Thursday 5 December 2013

Norwegian cookie men...

....Kakemenn


A few weeks ago we had my mum and dad over from Norway, and my mum taught me and little Miss Moo how to make Norwegian Christmas cookies: "kakemenn".
In Norway, you know Christmas is coming when the bakeries start selling "kakemenn", and they are a Children's favourite, simple and sweet in flavour, and shaped like little men and women.
They are also very easy to make, and Norwegians make big batches of these, not just for munching on whilst doing some Christmas crafting, but also to be decorated and hung up on the Christmas tree...
They also make a lovely gift, to a friend or neighbour....
Today I am sharing my mum's kakemenn recipe as well as how to turn them into a beautiful and tasty gift....with some simple DIY gift-tags!


KAKEMENN RECIPE:


100 g Unsalted butter
4 medium Egg-whites
2 dl sugar
8 - 8 1/2 dl flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Melt, then cool down the butter.
Whisk the egg-whites and sugar together, then add the cooled-down butter.
Stir well.
Add the baking powder to the flour, then gradually mix it into the liquid, until a dough is formed.
Towards the end the dough needs to be kneaded on a floured surface until even...

Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge to harden for at least 1 hour, or until you are ready to  start baking...


My mum and little Miss Moo ready to start rolling out the dough.

Little Miss Moo loves baking cakes, and these are easy and fun to do with the kids!!

Split the dough into manageable chunks, and roll out 1 at the time to approximately 3-4 mm thick.


 Kids may need some help here, to ensure the dough is rolled out evenly...


Time to get your cookie-cutters out!
Kakemenn is traditionally, as mentioned above, shaped like men and women, and I am lucky to have inherited my mormor's (grans) old cookie-cutters...but just use whatever shapes you've got!
If you haven't got any cookie cutters, just use a knife and cut the rolled out dough into squares...

   

 Little Miss Moo got creative and used a variety of shapes....


....whatever makes it fun!! 
 

 
Place your cut out cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper and cook in a preheated oven, 100-125 degrees centigrade for20-25 minutes...

   
 
The cookies will rise slightly, but should not really change colour...

Leave to cool...
  

 A little taste...
 
 


MAKE IT A GIFT



I bought some Kilner jars from the local super-market, and stuffed them full of homemade cookies...


Before jazzing them up with some paper doilies, snowflake window stickers (I found these in the pound-shop) and some ribbons with some DIY gift-tags:


DIY GIFT-TAGS

I glued some of my vintage decoupage images onto some card board...(an old cereal box will do), then cut them out and used a hole-punch to make a hole so I could thread through the ribbon...


Pretty.....and pretty easy!!

 

 A perfect little hostess-gift!

 

...or as a little Seasons greetings to your children's favourite teacher...

 

Or maybe you have a friend or neighbour that deserves a little pre Christmas treat!!  

Christmas is coming around fast, and its easy to get stressed around this time of year....Sooo much to do!!
The advice I give myself is always: Try to enjoy yourself!!
(I may have to repeat as a mantra in the coming weeks)

If you are all done with your Christmas gift shopping: Congratulations!! (I've not even started)
If not, and you are still looking for that perfect gift, pop back next week, as I will be sharing my ETSY gift guides and showing you a few DIY gift ideas, so stay tuned!

xxx
June





Tuesday 3 December 2013

Christmas cards....

...DIY 


This week I am busy getting ready for Little Miss Moo's school Christmas fayre this coming Saturday...It is the first time I have ever set up a craft stall to try and sell my makes, and I am a little bit nervous...I am trying to stay calm by eating Christmas cookies and listening to some Otis Redding(for me it is still a bit early for Christmas tunes...) whilst crafting away in the kitchen... 
Today I have been making some Christmas cards...


...Nothing too complicated.
My approach has been much the same as with my scrap wrapping advent calendar:
I have used what I've got :I have been collecting glossy decoupage images for years (You can find similar in TIGER), so some of those and some vintage music sheets and some Christmassy tissue paper and some heart-shaped paper doilies.


I bought some plain cards, ready to decorate and some Happy Christmas stickers from Hobbycraft.... 



 First I played around with my supplies to see what would work together...
I made a plan for each card, and organised my supplies accordingly...


...I decided to use the green bird-print tissue paper(came with some candles I bought in TIGER) and the vintage music sheets as my "background" on the cards, and cut them to fit...


I decided to use a spray glue for this project, as it has the most even application...
I laid down  some brown parcel paper to protect my surface, opened the window for ventilation, before spraying the back of my "back-grounds", one at the time, and gluing them onto my cards.


TIP: When using spray glue, the surface under your bits(you want to spray) will become very sticky, so in between I dusted the surface with talcum powder to prevent my images from getting sticky on the front when placed face down...


With all my backgrounds stuck onto my cards, above , I decided which decoupage image to put on each card before spraying with glue and sticking down...


Working as organised as possible...


...I explored the combinations...



Before committing to the finished look of each card...


And sticking down the finished look...
  


Then I placed and stuck down the "Happy Christmas" stickers...


And my "collection" of Christmas cards were ready... 

Some I used the Paper doilies for a background on..


Some got the vintage music sheets...


 And some got both the bird-print tissue and a paper doily...
 
 I love the look of these cards...the vintage glossy decoupage images gives them such an old fashioned and nostalgic look...
I hope they sell at The school fayre on Saturday, but if not, at least I've got Christmas cards to send out to all my friends and family this year!!

Now I'm off to make some gift-tags, by gluing some decoupage images onto some cardboard, cutting out and treading with ribbons...

I will be back in a few days with a post about a tasty home-made Christmas gift idea!!
For next week I am working on some gift guides...including some DIY gift ideas!!

xxx
June
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