In honour of National Stationery Week / World Stationery Day, there's 10% off everything in my Etsy shop until 3 May.

World Stationery Day - 10% off this card at https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/mummypuddleduck

World Stationery Day - 10% off this card at https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/mummypuddleduck

World Stationery Day - 10% off this card at https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/mummypuddleduck

Mayke it May!

Ma'y'ke it May! #MakeitMay

New baby handmade card with pinwheels and buttons

As if I don't have enough to challenge my time with a career, two young children and a craft business, I've set myself a new project!

So here it is. It's May soon, and May sounds a bit like Make so I think May should be a month of making and that's what I'm going to do. 

Handmade papercut card - umbrellas

Every day in May I'm going to design a new greetings card. I will be using papers, embellishments, pens, buttons, bows and tapes and, of course, my absolutely indispensable Cricut Explore machine. 

Candle card -handmade - listed on Etsy

I am looking forward to being inspired to create new designs and sharing them here, on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and twittter.  

Card for men clothes line with pegs

Please let me know what you think, choose a favourite or let me know what occasion you'd like me to create a card for. 

Handmade birthday cards

My existing designs consist of: 

Wedding card

Engagement card 

Birthday card dress 

New baby card - pinwheels 

Birthday card - candles 

Children's age birthday card 
Wedding card 

Gluten, sugar and dairy free treats

How hard is it to find or make gluten and dairy free treats? I want to share with you a very quick and easy recipe that will fill the void with none of the guilt!

Dairy, gluten and sugar free chocolate crispy cakes 

Ingredients:  

Half a bar good quality dark chocolate (check the ingredients to make sure it doesn't contain dairy)

30g gluten free cornflakes - check your cereals, a lot of 'corn' and 'oat' based breakfast cereals also contain wheat. This ones I used were Whole Earth.

Teaspoon of honey - I used a jar from a local beekeeper.

Method

Heat the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of water, very slowly. You want the chocolate to melt, not cook, or even worse, burn. 

Don't take your eye of it, keep stiring, it won't take long to  melt. 

When it's fully melted stir in the honey. 

Finally stir in the cornflakes. It will take a bit of stiring until they're fully coated. Place in cupcake cases to set. Enjoy! 

Guilt-fuelled supper - kale and chickpea side dish recipe

I have a confession. I'm not proud. It was unavoidable but it made a certain six year old very happy!

Here it is. I went to the big yellow arches for lunch today. #GASP

Before your mind starts running away with you imagining how my body is coping after eating such culinary delights, I had a salad. A grilled chicken salad, with leaves and cherry tomatoes...... Oh OK, and a SMALL packet of fries. It's practically illegal to leave without having fries. 

In my defence, it's the Easter holidays. There's no one to look after babypuddleduck - mum is at work, dad is winning crown green bowling competitions and daddypuddleduck is chained to his stand at the Gadget  Show - so the only option was a day in the office with me. 

Bless her, I cannot complain at all. She was polite, quiet, occupied herself with puzzles, colouring and letter writing, reading 14 chapters of The Twits, crafting robots from postit notes and watched Paddington the movie (again!). 

So I could hardly refuse when she looked at me with her angelic face and doe-eyes and asked to go to Maccies for lunch! 

Kale & chickpea gently spiced side dish

In all honesty, it was better than expected. The food I mean, not the experience. The girl on the till threw the ingredients and nutritional information book at me rather than explain what the gluten and dairy free options were (luckily I'd already googled it and was just double checking but that's beside the point! Incidentally, as an aside, the grilled chicken salad is only gluten free outside of Yorkshire! Work that one out!).

The result was one happy babypuddleduck, who continued to shine and amuse herself for the afternoon knowing full well we were now even so she daren't risk upsetting the apple cart by being disruptive or demanding. 

But pretty much half an hour later I just craved something nutritious and healthy to cancel out the badness. By four I was mentally surveying the fridge for options for tea. By six I was desperate for nutrients and by 8, thankfully it was all over and I felt i had redeemed myself with a gorgeous thrown together but substantial tea.

creamy kale & chickpea side dish recipe - dairy and gluten free 

I am loving kale at the moment but I didn't know what to cook with kale. What flavours compliment kale? I think this worked out really well with the spice and flavour bringing the kale to life and the chickpeas adding another texture, filling out the dish and making it super satisfying.

Steak with seasoned sweet potato wedges and a kale and chickpea side 
Serves 2 (with leftovers for lunch)

Peel and chop three to four sweet potatoes  into wedges. Pour two tablespoons of oil in a roasting dish and add half a teaspoon of nutmeg and / or cinnamon. Roast in a 200C (fan 180C) oven for 40 minutes. Stir once during cooking to ensure the potatoes cook evenly and don't get burnt edges - it's very easy to burn sweet potato, just five minutes too long and they're crispy and charcoal-y rather than soft and caramelised.

Cook your steak using you preferred method for as long as you like your steak cooked. 

Dairy and gluten free creamy kale and chickpea recipe

Dairy and gluten free creamy kale and chickpea recipe

For the Kale & Chickpea side dish add a table spoon of oil to a large frying pan. Add either two cloves of freshly crushed garlic, a teaspoon of minced garlic from a jar or a teaspoon of lazy garlic. All will work equally well.

Fry for two minutes.

Add two large handfuls of chopped kale, a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, a teaspoon of cumin and half a teaspoon of paprika - we used hot which certainly gave this dish a kick! Add a sprinkling of salt and pepper to season.

Fry for five minutes

Stir through half a tub of soya single cream (or Oat cream, or any other dairy alternative) and serve. 

What a scrummy tea. There was plenty of left overs to take to work the following day too. 

