Butterbeer Ice Cream

Yes! I'm finally back to my blog, the poor abandoned thing. But not forgotten though. I had so many ideas swimming in my head but never had to time to put them to work.

As usual, my posts are rather short and straight to the point, as compared to most other (proper) food blogs anyway. This post is inspired by a few subjects. First of all, this is for Harry Potter fans. Non-Potterheads would probably not know what a Butterbeer is anyway. Secondly, we actually visited the amazing Harry Potter studio when we were in London last year. We had the Buttterbeer and Butterbeer ice cream. It was magical.

Earlier this year, we even made magic wands from chopsticks and a large twig, one for each member of the family. We were so impressed with the outcome of this project. Take a look.

This year, for my 9 year old's birthday party theme, we decided on Magic and Witchcraft. It wasn't quite a Harry Potter theme but we did have a magic potions workshop which the kids enjoyed. We even printed authentic looking potions labels for the bottles.

Anyway, back to topic. We wanted to make Butterbeer for the party. We tried out the recipe and it turned out well. But I decided against it as it was too much work to make for a large group of people. I did make another batch of the the butterbeer though, and in the form of ice cream!  We finished it all before the birthday party as it was too yummy!

I used my usual method of making ice cream, which is by whipping up evaporated milk. The recipe is based on the Butterbeer drink recipe but instead of mixing the base with ice cream soda, I chilled the base and mixed in with whipped evaporated milk. I also split the sugar in two. I used half in the butter mixture and the other half whipped in the milk.

I love this recipe cause the ice cream has a soft texture and is easy to scoop straight out from the freezer. This is most likely because of the high fat content and also the small amount of alcohol.

Yes,this recipe has alcohol but the one teaspoon of rum gives a wonderful kick of flavour.

So here's the recipe if anyone is interested. But it's also for me, so that I won't forget.  Here's to magical memories. And... Expecto Patronum!!

A Mickey Mouse Cake for a Big Girl

We had a small party to celebrate our daughter being a big girl. Not birthday party but a weaning party. Yes. I shall elaborate on that no further. Unless, of course, other moms are interested to know more.

Anyhow, she wanted balloons, party hats, presents, party packs and a pink cake with Mickey Mouse.
It was quite fun actually, getting all these stuff ready.

As for the cake, I've always wanted to try making buttercream icing toppers. So this was a good opportunity to give it a go. I'm happy to say that it turned out quite well, though it could've been neater at the top. It was good enough for me, especially since it got a "Wow!" from Emma.

I came across the method for making buttercream icing toppers from this blog. The cake is a Orange Poppyseed Cake. I won't be posting any recipes since they can be found at the links.

 

Here are more pictures of my baby all grown up! (Hugs and tears from mummy.)

 

 

Testing out her new crayons, trying to colour the minions "pink", which is her favourite colour.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's another close-up of the cake:

 

A Jungle Themed Birthday Party

Earlier in the year, we had already decided to celebrate our daughter's birthday in some jungle or park. This was because our apartment is too small and McDonald's is too urban. A princess theme didn't suit our girl either as she was more the Dora Explorer type. We love nature, so we thought we should have her birthday party outdoors.

 

 

Here's the cake. It's a marble cake with buttercream icing, chocolate butterflies and royal icing flowers. It's a shame that I don't have a good quality picture of it.

 

 

 

And as per Chinese customary practice, I made birthday eggs except I made them more colourful instead of just red.

 

In spite of a few annoying incidents, the event turned out great, especially for the kids.

 

There were party bags, party hats (matching theme of course) and lots of food from everyone.

 

Just to share, the items in the party bags were:

• mini jelly
• sweets
• wafer
• water gun
• bubbles
• stickers

I also painted the kids hands with henna, the girls anyway. 

 
 

 

Here's the birthday girl playing with her water gun:

 

Some of the boys and men attempted fishing. The mummies were mostly just chilling out and watching the kids.

 

Right after the birthday song and candle blowing, the kids immediately ate all the flowers and butterflies from the cake!

 

Looking back, I'd really like to thank everyone for a memorable day. We had lots of fun. Here are more snapshots...

 

Okay, I guess that's enough pictures. Here's the recipe for the cake: