Spookily Scary Halloween Meringue Bones!

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of trick-or-treating; we welcome little witches and ghosts (with parents!) to visit us on Halloween night, but I'd rather be cosy and warm inside my house than traipsing around the neighbourhood with a bag full of sugar-rush fuel!

We often have a family tea party so that my children can still get dressed up... here's one of our favourite recipes, great served with 'eyeball jelly' (grapes and fruit jelly!).

Ingredients
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup of granulatd sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 105C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. Beat together the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until foamy. Slowly add the sugar, one spoonful at a time and continue beating until the meringue stands up in stiff, shiny peaks, then beat in the vanilla.
3. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe 7cm bone shapes; a long line with 2 rounded blobs at either end. 
4. Cook in the oven for 1 hour, then turn the oven off and leave in the oven for a further hour.
5. Carefully remove from the baking sheets and serve with gruesome 'eyeball jelly'!

Silent Sunday 23rd September 2012

Paul Lamond Games "QI" Board Game Review

We're a family who loves board games - for as long as I can remember, every family get-together resulted in my Nana's Trivial Pursuit being taken out of the cupboard and the epic game-playing began!  Every Christmas was marked by a party, with "bring a bottle and a board game" one of the pre-requisites.... it's still etched in my brain that my cousin was terrified of the masks worn in the "Doh Nutters" game!  Anyway, I digress...

Paul Lamond Games kindly sent us the board game "QI" - quite obviously based on the successful but very difficult BBC quiz programme of the same name!

 

Based on the hardest panel game in the world, the QI board game is based on the same philosophy that everything in the world is quite interesting, providing you look at at in the right way.  If you're a big fan of QI, this board game is designed just for you.  Even if you have never watched QI, you can still play the game as it's play content is not linked to the show.

The game play is based around a board with coloured and numbered squares - advancing with correct answers and possibly taking massive jumps back with incorrect answers (I am the voice of experience on this one!)  But, the twist is that the player that reaches the highest or LOWEST score on the board wins!  There is hope for me yet!

At first, the rules seemed quite complicated - with klaxons, challenges and 3 dice to contend with - but once we had had a go each, it was easy to play.  The questions are on a wide variety of subjects and are randomly chosen by throwing the 3 dice and by the colour of the square that you land on.... thousands of combinations possible.  We must be a really special family as myself and my husband both rolled on our turn and ended up with the same question..... what were the chances of that!  Having an accountant and statistician around the table, we did try to work it out, but gave up fairly quickly!

We played with 4 adult players and the game seemed to end quite quickly, so a larger board or longer game option would be constructive criticism.... but then you can always play it again as the questions would be more than likely different!  I think after a few glasses of wine, the logic behind the answers would definitely be questionable!

This game is for 3 - 6 players and suitable for ages 12 years to Adult. It's available from all good board game shops, such as Amazon.

Paul Lamond Games make a great range of games for all ages and occasions - pop over to their Facebook page here and keep upto date with new products and reviews from other bloggers.

This will definitely be a well-used game making an appearance post-dinner at our future family gatherings!  Look out for their other games....

Fairy Platinum Dishwasher Tablets Review

I don't know about anyone else, but my dishwasher gets used at least twice a day - sometimes more when entertaining, and speed is often essential to the process!

I've tried various dishwasher tablets/gels etc. and none have provided a good clean on a quick wash cycle.  Until Fairy Platinum tablets made an appearance that is!  A normal cycle on my dishwasher is 132 minutes(!) but with a quick wash - that is reduced to just 30 minutes, but I have found that the clean-quality of the dishes is nowhere near as good on the quick wash cycle.

When I recieved the samples of the Fairy Platinum dishwasher tablets, my first thoughts were, "I hope these work on a quick wash as my washing-up life will be soooo much easier" and the answer is "Yes!  The tablets DO work on a quick wash cycle!"  Thank goodness, at last a tablet that is time-saving and super cleaning!

I tested the tablets to the max - all the oven trays from a Jubilee Party - DONE!

