Christmas Crafts with The Kids: Marlenka & Flo

 

We are all looking for ways to feel festive this season – for tips on keeping the kids busy with Christmas crafts we spoke to @lefranks to find out what she’s been up to with her daughter Flo. From homemade decorations to yummy gingerbread biscuits, these are sure to keep them feeling like Christmas is coming!

 

Salt Dough Star Decorations

 

You need:

1 cup (270g) baking soda

1/2 cup (70g) cornstarch, more for kneading

3/4 cups (180ml) water

Evergreen trimmings but you can use anything from lace, stamps, textured fabric.

 

How to:

?Mix baking soda and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Add water and whisk until soda and starch are dissolved and the mixture is smooth.

? Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 3-5 minutes or until thickened. As you stir, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. The mixture will first get bubbly before it gets thicker and you need to scrape the pot to get all of that combined.

? Once the mixture is thick like toothpaste, remove it from the stove. Transfer dough to a cool plate and allow it to cool to room temperature (about 30 minutes).

 

 

? Place dough on your work surface. Dust with cornstarch and knead the dough into a smooth ball. If it’s sticky or too wet add cornstarch, tablespoon by tablespoon and keep kneading until it’s less sticky.  It should be pliable, but not sticky wet nor dry and crumbly.

? Add more cornstarch to your work surface and roll out the dough to no less than 1/4 inch (6mm) thin. Use a rolling pin for rolling.

? Press evergreen trimmings (or anything with a texture) onto the rolled-out dough.

? Cut out desired shapes and transfer them to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Cut out holes (for hanging the ornaments) with a straw. Let ornaments air-dry overnight. Flip them over the next day and let them dry until they’re completely set, ideally another day. The longer you wait the better.

? You can let the ornaments air dry (overnight) or bake them in the oven. To bake them, preheat oven to 210/100 degrees. Bake for approximately 30 min to 1 hour. Turn the ornaments over a couple of times during the baking.

 

 

Gingerbread Biscuits

 

 

You need:

1/4 cup of honey

80 g of butter

1/2 cup of fine brown sugar or powdered sugar

1 egg

2 and 1/4 cups of plain flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1.5 – 2 tablespoons of gingerbread spice

optional: 1 teaspoon of cocoa (if you like gingerbread cookies with a darker colour)

 

 

How to:

?Heat the honey, butter and sugar in a pot and mix until the sugar dissolves, then cool. Add the remaining ingredients and knead or mix. If the dough is too loose, add more liquid honey until the desired consistency is achieved and mix.

If the dough is too soft, cool it (it will roll better).

?Roll on the board to a thickness of 2-3 mm, lightly sprinkling with flour (thicker gingerbread cookies are softer after baking). Cut gingerbread cookies of any shape and place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

?Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for about 8 – 10 minutes at 170 – 180ºC. Be careful not to bake for too long, they will be too crispy and will taste bitter. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

 

Christmas Wreath

 

You need:

Cardboard wreath frame

Green card

Glue

Pom poms or anything to decorate it with

Ribbon

 

How to:

?Draw around the children’s hands onto the card to make a template.

?Use the template to draw and cut enough handprints to make a wreath.

?Glue the hands down onto the wreath frame

? Decorate it with pom-poms and a ribbon

 

Christmas Baubles

 

You need:

Ceramic bauble (you can use any)

PVA glue

Glitter or sequins

 

How to:

? Apply the glue onto the bauble

? Stick your sequins/decorations onto the glued surface

? Wait for the glue to dry

 

Oven-Dried Orange Decorations

 

You need:

5-6 oranges

Natural coloured cotton or jute string

Ribbon to decorate

 

How to: 

?Slice the oranges into thin slices 4mm thick. Remove any pips and place them on 2 large baking trays lined with a sheet of baking paper.

?Bake in the oven on a low heat at 120° for 2 1/2 to 3 hrs. Keep an eye on them to prevent them from burning, you’re looking for a nice golden orange colour and all of the orange flesh to be dehydrated. Halfway through the cooking process flip them over so they dehydrate on the other side.

 

 

?Remove them from the oven and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

?Use a skewer to poke a hole through the top of a citrus slice underneath the rind and thread a piece of string tying the knot.

?Decorate it with a ribbon.

 

 

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Monsoon Monthly: December Edition

 


It’s the most wonderful time of the year…Christmas season! We might not be able to enjoy the festivities as we normally would this year, but we had a look at all the things happening this December to give you some inspiration for the month. We hope you enjoy it…

 

 

Tablescaping is the word on everyone’s lips this festive season and we’ve got just the thing to help you create the most wonderful of Christmas tables. From floral centrepieces to baking personalised Christmas cookies for the table – see our post to find out how!

 

 

Something festive you can do outdoors (or virtually this year) are Christmas markets! Browse Christmas trinkets while eating festive treats, a pastime we can all get behind.

 

 

The Royal Academy of Art has opened the much-anticipated Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch exhibition. It’s only on until the end of February, so be quick you don’t have long to visit!

 

 

Enjoy ice skating over the Christmas season? We know a lot has been cancelled this year, but you can still get your skates on and be surrounded by the beautiful Hampton Court this year.

 


Something fun you can do in your bubble, dinner in an igloo! One of our favourites has to be Coppa Club, they also have a beautiful restaurant too if they book up before you get there…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create Your Festive Table: A Special Festive Cake with Manon

 

We’re finishing our festive table with a special cake from Manon! This Christmas cranberries and almond cake with cream cheese icing is the perfect finishing touch to your Christmas table and dinner – and we’re getting our practise in now before the big day.

