Five Fabulous Fudge Flavours

About 3 weeks or so ago, my husband was helping out with his local 4x4 club charity open day. The club members were giving rides in their 4x4 vehicles round the local off road course to visitors who got to ride for a small donation. Donations were all given to Norfolk Air Ambulance.

In addition to this, they also had some stalls for raffles, face painting and other fundraising fete type things.

I made a load of bars of fudge he could take along and sell. Unfortunately, it ended up one of the hottest days of the year and the fudge had to be left in a coolbox for most of the time ! What was left, I took a couple of days later and dropped in to the local children's hospice.

Homemade fudge makes a lovely gift and can be easy and quick to make. I don't even use a sugar thermometer for this.

Normally, I make it in a square silicone fudge / brownie pan, cut it into 1" cubes and put it in pretty cello bags. This time, I decided to make it in 2lb silicone loaf moulds and cut it into bars instead. I simply wrapped these in clear cello and stuck on some tags. This made them easier to store in bulk in my fridge and easier to transport (as they take up much space). 

BASIC FUDGE RECIPE

125g salted butter

3/4 cup evaporated milk

2 cups sugar

12 marshmallows (or 9 if great big ones)

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g white chocolate (broken or chopped)

OPTIONAL 3/4 cup dry ingredients 

(broken biscuit, nuts, raisins, cherries, etc) 

Put the first 5 ingredients in a LARGE non stick pan and slowly bring to the boil. You will need to stir constantly.

As soon as it reaches a rolling boil, set a timer for exactly 5 minutes.

As soon as the 5 minutes are up, remove from the heat and quickly beat in the chocolate with a wooden spoon.

 Mix in dry ingredients if using.

Pour into the 2lb loaf mould or 8" square silicone fudge / brownie pan and leave to set. Once cold, cut into squares or bars and refrigerate. Keeps at least two weeks in the fridge.

Flavours.

This recipe is very versatile. White chocolate will give you a very light and creamy fudge. Dark/ bitter chocolate with give you an intense, dark fudge.

It's seductively soft and not at all grainy. Boil for an extra 1 > 2 minutes if you want a slightly grainy and crumbly fudge.

The flavour possibilities are endless.....

I made 5 different flavours for the charity event. These are ones I've made many times before...

Peanut butter - as basic recipe, but added 1/2 cup of peanut butter

Double vanilla - used vanilla extract and seeds of a vanilla pod, plus 50g extra white chocolate

Whisky - as basic recipe, but used 1/2 cup of evaporated milk and 1/4 cup of whisky

Cookies and Cream - basic recipe with a cup of broken oreos mixed in. Extra broken oreos for the top

Dark chocolate and mint (or orange) - basic recipe. Just swap chocolate and extracts

Walnut and Maple - as basic recipe, but 1/2 cup of evaporated milk, 1/4 cup maple syrup. Walnuts to add in and top.

Strawberry Shortcake - double layered (make two batches) Bottom layer was milk chocolate and shortbread. Top layer was basic recipe but strawberry extract and a touch of food colouring. Topped with mini marshmallows whilst still hot.

Sarah-Jane Nash - August 2011 - www.siliconemoulds.com

Chocolate & Sugar Mice Recipes (& a giveaway too !)

Aren't these chocolate mice ADORABLE ? I had such good fun making them. These are dark chocolate and filled with hazelnut ganache.

 I made a load of traditional sugar mice too, with traditional cotton tails..... just because... ! The chocolate ones in the hand made box above are in the post to my mum. Hopefully they will have arrived today. 

The sugar mice went to nursery (after Oliver scoffed a couple). He kept telling me "They're just so cute Mummy !". I must admit - I had fun photographing those.... with their cheeky little noses poking out the bag !

Incase you haven't already guessed, this is another brand new silicone mould in our chocolate collection series. You can find it here. Oven safe up to +260deg C - so you could also make some little mice Madeleines. If you do - I'd love to see those !

If you look closely at the mould, you will see that the three mice on the left have tails, whilst the three on the right do not. This is no accident ! Traditional sugar mice have cotton tails inserted into them, whilst I thought chocolate mice would look better with their tails curled up their backs. Having some with and some without felt like the right thing to do - so you have both options in just one mould

Chocolate Mice with Hazlenut Ganache

melt some good quality chocolate 

(I like to use Callebaut - which comes in milk, dark and white)

Put about a heaped teaspoon or so (until well covered) in each mould. Use the back of the teaspoon to coat the inside of each cell. Pay particular attention to the ears and tails to make sure there are no air bubbles in there !

