Crafting With Kids: Recycled Greeting Card Cones

Now that I've recovered from the big crazy cake adventure, I wanted to share something else my oldest and I did for the birthday party: cones to hold candy made out of recycled greeting cards.

A story that my boy and I really enjoy reading together is A Birthday For Frances by Russell Hoban. In it, there's a description of the table set for the birthday party guests, where each place features a little basket of candy. He'd been asking me for months already if we could do the same thing for his birthday.

I wanted to do something easier (and cheaper) than baskets, and was inspired by the little cones in Gifts From the Kitchen from the Company's Coming series and by this tutorial from Martha Stewart. (I don't usually follow Ms. Stewart, as I don't have the patience --or perhaps, talent-- for her projects, but I could simplify this one.)

marthastewart.com

Our own quick-and-easy version:

1. Use a bowl or saucer of an appropriate size to trace a semi-circle on a recycled greeting card (Christmas cards, birthday cards, etc.).

2. Cut out the semi-circle and overlap the corners of the straight (i.e. not curved) side to make a cone.

3. Fasten with one or two staples.

4. Cut out a short strip from the same card to make the handle, and attach it to the cone with a staple at each end. And voila! A lovely paper cone!

Now, just add the candy. (We put the cones in a muffin tray to keep them more upright.)

A little bit of taste-testing going on here...

Natural Food Colouring

I'm following up on my own question regarding the availability of natural food colouring (my Lightening McQueen cake turned out well, but the amount of dye involved kind of freaked me out).

The following does not represent an exhaustive search, but I did find some concentrated natural food colourings online. This line from Chocolate Craft Studio in Oregon looks especially good.

I'll definitely look into their colour pastes and powders for my next major cake adventure.

pastes

powders

Lightening McQueen Cake, or My Existential Crisis

So I need to confess I did something not very "Realistic Mummy" for our recent kid birthday. I agreed to make a Lightening McQueen (LMQ) cake. (If you don't co-habit with young primary schoolers, LQM is a car character from Disney's oh-so-creatively titled movie franchise, "Cars.")

In fact, I made the cake not once, but twice: one for the family celebration (as a trial-run) and then another for the party with school friends.

My lumpy-surface cake, after I'd stuck it back together.

For the trial-run I opted to make my traditional dairy-free, spelt flour cake (extended family allergies). And I did not slather the pan in shortening like the instructions directed. Those two moves together resulted in a well-stuck cake that wouldn't leave the pan without heavy persuasion. ("Don't tap on the pan to loosen the cake," the instructions said. Yeah, right.)

That's a lot of blue icing! 

What I was left with was a rather mangled, vaguely car-shaped mass that could only be redeemed by an expert decorating job. Too bad it was just me doing the decorating. Nevertheless --and despite tinting my entire first batch of icing blue-- I think I managed to pull off something that resembled LMQ, even if he did look oddly lumpy.

At least you can tell who it is...

Feeling confident from my more-or-less success, I looked forward to the second go. I made a different cake recipe and even got it out of the pan intact! Then things started to unravel. I have few clear memories of the day before the party, save that I began to make icing around 10:30 p.m. Did I mention that I made, not one, but two kinds of icing, both of which required somewhat laborious preparation? And did I mention that the design required six colours of icing, in addition to the un-tinted white?

A couple of hours later, as I was starting to pipe the outlines, the existential crisis hit. I began to ask myself, "Is this really what I was meant to do with my life? Were all those years of education and skill-building without purpose? How did I get into this mess?"

By 3 a.m. the cake was finished. I'm pretty sure I flopped into bed after that. And I must say that the cake looked pretty good! Was it worth it? Hung jury. On the one hand, I did mostly enjoy the project (not the 3 a.m. finish part) and the result was more than acceptable. On the other hand, I think the party guests looked at it for about three seconds before it was cut and distributed.

Much better!

Would I do it again? Probably. I feel like I say "no" to a lot of things. So when my kid turns to me and excitedly asks, "Can I have a LMQ cake for my birthday?" and I know I can rise to the challenge, then I want to say yes. And I did mostly enjoy it. (Just not the 3 a.m. part. Did I already say that?)

(In case you're interested, I'm also posting separately the recipes for my edible masterpiece.)

Lightening McQueen Cake, The Recipes

Here's the 411 on how I made the Lightening McQueen cake. I'm no expert, but this is what worked for me. (**FYI, I rented the shaped pan, and it needed 2x either cake recipe to fill it.)




Cake
I tried two different cake recipes:
1. a dairy-free, spelt flour cake, and
2. a low-fat cake (with dairy and the usual all-purpose flour).

