Cornflake Cake

Cornflakes have trouble staying crisp in a climate that averages about 75% humidity....so recipes that involve soggy cereal can be quite useful. This is my own invention but don't bother if you're on a diet.

'Dry' Ingredients
100g cornflakes
50g flaked almonds
25g flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 dried apricots, diced into small pieces

'Wet' Ingredients
100g chocolate (milk, caramel, whatever you like)
100g butter (preferably unsalted)
50g golden syrup (or 25g brown sugar + 25 g golden syrup)

Instructions 

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Put all the wet ingredients in a medium sized saucepan and melt over a low heat, stirring regularly until everything is melted and well mixed
3. Add the dry ingredients and stir well
4. Pour into a small baking tin lined with baking paper, level out and press down.
5. Cook for about 15 mins at 220 C until slightly browned
6. Remove and let cool before cutting into slices. Serve cold. Store in fridge in an airtight container.

Cardboard roll bracelets

This was a quick craft to keep my 3-year old daughter busy one Saturday morning while I was making the toilet roll Advent calendar!
I found a large cardboard tube that fitted onto her wrists, cut two pieces and just let her run free with paints, glue and decorative flowers. Once she was done I varnished them and added some gold foil around the edges. She did a great job!

Home-made advent calendar

Chocolate advent calendars on the equator are a really bad idea. So I decided to make one myself this year, from a whole load of empty cardboard tubes (toilet and kitchen rolls), crepe paper, tissue paper, cardboard, gold and silver paint and some glitter glue. The backing was an old quilter's cutting board that I painted with white wall paint. The tubes are covered in crepe paper inside and out and the lids are made from cardboard discs covered in crepe paper and held into place with small hair-bands. I traced all the numbers from cardboard and decorated them before gluing onto the lids. I filled it with loads of plastic tot that my daughter just loves; the little parts of a Playmobil set, some bracelets, etc.

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DIY doll's house shower

This is made from an After Eight box, a couple of straws, some beads and buttons, some plastic wrapping, a plastic clothes tag and the blister packaging from a packet of tablets.

How I made it

First I removed one side of the After Eight box but kept the fancy edge which I glued onto the new edge. I painted the edges with white acrylic paint, and lined the inside with sewing pattern paper that I'd painted with acrylic paints to give the impression of tiles. Then I glued a round plastic clothes tag onto the base to make the shower floor.

I covered the outsides, top and bottom with foam sheet

I made the shower unit from a bendy straw-  I glued 2 blisters from a pack of tablets half way down to make a soap dish, a piece of straw with a red and blue button either side to make taps, and a large flat button at the top to make the shower head. Once it was all glued firm I painted the whole lot with several layers of silver acrylic paint, and put black dots on the shower head.

I also glued silver beads along the top and sides to attach to the shower unit, and glued it in place.

I made the shower curtain from a piece of plastic wrapping- I painted hearts on with acrylic paint, then stuck circular stickers along the top and punched holes through with a hole-punch. I made the shower rail from a bendy straw with a pipe-cleaner threaded through and hooked the whole thing up.