Chocolate cake

So I made a chocolate cake today as I was craving chocolate and the only chocolate in the house was baking chocolate. I followed this recipe http://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/recipes/desserts-cakes/simple-chocolate-cake. It was dry as other people have said. I changed it a little by adding cinnamon to the mixture, and I felt it complented the chocolate and went well together. With the icing, I had to add icing sugar as it was far too runny and would have just ran down the cake. I then had some chocolate swirls in the back of my cupboard and thought I'll decorate the cake with them. To make it less boring looking and more chocolate. The more chocolate it has the happier I am. My partner said there is too much chocolate but there is no such thing as too much chocolate for a chocoholic.

I looking into making some mini pasties for the family for dinner, but can't find a recipe that I like. So if anyone as any please leave in the comments.

Food - Curried soup.

When I went shopping I brought a butternut squash, I have never had one before and I don't ever recall my mom buying one when I've been shopping with her when I was younger. The main reason I got it was for Tyler. I see a lot of baby recipes with butternut squash. So I went onto BBC good food and found a curried squash, lentil and coconut soup, so I thought I'll give it ago at making it. I had to look up YouTube to see how to cut the butternut squash as I was so puzzled by it. My gosh it looked easy to cut up, but it was hard. You definetly need a decent and very sharp knife, but I managed it. As for me I never been a soup person, but when I had a taste of it it was gorgeous, maybe because it tasted like a curry. Which my mom gave me an idea for doing a curry with it as soup is really just a sauce. Tyler loved the soup, he gobbled it.

Review - Leap Frog Scout

Tyler got this of his Nanny (dad's side) and we all love it. I was a bit unsure at first as we got told what he was having before his birthday as nanny was not sure on it herself. We thought probably had to use the computer with it at all times, well this wasn't the case.

Can be found in most toy shops as well as supermarkets ranging from £10 in the sales to about £25. Nanny got it for roughly £10 in the sale at Argos. So defiantly can't go wrong at that.

The toy is from Leap frog and is called my pal scout, you can also get a purple one for girls which is called violet. The ideal age is 6 months - 36months, so this will get lots of uses out of it.

Can be connect up to the computer to personalise it, you make it say your child's name. Can change the songs and put in the child's favourite colour, food and animal. Which I think is fab. The only downfall as a parent the name does sound odd, for example when you play the lullabies the toy will say 2 minutes of bedtime music, Good night (long pause) Tyler and it sound completely different to the sentence it said before the child's name. But I'm sure the child don't mind or can even tell. Also has Christmas songs, so when December comes I will certainly be changing the songs to Christmas songs.

There are 5 different buttons to press, the on and off paw, which I am sure you all can tell which one is that. Activity paw, which is the paw with the pink picture on, can't tell what it is. When pressed scout will ask your child what's their favourite things, count hiccups and talk like other animals. The paw with the blue picture on, the moon, stars and cloud is the lullaby paw. It will play lullabys for your child to soothe and calm them down from playing, there are 3 different sleep timers, 2 minutes, 5 minutes and 10 minutes depending on how many times you press it. Me and my partner always put it on for Tyler before he goes to bed, when we are giving him his bottle of milk and finds it really helps as it settles Tyler and so much easier to put him to sleep. Then there is the daytime songs, which is the paw with the green music note on. This paw will play 5 songs that has been activated when uses the computer. There is 30 plus songs to choose from. Then you have the hug and learn button, which is the where the hearts are. This button is all to do with feelings and friendship.

There is also activity sheets when you connect to the computer to print off for your child to colour in scout or violet doing activities and song sheets. There is also a certificate for your child to frame.

I really love this toy, I would recommend it to anyone. I think it's great and I know Tyler will have it for the next couple of years, and I can't wait for when Tyler can interact with it more, for example when scout is singing and Tyler joins in.

A few pictures of Tyler in the morning after he has woken up enjoying scout.

Chocolate and Marshmallow Cookies

I had some marshmallows that needed to be used soon, so I thought I'll try them in cookies, I found this recipe http://www.ndcs.org.uk/document.rm?id=6864 my partner and my dad like the cookies, however I wasn't keen on them. I felt like they wasnt that chocolately, I love my chocolate, I like loads and loads of it. I wasn't keen on the marshmallow. But here is a picture of my cookies.

Croissant

So I love croissants, I could just eat them all the time, plain or with chocolate. The best one I had once was banana and chocolate when I was in Germany, it was gorgeous. I have never made croissants before so I thought I will give it ago. I followed the James Martin recipe from BBC Good Food website, http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/croissants. Mine turned out a bit flat then I wanted them to be but they tasted just as nice shop brought.

