End Of Term Baking

It's the start of the summer holidays - hooray! I'm as much in need of a rest as my children, I think. The past seven days have been pretty busy, but in a good way. It was child number two's tenth birthday on Monday, and he had requested a Minecraft grass block cake. I always make the kids' cakes myself, not because I'm aspiring to be some kind of Nigella-type mummy, but because I really like mucking about with sugarpaste and edible glitter. I first caught the cake decorating bug in the Girls' Brigade when I was about 12 or 13, and I've managed quite a few cakes that I've been pretty pleased with over the years. I've amassed a fair amount of equipment and at least a little bit of skill, I like to think. Looking at examples of Minecraft cakes on Pinterest, I thought it seemed easy enough: bake a square chocolate cake, cover with chocolate frosting and use a mosaic technique to cover the frosting with various shades of green and brown fondant. Hmmm. Now maybe it's just me and my shaky hands, or maybe I was in a bit of a rush, but it was one of the trickiest cakes I've attempted in a looooong time. I admit that I'm a bit (OK, a lot) of a perfectionist, but I was less than happy with the result. Fortunately, my ten year old thought it was great. Phew.

One less than perfect cake.

I was somewhat happier with the second major baking project of the week: cookie pops for teacher thank you gifts. I started making end of term thank you presents when I realised how much it was going to cost me to buy for the teachers, TAs and various assorted other staff my three kids wanted to give things to. One year, I made fudge and by my rough calculations, it would have cost me around £40 to buy what cost me £7 to produce myself.

These cookie pops were originally going to be cake pops. I bought a cake pop mould set a few weeks ago, having wanted to try making them for ages. As I searched for cake pop baking tips online and attempted a few experimental batches,  it became clear that they're a lot harder than Hobbycraft/Lakeland/Everyone Else make out. Anyhoo, to cut a long and tedious story short, I need lots more practice making them if they're not to look deeply unappetising. The family enjoyed the failed attempts, though.

Cookie pops are far easier. They're quick to make, and you can decorate them without lots of mess - unlike the cake pops, which dripped all over the place, no matter what I did. There are loads of different sugar cookie recipes you could use, but I adapted one from Christmas Cookies (from Parragon's Love Food series, and a brilliant book to have on your shelf):

350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g butter, softened (you can use a vegetable/olive oil spread instead but I find that you need a little more flour if you do, as the mixture's a little wetter. But let's face it, butter tastes far better.)
175g sugar (soft brown, or caster, or a mixture of both, depending on what you've forgotten to stock up with.)
1 egg, beaten
4tbsp golden syrup

Sift the flour and bicarb together and rub the butter into the mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and the golden syrup, and stir into the flour mixture. Knead into a dough with your hands.

From here, it's up to you whether or not you choose to chill it. Lots of people insist that chilled dough stops the cookies from spreading too much, but I've tried baking lots of different types of dough from chilled and room temperature with varied results. It seems to be the more to do with the proportions of the ingredients, if you ask me. If you do go for the chill, give it about 20-30 mins.

On a floured surface, roll out your dough to a minimum thickness of about 5mm and transfer to a sheet of baking parchment on a baking sheet or stone, depending on what you prefer to use. I don't grease the baking parchment. Carefully push a lolly stick (available from most cake decorating/craft shops) into the side of each cookie: twisting it slightly helps keep the cookie keep its shape. If it breaks through the surface, use a bit of dough to repair the hole.

Bake at 180 degrees for around 10-15 minutes. You want them light brown, but still soft so that they're nice and chewy. Allow to cool a bit before carefully removing them from the baking parchment, and let them cool completely on a wire rack. The amount of cookies you'll get from this recipe varies according to the size of cookie pop you're making, but it's generally around a couple of dozen.

When the cookies are completely cold, you can decorate them using whatever you fancy. I used melted white chocolate and mini chocolate beans in the ones below:

I bagged each cookie pop up and tied a few into 'bouquets' to give to the teachers.

Give me a couple of months to crack cake pops, and when I've got something I'm not ashamed to photograph I'll post them here. :-)

Picture Books

We're Going On A Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury's wonderful picture book, is celebrating its 25th birthday this year! This is one of my family's favourite books, and for good reason. Listening to Michael Rosen talk about this children's classic on the radio the other night sparked a lot of discussion in this house about our favourite picture books.

I studied primary education at university and one of my curricular specialisms was English, so I got to spend an awful lot of time reading picture books under the guise of work. As a teacher, I delighted in sharing picture books with my classes, and as a parent, I've had the privilege of introducing my children to many of these treasures.

There are so many reasons why reading books with children is a good idea. To begin with, it's a lot of fun and some books manage to weave themselves into the fabric of your family's heritage. When I mentioned to my kids that Bear Hunt was 25, they immediately started reciting it in unison, so much a part of their childhood experience it has become. Sharing books helps children to become familiar with how texts work, which is how come you're able to read this now. Sharing books is also vitally important for children who have learning difficulties related to processing text: positive literary experiences - where stories are enjoyed rather than struggled with - help to lessen the fear and frustration which some kids associate with reading and writing.

When I asked my children what their favourite picture books were, they listed dozens of titles, but between us, we came up with a list of ten of the ones we liked best. Some are very old, and some are much newer, but if a book is out of print, you're very likely to be able to find it in your local library. So, without further ado, here they are (in no particular order).

1. The Story Of The Little Mole Who Knew It Was None Of His Business, by Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch. I first came across this book in university, where it was read aloud to us with great gusto by one of the English lecturers. Hilarious and a little bit shocking, the 'business' referred to here is exactly what you're worried it might be. I always used to read this to my classes so that they'd think I was a really cool teacher.

2. Wonderful Earth!,  by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. This has been around for a while, and it ties the biblical account of creation in with the importance of looking after our world. It has flaps and pop up bits - always winners.

3. This Is The Star, by Joyce Dunbar and Gary Blythe. This retelling of the Christmas story is my own personal favourite. It's a cumulative rhyme (it repeats itself but adds a line to the story with each verse, like The House That Jack Built), and the illustrations are stunningly beautiful oil paintings. Outstanding.

4. Green Eggs And Ham, by Dr Seuss. We had to include a Dr Seuss book here, but we had a hard time deciding which one. Love him or hate him, Dr Seuss books are ideal for helping young readers gain confidence.

5. Cockatoos, by Quentin Blake. Think of Quentin Blake, and you think of his fabulous illustrations for Roald Dahl's stories, but he has written lots of great books himself. One of number three child's favourites, Cockatoos is way better than your average counting book.

6. The Happy Rag, by Tony Ross. Not so well known as his Little Princess series, Tony Ross's The Happy Rag is a book which tells two separate stories that come together in a very clever way. Given that all my children have 'happy rags' in some form or other, this story has a special resonance for our family.

7. The Magic Sky, by Lucy Richards. Beautifully illustrated, this is a very sweet book about an impatient little polar bear.

8. Dear Zoo, by Rod Campbell. Both number two and number three child insisted I include this one. A child asks the zoo to send him a pet, but the zoo fails to come up with the goods.

9. Norman, The Slug With The Silly Shell, by Sue Hendra. The story of Norman the slug, and his snail wannabe antics.

10. A Kitten Called Moonlight, by Martin Waddell and Christian Birmingham. This is a story within a story, and another book with exceptionally beautiful illustrations.

Well, that was tricky but we hope there's something here that you like! What are your favourite picture books? Let us know below.

What My Kids Actually Need

We were very privileged to be able to watch the Tour De France come through Sheffield at the weekend: it was absolutely fantastic! The kids loved the build up of the Caravane (where the sponsors' vehicles come through and throw freebies into the crowd), and the thrill of the Peloton rushing by. One of the best parts of the day, though, was when we were walking back to our car through the team coach area, and we found ourselves rubbing shoulders with the riders themselves. We were able to watch the press interviews, and get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes:

The glamour of Le Tour...

I've been watching Le Tour since I was a kid, so to see the race first hand was hugely exciting. The whole family was still buzzing the following morning, which made me so happy. It was great to have a major international sporting event on our doorstep: things so often happen in London, which is a long way from us. It was also brilliant that it was free! Seriously, though, over the years, so many events have come and gone - events we would have loved to take our kids to see - but they've been prohibitively expensive for us. Don't get me wrong: we are blessed with everything we need, but because we've chosen to live on a single income (with a bit of extra from my tuition), there's just not a lot of spare money in the budget for big events. Over the years, I've experienced pangs of guilt over this, and wondered if things would have been better if I'd gone back to work, or if we'd put things on a credit card (we rarely do credit: the last time I used my credit card, the bank stopped it because they assumed it had been nicked). I guess we're not alone here, and it's very easy to get sucked into believing that we've failed our children by not taking them to see the Olympics, or Disneyland, or whatever. At times like this, I find it's worth reminding myself of a few things.

Firstly, we live in a culture which equates having great experiences with spending a lot of money. If you want a good time, it has to cost a lot, right? Well, no. Some of our best times as a family have been doing things which cost a relatively small amount of cash: camping, toasting marshmallows over a fire, sledging in the local park followed by hot chocolate, spending time with friends. Seeking out less well publicised events has meant we've had some fun, too. Last year, we watched the National Hovercraft Championship races at our local country park. It was free, and very enjoyable - and there was hardly anyone else there, so we had the pick of vantage points.

Secondly, kids just don't see things the way we do. It took a conversation with my parents for me to fully realise this. They were talking about how bad they felt years ago when our neighbours went off on foreign holidays, and we spent all our holidays camping in the UK because they couldn't afford to take us abroad. The thing is, I loved our holidays. We went with good friends, and we had a couple of cheap old sailing dinghies and kayaks which we knocked about in. My favourite childhood holiday memory is of kayaking on a semi-frozen loch in Scotland at about the age of  12, with the sky blue above me, and the ice groaning below me. You can't do that sitting on a beach in Mallorca. So often, we think we're failing our kids when we can't give them what we think they should have, but we need to remember that their priorities are very different from ours.

Thirdly, it's important to maintain a healthy perspective on what constitutes a good childhood. It is actually OK that my children have never been on a plane. I didn't fly anywhere until my early twenties, and I seem to have turned out fine. It's OK that my children haven't been to Disneyland (as far as I'm concerned, it's more than OK). It's OK that my two girls have to share a room, although you wouldn't think so if you listened to the kids on that CBBC show. It's really OK that we don't eat out very often. These things are not essential ingredients for healthy child development, whatever we might be led to believe. They are not what my kids need. Which is just as well, really.

Getting (Back) On My Bike

The Tour De France comes to Yorkshire this weekend!  We're very excited about it in this house. I've spent some of my time over the past week making themed bunting for a friend who's volunteering as a Tourmaker. Here's the finished bunting:

Not the best picture, but that's probably just as well, as some of the stitching is a little wonkier than I'd like. 

Cycling has been a bit of a major theme for me this year. For the first time in over twenty years, I became a bike owner once more. I can't say I was hugely keen, to begin with. It's not that I don't like exercise: I love to run (only middle distance, mind you). And it's not like I didn't spend hours in the saddle as a kid: I cycled for miles at weekends and in the school holidays. It's just that most of those hours were spent on quiet country lanes, and Sheffield is definitely not quiet. The reason for my cycling rebirth is married to me. My cyclist husband turned forty recently, and to celebrate this, he requested that we go cycling together for a few days while my parents took care of the children. In spite of my fears about us leaving the children orphaned as a result of our being squished to a pulp under the wheels of a bus, I agreed, and in January, I started to get some miles in. 

