Healthier Halloween Treats

Halloween is a time where there are lots of sweets and treats. So, to try and cut down our sugar intake, Sykes Cottages have invited me to come up with some healthier options to serve this Halloween.

For the younger children, these banana and choc chip eyeball cakes are the perfect afternoon treat at Halloween. They are really easy to make, so it's a good time to get the children involved with the baking.

For the cake:

100g Butter, softened

2 eggs

175g Light brown sugar

225g Self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons milk

2 ripe bananas, mashed (use a fork to mash the banana)

50g Chocolate chips

For the decoration:

125g icing sugar

15ml warm water

Smarties, buttons, icing

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC for fan assisted and line a muffin tray with 12 cases (spooky ones if you have them!).

2. Place the butter, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, milk and banana in a mixing bowl and using a hand held mixer, blend until smooth, add the chocolate chips and stir in with a spoon.

3. Spoon the mixture equally between the cases and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

5. Once cooled, make the glacé icing. Mix 125g icing sugar with a teaspoon of water at a time until it reaches a smooth and thick consistency. Try not to make it too runny or it won't stay in the centre.  Place a teaspoon full of your thick icing on the middle of a cake and spread into a round(ish) shape.

I used some renshaw candy melts for the iris and a chocolate chip for the pupil, but you could use a smartie and some black icing, or a raisin. For the red around the eye I used a streak of red food colouring on the end of cocktail stick and just squiggled it through the icing before it set.

Once you have done this with all of them, there you have it, a spooky healthier cake.

Next up is a recipe I have made several times, it is a mix of raisins and nuts blended up. These bites are full of natural energy and perfect for slightly older children, although my three and six year old both enjoy them, I know some people like to be careful with nuts. They are blended into tiny pieces though so should be fine.

Ingredients:

100g Raisins
30g Cranberries
30g Cashews
30g Brazil nuts
30g Flaked almonds
20g Mixed seeds
1-3 tsps Honey
Liquorice Catherine Wheels for decoration.

1. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

2. Place the raisins, cranberries, cashews, brazil nuts, mixed seeds and flaked almonds in a mixer or chopper and blend until chopped and mixed, add a little honey at a time until it becomes wet enough to roll into balls without breaking apart.

Once you've rolled out the spiders bodies, cut the liquorice in half lengthways so you have thinner strips to make the legs. Add these to the tops of the bodies whilst still squidgy, once you have done this you can add little pieces of cranberry as eyes or leave as is. Place in the fridge to firm up and then  serve.

Together these treats look great displayed next to a pumpkin and some cobwebs...

This is my entry into the Sykes Cottages Healthy Halloween Treats challenge.

An Autumn Walk at Rufford Abbey

My son school has a two week half term break in October and as for the first few days of it there was such terrible weather, once it cleared up on the Wednesday, we decided to head out in the morning to Rufford Abbey.

We have been there many times before, it is the perfect place to let of steam and whether its summer or winter it's a favourite for us.

Firstly, there was something we had expected to see, a community archaeology project were digging up part of the grass. This looked interesting, so we made the little detour to check it out, the volunteers had dug up old tiles, brick work and some pottery. If you look closely you can see a paw print on the tile in this picture.

The main reason I took the children to Rufford was because I wanted them to run and play in the leaves and I knew there would be plenty there. We looked at the leaves in the light to see their veins, so it was educational too.

A rather friendly goose trying to eat my wellies and some obligatory leaf finding.

The house looked beautiful eerily beautiful against the dark sky and surrounded by beautiful burning trees, autumn really is a beautiful season. There were some halloween treats about, including a witch in a tree, we also played on the park and dug in the sand.

After the park we went and found some more leaves to play in, we spent ages kicking and chucking leaves and then sadly it started to rain. But we got to see some wonderful colours and had a fabulous time. We didn't have to pay for any of the fun we had, well, expect a hot chocolate for me and a snack each for the kids.

So if you are looking for something to do this half term and are local to Nottingham I can highly recommend Rufford Abbey, they have a halloween trail during half term so perfect for getting into the halloween spirit

Pumpkin Picking Fun

After a trip out with my brother today, we visited Maxeys Farm Shop in Kirklington for a spot of pumpkin picking.

First of all, we looked at the rather awesome huge pumpkins that they'd grown, quite how I have no idea!

Next up we walked up the pumpkin and halloween themed path to where all of the pumpkins were grown, all the pumpkins on the path had been carved so it gave us some ideas.

There were so many to chose from so we had to walk around and check them all out.

There were some really perfect pumpkins...

Some rather knobbly pumpkins...

And then some really rude pumpkins...

I love how Maxeys has setup the pumping picking area, it's fun and gets everyone into the spirit, there are wheelbarrows for you to carry your pumpkins back to the car and and a little something extra for the kids. We certainly had lots of fun choosing them and can't wait to carve them in a few weeks for halloween.

Halloween Draw With Me

I saw the Draw With Me Linky Halloween Edition over on the Mummy Loves blog and my son who is 5 loves Halloween and drawing so this was perfect for him.

First he got to drawing a few bats and a witch with a cat on a broom stick along with some rather colourful pumpkins or punkins as he calls them ;)

Next up and I love this, a werewolf shouting awooot.

Overall I am very impressed with his drawing, all his own ideas and the rather wiggly ghost is my favourite.

By M aged 5

This is a really lovely linky which my son thoroughly enjoyed, he has even gone on to draw lots more halloween pictures so thank you for the inpiration Maisie and Sonia :)

Halloween fun!

So we have the pumpkins...

And thanks to Tesco and their half price sale on all Halloween costumes we have the outfits.

My son wanted to be a bat and this bat costume was a snip at £4 and the little witches outfit for my little girl (who hasn't really got a choice) was only £3.

We have a few bits from a party a few years ago and I think we will be making some spooky cakes on Saturday.

We haven't decided whether we are going to go trick or treating just to the neighbours we know or have a little party with the grandparents but hopefully my son will have fun.

I have found a simple, easy and hopefully less messy alternative to the toffee apples, chocolate dipped apples yummy. I think you can buy kits from the supermarket with Halloween sprinkles etc.

There are some fab ideas over on the New Mummy's Tips blog for Halloween drinks, decorations etc so pop on over and have a look if you need some inspiration.