Maple Bacon Birthday Cake!!

Birthday are kinda a big deal around here! There is early morning wake ups to rip opens gifts in PJs, there are breakfasts of birthday persons choice, there is our birthday chair cover, there are birthday badges to wear all day long and of course there is a birthday cake to suit the birthday boy or girl.
Today is Mister Giggleberry's birthday. Mister Giggleberry is not too much of a 'sweet tooth' and just recently we have started to try a paleo diet at home, stepping up from just clean eating & to match our new love of CrossFit. With all these factors to consider I went cake hunting for inspiration on Pinterest and struck gold with a few ideas rolled into one EPIC cake!
One 3 Layered Paleo Spice Cake with Cashew Maple Frosting wrapped in Candied Bacon!!

The recipe for the cake and frosting can be found HERE thanks to The Paleo Mum. The recipe I followed for the candied bacon is HERE by Recipe Girl

This flavour combo is just like the Candian favourite of pancakes with bacon and maple syrup... something hubby LOVES!!

This is gluten free and dairy free but not strictly paleo due to the sugar on the bacon but it's a birthday cake after all... maybe I need to find a more paleo way to make candied bacon. Any ideas?? If you leave the candied bacon off OR found a paleo way to make it then this recipe would also be refined sugar free!!
Happy birthday hubster!!!

Lollipop Class Christmas Card!

Spotted over HERE on Makerland, this is such a simple but fun way for your kiddies to hand out a Christmas card/class gift this year. I had this all done in such a short space of time so even with 20 days now till Christmas day you will have plenty of time to get these done.

How To:
(1) Take a photo of your child (have them stand with their hand in a gentle fist out to the side but infront of them). These can be as fancy/dressed up/set up with a particular background etc as you want. I honestly snapped these of my kids on a school morning after breakfast with my iPhone.

(2) Upload the pics to Picmonkey (or photo editing site of your choice). I cropped the pics a bit making sure the side I planned to have the lollipop go in the hand had more space. Picmonkey is also where I added the text to the photos - my kids chose the colours and fonts with me.

(3) Print! I don't have a printer at the moment so we went to Officeworks to print ours off. I did them in a smaller square size rather than a regular 4x6 photo size but this is completely up to you.
(4) Grab some lollipops. I happen to spot a bucket of mini Chupa Chups while we were in Officeworks - Perfect!!
(5) With a sharp box cutter/craft scalpel slice a small slit in the photo just above the childs fist and just below too.
(6) Feed the stick of a lollipop thought the two slits to make it seem like the child is holding it.

Told you it was simple! Now sit back and watch your kiddies have a ball handing these goodies out!

Crazy Hair Day - Mr Potato Head!!

Today was Crazy Hair Day at little Miss Gigglebrry's school. Most schools and preschools hold a day like this yearly and most kids come with teased up and colour sprayed hair.... I wanted to do something a little different.
Inspired by a pic I spotted on Pinterest we pulled out our mini Mr Potato Head toys and hairspray and started to play!!

This was really fun and different hair style that, let me tell you, got sooooooo many compliments, "wow's", "oh my's" and "how did you do that's" - it needed it's own blog post!!

A basic how to:
* I did an upside-down braid from the base of the head just to half way up the head and secured with an elastic. Then brushed the end of the braid and the rest of the hair into one ponytail right ontop of the head. Secured with lots of hair spray and a tight hair tie.

* Open the ponytail out to find the middle of it and so a little but of hair is hanging down all around the head. Lightly spray the toy potato with hair spray and place it ontop of the opened hair. Close/wrap the hair up and around the potato so you can not see any of the toy. Secure with another hair tie tightly and a bit more hairspray.
* Poke your choice of Mr Potato Head face pieces into the potato.... we decide to not do arms but you absolutely could add arms in the side too.
* Split the hair right ontop of the potato in two and secure with two hair ties.

We then added a little glitter hairspray just for fun too.

Have fun!!

Grain free, Gluten free, Dairy free - Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls!

I love finding a new recipe to try and this one was just too tempting when I saw it posted by someone on Instagram. They looked so easy I had to give it them go right away.
I did have a little 'play' with the original grain & egg free recipe to make it gluten and dairy free as well (and it's also ridiculously low in nasty sugars).... Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1x 400g tin of chick peas (drained & rinsed)
2/3 Cup peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 Cup Rice Malt Syrup
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 Tbs Coconut flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup choc chips (I used left over dairy & gluten free Sweet William choc bunnies from Easter that I cut up but you can use their choc chips).

Method:
Blitz everything, except choc chips, in food processor to combine (if it's too 'wet' add a tiny touch more coconut flour if it's too dry add a tiny touch of water). Once it's all incorporated stir in choc chips by hand. Scoop out a spoonful of the mixture and roll into balls in your hands (I got 17 balls). Place balls on a baking paper lined biscuit tray. Bake in oven for 10-12mins.

Eat warm and gooey straight from the oven or let them cool - up to you - but I bet you will enjoy then for sure!!

Burger Birthday Cake!

It's no secret around here that I like a good excuse to make a fun cake. So with hubby's birthday last wednesday I let the kids choose what type of cake he should have and was thrilled with their choice... a Cheeseburger Cake!!

This cake is rather simple to put together for such a funky finished product.
You will need:
1 round butter cake
1 brownie mixture made into one large round brownie (NOTE use the same round tin as you did for the butter cake)
1 packet of Jolly Rancher lollies (you need the red and green ones)
1 packet of Starburst Fruit Chews (you need the yellow ones)
Pine nuts
Butter icing coloured light brown (mix red and blue colouring until desired colour is achevied OR use a tiny amount of Wiltons brown gel colouring)

Slice the butter cake right through the middle with a serrated knife top create the burger buns. Place the bottom 'bun' on your cake plate with a tiny bit of icing between the cake and plate so it doesn't slip around. Place the large round brownie 'meat pattie' ontop of the bottom 'bun'. Then on goes the top of the butter cake as the top burger bun - you should now have one pretty basic looking 'burger'.
With your icing coat the top cake and try to smooth it as much as possible to look like a burger bun. Next up is the fun part - the tomato, lettuce and cheese! With the red and green Jolly Ranchers and the yellow Starburst chews you need to roll them flat with a rolling pin or squish them out with your fingers (warning this can become sticky!). Once they are rolled out flat-ish you will need to shape them a little. With the red ones make them a little round like a slice of tomato. The yellow ones can be cut into triangles to create slices of cheese and the green ones just need to be wrinkled up a bit to look like lettuce leaves. Now have fun just poking the little bits and pieces into the cake between the 'meat' and the top burger 'bun' like in my pictures.
Last, but not least, sprinkle a handful of the pine nuts ontop of the cake to create sesame seeds on your bun - simple!

Now pop it in the fridge and have a little giggle about the size of the 'Burger' next to the rest of your groceries!

This was lots of fun to make and Master Giggleberry loved helping me (and snacking on the left over Starburst chews). We poked a few sparklers in the top & sang happy birthday for hubby after dinner that night and couldn't help snapping a few fun pics after we had all had a slice.

Add this one to your cake 'To Do List' - you won't regret it... too much fun!