crazy cambridge mum: January 2015

Saturday, 31 January 2015

Hansel and Gretel gingerbread house

We read the story of Hansel and Gretel so G and P made a gingerbread house. We used Mary Berry's recipe for gingerbread.

375g unsalted butter
300g dark muscovado sugar
150g golden syrup
900g plain flour
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp ground ginger

G and P melted the butter, sugar and syrup together in a pan. Then they put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger together into a large bowl and made a well in the centre. They poured in the melted butter mixture, stirred it in and, when cool enough to handle, kneaded it into a stiff dough.

Then they put it in our Lakeland silicon mould and baked it for 10-12 minutes at 180oc.

Then they left it cool and made royal icing (they used 1 packed of powered egg white whisked with 3 tablespoons warm water and when mixed in they added another 7 and whisked again). Then they added about 500g sugar (I added until it was stiff) and then I added a squeeze of lemon juice). G and P then decorated their house and then put it together.

G wanted to make a giant gingerbread man - she shaped it herself!

Sunday, 18 January 2015

Spaghetti and Marshmallows Tower - a family STEM challenge

Today using spaghetti and marshmallows we saw who could build the tallest tower.

We found:
You can build very large structures from squares and cubes, but they will be weak and will usually fall down quite easily. If you try to make a structure out of triangles and pyramids, it will be strong but you will use a lot of materials before the tower gets very tall! The best way to build a tall tower is to use both triangles and squares – that way you can build big structures that are less wobbly. A diagonal piece of spaghetti put across a square turns a square into two triangles and makes it more rigid

Tuesday, 6 January 2015

Classic Twelfth-night Cake

350g butter
350g caster sugar
6 eggs, beaten
75ml brandy
350g plain flour
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
700g mixed dried fruit
50g blanched almonds, chopped
45g apricot conserve or apricot jam
900g marzipan
4 egg whites
900g icing sugar
3 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp glycerine

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well after each addition then add the brandy.
Fold-in the flour, spices, fruit and nuts.
Grease a deep 25cm cake tin and line the bottom and sides with greaseproof paper.
Tip the cake mixture into this and tap to remove any trapped air.
Place the cake in an oven pre-heated to 150°C and bake for about 2.5 hours, or until the cake is firm to the touch. If the top of the cake darkens too quickly cover with a sheet of folded greaseproof paper about half-way through the cooking.
Remove the cake from the oven, allow to cool in its tin for 30 minutes then tip onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
Once cold cover the surface of the cake with the apricot preserve or apricot jam. Roll out the almond paste and cut just enough of the paste to go around the side of the cake. Then roll the remainder of the paste out and use to cover the top of the cake.
Then make the icing by lightly beating the egg whites and incorporating the icing sugar into this to form a stiff paste. Add the lemon juice and glycerine and mix. Using a palette knife spread the icing all the way around the sides and top of the cake.

gredients: 350g butter 350g caster sugar 6 eggs, beaten 75ml brandy 350g plain flour 1 tsp ground allspice 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp ground cinnamon 700g mixed dried fruit 50g blanched almonds, chopped 45g apricot conserve or apricot jam 900g almond paste (or marzipan) 4 egg whites 900g icing sugar 3 tsp lemon juice 2 tsp glycerine

Read more at Celtnet: http://celtnet.org.uk/recipes/miscellaneous/fetch-recipe.php?rid=misc-twelfth-night-cake
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