Once this is done, pop the mould in the fridge for 5 mins or so until the chocolate hardens.

Meantime, make some ganache as a filling.

350g of good quality chocolate (dark, milk or plain)

1 cup of double cream

2 tablespoons of butter

* small amount of your favourite alchohol - can be ommitted

I additionally added approx 2 tablespoons of chopped, roasted hazelnuts.

Put the cream in a pan and bring to the boil. Immediately, remove from the heat and our straight on to the chocolate. Keep stirring the chocolate and cream until all melted and combined. Stir in the butter until combined. If adding alcohol - you can add up to about 50ml now and stir to combine.

Whilst the ganache is pouring consistency (but cool) you can pour into the chocolate mice shells. There will be enouh ganache to make about 40 mice ! Remaining ganache can be chilled in the fridge. You can spoon this into more mice later - or hand roll to make truffles

Top each mouse cell with some more melted chocolate to seal. Chill again in the fridge to harden before releasing from the moulds.

Warning - these "beg" to be eaten..... and make delightful gifts. I've already promised Oliver we'll make a load for his friends when it's his birthday !

SUGAR MICE RECIPE

(makes approx 7)

200g sugarpaste / rolling type fondant icing

tiny little bit of water

flavouring extract

food colouring

cotton string - for tails !

Sugar mice are made from little except sugar and glucose.

The easiest way to make them is by traditional methods and I made a few batches of these to get them just right and write a recipe.

The sugarpaste / rolling icing is the stuff you can buy in premade blocks in the supermarkets, suitable for rolling out to cover cakes.... same as they have used to make every factory produced sugar mouse

Cut the string to make tails - about 3" long. Put a tail into each cell. This needs done now, as the mixture starts to set the second you pour it and the tails would not stick hen I tried to place them on top immediately after pouring.

Chop up 200g and place in a small saucepan. Add a tablespoon of water (be aware you may need to add a little more), a tiny bit of food colouring and a capful of flavouring extract. We used mint, orange and strawberry (made 3 batches). Turn on the heat and bring up to just below boiling point, until the icing is melted and thick, but pourable. You may need to add a little more water. The icing will crust in the pan and start setting even on the heat. Give it a good stir and pour into each cell.

On pouring each one, Pull the cotton tail (covered in sugar mix) back out and pop it on the top (to become the base)

Leave the mice to harden for approx 30mins until cool and then they'll practically fall out the mould. The mould needs no preparation for sugar or chocolate mice - but will require greasing and flouring if you want to make little mice cakes.

Leave to harden for a couple of days before using food colouring pens (or a brush) to put on the eyes and noses. I did mine straight away, and the colour bled a little as the mice hadn't matured. Saying that - they didn't last long enough to mature !

And a GIVEAWAY......It's been a while since we did one of these !

To enter, you need to be a blog follower and leave a comment below..... 

Oliver will draw one winner out a hat next Friday :-)

The prize is going to be a set of 4 silicone chocolate moulds (buttons, mice, handbags & shoes, plus another new one I've not taken photos of yet), plus a digital thermometer (suitable for chocolate, making sweets, jam etc). I've also got a little chocolate melting pot (240v) if the winner is in the UK. If the winner is overseas, I'll substitute it with a cupcake book - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (the chocolate cupcakes in second last post was a recipe adapted from that book)

Good Luck !

Sarah-Jane Nash, August 11 - www.siliconemoulds.com

Two Tear & Share Loafs from one basic bread recipe

Fresh, homemade bread has to be one of my biggest vices. I. DO. LOVE. FRESH. BREAD.  It doesn't last long in our house, so I try not to make home made bread too often as I could eat too much of it.

Tear and share type breads are both easy and fun to make. My pretty red KitchenAid food mixer has improved my bread and also made it much quicker to make as it takes the work out of the kneading of dough. Saying that, kneading dough is terribly therapeutic !

Making two loaves of bread at the same time is something I would never do. It's just too much....or at least, it WAS. A basic bread recipe with 500g of flour fits in a 2lb loaf mould or tin. However, we now have new 1lb loaf moulds. A 1lb loaf tin is a really hard size to find these days. To get the size for this, I used a very old tin that belonged to my grandmother and had many many years of use. 