I don't know what I am going to make next.

Chocolate cookies

Okay so I got this recipe from the bbc good food site. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1155648/basic-adaptable-cookie-dough. It is just a basic recipe that you can add your own stuff to, which I did, instead of using 280g of flour I used 290g flour and 80g cocoa powder. I also added 50g of dark chocolate chips and 50g of white chocolate chips. I also ended up putting the whole egg in as the egg white just went straight in, that's one of my biggest problems I am no good at breaking an egg.

It also says in the recipe to put the dough in the freezer for an hour, well I read the comments and someone said to put in fridge otherwise you have to wait for it to thaw out. I also ended up making mine in to balls after cutting them as I felt when I cut them it lost it shape, I just pressed down on them after to shape them into cookies.

This is my chocolate chip cookies that I made.

Chocolate cake

So I wanted chocolate cake the other day and I decided to make one. I followed this recipe from http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/32166/double-chocolate-sponge-cake.aspx and personally I think mine turned out better, however I didn't use their icing, I brought chocolate fudge icing already made a while back at it sounded nice and I used that to use it up. I also had some chocolate stars which I added to it.

It tasted really yummy and my family really enjoyed it too, some of them even wanted the recipe.

I'm currently in the process of making croissants, so will see how they turn out and will blog about it if I feel they are worthy enough.

I think I am going to blog about food that I have baked or cooked this month. I think I am going to have a topic every month from now on, I may have the occasional off topic post in the month, for example this month I might put about the time me and my family had down Brean the bank holiday weekend.

If you want to see a specific topic one month or wanna give me a few ideas then just leave a comment for me and I will get back to you. Let me know if you make a yummy chocolate cake and even show me a picture.

1 Year On

So Tyler turned 1 Friday just gone. We celebrated his birthday by going to Stratford butterfly farm on the Thursday, day before, and then having a little party at my parents house on his birthday and then afterwards took him to see his other nan and great nan.
I got Tyler weighed the week before and when he was born his weight was 7Ibs 11oz. Now he is a gigantic 27Ibs 12oz, obviously he would be a bit more since last week. I also got his feet measured yesterday and the woman said he is a 4H however it is best to get 4.5H has he is slightly over. But has he is not walking yet, wasn't going to pay the price of their shoes where we went to, also he don't really need them, I just want some when we are out and about and carrying him I can put him down and hold on to his hands so he can walk a bit without getting his feet dirty or stepping on something sharp.
Things he can do now are

• Crawling
• pulling himself up to standing
• baby babble
• Clap his hands
• Twinkle star action
• press buttons
• sit up unaided
• open books
• sleep through the night
• baby led weaning
• probably loads more but I can not think of.

I am so proud of him.

Tyler day he was born. About an hour old.

Tyler at the Butterfly Farm

Tyler eating his cupcake that I made for him on his birthday

Vote for Tyler

I have entered Tyler in the Birmingham Mail cutest baby for 2014 and I was wondering if everyone could vote for him, cheeky I know but I doubt he will win as we haven't got big families for people to vote for him and I don't think random people will vote for him.

By Phone just call 09013076492 and follow the instructions. Landline calls cost 51p each plus network extras. Calls from payphones and mobiles may be higher.
By text. Simple text KIDS2 2104 followed by you name, address, postcode to 85858. Texts cost 50p each plus one standard network rate message. Add NOINFO at the end of text if you wish to no receive other related promotional offers.
Voting closes at 5am 13th August.

Thank you in advance if you do vote for him.

Lemons

Don't you just love lemons, there are so many different uses for them. I cleaned my microwave with one, which was so much easier then trying to scrub away at the dirt. I got the idea from Pinterest which led me to this website http://www.mom4real.com/2014/01/cleaning-microwave-with-lemons-natural-cleaning-tip.html. I love this method, it is amazing, will be my monthly clean or when the microwave needs cleaning.

Has anyone else got other ideas what you can do with lemons leave a comment and let us all know.

Leo the Lion

So yesterday I did some practicing at making lion cupcakes for Tyler's 1st birthday which is in exactly 2 weeks. I can not believe he is going to be 1 and not be my baby anymore.
Anyways I did lions as his starsigns is Leo and we all know it's a lion and also we have been going jungle theme in his room. Which makes me wanted to do the lion. I was quite shocked out the outcome but I am glad I did an attempt then doing it the night before and getting frustrated that it wasn't going my way.

Sea Life Centre

So me and my partner took our son to Sea Life centre in Birmingham. Last time I went there was when I was at secondary school, on a art trip. Some bit has change and some bits has stayed the same from since I was little.

Tyler really enjoyed, love looking at all the fish and other sea creatures. Definitely like the jelly fish, but that's mainly because it was like a sensory room, the tanks changed colour. He also really liked the penguins that was there. We brought a book and a pirate hat for Tyler when we was in the shop.

Banana and Raisin loaf cake

Ingredients

110g Butter

110g sugar (I used caster sugar)

2 eggs

3 bananas

225g self raising flour

140g raisins

1tbs vanilla extract

2tbs pure runny honey

Method

Prep: 10mins.    Cook: 45mins.

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Cream together butter and sugar.

2. Add beaten eggs

3. Mash bananas and to mixture.

4. Sift and fold flour and add raisins, vanilla extract and honey to the mixture.

5. Bake in a greased loaf tin for 45 minutes and allow cool for 10 minutes.

I got the recipe from this website http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6725/banana-and-raisin-loaf.aspx I added vanilla extract and honey. 

Review - Osprey Poco Plus Child Carrier

My mother is into rambling and loves walking in the outdoors, I also like walking now and again, so my mother brought this baby carrier for when we do go walking. My mother have used it once when we was in Weymouth just to see if she could carry Tyler in it, but I haven't used it as of yet. My partner has used it a couple of times when we have gone on walks. It's great, it adjustable for people from about 5ft 2 to about 6ft, my partner is 6ft 3 and he finds it comfortable. There is quite few pockets, as well as a sunshade and a separate rain cover. It also came with a owl teddy for the child and a washable dribble pad. 

Tyler loves being in it, he will fall to sleep in it too and he looks so comfortable in it. He hardly moaned in it, but then again he hardly moans at all.

Review - Trike

My mother brought a second hand Trike for £10, my nan was going to get one for Tyler for his 1st birthday, but you can never resist a bargain. We did have a little problem with it as the front wheel wasn't turning right. My dad looked at it and he oiled it then he noticed some screws missing, he managed to fix it.

Tyler loves his new bike. It cos in different stages, so when he is 3 years old he wil be peddling on his own. The only thing I found annoying with it is that Tyler loves playing with the handles, I find that when Tyler is turning the handle your fighting against it so the bike won't go into people, or road etc, it is a bit funny though. It wouldn't be long till Tyler is reaching for the peddles either.

The trike itself is a really good idea, getting them learning and something for them to enjoy instead of sitting in a puschair. I would recommended them to people.

Tyler 1 day off 10 months. Cheering for England when they played Italy.

Banana Cheesecake

I got this recipe from James Martin off the BBC Food website. It was really delicious and first time making it, however I did not have the right cake tin for it.

Ingredients :-

For cheesecake

• 150g/6oz chocolate oat biscuits, crushed
• 75g/3oz butter
• 2 tbsp clear honey
• 4 bananas, peeled and cut into chunks
• 400g/14oz cream cheese
• 4 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 x 225g/8oz dulce de leche or canned caramel

For chocolate Sauce

• 40g/1½oz butter
• 175ml/7fl oz double cream
• 225g/8oz milk chocolate, roughly chopped

Perperation

1. For the cheesecake, place the crushed chocolate biscuits into a bowl. Add a third of the butter and all the honey to the crushed biscuits and mix everything together well with a wooden spoon.
2. Spoon the biscuit crumb mixture into a 23cm/9in springform cake tin and flatten with the back of a spoon.
3. Heat a frying pan until hot then add the remaining butter and the bananas and fry for 2-3 minutes, until golden-brown.
4. Remove the bananas from the pan and leave to one side to cool. Arrange the bananas on top of the biscuit base, reserving a few to serve.
5. Place the cream cheese and icing sugar into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Stir in the maple syrup and the dulce de leche or caramel.
6. Spoon the sweet cream cheese mixture into the cake tin on top of the bananas.
7. Place in the fridge and leave to set for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight.
8. Meanwhile, for the chocolate sauce, place the butter and cream into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over a medium heat.
9. Add the chopped chocolate and stir to combine.
10. Turn the heat to low and keep the buttery chocolate on the hob until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth and glossy.
11. To serve, remove the cheesecake from the fridge, remove the tin and place onto a serving plate. Top with the reserved fried bananas and a spoonful of chocolate sauce.

I didn't use the extra bananas on top of my cheesecake. My gosh it was lovely.

Banana loaf cake

I got this recipe from BBC Good Food website, I did not use dried bananas as I did not have any.

Prep: 15mins

Cook: 30mins

Ingredients :-

• 140g butter, softened, plus extra for the tin
• 140g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 140g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 50g icing sugar
• handful dried banana chips, for decoration

Method :-

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter a 2lb loaf tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then slowly add the eggs with a little flour. Fold in the remaining flour, baking powder and bananas. Pour into the tin and bake for about 30 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then remove to a wire rack.
3. Mix the icing sugar with 2-3 tsp water to make a runny icing. Drizzle the icing across the top of the cake and decorate with banana chips.

Cauliflower Cheese

When I was giving Tyler the jars he really like the cauliflower cheese, can't remember which company/brand did that one, think it may have been Heinz or Hipp organic. Well for the past month and a half I have been making my own food for Tyler, thought I'll give cauliflower cheese ago, both me and my partner don't like it, I think it because it really milky, but Tyler loves it and can't get enough of it.

I got this recipe from mums net. 

Prep time:

5 minutes

Cook time:10 minutes

Serves:8

Ingredients

• 30g cheese, grated
• 120ml full-fat milk
• 3 cauliflower
• 15g butter
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 3 broccoli florets

Method

1. Simmer or steam the cauliflower and broccoli until tender and drain.
2. Melt the butter in a pan, stir in the flour and add the milk very slowly, stirring continuously until the sauce has thickened.
3. Remove from the heat and add the cheese.
4. Stir in the cauliflower and Broccoli and mash with a fork or puree (dependant on the age of the child).

Handy Hint

Don't let the sauce come to a boil as it will make it runny. If you keep stirring on a low heat then it will eventually thicken.

I did not use broccoli has I did not have it.

Monkey Forest.

Yesterday I went swimming lesson in the morning with Tyler. He loves them. Then my mother took us up the motorway to Tretham Monkey Forest in stroke on Trent. It was really good. £7.50 for an adult and children under 3 are free. Get to walk around about 3/4 of a mile path, looking at monkeys swinging from trees, walking past you. It was great fun. Then we went to the shopping village near by. Which was good if you like shopping, which I don't, but I don't mind just being there giving company to my mom and spending time together. I have some pictures of us all at the monkey forest.

It was really fun, before we started walking round there it was Tyler's time for his afternoon nap, but I think the monkeys distracted him and kept him awake, till the end.

There are rules though when your in there, to keep at least a metre apart from the monkeys, no plastic bags, no eating or drinking, that's including chewing gum, if you have visible plastic bags, you need to keep it in the plastic bag section. No making loud noises or running around, yet children was still running round. But al in all it was a good day out and we all enjoyed it.

Scones

I wanted to make a snack or a pudding for Tyler, something different to wht he normally has, and one that he can hold himself and feed himself. So I made some scones for him, I had to make plain ones as I had nothing to put in them. The recipe comes with no sugar.

I made 11 with a little one with left over dough with this recipe.

Ingredients

450g self raising flour

100g unsalted butter

100ml whole milk

Lemon juice

5cm cutter

Tray

Instructions

Heat oven to 200c

Mix self raising flour and butter with fingers in a bowl to create breadcrumb texture.

Add lemon juice to milk and then had to the dry mix in the bowl.

Once it be becomes soft and fluffy, place some extra flour on the work surface and pat the dough on the surface to get it between 1-2cm thick.

Grease the tray with some butter

Cut as many scones as you can, then place on tray. Repeat until you have used all the dough.

Paste bit of milk on top of the scone.

Put into oven for approximately 12 minutes or until golden.

Allow to cool.

With babies or toddlers you might want a little bit of butter on when serving to get rid of the dryness. For older children or adults had cream and jam.

Then enjoy.

Bookcase

So I have been thinking about what to blog bout. I came across a website that gives you 250 ideas on what to blog about. Yes I know I am confessing that I need a little help to blog about things, but I'm sure a lot of people do. The one I chosen was 10 books on your bookshelf. So I thought I would do that one.

When I moved into my house, me and my partner brought a bookcase for my books, well he decided to use it for his DVDs and our xbox games, which used pretty much all the shelves, so we brought the next one up with two drawers for my books and other things.

This was bookcase we got from Argos, Maine extra deep with 2 drawers, £59.99.

Anyway 10 books on my bookcase, I might do series if I have the set.

