CD Craft1

Hello Guys,
The Little Mini Makers are back with yet another CD craft as Mummy has been receiving more CDs as company financial reports. :)
Today we are making a cute elephant & an octopus with googly eyes.

Materials Needed:
- CDs
- Blue paper (elephant)
- Yellow paper (octopus)
- Goggly eyes
- Glue
- Marker pen
- Scissors
- Twine string

Materials for Elephant:


Materials for Octopus:


1. Draw out the shapes of the elephant ears and nose on the blue paper as shown.
For the octopus, draw eight tentacles and a small nose on the yellow paper.



2. Cut them out then glue them on the CDs.





3. Paste the googly eyes on the CDs.

4. Lastly, stick twine string above the CD to hold it up.


Gwen & Oliver with their creations.

Hope you enjoyed the CD craft today.
You may also refer to our last CD craft for more ideas.
http://www.littleminimakers.blogspot.sg/2013/08/recycled-animal-cd-craft.html

Chocolate Ice-cream Recipe

Hello guys,

After our very first Mini Donuts recipe http://littleminimakers.blogspot.sg/2013/09/mini-donut-recipe-no-frying-is-required.html, the Little Mini Makers are now brave enough to attempt a more challenging recipe - Chocolate Ice-Cream!
The whole process of preparing the ingredients is actually not that difficult.
It's just the time needed to make the ice-cream and freezing it that is really time-consuming.
But it's all worth it when you see the little ones enjoying their little cups of ice-cream treat.

Ingredients:
- 80g Hershey's chocolate chips
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 cup white milk
- 1 1/2 cup cream
- 1/3 cup Hershey's cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract


1. Melt the chocolate chips on a heatproof bowl with a saucepan of simmering water below.
Alternatively, you may simply microwave the chocolate chips for 5 minutes to melt them.


2. Next use a hand mixer to beat the white sugar into the egg yolks.

3. In a separate saucepan, mix the fresh milk with the cream, followed by the sifted cocoa powder. Remove the saucepan when you start to see bubbles forming.
Let it cool.

4. Then slowly pour the milk and cream mixture (3) into the egg yolk mixture (2). Whisk constantly, ensuring there are no lumps.

Let the kids help with the whisking as this can help in the development of their motor skills.

5. Lastly, stir in the melted chocolate.

6. Place the mixture into a saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the custard thickens.

7. Transfer the custard into a bowl and allow it to cool down, adding the vanilla extract.


8. After the custard has cooled down, transfer it into the refrigerator to chill for at least 8 hours.

9. Make sure that you have chilled the container of your ice-cream maker for at least 24 hours before transferring the chilled custard into the container.


10. Turn on the ice-cream maker with the chilled custard for 30 minutes.

11. Then remove the custard and pour it into clean containers or cups to be frozen.

12. The ice-cream will harden and is ready for consumption after at least 8 hours in the freezer.

The Little Mini Makers were really pleased that our ice-cream turned out so well. The texture was so creamy and thick, and it felt like we were having Haagan Daaz ice-cream! Yes you heard it right. This recipe really produced "Haagan Daaz" tasting ice-cream. We tried making it twice and both times it turned out consistently good.

We hope that you will give this recipe a try. It is definitely well worth the effort.
Till next time, thanks for dropping by! :)

Mini Donut Recipe (No frying is required)

Hi guys,
It is the very first time the Little Mini Makers are posting a recipe, so we are going to introduce something very simple and well loved by kids - Mini donuts!
No frying is required for this recipe.
We used Mayer's Mini Cup Cake & Donut Maker to make the donuts.
Below are some photos of the machine in case you are interested to buy one.
I think it costs SGD89 for one but Mayer is currently having a promotion in their Singapore stores.
I paid SGD99 for two machines, one Mayer Mini Cup Cake & Donut Maker and another Mistral Ice-Cream maker.
I haven't had the time to try out the ice-cream maker yet, but I will be sure to post it once I find the time to make some ice-cream. :)

Mayer's Mini Cup Cake & Donut Maker:








Donut mould.

Cupcake mould.

Recipe:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
3 cups plain flour
3 tablespoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon coffee powder
4 eggs
1/3 cup cocoa powder
5 tablespoon butter


1. Mix all the ingredients above into the plain flour, stirring until there are no more lumps.


Look at our Little Mini Makers hard at work. :)



This is the batter mixture.

2. Next, heat up the donut maker until the green light appears. This would mean that the machine is hot enough for you to start making your donuts.

CAUTION: DO NOT LET THE KIDS GO NEAR THE DONUT MAKER AS IT IS VERY HOT.

3. Use a spoon to pour the batter into the donut maker.



4. After 5-7 minutes, the mini donuts should be done.


4. We have also added some sprinkles and chocolate chips into our donuts.

This was how the mini donuts turned out.
They were absolutely crispy, crunchy and most importantly oh so yummy.
Our Little Mini Makers loved them so much that each had 6 mini donuts at one go!

We hope you have enjoyed our very first recipe - Mini Donuts.
Till next time. Adios!

Port of the Lost Wonder (POLW), Sentosa

Hello guys,

My family had such a fun-filled Sunday at Port of the Lost Wonder (POLW) in Sentosa (event organised by my company) last weekend that I decided to share this with you.
In case you are wondering, Port of the Lost Wonder is Singapore's first kids' club by the beach. http://www.polw.com.sg/
There is a huge pirate ship water playground there that the kids can enjoy.

However, the rest of the activities are solely organised by my company, so please don't expect them when you next visit POLW. ;p

When we first arrived at POLW, the kids immediately tried their hands at fishing to win themselves an inflatable Nemo fish.



Gwen and Oliver with their prized catch.

The next game required them to push the bowling ball all the way straight without rolling back at the "hump".




Bouncy ponies. "BOING BOING BOING".

Oliver shows off his hula hoop twisting skills.

Next, we headed down to the Photo Booth for our photo opportunities.


Oliver is Captain America and Gwen is the Iron Man.




Look at Oliver. Doesn't he look like he is doing an audition for American Idol?



The kids then headed down to the cotton candy stall for their fix of sugar rush.

Followed by face painting.

Gwen is Captain America.

Singapore Merlion for Oliver. How cute!

Our helper, Thar Thar also had some fun designing a shopping bag for the kids.


Basketball fun at the beach...

... and more fun games.


Look how proud Oliver is at himself with the toy monkey he just won.

Oliver balances himself on the surf board. How cool!


He manages to pick himself up after the fall....with a laugh.

Beach football anyone?

Here is our Spiderwoman enjoying herself.

This is one of Gwen's fave rides. She managed to hold on to the bull for quite long.

She also enjoyed herself on the trampoline.


Up, up and away!

Oliver was not as brave.... :(

But he had a fun time at the bumper car with his dad.

So did Gwen and I. :)

Their dad did his best Thor impression.... but alas he didn't succeed... ;p


Finally, the highlight of our trip - POLW water playground.



The kids had a blast at the water playground. This was the favorite part of their trip to POLW.

Bye bye Sentosa... See you again next year!