Flutter By Friday 9.9! Come Link Up!!

Welcome to
Flutter By Friday! 

I'm so excited to be posting my first Flutter By Friday blog hop post as an official co-host!

The reason:

• For readers to find other neat blogs to read and follow
• For bloggers to find readers/followers

Here's what to do:

• Follow the host (Mama Dani's Musings) and co-host (I'm bloggin')
• Use the linky at the bottom of the page to link-up (no more than) two posts per week
• Check out the other posts linked up
• Comment and follow the ones you like
• Come back next week and do it all over again!

I'll pick a link from this week's hop to feature on next week's hop

Be sure to snag the button to place on your post, sidebar or linky party page

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Lamingtons

Since we're visiting Australia this week we decided to try some Australian treats.

We made lamingtons which are sponge cake cubes covered in chocolate icing and rolled in coconut.

They are so good.

I found the recipe here on allrecipes.com

Greasing the baking pan

Creaming the butter, sugar and vanilla.
Charlotte said, "Mmmm, it smells so good Mommy!"

I hesitated with letting Char crack the eggs but had to remember that practice makes perfect. I'm so glad I let her do it, she was so proud of herself.

The recipe called for unsweetened coconut but all we could find was sweetened

We left some sponge cake plain, some just with chocolate and some the traditional way with coconut.

These were fantastically delicious little cakes! I think I like Australia! 

;)

Girls' Pick

amazon.com

Stories from the Billabong by James Vance Marshall and Francis Firebrace. 

This week we've landed in Australia so we're reading Aboriginal folktales retold from the Yorta-Yorta tribe, one of many Aboriginal tribes in Australia.

amazon.com

All of the illustrations are by Francis Firebrace who is an Aboriginal artist and storyteller.

This book is a wonderful collection of folktales, there are ten stories including stories about creation, why frogs croak, and how the crocodile got its scales.

amazon.com

There is a glossary at the back of the book with the definitions of common Australian words, a page about Aboriginal Australians, and pictures of Aboriginal symbols and what they mean.

This book is a wonderful way to introduce the Aboriginal culture to children. The pictures are vibrant and authentic, and the stories are simply written and easy to understand. We've thoroughly been enjoying reading all about Australia!

Make Something Monday: Passport

This week we're starting our school year with an ABC world tour. When you travel out of country you need a passport so I made one! With only a few scrapbooking supplies I was able to create a pretend passport that looks pretty similar to a real passport. Very simple, all done and ready to be filled with stamps/stickers from the countries that we visit!

Template for this page found here

Pretend passport next to a real passport

Pancake Sunday 9.4

Cinnamon Sugar Banana Pancakes

Here is an instance of not having a plan or ingredients for Pancake Sunday. It resulted in two fails but then a win. Woo! I wanted to make caramel banana cocoa pancakes. I didn't have cocoa so no cocoa pancakes, so I decided to make basic buttermilk pancakes.

 I don't keep caramel sauce in my house but caramel is quite easy to make if you have the proper tools. In my case, the tools (read saucepan) happened to be in the dishwasher being washed so instead of getting it out I decided to be lazy and improvise...by cooking it in the microwave.

 As you can see, I completely burned the caramel by not keeping an eye on it. It's now sitting in the sink as hard as a rock. I hope it'll dissolve with water or else I'm gonna be chipping it out of the bowl

 I let Charlotte slice the bananas while I started cooking the batter, I made a few plan pancakes for my non-pancake loving husband.

 I squirted some chocolate syrup on a couple pancakes to see how it would take to the hot griddle. It was fail #2. The syrup just bubbled away and left divots in the pancakes.

 Char finished the bananas so I started placing them on the pancakes, looked around and saw a bowl full on cinnamon sugar sitting on the counter from the graham crackers we made on Wednesday. I sprinkled it on top of the bananas and hoped for the best.

The sugar created a nice crisp crust, very similar to creme brulee. They turned out to be very delicious, I'm glad the first two ideas failed. I will try to make the banana caramel cocoa pancakes again though, those sound delicious!