Easter Treats for your boiled eggs and soldiers

Today's collection of Easter Treats centers on Easter Eggs. Not the chocolate ones, but lovely little egg cups and cosies to use when you're having your boiled egg and soldiers...

a. Oak bunny egg cup £20 from Hop and Peck

b. Egg cosies in a little bag  £8 from Belle & Boo

c. Felted lambswool bunny cosy £13.50 from Catherine Tough

d. Linen egg cosy £12 from Charlotte Macey

e. Clever little toadstool egg cup from Maileg available to order from me as part of a set - email me for details  

Oh! A little update - I have just been browsing on the Catherine Tough website again (I am hankering after a pair of socks) and have just realised the bunny egg cosy (c, above) also comes in a little gift set with an egg cup. It's really lovely, and only £20. So I'm adding it to my selection!

 Catherine Tough handmade lambswool egg cosy gift set, £20

Click here to shop...

The Great Bunny Bake Off - a new Cottontails Baby film

For years I have been planning a to 'cover' The Great British Bake Off. In 2012, in our old house, I even went as far as starting the filming process on a Sunday afternoon, but as silly and light as these things are, they are still a heck of a lot of work and it hasn't been until this year that I've finally found the time and energy to see it through.

And so, at last, I present to you the Cottontails Baby latest film - The Great Bunny Bake Off:

Filming took place over three consecutive days (yes three separate baking sessions!!) with the hardest part being juggling the actual baking (weighing ingredients, reading recipes, mixing things) with the camera and soft toys - and all the time trying to keep my own hands out of shot. It took HOURS! And involved an awful lot of retakes, an awful lot of sellotape and an awful lots of kitchen implements stuck up the back of soft toys.

And then there was the time last Monday when Mike turned up in the middle of filming trying to cook himself a fishcake and chips before heading off out for the night. The cheek of the man, using his own kitchen!

Anyway, it's been huge fun - and with the added benefit of endless carrot cake.

Oh, and do watch to the very very end as there is a little surprise appearance by Rudolph. The original plan was for him to judge - but he is not really meant to eat cake, which was something of a stumbling block. Not to mention the very idea of trying to shepherd him into position etc - it would have been total chaos!

So here are a just a handful of photos from the film...

 The contestants

 Judge: Mary Berry-Nibbler

 

Judge: The Male Judge

 

The infamous oven-gazing...

 

The winning cake! 

...And here are a couple of shots from 'behind the scenes'

 The contestants 'rest' as I consult the recipe...

 Mike took this when trying to cook his fishcake

The other male judge :-)

Sylvain and Jeanne bake Miracle Bars

Two weeks ago I went to a beekeeping meeting (yes, I keep bees, must write about that some time) where some particularly lovely cakes were served. Called 'Miracle Bars' they are a delicious medley of biscuit, coconut, chocolate, nuts and caramel - yes, the five main food groups. The host kindly shared the recipe with me and a couple of days ago I had a crack at them.

Ingredients below, then method demonstrated by Sylvain and Jeanne. They are ludicrously easy to make, a little rabbit and goose were easily up to the job...

100g butter, melted

125g Digestive biscuit crumbs

175g Chocolate chips

75g dessicated coconut

125g chopped mixed nuts

400g can condensed milk

Bake in a 9" tin at 180C / 160C fan / 350F / Mk 4 for 30 mins

 

Sylvain assembles the ingredients

 

And Jeanne brings the coconut

 

Digestive biscuit crumbs go into a tin

 

Melted butter then chocolate chips on the top

 

Then coconut and mixed nuts - we used hazelnuts and walnuts

 

Jeanne goose can't keep her beak out!

 

Pour a tin of condensed milk over the top

(Sylvain has passed out in the background, too many chocolate drops)

 

Nibble a biscuit while the Miracle Bars bake...

 

And voila...

 

...delicious nutty sweet cake bars!

Say Hello to the Hazel Villagers - woodland animals and lovely outfits

It's always lovely to introduce a new range to Cottontails, but I am particularly excited about this one. I think you are going to love them...

Meet the Hazel Village animals - soft toy woodland creatures with additional lovely little outfits. Charming, quirky and ethically made, each little animal comes a 'back story' written on a little card around his or her neck.

Hazel Village is a small toy maker, established in New York in 2010. It's rare for me to find another company whose ethics, approach and sense of play matches so closely that of Cottontails, but in Hazel Village, I think we have found a soul mate!

Here are some of the animals enjoying a 'Welcome to Cottontails' apple pie making session a couple of days ago. I thought the apple pie would make them feel at home...

 

Lucy Owl picks some Bramleys

 

Gwendolyn Raccoon sorts through my baking basket 

(I saw her dip her paw in the golden syrup...)

 

Helping Lewis Toad with apple peeling - he's a bit too young to do it on his own

 

Grating nutmeg with Own Fox

 

Lewis uses his big toady hands to make pastry...

 

...then Owen wields the rolling pin

 

A 'Hello' pie from Cottontails, with bunnies around the edge

(bunny cutters available to buy here)

 

The animals watch the aga, Great British Bake-Off style

 

Yum!

 

It's an apple pie midnight feast!

All these lovely animals - and quite a lot more - are available to view and buy on the Cottontails website - see them all here. 

