Easter Egg Nests

Without an oven now I was looking for recipes to make that did not need baking, and with Easter tomorrow this recipe fitted the bill. So here they are the chocolate easter egg nests.

Ingredients
240 g of milk Chocolate
Cornflakes (or Frosties)
Mini eggs (optional)

1. Fill a saucepan half way with water and bring to boil.
2. Break up the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place it in the saucepan so the heat of the water melts it. Make sure not to stir the chocolate while it is melting as it will turn lumpy.
3. Once the chocolate has melted add in the cornflakes bit by bit and stirring with a wooden spoon until they are all coated.
4. Dish out the mixture into bun cases and add the optional mini eggs on top.
5. Allow to cool then place in the fridge until set and ready to eat.

Egg hunt – final weekend

All the eggs are gathered together in Covent Garden to be auctioned for Easter. It’s crowded there and there are too many to list here, you’ll see some more photos have been added to my earlier post with slideshow. Instead of finding eggs see if you can find me in the picture below – click on it to enlarge.

David Hockney exhibition

On Sunday, me and my Dad went to see the David Hockney exhibition at The Royal Academy of Art. After two hours of queuing we got inside and looked around. It was very busy and you had to push your way to the front to see some of the paintings. His art is very bright and is very well known around the country. One room had four walls with paintings on each showing the different seasons, winter, spring, summer and autumn. All of them were painted in the same place and of the same things. My favourite painting of his is of some flowers, they are bright and colourful. Sometimes David Hockney paints using his iPad, a first to many painters.

Egg hunt

Found him! He sold for £51,000! (link below picture)

Humpty Dumpty, St James Park

We also saw:
The Obsidian Egg, Trafalgar Square
Egg Hog, Trafalgar Square
Ouroboros, Covent Garden
Tree of Life, Covent Garden
On Egg Shell, (Russell Street) Covent Garden
And in the City, during his lunchtimes, my Dad saw:
Chicken Crowd, The City
Zero is…, The City
Citadel, The City
Birdie, (outside the Gherkin) The City
Blooming Azure, The City
From little acorns, mighty oaks do grow, The City
Egg Cup, The City
Leap, The City
The Vessel, The City
Egglantine, The City
Anima Mundi – ‘Awakening the soul of the world’, The City
Metropolis, The City
Bee-Egg, The City
Chicken, The City
The Geocentric Model, The City
L’ouef, The City
Phoenix, The City
The Embryo of Human Greed, The City
Olympia Parc, The City

Gingerbread people

Ingredients

40g caster sugar
50g margarine
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp mixed spice
100g self-raising flour
2 tbsp golden syrup
Decorations

Equipment

Mixing bowl, cutters, teaspoon, palette knife, baking tray, tablespoon, rolling pin, cooling tray, wooden spoon, sieve, measuring jug

Special points

Heat your spoon in hot water before you measure syrup. It makes the syrup slide off more easily.

Method

1. Wash hands and put apron on
2. Collect equipment
3. Preheat oven to 180C/ Gas 4
4. Grease a baking tray
5. Sieve flour, ginger and mixed spice into a mixing bowl
6. Add margarine and rub in with finger tips until mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs
7. Add sugar and mix to a stiff paste with syrup with a wooden spoon
8. Draw dough together until it forms a ball
9. Roll out thinly onto a lightly floured surface and cut into shapes with a cutter
10. Transfer onto greased baking tray. Make sure they are not too close together
11. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown
12. Let gingerbread biscuits cool for 5 minutes on a baking tray
13. Carefully remove to a cooling tray, using a palette knife
14. Decorate with icing and chocolate chips

Blackheath Concert Halls performance

School orchestra perform Pirates of the Carribean

Egg hunt

We went to London for the Big Egg Hunt, there are some pictures below. Click on links further down to see all the eggs we collected and the artists who designed them.

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We started in Trafalgar Square and saw…
White on Black: Sensuality and Restraint, Trafalgar Square
Around the world before bedtime…, Trafalgar Square
Blackberry Moon, Trafalgar Square
Egg Race, Trafalgar Square
The Legacy Egg, Trafalgar Square
Chicken or Egg?, Covent Garden
Hiranya Garbha – The Golden Egg. Covent Garden
Ornament and Abstraction Mask, Covent Garden
Gregg, Covent Garden
OOOOF, Covent Garden
One Eye Wide Shut, Covent Garden
Dinosaurs, Covent Garden
Street Homage to Fabergé, Covent Garden
The Mighty Moshi Egg, Covent Garden
Baby Ganesha’s Nest, Covent Garden
…we met Callum, Linda and Ian in Neal’s Yard and with them found…
The Early Worm Catches the Moment, Covent Garden
Busby, Covent Garden
Egg and Soldier, Covent Garden
Where’s Wally?
Work No. 2620, Piccadilly
Emelius, Piccadilly
Ascension, Piccadilly
Basileus, Piccadilly
The Golden Speckled Egg, Piccadilly
The Przewalski Horse Egg, Piccadilly
Great Eggspectations, Piccadilly
The Golden Egg, Piccadilly
Harnessing the world’s wealth, Mayfair
Egg Voila, Mayfair
…where we met Gillian, Stuart, Martin and his girlfriend, in Berkeley Square, and had lunch then went on to discover…
Baku Fairy tale, Mayfair
My Baku, Mayfair
Rebirth, Mayfair
Fuego de Huevo (Fire Egg), Mayfair
Life is Beautiful, Mayfair
ovum ferrugu, Green Park
Conundrum, Green Park
Baaaaa-bara, Green Park
Conchiglia, Green Park
Gothegg, Green Park
La Vie en Rose, Green Park
Pretty Polly, St James’s Park
The Power of Plants, St James’s Park
Our Brood, St James’s Park
Spring, St James’s Park
…then the others wanted to go home. As it got dark we added….
Our Team, Trafalgar Square
Cuckoo, Trafalgar Square
Regency Egg, Southbank
The Great Eggscape, Southbank
KOJAK, Southbank
Racing Green, Southbank
Scrambled Egg City, Southbank
Dreamweaver, Southbank
Eneggmatic Egg, Southbank
Eggsquisit London, Southbank
Sarah, Southbank
Untitled, Southbank
Hypno Egg, Southbank
Invisible Egg, Southbank
Amplified, Southbank
The Arden Egg, Southbank
Samara, Southbank
…before heading home, tired, after a long day