 

The marks on the small tray are through over-use, not leftover food debris!

My husband's "unwashed-for-a-week" tin cup from his week at the TT Races  - DONE!

 
And, to top it off, these tablets actually clean your dishwasher and filter for you whilst doing their Fairy magic!  They also smell lovely - not a musty smell in sight, just lemon fresh scents which keeps your dishwasher smelling fresh too!  The pictures below show that Fairy Platinum helps to remove even hidden grease from your dishwasher whilst cleaning your dishes!

My daughter asked why they are called Fairy tablets as they don't have a wand or wings.. but believe me, the magic that they do work makes them worthy of "Fairy" status to me!

In the welcome pack, I also received 8 Annabel Karmel recipe booklets and money-off coupons (£3) to use when purchasing Fairy Platinum dishwasher tablets.  So to spread the joy, the first 8 people (UK only please) to "like" and post on the wall of Katie Cupcake Cymru on Facebook mentioning Fairy Platinum Tablets will recieve one booklet courtesey of Fairy Platinum, Annabel Karmel & me - Katie Cupcake Cymru!

Not enough hours in the day...

Well, after a busy week without Mr. Cupcake Cymru as he's on the Isle of Man, I've had a nice relaxing afternoon.  The week started with "ice-cream" afternoons in the sun on the harbour and we even managed a shopping trip to Llandudno!  Then, as the week progressed, the children's social life took over the diary and in the past 2 days we have had Welsh exams, karate gradings, a Brownie sleepover and a sleepover at Nanny's house!

And the next 24 hours promises a Jubilee bonanza, lots of cooking and even more fun!  I just hope the weather holds out for us, as at the moment it's not looking too good!  But I'm sure we will all have a great time... with Jubilee Rose cupcakes and enough sandwiches to feed a small army, you can't go wrong!

Cookie Monster Cupcakes!

These are one of my favourite types of children's cupcake to make... they are really quite simple but look very effective and will be loved by both children and adults (of the Sesame Street era anyway!).

Start by making a basic cupcake mix to make approx. 12 cupcakes - bake for the correct time and leave to cool.  I cool my cakes by placing on a wire cooling rack and cover with a clean, damp tea towel.  Wet the towel and throughly ring out the water so it does not drip at all - I find cooling this way keep the cakes moist and they don't go "crispy" on the top (if they do, don't worry as you are covering with buttercream anyway).

When the cakes are completely cool, spread with a generous amount of buttercream, recipe below...

I use a palette knife to spread with as I find it easier.  Try to shape the buttercream into a rounded-dome if you can but it doesn't need to be perfect as the coconut topping is quite forgiving and finishes off the shape.

Next, top with dyed coconut.  This looks quite technical but, again, is really easy!  Get yourself a good-quality sandwich/food bag and tip in a handful of dessicated coconut.  Add a couple of drops of required food colouring, twist or hold very tightly closed and shake!  You can add more colouring if required, but remember the "Golden Rule".... you can always add more colour or flavour but you can't take it away!

Place the dyed coconut into a wide shallow bowl and carefully dip the buttercream-covered cupcakes into the coconut.  To fill in any gaps, just sprinkle the coconut on top and press lightly.

Then, just add the finishing touches - cut mini choc chip cookies in half and put into place for the mouth and white chocolate buttons with black "writing icing" dots for eyes.  You can also use sugarpaste for the eyes but the chocolate buttons are much easier in my opinion and look just as effective.

And that's it.... a perfect display of cool monster cakes for any party!  Ideal at Hallowe'en but also for any time of the year when there are monsters around!

Buttercream
200g of icing sugar, sifted
100g soft margarine or butter (I generally use Stork for making both cakes & buttercream)
A couple of drops of flavouring (vanilla usually, but whatever flavouring takes your fancy)
1 tsp or so of milk, if required.

1. Mix everything together until light and fluffy - you may need a bit of milk (only a bit!) if the buttercream is quite stiff.  I use a electric hand whisk but this can be done by hand although it will take longer.
2. Cover and store in the fridge until needed.
3. That's it!