Gifts for Teachers - Hot Chocolate Spoons

I intended to make these hot chocolate spoons before Christmas but my Mum bought some ready made from Lidl (or possibly Aldi, I get confused) which were perfect for what I needed them for. I thought they would make great gifts for teachers as the end of the school year is fast approaching. If you're like me and have five members of staff at Preschool to buy gifts for then something home-made and inexpensive such as these is perfect. Edible gifts have always gone down well with Preschool staff and the teachers at our school as it's not personal and it's not a mug (although we have bought mugs in the past too!).

For each spoon you will need :

a wooden or plastic spoon, lollipop stick or coffee stirrer
empty yoghurt pot
approx 25g dark chocolate 
A few micro Marshmallows (these were from Asda)
cellophane bags or sheets
ribbon

• Melt the chocolate in the microwave on short bursts until smooth
• Sprinkle a few marshmallows into the base of the yoghurt pot 
• Pour in the chocolate
• Stand the spoon in the pot, you may need to rest against the side
• Sprinkle a few more marshmallows on the top
• Allow to fully set before removing from the pot and wrapping

You can either add a gift tag with instructions for use or write on the back of the spoon 'Stir into hot milk'

Frugal Tips!

• The chocolate doesn't have to be expensive - Asda Smart price dark chocolate at 30p per bar is very nice and works just as well as the more expensive brands. 
• A tip from my Mum is to save the hanging loops (only the satin ribbons not the elasticated ones) from tops and blouses to add the perfect finishing touch to little gifts and they come in all sorts of colours - as well as being free!
• You can find wooden coffee stirrers in the big coffee shops - but you didn't hear that one from me *taps nose*, or you can buy them off Ebay.

These spoons cost around 27p each to make but you could make them cheaper using coffee stirrers or plastic spoons.

If you really want to you could buy the mug too, I'm sure every teacher secretly loves receiving 30 'Best Teacher' mugs every year.

Cupcake Bouquets

Last week I was asked by school to make some cakes for a surprise leaving party being held for one of teaching assistant's who was leaving after 22 years. As she takes care of the school garden they wanted them to be based around a garden theme. There wasn't a lot of time for me to spend making fancy decorations or sugar paste roses with Jack being at home so I opted to make some bouquets that I'd seen on the Internet.


I was asked to make 30 cakes so I did 3 bouquets (7 cakes in each) and some extras to go on a cake stand.


They were really quite easy to make and as the bouquets can be made in advance it doesn't take lots of last minute preparation.

1. Cut a sheet of A4 card in half lengthways and tape the ends together to make a cylinder

2. Staple 7 plastic party cups together, 6 cups around a central cup

3. Sit the cups inside the cardboard cylinder

4. Cut a large square of cellophane and lay 2 pieces of tissue paper over it, sit the cake stand in the centre

5. Fold each side of the cellophane/tissue in and then the ends - use pegs to hold in place whilst you tie ribbon around if you don't have an extra pair of hands.

6. Tie ribbon around to secure in place - it can be a bit fiddly & tape is useful to stop the ribbon slipping, then remove pegs and open out the cellophane/tissue - it's now ready to pop your cakes in.

For the cakes I used my favourite Vanilla Cupcake recipe from the Primrose Bakery, which I've shared before here and made vanilla buttercream with some pink food colouring added.

Buttercream

110g Butter, softened

60ml milk, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

500g icing sugar

food colouring (optional)

• Beat the butter, milk, vanilla & half the icing sugar until pale & creamy
• Beat in the rest of the icing sugar and beat again until smooth
• Add a few drops of food colouring if using

I iced some of the cakes using a Wilton 1M tip, aiming to create a rose effect by starting off in the middle and piping clockwise around towards the edge. The others were iced using a moon shaped tip and piping 'petals' around - an effect that I'd seen on You Tube.

This is my amateur 'how to' video - I'm no expert and this is the first time I tried this method so it shows how easy it is... (more practice on positioning the camera needed!)

Some wafer daisies, rice paper butterflies and edible balls were added as the finishing touch.

It was in fact so easy to make these that Sam and 2 of his friends made this for their teacher (some help with the bouquet but the cupcake icing was all done by the 3 of them).