When grown-ups have dinner parties, they are horribly prone to sitting around the table for hours wittering on and drinking lots of wine. Children of the grown-ups are advised to locate the nearest box of After Eight mints and play this game (allowing any grown-ups who are not adverse to getting a chocolately face to join in).

The rules are simple:

1. Take an After Eight Mint, and place it on your forehead.
2. Using only your facial muscles, make it move down to your mouth, then eat it with maximum lip-smacking.
3. The winner in the face race gets another After Eight.
4. Continue until a grown up tells you off.

Enjoy!

To celebrate our love for cupcakes and all things yummy, we’ve decide to give our GLTC customers a special treat! Primrose Bakery have kindly given us a scrummy cupcake recipe to share with you all. And we’ve got the tools to go with it!

Checklist for the perfect recipe:

And the all important recipe…

Vanilla Cupcakes - Makes 12 regular or 36 mini cupcakes

Ingredients
110 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225 g caster sugar, preferably golden
2 large eggs, free-range or organic
150g self-raising flour
125g plain flour
120ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

Equipment
Electric hand beater

Preheat oven to 160deg C (fan)/180 deg C/350 deg F/gas mark 4
Line a 12 hole muffin tray or three 12 hole mini muffin trays with the appropriate size cupcake cases.

Method
Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing briefly after each addition. This can take a few minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure the mixture stays well combined.
Add the vanilla extract to the milk in a plastic measuring jug.
Combine the two flours in a separate bowl.
Add one-third of the flours to the combined butter and sugar mixture and beat well. Pour in one-third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk has been added.
Carefully spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcakes cases. Bake in the centre of the oven for approx 25 minutes (regular size) or 15 minutes (mini size) until slightly raised and golden brown. Check with a cake skewer in the centre of one of the cakes to see that they are cooked.

Leave in their tins for 10 minutes or so and then place carefully on a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, you can ice these cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing.

The cupcakes can be stored in airtight containers for up to 3 days at room temperature. Do not refrigerate.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing - Makes enough to ice 15-20 regular cupcakes or approx 60 mini cupcakes

Ingredients
115 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
60ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
500g icing sugar, sifted

Few drops of food colouring (optional)

Equipment
Electric hand beater

Method
Beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar until smooth. This will usually take a few minutes. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar to produce a buttercream of a creamy and smooth consistency.

If you want to colour your buttercream, always start with a drop of colouring and beat thoroughly. This will be all you need to create a very pale pastel shade. You can then add more drops and beat after each addition to build up to your desired shade.

The buttercream can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. Before re-using beat well.

If you love this recipe, then you can find more in the Primrose Bakery cookbook.

Keep tuned, our hardworking marketing team are currently testing a selection of yummy cookie recipes…once we find one that passes our seal of approval, we’ll share it with all of our fans…

We’re so excited about our new Autumn launching online this Friday that we’ve decided to give you a sneaky peek.

We all know that getting ready for school is more than just packing their bag! We’ve stocked up on everything you need make sure your child eats and sleeps well – very important to keep their minds focused! As well as fun learning products for after school lessons at home.

Click here to see our new arrivals…

Keep an eye out for our new mini catalogue, it’s packed with essential back to school products, they’re winging their way to you now!

Earlier this month the very excited GLTC marketing team packed their bags and headed out of London for the day. Where were we heading? Only to our favourite LEGO-ey theme park, LEGOLAND! We had a fun filled day at the attraction, particulary when it came to testing all the rides.  And with so many rides on offer we were spoilt for choice, and they all got the GLTC stamp of approval!

After all the excitement on the rides, we went for a spot of sight seeing -  we were mighty impressed with the miniture London sights, as well as the moving train modelled on the London underground, which was made from…you guessed it LEGO!

However it wasn’t all fun and games, we came back to the office brimming with excitement about our new partnership. The wonderful LEGOLAND have generously offered all of our GLTC customers a free child’s entry when accompanied by a grown up! And there’s more, this offer is valid until the 7th November 2010, so you can go back and re-live the fun as many times as you like.

Simply click here to download your voucher, print it out and take it along on the day.

Here are the Blackwell’s recommendations for June, I hope you enjoy them.