1. Fallen series -Lauren Kate

2. The Mortal Instruments - Cassandra Clare

3. The Infernal Devices - Cassandra Clare

4. Morganville Vampires - Rachel Caine

5. Evernight Series - Claudia Gray

6. Witches War series - Andrea Creamer

7. Cruel Summer - Alyson Noel

8. Hollow Triology - Jessica Verday

9. Twilight Series - Stephanie Meyer

10. Something Borrowed - Emily Griffin

Breaking point

Have you ever got that feeling when your close to breaking? Well I had that today with Tyler, first since he was about 4-6 weeks old. We both woke up from an afternoon nap, and it was time to make dinner, so I sat him in his high hair and put some toys out for him, while I prepared and cooked our dinners. My partner was at the gym after work so it was just me and Tyler. As soon as he was in the highchair that was it, he just moaned and moaned. It nearly got to the point where I couldn't take no more. I nearly just walked out the kitchen to put everything on hold and sit down in the living room and let Tyler have his tantum or what ever it was. I checked his temp, it was normal at 36 Celsius. However I gave him some calpol just incase he was in pain with teething. It helped for a couple of minutes. I sung to him which helped abit too. I manage to cook his dinner which was potatoe and carrot mash which he loves and then I chopped some strawberries up for him for his pudding while I did mine and my partners dinner, while I was doing that my partner came which I was so thankful. But after Tyler had his dinner he was fine, he was just hungry. But he was driving me nuts, I couldn't think as I just wanted to be there to make him happy, it's horrible seeing him upset, but I know at times you just have to let them get on with it while you do the housework or cook dinner etc.

I can't complain too much about him though as he pretty much sleeps though the night and he don't moan often. He is quite a chilled out little happy bunny baby. Must follow his parents, as we are pretty chilled, well I am not so much now.

If you ever gone to breaking point leave in the comment what happened and how you coped with it.

9 Months out

Tyler is 9 months today. He was born by emergency c section. Okay they classed it has a emergency, but wasn't emergency as such, Tyler was stuck and his heart beat kept on dropping but not to low, and I was high risk due to preeclampsia.

This was me roughly 30 weeks pregnant with Tyler in June 2013. Me and my partner was taking the mic, saying this is what happens when you eat too much buffet. 

Horrible picture I know, but this is me in induce labour. I had 2 epidural as the first epidural was hitting a nerve and sending pain into my left thigh. I had that pain from about 12am till at least 10am on the day Tyler was born. As soon as I had my second epidural I was so much happy ANSI was just out of it. I kept on going in and out of sleep. I even ended up nearly sleeping on the operating table when they was open my belly up to get Tyler out. So I nearly missed the birth of my son, lol.

This is what my family made for me/Tyler when we had a little get together for everyone to see him.

This was him. About an hour old. All battered and bruised.

This is him at home about 5-7 days old. I miss him being that small.

This is him now. 9 months old.

He was born 7Ibs 11oz and I got him weighed today at 23Ibs 9oz.

When he becomes 1 I will do a big update about him of all the things he can do etc.

9 months in

So this week will be 9 months in and 9 months out. Thursday Tyler will be 9 months old. I can not believe it . He is so big. He is wearing 12-18 months clothes. He is quite tall. I am getting him weighed Thursday too and hoping to see his height. Tyler was exactly in for the whole 9 months. He was only on for 38 weeks + 5 days.

Today is exactly 9 months since I had my 38 week check up and the midwife told me to go to triage as I was showing signs of preclampsia. Only for triage to tell me I must stay over night to be monitored. Which became the start of a very emotional journey. There was excitement, happiness, pain, boredom. It was my first time being in hospital over night. Well not my first, as when I born I was hospital for a while, but first that I can remember and tell you about.

Week in pictures.

Nibbled

So I brought this from sainsburys as it was on offer, I ordered it with my on,one groceries, so I had no choice in colour so ended up with the pink/purple one, but I'm not complaining, it's only a colour.

It is where you can put fruit and vegetables in it will prevent choking. Well I tried it out yesterday, Tyler wasn't too sure on it, he will put it to his mouth and then pull a funny look. But it is something new and he is probably unsure with it, so I might try different things with it. I out banana in yesterday and I know Tyler loves banana. It is like most things, some babies love thing where other babies love other things. It is ll trial and error when it comes to babies.

If your wondered what company it is, it is by Nuby.

Weymouth in pictures

If you can't remember me telling you I was going to Weymouth, well it happened. The last week in March for my Nan's birthday. Not a special big number birthday but still a birthday. I thought I'll put some pictures up. I'm not going to describe everything. Just going to show pictures.