Tag: Christmas

Christmas Salt Dough Ornaments

Christmas Salt Dough Ornaments

Posted on by Rebecca

You may remember from last year that we made Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments. Its something we do every year and it always ties in nicely with teachers end of year gifts and homemade sentiments for family and friends.

This year I was inspired by Sugar and Paper Parties insanely gorgeous sugar cookies, I’m not one to attempt anything like the masterpieces that Liezl creates (well actually I did and they looked like a dogs breakfast), so we decided to make ornaments for the tree with our snow globe cookie cutter. (Because painting is alot easier then icing 🙂 )

Apart from putting in the oven and taking it out again, this is literally one craft the kids can do by themselves from start to finish.

The Recipe has 3 ingredients and is SUPER easy:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1.5 cups water

  • Preheat your oven to 100 degrees Celsius.
  • Combine all of your ingredients and knead. If your dough is too dry add a little bit more water.
  • Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1.5 cm
  • Using a cookie cutter of your choice cut out your shapes, if you are making handprints, use a side plate to cut a circle first and then have your child place their hand on that circle.

  • Using a straw, make a hole in the top for where you want to hang your salt dough ornament.
  • Bake for about 2 hours. If your ornaments are still soft to touch, put back in for another hour. (It will depend on your thickness how long you need to bake for. The thinner ornaments will take less time but thicker may take more).
  • Once cooled, decorate as you wish. We used our favourite Dala paints, the acrylic works best and lots of  glitter, especially at Christmas time.
  • Finish with a varnish.

I normally do this over 2 or 3 days. The first day we roll and make bake our ornaments, on the second we paint and on the third day I spray it with a coast of clear varnish.

To end off our homemade gifts we made simple cards. Christmas Trees easily painted with plastic forks.

Remember to head on over to :

Justamamma for more easy christmas cards for kids

Ali from Earth to Ali Photography for her utterly gorgeous salt dough foot and handprints 

This.is.bentleys.world for her ridiculously cute toilet roll crafts

Minimatissediaries for dreamy pine cone painting

Michelle from Mayalief for her exquisitie homemade wrapping paper

My top educational gift list ideas

My top educational gift list ideas

Posted on by Rebecca

With Christmas coming up in less than 34 days I thought it was a great time to do a round-up of some of my favourite educational toys.

Personally I prefer gifting educational toys, not that my boys don’t have a ton of cars and remote control gadgets but I prefer toys that allow them to Continue reading “My top educational gift list ideas” →

Christmas and Summer Desserts…

Posted on by Rebecca

I cannot believe its nearly Christmas… I have T minus 3 days left at work! I cant Wait! Seriously behind on the Christmas shopping, have lots of little things but still need two main gifts for my family… Where do you start??

On Friday we fly to Cape Town for 4 days of utter RELAXATION! NOT THINKING ABOUT WORK! Enjoying the beautiful scenery, walking on beaches and just spending quality time, (hopefully I’ll spot a couple of sharks). This body needs to catch up on a whole year of summer so the weather better play along !

Then its off to the Beautiful Botswana to spend some quality time with my closest Friends and Family. I don’t know what it is about Botswana but I am always so so excited to go back! The heat, the bush, quality relationships… It’s the simple things.Rounding off the holidays is a trip to the incredible Chobe National Park. Two of my favourite places in the world are the Okavango Delta (probably one of the most majestic places ever) and Chobe National Park. Chobe is in the North of Botswana and Borders Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia. Never short of activities you can even take day trips to the Victoria Falls!! ( I will most certainly Blog about this trip)

Holidays, whether you Celebrate Christmas or not. It’s a time to always spend with Friends and Family, get togethers and beautiful memories. Of course with that comes Food 🙂 Lots and Lots of food… This year there will only be 4 of us at the Christmas Table (And my brother is a strict Vegan) but trust me we will still have the whole “shebang” and probably end up cooking for 10!

So here are my two recipes for the festive season (Trust me in the last 2 weeks I have made these desserts 4 times!!!)

Strawberries-and-Cream-Cheesecake 

Recipe:

(Cake Days by The Hummingbird Bakery – Possibly the best baking book ever)

For the base:

220 g ground biscuits (tennis/ marie)

100g butter, melted

For the filling:

200gr fresh strawberries (chopped)

180gr castor sugar

600gr Cream Cheese

2 eggs

Place the strawberries in a saucepan with 80gr of the sugar and 30ml of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until the strawberries are soft and the liquid has reduced by half. Set aside until completely cold.

Preheat the oven to 160℃. Prepare the filling by beating together the CREAM CHEESE and the remaining sugar on a medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time. Pour in the cooked strawberries (plus the syrup!) and stir in by hand.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for ca. 45mins. Allow the cheesecake to cool to room temperature still in the tin, then place in the fridge to chill and set for 1-2 hours.

For the topping:

100gr mascarpone

20gr icing sugar

100ml double cream

Beat the mascarpone and icing sugar on a medium speed until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the double cream until soft peaks form. Then fold the double cream into the mascarpone mixture. BE VERY CAREFUL HERE, YOU CAN OVERBEAT IT VERY EASILY.

Spread on top of the cheesecake and chill again for 1 hour. Decorate cheesecake with fresh strawberries.

BEST CHEESECAKE YOU WILL EVER TASTE (THAT’S A PROMISE)

AND PERFECT FOR A SUMMER DAY …. PAVLOVA!

3 egg whites

175g sugar

1 tsp cornflour

½ tsp vanilla essence

½ tsp white vinegar

  1. Preheat the oven to 130 Degrees C and place the rack in middle of the oven. Line a baking tray with foil and draw a 7 inch circle on the foil OR just use a pie/ flan dish.
  2. In a clean, medium-sized glass bowl, beat the egg whites with a clean electric mixer on medium speed. Beat until the whites form soft peaks.
  3. Gently sprinkle the sugar into the egg whites, one teaspoon at a time. Returning egg white mixture to the same stiffness each time. Beat and Beat and Beat (the more you beat the better 🙂 ) Your egg whites should now be glossy stiff peaks.
  4. Sprinkle the cornstarch and vinegar on the meringue and fold in gently with a plastic spatula. Add the vanilla and gently fold the mixture again.
  5. Spread the meringue in the container. Make sure the edges of the meringue are slightly higher then the centre so you have a very slight well in the middle.
  6. Bake the meringue for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until it goes a very pale, pinkish colour.
  7. Turn the oven off and leave the door slightly ajar to let the meringue cool completely. As the meringue cools, it will crack slightly.
  8. Whip the cream. Prepare the fruit by washing and slicing. (Two options: a beautiful combination of strawberries, bannanas and kiwis OR a berry Pavlova (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries etc)
  9. Gently spread the cream to the top of the meringue with a spatula and arrange the fruit on top. Either Serve immediately or cool in the fridge a bit 🙂

 

Remember as well that it is definitely the season for giving! Even the smallest act of kindness can have a HUGE impact on anothers life, from a simple item of clothing to a soccer ball. Show your kindness to others by giving.

Happy Happy Holidays to all! To my family spread around the world, I love and miss you all so so much, Holidays are never the same without you x