We developed it into a new style silicone mould which is now available in both black and red. These are heavy duty and have feet supports built in just like the larger 2lb and extra large 3lb moulds. Main benefit here is that I can make one basic bread recipe and split it into two smaller loafs.

So easy, it's childs play ! Honestly, after the mixer did the work and the dough had first prove, I made the sweet bread and Oliver (aged not quite 3yo) made the savoury one last weekend

Basic Bread recipe

500g strong white bread flour

1 tablespoon of olive oil (or a knob of butter)

1 tablespoon of sugar

1.1/2 teaspoons of salt

1 sachet of fast action dried yeast (for breadmakers)

320ml warm milk (or water)

Put all the dry ingredients in your food mixer (fitted with dough hook) and add the warmed milk. I prefer to use milk for tear and share type breads, and water for plain, standard slicing bread.

Leave it to be worked by the mixer at a medium speed for around 10mins. Remove the bowl, cover with some cling film and leave until doubled in size. Depending on the temperature, this could take anywhere from 30 mins to overnight ! This time of year, I find it takes about 40mins. Now your dough is ready to use.

Divide the dough into two batches. It's going to be puffy and deflate as soon as you start handling it - but don't worry - that's normal and we'll do another short rise later. Keep one batch aside to use and shove the other back in the bowl under the cling film.

The iced apple & pecan tear and share bread was going to be too hard for Oliver, so I did this one.

INGREDIENTS 

soft, brown sugar

cinnamon

1 medium sized apple (finely chopped)

fistful of pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

salted butter

First of all, I rolled the dough out to a large thin strip on my silicone rolling work mat. You may need a little flour for dusting your rolling pin (and your work surface if you don't have a silicone mat). I then used a blunt table knife to cut it lengthways into two narrower strips.

You'll see there are no quantities. All I can say is use liberally. You can't really go wrong !

Butter the dough strips on one side. Sprinkle them all over with a good covering of the soft, light brown sugar and give a good dusting with cinnamon (as much or as little as you like !) and then top with the chopped apple pieces.

From the end, roll over about 1.1/2 turns and then cut through with the blunt table knife. I managed to get 8 rolls. Wedge these into your mould, two abreast and then dot the tops with butter. I like to use salted butter as I love the combination of sweetness and salt.

Put on top of a baking tray and leave for about 20mins to rise a little before baking in a fan oven at about 180deg C (190deg C normal) for around 30 mins.

Remove from oven.

Ooops - a little too much butter on top. The bread rises a bit more in the oven, so excess ran off.

Make up some glaze if desired from some icing sugar mixed with fresh orange juice to form a thick paste. Spread this on top of the hot bread. Much of it will melt in and the rest will set on the top

I'm sure you can see why this didn't last long ! Shared between 4, it disappeared fast !

The sugar and butter with apples produces a appley caramel syrupy goo. Soooo yummy !

See the apples in the middle of each piece. This smelt and tasted SO good !

ok.... enough of the apple and pecan bread... and on to the savoury. 

There are not so many photos of this as I was rather tied up helping Oliver and supervising.

With the second batch of dough, take it out the bowl and rip it up into loads of little balls. For photos of what I mean see this post here about Monkey Bread.

For this savoury bread we used :

pepperoni

tomato puree (slightly thinned with a tiny bit of water)

cheese ( in this case we used red leicester)

sliced red peppers

cherry tomatoes

olive oil

STEP 1

Oliver : rip up pepperoni

Mummy : crumble cheese (or grate)

STEP 2

Oliver : Take the balls and dip each one in olive oil

Mummy : smear some of the balls with some tomato puree

Pop them into the 1lb loaf mould. 

STEP 3

Oliver : sprinkle on some cheese. Scatter some pepperoni and sliced bell pepper

Mummy : sprinkle on a little fresh thyme (sparingly !)

Repeat steps 2 & 3 until mould is full and all dough balls used.

Put some cherry tomatoes on top to make it pretty and leave for 20 minutes or so to rise a little.

Bake as per the apple and cinnamon bread...

Although both loaves were made on the one day, I put the apple pecan one in the fridge and we baked Oliver's savoury loaf first. The apple pecan loaf was baked the following day and went straight from the fridge to the oven.

