Chocolate, Marshmallow and Cola Cupcake Recipe

Here is a recipe for some quick and easy Sweet Treats that the kids will love to help you to bake and then eat.  They can be decorated using any toppings and decorations you like (we've used a swirl of Betty Crocker frosting topped with the limited edition Brazilian M&Ms to give our cakes a BrasiliaWorld Cup 2014 flavour!)  The addition of Cola into the batter makes them very light.

Chocolate, Marshmallow and Cola Cupcakes

Ingredients

250 g self-raising flour

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

125g sugar

1 egg

6 tablespoons of rice bran oil

150ml Cola

50g mini marshmallows

50 g chocolate chips

Method

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.

In a jug mix the egg and oil, then add the cola.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.

Fold in chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.

Spoon into prepared muffin cups (try to make sure the marshmallows are all covered with batter).

Cook in a pre-heated oven at GM5 for about 20 minutes.

Once cooked and cooled you can decorate them if you wish.

This recipe uses Tate & Lyle Granulated Sugar (currently £1.55 for a 2 kg bag) and Coca-Cola (currently £2.64 for an 8 can pack), both of which can be found on the Morrison's Price Checker, which is a handy online tool allowing us to check price cuts every week.

“This post is an entry for the #MorrisonsMum Summer Recipe eBook Challenge sponsored by Morrisons, which has recently cut prices on over a thousand every day products. Find out more here price checker tool”.

Celebrating the FIFA World Cup with a Big Match Family Night In

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. 

Brazil 2014 is tantalizingly close. In a matter of hours families across the world will be preparing to celebrate a summer of football and enjoying every big match of the FIFA World Cup.  It is an opportunity to come together with family and friends to support your team, cheer for every goal and hold your breath at every penalty shoot out.  It's a time to throw fun-filled parties or enjoy nights in together watching each big game and enjoying the excitement of such a huge sporting event as a family.

To get us in the World Cup mood and to build excitement for the kick off, we held a #BigMatchPlanner family night in with #CollectiveBias.  Tesco are currently selling a World Cup branded four pack of 1.5 litre bottles of Coca-Cola for just £4.00, which was a great place to start when it came to planning our event. (This super special offer is available until June 17th.) They were easy to find, on a promotional display in the entrance of the store, and the 'Celebrate Together' message definitely tied in with my plans for our family football themed night in.  It's lovely to see so many big brands and retailers getting into the spirit and supporting Brazil 2014.  They are helping to get the ball rolling, inspiring us all to get involved!

I decided that it would be nice to embrace the flair and favour of the host nation Brazil, and bring a touch of its South American influence to our night in.  So on the menu was Cachurro Quente - Brazilian street food, consisting of hot dogs served with a variety of toppings including five bean chilli, deep fried sweet potato noodles, salsa, cheese and sweetcorn.  We used veggie hot dog sausages for our meal. This style of DIY party food is a lot of fun, especially for the children who get to help themselves and create their very own bespoke dinner in a bun!

For dessert, I made a selection of World Cup-Cakes.  They included some Chocolate, Coca-Cola and Marshmallow Muffins served with a mini marshmallow kebab, limited edition Brazillian M&M's or chocolate footballs. The addition of the Coca-Cola in the batter makes them sweet and light.  I also made some Vegan Cupcakes with Coconut Chocolate Frosting topped with a selection of fresh fruit as a tribute to Brazil's rainforests!

I hung some world nation's flag bunting alongside Brazilian flag bunting to really set the scene.  I challenged the children to identify the flags, matching them to the correct country.  Who knew football could be so educational?!!  I also displayed a Brazil 2014 wall chart so we can follow the progress of the tournament and keep scores.

It was lovely to see 4 year old Freddy take such an interest in the World Cup.  His older sisters reminisced about football tournaments of the past, recalling the days of Beckham, Seaman, Bergkamp,  Roger Miller and Thierry Henri, and remembering the heartbreak of watching England lose a penalty shoot out to the Germans.  This year Freddy will be making his own memories to talk about in the future.  I hope they will be good memories... just imagine if they went on to be memories of England's first World Cup victory since 1966! (We can dream.)

