Sainsbury’s Comic Relief Cookie Challenge!

As a member of the Sainsbury’s Bank Family Blogger Network I was recently asked if I would like to create a cookie design in aid of comic relief 🙂

I’m always keen to get creative so I was happy to join in the fun. Five runners up will be picked from all the designs, Sainsbury’s Facebook fans will then vote for their overall favourite design to feature on the Comic Relief baking page.

This year Comic relief is all about Dinosaurs (with toes), so with this in mind….

Watch out there’s Dinos about!

Two of these dinos are sporting red noses and one has taken inspiration from the aptly name T-Spex red nose character.

Make your own Di-nose-saurs

150g/ 51/2 oz Butter (or Stork)

225g/ 8oz Plain Flour

125g/ 4 1/2 oz Caster Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

For the Icing

The easiest way to ice biscuits is to use a Royal Icing, Sainsbury’s sell this ready to mix in a box 🙂

Small smarties or Silverspoon Coloured Choco Beans

Method

Rub together the butter and flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add in the vanilla extract and caster sugar and bring together with your hands to form a dough.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough, then cut out your Dinos.

Bake for about 10 mins in a 170C/350F oven, keep an eye on the biscuits to make sure they don’t burn.

Cool on a wire rack.

Mix up the royal icing. I usually devide this between several pots so I can mix up multiple colours. Using a fine piping bag ice the background colour onto your Dinosaur, you can also spread it on if you’d prefer. Leave for several hours to harden.

Once dry add a small white blob of icing to make the eye and leave to harden. Once dry add any final details such as smile, toes and pupil.

Finally using a blob of royal icing attach a red chocolate bean/smartie onto the nose of your Dino 🙂

The biscuits can take several hours to dry out completely, but it’s worth the wait as they can be stacked into a tin once finished without sticking together or damaging all your hard work!

Of course you can also customise your biscuits to make many other red nose characters. Our very own Spotty Crocodile made it into biscuit form sporting a dashing red nose!

Win Your Very Own Copy Of Dino Bite!

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the fantastic new action game Dino Bite! My kids love it, I love it and now one of you can too. In our latest competition we are giving you the chance to win your very own copy of Dino Bite courtesy of Drumond Park.

DINO BITE – new monster action game for fearsome, spine-tingling fun

A fearsome T-Rex dinosaur is perched on top of a Dino nest. A large green leaf covers a collection of twenty tiny, helpless blue, red, yellow and green baby dinosaurs who’ve been stolen from another dinosaur’s nest, and are now awaiting their fate… Each player takes it in turn to rescue an egg from the nest with the tweezers supplied. With each roll of the coloured dice the players carefully lift the edge of the leaf, steadily move their tweezers into the nest, grasp the baby and lift it out to safety! Or it’s fine for younger players to use their fingers instead of the tweezers, if they like. But beware and be on your guard… that bad-tempered old Dino knows exactly what you’re after, and when he spots you, he’ll wait his chance, then roar out loud and lunge terrifyingly towards you. And that means you are OUT!

For stockists visit www.drumondpark.com or call 01506 855577

Age 4+, £19.99

So if your children fancy their chances against this fearsome beast, or if you just need a little something to occupy them (mine are still enthralled by it) then this is the competition for you.

How To Enter

As usual it’s ridiculously easy to enter our comp (open to readers in the UK this time):

Follow this blog publicly (using one of the methods in the sidebar to the right) and leave a comment mentioning you are following the blog (current followers need only comment). Remember to leave your email or twitter so I can contact you if you win.

Extra entries – for each extra entry leave a comment to let me know:

  1. Tweet about the comp for an extra entry
  2. Like our page on Facebook (link to the left)

The competition will end at midnight 22nd September 2011.

Dino Bite Review

The Summer holidays can feel like a long time when you have children to amuse and occupy. This makes it the perfect time to take up new hobbies and learn new skills. With more and more of us becoming concerned with the amount of time our children spend on computers or watching TV, it’s always a good day when you discover a new  game that keep your kids entertained and happy.

With this in mind I was very happy to receive a copy of Dino Bite to review courtesy of Drumond Park. The box alone seemed to get the kids very excited. My youngest declared ‘DinoWalrus!’ (we’re working on saying Dinosaurus). Unfortunately batteries were not included within the box and they most definitely are required. So after a mad hunt about the house we quickly got the game set up and sat down for our first play.

First impressions were very good, the kids were all suitably nervous every time they attempted to steal a Dinosaur Egg from the T-Rex’s nest. When the T-Rex did launch towards anyone they all jumped and giggled loudly. I even found it a very easy way to pass the time. The T-Rex plays jungle style sounds continuously with occasional rours. It randomly snaps forward which renders the snappee out of the game. The object being to throw the special coloured Die and retrieve an egg of corresponding colour without getting snapped. Simple enough that even my 2 yr old could play happily (although the box does recommend it for over 4+).

Would I Recommend This Product?

Definitely, all my kids, the boys and girl all love it. This ‘action game’ has permanently amused and excited them all and they have played it several times each day since we received it. It’s simple enough that they can play it unsupervised and the random nature of the T-Rex aided by interesting background noises, mean that boredom has yet to become a problem. It’s also a relative quick game which means it captures their attention perfectly.

Could It Be Improved In Anyway?

Yes, I think it could. As a busy Mum I always prefer products to come with a set of batteries, otherwise there can be rather disappointed kids if given as a gift.

I also was not fully impressed with the Dice included. It’s just a plastic Die with coloured stickers on either side. So far it has survived, but I wonder how long it will be before one of my little darlings decides to peel a sticker off. Perhaps an extra set of Die stickers would solve this problem. Although I have to admit it has already survived far longer than I expected on first opening.

Overall I love this little game, it’s very economical and provides hours of fun.

Details

For more information and stockists, visit www.drumondpark.com

For 2-4 Players

Ages 4+

RRP £19.99

Available online and at all good Toy Retailers nationally.