My second attempt came out of the pan much more easily than the first, I think due to the change in cake recipe and also the fact that I had both oiled and floured the pan. (I had only oiled with the first cake. I used canola oil both times --the shortening that the instructions recommended is really not necessary, so save yourself from the trans fats.)

Tried-And-True Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake
1 1/2 cups spelt flour (regular all-purpose works too)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp soda
1/4 cup + 1 tbs oil
1 tbs white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cold water (or soy milk)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Celsius. Mix the dry ingredients together well. Add the oil, vinegar and vanilla. When the mixture is thoroughly moistened, add the water and mix until smooth.
(Normally, pour into greased 8 x 8 pan and bake 30-35 min. This recipe can alternatively make 12 medium-sized cupcakes. Bake for 20 min.)

Low-Fat Chocolate Cake
I made Rose Reisman's Sour Cream Chocolate Cake from her Divine Indulgences dessert cookbook (using low-fat yogurt instead of low-fat sour cream). But her Milk Chocolate Fudge Cake would work just as well.









Icing
For piping the decoration, I used two types of no-fat icing: Royal Icing, a stiff egg white-based icing for piping the outlines; and a cooked "7-Minute" egg white icing with a softer consistency that I used for filling in shapes. (A #4 round decorating tip worked fine for both applications.)

No-Fat Royal Icing
I had good success (both times) following the directions in Mrs. Beeton's Traditional Cake Decorating. This is a very traditional (and, therefore, I think not proprietary) way to make Royal Icing, beaten entirely by hand with a wooden spoon. You must be sure there is no grease on either the spoon or in the bowl before you start.

Available through Amazon

-Put two egg whites in a bowl, break them up with a fork.
-Then gradually add icing sugar, up to approximately 2 cups, beating thoroughly with the wooden spoon between additions.
-Keep beating (your arm will get sore) until the icing is white (not creamy) and the required stiffness.
-I found that a soft peak stage icing piped well ("soft peak"meaning that when you lift the spoon out of the icing, an icing peak forms, but flops over).
-Make sure any icing you're not directly working with stays covered, as it will otherwise dry out.

Here's also a link to a recipe that calls for use of an electric mixer. I haven't tried it, so do let me know if it works for you.

Canadian Living's version

No-Fat Cooked "7-Minute" Icing
An online version of my favourite icing is here. (Myself, I use corn syrup instead of cream of tartar.) I typically make this into chocolate icing by folding in 2 or 3 squares of melted, unsweetened chocolate after I've removed the icing from the heat (though that does add fat).






Decorating
On my first attempt, I tried following the instructions that came with the pan, but I felt that complicated things. So, on the next go-round, I did my own thing, following two basic principles:

1. outline everything first, beginning with the larger shapes, which provides points of reference for then outlining the smaller shapes;
2. mix the icing colours as needed, working up and down the colour scale (e.g. use leftover yellow to make orange).

Here's what worked for me:
-First, I iced the sides of the cake in white "7-Minute" icing with a knife.

-Next, in a new bowl, I coloured some Royal Icing black (add cocoa powder first to darken the icing) and piped the outlines of Lightening McQueen. Then I used it to fill in the tires of the car by piping in sweeping lines across the shape and "smoothing" the icing just with my finger.

-Then, in another bowl, I mixed some blue "7-Minute" icing. In the icing bag I mixed some of the blue icing with a dab of the black icing to make a grey-blue. This filled the side windows and the muffler, using the same technique as with the black.

-After cleaning the bag, I put in some of the un-tinted blue (i.e. no black) icing and piped Lightening's eyes and the little blue lightening bolt on his hood.

-Back to white! Cleaned the bag again, and used the Royal Icing to fill the front windscreen, headlights and smile (again smoothing with my finger) and to outline the racing number on Lightening's side. (I used the Royal Icing for both applications basically because I didn't feel like switching.)

-Next, in another bowl, I mixed, piped and smoothed some "7-Minute" icing in yellow, then orange, and finally red, which covered the body.

As I mentioned, I found a #4 decorator tip to work fine for both piping the outline and filling the shapes.

From Wilton

For colouring, I used Wilton's gel colours and was quite pleased at how they performed. (On a side note, does anyone have a lead on decorating with more "natural" colourants?)

Phew! Finally done!

Perfect Storm

Do you ever have days when things conspire against you to make it seemingly impossible to keep your cool? I had one of those days today.


This morning I asked my partner to bring his collection of midnight-snack dishes out of our bedroom and down to the kitchen. ... He forgot.


