A bit of fun

My son was away on holiday with his Dad this week, so I made him a special welcome home cake :) I again got the idea from a post on Facebook :) I'm loving that people are sharing ideas to my page for me to try for this blog. 

This one didn't actually come with a recipe, just said how to make it.  It's such a cool idea, and the kids absolutely love it!  Eli was very impressed when I cut it open to reveal the surprise inside -

The post actually said to make a white cake, but I thought it would stand out quite nicely in chocolate cake, that and I wanted to have a different flavour seeing as the coloured balls are vanilla.

So for those of you who would like to make this, here's what you do.
Make a batch of cake pops (I have a cake pop machine) or you could do mini cupcakes.  You want to split the mix and add colouring.
Make cake mix of your choice.  Place cake pops in the bottom of the cake tin before adding mix, and then cook as per normal.  If mine is anything to go by, it will be lumpy looking - but that is probably because I attempted to make two cakes and then realised that the mix wasn't going to go far enough and so had to combine them in the one pan.
Make some buttercream and if you want the same look as I've done, you just need a standard cupcake icing nozzle - First time I've ever tried to ice a cake this way - pretty darn impressed with myself!!

I'm getting better at the photo taking am I not?? :)

Now the other thing I made this week, that I was asked to share on here, is an old favourite that I dig out whenever I can't think of anything else to make for lunch.  Creamed corn and cheese scrolls.

I do cheat a little for this.  I use my breadmaker.  I make a batch of pizze dough - though it works with scone mix as well, and as a friend asked, I'm sure you could work out a way for it to work with pastry - probably best to do a layer, fill it and then repeat before rolling up.

Anywho, once you have your dough, you roll it flat (rectangular shape) and spread some cream cheese on the base.  Spread a decent helping of creamed corn over this and then top with grated cheese.  You can also add sweet chilli sauce, or instead of the corn you can use relish and meat, or any other variation you like.

You then roll (like a swiss roll) so that you have a long log.  Using a sharp knife, cut slices about 1.5cm wide and lay each slice flat on your oven tray, leaving room for them to spread and rise.

Bake at 180C until they have started to bubble and are looking golden in colour.

I treated myself a few weeks back and bought Jamie Olivers 15 Minute Meals cookbook.  I believe I've mentioned how much he has inspired me.  Anyways, I tried one of his meals this week - Chicken Laksa.  Highly recommend this one!  Simple to make and tastes amazing, especially the sticky sesame chicken that goes with it :)  I did however forget to take a pic of this, but I did get a pic of my daughter eating it -

As you can see, she had a lot of fun with it!  She actually did eat some before tipping the bowl on her head!  And my 10 year old who can be fussy when it comes to meals like these, raved about it. 

There you have it, a few ideas of fun things to make with/for the kids :)  Happy holidays!