Skip Through the Seasons, by Stella Blackstone & Maria Carluccio: Blackwell Price £8.99 (Board Book)

Age: Preschool

Barefoot has printed recently a set of large format board books that range from “The Sounds Around Town” and “Who’s in the Garden”. They all have amazing images and simple text to follow the story. “Skip Through the Seasons” follows the journey of the seasons from January to December, and ends with a two page spread explaining where the names of the months come from, and a double page spread explaining how and why the year is divided into seasons, with a delightful explanation of the different calendars that have been used, like the Aztec and Hebrew calendars. A fantastic and simple book to learn and enjoy

Crazy Hair, by Neil Gaiman & Save McKean: Blackwell Price £5.99

Age: 3+

This year’s CILIP Kate Greenaway Shortlist is full of diverse and wonderful books. One of our favourites is the remarkable Crazy Hair, created by the fantastic duo of Gaiman and McKean.  The story is simple and told in rhyme - the letters flow through the pages as the crazy hair flows through the story. There are birds nesting in some crazy hair, trees lost in crazy hair and great balloons that drift across crazy hair!

Art in a Box: Blackwell Price £10.00 (Kit/Model Book/Pack)

Age: 5-11

The TATE has produced a box with 20 activity cards based on works from the TATE. Each card gives background information about the artists and introduces an activity based on the content of the work. It also gives a list of the materials that will be used. It has also a very practical Colour Card and Glossary. Some of the artists and work that appear in the cards include Peter Blake’s Self Portrait with Badges (1961), Karel Appel’s Holland Questioning Children (1049) and Alexander Calder’s Antennae with Red and Blue Dots (1960). It would be a perfect gift for children 6 plus who enjoy, and want to learn about, art.

Testing Team Tom pulled a tooth out last night…but as far as we know he didn’t use a rocket!

Thought for the day:  Did the tooth fairy still find it? 

We’ve gone Castle Crazy in time for the holidays and teamed up with the wonderful Warwick Castle so that children can gain free entry when accompanied by a grown up! What’s more, the voucher is valid until the end of the year so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to indulge in medieval history, jousting, armour, dungeons and of course ghostly tales.

Simply click here to download your voucher, print it out and take it along on the day!

The Famous Jousting Knights
During the half term holidays 29th May - 6th June, Warwick Castle invites you to saddle up and ride over to Britain’s Ultimate Castle to experience an adventure for all the family to enjoy. The famous Jousting Knights return to the Castle grounds from 29 May, but this time, they are not alone. Visitors can also witness the mighty Trebuchet, fired twice daily and if that’s not enough to keep you busy, marvel at the return of Nikita the Sea Eagle in the Castle’s exhilarating Flight of the Eagles show. Have a knights time…

Want to know more? Why not visit the Warwick Castle website. Experience one thousand years of jaw-dropping history; great battles, ancient myths, spellbinding tales, pampered princesses, heroic knights and the dark Castle Dungeon.

This week we’ve been running around madly on photoshoot taking lots of snazzy snaps for our Autumn collection coming out later in the year!  As you can see…we seem to have found ourselves a new GLTC fan too. 

Dolby, (Aged 7 in human years and a very opinionated German short-haired pointer ) belongs to our photographer Phil and is more than happy snoozing in our blue patchwork quilt with a good read.  We might have to sign him up to our testing team….  And they say…’never work with children or animals’. OPPS!

Here are the Blackwell’s recommendations for May, I hope you enjoy them.

Brown Rabbit in the City by Natalie Russell: Blackwell Price £10.99 (Hardback)

Age: Preschool

This is everything a picture book should be: simple, beautiful and touching. The sequel to Moon Rabbit continues the story of the BBF (Bunny Best Friends) as Brown Rabbit travels to the city to meet Little Rabbit. Town meets country in this stunningly illustrated book which is guaranteed to delight both readers and listeners alike.

Eric by Shaun Tan: Blackwell Price £4.99 (Hardback)

Age:  7+

This brilliant short story appeared first in Shaun Tan’s Tales of Outer Suburbia. This year Templar publishing decided to print Eric as an independent story in a beautiful small hardback edition. The story is a moving tale of a foreign exchange student who, as a guest and visitor, sees everything through different eyes. The most precious illustrations make this a delightful read.

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine: Blackwell Price £6.99

Age: 12+

The First book in the Morganville Vampire Series introduces us to Claire Danvers, an incredibly smart 16 year old about to start her freshman year at college in Morganville, Texas. Though she has had to deal with bullying in the past, Claire realises very quickly that her new classmates have something much more sinister in mind. Forced to find off-campus accommodation, she finds solace in the Glass House with Michael, Shane and Eve. There she learns that Morganville is far more deadly at night…

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan: Blackwell Price £9.99 (Hardback)

Age: General

Not as exciting as her first book, The Forest of Hands & Teeth, but certainly worth the read. The story is told by Gabrielle, the daughter of the last book’s main character, Mary. Gabrielle has grown up in Vista where the ‘unconsecrated’ wash up on the shores and the forest is forbidden. Told a generation after the last book, there are plenty of connections and a few twists for fans of The Forest of Hands & Teeth. I would recommend reading Forest first. For fans of The Hunger Games.

Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin: Blackwell Price £12.99 (Hardback)

Age: 12+

This story is set during the rise of the Inquisition across Spain at the same time as Christopher Columbus is trying to get financial support for his travels to prove the world in round. Against this backdrop of historical fiction, Theresa Breslin narrates the story of two very different teenagers: Zarita and Saulo.  While Zarita has been raised in comfort and wealth, Saulo has grown seeing his father hanged and then he was sold into slavery. Each character narrates its own story, spiralling to a chilling finale.

The Truth About Leo by David Yelland: Blackwell Price £6.99

Age: 13+

This book is about a little boy named Leo. After his mother dies, Leo is left to take care of, and clean up after, his alcoholic father. Although being marketed as a children’s book, I am not sure it was meant to be. It is told from the point of view of Leo, but it is dealing with quite an adult issue. I would recommend this book to fans of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and for ages 13+.

This week we’ve got a special gluten free recipe by Adriana Rabinovich which is partically yummy for anyone who has been diagnosed with gluten intolerance or coeliac disease. 

But watch out…they won’t stay around for long….

I won’t be modest, these brownies are the best! They are moist, chocolatey and chewy and no one will ever guess that something gluten-free can taste this fantastic. The good news is they are really easy to make – just follow the tips at the bottom of the recipe.

Brownies
Serves 16-20

* 100 g (4 oz) good quality plain chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
* 100 g (4 oz) unsalted butter
* 150 g (5 oz) dark soft brown sugar
* 150 g (5 oz) caster sugar
* 2 eggs
* ¼ tsp salt
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 150 g (5 oz) ground almonds
* 50 g (2 oz) marshmallows (cut into small pieces)
* 100 g (4 oz) toasted pecans (optional)

• Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF) Gas 3. Line a 22 cm (8½ in) square tin with a large square of foil. (You can also use a disposable square tin measuring about the same, and just brush lightly with a little sunflower oil.) Make sure the corners are carefully lined. Using a pastry brush, lightly grease the foil with a very small amount of sunflower oil, making sure the corners are well greased.
• Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or a bowl set over a pan of simmering water (you can also use a microwave), taking care the chocolate does not overheat. Stir the mixture. It should look very shiny and glossy. Remove from the heat and add the sugars and stir through allowing the sugar to dissolve a bit. The mixture may look a bit grainy at this stage but this is completely normal.
• Add the eggs, beating well and once again the mixture will be thick and glossy. Add the salt and vanilla and then fold in the ground almonds and finally the chopped marshmallows and toasted pecans, if using. Make sure everything is well incorporated but do not overmix (you do not want lots of air in the mixture). The mixture will be quite thick and reluctant to pour.
• Spread the mixture into the prepared tin to form an even layer. Bake for approximately 20–25 minutes or until it is just set in the middle and the edges are slightly coming away from the pan. A wooden skewer inserted in the middle should come out with just a few moist crumbs on it. If it is totally gooey, place back in the oven to bake for a few more minutes. This will not harm the brownies so check them as often as required.
• Once they are done, leave them to cool completely in the tin before cutting them.
• To serve, invert the pan and then very gently peel off the foil. (If you are using a disposable tin, just press the edges of the pan to loosen the brownie a bit, invert the tin and carefully peel the tin away from the base. It should peel away easily). Place the brownies on a board and using a sharp knife, cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.

Note: I like to make these brownies the night before. Leave them in the tin overnight without cutting them. This allows them to firm up a bit. Then cut, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Tips for making great brownies

• Do not overmix the batter. You don’t want lots of air in the mixture.
• Always make brownies in a square pan.
• Don’t overbake but also don’t underbake!

To test if the brownies are ready
Insert a wooden toothpick in the centre. There should be a few moist crumbs when you remove it. The edges should just  slightly be pulling away from the pan.

Enjoy!!

To buy a copy of Adriana’s Gluten-Free Cookbook for kids click here