I asked him to empty all the overflowing garbages in the kitchen (recycling, garbage, organic waste). ... He did not.


I asked him to please put a new set of sheets on a bed that had been wetted. ... He ran out of time.


(In his defense, my partner is generally a very willing helper, and he was up til the wee hours of the morning working his second job. I can't really complain...)


The reason I asked him to do these things is because I find that upon waking I am immediately and completely engaged in feeding, clothing and placating four munchkins, all the while counting down to crazy hour when they've exhausted all possible activities in the house and have to get outside before they tear the place down. I need to have a tea and dress myself. Showering is optional. Everything else is just not happening.



But, I could foresee that the day would not run smoothly unless these minor domestic tasks were taken care of. Especially because we were having a "whining day," meaning throughout the day at least one kid was whining/crying/complaining/screeching at me. Usually two. Sometimes all four. I went through the day feeling like my head was going to explode.

Quiet at last! Ah, videos....

After walking our oldest down to afternoon JK, the remaining three kids and I returned to the house, with me desperately hoping everyone would nap. I re-served lunch for those who had missed it the first time round and went upstairs to put new sheets on the aforementioned bare bed. 


While I wrestled with the barely-stretchy mattress protector, I could hear the two-and-a-half-year old twins tormenting each other and the clanking of dishes on the table. I hoped it was dishes colliding with each other, and not dishes hitting the floor or being upended, which would send juice and food flying all over. Our youngest, meanwhile, feeling bereft, simply sat at the bottom of the stairs and wailed.


I then herded everyone upstairs (with everyone protesting) and tried to have them lie down (which only had them protest more). Leaving the baby to wail now from the upstairs gate, I ran down to make the multiple trips from the kitchen to the outside bins to empty our various garbages. (It may have been foolishness, but I opted to tackle the garbage, in order to A. clear space on the kitchen counter so I could remove dishes from the table, and B. avoid doing this during dinner prep when many clawing, whining beings would clutch at my legs as I went past.) 


During one pass, I discerned that the smallest voice was strangely silent. It had been replaced by a faint tinkling sound --the sound of a bowl, a glass(!) and a spoon being used as playthings! Yes, the midnight-snack dishes had been discovered by tiny hands. Finishing with the garbage, I ran back upstairs to rescue the breakables. 


From returning to the house to getting little people into bed, it had been 45 minutes. In addition to the other tasks I had done, I had also changed five diapers. (Only three kids in the house. I'll let you do the math.) Once the kids were safely cloistered, I went into the kitchen and screamed at the sink for a bit. Yes, I did.

Notice there's no sheet on my bed --just part of the mayhem...

The rest of the day was equally as taxing. It's not unusual for me to feel overwhelmed sometimes, or totally run ragged. But today I quite honestly was afraid that the craziness was going to pop the very thin layer of my sanity, and that I would run shrieking and drooling from the house and be carted off to an asylum. And I felt like having a stiff drink for dinner... meaning, instead of dinner. What I did do was eat a lot of leftover chocolate cake, reheat a casserole for dinner and sit everyone down in front of a video for an hour. 


Every parent has days like this. For me, today was one of those days. Here's to tomorrow!

Reading: The Birth House

I have recently been enjoying a season of reading. This despite everyone being ill lately (we just seem to get over something when another virus hits!) and no one sleeping very well. The reason I've been able to read is because with various children needing my attention at frequent intervals, I've wanted to stay close by and not involved in a complex task. So, reading!


A friend lent me The Birth House by Ami McKay (Knopf Canada, 2006), and I have to say I loved it (thanks J)!! Reading it almost became a compulsion for me; I didn't want to put it down.

Check out Ami McKay's website!

The story centres around a young woman named Dora Rare, who lives in the very small village of Scots Bay in early 20th-century Nova Scotia.  As the nearest large town is a good distance away, the women of the village are attended to by the local midwife during pregnancy and childbirth. The midwife, Miss. B., is a venerable and somewhat magical figure, who begins to train Dora to assume her role as sage femme. As Dora struggles to determine what place midwifery should have in her life, she is additionally challenged by the new town obstetrician, who pressures her to cede care of the village women to him.


This is not a story about perceived benefits of midwifery versus detractions of obstetrical medical care, though tension characterized like that runs throughout the book. At its heart, The Birth House is about women, their difficulties and their decisions. Ami McKay seems to present an intentionally contradictory view of the impact of "progress" on women, as seen through Dora's encounters with the expanding domain of modern obstetrics and also the suffragist movement. The 1910's and 20's, on the one hand, saw the devaluation of female instincts and age-old womanly wisdoms (embodied here as midwifery), while, on the other hand, woman as a political and legal entity made great gains in the public sphere.  


