Guest post: Best Ways to Play Together as a Family

Families that can play together spend more quality time together. If you want to strengthen the ties and bonds within your family, playing together is one of the best ways you can do that. This is a holistic approach that has worked for many families. There have been studies done to show that families who play together will be closer to one another.

If this is the type of family you want to have, learning more about the best ways to play together as a family is a great idea. However, before doing so, there are a couple more things to note. First, there are so many adults who are so busy with work and other responsibilities that they forget to take the time to play. Just because you are an adult, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play. You can have a great time, relieve stress, and bond with your family members through play. Choose one of these ways to start playing with your family today.

Finding Ways to Laugh More Often
Laughter really can be the best medicine for your family. Laughing helps you and your family members to decompress from complicated and stressful situations. It helps to prevent stress in the family. When did you last belly laugh? You know that full type of laugh that really comes from inside of you. Research does show that laughter helps to increase longevity. If you can find more ways to laugh with your family, this can help you all with so many things. Not only will it help relieve stress and improve longevity, but allows you all to connect with one another as well. Many families don’t like spending time around each other. This may be because they don’t laugh and have a great time together. The more you do this, the more you may actually enjoy each other’s company.

Keeping Things Simple
It is easier than it seems to make things simpler in life. When you spend time with your family, you don’t have to do something complicated and intense. There are many ways to play together and have fun without getting even more stressed out. You can take a small getaway to the local park. Maybe you can even have a quick picnic instead of eating out at fast food. You can make memories by playing in the river down the street, instead of driving all the way across town to a lake. Think of the simple things. Do you have trails in your yard? If so, you and your family can play in the trails. Make a tent out of sticks. Keeping things simple really is the best way to have fun and play together as a family.

Meeting the Needs of Everyone
Do you feel that everyone in your family is getting their needs met? If not, there are ways to make sure this happens. You can let everyone pick one weekend a month to plan a playful activity. Family meetings are a great way to get everyone involved in planning out fun events as well. Maybe your youngest child loves going to the park while your oldest loves playing board games. You can always play chess in the park or do one of these things every other weekend. Being positive around your children and making sure they know you want to meet everyone’s needs is a great way to teach them to care for others. By meeting everyone’s needs, you might just find that everyone in the family is happier and more content on a regular basis. In addition, you teach your children to take turns.

Spontaneity Can Breed Happiness
Some families stick to the same routine repeatedly. While routines are great for children and entire families, sometimes spontaneity can breed happiness. You can find many fun and spontaneous things to do. You can spontaneously decide that instead of electronic time, you are going to take the children outside to play in the mud. You can decide that instead of taking an afternoon walk outdoors, on a rainy day, you make forts in the bedroom. Being spontaneous can help everyone to loosen up and have a great time. You can also find new things that members of your family didn’t know they enjoyed by being spontaneous.

Letting Go of the Electronics
There are so many families that spend most of their extra time on electronics. When everyone is glued to electronics, you can’t truly bond with one another. It may be time to let go of the electronics. How do you feel your family would do if they didn’t have electronics for 3 hours, 1 day, or even a weekend? At first, they may not know what to do. However, in time, they are going to find other ways to spend time together. Your children may start playing together. They may go outside and build a fort. They may pull out those Legos they haven’t played with in months. You can join in with them as well. Letting go of the electronics is something that you may want to implement regularly to help everyone grow and connect as a family.

Taking Pictures
When was the last time you just got everyone together for some pictures? Maybe you snap a few pictures, here and there, on your phone. However, when you look through them, when was the last time you had a true family picture. You can take pictures of everyone doing their favorite things for instance. If your youngest child loves reading a book, have her pose while reading a book, and you snap a picture. If your oldest child, loves playing basketball, have him jump in the air with the ball, and you snap a picture. Taking purposeful pictures of the family can be a fun and playful activity you all do together. Let the children take pictures of the parents doing fun and exciting things as well.

Making Up a Game
Have any of your children ever tried to make up a game before? What did you do? Were you responsive to their ideas or did you put it aside? Don’t worry either way. Now is your chance to get more involved. Everyone in your household can get involved. Let everyone take turns making up a game and having everyone play. This could be a game that involves everything made up or they can change around a game they already have. You might just be surprised at the ideas they come up with. You can come up with a game that everyone has to play as well, even if it is a cleaning game.

