... Banana and Walnut Cake with Chocolate Icing ...

I thought I would share with you the recipe I used for my most recent banana and walnut cake.

Ru even helped by smashing up the walnuts, something I think he enjoyed a little too much!

Ingredients

• 2 eggs beaten,
• 250mls plain flour
• 150g light brown sugar,
• 3 very ripe bananas,
• 1tsp baking powder,
• 1/2 tsp of grated nutmeg,
• 25g smashed walnuts.
• Icing Sugar
• Coco Powder.

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 (160C/gas 3 for fan-forced ovens). 

Grease a cake baking tray.

2. Mix together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in colour. 

3. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. 

4. Pre mash the bananas in a separate bowl and then add the bananas into the mixture. 

5. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and fold gently.

6. Fold in the pre-smashed walnuts. 

Making sure they have folded in evenly.

7. Transfer the mixture into the tin and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer placed in the middle of the cake comes out clean and dry. 

8.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool for at least half an hour.

Icing

3 heaped tablespoons of normal icing sugar

1 heaped tablespoon of coco powder.

Once the cake has cooled, drizzle the icing over the top.

*Original recipe from here

... Let's Go PJ Masks DVD ...

Get ready for some superhero fun with Entertainment One’s (eOne) PJ Masks when the brand-new DVD and Digital Download PJ MASKS - LET’S GO PJ MASKS is released on February 5^th 2018. 

Currently one of the nation’s favourite preschool shows, the action-packed adventures of the PJ Masks continue in this new release that follows the crime-fighting trio as they solve mysteries, whilst learning valuable lessons along the way.

Guaranteed to delight your budding little superheroes, Let’s Go PJ Masks features six epic episodes that are soaring onto DVD and Digital Download for the first time. The fun-filled episodes are:

·       Gekko and the Snore-A-Saurus – Luna Girl turns a sleep-walking Cameron into her very own human puppet. It’s up to PJ Masks to save the day… but Gekko has to stop messing around first!

·       Catboy and the Shrinker - Romeo and Night Ninja team up to shrink the PJ Masks with Romeo’s shrinker invention.  When Catboy gets shrunk, he forgets that even a little guy can save the day . . . if he can use his small size to his advantage.

·       Blame it on the Train, Owlette – When the new Fairground Flyer Train goes missing from the fair, Owlette is determined to get it back quickly.  But if she wants to defeat Romeo’s new super train, she’ll need to learn that a little patience goes a long way.

·       Looking After Gekko – When Night Ninja steals the school bus and converts it into his very own super-vehicle, it's up to our heroes to stop him in his tracks.  But for that to happen, Gekko needs to learn that asking for help doesn’t make you weak.

·       Catboy’s Tricky Ticket - Catboy only has two tickets to the Jayden Houston concert and has to decide which of his best friends to take to the show.  Owlette and Gekko offer him presents to sway his decision and Catboy’s newfound greed could ensure Luna Girl ruins the concert for good.

·       Clumsy Catboy - Romeo plans to use his newest device to make everyone in the world so clumsy that they can’t stop him from taking over the world.  But when agile Catboy is the first to be “clumsified”, he can’t admit it and tries to save the day without any help.

PJ Masks depicts the tales of Conor, Amaya and Greg who by day are three normal school kids but by night, if the city is in danger the trio put on their pyjamas and activate their animal amulets. 

They magically transform into their superhero alter-egos: Catboy, Owlette and Gekko and together make an unstoppable team.

Ru loves watching PJ Masks and gets a bit upset when it's not on so he was over the moon when this dvd landed on the doorstep.

He could wait to sit down and watch.

PJ Masks is one of the only cartoons that will make him want to sit still long enough to watch what happens.

He loves playing with his little figures whilst he's watching his favourite super heroes save the day.

Having the episodes on dvd means that he can sit down any time he wants and watch it without the disappointment of not finding on the TV guide. 

Running Time: 72 minutes

Classification: U

RRP: £9.99

 DVD and Digital Download: 5^th February 2018

Pre-order the DVD on Amazon here

... Work, Books and Beach Visits ...

I've been pretty quite on the blog front thanks to getting a volunteering placement at the boys school, where I work 3 days a week in the reception class.

I have also signed up to the Open University to do an access course which starts next month and then I will be starting a BA honours degree in Education Studies in October.

The course will take 3 years if I do it full time or 6 years if I do it part time.

So im going to be pretty busy but I'm really looking forward to it.

I was thinking about letting my blog go, but I don't think I can just let it be.

I'm going to knock the reviews on the head for now, as I just don't have the time for them, I may do one or two but for now this blog will just go back to a place for me to write down what we've been up to and how I'm getting on with my new venture.

I'll also be sharing the books that I've been reading.

As my New Years resolution was to read more and I'm already onto my 3rd book of the year.

The first books I've read so far are called;

I See You written by Clare Mackintosh

Before I Let You In written by Jenny Blackhurst.

Both have been pretty intense thrillers and haven't taken me long to get through due to the fact it was near impossible to put the books down.

I've never really been able to flow from one book straight to another but with these two books it was pretty easy, it also helps that the TV is pretty boring at the moment and it's really easy to just loose myself in a book.

The Christmas holidays really messed with Rupert's routine and now it is a nightmare trying to get him back into it.

He'll go down around 7/8ish and then wake an hour later to come through and fall asleep on the sofa until we head up to bed where he'll join us.

Being back at nursery he is sleeping a little longer but still wakes before we head upstairs to sleep.

He also wakes really early and starts kicking me in the head or tummy, whatever he feels appropriate for that mornings wake up call.

I really need to try and be a bit more firmer and start trying to get to stay in his own bed now.

So if anyone has any magical ideas for me please write them on a postcard as the usual tricks and tips don't work with the poo bear.

We have been enjoying time as a family walking around the woods or along the beaches and we make sure we do it every Sunday.

It starts the day off well and everyone feels much better afterwards.

Our recent Lego builds.

On the days the Ru is only in nursery for the morning I always make sure to do something fun with him before the others come home.

Mainly we have been baking things such as gingerbread men and banana cakes.

I've been taking my instax polaroid out with us on our little adventures and we all take it in turn to take a snap shot of something that we want and then once home we put it above the fireplace.

Hopefully in a few months we'll have enough photos to start a family scrap book.

Something to nice to look back on in years to come.

We went to search for some seals last weekend, but didn't find any but we did come home with a bucket full of shells.

My next book is The Night Rainbow written by Claire King and I'm actually going to start it as soon as this blog post is done.

I'll let you know how I get on.

I've started a new # on instagram to share all the books I read over this coming year.

It will be something to look back on in December and see them all in one place.

#hannahsbooks2018 

Some recent bargains from Home Bargains;

A copper framed peg board - £5.99

A yankee syle candle - 99p

A new notebook for uni work - £1.25.

I haven't decided where the peg board will go, but we're about to re jig our bedroom so that I can set up a desk, so I'm thinking ill save it for there.

So I can write some inspirational quotes on to keep me going through my study.

This past week saw the twins come down with tonsillitis, Oscar suffered more than Alex and even came out in a rash that still hasn't gone down, Ru seems to be coming down with something and Noah was sent home today before lunch.

I haven't been able to work this week as I've been feeling like I've had the flu and not been able to do anything apart from read and drink lemsips.

We are heading off to Centre Parc in a few weeks so I needed a new costume and I found this in Next.

I instantly fell in love with it and prayed to god it would fit.

Normally when I buy a costume it's in a size but this was just by bra size, so I wasn't too sure if I would get it over my hips but thankfully it does!

Now I have my costume I can't wait to go.