Chocolate Easter Nests Recipe

As today is Good Friday, I decided to post a fun and easy Chocolate Easter Nests recipe!

The preparation time for these chocolate nests is 10-20 minutes, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about time! Also, you don't need to worry about using the oven for this recipe, you will only need to heat up a pan of water as far as using the cooker goes.

Original recipe from 'BBC Food Recipes'. This is our updated recipe, as we found we needed a little bit more cornflakes as we had some leftover choclate and we felt it worked better with more cornflakes.

This recipe makes 12 Easter nests.
Preparation time: 10-20 minutes.

INGREDIENTS
225g plain chocolate (broken into pieces)
2 tbsp golden syrup
50g butter
85g cornflakes (Shredded wheat or puffed rice cereals can be used instead)
36 Mini Eggs / Smarties / M&Ms

TOOLS
1 large saucepan
1 medium mixing bowl (has to fit into or sit on top of the large saucepan)
1 wooden spoon
1 spactula
1 tablespoon
1 knife (to cut butter)

RECIPIE
Line a 12-hole fairy cake tin with paper cases.

Melt the chocolate, golden syrup and butter in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water). Stir the mixture until smooth.

Top tip: Boil the water in the kettle first then put it in a pan to heat up, this is a quicker way of heating the water up.

Measure out the cornflakes ready to put in the melted chocolate, golden syrup and butter when it is ready. It should take about 5 minutes for this to melt, and make sure to stir it often so you know when it is melted.

Remove the bowl from the heat and gently stir in the cornflakes until all of the cereal is coated in the chocolate.

Divide the mixture between the paper cases and press 3 Mini Eggs/ Smarties / M&Ms into the centre of each nest. Leave to set in the fridge for 1 hour, or until set.

***

And voila, you have finished your Easter-themed cornflake nests! Hope you enjoy your Easter Friday!

- Hannah xox

Doodle Page!

My friend is an artistic genius.

Look what she calls a 'doodle'. I call that a work of art.

If you're bored and you don't want to do a big project, why not have a go at a 'Doodle Page'?

These are fun, and you can have a go at it no matter how artistic you are. Obviously the more creative you are, the better it will be, but the good thing about these doodles is that once you start building the doodle up it can look really good even if the individual things aren't that great.

As there are so many things on the doodle, if you make a mistake it's likely that no-one will see it.

All credit goes to Joanna McGowan (she drew it after all!)

All you need for this 'Doodle Page' is a black fineliner or multiliner of some sort, and a blank white sheet of card or paper. So you don't have to go out and buy anything special. Of course, you could always experiment with different coloured pens or paper! It's your creation after all!

If you get stuck and can't think of anything to draw, you can always have a closer look at the doodle above or you can search doodles on the internet. Another way of drawing fun doodles is if you draw a squiggle, then have to make that squiggle into something. That can be really fun too!
Happy doodling!

Hannah xox

Tesco's #FindTheEggs!

Have a spare 5 minutes and have a computer? Why not try Tesco's FindTheEggs game? All you have to do is go to https://www.tescofindtheeggs.com/ and find 3 eggs on Google street-view, and you will receive a voucher to get a free Malteasers Bunny.
It's not a trick, it's not complicated - the eggs are right in front of you!

First, you have to confirm you are over 16, or have got permission to play this game.
Then you type in a postcode, town or area and click 'Go'!

You can hunt anywhere- near your house or work, or somewhere completely random! It's up to you!
The eggs aren't hidden or anything, (I thought they would be really hard to find!) they are just in the centre of the road. The aim of the game is to collect 3 eggs.

Depending on the area you choose, it should only take a few minutes to find three eggs.
Once you've found three eggs, you win a Malteasers chocolate bunny!

All you have to do is enter your name and email, and you will be sent a voucher from Tescos, and all you have to do is print it out and take it to a Tescos store to get a free Malteasers chocolate bunny!

You can also choose to add it to your Tescos order online, though this has a minumum spend and is only really for people who do online shops there.
If you click 'In Store' it will go straight to another small window asking for your name and email address, and your voucher will be sent to you. Simple!