The food went down a treat with everyone, who thoroughly enjoyed making their own Cacharro Quente. To quote a rather awful football pun...it did get rather "Messi" but this Brazilian dish will definitely be on the menu again during our World Cup get togethers.  It was such a fun dish.

And of course, serving up ice cold Coca-Cola in England cups quenched our thirsts and raised out patriotic spirits.  There may have been a few renditions of 'Three Lions' complete with Nobby Styles's famous dance moves that took place during the evening!

Every year we have our own sweepstakes, picking names out of a hat, so we have more teams to support should England fall at the first hurdle.  Of course we'd be overjoyed if our home team do well, but the prospect of more penalty shoot-outs brings me out in a cold sweat.  So it's nice to have a few other teams, which we are less emotionally invested in to cheer on too. Anyone who picks the team that goes on to win the tournament wins a prize, so it keeps everyone excited.

Freddy, draped in one of our national flags (I think it's Croatia), looking like a little World Cup themed superhero,  picked out South Korea as his sweepstake team.  He was most delighted with his choice especially as I told him that that was where Psi came from, prompting a rendition of Gangham Style!

The girls made a poster to display our sweepstake teams alongside our World Cup 2014 champion predictions.  This year, my money is on Brazil to win with the home advantage.  I still remember the genius of Pele and the infamous Maradonna 'Hand of God' incident.  Brazil are always memorable in the World Cup. I hope they impress this year.

This poster and all the other World Cup decorations will be staying up until the winning team hold the Jules Rimet cup aloft, at the end of the tournament.  The World Cup will be a wonderful excuse for many impromptu nights in, big match parties and general footballing fun!  We are so excited!

We enjoyed a game or two of table football and I bought some official FIFA World Cup tattoos that we had fun applying. We did plan to end the evening with a football related movie such as Bend it Like Beckham, She's the Man or Escape to Victory, but as England was playing a friendly against Ecuador on this night, that provided the perfect entertainment to get us all match ready.  It may not have been the most scintillating match, but a draw is a draw and I hope the teams are saving themselves for the real thing!

This taster of the fun and excitement to come when the World Cup kicks off , has really made us all feel match ready!  We've got our World Cup themed t-shirts to wear and our flags ready to wave. Come on England!!

Why not have your own Big Match Family Night In, serving up food from one of the nations playing, singing football songs and enjoying some football related activities?

It's a great way of making some fun, family memories.

Which team do you think will win this year's World Cup?

Visit the Coca-Cola Big Match Planner website for inspiration on hosting your own nights in with ideas on themed recipes, music and entertainment.

Olympic Waste Busting Challenge

This Summer's Olympic Games are nearly upon us. Coca-Cola is working with the Olympic Committee to help reduce the waste generated and have some impressive initiatives to make our Olympics more sustainable.  That is such good news and something to feel really proud about!

My family and I do our very best to be as environmentally friendly as we possibly can...in fact, one could say we are as green as Usain Bolt's Olympic shorts!  It just makes sense to adopt a waste-busting approach to life, after all this is our planet and our legacy to future generations. We owe it to ourselves to minimize our impact and encourage long term sustainability.

As a family we do all the usual...Reuse, Reduce and Recycle.  We compost our green waste.  We do our best to make smart choices when we make purchases to minimize our waste.  We really do try to go for gold in our mission to be green!  It's about being resourceful, mindful and a little inventive...and there is a lot of fun to be had along the way!