Ultimately, The Birth House is about women taking responsibility for themselves and being masters of their bodies, their sexuality, their work, their roles. To me, that is a relevant story, regardless of the particular form of pre-natal and birthing care one chooses. 


Ami McKay fleshes-out beautifully the characters and community of Scots Bay, and she offers humour as well as poignancy. If I had to give a criticism, it would be that some of the characters verge on uni-dimensionality (e.g. as representing a certain historical paradigm) and that there's one love story in particular whose culmination I could predict a long way off (and it channelled Anne of Green Gables and Gilbert a little too much for me).


Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it if you're looking for a good read!

Oh, No! It's My Kid's Birthday!

Well, we're into birthday season in our household. Starting last month, we began our six-month journey that will have us celebrate a dozen family birthdays, with us as the primary party planners for six of those.


I'm sure that I'm not alone in feeling a touch of panic when birthdays loom on the horizon. It seems (at least to me) like some kids' parties have taken on a frenzied and extravagant nature. For example, I recently read about one child's birthday that featured costumes for the whole family, theme music, multiple themed games, house-wide decorations, etc., etc. And all this for a five-year-old!


Anyone else feel totally intimidated?


Thankfully, I'm fortunate to know several families that have consciously opted to keep their celebrations a bit more grounded.


My sister-in-law puts on fun-tastical parties using little more than a roll of newsprint, discarded cardboard boxes from a grocery store and run-of-the-mill craft supplies. Games are re-imagined old-stanbys ("Pin The Beard On The Pirate," anyone?). And her cakes are very imaginative in their decoration, often incorporating the kids' toys to fit the theme.


A friend of ours has made a habit of hosting her daughter's birthday parties in a local park. A lot of time is spent playing on the playground equipment. Then, there are a few classic games, like sack races, tug-of-war and such. Food arrives from the pizza parlour around the corner. Some cut-up fruit and veggies complete the meal, with, of course, cake.


In lieu of typical loot bags filled with candy and plastic things that instantly break, we have received thank-yous such as a pie pumpkin (for a fall birthday) and a single helium-filled balloon (I challenge anyone to find me a kid who doesn't know how to have fun with a balloon!). My all-time favourite party "loot" though was a simple snapshot of the birthday child with our boy, mounted on a piece of boxboard (like from a cereal box) covered in pretty paper.


Our first "kid" birthday is around the corner, so I'll be musing a bit more on birthdays and such in the next while.


What "realistic" birthday ideas have you tried or experienced?

5 Realistic Ways To Go "Greener": #1 - Clothes

We all know. We know that many items common in most of our houses are bad. Toxic, carcinogenic, brain-frying, bad for us, bad for you, bad for polar bears...

They're everywhere! Phthalates in our toys, food containers and personal care items. Bisphenol-A in baby bottles and canned-food liners. Parabens in our lotions and soaps. The list goes on...

The problem is, for my part, I often find I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the task of identifying and removing these nasties. Plus, I've already confessed to my sometimes-paralyzing "all or nothing" mentality.

So what's a Realistic Mummy to do? For starters, I've had to accept that doing something is okay, and far better than nothing. So here's #1 on my list of not-too-difficult, "green" choices:

#1. Give clothes with experience a second chance
By and large, the garment industry is hard on the environment. The production and transportation of clothes involve a lot of chemicals and petroleum products. And then there's all the off-gassing and what-not once the clothes reach your home. So, go for second-hand, and help cut down on the demand for new clothes and get ones that are already rid of their chemical emissions.

My "to-grow-into" stash...

Second-hand is generally not a problem for younger kids. A friend's daughter is outfitted entirely by thrift stores and she's a real five-year old fashionista!

Our family has a wonderful --and no charge!-- pipeline for clothing for our boys that supplies copious quantities. I sort items that come our way by size/age and store them in labelled totes. (Currently my stash is stored at my in-laws, the long-suffering dears...)

Older children will have a great time seeing how far a clothing allowance will go in second-hand land. (And, hey, a few carefully-chosen brand-new items will ensure a "new to you" wardrobe is right on trend.)

Check out neighbours' yard sales. Spread the word among your friends that you're open to pre-loved togs, and ask them to canvass their friends and relatives. Get to know your local thrift store. Join a Freecycle group in your area.

Yep, clothes with experience --good for your health and for your pocket-book!