Unicorn Poop Cookies!

As you probably know this weekend is a bank holiday and that can mean only one thing; the Bear family is off LARPing!  LARP for the uninitiated is short for Live Action Role Play - think historical re-enactment meets amateur dramatics meets Dungeons and Dragons.  It basically means that we get to spend the weekend camping in Wales with friends (nerd alert - the site is next to sand dunes that were used in Torchwood for the planet of Boe) while dressed up in costume, pretending to use magic and getting hit with foam swords.

I asked BabyBear what if he thought that I should bake some of my famous brownies to take with us but he said no he wanted me to bake unicorn poop!  Now before you leave in disgust I should mention that unicorn poop are simply biscuits that have been dyed with food colouring.  They're known as unicorn poop cookies because if the Internet has taught us one thing it's that unicorns poop rainbows.  Oh and you can never have enough cat pictures.

I used the same basic biscuit recipe that I used to make the Dr Who biscuits a couple of weeks ago recipe.  There were however a few extra ingredients, namely the food colouring.  You can use as many different colours as you like but I like to stick with four.

Once you've made the dough separate it out into four balls.  Using a tooth prick put a tiny amount of food colouring on one of the balls and kneed it in.  Once the right colour has been achieved wrap the ball in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least half an hour.  Repeat with the other three balls.

Once they're chilled take the balls out of the freezer and split each ball four again.  This will make the shaping process a lot easier.  The balls will probably look a lot like Play Doh now and it's time to get in touch with your inner child and treat it like it!  Roll one of the the dough balls out on a lightly floured surface just like you would if you were back at school and making plasticine snakes.  Repeat with the other three colours until you have something that looks like this

Now cut your snakes into quarters and begin curling them round so that they look like snail shells.  It doesn't matter if they're not perfect or if the dough breaks while you're bending them, they're meant to
look irregular.  Squish them slightly so that the colours all mingle together.

Repeat this process with the rest of the dough balls and eventually you'll have beautifully colourful poop!  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 10 minutes.

A (rather belated) Mother's Day Present

This year for one reason and another (mainly due to Baby Bear having the flu, since he started school last September he seems to have picked up every germ going) I ended up being rather rubbish and not getting my mum a Mother's Day present back in March.  As we live 200 miles away from my family most presents I get for them come courtesy of Amazon and while they're convenient they're not exactly personal.  Which is why I decided to make up for the present being late by making a box full of sweet treats.

After umming and ahhing for a few weeks I came up with what I think is a good selection of treats - coconut ice, home made fudge, lemon and poppy seed shortbread and millionaire's shortbread chocolate bark.  I thought about doing peppermint creams but the last time I tried them they did not travel well and I knew that the goodie box would have to stand up to a 4 hour car journey when we visit Cheshire this week.

Coconut ice is a really good recipe to do with children as it's quick, easy and involves no cooking (it also involves getting your hands dirty which kids generally love!)

Coconut ice

1 can of condensed milk
300g dessicated coconut
300g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
red food colouring

1) In a large bowl mix together the coconut and the icing sugar.  Add the condensed milk and vanilla and mash together with a spoon.  It should form a sticky, messy ball when ready.

2) Divide the mixture between two bowls.  Add a couple of drops of the food colouring to one lot of the ice and mix well.  Press into a 20 inch cake tin lined with cling film.  Spoon the white mixture over the top and chill for at least 4 hours.

One of my fondest memories of visiting my grandparents was watching my Nanna making toffee sauce for popcorn.  She might have failed miserably at trying to teach me how to knit but she taught me how to check for the soft ball stage of toffee making!  This skill comes in surprisingly useful when making other things such as honeycomb, jam and of course fudge.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy this recipe for fudge was (having never actually tried to make it before) and it is genuinely far better than anything you'll buy in a shop.

Vanilla fudge

1 can of condensed milk
150ml milk
450g sugar
115g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla paste

1) Put all the ingredients in a large nonstick pan and heat gently on the hob.  Once the sugar has dissolved turn up the heat the bring to the boil.

2) Allow to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick.  When it starts to thicken it's time to do the soft ball test.  Using a glass with about an inch or so of cold water in it drop a small amount of the mixture into the water.  If the fudge is ready it will form a ball in the glass.  If the fudge hasn't reached this stage yet let it boil some more, re-testing it after a couple of minutes.  If you have a sugar thermometer then the temperature should be about 118C

3) Once the mix has reached the soft ball stage take off the heat and beat vigorously for at least 5 minutes - it's this beating that will give the fudge its characteristically grainy temperature.  Once thick and creamy pour the fudge into a grease proof paper lined 20cm tin.  Allow to cool completely and set before cutting.

Shortbread is a beautifully simple biscuit to make, using only 3 ingredients.  Because of it's simplicity it needs to be made with the best ingredients you can afford as the quality of them really does make a difference to the finished product.

Shortbread

125g butter
55g sugar
180g flour
Zest of one lemon
1 tbsp of poppy seeds

1) Beat together the sugar and butter until creamed.  Add the flour, zest and poppy seeds and mix to form a firm dough, I found the easiest way to do this was by using my hands. Transfer on to a floured surface and roll out to about 1cm thick.

2) Cut into whatever shapes you want and then chill for 20 minutes.

3) Put in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes at 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5, until golden brown.

I've seen chocolate bark on a couple of American websites, usually by melting chocolate and then studding it with broken up candy canes.  I took inspiration from millionaires shortbread and dotted 100g of melted chocolate with with tiny chunks of fudge and bits of broken up shortbread.

I'm sad to say that the bark wasn't a complete success - the chocolate I used was too dark for my mums taste and because I didn't have time to temper it properly it didn't have that distinctive chocolate 'snap' when broken.  Happily the rest of goodies seemed to go down quite well and more than made up for their lateness!