My most recently implemented change has been to overhaul my housework!   When I am in a supermarket I am blown away by the hundreds and hundreds of household chemical cleaners that are lined up on the shelves.  The plastic moulded trigger spray caps, the disposable plastic gloves and the plethora of chemically impregnated wipes are all destined for landfill.  Not to mention the fact that the toxic ingredients are destined to go down the drain to add to the pollution that is suffocating our planet.  To counteract my contribution to this industry I have switched to using pure malt vinegar solution as a general purpose cleaner for glass, surfaces, paintwork, mirrors, sinks, floors, toilets and taps.  It is a disinfectant and a deodorizer and once dry leaves no smell or residue.  The vinegar comes in a recyclable glass bottle and a little goes a really long way making it a more cost effective, natural way to clean my home without resorting to buying dozens of plastic bottled cleaners, each designed for a specific task.  I use a refillable squirty bottle into which I make up a solution of 30/70 vinegar to water solution.   Do we really need a separate cleaner for the kitchen sink, another for the tiles, another for the laminate, one for the windows and one for bath etc??  Each  one generating its own waste.  I also use washable and reusable cloths that are guaranteed for 300 washes and will be good for ages  It's been an easy change to make and one that makes a real difference.  What's more, my toddler can help with my cleaning safe in the knowledge that he will not come into contact with toxic chemicals...so I now have a little helper!

Green Cleaning with a Little Helping Hand!

Another commitment we have made as a family is to donate regularly to charity shops or pass on things to family and friends so they can be re-used.  Just because my 3 year old son Freddy has grown out of a toy or a pair of trousers does not mean that the item should be binned.  Another child could benefit from it.  If there is no obvious hand-me-down route, then we give it to a charity shop which finds a home for the said item and raises valuable funds for charity.  It also feels good to know you are helping someone else!   My eldest son and his girlfriend are about to have their first baby and it feels so nice to relocate all of Freddy's baby equipment to his future nephew or niece.  Passing on things to other people and seeing them get a new lease of life is my favourite form of re-use!  Everyone benefits.  I like my children to be involved with donating things to charity or passing them on to others so they can see the value of giving away things you no longer need rather than consigning them to landfill.  We organised a Teddy Adoption day at the school where children brought in cuddly toys they no longer wanted to be relocated to a new loving home.   Making kids appreciative of reducing waste and re-using things that are no longer wanted, is like passing on the baton to the next generation!

When it comes to the kitchen and cooking, I hate waste!  The idea of throwing away food really upsets me as it is so unnecessary.  I regularly do stock takes of my kitchen shelves to plan out vegetarian meals and tailor my shopping lists so I don't over-buy.  When I do end up with a lot of perishable food about to go off I get inventive!  One of my inventions is veggie Shepherd's Pie With A Twist, which the kids all love.  Using up all the veggies in the fridge and pulses in my cupboards I make a red lentil or Quorn and veggie base which is topped with mash (adding any spare root veggies if they need using up!)  Each version is unrepeatable but equally enjoyed!  Making stews, casseroles or soups using up veggies, and freezing them is another way of ensuring nothing is wasted.  Some of my vegetable trimmings go to give our hamster a treat and the rest gets composted.  The only rubbish from this that I don't know what to do with is the plastic packaging on bags of Quorn.  I'll need to get my thinking cap on for a way to re-use them...perhaps I could punch holes in them and then use them to plant up seedlings in the garden??  Growing your own is a fun green activity that the children love!

A Veggie Use-Up Concoction

I believe that if we all do our bit then we can make positive changes.  It's not that difficult to implement one way of busting waste.  Simply by recycling our glass, cans, foil and paper we are making a difference.  Re-using boxes, jiffy bags and envelopes makes a difference.  Composting garden waste and food waste makes a difference.  Buying fruit and veg loose rather than pre-packed makes a difference.  Offering things you no longer need to friends or taking them to charity shops makes a difference.  Using re-usable shopping bags in the supermarket makes a difference.  Avoiding the disposable options of products in shops, and buying something that will last, instead of getting binned after one use, makes a difference. Getting the kids involved with simple ideas such as using both sides of paper when drawing, recycling or donating old toys and games teaches them all about being a waste buster!  These things are all so easy to do and their impact should never be underestimated.  Imagine what a difference we could make if we all work together as a team!

It isn't an Olympic feat to do your bit.  We can all flex our waste-busting muscles and go for gold in the race to become a zero waste nation.  This challenge is like a marathon, not a sprint, so even if you start slow, you can up your pace as the momentum takes hold.  If we all go for a recycling, re-using and reducing personal best this summer, then we will all be winners!!