Hoppo Bumpo (n): A children's game. Played by folding one's arms and hopping on one leg. Aim is to bump opponents, so that they lose their balance. Last person standing wins.


August 25, 2008

Think pink


It was my little niece's third birthday on the weekend. I was secretly pleased for another opportunity to use my recent pink 'n' frills obsession for good (biscuits) not evil (sons in skirts).

Here is my take on an idea from the inspiring Planning Queen over at Planning With Kids. Her version is picture perfect; mine is suffering from a distinct case of wonkiness. I'm putting it all down to the modifications I made to the recipe. Yes, definitely the modifications ... not the clumsiness (Note to self: the worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves).

The original Tea Cup idea uses store-bought biscuits (Iced Tic Tocs) and sweets (Allen's Freckles). To make the food Bargy-friendly, I made my own biscuits and pink icing and added hundreds-and-thousands (non-pareils) as the topping.

Bargy's life-threatening allergy to egg makes baking, cake decorating, and creating party foods, a challenge. I love cake decorating, but have long since packed away much of my treasured collection of Wilton decorating paraphernalia. Its just too tricky to do really fancy decorations without egg.

That said, there is an great egg replacer on the market - Orgran's No Egg - that is a lifesaver in the baking department. Its made up of inoffensive things like potato starch, tapioca flour and vegetable gum. Its brilliant in recipes that use egg as a binder (1 - 2 eggs). Where a recipe calls for eggs as the sole raising agent (2+), I sometimes add a little baking powder to help give a bit of extra ooomph.

A 200g (7oz) box of the powder is about $5 and contains the equivalent of 66 eggs. So there is an upside - our "egg" is now much cheaper and easier to store than the real thing. The sort of thing I'd now keep in the pantry for convenience, regardless of allergies. I can't, however, recommend making scrambled No-Egg!

Here is my tried-and-true, egg-free biscuit recipe, that I used for the Tea Cups. Its a fantastic cut-out cookie recipe.

100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 really heaped teaspoon No Egg combined well with 2 tablespoons water (or 1 real egg)
2 teaspoons vanilla
225g plain (all-purpose) flour

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 oC
  2. Cream the butter and sugar
  3. Add the egg (replacer) and vanilla essence
  4. Stir in the flour and form a dough (it will be very crumbly at first)
  5. Knead the dough on a floured board until smooth
  6. Roll out thinly and cut out biscuits
  7. Place on baking paper on a tray
    If it is important that your biscuits keep a precise shape, chill them for a short time before baking (this will firm the butter a bit after all the handling)
  8. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden
  9. Cool on a rack - they will be soft to start and will firm a little as they cool
  10. Now ice them in pink, pink, pink*

* This step is optional; you may alternately go put your sons in dresses.

13 comments:

  1. I made these for my son's birthday!!! I did! I love them, and I love yours they are bespoke beauty at it's best!! Well done you for tweaking it to work - I think they look great. Hmm. Now that's making me hungry.

    BTW - Scrambled 'No-Egg' - that's definitely a different spin on things!

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  2. I think they look wonderful! They must have taken a while with the baking of the biscuit then icing. Great advice for those who have allergies.

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  3. I bet your niece and Argy and Bargy loved those dainty teacups - they look fabulous to me! More so because you took the time to make them from scratch.

    Now, would it be wrong of me to dress up my little boy and feed him these delectable teacups?? I'm sure he'd love having a little tea party :)

    Thanks for the tip about the No-egg - something I've always wondered about, so maybe I'll try some out now. Sounds like a handy pantry item.

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  4. Tea and a biscuit in one, that could really save me some time!

    We've tried no-egg too, and I also have a carrot cake recipe that doesn't use egg anyway, or dairy, very yummy- I'll blog it soon and let you know when. I accidently sent the recipe to my Head Of Department and he said it sounded good (cringe)!

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  5. Wow these look great. We can get you in to do Poppy's 2nd birthday, it is not until next year but it will be frou-frou I am sure. Girlie cupcakes and all sorts of girlie bits, you could get your girlie fix for 6 months at least I reckon.

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  6. these look so great, I am sure were well worth the effort

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  7. Your biscuits look gorgeous. The egg replacer sounds like a terrific thing to have on hand! What a money saver.

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  8. These look adorable! I love a little tea party and the kids would love these. I love them all the more that they are allergy-friendly. A little tweaking and they will be gluten free for Master Coeliac! Thanks!

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  9. I love their pinkness - perfect for a little girls party! You sound very enterprising with your egg substitutions - I will have to look out for some egg replacer - sounds like a handy product to have on hand!

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  10. Blah..scrambled No-Egg! lol (For Statesiders, look for Ener-G Egg Replacer)

    I messed up once, and thought the cornstarch (cornflour to you Aussies...though I always wonder what you call REAL corn flour! lol) was the egg replacer, and since it worked just fine (in the proportions you mentioned), repeatedly, I usually just use that, if I use anything at all. lol

    And those teacups are SO CUTE!! Dd would have LOVED those when she was a kid! Come to think of it, she would still have loved them at her last birthday, her 14th! lol

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  11. The tea cups are gorgeous. We had a morning tea for one of the women at work who was leaving and someone made these - and you know what? the blokes loved 'em

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  12. OH those teacups are georgeous! I MUST make those for one of my girls nights.

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  13. oooo they are so delightful and perfect for a lil girls tea party!

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