Giant Homemade Scrabble

With a BBQ planned for this week end and lots of people to entertain. Me and the happy helpers at The Boxed Party HQ set about creating a game to play outdoors on the lawn. We have a real love of puzzles and word games so decided to create our own giant Scrabble game using bits of old cardboard. I think you will agree the results are pretty good for a lot of old cardboard boxes waiting to be recycled.

You will need
Old cardboard boxes, even old cereal boxes will do
Ruler
Pen or paint for drawing the letters
Pair of scissors

Instructions
1. Mark out your squares on the cardboard. We made ours 23cm x 23cm but any size will do.

2. Cut out the squares from the cardboard. Then draw on your letters, a proper game of scrabble needs the following letters
Blank: 2 tiles  A: 9 tiles  B: 2 tiles  C: 2 tiles  D: 4 tiles  E: 12 tiles  F: 2 tiles  G: 3 tiles  H: 2 tiles  I: 9 tiles  J: 1 tile  K: 1 tile  L: 4 tiles  M: 2 tiles  N: 6 tiles
O: 8 tiles  P: 2 tiles  Q: 1 tile  R: 6 tiles  S: 4 tiles  T: 6 tiles  U: 4 tiles  V: 2 tiles  W: 2 tiles  X: 1 tile  Y: 2 tiles  Z: 1 tile.
Which equates to 100 squares but you may find your helpers get bored so you may end up doing the cutting out over a number of days. !!!! Once you have cut out your squares then paint or draw on the letters.

3. Once the paint has dried  put all your letters in a large bin bag and there you have it Giant Homemade Scrabble. We had some great fun and all the family were able to join in young or old, although I don’t think we will win any prizes for our words.

Fruit Delights

This week and next week are all about Vintage Tea parties, whether it be simple crafts, food or games to play. This week end  I set about creating a simple and cheap desert which would look fabulous at any child’s Vintage Tea Party or adult Tea party ! l had a little play around with some store cupboard ingredients and came up with gorgeous looking deserts which are incredibly easy and also very cheap.

Ingredients
8 digestive biscuits or similar
Tub of yoghurt
1 packet of angel delight
300ml of milk
Fruit either in a compote form or as fresh fruit.

Instructions
1. Place the biscuits into a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin, then place a layer of crushed biscuit at the bottom of your small glass, bowl or ramekin.

2.Make up the angel delight with the milk, pour over the biscuit base, you will need to do this quite quickly as the angel delight will set very quickly.

3. Next place a layer of fruit onto the angel delight.

4. Finally spoon a layer of yoghurt onto the fruit topping add some more biscuit and fresh fruit and there you have it.

Traffic Light Biscuits

The theme for this week and last week has been Construction parties for children. We have been thinking about games and party food. Following on from the bacon and cheese scones we made last week we have come a up with a really simple sweet treat that the children can join in and make. Traffic light biscuits !!! Apart from a little help with making a channel for the lolly stick, these were made completely by my daughter who is 8.

Ingredients
Packet of Nice biscuits or similar
Smarties or similar
Butter cream  icing
Lolly sticks the flat style would be better but we had to use the cylindrical ones as this was all we had.

Instructions

1. Take the lolly stick and make a small channel for the lolly stick to sit in on two biscuits, see picture. If you are using flat lolly sticks you won’t have to do this.

2. Place the lolly stick on one of the biscuits and then cover in butter cream.

3. Place another biscuit on top of the butter cream to create a sandwich, looks a bit like a custard cream.

4. Then put a small amount of butter cream on your smarties and arrange on your biscuits

5. Here you have traffic light biscuits perfect for any construction or vehicle party.

 

How many children to invite and who to invite ?

Help and advice on how many children to invite to a party and who to invite.

Cheese and Bacon Muffins

It’s so easy to come up with sweet ideas for party food, but  thinking of something savoury rather than the normal sausage rolls, sandwiches and sausages can be a little more challenging.
Here cheese and bacon have been added to a muffin mixture to create a truly scrumptious savoury treat.

