for dinner with my gorgeous husband to Inamo in Soho and had the most amazing time.

Have dinner with a few of my closest friends planned for next month at Circus and to top the whole thing off have a family holiday planned later in the year to a beautiful villa in Turkey. Can not wait.