Baking Fun with Sweetpea Pantry

A week or two back I was delighted to hear that I had won a competition being run by the wonderful Sweetpea Pantry. My prize? A packet of bake at home 'chocolate giggles' which provided a lovely afternoon of baking, licking of spoons and scoffing biscuits with my two terrors.

My youngest is dairy intolerant and I had an initial worry when I saw the word 'chocolate' on the front of the box; there was no need however as all of the ingredients were 100% natural and included raw cacao..meaning there was no dairy to be found. Wonderful! My youngest was just as pleased when I told him; chocolate biscuits he could actually eat!

They could hardly wait to start baking so we pulled the dining table into the middle of the kitchen, gathered our supplies and got stuck right in! Following the pack instructions we measured out the butter and golden syrup, heating it on the hob for a few minutes so it was easier to mix, whisked our egg white and added them all into the chocolate giggle mixture. My two then started stirring with their wooden spoons until the mixture formed a dough. After a good lick of the spoons they helped me to knead the dough then roll it out (after letting it cool in the fridge for around 15 minutes) and started cutting out shapes using their chosen cookie cutters. We baked them in the oven then sat down to taste test their yummy looking creations.

The two terrors final verdict? Delicious!! They were yummy and chocolatey and enjoyed by all of us. They were simple to make and made it easy for little hands to get involved. My two both had a lot of fun mixing and kneading, rolling and cutting and they loved the name "chocolate giggles." As a Parent I loved not only the yummy biscuits and seeing my two have such fun whilst getting involved in the kitchen but also the 100% natural ingredients in the biscuit mix. Each pack of the mix will make between 24-36 biscuits so there were plenty to go around!


Disclaimer : I was sent one packet of chocolate giggles as a competition prize. I am under no obligation to provide a review but we enjoyed baking with Sweetpea Pantry so much we wanted to share them with you! All images, thoughts and opinions are my own.

#SilentSunday - 09

An Easter Hunt

With Easter just around the corner, and the excitement building in the children, I decided to set up a little Easter hunt for them around our home. I wrote out some clues and stuck them, along with some brilliant stickers that were FREE at the till from Sainsbury's, around our home whilst the children where playing out in the garden. I then prepared a little tasty treat and hid it in the garden after I'd managed to get them inside the house (not an easy task as they love being outside).

The children ran around together, filled with excitement and wide smiles, hunting for the clues. They were very good at it and loved working out where they would find the next clue. It was a lot of fun and they were rather excited to find their yummy Easter treats at the end of it.

Easter Holiday Fun

Each time a half-term or a school holiday comes around I find myself wondering how I'm going to keep the children entertained throughout the weeks. I always worry that I haven't got enough things planned for them. and while I don't mind them getting bored (I reckon it's pretty good for them sometimes) there is a difference between that and being at home doing nothing much for three whole weeks.

The three of us are having a fun Easter Holiday so far and, despite my early worries, we've actually been quite busy and found lots of things to do, places to visit and things going on within our local community. We've had a few days at home too, enjoying a couple of lie-ins, some arts and crafts activities and lots and lots of playing in the garden. Last week we also enjoyed discovering our local Library where we were very lucky to meet Elmer!

We started the second week of the Easter holidays with a visit to our local Children's Centre, somewhere we haven't been since Liam was very small. I think he was only just learning to walk which would mean it was around two years ago! They both had lots of fun, especially when their cousins and my Sister-In-Law arrived to play.

My terrors tried out almost every activity on offer this morning, from cutting and sticking at the crafting table to preparing 'lunch' for two teddies in the home corner, exploring magnets with the pots and pans and playing at the water table. They enjoyed practising their balance and climbing skills in the garden and did lots of role-playing as Doctors and patients. My youngest's favourite activity, by far, seemed to be the 'hardware area' that had been set up with small hacksaws, hammers, nails, clamps and pieces of wood. He really enjoyed hammering the nails into the wood and trying to cut them with the saw.

We had a really good morning, the children had a lot of fun and we even discovered a great new park on our walk home where we stopped and played in the sun for a bit.

Tomorrow we are returning to the Library to meet up with one of the children's Pre-School friends and to join in with some Easter Crafts taking place there. I am hoping that it's not a chocolaty craft..my youngest is dairy intolerant and there are so many Easter activities we can't attend because it would be so unfair on him.

Later in the week we are going for some lunch and to do some shopping with my Mum (Granny) and the day after we're planning a picnic in the park with a friend and their children. On Good Friday, as Daddy is off work, we're hoping to get down to a place called Watergate Farm where they are holding a lambing event with a BBQ and several activities for the children. It should be a very fun week :)