SUPER EASY TIPS
This Easy Peasy cinnamon tear and share loaf is as simple as it is delicious! The FAB Flour Easy Peasy Baking Campaign is designed to help the UK’S non-bakers get the oven on. Let’s get baking!
FOR THE SPONGE: 200ml water
60g vegan spread, and extra for greasing
1 tsp dried yeast 300g strong white bread flour
90g light brown sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 200g icing sugar
TO MAKE:
1. Put 30g vegan spread in a jug and microwave until melted. Top with 165ml of warm tap water and stir in the yeast.
2. Combine the flour and 30g of light brown sugar in a mixing bowl, and add the yeast mixture. Bring together to form a dough with your hands.
3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes. Return to mixing bowl, cover with tea towel and leave to prove for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 185°C and grease the loaf tin with vegan spread. Tip proved dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a 30cm x 30cm square.
YOU WILL NEED: 1 cup mini marshmallows 2 tsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp icing sugar 3 tbsp corn flour 2 tbsp sprinkles 4-5 drops of food colouring
TO MAKE:
1. Measure out a cup of marshmallows and tip into a bowl.
In a separate bowl, measure out the icing sugar and corn flour and mix together.
2. Place the marshmallows in the microwave to melt for 30 seconds. Stir and add the icing sugar and corn flour mixture.
3. Check the mixture has cooled down, then get your hands in and knead the mixture.
Serves
5. Spread the remaining vegan spread evenly over the dough, sprinkle with cinnamon and the remaining light brown sugar.
6. Roll the dough into a sausage shape, divide into 6 equal pieces and place into greased loaf tin with spirals facing up. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning in the oven after 10 minutes.
7. Mix icing sugar with 35ml of cold tap water to make a glaze and drizzle over cooled loaf. Tear apart and enjoy!
4. Add a few dots of food colouring and mix it into the slime with your hands. Add a teaspoon of oil to reduce stickiness.
5. Add sprinkles to the slime to finish. You can store your slime in a jar or have a play and eat it straight away!
Gardeningexpress.co.uk have revealed the pests that can do the most damage to crops, and advise on how to protect your plants without harmful pesticides…
6
1 Box tree moth
Remove the caterpillars by hand from box plants.
Ants
Ants are best left alone, but you can brush away the soil heaps on a dry day.
Snails
Use eggshells, copper tape or sand as a natural way to remove them from flowers, stems and bulbs.
Woolly aphid
Scrub the aphid colonies on tree trunks and branches with a stiffbristled brush.
Vine weevil
Place a 2cm layer of grit on the compost surface to make it hard for the adults to lay eggs on plant roots.
Southern green shield bug
Spread fly tape around your vegetables to catch them.
Capsid bug
Organic sprays containing natural pyrethrum will kill capsid bugs feeding on your new plants.
Spider mites
Spray plants with a soapy water solution to dehydrate spider mites.
Slugs
A shallow dish of beer will distract them and trap them.
Rabbits
Surround your plants with fencing to stop these bundles of fur chomping on your fruit and veg.
Taking the book out of my hands, my son Camden looked at me. ‘I want to do it Mum,’ he said, turning the page. Sat quietly, I listened to Camden, nine, read a bedtime story to his little sister Avalon, four.
‘She’s asleep now, good job buddy,’ I whispered a while later, as Camden finished the tale and we snuck out of Avalon’s bedroom.
Camden was a doting big brother and always as good as gold.
He adored Avalon and his brother Maxwell, 19 months.
He was always trying to make them laugh by goofing around.
One Sunday in March 2018, we decided to visit family for Easter.
I loaded the kids into my SUV and set off for Stephen, Minnesota, USA – my partner Bryan, 32, would meet us up there later.
We hit the road, but as I was driving, it started to snow.
I struggled to keep control of the car as the ground became wet, and we slid across the highway.
Then, before I had time to react, a lorry ploughed straight into our vehicle – T-boning it.
The crash happened so fast that I barely realised what was going on.
As I started to process what had happened, I screamed for my kids, but there was nothing but silence.
I knew it was bad when I couldn’t hear Camden, Avalon and Maxwell crying, but I was so much pain, I couldn’t move.
As I looked up, I saw the front of the caved-in lorry that had hit us.
I continued to scream for help and a passer-by stopped.
He rushed up to the scene, before dashing back to his truck to find something to prise the door open to help get Avalon out.
‘My babies!’ I shrieked, inconsolable. ‘Please save them.’ Avalon started to whimper. ‘Mummy’s here,’ I said.
But I couldn’t hear the boys, and I couldn’t turn to check on them.
A hoard of people stopped and eventually managed to get to Avalon.
They had struggled to open the door as the handle had come off in the smash – someone crawled through the window and pulled her out.
Looking in the rearview mirror, I asked them to check on the boys, but they didn’t say anything.
The emergency services arrived quickly and said they needed to get me out.
‘Leave me, just please get the boys out,’ I begged.
A medic leaned in to the vehicle and told me: ‘There’s no easy way to say this, but I am so sorry, they are gone.’
Hysterical, I prayed it wasn’t true.
As police removed me from the car, I pleaded with them to let me see the boys.
I knew they were within arm’s reach and I just wanted to hold them and tell them how much I loved them, but I was whisked away.
I couldn’t comprehend that they were gone – I was in shock.
Avalon and I were rushed to Grand Forks Hospital, North Dakota, but after a CT scan, Avalon was taken to Fargo Hospital because she had suffered a skull fracture and bleed on the brain.
Just then, Bryan ran in. ‘Are you
feeling a bit queasy.
Knowing the signs, I took a pregnancy test, and panicked when it showed up positive.
Bryan and I weren’t in a good place, and I didn’t want to have any more children – I just wanted my boys back.
At six weeks gone, I went to a clinic to talk about my options.
The sonographer knew about me losing the boys, and as soon as she started the scan, she froze. ‘What is it?’ I asked. ‘There are two babies,’ she said. She put the wand down and wrapped her arms around me.
I knew then that it wasn’t right for me to give up the babies – they felt like a gift straight from the boys. They were a gift from Heaven. For the first few months of my pregnancy, I suffered from terrible morning sickness.
Instead of cravings, I had aversions, and I could barely keep anything down, so I survived on fruit smoothies.
At a routine scan, we discovered both babies were girls.
I struggled to process the news. As gifts from Heaven, I was convinced they would be boys.
I was thrown a baby shower, and lots of family and friends came to celebrate the twins – but all I could see were the faces of everyone who was at the funeral.
Despite being excited, I was still grieving for my boys. But my pregnancy passed in a blur and distracted me from my grief.
The doctor decided to induce me at 38 weeks, and on 18 February – less than a year after the tragedy that took our boys away – we went to the hospital, ready to meet the new additions to our family.
My daughters were born just three minutes apart.
It was an emotional moment and I couldn’t help but panic.
Now that they were in the real world, I couldn’t protect them and keep them safe.
I was petrified of losing another child, but I knew Camden and Maxwell were looking out for their little sisters.
We had T-shirts made with the boys’ names and faces on – saying big brothers in heaven –
Avalon had a ‘big sister’ top. It brought me comfort to see their smiling faces in pictures. The girls were born at the same hospital that Avalon and I spent weeks recovering after the crash. Last time, we’d left the building without Camden and Maxwell, and this time we were leaving with two new baby girls.
Eloise Maxwell weighed 7lbs 2oz, and Isla Camden was 7lbs 7oz. We decided to use the boys’ names as their middle names, as I wanted them to know all about their brothers and always ask about them. Avalon was excited to meet her baby sisters.
She loved holding them and showing them off to people, but as she was still so tiny herself, she struggled and got a little jealous if I was holding the babies and they were crying, or if I couldn’t play with her as I was feeding the twins. Sadly, Bryan and I split in October 2018. Losing our boys would have brought us closer together or broken us, and sadly it was the latter, but we continue to co-parent our children together. The twins are a year old now, and are so much like their big brothers. Every time I look at them, I know it was meant to be.
I am now planning on starting a foundation called ‘Cam Cares – Give to the Max’ – and I hope to throw myself into helping others and keeping their memory alive.
At the funeral and in the months since, we’ve asked people to perform random acts of kindness in memory of the boys.
Last year on Camden’s birthday, we gifted a new bike to a child who had spent a lot of time poorly. We also collected over 1,000 new toys and distributed them at a children’s hospital.
No charges were brought against either myself or the 50-year-old driver of the lorry, for our involvement in the car crash. The Grand Forks State’s Attorney office concluded that he was driving in a reasonable manner and blamed the smash on poor weather and road conditions. Camden was such a good person.
He was super compassionate, sincere and so kind.
I always thought he was going to change the world.
He told me that he wanted to make enough money as an NFL player or Youtuber to start a homeless shelter.
Maxwell had the most perfect little dimples, an infectious smile and a contagious giggle. Everyone said that his eyes could light up a room.
They would have been over the moon to have two little sisters. I still have a seat for them at our dining table, and a picture of them on a shelf in every room so we never forget them. The twins and Avalon, now six, will be told all about their amazing big brothers – my boys sent me the most precious gifts from Heaven, and I’m determined to make their memory live on forever.
Having the girls was a miracle