Comic Relief cookies: Activity plan

We've got a new guide starting on Tuesday, and I always like to make sure that there's something interesting happening when we know we have a new girl joining us. Especially if she's not been a Brownie. If you're not used to Guiding coming face-to-face with 20 noisy and slightly hyperactive girls that you've not met before can feel a bit overwhelming, so it's good to know I've got something in hand. 

Of course it's Comic Relief next week, so my thoughts have naturally hopped to red nose based baking (come back tomorrow for fairy cakes) In order to get all the Guides done with a batch whatever we made had to be a quick bake  - these take 15 minutes in the oven tops. As always they're cheap to make - 1 batch should make enough for 2 patrols of 6-8 girls, so you should only need 2 sets of ingredients. If you've got more than 24 girls I'd do another lot. 

	For reference, Guides are aged 10 – 14 Break the girls up into Patrols/ groups of 6-8
Red nose cookies
Equipment: Round cookie cutter/ or a clean cup or mug Baking trays Greaseproof paper rolling pin Mixing bowl Electric beaters or strong arms Clean hands
Ingredients: 750g plain flour 250g butter (Basics/ Economy butter is perfect – but make sure it’s well softened) 250g caster sugar 1 egg 1/2 tsp vanilla essence/extract This makes about 30 cookies (depending on your cutter size) so should split between 2 patrols of 6-8 girls. I've done costings for 2 batches, working on the basis of 4 patrols.	If doing this with Guides it is an ideal Patrol cooking activity – they could do challenges to earn or win the ingredients. Or you could challenge them to do the most creative Comic relief themed icing
Instructions: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C Wash your hands Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy Beat the egg and add in Add the vanilla and beat again Add the flour in thirds beating well to combine Tip the dough onto a floured worktop/ a table Roll out until about 1cm thick and cut out as many circles as you can (with the cup, mug or scone cutter) before re-rolling the trimmings and repeating until you have used up all your dough Line your baking sheets with greaseproof Put the cookies on the tray and put them in the preheated oven for 13 minutes. If they’re not golden, then give them a couple more minutes.	Safety notes: Make sure that the girls are supervised in the kitchen.  And that they don’t leave you the washing up! For Brownies/ younger Guides – or if you have shorter meetings: You could make these in advance, and get the girls to ice and decorate them. You could even get rich tea biscuits and get the girls to decorate those if you don't have much in the way of space, time or kitchen equipment. Usual kitchen safety rules/ washing up apply.
Decorating ideas ·         Why not make glace icing, and use red food colouring to dye it red? ·         Or find the girls a selection of icing and coloured sweets and see what they come up with? Notes: You could always sell these as a fundraiser, I reckon you could sell them for 50p each – unless you’ve got some potential candidates for The Apprentice, in which case the sky’s the limit!  Costings - I've checked out on mysupermarket.co.uk and Asda is the cheapest, coming in at £6.02 for 2 batches which works out at 25p per head in a unit of 24 girls

Olympic foodiness for little fingers: part two

Just so you don't think we're always angelic, fruit eating, tidy peoples at my Brownies, here are tonight's creations. Olympic flag cakes

Excuse the iPhone photos, I forgot to take my fancy camera to Brownies

	For reference, Brownies are aged 7-10 Break the girls up into their Sixes, with one leader per Six
Flag cakes
Equipment: Clean hands Antibacterial spray for tables or placemats that can be washed One traybake sponge cake Glace icing Coloured fondant icing: red, yellow, blue, green and black
Cake ingredients – one batch for a unit of 12 4oz butter (Sainsbury’s economy butter is the best and cheap) 4 oz caster sugar 2 large eggs (beaten) 4oz self raising flour Glace icing 100g sieved icing sugar 2 tbsps water Preheat oven to 170 degrees Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy Add the egg, and beat to incorporate, using a spoonful of flour with each egg. If it’s not quite a dropping consistency, add some boiled water (just a spoonful or two) Baked in a greased and lined roasting tin, for about 20-30 minutes this makes a flattish sponge (hence no additional raising agent) which, when cut into squares is a perfect base for flags. Top the cake with the icing, make by beating the water, little by little into the icing sugar until you get a white paste. Smooth over so you can portion up the cake into 12 flag shaped pieces	If doing this with Guides it is an ideal Patrol cooking activity. Because Brownies is a shorter session and you need the cakes to cook to ice them, we made the cake and did the glace icing. Allergy notes: We use a dairy substitute (normally Pure or sunflower spread) if we have any dairy allergies. This also works with gluten free flour, but may need some extra liquid – milk or water. Just add an extra tablespoon and see how you go. Usual kitchen safety rules/ washing up apply
Olympic rings Give each girl a small peice (about 2cm square) of coloured fondant icing, one red, green, blue, yellow and black. Sprinkle some icing sugar in front of each girl for her to dust her hands and placemat/ clean portion of the table with Get each Brownie to roll out her icing into a sausage shape and then make that into a ring Lay the rings on the iced cake in the same order that they do on the Olympic flag. The girls can overlap their rings if they want to be authentic, but don’t worry if they don’t want to – it’s just about doing their best. Put each ‘flag’ onto a slightly bigger square of greaseproof paper and ask each girl to write her name on hers. Put to one side, and make sure they remember to take them home!	.