These are some of the best ways to play together as a family. If you or anyone in your family is stressed out, tired, bored, or just need to have some bonding time, any one of these ideas can give you something fun to do. If you are worried your teenager may become a teenage alcoholic, these ideas can show them how much you care about them. You can use these ideas to help you create other fun ways to spend time with your family as well. What are you waiting for? Go and get with your family. Pick one of these activities and do something fun together as a family. Remember, playing is for the entire family, not just for the children.

Author Bio:
Patrick Bailey is a professional writer mainly in the fields of mental health, addiction, and living in recovery. He attempts to stay on top of the latest news in the addiction and the mental health world and enjoy writing about these topics to break the stigma associated with them.

Guest post by Patrick Bailey

Guest post: Growing Up Green

Growing Up Green: The Importance of Teaching Your Children About Sustainability

Children are naturally drawn to their environment. They see the world as one big playground to explore and experience, but it’s up to the adults around them to show them their roles as stewards of the earth. It’s our duty to teach them good practices that could eventually form into habits. Teaching children about keeping the earth in good shape when they’re young is the best way to ensure that they grow into environmentally conscious adults. Something as simple as reducing plastic consumption is an easy and realistic way to contribute to green advocacy.

Why Teach Your Kids About Caring for the Environment?

What your children do today will have a major impact on their future. Previous generations, including ours, have made quite a mess because of unbridled consumption. For instance, the world has already produced more than eight billion tons of plastics and of that total, less than 10% is recycled. The rest ends up in landfills or oceans, where it can be ingested and endanger marine creatures.

This is significant considering that plastics don’t completely dissolve until after 400 years. That piece of plastic that you allow your kid to just throw out on the street? It will outlive them by five generations. So, how do you teach your kids the importance of going green? Here are a few simple tips to follow.

1. Start green education early

According to House Method, you should introduce your child to plastic alternatives early on. Instead of using water bottles, invest in a reusable bottle. Have your child come grocery shopping with you and explain how you can pick vegetables and fruits without having to buy plastic packaging. The sooner you start teaching your children about the importance of sustainability, the more likely that green habits will form.

2. Be a role model

Children pick up habits from their parents. That’s why it’s important that you instill in them good practices through your own actions. Let’s take the example of climate forcing – this condition occurs when our human activity forces a change in either the cooling or warming balance in the atmosphere. Instead of taking the car to the grocery store and contributing to this issue, why not bike or walk your way there? This is not only a bonding opportunity, but a teaching moment as well. Some other things you can do include stop usage of plastic straws, bring a reusable bag with you when you go shopping, and recycling all papers and plastics in your home.

Source: Jamie Taylor – https://unsplash.com/photos/kTXEJSt1ruo

3. Make the conservation fun

Let’s face it: most kids would rather be glued to their mobile phones or tablets than help you garden or prepare that compost pit. But you can make the whole activity fun with a little creativity. For instance, when you go exploring the park or the woods, you can challenge your child to a game to see who can pick up litter the fastest. For composting, let them help you dig for worms.

4. Visit the zoo or nature reserves

Children really fail to appreciate the importance of conservation when they don’t explore their environment. You can rekindle their curiosity by taking them to see wildlife or birds they haven’t seen before. Introduce them to animals at the zoo and show them how nature doesn’t create an anomaly. Everybody has a role to play and humans have the biggest responsibility to make sure that the gains we made in nature conservation in recent years won’t be wasted.

Teaching your child about sustainability is both incredibly important and surprisingly easy. It just takes a bit of creativity, dedication, and consistency.

Guest post by Kaytie Pascale

A Visit to Dinosaur World Live

We were delighted to be offered the chance to visit Dinosaur World Live for free, courtesy of Let’s Go with the Children.

We attended this show at G Live in Guildford. There were free stickers for all the children plus a range of dinosaur merchandise available to purchase. Son2 had come prepared with 3 of his cuddly dinosaurs, but he still managed to persuade us to buy another for his menagerie, this time a triceratops.

Leading lady Miranda played by Elizabeth Mary Williams is supported by a team of puppeteers who skilfully control the dinosaurs. These range from small handheld puppets to the huge 10m long T-rex. Miranda draws in the audience right from the start when she places a dinosaur egg at the corner of the stage, asking everyone to call her name if it looks like hatching. Of course there are plenty of false hatching alerts throughout the performance. Miranda weaves her magic, telling us about the dinosaurs she grew up with who have come from a far-off island, introducing each one in turn.

The large triceratops was son1’s favourite whilst the huge T-rex was his Dad’s favourite. We did get to meet baby versions of both of these earlier.

A few children are invited up onto stage to participate in activities like feeding or tickling a dinosaur. It was nice to see that they weren’t all from the front row. We all got the chance to roar. And at the end of the show, there was the opportunity for all children to meet and touch some of the dinosaurs – a large one on stage and 2 small ones in the foyer.

It was a fantastic interactive performance and dinosaurs looked so realistic, that you almost forgot the puppeteers standing there. Miranda had the whole audience mesmerised, even the youngest children were watching in awe.

The audience were actively encouraged to take photographs during the performance, although mine were shared afterwards as I had already discovered before the start that there didn’t seem to be any internet connection in the venue.

Suitable for all ages from 3+ and just under an hour long. Not too scary or loud, although I did notice some small children in front of us wearing headphones. With some lighting effects and smoke.

This show is touring round the country and I do highly recommend that you take your children to see it.

Son2’s favourite part was when the dinosaur egg finally hatched just before the end and then its mum turned up. He loved the tiny voice of the baby as the two communicated together. In fact, the puppeteers all had marvellous ventriloquist skills with different sounds for each species.

And G-Live is a very nice modern venue, with a large tiered auditorium. It does have it’s own carpark, but there were only a few spaces left when we arrived half an hour early, so do allow plenty of time before the performance. It also has its own cafe which we didn’t sample as well as a bar. We checked that drinks could be taken into the show.

I’d love to hear what is your favourite dinosaur. Mine is the brontosaurus.

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This review also appears on https://letsgowiththechildren.co.uk

Disclosure. This post is a review of a show which we saw for free.  All opinions are my own.

The Great Oreo Cookie Quest

Britmums have challenged bloggers to take the #OreoCookieQuest Challenge. And as one of the first 100 to sign up to the challenge, I received two free packets of Oreo cookies, for the family to enjoy a tasty treat.

I decided that we would have a fun Oreo cookie quest at home. I hid the treats and thought up some clues for the hiding places, then gave the clues to the boys for them to figure out.

Son1 immediately headed to the kitchen and after a false start rummaging through the chiller drawer in the fridge, he discovered his first Oreo in the fruit bowl.

Meanwhile son2 rushed upstairs and found Oreos on my pillow.

They found most of the Oreos quite quickly, but the final hiding place was a bit more tricky. They were on the right track looking in the freezer, but they needed a little hint to prompt them to look inside the ice cream carton. What a delicious combination of 2 Oreos and ice cream, 2 being the perfect serving size.

Oreo is celebrating The Great Oreo Cookie Quest with a fun and interactive way to win great prizes. Oreo fans have the opportunity to win a once-in-a-lifetime wonder-filled trip to California and the Googleplex through an on-pack promotion. I downloaded the app to try our luck and son2 had great fun scanning for Oreos. He found about 25 in half an hour but this is his favourite below. No points for guessing where he scanned. Certainly not one of the places I would choose to hide an Oreo!

So try your luck by popping a pack in your trolley on your next shopping trip. And I’ve still got another pack of Oreos left. Think I might try using them to cook a tasty treat for the family. Anyone got a recipe suggestion for me?

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Disclosure. This post mentions a product that I was sent for free. All opinions are my own. This post is an entry for BritMums #OreoCookieQuest, sponsored by Oreo.

Guest post: Awesome things you can do when you have kids

One would say that parenting is extremely frustrating. However, I would never say so. For me, being a fully established mother also means having fun with my girls all the time. Every day with them is a new and priceless memory that I will remember forever. From my extensive experience, I can safely claim that there is a multitude of activities you can enjoy just because you have children. Here is the list of awesome things you can do, without being laughed at!

Buying toys you didn’t have in your own childhood

As a child, I had numerous amazing toys. However, no matter how much my parents tried to buy me everything I wanted, the sole range of toys one could buy back then was significantly smaller. That’s exactly why I have always dreamt of playing with Lego bricks, Barbie dolls or ridiculously cool toy vacuum cleaners. Of course, it would be impossible for me to play with such stuff in my 30s and still prove that I’m mentally healthy!

Finally, I came up with a great idea- to provide my girls with all the toys I love! Now, I’m playing with them all the time, with the excuse that they are too young to know how to play properly.

I can still sing silly songs in the car!