I started off riding on cycle tracks in the Peak District: so far, so good. But if I was going to cycle from place to place over the course of several days with my hubby, I was going to have to venture onto the road. Oh, goodness me. While there are many things I love about Sheffield, it seems that if you're going to cycle in this fair city (or many other cities, I should think), it helps if you're just a wee bit nuts, or maybe into extreme sports. Honestly, I'd rather have gone base jumping. First, there's the traffic: there's an awful lot of it, and it doesn't always behave as it should around those without an engine (frankly, a lot of cyclists behave badly too). Then there's the road surface. To be fair, the council has recently embarked on an extensive road repair scheme, but Sheffield isn't known as the Hole-y City for nothing. It's not just the state of the surfaces though, it's all the debris you come across. There's a stretch of road near my house - a busy hill - and I don't think I've ever cycled down it without keeping my eyes glued to the road surface, watching out for the half bricks, bits of someone's rockery and lumps of discarded lorry which threaten to be my undoing. 

There are cycle paths in Sheffield, but my experience of some of these has been marked by frustration and confusion as I try to figure out where they're taking me, or why they've suddenly disappeared. Also, many of the cycle lanes are also bus and taxi lanes, which I find pretty unnerving. There are often cars parked in them, too, which means venturing out into the flow of traffic to get around them. Sheffield City Council does offer cycle coaching to build confidence and skills (see below) but what would really help to encourage more people like me onto two wheels would be improvements to the city's transport infrastructure that mean I don't feel like I'm risking life and limb just trying to get around. 

So, after 6 months back on a bike, I've gained confidence, my backside has moved further away from the ground, muscles that weren't getting so much of a workout are now better developed, and I have a cyclist's tan where my (padded) shorts finish. And I haven't fallen off. Yet. Will I keep cycling? Well, I think so. I'd love to be more certain, but if Sheffield wants to promote itself as a cycle-friendly city, and get more of us regularly out there on our bikes, it's going to have to work a bit harder. 

Useful cycletastic contacts:

Training: www.pedalready.co.uk

Campaigning on behalf of cyclists in Sheffield and lots of useful cycling info: www.cyclesheffield.org.uk 

Breeze Network: aims to get more women enjoying cycling: www.goskyride.com/breeze

Sheffield Friday Night Bike Ride (takes place monthly): www.sfnr.org.uk

Find information about Sheffield's Critical Mass rides (these take place monthly) on Facebook and Twitter.

Fruity!

One of the reasons I like this time of year is that every day when I pop out into the garden, there's something to pick. We've been enjoying the first of our broad beans, but what the kids get really excited about is the fruit. Our garden's north facing, so it's a little behind other people's, but finally the strawberries are starting to ripen, and so are the redcurrants.With five hungry people in the house, the strawberries don't last very long once they're picked, but I'm freezing the redcurrants, and once I've got a good sized batch I'll be turning them into jam, or adding them to crumbles.

I hope you're able to enjoy all the summer fruit that's around at the moment. :-)

Felting And Space Exploration - Well, There's A Combination...

Last week, I turned over the page of our family calendar to find that at some point in the fairly recent past, I had allocated myself an afternoon at one of my favourite craft suppliers. I had a few other things to do, but I'd written it on the calendar, so it followed that the visit must take place. Of course.

Wingham Wool Work, in Wentworth (how alliterative) near Rotherham, is a fantastic place if you're at all interested in making anything from wool. They stock a huge range of materials and supplies for spinning and felting, as well as some of their own spun yarns for knitting and weaving, and some beautiful yarns made from such things as recycled sari silk. There's always something new and interesting to buy and experiment with. They also run workshops and textile groups, which I'd love to be able to attend but my current schedule prevents me.

Given that it's a bit like letting a child loose in a sweet shop, and I'm mindful that I could spend an awful lot of money there, I just take cash and restrict myself to a set amount. I also try to figure out what exactly I want to make, so I have an idea of what I want to buy. If I go without at least a loose plan in mind, I find myself completely floored by the choice of colours and fibres. Last week, I went looking for bright coloured wool to turn into felt for bunting. And here's the finished bunting, made from the felted wool:

It cost well under ten pounds to make, and it looks really eyecatching in the window.

