Lego Brick Biscuits

This Christmas I wanted to give a few more homemade gifts than usual.
Louis and I racked our brains (scrolled endlessly through Pinterest) in order to find the perfect gift idea for Zach.
After a good few days of searching, we finally hit the jackpot - lego brick biscuits!
This post is about our test run for the final things.
So, one day after school, I hit the kitchen accompanied by my two little helpers...

Although 'Poley' got a bit sidetracked by the smarties...

The recipe for the biscuits is a BBC Food recipe.
To make them, you'll need:

100g unsalted butter (room temperature)
100g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten

275g plain flour

1tsp vanilla extract

To decorate, you'll need:
Tate and Lyle Royal Icing made up as instructed on the packet (we're cheats and we don't care!)

Loads of smarties and/or m&ms

Food colouring

Firstly, preheat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5

Next, cream your butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.

Try not to eat it like this one did when my back was turned...

Once it's all combined, beat your egg in a separate bowl/jug then add it slowly to your mixture, along with your vanilla extract.

It should start to look a bit disgusting... something like this...

Needless to say, Louis wasn't so interested in eating it at this point.

Next, sift in your flour...

... and work until it all forms a dough.

Roll out to your desired thickness and shape.

They don't have to be perfect - we don't pretend to be baking pros in our kitchen!

Bake for about 10 minutes and leave to cool before icing.

When decorating, follow the instructions on the packet to make the icing, then add a few drops of food colouring. We used gel colouring because I always find it's brighter.

Stick on your smarties, et voila!

Lego brick biscuits!

The perfect gift for lego-lovers far and wide!

Birthday Boys

December is a nightmare for me. There are so many birthdays right before Christmas. My Dad and Louis' other Grandad had their birthdays last week, and these two dashing young men had their birthdays on Saturday...

My brother Jonathan (left) and my cousin (right).

Since my brother was turning 18 and wanted to go out with his friends in the evening, we just had a little birthday tea in the afternoon to celebrate with the family before the birthday boys did their own thing.

Having taken a little trip to Waitrose the day before, Cecilia and I prepped most of the food.

Okay, so we didn't make the spring rolls or the pies, but I did teach Cecilia how to make some cute little Christmas dippers out of tortilla wraps...

Simply use a star shaped cookie cutter to cut the wraps, sprinkle with cayenne pepper or paprika and toast until they have a nice snap.

The cayenne pepper is SPICY though, so probably not ideal for kids... or Grandads (Louis' Grandad managed to inhale some and spent the rest of the afternoon coughing and spluttering...)

Mum made some Christmassy pretzels by dipping packet pretzel sticks in melted white chocolate and rolling them in red and green sprinkles...

Cecilia and I may or may not have scoffed the left over white chocolate during our food prep.

Other food included my homemade mackerel pate, but while it tasted delicious, it looked simply hideous in photos (how on earth do you get a pretty picture of mashed up fish with creme fraiche and lemon?!)

I also made my own guacamole...

You mash up a load of avocados (I used about 5 and it made loads) with the juice of a lime, a clove of garlic (grated or finely chopped), one chili, and salt and pepper to season.

It got a lot of compliments so I was pretty chuffed!

Cecilia was evidently very worn out from all that star cutting...

But Sarah, who hadn't lifted a finger to help, was full of beans...

Whilst all our relatives devoured the food, we took the chance to sit back and relax...

That is, until the birthday cake was made available!

A great afternoon with family. Happy birthday, boys!