Ah – you’re daring enough to invite my family over to your home for tea? Let me bake my simple cupcakes to share.

My dear readers, if I, a mother of four under four can whip up a dozen of these beauties within 45 minutes (baked, iced, decorated and dishes washed); I assure you, they are indeed simple cupcakes. Don’t let its’ simplicity fool you. This humble cupcake is deliciously moist and fluffy, and the buttercream icing – well, it’s buttercream icing – need I say more?

Ingredients

Cupcakes:
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
150g soft butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste

Buttercream Icing:
150g butter (room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 cups icing sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.
Line a cupcake silicone baking tray with patty pans.

Dump the flour, sugar, butter (cubed), eggs, milk and vanilla into a blender/mixer and blend/mix.

Fill the patty pans only half way with the mixture and bake for 15 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking, make your butter cream icing.
Wash and dry your blender/mixer.
Place butter, vanilla and icing sugar and beat to a soft peak consistency (i.e. when you form a peak the tip of it curls over slightly).

When your cupcakes are baked and cooled, decorate with butter cream icing and whatever tickles your fancy (and happens to be in your pantry).

Enjoy!

The post The Simple Cupcake by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

This is what I want to tell them about service: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” ~ (John 15:13 ESV)

This is what I want them to hold fast to when faced with death: For those who are in Christ, his resurrection gives us hope. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” ~ (Revelation 21:4 ESV)

Heavier things aside, we made some Anzac biscuits and that was the first time my sons heard about the Anzacs.

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
125g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon hot water

Method

Mix the dry ingredients together (except for the baking soda).

Melt the butter and golden syrup. Mix the baking soda with hot water and add this to the butter and golden syrup. Now combine this with the dry mixture.

Place tablespoons of the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Flatten the spoonfuls slightly and make sure they are spaced about 5 cms apart as the biscuits will expand as they bake.

Bake in the oven at approx 180C for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool before tucking in.

N & M: 3 years, 10 months
E: 1 year, 9 months

The post Anzac Biscuits by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

 
The book of the week was “The Gingerbread Man”, and I dared to bake gingerbread men in my Kindergarten classroom. I’m glad I did. I still remember it to this day, and I hope those kids do too. This week I decided it was time for N, M and E to have some gingerbread men memories of their own.

Gingerbread Men

Warning: this is a messy activity …
but the results are very delicious.

 
Ingredients
Half a cup of brown sugar
One cup of butter softened (or melted)
Half a cup of honey
One egg
A pinch of salt
Two and a half cups of four
Four teaspoons of ground ginger
One teaspoon of cinnamon
Half a teaspoon of baking soda
Chocolate bits and  mixed cachous for decoration

 
Method:
Mix the sugar and the butter in a bowl. Then beat in the honey and the egg. Mix the rest of the ingredients by slowly adding them to the butter mixture to make a dough. If the dough feels much too wet, add some more flour to make it easier for the kids to handle. However, the wetter the dough, the more moist the gingerbread will be. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut out your gingerbread people. Place your gingerbread people on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and decorate.

 
It was great to let go and just let the kids do their own decorations…even if it meant that gingerbread men got squished. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 160C. Let your gingerbread people cool.

This post was shared with:

Weekly Kids’ Co-op
It’s Playtime 

The post Gingerbread Men by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Ingredients

1 cup plan flour

1 cup brown sugar  (or less as the raisins are very sweet)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup wheat bran

1 cup porridge oats

2 pinches of salt

600ml buttermilk

2 eggs

1 handful of raisins

Method

Preheat the oven to 175c. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line it with patty pans.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients except for the raisins.

Add in the buttermilk and eggs and stir until blended.

Fold in the raisins.

Spoon mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.

These hearty muffins are very filling & great for kids lunch boxes. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

N & M: 3 years, 8 months
E: 1 year, 7 months

This post was shared with

Play Academy
Sunday Showcase
Sharing Saturday
It’s Playtime
For the Kids Fridays

The post Hearty Oatmeal Muffins for Valentine’s Day by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.