Twins' 3rd birthday cakes - recipes and decoration - Pin it do it

I thought I'd finished writing this last year but apparently not!  I've just added the photos so here it is in time for this year's Halloween if you're after a spooky cake idea.  Sadly I don't really have any "during" photos as it was a bit frantic the evening before their party!!

For weeks before the big day, carrot cake was requested by the twins for their birthday cakes this year.  There was a last minute change from one of them suddenly wanting chocolate cake and so the two cakes this year were decided.  I had already chosen a design to go with their Halloween party theme and hoped to make two monster cakes much like the one I saw on Pinterest but as separate cakes.  I asked them which colour monsters they'd like and orange and green were the final choices.  (Perfect Halloween colours too!)

Raindrop cushion - Pin It Do It & Tutorial

Well, here's a post I started writing in November 2014.  I'm sure you can imagine why that was such a busy month (what with the twins being born!) and it never got finished.  But, we have the return of #pinitdoit, I was reminded to finish this one and I recently shared a pic of the cushion on Instagram too.

Twins' 3rd birthday Halloween food plans!

The most important foodie item at any children's birthday party is cake!  Of course, there will be two cakes as usual for the twins.  They're already excited this year about their cake and blowing out all their candles (we've been to a few parties recently).  They've both asked for carrot cake, I think because they remember Mummy's birthday cake at my BBQ in June which they loved and helped me blow out the candles on.  

I will of course be making said carrot cakes (although K has also mentioned chocolate cake) but need to somehow make them Halloweeny, I'm thinking this monsters will be easy enough and can be made with any kind of cake.  When I mentioned monster cakes to the kids and asked them their favourite colours, P insisted on red and K would like blue or purple.  (I've already bought the right Wilton nozzle for the furry one on the bottom!)

Monster Birthday Cakes

Spiced Parsnip & Orange Cake Recipe - The return of Pin It Do It! #ODPIDI linky

Its back!  Pin It Do It was requested in my recent survey and I am delighted to bring it back.  I missed it myself and have PLENTY of inspirational pins to utilise and get off my boards to real life.

Original Pin

To make it easier for you to submit your own Pinterest inspired projects, I've added a linky to this post so you can just upload a link to your own post.  I will then choose one or two favourites to feature the following month.  We also have a badge to put on your post (and in your sidebar if you wish), just click on it to be taken to the HTML code you need to add it to your own blog.

Pear & Fig Mince Pies with Rum and Marzipan - recipe by Bex (Pin it Do it)

I can't believe there are just 10 days left until Christmas already!  If you fancy baking some mincepies, I can highly recommend this recipe, they're quite boozy but very scrumptious!

I've made mince pies with orange pastry from the Hairy Bikers' Christmas recipe book before and really liked them but this year I wanted to try something slightly different and had a look for inspiration online.  I came across this pear & fig mincemeat recipe and adapted it slightly to my taste.  It turned out really well and it was delicious so I thought I'd share my version here.  I made lemon pastry to go with it (another adapted one from this orange pastry recipe) and kept nibbling the raw mixture as it was so nice!  To top them off I used marzipan stars instead of pastry lids.  They were yummy!

Make the mincemeat a few days (or weeks) in advance to let it mature.  This recipe makes a large tub full which will make plenty of pies.  I also thought I might use some to make mince pie ice cream but I haven't tried it yet!  It's quite a boozy recipe, I used rum in mine as I'm not a big fan of whisky or brandy.  (Ditto for my Christmas cake!)

Ingredients
For the mincemeat:
3 pears, diced
150g glace cherries, chopped
150g mixed peel
250g dried figs, diced
200g sultanas
250g raisins
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 1 orange
zest & juice of 1 lemon
5 tbsp brown sugar
200ml Captain Morgan rum
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg

For the pastry:
500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
175g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
375g cold butter
zest and juice of 1 large lemon

For the tops:
Marzipan (I used approx 100g for 12 small pies)

Method
Combine all of the ingredients for the mincemeat in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.  Store in an air-tight container in a cool dark place, stirring every day for 3+ days.

To make the pastry, In a food processor, blitz together the flour, icing sugar and butter until you have fine crumbs.  With the processor still running, add in the zest and 3 tbsp of lemon juice.  The mixture should form clumps quite quickly.  Add a little more juice if required.

Bring the dough together and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  It will keep for 3 days.  (It can also be frozen for up to 1 month.)

When ready to bake your pies, preheat the oven to 180oC.  Grease a muffin tin

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to approx 3-4mm thick.  (I used about half the pastry to make 6 large pies and 18 mini ones.)  Use a cutter to cut out circles to fit your tin, I used a small, deep tin so needed medium sized circles.  Place the bases into your tin and fill generously with mincemeat.  (Not too much though as it will overflow and make the pies difficult to get out as it sticks around the edges!)

