With Christmas just around the corner it was time to decorate the Homeroom tree. It’s not really a christmas tree, in fact it used to be part of a tree living in my garden at home, but I needed a way of displaying some wood artwork in the Homeroom and so the Balance Bush was born.

Pom poms are really easy to make. All you need are:

• wool (red and brown for robins/white for snowballs)
• scrap cardboard (old cereal boxes are ideal)
• scissors
• for the robin-glue/felt/wobbly eyes  (or you can use paper)

Instructions

Draw 2 circles onto your scrap card (the size depends on how big you want your pom poms to be, ours were about 4 inches diameter).

Cut them out carefully.

Cut a hole in the middle of the circles to form a donut shape.

Put the circles together.

Cut quite a long piece of wool off the ball,  long enough to wrap around a few times.

Start wrapping the wool through the hole in the middle of the cards and around the outside.

If you are making a robin you will need to wrap a small section of the cards with red wool and the rest with brown, (see photos).

Keep wrapping wool around until the hole in the middle is almost full.

Carefully with a pair of scissors poke the point into the outside edge of the circle.

Cut a small amount so you can see the card.

Cut around the circle with the point of the scissors between the card.

Cut a length of wool and tie it around the pom pom, inbetween the two pieces of card.

Pull it tight and do a double knot.

Now you can remove the cardboard circles.

Give your pom pom a shake and a trim to cut off any straggly bits.

For the robin you will need to add eyes and a beak. We also put a bit of ribbon on the snowballs.

So now the Balance Bush has been transformed into our beautiful christmas tree, and how cute are those robins!

You will need:

1 packet of biscuits (any will do, we used Rich Tea)

400g  tin of condensed milk

110g butter or margarine

300g white chocolate

100g milk chocolate

Optional extras-cherries/nuts/raisins

 Before you start…

• Put on an apron.

• Wash your hands.

• Have everything you will be using in front of you.

First crush the biscuits. We did this by putting them in a plastic bag and bashing them with a rolling pin and then put the crumbs into a large bowl. If you are using cherries, nuts or raisins stir them in too.

In a pan or microwave get an adult to melt the butter and chocolate together, then stir in the condensed milk.

Next pour the gooey chocolate mixture over the biscuits. Stir well until all the biscuits are coated. At this point we all thought the mixture looked pretty yucky, but stick with it because it will taste lush!

Line a dish with greaseproof paper and scoop in the mixture.

Freeze for over 2 hours. We then covered the frozen fridgecake with melted milk chocolate and put back in the freezer.

Remove from the freezer about an hour before you want to eat it and cut into chunks. Now they are ready to wrap up for presents or just to enjoy.

*This can also be made with dark chocolate and put into a cake tin.

It was busy in the Homeroom kitchen last week as we made Christmas Cupcakes and Fridgecake Chunks for the Christmas Fayre. They all sold out very quickly so well done everyone

To make your own Christmas Cupcakes you will need:

110g butter

110g caster sugar

110 g self-raising flour

2 eggs

a splash of milk (about a tablespoon)

a handful of chocolate chips

about 6 glace cherries cut in half

For the buttercream icing:

soft butter

icing sugar

green food colouring

coloured icing tubes to decorate

Before cooking, wash your hands and put on an apron.
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4.

2. Weigh and measure the ingredients

3. Mix all the cupcake ingredients together until soft and smooth

4.  Spoon the mixture into cake cases in a bun tray

5. Ask an adult to put the tray in the  pre-heated oven at for about 10 minutes

6.  While the cakes are cooling down mix soft butter with sifted icing sugar. Then stir in some green food colouring a drop at a time until you get the colour you like. Mix together until smooth then chill in the fridge until the cakes are cold and ready to decorate.

Fridgecake chunks recipe coming soon!

To make the salt dough you will need:

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup of salt

1 cup of water

Mix it all together until you have a firm dough. If it’s too sticky add a bit of flour and if it’s too dry and cracking add a tiny bit more water.

Then for the fun bit-knead the dough for a few minutes until it is really smooth.

We used cookie cutters to make our decorations-don’t forget to put a hole in the top so you can hang it on your tree.

Bake on the lowest setting your oven has for a few hours, or overnight, until dry and firm.

When they are cold the decorations can be painted and decorated. We used acrylic paint and of course glitter

We had great fun making these beautiful original decorations and hope you do too!

*I love making salt dough models and have just discovered it can be microwaved!! We haven’t tried it in the homeroom yet but we will be doing very soon as it only takes about 2 minutes! Great news eh

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