The flowers of spring: what's coming up on the blog

I do love M's parents, they came for dinner the other week and brought me primroses. Hurrah for flowers.

I know the last few weeks on the blog have been a bit dull, much as I don't pay too much attention to my stats, the numbers have been steadily dropping, so I thought I'd just do a bit of signposting so you know I haven't completely given up and hibernated.

This week I'm off for a cookery evening at Leiths and following that, there will be a giveaway of a hamper of Asda Extra Special goodies just for readers of the blog. I'm going to tie that into some subsription options now that Google Reader is no more for those of you not on Blogspot blogs.

I've promised myself that I'm going to get some scones made today, using our Division Commissioner's infamous recipe. And not just because the cream will go off otherwise.

Continuing the Guiding feel, I've got a couple of picture posts of the Guides and Brownies using some Baker Ross craft packs for Mothering Sunday and Easter. Lots of fun was had by all (I was just sad they haven't left any for me!)

Also, I've got another Activity plan for your units - homemade (no-cook) sweets suitable for Brownies to make with supervision and assistance, and for older Guides to lead younger Guides in. Ideal presents for any opportunity that arises (we made them at Brownies for Mothering Sunday).

And lastly, I completely failed to blog my birthday cake which was yummy, so I'm adapting the recipe slightly to make it a Simnel cake. Ideally that would have been made already but as I have no need to prove my suitability as a wife - unless anyone's asking? I'm shucking the bonds of patriarchy (or something like that) and making it when I have some time this week or next.

So that's what's coming up over the coming weeks. Stay tuned...

Welsh Cakes: The activity plan

	For reference, Guides are aged 10 – 14 Break the girls up into Patrols/ groups of 6-8
WELSH CAKES
Equipment: Scone cutter/ or a clean cup or mug Fat to grease your pan (butter on a piece of kitchen towel) Said pan: skillet, heavy based frying pan rolling pin Mixing bowl Pallette knife/ fish slice Clean hands
Ingredients: 8oz plain flour 4oz butter (Basics/ Economy butter is perfect) 3-4oz caster sugar 4-5oz dried fruit (optional) 1 egg 1/2 tsp sweet mixed/ cake spice This makes about 24 Welsh cakes, so ideal for a Patrol of 6-8 girls	If doing this with Guides it is an ideal Patrol cooking activity for the summer months. Unlike pasta the fire doesn’t need to be kept burning for too long, so for new girls to making a cooking fire this is a great introduction to outdoor cooking.
Instructions: Set your fire – usual way, get at least one metal fire bucket of water by you, turf your spot/ use a fireplace, collect your wood, start with punk, build up with small sticks/ twigs and get bigger as it establishes. Make sure this is somewhere safe and that you have a leader with you to supervise. Wash your hands Put the butter and flour in the mixing bowl and rub the butter into the flour until your mixture resembles breadcrumbs (like you’re making a crumble) Add the sugar and fruit Add the egg and mix relatively gently with your hands until it comes together as a ball of dough Flour the worktop/ a table Roll out until about 1cm thick and cut out as many circles as you can (with the cup, mug or scone cutter) before re-rolling the trimmings and repeating until you have used up all your dough Grease your pan with some spare butter on a piece of kitchen towel Put the welsh cakes on the pan and every minute or two turn them over until the texture changes from scone like to a soft biscuit - try to avoid them burning, but they need to be quite dark in colour Serve as soon as they're cool enough to touch with squash for threesies, or with a cup of tea or coffee for your leaders! These will keep in an airtight container for a few days – that said, I’ve never known them too!	Safety notes: Please make sure that the girls are well supervised Fire buckets of water, for burns and to put out the fire Pot holders – thick fabric pieces to hold a pan with If you oil the bottom of the pan before using it over the fire, it’ll clean more easily This way is best for Brownies/ younger Guides You can do this indoors with Brownies or Guides as a St David’s Day activity, or when you’ve planned outdor cooking, but the elements are against you! A sturdy pan is best, but I did mine yesterday with a plain old non stick frying pan and it worked fine. Keep your heat on the halfway point or slightly lower. Usual kitchen safety rules/ washing up apply.
Extra ideas ·         Why not set a challenge/ treasure hunt to be completed successfully to win a bagged, weighed portion of the ingredients if you’re doing this as part of a weekend away? ·         Baden Powell girls could lead/ organise this as a cooking competition for one of their challenges – they could set the challenges for the other girls to get their ingredients – and ask leaders to supervise the fires/ cooking ·         If you’re doing this as part of St David’s Day celebrations, why not try finding out why these are called Welsh Cakes?

Cake Pops: The Activity Plan

I mentioned back on Valentines Day that the cake pops would be an ideal activity for Guides or Brownies. I've since been asked if I can put it together as a proper recipe or activity plan so here is that. It would work equally well for a children's party (just ignore the repeated use of the word girls). 


Any leftover ingredients can be used to make more pops, or eaten! 

	For reference, Guides are aged 10 – 14 Break the girls up into Patrols/ groups of 6-8
EASY CAKE POPS
Equipment: 2 mixing bowls Wooden (or mixing) spoons Lolly sticks/ Coffee stirrers Egg cartons/ Florists Oasis Greaseproof paper Facilities to wash hands Aprons or uniform they don’t mind getting mucky Microwave or Hob and saucepan or Plastic beakers, roasting tin and Kettle Allow an hour for this activity, plus cooling time
Ingredients: Sponge cake – about 200g per patrol Butter icing – about 60g per patrol Chocolate for coating (I use 100g bars of Sainsbury’s Basics chocolate, milk, white and dark) Decorations, sprinkles, etc	Sainsburys Basics do a Madeira cake for 79p, 265g Tesco economy range do mini fairy cakes and a chocolate cake that would work for a similar price. Neither of these is suitable for nut, dairy or wheat allergies. I’ve attached my sponge cake recipe and buttercream recipe at the end of this plan. The sponge cake will need to be cooked the day before and allowed to dry out slightly
Instructions: Put your cake in one of the mixing bowls, and use your hands to make it into crumbs. Just crumble it up. Put this bowl to one side. Now  take your butter icing and mix a dessert spoonful at a time into the cake crumbs. You want to be able to squish the crumbs into a ball and them stay there. If you’re not sure – check it after each spoonful. You might not need all your buttercream Lay out your sheet of greaseproof paper and put your egg carton/ florists oasis in the middle of it When you can make a ball of the cake mix do that with the whole bowlful, each ball will probably use 2 teaspoons of mixture. If this doesn’t seem to be working, add some more buttercream, or try making your hands damp under clean water. You don’t want them too big or the lolly sticks wont support them Now push a lolly stick into each cake pop. You don’t want it to go all the way through. If that happens though, don’t worry. Take the stick out, remake your cake pop (dampening your hands will make this easier) and try again. Melt your chocolate. The easiest way to do this is by breaking it into squares, putting those in a microwaveable bowl and putting it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until it’s melted Take your cake pops and dip them in the chocolate so that they’re mainly covered, once done put them in an upside down egg carton so they stand up, or stick them in florists foam If you’re using sprinkles/popping candy to decorate you can dip them in that before leaving them to dry. If you’re going to drizzle with more chocolate(!) let them dry, then melt a different type of chocolate to what you used first and using a spoon, drizzle it over the top of your cake pops. Leave somewhere cool to set – it normally takes a couple of hours on a windowsill, or is quicker in the fridge. There you have it, cake pops,	Notes: Alternative ways to melt chocolate: Put a saucepan of water on the hob, rest a bowl over the saucepan (don’t let it touch the water) Break the chocolate into pieces and put these in the bowl Allow to melt This way is best for Brownies/ younger Guides Boil the kettle Stand mugs in a roasting tin Divide the chocolate between the mugs and get the girls to stand by a mug Get the girls to move away and pour boiling water into the roasting tin Get the girls to stir their chocolate in it’s mug until it melts You can stretch chocolate out further by using a spoonful of chocolate spread. Sainsburys do flavoured ones now – orange, coconut, peanut butter and popping candy
Recipes: Buttercream – it’s a good idea to make this first and then divide it between patrols. Perhaps a job for Patrol Leaders? 125g butter, softened 500-750g icing sugar 75ml milk 1 tsp vanilla extract (this recipe of mine is so old that says essence!) Put the butter in a mixing bowl, add about half the sugar and the milk and vanilla. Using an electric mixer beat until smooth and creamy (about 5 minutes) If you don't want the worktop and you to get dusty from the icing sugar then cover the bowl with a slightly damp teatowel Taste and add the remaining sugar until its of a spreadable consistency Colour if you want and substitute some of the icing sugar for cocoa or melted chocolate/ chocolate spread for chocolate buttercream. Sponge cake – if you’re making this it needs to be done a day in advance as it works slightly better if drier 225g self raising flour 2 tsps baking powder 225g butter 2 – 4 tblsps milk 4 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract 225g caster sugar I beat the softened butter and sugar together until pale and creamy then add the eggs and flours, and finally the milk until I get a soft batter. I whisk using a hand blender on low and remember to scrape my bowl down on a regular basis. The cake gets baked for half an hour at 220° in two tins, or if like me you’ve lost one of your sandwich pans This recipe works with gluten free flour (Dove’s farm do one) and Pure (or similar) dairy free spreads, and soya milk. If using Pure and Soya milk I would double the vanilla.