Happy baking !

Sarah-Jane & Oliver Nash, August 2011 - www.siliconemoulds.com

Chocolate Cupcakes (eggless)

This is a really easy recipe for delicious, moist and fluffy cupcakes. It uses neither butter or eggs and is quick to make.

I've made it a few times now over the last year, but first time blogging the recipe. It is not overly sweet (until you top it with an enormous calorific mountain of chocolate buttercream) ! It's become my first choice recipe for chocolate cupcakes.

Martha Stewart's chocolate cupcake recipe is great too - but makes a massive batch of approx 24, whereas this recipe makes me a perfect 10 (quantity - unfortunately not dress size) and is very easy to scale up or down.

The original recipe was vegan, from the book VEGAN CUPCAKES TAKE OVER THE WORLD and can be found here. Talking of which, I've just ordered a copy :-)

Incase you are wondering where those seriously cute chocolate buttons came from, it's a new mould to our collection. This particular silicone mould is my own design and is now available online. Makes super cupcake toppers - or wonderful buttons simply to munch. They also look awesome packaged as a gift ..... if you can bear to give them away !

There are three sizes of buttons in the mould and 18 cells (six of each size). With the larger cells, you cna use a teaspoon to put the chocolate in the cell - but a piping bag (or food bag) with the tiniest snip out of the corner is needed to fill the tiny baby button cells. The big cells are similar to a coat button and the smallest, baby buttons or shirt buttons.

RECIPE - Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

1 cup of milk

1 tsp cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup plain flour

2 tbsp cornflour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

good pinch of salt

Heat oven to 170deg C fan / 180deg C normal / 350deg F

Prepare your muffin mould or tin with paper cases

Put the vinegar into the milk and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. If really cold milk, it won't curdle straight away - so I zap it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Whisk the milk, other wet ingredients and sugar together.

Stir in dry ingredients and whisk until smooth (the odd small lump is ok).

Transfer into a jug and pour into paper cases to 3/4 fill. I found 10 was perfect - left some space at the top below the wrapper rim for frosting base. If you want your cupcakes a little higher (less buttercream), just make 9 instead

See Chocolate Mud Cake blog entry for the frosting recipe

Enjoy ! (PS - you're fighting Oliver for the beaters. I don't rate your chances !!!)

Oliver's quote of the day : "Mummy - don't forget the bit out the concrete mixer is mine!"

Concrete mixer being the beater from my gorgeous red Kitchenaid..... This is so NOT concrete !

Sarah-Jane Nash, August 2011 - www.siliconemoulds.com

Luxury Vanilla Rice Pudding with Gin Soaked Prunes

It's been a long long time since I last made rice pudding. Now I've made it again, I think it may feature on our menu more often.....

I think what puts me off is the long 2 hour baking time. It just takes so long to oven bake rice pudding !

This was made in just 15 minutes in my electric pressure cooker. What's more, it's so so simple. You don't have to serve it with gin soaked prunes - apples and cinnamon or other fresh fruits would be lovely. Even a great big dollop of homemade jam !

Soak your prunes in gin for a minimum of overnight. The prunes shown here were VERY mature and had been soaking in a jar for over a year. The remaining alcohol in the jar was a dark sticky brown and lovely and syrupy from the natural sugars in the prunes. Simply pop a few on top with a spoonful or two of the deadly liquer.

Rice Pudding Recipe

400mls of whole milk

150mls of double cream

80 grams of pudding rice

40 grams of sugar

1 vanilla pod

small knob of butter

Put all the ingredients into the electric pressure cooker. Remove the seeds from the vanilla pod. Add both the seeds and the pod to the pot. Bring the temperature up to almost simmering and give a good stir. Put the lid on and set to high pressure for 15mins.

When the time is up, release the steam. You may need to cook it for a few minutes more to thicken the rice pudding a little. It will still be a little wet.

Pour into a large bowl and cover with cling film. Make sure the film touches the surface of the rice pudding to stop it forming a skin. Allow to sit for about 30mins to absorb some of the remaining "sauce" and thicken. The cling film helps keep the heat in - it will be perfect temperature to serve

Enjoy !

Sarah-Jane Nash, August 2011

Roll Up, Roll Up - It's Swiss Roll Time :-)

Swiss Rolls were on my baking bucket list. They've been there for a considerable amount of time. Many other things get added.... and scored off... but swiss rolls remained.