***DISCLAIMER: Shrubs are for decoration purposes ONLY. We recommend against ingesting any foliage used to prevent risk of illness.***

We’ve also made notes below, so you can bring this to life at home with an easy how-to guide. We’d love to see your centrepieces too, so please share what you make on social and tag us in #mymonsoon

 

 

You’ll need:

150g of dried cranberries and berries (soaked for 1h beforehand)

3 large eggs

350g of caster sugar

80g of grounded almonds

250g of self-raising flour

200g of cubed butter (at room temperature)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

 

For the syrup

100g of caster sugar

100g of water

 

For the icing

150g of unsalted butter

340g of Philadelphia

450g to 600g of icing sugar

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

 

Extras

Blueberries

Holly

Rosemary

 Any green and Christmassy leaf

1 egg white

Some extra caster sugar

Sprinkles

 

Utensils

Electric mixer or handheld mixer

2 or 3 15cm tins

Extra butter and flour to line the cake tins

 A spatula 

 

How to:

Soak the cranberries in warm water one hour before you start to bake.

Preheat oven at 180C fan oven.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, crack the eggs and the sugar. Beat at medium speed for 4 minutes. Slowly add the warm butter, cube by cube, waiting for each piece to be incorporated before adding the next. Then add all of the flour, grounded almond, a pinch of salt and vanilla extract. Whisk for 30 seconds until you get a dense batter. Fold in the cranberries and berries with a spatula.

 Line the tins with butter and dust over some flour to evenly coat the tins. Divide the batter in 3 and cook for 30min at 180C and cover with tin foil and cook for another 10 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a couple of minutes and remove from their tins. Cool completely.

Make the cream cheese icing. Cream the butter in your mixer for 5 minutes, until it takes a lighter colour. Add the cream cheese and whisk for another minute. Gently add the icing sugar and don’t hesitate to add extra until you get a soft and smooth consistency.

Make the quick syrup: Place the sugar and water in a pan and heat up quickly for 4 to 5 minutes. Use a pastry brush to brush that syrup over the cakes, to keep them nice and moist.

Assemble the cake: Place one cake on a plate and cover with 3 generous tbsp of cream cheese icing, use a spatula to smooth it over. Keep adding the layers of cakes, repeating the same technique.

Optional: Dip the blueberries in some egg whites and dust with sugar to crystallise them. You can also crystallise any of your decorations.

Top the cake with the blueberries, berries, holly, anything you feel would make it festive!

 

Et voilà!!

 

Take a look at our dedicated events blog to complete your festive table here >

   

 

Table Place Setting Biscuits for The Kids with Deborah

 

Ready to add more to your festive table list? We’ve got just the thing. This week find out how to make these adorable Christmas biscuits for the kids (and the whole family) with Deborah – the most festive of all the snacks and sure to make everyone smile.

 

 

We’ve also made notes below, so you can bring this to life at home with an easy how-to guide. We’d love to see your centrepieces too, so please share what you make on social and tag us in #mymonsoon

 

Ingredients 

Gingerbread decorations:

30g treacle

50g golden syrup

40g honey

200g soft brown sugar

200g unsalted butter

4 tsp ground ginger

1 stem ginger chopped finely

10g ginger syrup from the stem ginger jar (if you can’t get this simply add 10g more golden syrup)

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

500g plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 egg

 

For the egg wash:

1 egg yolk mixed with tsp milk or cream

 

For the royal icing:

250g icing sugar

1 egg white

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp water

 

How to

Melt the sugar, syrup, butter and spices in a pan together. When melted take off the heat and add the bicarbonate of soda. This will make the mixture froth up. Set aside and let it cool for around 15 minutes. Then either pour into a mixer or transfer to a bowl. Add the egg and beat. When combined add the flour and salt until the mixture turns into dough. Make sure not to over mix. The dough will not take long to combine. It will be very warm and sticky. Scoop it out and remove from the mixer. Spread onto a sheet of parchment or cling film. Place another sheet on top and place in the fridge for at least two hours to cool.

Remove from the fridge and roll out to 6cm and cut out your shapes using either a stencil or a cookie cutter. Make sure to leave enough room between each as they spread! Take a straw and press a hole out at the top, leaving enough room so you don’t break the edge. This will be for your ribbon to hang your ornaments from.

 

 

Bake at 180C/375F for 8 minutes

Remove from the oven. Check the holes are large enough to hang the ribbon through. If not, simply use the straw again. Brush the biscuits with the egg wash and place back in the over for 4 -5 more minutes to create a beautiful glaze effect. Then leave to cool before moving from the baking sheet as they come out soft and will harden when cooled.

Then it’s time to ice!

For iced biscuits, it’s important to use royal icing which contains egg white. This is because it hardens completely so your biscuits won’t end up sticking to each other.

Whisk the egg white, lemon juice and icing sugar together to form a smooth paste for 2-3 minutes. Then add drops of water at a time to create the perfect consistency for your line icing. The icing should have a soft peak but doesn’t spread.

You can keep your designs with just white or colour it with edible food gel colours. I use different shapes nozzles to pipe different designs. Snip the end of your piping bag and insert your nozzle, fill halfway with your mixture, then twist and knot the bag closed. Or you can also use a sandwich clip to seal off the bag. If you don’t have a nozzle, simply fill the icing bag, seal and then snip a small hole at the end to create your fine writing nozzle.

Remember to touch the base of your biscuit and slowly squeeze the icing, as I squeeze, I also lift the bag up and hover over where I want to ice. This allows the icing line to drop down onto the biscuit and won’t drag the icing. This will make for a cleaner and more confident icing edge.

Use pearls or glitter to add extra decoration if you wish and thread through a ribbon to hang from your tree or wrap around a serviette as a name place for Christmas lunch. Enjoy!

 

 

We’ve got more to come! Take a look at our dedicated events blog to complete your festive table here >