Working on the basis of 4 Patrols of 5 girls, this works out at £12.15 for the unit (prices correct as of 15th Feb 2012 using Sainsburys online shopping tool) , which is 61pence per head. Which in my mind is pretty good value, as just going by my yield I made 12 from 1 batch of this, which would mean 2 pops each with 8 spare just in case! 

4th Friern Barnet Guides do... Random Bakes of Kindness

Apologies for the quietness on the blog this last week, as usual I've been working away, but also have been cooking and baking quite busily - so much so I've run out of time and energy to blog. I've also been a bit lax on the piccy taking front (and almost entirely blame M as he's normally my prompter to take pics but bless him, he's been doing overtime too).

Tonight my aim is to catch up and schedule some posts for the coming week, but those are fatal last words so lets see how I go. Cross your fingers for me!

As you know I run a busy Guide unit, and this term is no exception, my planning co-incided with Vanessa Kimbell of Prepped launching her Random Bakes of Kindness project. This is such a Guide-like project that I immediately thought, fantastic! And a terms worth of inspiration was borne. Each girl has chosen her bake and identified who it's for. We've asked them to think about people they want to say thank you to, people who touch their lives in some way. Their choices have been extraordinary, from Jennifer, our Assistant Leader, to their Librarian, to friends and family. As always, they surprised me with their sensitivity, insight, sense of humour and ability to be utterly candid.

Being Guides however, organising them is a little like herding spaghetti so despite being a month into the term, last night was our first 'bake' (says she, ruthlessly stealing the term from the Great British Bake Off)

Lucy (below) had decided to make double chocolate cupcakes for Jennifer - a true baker in the making, she had adapted her recipe to alter the tricky ganache to a more straightforward buttercream - which I can certify as being very tasty.

125g softened butter (we used Stork as butter is just too expensive for use with 27 Guides!)
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
90g self raising flour
30g cocoa
100g white chocolate drops

175g butter softened (again we used Stork, and added vanilla essence)
60g milk chocolate melted
350g (ish) icing sugar (there was quite a lot in the kitchen!)

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C/ Gas mark 5
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
Add the eggs and then sift in the flour and cocoa
Beat the mixture until smooth
Stir in the chocolate drops
Divide the mixture between paper cases in a bun tin and bake for 15 minutes

Top with chocolate buttercream, and white chocolate buttons - and in our case - give to your lovely Assistant Leader who is definitely deserving of them!

*All Guides pictured have full photographic permissions