Roll out the marzipan to the same thickness, cut out shapes (I used stars) and place on top of the pies.

Bake for around 10-15 minutes (bigger pies will need longer) until golden.  Leave to cool for a few minutes in the tin then lever out carefully with a knife to cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar to serve (optional).

Or, eat while still warm with a dollop of cream, my favourite way to indulge!

Twinkly Twins - Pin it Do it by Bex

I wanted to do this last year but they were only 4 weeks old so obviously not sitting up and it was tricky enough getting them lying on the blanket with lights underneath so wrapping them in lights was sure to be a disaster!  I love these fairy light images from Pinterest showing babies staring at glowing Christmas lights and tried to recreate something similar in the kitchen (to get a bit of reflection on the floor tiles).

We did it after dinner on Wednesday evening, stripped them out of their messy clothes and made sure the underfloor heating was on.  (I did consider putting them in jeans but wanted their chubby legs to be out, I just wish the nappies were plain.  It's not like the babies care if they have animals on and I certainly don't!)

Anyway, again I practised the camera settings and lighting with my much more willing models before trying with the real McCoys!

I preferred it with a bit more ambient light, provided by the hall, dining room and utility lights.

Initially, as you can see, Priya was not keen on the idea at all!

So Nik took her away and I took a few of Kbops as he seemed quite happy.  He does love lights.

Sadly, he didn't like being left alone with them for long so we had to rescue him as well.

With Daddy's help, they soon both got used to the lights and started to enjoy playing with them, trying to eat them and generally having fun.

I even tried to get some shots of them wearing a santa hat - very ambitious, especially given Priya's new found aversion to all headgear which she was more than happy to demonstrate again!

She didn't want to wear the lights either.  (I feel I should point out that these are LED lights which do not get hot in the slightest!)

Kalyan was slightly more co-operative with the hat and light wearing.

And there was a little sabotage by Priya:

There were a few escape attempts too of course...

But overall, they seemed to enjoy it and I am delighted with the photos!

And there were quite a few as usual!  Since I'm not that good a photographer, I just take as many as possible to increase the odds of getting good ones ;)  The problem is, when I manage to capture all of their cute/funny expressions, I just can't choose favourites!

Pin it do it - Pom pom wreath by Bex

I really wanted to make something out of pom poms for the babies' birthday and found a few pom pom wreaths I liked on Pinterest.  Obviously I wanted to make mine in rainbow colours so bought a few brightly coloured wools and got to work with my new pom pom making gadgets (Pompom Maker Kit)!

Mummy - can touch these?!?

These gadgets are so easy to use and SO quick!  I made lots of different sizes and colours (can you guess how many?) and stuck them all on to the 35cm Half Rounded Polystyrene Wreath with hot glue.  I've been using my hot glue gun a lot lately - it's fab!  (I have the Dremel 930 Glue Gun Hobby 7mm - Dual Temp.)

Before sticking any on though, I decided to wrap the wreath with the blue wool and I'm so glad I did.  Although it took about and hour and a half, while watching The Big Bang Theory, it meant I didn't have to worry about any white areas showing through.

I was really pleased with the final result.  I stuck on a number one I cut out of a shoe box and wrapped with the same fabric I used to add 1s to their white tops.

I plan to change this for a 2 next year!  ;)  By which time I'm also hoping to have our new blue front door!

I love it so much and enjoyed making it so I plan to make a white one for Christmas (like snowballs) using various types of white wool and stick on some snowflake decorations I have.  That one will definitely look better on the dark blue door.  I might not get it finished for this year anyway!

DIY cloud shelf for nursery

by Bex

I somehow came across a cloud shelf on Etsy and fell in love with it.  It's perfect for that little space between the sun clock and bookshelf in the nursery that I was wondering how to fill.  Unfortunately I wasn't willing to spend £66 for a small one including postage from America and I couldn't find one for sale in the UK.  Also, Nik agreed it was a good idea but thought the budget should be £15-18.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/250794272974645849/

In the end I decided it actually wouldn't be too difficult to make my own!

Initially I taped 3 sheets to paper together and drew the large cloud, then a smaller one for the front.  I planned to cut these out of MDF (well not me as the dust isn't good for the babies).  As the front one is smaller and I planned to keep them thin, I decided the front cloud could be stuck on with some super tough glue (like the No More Nails I used to attach hooks to my ceramic coasters a while back).  As a result of this, I changed my design of the front cloud to have a fluffy bottom as well since it doesn't have to line up along the straight line of the shelf.

