Rainy Day Games.

Last Tuesday (I think) it was a very wet and grey day in England. Despite the fact that it is summer, we have been getting more than our fair share of rainy weather, not to mention the lack of heat. But despite this not so summery summer, we (being my brother and me) are on our school summer holidays. For me, this means I have extra time to blog and focus on other projects such as the redecoration of my room. However, my brother has fallen into the trap of video games. Now there is nothing wrong with video games from time to time. But I personally believe that it is not the most valuable way to spend your time if playing too often. With this in mind, I decided to give myself the task of entertaining my 10-year-old brother for this rainy afternoon, in an attempt to give him a slightly more stimulating and memorable summer. Overall, I think it was a success and thought I would share some pictures I snapped throughout the afternoon.

First of all, we decided to play some good old board games. We played a couple including Cluedo and some dice game (the one where you roll two dice and try get all the numbers down??). We had a good laugh and it was nice to see him enjoying something besides a video game.

A little later, once he was fed up with the games, we decided to bake some chocolate muffins. I thought this would be a good idea because not only would it teach him a little about cooking, but we could enjoy what we had made later on. Plus, children love getting messy!

It proved a little harder than I had anticipated to separate him from the game, but with a little perseverance, we did it. 

One of Alfie's favourite parts of the baking appeared to be the cleaning... as long as he could eat it!

Here is our final result. The baking was a success and the muffins were delicious! They were perfectly moist on the inside and the chocolate chunks were a great idea. 

We even managed to snap a silly little selfie. Overall I think it was a successful afternoon that we both enjoyed. I think it is very important to make time to do things together and make the most of the free time. I wanted Alfie to look back on the summer and all of the fun activities and days that we had, not just a video game. 

I would be interested to hear of any other rainy day ideas, as we do seem to get an awful lot of them over here in England. 

Thanks for reading and have a lovely weekend. 

Holly X

Homemade Holiday Treat - Spiced Banana Bread

Although I try (and fail) to eat healthily and resist the delicious temptation of cake, the holidays seem like the perfect time to treat yourself. So, what a better way to treat yourself than by making this amazing banana bread! One of the first things that come to my mind when I think about Christmas is the spices, specifically cinnamon and ginger. As a result of this, I will add some spice whenever I see the opportunity, for example in the banana bread.

Having been ill for the last few days, in the result of being stuck in the house, I slowly felt myself going insane. So, as I was feeling a little better I took this opportunity to do some festive baking. I didn't want anything too heavy like chocolate so I decided to go with some lovely banana bread. I took a simple banana bread recipe (140g Sugar, 140g Butter, 140g self-raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 eggs, 2 bananas) and then add a little spice, I didn't measure the spice but I did add a decent amount of cinnamon and a dash of ginger. 

If you are looking for a simple yet delicious festive bake I definitely recommend adding some spice.

Thanks for reading,

Holly X

Spiced Banana Bread

One of my favourite sweet treats to bake during the Autumn time is spiced banana bread. This is super easy to make as well as tasting delicious and is perfect for the season. Considering I class this as an Autumn essential I figured I would share how I make my banana bread.

First of all, I get all the ingredients.

(2 or 3 bananas, 1 egg, 100g caster sugar, 70g butter, 125g self-raising flour, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, ground ginger, cinnamon).

 Then I grease and line my baking tin. To do this I used oil and a brush to cover the inside of my tin, then I cut out some baking paper and pressed it into my tin. Butter will also work instead of oil.

Once I had prepared for my baking, I set the oven to 180 C. (fan oven)

Using my hands I then creamed together the sugar and the butter.

Once the butter and sugar are fully mixed, I then sieve in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and my spices. I then used an electric whisker to mix my ingredients, however, you can do this by hand using a wooden spoon. You decide how much spice you add. Personally, I like to add about 1 or 2 tsp mixed spice, 1 or 2 tsp of ginger and about 4 or 5 tsp of cinnamon. Then I beat the egg.

After this, I added in the beaten egg and the bananas. Then I mixed it using my electric mixer (a spoon is fine) until the mixture was smooth.

Then I poured the contents into my baking tin. Once all of the mixture was in my tin I placed it into the oven for approx an hour.

After an hour I took out my tin and let it cool.

Finally, I was left with my spiced banana bread.

I really love baking this for the Autumn and my family love to eat it. It's a great treat and very easy to bake.

Thank you for reading,

Xxx Holly xxX