The Great Bromyard Bake Off

At last, a little post to cover events at this year's Bromyard Gala Handicrafts and Cookery Show (which took place last month, apologies for delay, have been recovering from all the baking....) I thought today was a good day to finally get around to it as the new series of Great British Bake Off starts tonight and I, for one, can't wait. I tell you what though, one cookery show a year - and a local, small town one at that - is more than enough for me, hats off to the BBC contestants tonight!

Anyway, as ever I entered an ambitious number of classes (fourteen I think?) and damn near finished myself off baking until 3am the night before the show.

.

Here are a few pictures I took along the way. Sorry about the lack of Cottontails animals - it was all a bit of a whirlwind in the kitchen and the fabric bunnies were wisely keeping out of the way.

The planning stage. Not sure what the tin of cocoa is doing there.

The makings of strawberry jam

Five chocolate brownies

 

Five iced biscuits (the Cottontails Bunny Biscuit recipe of course!)

Five cheese scones (second attempt, not sure what happened to the first lot but they were more like biscuits...)

 

Savoury quiche (about 7")

A spot of spoon-licking (think this was during the chocolate sandwich making?)

 

At the show... my 'Tea on the Terrace' display 

(homemade jam, iced buns, elderflower cordial, cards and flower display)

 

The first few treacle tarts are displayed... (mine's front left)

Some prizes! 

 

A final note - this post isn't entirely unrelated to Cottontails business. I have decided to create and develop a proper children's cookery department, it's a passion of mine, something which excites me and brings a smile to my face, and is one of a few changes and developments coming to Cottontails. So watch this space....!

Baking with bunnies: Good Fairy Cakes

This is the first in a brand new series of Cottontails blog posts: Baking with Bunnies. (Why on earth didn't I think of this before? It combines two of the things I love most in the world and I get to eat cake in the name of work. Brilliant.)

Anyway. The first recipe is from a lovely book by Lucie Cash called Fairytale Food.

Full of quirky little instructions - "Ensure your cauldron is sparkling clean", "Check your kitchen thoroughly for signs of goblins (little footprints, sticky fingermarks)" - it is a charming, funny recipe book. It also has beautiful illustrations and is almost certainly the prettiest recipe book in my kitchen.

I plan to feature many recipes from this lovely book over the coming months, but I decided to kick off with a classic. So last Sunday, I gathered up some rabbits and we headed to the kitchen to have a bash at fairy cakes....

But these are not just any fairy cakes - oh no, these are Good Fairy Cakes. They have a spoon of lemon curd in the middle, a hint of almond in the cake and the icing, and some edible glitter sprinkled on the tops. Yum.

Good Fairy Cakes

For the cake batter: 

110g softened unsalted butter (I used Stork, it was fine)

110g caster sugar

2 large eggs

110g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 tsp almond essence

Icing

good shop-bought lemon curd

60g softened unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

1/2 tsp almond essence

edible glitter (expensive but tiny pot will last for ever - & huge fun!)

1. Preheat oven to 190*c / gas 5 and fill 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases

2. Cream butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add eggs one at a time, mixing well

3. Sift flour and baking powder and add to the mixture a third at a time, along with milk and almond essence. Mix well to ensure all ingredients are combined

4. Fill paper cases about two thirds full and bake for about 20 minutes, until cakes are pale golden and springy to touch. Leave to cool on wire rack.

5. While cakes are cooling, you can make the icing. Place butte in a large bowl and whip it up using an electric hand mixer. Add icing sugar a bit at a time and cream with the butter. (At this point mine seemed to go a bit wrong and wouldn't cream properly, but I added some more butter and all was well). Add the milk and the almond essence and mix well until you are left with a smooth creamy icing.

6. Once cakes are cooled, angle a small sharp knife and cut a round out of the middle of each cake, leaving a small hole in the center. Cut the rounds in half (to make fairy wings) and set aside. Fill center of each cake with a teaspoon of lemon curd, then spread or pipe the icing over the top.

7. Add fairy wings and a dusting of edible glitter to complete. Ta-da!

Here is the lovely recipe book (see, I told you it was pretty!) and you can follow Lucie on Twitter too @FairytaleFood.

Finally I should probably point out that this is not a cookery book aimed at children - for example there are quite a lot of boozy recipes - but I am sure it would be a lovely book to flick through and share with a child. Or if not, just grab yourself a fabric bunny. They love it.

Cottontails Bunny Biscuits

This is a lovely simple recipe I tried and tested ahead of putting it in our little Cottontails Book - they are simple, sweet, delicious little biscuits and Humphrey and I cannot recommend them enough....

Cottontails Bunny Biscuits

Ingredients
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g golden caster sugar
200g butter
300g plain flour, sifted

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then stir in vanilla essence.

Add sifted flour and mix together until crumbs come together - don't overwork the mixture.

Turn out, wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least an hour. (Overnight is fine - I tried!)

Preheat oven to 160*c / fan 140*c / gas 3 and cover baking trays with baking parchment

Place dough on floured surface, cover with clingfilm (to prevent rolling pin sticking) and roll out to 5mm thick.

Carefully cut out bunny shapes using our bunny cutters and place on baking trays.

Use a cocktail stick to give each bunny an eye.

Bake for about 15 minutes until golden.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool and crisp up.

Finally, GOBBLE THEM UP!!

This really is a nice recipe - I tried several different ones - the biscuits are really light and crispy.

Well worth a try...

UPDATE: I made a batch of these biscuits on Monday in a bit of a rush and 'rested' the pastry for five mins in the freezer - this is probably a dreadful baking faux pas, but it worked perfectly.