As I hadn't measured anything, I then took my cloud cutouts up to the nursery to see how they'd look on that wall and it was pretty perfect!

I bought the bits I needed in B&Q, they were extremely helpful when I was choosing the thickness of the MDF as well as a piece of wood for the shelf, the man helping me put everything in my trolley and another even pushed it out to my car and loaded the boot for me too (I also bought a lot of cans of paint!).

I wasn't sure of the best way to attach it to the wall without having to screw through the big cloud (you can see on the Etsy listing for the medium cloud shelf they have done this and added covers to hide the screws) or have unsightly brackets coming down underneath.  It's not huge (mine measures 48cm x 28cm x 15.5cm, just 12cm narrower than the large cloud shelf) so I thought hooking it onto screws might work but it wouldn't sit perfectly flush and things might fall off the shelf.  I then came up with the plan of getting L-shaped plates and screwing them to the wall before sitting the shelf on and screwing up from the bottom to hold it securely in place (basically brackets in reverse).  As it's not a heavy duty shelf and won't be holding anything overly heavy, a couple of good sized brackets should hold it comfortably depending how big you make the shelf.

Next I had to wait until Nik had the time to help Mum when it wasn't dark outside.  They're both great DIYers luckily so had no problems cutting my MDF clouds ready for me to build and paint.  In the end, it was dark outside but we have a good security light and it was the best time to get it done.  ;)  The old, musty garden table we found in the garden behind the oil tank has come in useful a couple of times as they also used it for sawing when sorting out Nik's built in cupboard in our bedroom.


So if you fancy making your own cloud shelf, here's my amateur guide:

What you'll need:

A pencil
Some paper
A piece of MDF (I bought 6mm thick MDF sheet for £9.18 from B&Q and have plenty left over)
A small plank of wood (I bought a piece of Spruce board for £7.32 from B&Q and have enough left for another smaller shelf)
A jigsaw and someone who's comfortable/able to use it
A stable table & handy helper or a workmate to hold the MDF while it's cut (I've just found one here at less than half price!)
A drill
A few screws
Paint brush
Primer
White woodwork paint
No More Nails or similar strong glue
Spirit level
2 or 3 Corner/angle brackets (I bought 76.5mm corner braces, £1.99 for 10 from Screwfix)
Rawl plugs

I had all the other bits already so spent £18.49 - pretty much right on budget ;)

Method:

Draw your template according to whatever size you want it to be.  Mine ended up 48cm wide and 27cm high at the tallest point of the cloud, the little cloud was 19cm x 14cm.  I also decided to to add a bit more shape to the bottom of the small cloud rather than just a straight bottom as this one sits on the front anyway.  Copy around the template onto your MDF and cut out the cloud shapes.


Cut the plank of wood to the same length as the big cloud.  I also asked Nik to trim the Spruce as the shelf was a bit deeper than I would like so he took one edge off to make the depth 15cm.

Then sand the edges and paint all the pieces with primer.

Drill small holes through the back of the base of the big cloud where the shelf will sit and match the edges up so it's sitting level.  Mark where these holes meet the shelf then make more small holes in the back of the shelf edge.  Match them up and screw through the holes to join the big cloud to the shelf.  We used 5 screws.

Paint the shelf/big cloud and small cloud separately with white wood paint.  I also painted the bottom of the brackets so they are more camouflaged if viewed from below (as we may well be crawling around on the floor with the twins).  Leave to dry.

I planned to stick the small cloud on the front with 'no more nails' glue but we decided to make it a bit more secure with 3 tacks which we sunk and covered with wood filler before painting over another coat of white paint.

To attach to the wall, use a spirit level to draw a straight line where you want the shelf to sit.  Using your drill, rawl plugs and screws, attach the brackets to the wall, spaced evenly apart along the line and ensure they don't correspond to the existing screws in the shelf.

Sit the shelf on top of the brackets and screw up into the base of the shelf to secure.  Ta da....

It fills that space perfectly and of course had to be finished off with some kind of mythical cloud dwelling creature - a unicorn or pegasus I thought would be perfect.  I picked one up in M&S for £8 which would of course be kept well away from the twins until they are old enough not to stab themselves/each other in the eye/other body part with the horn!  Nik thought it was a bit creepy though and wasn't keen on my back up plan of pegasus either so in the end I found the least creepy unicorn I could - a My Little Pony unicorn beanie!  I'm still waiting for it to arrive (along with some back up dragon beanies as they would also make good cloud dwellers.

In the meantime, I've put one of my old teddies up there with a few books...