Halloween Half Term Hacks!

If you’re staying at home we have a game to play that will probably mean you do something different and see people you’ve been meaning to see for a while but haven’t.

Only do what you can out of the list, but most importantly have fun!

1- Cut out the letters of the alphabet and put them in a hat.

2- Pick a letter.

3- Wear something which has a colour that begins with that letter

4- Visit a friend whose name begins with that letter or have them visit you.

5- Read a chapter of a book which starts with that letter.

6- Make or eat food that starts with that letter

7- Go somewhere that begins with that letter.

8- Find a song that you like beginning with that letter.

9- Play a game beginning with that letter

10- Write a diary entry of your letter day.

So for example. Today I picked out the letter ‘H’ out of the hat.

Hmmmm. A colour beginning with H? well Anis has a honey(ish) coloured top, so she put that on.

 

 

We’ve been meaning to see Henry and Hester for ages in their new home. Just as well they are brother and sister- so we only have to make one train journey AND they live near Haywards Heath!!! Double wammy!

On the way we read…You guessed it. Harry Potter. Just a bit of the Philosopher’s Stone so that Lily wouldn’t get too scared, and it’s just as well that Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is a current favourite thanks to Alexandra Burke and ‘Sing.’ And believe me it was sung. Repeatedly.

We made Halloween cupcakes with the kids. Dead easy. We used this recipe from BBC Food website but off course had to tamper with it…. Instead of chocolate icing we used royal icing sugar with black food colouring in a DoddleBag and iced the rings using the attachable sennelier nozzles. Cant wait until our own design gets delivered to us!

Ingredients

• I cup plain flour
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• I cup caster sugar
• I cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 8 tbsp milk

For the cream cheese icing

• 50g cream cheese
• 25g butter, softened at room temperature
• I cup icing sugar, sifted
• ½ tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line a muffin tray with 9 paper cases.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl. Add the sugar and butter and beat the mixture together until well combined.
3. Whisk in the egg and milk until the mixture is thick and smooth.
4. Divide the mixture between the paper case and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until springy to the touch and skewer inserted into the middle of one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.
5. For the cream cheese icing, beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until well combined. Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla.
6. Spoon the icing onto the cupcakes, leaving a small border around the edge.
7. For the black icing, mix the royal icing sugar with black food colouring and add egg white and a tspn of lemon juice. Spoon it into a DoddleBag.
8. Carefully pipe 3 concentric circles onto each cupcake. Run a toothpick from the centre to the edge of the cake, through each circle of icing, at 2cm intervals to create a cobweb effect.
9. Set aside for 20 minutes to allow the icing to harden.

 

The kids played good old fashioned hopscotch!

 

On the train home they wrote up their diary!

 

Enjoy! And try not to pick an ‘X’!