This fun game and offer ends on the 30th of March 2013 (as the picture states) so don't miss out on the chance to win some free choccy in a fun game!

Also, if you find a golden egg, you win a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2!! So get hunting, there are some fab prizes to be won, and it's so fun and easy!

- Hannah xox

Luggage Tag Quotes!

This is a simple and fun craft project, which is a great budget project, as you only need two things:

• Luggage tags
• A black fineliner or multiliner of some sort (if you want to do colourful quotes you will need a few different coloured fineliners, though personally I think using black is just as effective)

Luggage tags usually cost under £2, and I assume most people already have a black pen of some kind, so the total cost for this project is just £2!

Luggage Tag Quotes can be great for putting in a scrapbook, sticking on your wall or pinboard, or sticking it on a plain notebook cover to personalise it. These luggage tags can be made as plain or as elaborate as you want - you can add boarders and doodles or just stick to plain text - it's all up to you!

For my Luggage Tag Quote, I used the famous Dr. Seuss quote from The Lorax.
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to change. It's not."

The luggage tags really stand out from a black background, so you could mount your Luggage Tag Quotes on a black piece of paper or card to add effect, or stick the tag in a black scrapbook.

This is my luggage tag on a white notebook.

You can also do your Luggage Tag Quotes double-sided, depending on how you want to display them and if you need to stick down one side.

Hope you enjoyed this mini craft project! Feel free to send me a picture of your Luggage Tag Quote - theholidayproject@rocketmail.com.

- Hannah xox

Cake Pops Recipe

My sister got a cake pop tin and a special cookbook for Christmas, so we all had a go at making some cake pops. The picture is of 6 of the best ones, though we made 20 of them!

Cake Pops are great to make for a special event or party, as well as just for eating yourselves! They are very fun to make and don't take that long to prepare or cook, so you can have your finished Cake Pops ready in less than an hour. (depending on how long you take to decorate!)

Vanilla and Chocolate Cake Pops

They are vanilla inside, and coated with chocolate, then decorated with sprinkles  glitter, marshmallows  or whatever we felt like! Recipe is under the picture.

Original recipe from 'Cake Pops' cook book by Molly Bakes. This is our updated recipe, as we found we needed more liquid in the mixture.
It makes enough for approximately 20 medium cake pops.

INGREDIENTS
120g unsalted butter (softened)
150g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs (room temperature)
180g self-raising flour (sieved)
5tbsp milk (room temperature)

TOOLS
1 large mixing bowl
1 wooden spoon
1 sieve
1 cake pops tin
20 cake pop sticks (provided with most tins)
1 teaspoon

RECIPIE
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°. Lightly grease and flour the cake pops tin.
Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs - mixing well before adding the next. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature, otherwise the mixture can curdle.
Add half the flour then half the milk until fully combined. Repeat with the rest of the flour and milk.

Pour the cake pops mixture into the cake pops tin and bake for 30-45 minutes. You can check if the cake is done by putting a cocktail stick into a cake ball, and if it comes out clean the cakes are done.
Once baked, leave to cool in the cake tin for 20 minutes before putting them onto a wire cooling rack. This stops the cake from crumbling, so don't skip this step!

Now simply melt some good quality cooking chocolate and dip the cake pops in. If the cake pops fall of the sticks, dip the sticks in chocolate first, then put it into the cake ball. Leave this to set, then decorate the main ball. Add sprinkles and decorations as you wish, then leave to cool. Voila! You are done!

Launching of 'The Holiday Project'

Today is the second day of the holiday, and the launching day of 'The Holiday Project'!

This is where I will be sharing my holiday projects with you, including cooking and recipes, arts and crafts, blog tips, photos, and anything else I come up with.

I also plan on having guest bloggers write a post sharing their holiday projects with us, and I plan to let all my blog readers and commenters have the chance to send in their pictures, photos, and recipes which I will display on this blog (giving credit of course).

I hope this blog will become a popular and interesting blog which will be great for people who want something to do in the holidays, as they will be able to get all sorts of cooking and arts and crafts project ideas.
If you have found this blog and like any of the projects or ideas, feel free to share them with your friends and direct them to this blog.

To finish off with here's a photo I took at Wisley Garderns (UK):
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