Guest Post: A Rainbow Cheesecake from B. in Ireland

My young sister B. is currently spending a year in Ireland. She loves cooking and although she was already baking a lot back home, I am under the impression that she does cook and bake even more nowadays. Here is the recipe of her last artistic cake!

 

Lemon Rainbow Cheesecake

Ingredients

• For the Base

110g digestive biscuits

50g butter

25g brown sugar

• For the Filling

350g mascarpone cheese/ cottage cheese (lighter than the mascarpone, but taste a little bit different)

75g caster sugar

1 sachet of gelatine (Dr. Oetker or different.)

Zest of 1 lemon (not compulsory)

Juice of 3 lemons (you need about 6 tablespoons)

Food colouring

 To make the base, crush biscuits, melt butter in a saucepan (or in the microwave but mind the temperature), take off heat and stir in brown sugar and the biscuit crumbs.

Press into an 8 inch loose bottomed cake tin (or a normal tin with grease proof paper) with the bottom of a glass (it’s easier), chill in fridge between 15 and 30 min. While the base is resting in the fridge, make the filling.

For that, beat together the cream cheese, the caster sugar, the lemon juice and eventually the zest, until you obtain a smooth and creamy mixture. Tip: If you use some cottage cheese, make sure to squeeze the lumps before adding anything.

Add the gelatine to this mix. To dissolve it, follow the instruction depending on the gelatine you have. For one sachet Dr. Oetker, dissolve it in 60ml of boiling water (1/4 cup, the smaller one). Add the powder to the water, and stir briskly until thoroughly mixed. Let the gelatine cool down a little before adding to the cream mix.

Separate in 6 different portions to colour each. Tip: Make some bigger portions for the first colours such as the red, the orange and the yellow. You can go decreasing in the quantity. 

  Spread in that order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple; all over the base and chill for a couple of hours or eventually a whole night (it’s always better the day after  )

  Ask for some help if you have used the normal tin + greaseproof paper to take the cake off. Slide a plate slowly under the cake to get rid of the paper.

Enjoy!! 

 Doesn't it look amazing? Send pictures to us if you try the recipe!

Felt cake pieces

I made those a couple of years ago, not really for children to be honest but rather as birthday presents for friends of mine (in their early twenties back then). I probably should make some more for my nieces, my children and my godchild, I'm sure they would love it!

 Bon appétit ;)

 

Sensory steps - part 1

On Pinterest last week, I came accross the idea of making sensory steps. I just could not resist the idea of making some myself for Little N. and Baby T. (when he starts crawling). I have 12 planned, four are completely done. The red ones.
I have put quite a bit of work into making them as I would like them to last a while but also to look pleasant. Let's see how it goes after some days of playing with them :)

Step one: Cut your cardboard to the required size

Step two: Tape it to prevent your child from cutting himself (or in our case to protect myself! from injury)

Step three: Paint it (I did four red, four green and four yellow)

Step four: Glue the anti-slide (which Little N. tried to tear off yesterday!)

Step five: Glue whatever you want on top (for the red ones I did: a large block of foam, decorative pebble stones, bottle caps and cut sponges)

Little N. does have small issues with stepping bare-feet on the ground, especially if there are sand, stones, grass or anything uneven. Those sensory steps could very well help her getting better in that respect.

 

Biscuits, Bretzels and sugar

In March I did some salt dough with Little N. but I only just got round to putting some varnish on the objects I made for her play kitchen. Now she has some biscuits and bretzels to play with. They are rather heavy, but it makes a nice change from the felt food. I also cut some foam (a cheap mattress bought two years ago and that I cut to fit the shape of the baby cot) into small rectangles to make sugar for N.'s tea set. That took maybe 2 minutes to make and that looks pretty real. 

 

She definitely likes what she gets to play with, so it is worth keeping on the good work and making always more and more!

Hearts

Some weeks ago I shared the link to a FB page, Feufollette Créations, it is now a blog because not everybody does have a Facebook account. You can check it out here. I am one of the participants as you can see from the "Dînette" category (felt food). I do not intend to turn into a sale-woman, but I like the idea of helping, from time to time, people who cannot sew but would like some hand-made stuff for their family. My first order was from one of my sisters, M. She has never been able to hold a needle, poor her! She is better with a camera (see her blog here) and she is trying to start working as a professional. She asked me to make some accessories for her photos with babies and children: 35 felt hearts of different sizes and colours.

Sizes (height): 5cm, 7,5cm, 9,5cm, 10,5cm and 12cm
Colours: white, blue, brown, orange, green, yellow and pink

 She didn't want them too plump, and apparently she likes them very much. I am now looking forward to seeing her pictures using the hearts.

Visit to the Zoo, a couple of pictures

Because I cannot be making things all the time, I also like to show you some pictures of mine which I find quite nice. Here are a few from our last visit to the Zoo and one from my mother-in-law's garden.

Enjoy!

Nesting and parading Flamingoes

Baby Camel was born two months ago

The Meerkats have a new home

 

Pin cushions

A couple of months ago, in February to be exact, I received an update from one of the blogs I follow, the Cottage Mama. She was presenting a tutorial to make a ring pin cushion. The idea is fabulous and it looks amazing. The perfect gift for all who like sewing. So I got on making several for my friends and family. I will not explain how, just go and have a look on Lindsay's blog directly. 

The first one I made was for myself, and I realised afterwards that I had not used the right wadding, the needles to go in vertically. I have to pin them sideways. Nevermind really, as long as the pins and needles don't lie around anymore!

 Easy to make, lovely to look at, useful while sewing, those pin cusions are also ideal to use small scraps of fabrics and ribbons that you have lying around as well as to recycle your bottle lids. So we could say that in addition to being adorable, they are environmentally friendly! :)

Mother's Day

On the 12th of May here in Germany, on the 26th of May in France, Mother's Day is always a day which I like to celebrate. It is a special occasion to tell our mothers how much we love them and how grateful we are for all they have done/are doing for us, their children. At least that is how I see it :)

My mother, G., who lives in France received her parcel today. I could not wait until the 26th, so I allowed her to open her present already. I really have to work on not yielding to excitement/curiosity!! Here is what she got along with a card and some German stuff to nibble on (she really liked them and cannot get them in France):

 My mother-in-law, H., who lives near us in Germany got this at breakfast last weekend along with some chocolate:

 They both seemed to like the little presents.

As for myself, my children are still too young (21 and 4 months old) to make something by themselves. But H. took Little N. to the garden on Sunday morning and gathered some flowers for me. So here is my very first Mother's Day bunch of flowers:

 I really like it and almost a week and a train ride later they are still looking good on our table!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this article ! Late for some, early for others, but hey! nevermind :)

P.S: the small pouch I made was from a pattern from OneInchWorld. I chose to keep them inside out though because it isn't Easter anymore and I didn't want them to look too egg-like.

A ring, a box and some felt toys [Swap - part 2]

If you remember end of March I posted about what Soraya from Les Facéties de Louis-Marie had sent me. I actually had forgotten to mention that she added a present for my baby boy and also a pattern for a baby hat.

Anyway, a month later I have finally managed to go to the post-office to send her a small, very small parcel, to thank her. Here is what it contained:

Soraya received her parcel yesterday, but unfortunately the ring did break - the glue holding the metal part to the bottle lid does not seem to be good enough... I need to find a better one *sigh*. Her son did adopt it as a cupcake though ^^