As a teenager, I was a huge fan of NKOTB. My largest dream was to attend all their concerts and to buy all their promotional items. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford them. As the time went by, some other boy bands reached the peak of popularity.

Today, as they get in the car, my girls want me to play One Direction. I’m pretty sure that I’ve managed to memorize all their songs by now. Now, both my husband and I really enjoy singing them at the top of our lungs! What’s even funnier is that no one bothers this just because of our kids sitting in the backseat! As One Direction’s (probably oldest) fan, I’ve decided to provide my little angels with the accessories I come across. They have already collected a bunch of posters, tees, mugs, watches, CDs and DVDs.

I can finally watch cartoons all the time

I will never understand why all grownups stop watching cartoons. For me, they are the most innocent way of having fun. Unfortunately, neither my husband nor my friends wanted to watch them with me. Now, that I have kids, I can watch animated movies all day long. Until now, we have seen best Disney movies, from classics like Cinderella, Bambi and Sleeping Beauty to the latest ones such as Frozen and Cars. Even more, we bought annual passes to Disneyland in order to meet all the characters whenever “my daughters” want to. With kids, it is never awkward to stand in line enthusiastically!

Decorating your kids’ room just as you’ve always wanted

When it comes to home renovation, I set my girls’ bedroom as a paramount. As a kid, I never had a room on my own. For years, I was picturing every detail in my perfect, imaginary nook, from walls, curtains and furniture, to even the tiniest accessories like scented candles. Luckily to me, I have two little princesses who still let me redecorate their room every once in a while. Although my husband thinks that I’ve gone nuts, I’m enjoying it as long as I can. I know that, once they grow up, my daughters will want to do all this by themselves.

Dance parties after dinner!

No matter how foolish it might sound, my family throws dance parties all the time. Usually, such moments happen spontaneously, after dinner. We listen to music and, as soon as the meal is over, we jump and start dancing like crazy. Even daddy enjoys it, which always makes me laugh. I cannot imagine him doing any of these things before the kids.

Jumping on a trampoline

Jumping on a trampoline is one of those activities I have always wanted to try. However, when I was a kid, it practically impossible. Luckily for me, today there are numerous amazing trampoline fitness centers, which can also serve as great kids’ birthday party venues. When I heard of such centers, I came up with a silly idea to organize a surprise party for my husband. At first, he didn’t even want to come, but later on, he was speechless. I planned everything in advance and invited a lot of our friends with their kids! We all jumped on trampolines, danced and listened to music. In a nutshell, we had the time of our lives!

Baking cookies all the time!

My girls simply enjoy my culinary skills! That’s why I bake various cookies all the time, even when I have no good reasons. Most important of all, I really enjoy it. I always look for reasonable excuses, telling that the kids are the ones who enjoy making and decorating their own sugary treats. I don’t even mind that the kitchen is in such a mess once we’re done!

Building sand castles

I’ve always loved spending time at the beach. Now, my girls keep reminding me of how amazing building sand castles is. Since they have no idea how to make a firm sand castle, mommy is always there to help! Even worse, I’m always so focused on my new “construction project” that I completely forget about all other kinds of activities! Finally, I can completely relax, without being laughed at!

Organizing an epic water gun fight!

Is there anything more fulfilling than organizing an epic water gun fight? In our family, it has become tradition. Every summer, we use it as one of most amazing methods to cool off and have a lot of fun. Once, I even grabbed a hose in order to defend myself against my raging children! We laughed a lot!

All in all, my point is that, when you have kids, you can always act silly. It is an amazing way for you to make your parenting much simpler and joyous. Try any of these tips and you will realize what I am talking about. Have fun!

About author:

Tracey Clayton is a full time mom of three girls. She loves cooking, baking, sewing, spending quality time with her daughters and she’s passionate in writing. She is contributor on High Style Life and her motto is: “Live the life you love, love the life you live.” Find her on: Facebook.

Our Norfolk holiday

 

We have had a great holiday in Norfolk this summer. Son1 has been remarkably well during the maintenance phase of his chemotherapy, so we felt confident enough to book a holiday in advance rather than leaving it to the last minute. We booked a cottage in Norfolk, an area of the country I have not visited before in memory. Although my mum told me I had been to Cromer aged 3.

We stayed in Snettisham in the north of Norfolk and from there visited nearby places and attractions including Hunstanton, Sandringham, Kings Lynn and Wells-next-the-Sea. Our favourite beach was at Holme, sandy rather than stony. Being more remote, it was quieter than most. We discovered that beach by following a previous guest’s recommendation in the visitor’s book at our cottage. One of my top travel tips is to research your holiday locality by checking out the leaflets at the tourist information and I always read visitors books for ideas.

Fun on Holme beach

We were staying within walking distance of Snettisham Nature Reserve. It was lovely wandering round the lake, seeing the geese and wild plants. Although the anglers and bird watchers may have preferred it without our two loud boys’ presence. And the boys enjoyed having a few early blackberries as we walked.

Snettisham Nature Reserve

Our favourite attraction in Kings Lynn was Lynn Museum. There was lots to occupy the boys giving us time to properly read about the exhibits. I found it fascinating to find out all about Seahenge there.

Horse ride at Lynn Museum

At Wells-next-the-Sea we walked from the town to the beach. And afterwards whilst I walked back, the boys loved riding back on the miniature railway. They also enjoyed eating pancakes on board an old sailing boat, The Albatros which has been converted into a restaurant.

Harbour Railway, Wells-Next-The-Sea

Our cottage was small and cosy, but well equipped with plenty of games and toys to entertain the boys, and lots of books for me. We didn’t know that in advance, so I had followed my other usual travel tip of packing small things like balloons, bubbles, beach balls, colouring for the boys. There was no WiFi at the cottage, so it was great to spend less time online.

The boys had great fun on the beaches, paddling, building sandcastles and collecting shells. And when we got torrential rain, there were indoor play areas, museum, ten pin bowling, swimming pool and arcades.

Son1 was overjoyed to win a toy at kids Bingo at one of the nearby caravan sites.

And it was a delight to see the ducks and chickens wandering round outside from the small-holding behind the cottage. There were even alpacas.

I’ve written a separate blog post on the wonderful lavender farm at Heacham also encompassing Farmer Fred’s Play Barn, a favourite of the boys. I also intend to blog about our lovely day at Sandringham , so watch out for that.

Norfolk was wonderful. I certainly want to go again. Where do you love visiting most in the UK?

Draw With Me – Family

Last year I found a nice kids drawing competition on “This Mummy Loves” blog which my boys enjoy taking part in.  It is a monthly competition and this month the theme is Family.

Son2 put quite a bit of effort into his drawing of our family doing it twice, as he declared that he was too big on his first drawing. And son1 initially said he was going to a family tree of our extended family including grandparents and cousins, but changed his mind and spent only a couple of minutes drawing us a stick family.

Our family by son2

Our family by son1

This post is an entry to Draw With Me.

A holiday in Margate

During February, son1 seemed to be doing quite well with his chemotherapy treatment, so we decided to take a chance and book an Easter holiday in Margate. We can’t get travel insurance, so we knew this was a risk, but it is nice to have something to look forward to. Roll forward 6 weeks to a few days before we are due to go and son1’s temperature spikes to 38 deg. Luckily he wasn’t neutropenic last week, as the temperature threshold for hospitalisation reduces by 0.5 deg to 38 deg in that scenario. And the morning before we were due to go, he was sick, but he bounced back later in the day. He was fighting off some sort of bug, but we had his 3-monthly appointment with the hospital consultant on the morning we were due to travel and she was okay with us going ahead with the holiday.

So we drove down to Margate last Monday in horrendous rain, but at least son1 was feeling better and he remained well for all the holiday. We enjoyed a complimentary cream tea on arrival at our hotel. And the weather improved. A blustery start to Tuesday but no more rain. After getting cold at the Viking play area, we retreated indoors for a game of ten pin bowling. And by the afternoon, the sun came out. One of our newly purchased buckets lasted all of 10 minutes before the handle broke and by Thursday had split entirely.

Our room had a sea-facing balcony and we had fantastic views of the sunset. I wasn’t expecting that with Kent being on the East. What a bonus, especially as the sun remained with us for the rest of the holiday. We even got a little pink from the sun, as we had packed winter coats, not sun hats and sun cream.

Sunset from our hotel balcony

As well as paddling (no I didn’t venture into the freezing cold water myself) and building sandcastles, the boys had fun at the kiddies beach playzone and we enjoyed playing crazy golf a couple of times. Son1 beat me by one point. We had huge breakfasts at the hotel, so didn’t bother with lunch. Then we found some nice places for either tea or a very early evening meal, as son1 has to take his chemotherapy each evening an hour after eating. Our hotel also had an ice-cream parlour. My favourite flavour was the salted caramel. We gave the Wimpy Bar a miss, but seeing it brought back memories of my Saturday job over 30 years ago, as the branding looked pretty much unchanged. I didn’t even realise that Wimpy Bar still existed.