I had a few scraps left over, so I made this very fetching corsage, too:

This was simply made from a (roughly) triangular piece, which I rolled up and needlefelted into shape at the back.

If you fancy visiting Wingham Wool Work, they're open on Sunday and Monday afternoons. You can order from them online, too. Visit their website for more details: www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk .

Exploring Space

I heard about a really interesting project on the radio yesterday: it's called Galaxy Zoo, and it's an opportunity to help scientists to study the billions of galaxies photographed by deep space telescopes. The project was started in 2007, with astronomers wanting to get people involved in working through the masses of data accumulated by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Over a million people have since signed up to help classify the different types of galaxies out there in the observable universe, and last night my nine year old and I registered to do it. It's very simple, fascinating and exciting to think that you're contributing to scientific research. Schools can get involved, too. Check out the website if you're interested: www.galaxyzoo.org .

The Great Not-Using-Any-Shampoo Experiment

I've had a lot of people asking me about this lately, so I thought I'd share my forays into the world of experimental hair washing with the wider world. Lucky you.

Since moving to Sheffield a decade ago, I'd struggled to make my curly hair look like anything other than a frizzy haystack on top of my head. I don't know what's in South Yorkshire water, but it doesn't like my hair. I spent a fortune on products which got rid of the frizz but left my hair all floppy and limp. I don't spend a whole lot of time in front of the mirror, but I like to go out looking at least halfway decent if at all possible. In the end, I resorted to having my hair cut into the shortest crop I could get away with. The thing about shampoo is that while it does clean hair, it also strips it of its natural moisture. Curly hair tends to be pretty dry anyway, so using shampoo really doesn't help. Adding products to counteract the drying effect is expensive, and I'm not too keen on loading my body up with synthetic substances either.

Last year, I read about going shampoo free and using bicarbonate of soda to wash my hair instead. And goodness me, I have my curls back! I've grown my hair a little longer, and it now holds its style rather than drooping. It doesn't smell (in case you were wondering), and I don't have to wash it every day.  People have commented on how good it looks, and then looked at me very oddly when I tell them what I'm using. My hairdresser thinks I'm crazy, but she's been impressed by how healthy my hair looks now. Two of my children have been quite happy to use bicarb as well - this is especially good for my youngest, who has very sensitive skin, and whose eczema flares up far less since we gave up the shampoo. I'm yet to persuade number two child and my (thin-on-top) husband of the benefits, but it's just a matter of time...

It's a pretty straightforward thing to ditch the 'poo, but there are a few things to bear in mind. First, you may need to give your hair a bit of time to get used to the new regime. I had no problems to begin with (like I said, my hair's pretty dry), but others who go shampoo free report greasier hair initially as the scalp's natural oil production settles down - after all, you're not stripping your hair and scalp of everything any more. Secondly, you may need to experiment a bit with quantities of bicarb. I have an old 150ml moisturiser bottle, to which I add about a teaspoon and a half of bicarb. I then fill it up with water and give it a good shake. I use a few squirts of this each time I wash my hair. I have to shake it up each time I use it. Trial and error has taught me that for my hair, this is about the right amount of bicarb to water - I don't know why exactly, but when I add too much, my hair goes very frizzy and even more uncontrollable than usual. Thirdly, you may need to change how you use styling products. Because I've found that my hair doesn't need persuading to behave quite so much since dropping the shampoo, I've needed far less in the way of stuff to tame it. I'm looking into what I can use as an alternative to shop-bought sea salt spray at the moment, but for now a few squirts is all I need to finish things off when my hair's damp. I've read that some folks like to rinse with cider vinegar, which makes hair shiny, but I haven't so far.

That's about all there is to it, really. The only other thing you'll need is a well-rehearsed explanation when people ask you why your hair looks so great.