Ingredients
250g of plain flour
1 tbsp of baking powder
4 rashers of bacon
50g of grated cheese ( I used a mixture of Parmesan and Cheddar) but any strength of hard cheese will do.
75g of chilled butter
1 large egg
225-250 ml of milk ( the amount will depend on the dryness of the mixture, you don’t want a dry mixture).
Extra grated cheese to sprinkle on top of muffins

Instructions
1. Sift the baking powder and flour into a large bowl.

2. Crumble the bacon into the flour mixture, add the 50g of grated cheese, I added some dried herbs for extra flavour but this can left out.

3. Grate the butter into the bowl with the other ingredients and mix with a fork.

4. Beat the egg and milk together and add to the dry mixture keep adding until you have a very thick moist mixture. Remember mix very gently, being careful not to over work the mixture, which will appear quite lumpy at this stage but do not worry.

5. Place the mixture into a well-greased 12 hole fairy cake tray or into individual cupcake cases. I know these are muffins but I felt that 1 large muffin would be too large for most children. So I have opted for fairy cake size, then sprinkle with the grated cheese.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°  for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Simple ring doughnuts dipped in chocolate with sprinkles

How was your week end ?
We waited all week end for the blazing hot temperatures and sun that we had been promised, but once again the weather men had got it wrong.
Probably a good job as my son wasn’t feeling so good with a really sore throat. So his sister and I decide to bake him something which would put a smile back on his face.
Ring doughnuts dipped in gooey chocolate then covered in sprinkles.
I know what you are thinking doughnuts but they take ages to make !!!.
These are the simplest and easiest doughnuts I have ever made and they taste just as good as the ones which you have to leave for hours to rise etc.

Ingredients
250g self raising flour plus extra for dusting work surface
45g caster sugar
½ tsp of baking powder
1 egg
1 tbsp of sunflower oil or vegetable plus extra for deep frying
100ml of milk
50g of chocolate

Instructions

1. Sieve the baking powder and flour into a large bowl, then add the sugar and stir

2. In a jug put the egg, oil and milk and whisk together then pour into the bowl with the flour. Using a wooden spoon mix until it forms a ball.

3. Turn the ball of dough onto a floured work surface.

4. Roll the dough out until it is roughly 1cm thick , then using a 4cm circle cutter cut out circles, using a smaller circle cut out the hole in the middle.  Heat the oil in a deep pan to about 180°
Place 2 or 3 doughnuts into the oil and fry for about 3-4minutes or until golden brown. Place them on a plate with some kitchen roll to absorb the excess oil. Continue until all doughnuts are fried. The mixture makes approximately 20 doughnuts.

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5. Melt the chocolate and then dip the doughnuts into the melted chocolate.

6. If you want to, then cover in sprinkles.

Jurassic Platter of Turkey Dinosaurs

My theme for this week is Dinosaur Parties. I have been looking at cakes and food ideas so I thought I would get my children involved.
I asked them what they thought would be great for a Dinosaur party food, my son being the meat eater said Turkey Dinosaurs !!!! I agreed that they were the right shape but possibly not the healthiest option so asked them to get their thinking caps on and see what they could do to make it healthier. With a little encouragement I think you will love their idea.

Ingredients
Turkey Dinosaurs
Dips (I used Tomato sauce and mayonnaise) but anything will do. Guacamole would make an excellent swamp dip !!!!
Fresh vegetables sliced or cut. ( I used baby sweet corn, broccoli, carrots and tomatoes but again any vegetable would look good.

Instructions
1. Cook the Turkey Dinosaurs and leave to cool
2. Get yourself a large plate or platter
3. Fill a couple of small pots with your choice of dips.
3. Cut and slice your vegetables and arrange on the plate to look like some Jurassic scene.
4. Finally add your Dinosaurs to complete the platter.

The platter went down a storm with my two children. I even had my son eating raw sweet corn !!!!