Ok - I can bake. Like anyone, I have the occasional kitchen disaster - but few things are inedible even if they don't look that pretty. I don't know what held me back so much from attempting swiss rolls. The fear of cracking it I suppose. A crack should not be the end of the world though. That bit is simply cosmetic.

Those that really know me however will know that I don't take failure lightly. I LIKE good results and I like visions to be realised. I guess lack of time to make the same thing 20 times and get that result was what was holding me back.

Recently, Ann Low of Anncoo Journal has made some terrific looking swiss rolls and it really inspired me to have a go.

I've adapted Ann's recipe to fit our new Tray Bake / Swiss Roll Silicone bakeware mould. we've had this  mould in for a month or so, but I had not got round to using it. Ann uses a bigger square tray. I tried everywhere, to get a big square tin tray like Ann's - but failed miserably. They don't seem to exist in the UK. I wanted to make my swiss rolls look like Ann's....

Anyway. This roll is a really good size. I start at the narrow end and roll down the length. This mould is just under 11 x 9" inside and a more common size for tray bakes or swiss rolls in the UK.

RECIPE

note - digital scales required !

55g plain flour

15g icing sugar

25ml oil (vegetable or sunflower are fine)

25ml water

3 egg yolks

1tsp of vanilla or almond extract

3 egg whites

40g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 160deg C

Line the base of the silicone mould with some baking paper and oil the surface of the paper. You need this to lift it easily out of the mould for rolling.

Mix the first set of ingredients together.

Whip the egg whites in a separate bowl to soft peaks. Add the 40g of sifted icing sugar and continue to whisk to stiff peaks.

If you want to make a pretty pattern like Ann's Swiss rolls, take a couple of teaspoons of each mix. Put them in a cup and mix together with some food colouring. 

This can be put in a piping bag and piped directly on to the baking paper lined tray.

Ann's blog tells you to PUT THIS IN THE OVEN for a minute or two to set it. Stupid me didn't read that bit and smudged it up when I made my stripey roll... The second roll I made, Oliver helped. Instead of nicely spaced spots we ended up with pink splats. Hey - it tasted just great anyway !

Fold the rest of the egg white mix and egg yolk mix together

Carefully put the plain mix on top of your design...

Bake in 160deg C oven for approx 15 minutes

Remove from oven. Allow to cool.

Remove from mould and invert on to a plastic sheet on top of a towel. I skipped that and used a silicone baking tray liner. Carefully peel away baking paper. Turn back over and trim the edges off the short ends at a 45 deg angle, then spread the cake with a layer of good quality jam (I used cherry).

Start to roll up the cake from one of the short ends.

I rolled mine up and then kept going to roll the mat right round the outside of the rolled cake. This photo shows my roll inside my silicone baking tray liner.

Put in the fridge for an hour or so. This helps it hold and not unroll like a spring when you unwrap it !

As you can see, my first attempt looked like an edible paint roller ! So maybe diagonal stripes isn't the best choice of pattern. lol

The lines were a little out of true though as I didn't read to bake for a minute or two to set the stripes before adding the rest of the mix. I thought my second attempt would turn out really pretty - but it turned into splat markings with a little help from Oliver !

We've been out most of the day today. It was Emma's 4th birthday party. Emma is Oliver's best buddy and her mummy is a very very good friend of mine :-)

Victoria has been busy baking too this week - making loads of cupcakes with Emma for the party and also the kitkat cake I posted a week or two ago. Happy Birthday Emma !

Sarah-Jane Nash, August 2011 - www.siliconemoulds.com 

Rose Macarons - Straight from the Heart !

So pretty. So yummy. So dainty. So pink !

I love macarons. That meringuey shell with the chewy almond middle and soft buttercream. What's not to love ?

Macarons are know for being notoriously difficult to make and achieve a good "foot" on the base.

Actually, it's REALLY not that hard..... with the right recipe.

I made macarons for the first time about a year ago. However, I think the basic recipe Astral uses is much better. This involves boiling sugar syrup and pouring into whipped egg whites - much like making marshmallows. 

