Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

My first ever attempt at red velvet cupcakes!

 

Hokkaido Cake

This is Maya's favorite cake. A little on the sinful side, but definitely a recipe to keep. I was in such a rush to clean up after baking, that I forgot to clean the sides of the cupcake before taking a picture of them. I have to admit I was dead nervous about making them as this is my first ever attempt. As usual, I got everything from JADI, our favorite baking shop. http://jadi.westrock2u.com/601867354/index.html

 

Maya's Balls Collection

Like most little kids, Maya loves balls. So while I was out shopping in a new craft shop near my house, I came upon something called the Pom Pom maker by Clover. Fascinated by the many possibilities these devices can make, I bought one set. Maya and I have made a few pretty colorful Pom poms from normal wool already. Out of habit today, we stopped by our favorite shop, Daiso. Maya saw these pretty interesting yarns, grabbed a few of them and gave them to me. She said, " Make. Balls." I guess, this will be the start of Maya's humble collection of balls.

 

Edible Finger Paint and Colorful Pouches

I have been really busy these past few days with cleaning and reorganizing the craft area and our walk-in wardrobe. After uncluterring the mess, and as I have promised Maya, we made edible finger paint. The ingredients are as shown in the picture above. Don't worry, this is a very simple recipe that does not require one to be a rocket scientist.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together. Mix the water into the sifted ingredients, and stir until there is no longer any lumps. To ensure that the mixture is lump free, strain the mixture through a sieve.

Cook the mixture on stove top until it has formed a gooey paste. I separated the goo into different containers and added candy oil coloring. If your child still puts things into the mouth, do use natural coloring instead. Such as, tumeric for yellow, cocoa for brown, blue peas flower for blue and spinach for green.

I took out half from each container and put them into zip lock bags, small size. Two zip lock bags per color to ensure that they won't spill. These are nice color pouches to learn about colors, for interactive dancing activities, and imitating game. Maya was having fun putting on her nose, head, tummy and etc.

As for the other half, these can be used as finger paint. But since Maya didn't like the gooey texture on her fingers, we had fun doing texture painting instead. Still lots of fun!

Paper Bag Alphabet Monster

I have to admit that this craft was unplanned but on the spot activity. It was about time for Maya to go to bed when she went to mummy's stash of craft supplies and said she wanted to make something. Tomkeep this a short and simple activity, I took out some googly eyes, sticker, paper bags and markers.

It melts my heart to see my little girl so happy and absorbed in the things she do. After she was done with the paper bag monsters, with her energy all zapped up, she's now in deep slumber. :)

 

DIY Suncatcher

As promised, here is the tutorial for DIY Suncatcher. Very simple to make. :)

Items: Glass paint, transparent pp or plastic sheet, scissor, sketch pad, paint brush and pencil.

Method: Sketch on the sketch pad. Lay the pp or plastic sheet on top of your sketch. Trace the outline of the drawing with the glass paint.

Leave to dry. Once dried, cut the outline of the drawing on the pp or plastic sheet. You can punch a hole in the middle so that it can be hung with a string later.

Press out the glass paint on a palette and start painting.

Maya waited since last night to have a go at painting these. A very brief but fun activity. To prevent the sun catchers from moving around while painting, I placed wet wipes under them. The plastic sheets used are normal plastic sheets used in book binding and can be bought from stationery shops.Do try and get the thicker sheets but not too thick so that a scissor can still run through them.

 

Bed Time Activities

It has been quite a while since Maya last played with her wooden puzzles. Today, we decided to play with them and I am glad she had a great time putting them back into a complete piece unlike the last time. We did some flash cards as well. Inspired by the flower flash card, Maya requested to wear one of the flower head pin mummy made for her to bed. :) Sweet dreams my sweet angel.