A really nice carrot cake

I've made this recipe twice in the last two weeks. It's very easy and tastes delicious.

I can't vouch for the icing recipe as I had leftover buttercream each time and used that instead.

For ease of reference, here it is:

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon (I used mixed spice as I was out of cinnamon)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

5 tbsp oil (eg canola)

2 smallish carrots, peeled and grated (to make one cup)

One 400gm can crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Combine the dry ingredients with the eggs and oil, and mix until combined. Mix in pineapple, carrot and walnuts.

Pour into baking tin (I used a ring tin) and bake at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Remove from tin once out of the oven and ice when cool.

A Lego Party

Welcome!

Games:

1. Pin the head on the Lego man

2. Pick up Lego blocks using only a straw and deposit block in cup

3. Lego toss

4. Two teams compete to build a tower in 5 minutes.

 The cakes

The lolly bags

Inside the lolly bags

How to make art with children when they aren't in the room!

Often when trying to get volunteers to help with art projects with children you get the excuse "but I'm not arty". Well, my excuse trumps that - "I'm not good with children." But here's a collaborative project you can do with children - but without them in the room!

Taking inspiration from "The Sugar Series" by Emily Blincoe, children brought in small toys in a selected colour. These were arranged on a similarly coloured background and photographed. The photograph was printed in large format (50cm x 70cm) and framed:

Not so mini mini-figure!

This is what I started a little while ago....

I took some coloured cardboard...

And some leftover packaging boxes, and made a not-so-mini-minifigure. Not sure what his role at Austin's Lego Party will be exactly...

I made Lego Gummy Bears

I can't even remember what I was looking for on the internet when I stumbled across someone's home-made gummy bear recipe (one quarter of an ounce of gelatine boiled for 10 minutes with half a cup of fruit juice [I used apple juice] - I also added food colouring too and some recipes call for the addition of sugar).

Just remember to oil the mold:

And they come in yellow too!

Back to the Lego Party

Turns out July wasn't too soon to start the party - I should have started A LOT earlier! Thanks to the school's Art Exhibition and Auction, things got set back a little. But we are back on track - with the invitations going out.

Thanks to All for the Memories for their great Lego invitation template. I downloaded it and adapted it - and here it is: