The Gruffalo pumpkin

This will be my shortest post ever: Happy Hallowe'en!

The Gruffalo's Child Pancake

It's not fun to be poorly. My little man woke up today with high temperature. He was most upset that I wouldn't take him to the nursery to play with his best friend Charlie. To cheer him up I asked him if he'd fancy a pancake, and what should it be. As The Gruffalo's Child is the latest craze in our house (Eddie insists on reading the story and watching the DVD every day), I expected he would request it. I was right.

Make the pancake your usual way (I use 2 medium eggs, 80ml milk, 4tbsp flour (wholemeal + plain 50/50%), 1tbsp soured cream, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of sugar). Using a sharp knife, cut out the contour of the Gruffalo's child. Carefully draw the outlines with Queen writing icing (in chocolate). A piece of banana will work as an eye.

Eddie was happy with my craftsmanship but critically pointed out "Mama, why does she have one eye?" Erm, her second eye is on the other side.
Happy Pancake Day to all my friends!

Oh crumbs! Toast stamp

My guys love the Gruffalo story, for some reason they don't get bored with it. Personally it's not my favourite Julia Donaldson's book (I much prefer The Stick Man or The Squash and the squeeze, as I think they are more compassionate and amusing respectively, and I also always feel sorry for the poor duped Gruffalo. The mouse is way too smug, don't you think?). Just before Christmas I was frantically looking for presents for our friends' children, as we have invited them for Christmas. The twins are about a year older than our Eddie, and I know them pretty well. I was hoping one of them will appreciate Oh Crumbs! Toast stamp (Kimm & Miller (UK) Ltd) which I found in Waitrose (it was available at £10).
Toast stamp comes with a butter spreader and preserves (orange marmalade and strawberry preserve). It looked very cute and appealing for any Gruffalo fan. As soon as Eddie saw it, he made a beeline for it, but I said it wasn't for him but for his friend Peter. "Real" tears of grief ensued, and I promptly promised to get exactly the same stamp set for him.

Luckily a few  days later the same stamp set was reduced to a fiver, so I got one for my own mini-chef.
How does it work? In principle, it should be pretty straightforward.
Just press the toast stamp into the bread before toasting.
In reality, we made quite a few attempts before we got any good results. You need to press really hard for the imprint to show. Then you need to toast the bread for quite long, until it is well browned.
If you like your slice of bread just crispy rather than burnt well-toasted, then the design is hardly visible, and if you add the butter spread as well, the design disappears completely (see below).

That's one of the final versions. Pressed with all my might and well-browned.
So how did this novelty stamp set score in our opinion?
for performance - 3/5
for entertainment factor - 4/5
I don't think I will be in a rush to buy another one. I suppose for a fiver it is fine, but the original price of £10 is too high.
I still didn't dare to ask our friends whether their little boy liked his gift.