Dairy and gluten free creamy kale and chickpea recipe

Coloured icing review - Renshaw, Tesco own label and Squires Kitchen

Mickey Mouse celebration cake using bright red and black icing

I love decorating cakes.

I love everything about decorating cakes.

I love trawling Pinterest for 'pinspiration'..... sketching designs......making toppers, flowers and embellishments days ahead to make sure they dry out properly..... holding my breath when placing the rolled out fondant on top of a crumb-coated cake hoping beyond all hope that it doesn't crack as it's placed on top and settles (no matter how many cakes I decorate, I'm never sure whether it's going to hold out or not!).

However, I have one absolute pet hate (apart from having to do the washing up after I've finished obviously) and that is using vibrantly coloured icing. I mean the likes of rich red, striking blue and jet black. The sort that stains your hands, the equipment and the rolling mat the instant it touches them.

It is impossible to get such a rich colour by using food colouring so it has to be shop bought. I usually pop along to Hobbycraft to get the Renshaw packets. There's often a three for two offer on and I end up spending close to £50 by being tempted by the other crafting delights that I simply cannot resist (I've given up trying to now, it's futile). But last week I was stuck for time - and spare cash to squander on cute stationery and paper craft items) so I nipped into town to Tesco.

Ready to roll shop bought icing

They also had a three for two offer and lots of other promotions in the baking aisle - timed perfectly for Easter I'd imagine - so despite my best efforts, again I ended up splurging on sprinkles, toppers and other cakey bits and bobs. Turned out it was a good job as when we came to decorate our Easter biscuits most of the toppings in the cake cupboard were out of date - some by over 12 months!

I digress. Despite my reservations about the own-brand ready-to-roll icing, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it did leave everything it came into contact with a yellow tinge, apart from my hands which remained post-box red, it rolled very smoothly and very easily.

It felt soft as soon as I opened the packet and once rolled out, lifted easily from the mat. I find that the Renshaw version can be very sticky. I'd imagine it's down to the large quantity of colouring that has to go into it, but the Tesco version didn't stick or cling to the board.

It is still too soft, supple and sticky to use as a sugarpaste though. The icing got stuck in the cutters and any flowers I did manage to cobble together drooped as they were drying. Adding CMC powder did help but intricate cut outs - like letters for this cake board - took several attempts.

Ruby wedding anniversary cake - red icing

I also recently purchased a black sugarpaste from Ocado. It's made by Squires Kitchen, a professional cake decorating brand. I imagine they've seized the opportunity presented by a huge increase in home bakers and made smaller packet sizes to sell through retail rather than trade. As expected, this brand is much easier to work with for modelling and cutting.

Squires Kitchen black sugarpaste to make Mickey Mouse cupcake toppers

Squires Kitchen black sugarpaste to make Mickey Mouse cupcake toppers

 

As with the Renshaw and Tesco icing, it leaves behind a trail of black debris but it dries perfectly for cake toppers and cuts very cleanly and precisely. These Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse toppers were made using Squires Kitchen and once dried they held up really well. I made them 24 hours before they were needed to make sure they dried properly to remain flat when placed on top of the cupcakes.

Mickey and Minnie mouse cupcakes

The Hobbycraft web site doesn't list the ingredients so I can't compare that one but the Tesco black has added Xantham gum which makes it more stable to work with. There's nothing between the Renshaw and Tesco own brand when it comes to cost (both £1.79 for 250g) apart from the fact that the Tesco version is on offer at the moment, bringing the unit price down to (£1.20). The Squires Kitchen brand is currently £1.99 on the Ocado web site but in my opinion, well-worth the extra 20 pence. There is also a 1kg white for £4.85 which is useful for self-colouring (I favour Sugarflair food colourings).

In summary I am converted. Tesco as a fondant icing for covering whole cakes and Squires Kitchen for detail work and toppers.

Gluten and dairy free breakfast - rice pudding

When following a gluten and dairy free diet it can be very difficult to get excited about breakfast. My go-to is peanut butter - or even nut free butter - on gluten free toast. 

But after four consecutive days I crave something different, something wholesome and filling. 

That's where rice pudding can step up and satisfy. When I was pregnant with my daughter I ate two bowlfuls every day! You'd think I'd have had enough to last a lifetime but I still love the creamy, warm dessert, especially when it's for breakfast!

Since following a dairy and gluten free diet I've struggled to find a good recipe that cuts the mustard - or the nutmeg! 

Initially I tried soya milk, which was OK but had a bit of an after taste. 

You'd think rice milk would work - rice and rice right? Unfortunately not! It just ended up a big congealed lump that even if you could get past how bad it looked, it tasted revolting! 

Coconut milk tasted too coconutty! I'm not sure what else I expected but whilst I can take a splash of coconut milk in my tea, I don't really like coconut flavour, so an entire carton in a rice pudding was just too strong. 

Finally I hit on the perfect recipe - oat milk. And if you add a few glugs of Oatly creamy (available from Ocado) it's even better. There's no need to be perfect with the measurements as long as you're somewhere close! In this recipe I've also cut the sugar content down, which can only be a good thing! 

Happy baking! 

Dairy-free, gluten-free oat milk rice pudding 

85g pudding rice

35g sugar

One carton (one litre) organic Oat-ly oat milk 

Half carton (125ml) Oat-ly creamy oat

5 small knobs of dairy-free spread (I used Pure Sunflower) 

a generous sprinkle of nutmeg 

Put the rice and sugar in a large roasting dish, pour the oat milk and creamy oat on top. Add small knobs of the dairy-free spread and sprinkle with nutmeg. 

Bake at 130 (fan) or 150 for two and a half hours. 

With my portion sizes, I get just four dishes out of this recipe, which is just about right for keeping in the fridge for four breakfasts unless the kids see it and then it's all gone in one go!  Normal people who aren't quite so greedy might get six portions.