Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I hope you have enjoyed reading all about this blog so far and will continue to in the future… I have lots of cool things planned!
Sparkle Girl xxxx
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – The Ultimate Cheeseboard
To be honest, I don’t actually like cheese, I think it is a great snack for Christmas Eve…. I just eat the crackers!
I have used:
- Jacob’s Selection of Crackers
- Cambozola
- Port Salut
- Australian Smoked Cheese
- Edam
- Boursin
Thanks for reading..
Sparkle Girl xx
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Ideas for a Cosy Christmas Eve
These are some great ideas for a fun Christmas Eve!
Movie Night:
You can always cuddle up and have a cosy movie marathon… If you need some film ideas, try some of these:
sparkle-girl.uk/24-days-of-sparkle-girl-top-10-family-christmas-films
Game Night:
Some great classic games such as Monopoly, Cards, Battleships and Ingenious are always fun!
Just a Good Old Talk:
A nice long chat is never not fun and interesting!
There are lots of other things you could do such as a meal out, takeaway, hide and seek for presents!
Back again tomorrow,
Sparkle Girl xx
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Present Ideas for Grandmas!
These are some great present ideas to buy your grandma for Christmas!
1- ANYTHING you make yourself!
2- Tea
Whether this is a cup of tea of some tea bags, she will love it!
3- Everybody drinks, so you can never go wrong with mugs.
4- Personalized gifts, especially tea towels!
5- Diaries and notebooks
6- Tins, you can never go wrong…
7- Necklaces and Pendants are always a cute little gift
I hope these ideas help you…
Thank you for reading!
Sparkle Girl xx
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Marshmallow Mug
This is a cute little present for someone who loves cups and sweets!
You will need:
- A nice mug/cup
- Mini Marshmallows
- Big Marshmallows
- Chocolates
Method:
- Make sure the mug/cup is clean
- Fill it up with big marshmallows and chocolates
- Using the mini marshmallows, fill in the gaps
- If you want to keep it safe or save it, cover the top with clingfilm!
Thank you for reading,
Sparkle Girl xxx
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Mini Pastries
These are some tasty little treats for you to enjoy over Christmas!
Fruit Pastry Cups:
Ingredients:
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Shortcrust Pastry
- Honey
Method:
- Roll out the pastry and using a large round pastry cutter, cut the pastry into circles (I only did 6 but you can always make more)
- Sprinkle flour into a cake tray and then put the pastry circles into the cake tray
- Cook these at 160C until they are almost fully cooked
- Put the fruit into the pastry and then return to the oven for 2 minutes maximum
- Cool them on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes
- Drizzle honey on the top of them and enjoy
Chocolate Leaves:
Ingredients:
- Shortcrust Pastry
- Milk Chocolate
Method:
- Roll out some pastry and cut leaf-like shapes into the pastry
- Put the leaves into the oven for 5-10 minutes
- While the pastry is baking, melt the chocolate in the microwave until it is liquid
- Dip the leaves into the melted chocolate and then place them on a cooling rack to dry
- Now eat them!
Hope you enjoyed reading,
Sparkle Girl xx
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Present Wrapping Hacks
These are some great tips to help you wrap a mountain of presents, quickly and efficiently!
1- ALWAYS get a tape dispenser!
These are the easiest ways to wrap presents because you can quickly get some sellotape without spending 5 minutes trying to find the end of the sellotape!
2- Always put the scruffy edge underneath the neat one!
Usually when you wrap a present there is a scruffy edge and a neat edge, to make the present as neat as possible, always put the scruffy edge underneath the neat one!
3- Fold the side for a neater wrap!
When you are wrapping the sides of the present, to make it neater, fold the flap in so you are left with a straight side rather than a messy one …
These were some simple and easy tips for present wrapping!
Another post tomorrow,
Sparkle Girl x
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Snowman Cake
This is a cute cake for the whole family!
Ingredients:
- 125g Unsalted Butter
- 125g Caster Sugar
- 125g Self-Raising Flour
- 2 Medium Eggs
- Vanilla Essence
- White Fondant Icing
- Orange Fondant Icing
- Blue Fondant Icing
- Black Fondant Icing
- 1tsp Baking Powder
Method:
- Heat the oven to 180C and line the baking tin with baking parchment and butter
- Beat the sugar and the eggs together until they look a bit like buttercream
- Whisk the eggs together until they have lots of bubbles
- Sieve the flour – optional
- Gradually – while mixing the butter and sugar a bit more – add in the flour and the eggs
- While doing this add in 1tsp of Baking Powder and a few drops of Vanilla Essence
- Bake in the oven for 20-30 mins – or until a knife comes out of the mixture/cake clean
Decoration:
- Roll out the white fondant icing until it is roughly a 1cm thick, cover the entire cake in this (you may need to cut excess icing off)
- Roll out the blue fondant icing, and cut a long strip of it out
- Cut a triangle out of the blue icing for the hat, put this on the top of the cake – using the picture below to copy from:
-
- On the strip of blue icing leftover, put small marks vertically across it copy the picture above if you need to
- Roll out some orange icing into a sausage-like shape, press the top of the icing gently to create a nose and this time put small line marks horizontally across it
- Roll out a little bit of the black icing into little flat balls and place them where they are in the picture above
Now enjoy the cake! 🙂
Thanks for reading,
Sparkle Girl xx
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Ideas for Present Wrapping!
These are some ideas to make presents for children even better, instead of just plain and boring!
Tinsel Wrap:
All you need for this is tinsel, you just wrap it round the present either side (as if you were putting ribbon on it) and stick it to the bottom of the present. This is just an alternative to ribbon which isn’t as sparkly!
Pop a Joke Inside:
While you are writing the tag, you just write a Christmas joke on the tag as well! Put the answer upside down somewhere.
Heart of Bows:
Using any colour of stick on bows, stick them in a nice heart shape. You could even use this to cover up a mistake!
Back again tomorrow,
Sparkle Girl xx
24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Christmas Cutlery Holder!
You will need:
- Green and Red Paper
- Scissors
- Sellotape
- Extra Decoration (Bows, ribbons)
Method:
- Cut the green paper into a small square and then fold it in half like this:
- Sellotape the green paper together like this:
-
- Cut out a long strip of the red paper and stick it to the green paper like this:
- If you want add some decorations like I have in the first picture!
Back with another post tomorrow,
Sparkle Girl xx