Cadburys Chocolate Buttons Owl Cake

After the rush of back-to-school this week, it has been nice to have a weekend with very little to do. This Sunday it was just me and the girls and we chose to do some baking together. Using a mountain of Cadbury Chocolate Buttons, we created this awesome Owl Cake using a recipe from the Cadbury website.

First we made a fairly simple square chocolate sponge (one of the finest sponges we've ever made!) and once it was cooled, I drew a fairly rough owl template and cut around it. I used the offcuts to make wings.

Next we made a ganache with sumptuous dark Bournville chocolate, cream and a bit of butter. We slathered it over and Lara spread it all over the owl to hold the cake together.  Then I let the girls loose with Cadbury chocolate buttons (both milk chocolate and white chocolate) and giant buttons. Holly enjoyed bashing some Cadbury Flakes to make the sprinkles for the feathers.  For the finishing touch, we used a pink raspbery from a bag of Marvellour Mis Ups to make a nose. Perfect.

Of course, after we had finished decorating, the girls snaffled a few of the spare chocolate buttons and then licked the spoon of the ganache (getting it all over their faces in the process).

The cake was a resounding success - not only was it fun to make, but it was incredibly tasty and there were lots of bonus leftovers to snack on!!!  And as an awesome added bonus, you can find 2 for 1 days out vouchers on grab bags of Cadbury buttons at present which is perfectly timed as we are planning a trip to Legoland this week. Hurrah for cake. Hurrah for chocolate buttons.

Children's Book Review : Prince Ribbit

Prince Ribbit is a fun picture story book by Jonathan Emmett that both Holly (4) and Lara (7) have enjoyed me reading to them at bedtime. It is a very familiar story about princesses and frogs...

Princess Martha thinks her two big sisters are being very silly when they believe a cheeky frog who is pretending to be a Frog Prince. They treat him like royalty and spoil him in the hope that he'll turn into a handsome prince.

Princess Martha prefers books about facts, than books about fairy tales but when Prince Ribbit shows no sign of turning into a handsome prince, she decides to read a few fairy stories to find out what all the fuss is about.

The story quite closely follows that of the classic Frog Prince but with an interesting twist that got Lara and Holly interested.  None of us were quite sure whether to expect a fairy tale ending or not?!?

With humourous illustrations from Poly Bernatene, and lots of silliness to spot on each page, we all loved this book and the girls have gone back to it several times since.  Holly even cheered when she saw me writing up the review today and asked me to read it again.

  

Children's Book Review :: The Castle of Inside Out

Over the summer holidays, Lara has devoured the contents of her bookcase; sometimes whizzing through an entire book in one day. She is unstoppable.  One of the books she couldn't put down was The Castle of Inside Out by David Henry Wilson (and illustrated by Chris Riddell).  Today I has time to kill waiting outside a kids birthday party so I thought I'd try reading the book myself to see what was so un-put-downable about it.

So I sat down and read The Castle of Inside Out cover to cover in under an hour...and I loved it.  It reminded me of a cross between Alice in Wonderland with Animal Farm; but far more fluid and readable than either of the above!  The Castle of Inside Out is clearly inspired by Alice in Wonderland; it starts with Lorina, a young girl with an active imagination, getting lost and following a black rabbit into the woods. There she learns about the "green people" and the Insiders (those who live inside the castle that dominates the landscape) and the Outsiders (those that live outside the castle).

Lorina finds herself in a land where the animals have taken over. They've imprisoned the king, set the green people to work and they're polluting the landscape. Its a powerful story telling the tale of greed, gluttony and laziness.  Lorina shows selflessness in her quest to try and find food for the starving Outsiders and to prevent the thick smoke (from the furnaces in the castle fuelled by waste food) from poisoning those who live outside the castle.  On her travels she meets many of the pigs and animals who rule the country and is disgusted by the effect that wealth and power has had on them.

There are such strong similarities between this story and those of both Alice in Wonderland and Animal Farm that can't be a co-incidence. From the funny little ditties that each of the pigs sings, to the fabulous chapter of rhyming wonderfullness that brings a light-hearted humour to the execution scene, I was reminded of Alice at many times when reading this book. Lara is still a bit young to be able to appreciate the complex turns of phrase of Lewis Carroll but the humour and language used by David Henry Wilson is far more appropriate for young readers.

Lara enjoyed the silly languages that the different animals use (the cuckoo often uses the word cuck half way through his normal words) and she appreciated the references to different animals such as the Piggident (president), The Ox-Man (executioner) and of course the the Asses from Assenal and the Donkeys from Donkaster Rovers who play in a Hoofball match.

In among the humour, Lara really understood the messaging of the story and took away the morals that greed and gluttony can cause hurt and suffering. She understood that the pigs were representing an extreme reflection of humanity. And she really felt the frustration and irritation of the lead character Lorina as she was passed from one contact to another in order to try and find anyone who cared about the Outsider's fate...this frustration too reminded me a lot of Alice in Wonderland who gets increasingly frustrated with the silliness of the world she has imagined.

I really, really enjoyed this book and I'm so glad Lara did too.