Half term gherkin

In the half term we had a trip to the top of the Gherkin building. We were given VIP passes and acted very important. Some stairs and several lifts took us to the very top where we gazed at the amazing view. We looked over on all of London, picking out places we knew. Once our time was up we left and headed down to the bottom of the building where we met up with Dad for lunch.

A Winter’s Tale

Once upon a time, in a small wintery kingdom lived a sad little prince who would never stop crying. Although with the finest golden silk robes, and all the toys a child would ever want, a palace made of tiny crystals all shaped as one. The sad little price would weep all day and all night, his head burrowed in his velvet cushions drenching them with tears. One morning his mother awakened the prince.

“Oh, my sad little prince why do you never stop crying? Last night I did not sleep a wink for your howling,”
The prince replied with ”I am sorry my mother but I wish to play outside!”
“You can always go outside, whenever you want!”
“Mother you don’t understand I wish to play in spring when the flower buds open and the sun begins to shine, oh mother please?”
“But you know that can’t be done for this kingdom will never change to spring but always stay winter.”

So the prince continued howling all through the day. That night while the prince lay weeping in his bed, he heard a clatter at the window then a stumble by his bed. Frightened, the prince sat up, but before he could scream he was comforted by a soothing voice.

”Sad little prince I will grant you one wish,” the sad little prince looked at the figure standing at the end of his bed, was it a person? Was it an animal? Was it a genie? “Who are you?” the prince asked. The figure moved under the moonlight so the prince could see. ”You are a bear? The prince gasped “a talking bear?”
“Yes” the bear replied “and I have come to grant you one wish”
“I wish for this kingdom to become spring”
”Oh, but it is not that easy,” the bear said “you first have to complete a quest.”
”A quest?” the prince stammered “a quest for what?”
“You need to find me a casket of jewels before your wish is granted.”
”Where shall I find this casket of jewels?”
”In your heart, you will find the jewels in your heart.” And with that the bear disappeared.

The following morning the prince knew exactly what he had to do. He had to go to the old shepherd, he was old and wise, and the prince thought the shepherd could lead him straight to the jewels. So off he went on his quest.

Through the forests, across the fields the prince travelled for hours towards the shepherd’s house. Then on his way the prince came across a beautiful palace laid before him. He stumbled on a large root coming up from the ground of a nearby tree, then fell to the floor and cut his knee, very deep, a quick surge of pain went through him as he yelped from the shock. When he stood up he heard a cry from above, looking up at the top window of the palace there was a princess looking out the window at him.

“You down there,” the princess called “where are you going?”
”On a quest,” the prince shouted, “to find a casket of jewels.”
“Oh, how exciting, may I join you?”
“Of course!” said the prince.

So the princess climbed down from her bedroom and the prince explained the situation. “Oh, dear prince but my father, the king, he will not let me go!” the princess cried once the prince had explained. “Well we should go quickly then shouldn’t we!” so they ran and ran until they reached the shepherd’s cottage.

As they knocked on the door it slowly creaked open “The sad little prince! And…the princess?” the shepherd said, “and why might you be here?” The prince and princess told the shepherd what had happened and that they had to move fast because the princess’ dad would soon be after them with a search party. So as quick as they could, the three of them set off with the shepherd leading the way to where he thought the jewels would be.

On their travels they came by a sea they had to cross to reach the next island. The only way to cross was to use an abandoned ship on the shore so they clambered in and set a sail. Soon after leaving shore the shepherd sensed a storm, this was terrible the ship could easily be capsized by raging waves. But the only thing they could do was carrying going forward. Once the rain downpour started the three of the began to worry whether they would make it over and the storm only grew worse and worse. Soon their boat was rocking side to side and waves splashing over on deck. Then, suddenly the sail caught up with wind and dragged the ship over on its side. It sank to the sea floor. With just enough time to escape the princess, prince and shepherd bobbed to the surface and swam to shore.

Navigating through the woods, the shepherd said they had nearly reached their destination. As they got closer and closer they made out a dark figure standing in the centre of the woods. Soon they could see it was a statue, this made them very confused where was the casket of jewels? After thinking and puzzling for a while they decided to turn back but as they did the statue moved its fingers and blinked it slowly but surely came alive and then the statue announced “To find the casket of jewels you are looking for, you must smash me open as they lay inside of me.” The princess, prince and shepherd looked at each other completely shocked and confused, a talking statue that comes alive? But as they talked to each other and discussed what to do, they could not find it in their hearts to smash such a beautiful, stunning statue even for a casket of jewels so they told the statue, and it nodded it’s head. The prince was terribly disappointed now it would never be spring and his wish would not be granted. But as he began to cry, a bear fumbled along the path towards them “You have shown kindness and respect and for that your wish is granted! This is what I meant by saying you will find the jewels in you heart” everyone cheered with happiness as the trees began to blossom and flower buds opened, the sun shone down on them as they danced together.

The sad little prince was re-named as the happy little prince as he played all day in the forest and never stopped smiling, for now it was spring.

The End.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! This is my christmas pudding drawing and below my Nanny’s christmas pudding recipe.