Noah, Entrepreneur

My son is an entrepreneur. He is always thinking of ways to make money. Sometimes I wonder if I should be worried? I mean, after all, I don't want to raise him to be materialistic or money hungry. I don't want to raise a Gordon Gekko (spot the movie reference). On the other hand I do want him to be sensible with his finances and he's not at all egoistic either, often telling us that he will give all the money to us. (On a side note he is very generous with any money he does have, always wanting to give a tip, from his own wallet, when we go out for a meal)

Today's money making idea? A weapons and model shop, or store (comment added by the man himself!), selling, well, from what I can see, mostly swords. Swords of all shapes and sizes, mostly made with his own fair hands. Swords ranging in price from £5.60 to £12.11. A bargain, I'm told.



There is one item that is clearly not a sword. Upon making enquiries I have been reliably informed that "This is a one of a kind. No, seriously, it's a one of a kind. It's either a bi-plane, bi=2 by the way, or you can use it as a weapon by throwing it and it spins, round and round". Very intriguing and fashioned from an old door handle spindle, some Meccano & the old bathroom locking mechanism!



How much do I love this boy? Let me count the ways...

Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

OK, so I promised people that I would post the recipe for the Oreo cookie cupcakes I made a few weeks ago and I know it's ages later but I am finally getting around to doing it. I can't remember where I got this recipe from originally but I have a feeling that it may well have been from Shimelle... I apologise to whoever it was if it wasn't Shim!

Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

Ingredients:
180g unsalted butter
400g brown sugar
250g dark chocolate
3 large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla
200g plain flour
100g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
8 Oreo cookies, smashed to bits (I usually use a whole packet though, sometimes more, depending on how biscuit-y I want them!)
1 3/4 cup milk

• Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Set aside but don’t chill.


• Heat the oven to 180C and line cupcake tin with papers.


• Beat the butter until it is soft, then add sugar and mix until fluffy.


• Stir up the egg yolks, then add them to the butter and sugar.


• Add the vanilla and the chocolate (just make sure it’s not so hot that it cooks the eggs)


• Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, alternating with the milk.


• Stir in the bashed Oreos until evenly distributed.


• In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until peaks form.


• Fold in the egg whites, until no more whites show.


• Scoop into the cupcake liners straight away, filling them 3/4 full.


• Bake for 20 minutes or until chopstick comes out clean.


• Cool on a wire rack before icing.

Now for the frosting the recipe I had originally used a cookies and cream, more traditional type, frosting but recently I have used a homemade marshmallow topping and, I have to say, it is delicious! I've never even thought you could make marshmallow yourself at home so this was really interesting to try.

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
300g sugar
120ml golden syrup
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mini Oreo cookies (you can buy these in a tub from Sainsbury’s) for decoration

• In a large bowl mix egg whites, sugar, golden syrup & salt until combined.


• Place the bowl over simmering water and whisk until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot. This will take about 3 minutes.


• Remove from heat and beat, probably using an electric whisk if, like me, you have weak wrists and don't want them to fall off, for 5-7 minutes until frosting is cool and stiff peaks form.


• Beat in vanilla.


• Spread or pipe onto cupcakes and use mini Oreo cookies to decorate.

It's amazing how this gloopy yellow mixture suddenly turns fluffy and white. The frosting is slightly runny to start with but sets to a real marshmallow-y textures in a couple of hours.

I Am Alive!

Just to reassure you all there. I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth. I am still here, I have just been very, very busy.

I won't bore you with the details, suffice it to say between gearing up for the end of the school year with 3 children and all that entails and work coming out of my ears, I don't feel like I've had a spare minute in the day.

I will bore you, in another post, about my running progress and my Race for Life thoughts and results but I'm going to keep this post short.

I have managed to do some cooking, for which I've promised to post the recipe for a particular Oreo cookie cupcake (watch this space), and have fitted in some digital scrapbooking so I'll leave you with a couple of layouts:

[click image to enlarge]

Supplies:
Merry and Bright - Kate Hadfield & Kaye Winiecki

[click image to enlarge]

Supplies:
Patterned Papers - Bombay Flower - Amy Hutchinson
Krafty Papers - Naturally Krafty - Kate Pertiet
Painted White Paper - Fly Me To The Moon - Gina Miller & Jacque Larson
Flowers - Various Kits - Studio Flergs
Glitter Alpha - 1 Night - Gina Maria
Swirl Brush - SS Foliage Swirls
Digital Glitter - Mine

I intend to do a page to go with the last layout to show the actual photo that I used on our Christmas cards that year so hopefully will get this done soon. I know, they're Christmas layouts. Christmas in August? But I've never been one to scrap seasonally. So there.

And in terms of scrapbooking I do have a plan. Let's hope it all comes together. And the plan? It's a loose one I admit but I'm going to try and hit a year at a time, hence the 2 layouts above of 2002, starting with the photos I've taken since we moved to a digital camera. Those photos will be scrapped digitally. I'm then intending to get them uploaded and printed in a nice bound book via Photobox or something. I'll think about the pre-digital photos some other time!