RECIPE

180g icing sugar

160g ground almonds

4 large egg whites, separated into two equal batches -

160g caster sugar

80ml water

1 tsp rosewater

2 tsp pink food colouring

Sift the almonds and icing sugar together. Add the rose water and food colouring to two egg whites and put this on top of the icing sugar / ground almond mix.

Heat caster sugar and water together until they reach 110deg C. Whip 2 egg whites to stiff peaks and then slowly drizzle and whip in the hot syrup to these until it becomes shiny and stiff. Avoid getting any syrup directly on the beaters if possible !

Fold the whipped egg white / syrup mix gently into the other bowl of mix. I started by adding a spoonful and mixing that through to loosen it up and then folded the rest in.

Transfer this into a piping bag. Pipe into small rounds on grease proof paper or silicone baking sheets.

I did both to see the difference. Both the silicone baking sheets and the greaseproof paper gave the same results.

You need to stand the macaron mix like this on the sheets for about an hour so the surface drys out BEFORE you bake it. Otherwise, your shells are likely to crack and the finished result really isn't the same (been there - done that !) Put on some sprinkles (if using) now. I used some pink hearts with pink edible glitter

Pop into a 145 > 150deg C oven for approx 15 minutes. Remove and immediately slide silicone sheet or greaseproof paper off the tray onto the work surface. 

Leave to TOTALLY cool before removing. If even slightly warm, the insides of the macaron will leave themselves stuck to the paper or silicone sheet.

For the filling, I made a simple buttercream with icing sugar and butter and added some rosehip syrup. Sorry - I forgot to weigh ingredients for this.... Simply mixed the three together until right consistency was achieved and sandwiched between the shells

Hope you enjoy these as much as we did ! 

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com, August 2011

How to Make Bombs - Bath Bombs (Fizzers)

Already it's August. Just where did the time go ? Thankfully there is still a bit of summer left. 

The best bit too - with all the super late summer fruits like plums, cherries, new season apples and blackberries.

However, before you know it, we'll be plunging into winter and we'll all be tapping each other for ideas for Christmas hampers and making gutsy, rich winter stews.

Home made bath bombs are so easy that even the kids can help. You would really never guess that they could be so simple and the ingredients are things most of us food bloggers tend to keep in the cupboard. (.....some stocking up may be required). I actually made these about 3 weeks ago and sent them to nursery with Oliver for their raffle at Sports Day

Bath bombs make a lovely gift at any time of year and will keep for rather a long time. As long as you keep them dry that is ! They look lovely simply wrapped in some tissue paper with ribbon

Recipe (makes approx 6 largish bombs)

1 cup of citric acid

2 cups of bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp of olive oil

2.5ml tea rose fragrance oil (or another fragrance of your choice)

1ml colouring

water to spritz (spray bottle required)

No special equipment is required to make bath bombs apart from a simple plastic spray bottle. These are easily and cheaply obtained from pound / dollar stores or similar. It really does not need to be anything fancy.

You will also need something to mould your bath bombs. You could use a metal or silicone muffin tray. If metal, I suggest you line it with papers to make it easy to get the finished bath bombs out. Bath bombs will release very easily from even very intricate silicone moulds after they have been left to harden for a while. Silicone bakeware moulds mean you can make some really pretty designs.

 For these, I used our new 6 cell mixed flower mould that you can see below

Large volumes of citric acid and bicarbonate of soda are easy to buy online via ebay. Make sure the fragrance oils are cosmetic grade and not just suitable for candles / oil burners only. Some fragrance oil brands are much stronger than others, so you may need to vary how much you use.

Sift the citric acid and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.

Add the fragrance oil, olive oil and colour. Mix well to combine.

Using the spray bottle, spray on a little water a little at a time. You really don't need much at all. Work quickly. Add only JUST enough so that when you squeeze the mixture hard in your hands it forms clumps. It will be very sandy in appearance and texture. 

If you add too much water, the bicarbonate of soda will start to fizz ..... and we really don't want that to happen yet !

Press the mix into the cells of your silicone mould and leave to harden for a couple of hours or so. That's all there is to it. 

Oliver loves to drop these in the bath and watch them fizzzzzz.

Here are some photos from last month's Nursery Sports Day...

READY...... STEADY..... GO !

Ooops. No motion shots - but here is Oliver getting his race completion sticker from Ladybird class teacher Miss Willimott.

Some of the yellow team being led off "train style" ready for the next race.

Here's race #2 !