Baking and Laughing

If you read my previous post, you must be wondering what we ended up baking!? During the week, I selected a few Nutella recipes on Pinterest and then together with Rob we chose the Peanut butter and Nutella bread for our little weekend baking project. Rob introduced me to peanut butter about ten years ago; it is not very common in Italy - in fact, it's considered junk food. But hey, it's so good, I was definitely not going to pass on it. And it is particularly good with chocolate (Reeses, anyone??!)! And who doesn't love Nutella?!? So, this recipe is hopefully a win win for both of us. I say hopefully because even if we are done baking, we haven't tried it yet, can you believe it? It has been sitting on our kitchen table for over two hours and we haven't touched it! We are saving it for after dinner. 

 

 

Anyway, we baked the cake. I baked and Emilia and Rob watched me. Emilia in particular, followed all the steps very carefully. And once we put the cake into the oven, at first we patiently waited, occasionally looking inside the oven to see the cake rise. 

But then we got a bit bored, so we played on the floor with mummy's craft tools and everything on hand.

 

 

 

And then, since Emilia was getting out of control, we had to take her away from all that treasure and tried to relax in bed. And when I say relax, I mean hysterical laughs! Emilia is VERY ticklish and we love playing with/torturing her! Evil parents :)

Anyway, I will let you know if the cake is good and worth making it over and over and over again! 

So, what did they do?

So what did they do? What did Emilia and my parents do while Rob and I were busy working hard? The answer is: all sorts of things! 

First of all, my mum and dad showered Emilia with gifts. They brought a few things from Italy and bought a ton of stuff here in London. Meet the latest addition to the family, Miss Hello Kitty, one of Emilia's beloved and favourite things in the world. I don't usually love stuffed toys but I have to admit, she is a cutie.

One day, my parents went out shopping and came back with a lot of things for Emilia, mostly books and activities. As my mum pointed out, Emilia is a *table-kid*, meaning someone who really enjoys sitting down at a table to learn and do new things. For this exact reason, we recently bought a Stokke highchair and created a craf-area for Emilia in the main room. Her corner of the table is full of crayons, markers, colouring-in pads, stamps, stickers and many many other things to keep her little brain and hands busy. So, Emilia and my parents have been using this spot and have been experimenting with different kinds of painting, with a classic brush, hand painting as well as sponge painting. The results are quite impressive, I think. Emilia is already definitely better than me at painting.

 Also, as I mentioned in the previous post, they did a bit of cooking and baking. Emilia loves pumpkins so my parents showed to her how they look inside and how to cut, carve, and cook them. They made a delicious pumpkin and potatoes soup! They also baked some anise cookies. The ones in the picture were entirely made by Emilia from scratch.

 

So, Emilia was busy painting, baking, and...cleaning! Yes, cleaning, that's right! Emilia loves cleaning. Since she was very little, she enjoyed having a little sponge to clean her little table after a meal. That's what I did, and that's what she wanted to do. I always found it adorable. Now, my parents may have taken the cleaning interest to a different level by letting/making her clean the windows! When I saw this picture that my dad took while I was in Barcelona I laughed really hard. There she is, my seventeen months old baby cleaning the window in the kitchen!

Joking aside, it looks like the three of them had a great time together and this makes me very happy. When they were not busy painting, creating, crafting, building, baking, cooking, and cleaning, they strolled a bit around our neighbourhood. The weather in London hasn't been great but not too bad either and thankfully we live in a very nice area, where there is always something going on.

 

 Mum, dad, thanks again for your help. I will treasure all these pictures, and in particular this drawing of us, forever and ever. And I am sure Emilia will love to look at this one day. 

Funfetti Cupcakes

On Sunday morning Rob woke up with a craving for something home-baked. I am always up for a baking project, so I immediately looked up at my Food board on Pinterest and the first thing that caught my eye was this Funfetti Cupcakes recipe. I showed it to Rob and he was easily sold. So, we checked if we had all the ingredients in the cupboards and sooner than we imagined we were all in baking mood! When I say all, what I really mean is that I did all the baking and cleaning, Emilia had fun with the sprinkles, and Rob watched us, impatiently waiting to put his hands on the cupcakes! 

 

 

 

In the end we had lots of fun and the cupcakes turned out quite yummy! Not as cool as the ones from the blog, but still quite nice. My dough was definitely less white than that one from the original recipe and so was the frosting. I wonder why...If you are intrigued and want to give it a go, here is the recipe.

 

And if you are wondering what is Emilia wearing, here is a shot of the full, crazy outfit. Doesn't she look like a rock-star? :)

Ella Valentine Eggs

I first spotted these super cute eggs on the lovely Yvestown Blog where the bright pink box appeared in a picture of the blogger's kitchen. Since then I have been dreaming about these eggs. And yesterday I realised that they are a British product and are sold at selected Sainsbury's stores. How cool is that? 

Ella Valentine Eggs are large free range baking eggs and a box of six eggs costs 1.29£.

If you, like me, go nuts for packaging, this is for you! Head to Sainsbury's today and make sure you check Ella Valentine site to download their recipe ideas!

Lakeland

OMG! My good friend Amy has just introduced me to this shop and I simply love it! I know I will be spending lots of time, and money!, browsing around, looking for the perfect cake topper and birthday candles...

Lakeland is a shop full of lovely little things that will make your cooking and baking even more fun! Below some of my fave: