Making and baking

So a while back, I was really inspired by a little craft project over on one of my favourite blogs - TigerLillyQuinn, where she made some lovely potato print trousers for her little one. Mr A loves to paint and it's always great to make something unique, so I ordered a few white tees and some fabric paint and we had lots of fun making some printed tees perfect for summer. It's really easy to do and potatoes work really well, just give them a little time to dry out and cut any kind of shape into them. We also used an apple cut in half to make a cute print. We first did a few trial prints on paper and then put them down on fabric and I was really happy with the results.

As soon as the paint dried Mr A wanted to wear his new tee in the garden, he loved that he had helped made it.

I have a few ideas not only for Mr A but also for some homemade prints on fabric for me and possibly pillow cases and things like, I am sure there will be more posts about this in the future.

This week we have also been making lovely and as healthy as you can get Chocolate Brownies, they are packed with dates and are vegan, so if you are looking for a great egg and dairy free options this is a lovely recipe, there are also only natural sugars, no added refined sugar and they are lovely and moist.

Ingredients

225g Dates
60g Wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 ripe banana mashed
100g dairy free margarine
1 tsp vanilla essence

You can also add 75g pecans or walnuts, chopped, although we left these out

1. Preheat oven to 180c/350F/Gas mark 4
2. Place the dates in a saucepan with enough water to cover them and cook over a medium heat for around 5 minutes until nice and soft.
3. Once the dates have cooked, drain off water and run them under some cold water
4. Make sure the margarine is nice and soft
5. Puree the dates with the margarine in a blender ( a hand blender also works well)

6. Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together in a mixing bowl and set aside
7. Stir the pureed dates and margarine together with the sifted flour, in a mixing bowl.
8. Add the mashed banana and vanilla essence

9. Lightly oil a baking dish, then evenly spread the mixture into it
10. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes
11. Allow to cool, cut and serve