Wimpy Bar – a blast from the past

And all too soon we were heading home today, but it was lovely to have a break. And we also visited Broadstairs and Ramsgate, plus a visit to Reculver Roman fort.

Reculver Roman Fort

Mecca’s Mother’s Day Memories

I came across a blogging competition sponsored by Mecca Bingo via Michaela. Mecca Bingo have challenged bloggers to create a collage of family memories. This can be from past Mother’s Days, memories, days out with the family or special days to you. Anything you like.

This sounded like fun and I have loads of photos of our family memories, but I’m almost always behind the camera. Being a mum is important to me, just as my mum is special to me too. So in the end I’ve decided to just feature four special memories in my collage.

The first photo is of my eldest son as a baby and me. This was taken on my first Mother’s Day as a new mum, complete with my Mother’s Day flowers on the mantelpiece and balloon.

The middle photo was taken on holiday in Spain in 2011, also of my eldest son and me. This was the last time we went somewhere hot on holiday. My husband was out of work for over a year after that, so we couldn’t afford an expensive holiday, but we did have some enjoyable house swaps in the UK in 2012. And then my son was diagnosed with leukaemia in May last year. He isn’t allowed to fly until after his chemotherapy treatment finishes in 2016, so hot foreign holidays are just a memory at present.

The bottom photo was taken when my son was well enough to come home from hospital. It is a treasured memory as it is the first time he was well enough to have some fun on our trampoline, which we had only assembled on the day he first started complaining of pains, 3 weeks before his diagnosis. He wasn’t mobile enough to try jumping, as he had to be carried onto the trampoline, but he is now happily bouncing around again.

And the big photo is a memory that I am a very proud mummy of. My son with his Little Star Award and certificate last December. Plus a certificate for his younger brother, who was also impacted by his brother’s illness, missing his mummy, being looked after by friends and family whilst we were at the hospital. Little Star Awards are to celebrate the courage of children in the UK who have been diagnosed with cancer.

Casserole and Cake

I took a day’s leave off work yesterday, so that I could attend son1’s Autumn concert for his year at school in the afternoon.  It was a lovely event.  The children all did very well and there was even a special role for son1, giving out programmes. But I used the morning to catch up on chores and to do some cooking.  I tidied a corner of the garden, picking some gone to seed onions, that got missed from last year’s crop, but they didn’t yield much – less than the equivalent of one large onion. I prepared a casserole (including the onions) ready for tea and baked a cake.

Onions rescued from the garden

Meatball Casserole

Ingredients (serves 2 adults and 2 children)

20 Richmond Mini Meatballs (200g)
4 Medium to Large Potatoes
1 Onion
4 Carrots
25g Lentils
Sausage Casserole Mix

Method

Peel and chop potatoes, onion and carrots.
Put vegetables in large casserole dish.
Add lentils and meatballs.
Tip casserole mix into a jug and add cold water according to packet instructions.
Stir and pour over casserole.
Cover the casserole dish with a lid.
Cook in fan oven at 160deg for 1 hour.
Serve and enjoy.

Meatball Casserole – ready to cook

Meatball casserole – serve and enjoy!

I was planning to bake a Cherry and Almond cake, but found I didn’t have enough cherries, so I modified it to a Fruit and Almond cake.

Fruit and Almond Cake

Ingredients

175g margarine
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175g self raising flour
75g glace cherries
125g mixed dried fruit
few drops of almond essence
75g ground almonds
1 tablespoon milk

Method

Grease a 17cm round cake tin and line with greaseproof paper.
Cream margarine and sugar.
Beat in the eggs.
Sieve and fold in the flour.
Add almond essence.
Chop the cherries in half.
Fold in the ground almonds, mixed fruit and cherries.
Add enough of the milk to give a dropping consistency.
Spoon mixture into tin.
Cook in fan oven at 160deg for 40 minutes.
Cover with foil and cook for approx 10 more minutes.
Cool on wire rack.

Spoon cake mixture into tin

Fruit and Almond Cake

Yummy! Enjoy!

And I thought I’d enter my cake for The Great Bloggers Bakeoff which is being run by Jenny of Mummy Mishaps and Helen of The Crazy Kitchen.