Saturday, May 7, 2011

Mothers' day cupcakes

The Piwi's made Mum some cupcakes they are going to decorate for Mothers' day. They used Elmo's Hummingbird Cupcake recipe that was on the Dr Oz a few weeks back. The video can be viewed here

Elmo's Healthy Hummingbird cupcakes

The vegan frosting recipe sounds great but we weren't able to pick up the tofu cream cheese this afternoon, so regular cream cheese will be substituted.

Ingredients
Makes 8-10 servings

Dry Bowl
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, or spelt flour
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt

Wet Bowl
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, with juice
2/3 cup organic granulated cane sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup apple sauce
1 tspn vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Frosting
1 container tofu cream cheese (or non-dairy cream cheese)
1/2 cup soy margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners, or spray with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a separate bowl, mash the banana with the pineapple, then whisk in the sugar, oil, and vanilla until completely incorporated and relatively smooth. Fold in walnuts.

Gently mix the wet bowl into the dry bowl, stirring until just combined. Pour batter in muffin tin lines with paper liners.

Bake for 25 minutes, until a tooth pick is inserted and comes out clean.

Cool on baking rack and ice with icing and sprinkle with walnut pieces.

Frosting Preparation:
Combine the cream cheese and margarine. Slowly add the powdered sugar, then vanilla and lemon juice. Do not overbeat frosting; tofu cream cheese softens easily.

Day 5. We have 3 Pupa and 2 Caterpillars.

A Pupa is a Caterpillar inside a Coccon

The biggest Caterpillar is still eating!

While the Piwis sleep, Caterpillars build...



The Caterpillars are starting to hang upside down. I didn't want the kids to miss out I took some photos. There is spider web like silk on the edges of the container they are in. At this point they do not appear to be wrapping themselves yet.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Day4.The big one is eating and relaxing.

Here is the biggest one at the top of the cup. It is 38mm. The smallest is 30mm.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Day 3. They are getting bigger.

The biggest one is 35mm. They are black and hairy with white feet.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Project Caterpillar


For Easter the Piwi's recieved a butterfly hatching kit. This year they had studied lifecycles in Science so it will be a great opportunity to watch it happening. The kit is from Insect Lore and $14.99 on Amazon.
The kit comes with a certificate for 5 caterpillars which a shipped from Insect lore in 1-2 weeks. We opted to order online rather than by mail. Now we are just waiting for the little creepy crawlies.
 

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