MESSY Archives - That Mama Club

We are here with a MEGA wrap up of all the best Valentine’s activities. We asked our fabulous Instagram community to share THEIR recipes, craft activities and sensory play set ups & we are sharing them with you!

BAKING

HEART BISCUITS

IMAGE & RECIPE COURTESY OF; CLARE’S PRETTY THINGS

For these gorgeous biscuits you will need;

– 250g butter
– 140g caster sugar
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tsp vanilla extract
– 300g plain flour
– 250g chocolate
– Sprinkles

– Mix butter and sugar together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs
– Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix
– Sift in the flour and combine to form a ball. Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for 20-30 mins
– Turn the oven on to 180C/160C fan and put some parchment paper on a baking sheet.
– Roll out the dough on a floured surface and use cookie cutters to make your favourite shapes then transfer to the baking sheet
– Bake in the middle of the oven for 10-12 minutes
– Allow to cool on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack
– Dip in chocolate and cover in sprinkles.

VALENTINE’S OREOS

IMAGE & RECIPE COURTESY OF; SHANLEY LIFE

You simply melt white chocolate & mix in a drop of red food colouring, cover half an Oreo, add sprinkles & edible eyes! Et voila.

VALENTINE’S CHEESECAKE

IMAGE & RECIPE COURTESY OF; CHLOE_JADEE

Base:

– 300g digestive biscuits (bash them up! Or blitz in blender)
– 150g salted butter to melt
– Mix & put in fridge for a bout 2/3hours.

Filling:

– 700g full fat cream cheese (room temperature)
– 50g icing sugar
– 2 tea spoons vanilla extract
– Mix & add to base of cheesecake & back to the fridge for 4hrs (ish!)

Topping:

– Chocolate heart sweets
– Melted chocolate hearts- melt some chocolate chips (or bar of cooking choc) I used a cutter to dip in the chocolate and put it straight on some baking paper & in the fridge to set.
– If you want to make your own hearts you can!
– Decorate when set!

LADYBIRD BISCUITS

PHOTO & RECIPE COURTESY OF; EMMA BISH

– 150g unsalted butter
– 100g caster sugar
– 50g light brown sugar
– 1 medium egg
– 1 tsp vanilla essence
– 300g plain flour

– Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy
– Beat in the egg and vanilla essence
– Sift in the flour and mix till combined, roll into a ball, wrap with clingfilm and then pop in the fridge for 30 mins
– Roll out the dough to approximately 1/2cm thick and cut into hearts, bake for approximately 10-12 mins at 180c
– Rollout the red icing and cut into hearts slightly smaller than the biscuits.
– Top each biscuit with a red fondant heart dampen the back with water or icing sugar and water mixed to a thin consistency and then gently press to secure in place.
– Use black icing to pipe on the details add edible eyes and leave to set!

PINK CRISPY HEARTS

PHOTO & RECIPE COURTESY OF; KRISTIE CRAFTS

– 50g butter plus extra for greasing
– 350g marshmallows
– 200g Rice Crispies
– Pink food colouring

– Grease a baking tray with butter
– Melt the 50g of butter in a pan over a low heat
– Add in the marshmallows and stir until completely melted
– Take off the heat and add a few drops of food colouring
– Stir in the Rice Crispies
– Press the mix into your baking tray and leave to cool
– Once fully cooled cut out heart shapes with a cookie cutter
– Push in a lolly/cake pop stick and enjoy!

SHORTBREAD VALENTINE’S BISCUITS

PHOTO & IMAGE COURTESY OF; ADVENTURES AT NUMBER 28

– 250g butter softened
– 100g caster sugar
– 300g plain flour
– 50g ground almonds
– Zest 1 lemon
– 2tbsp milk
– Jam/Nutella
– Icing sugar

– Line two baking sheets with baking paper.
– In large bowl cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy.
– Beat in lemon, flour and ground almonds
– Add milk to form a dough. Wrap in clingfilm put in fridge for at least 30 mins.
– Pre heat oven to 160•c fan or 180•c.
– Roll out dough to 4mm thickness.
– Cut out 24 biscuits with heart cutter. With smaller cutter cut out the centres of 12 (these are the tops)
– Bake for 10-12 mins place on wire rack to cool.
– Spread jam or Nutella on the bottoms then sandwich the tops on top. Dust with icing sugar.

HEART SUGAR COOKIES

PHOTO & RECIPE COURTESY OF; JACQUI JOLIE

– 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
– 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/4 teaspoon salt
– 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
– 3/4 cup granulated sugar
– 1 large egg, at room temperature
– 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
– 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Mix butter and sugar on high speed until combined. Add egg, vanilla & almond extract and beat until smooth and creamy. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Add 1 tbsp more flour if too sticky.

Divide dough into 2 equal parts. Roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Lightly dust one of the rolled-out doughs with flour and place piece of parchment on top; place the 2nd rolled-out dough on top. Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. Then bake at 350F/160C (fan oven) for 10 to 12 minutes.

SHORTBREAD JAM HEARTS

PHOTO & RECIPE COURTESY OF; RAMBLINGS OF A SCOTTISH MAMMY

– 110g caster sugar
– 250g of unsalted butter (a butter block is perfect- no measuring!)
– 360g plain flour (and a little extra for rolling)
– Jam of your choice- I prefer strawberry but any would work
– Icing sugar (just a small amount is needed. If you don’t have icing sugar put a little caster sugar on top before putting into the fridge)

– Make sure your butter is softened before starting this. Give it half an hour out of the fridge or until it feels soft to touch.

– Mix together the butter and caster sugar until you have a soft paste. Add in the flour until you form a dough.

– Line a baking tray with some baking parchment so they don’t stick.

– Roll out the dough to about 1cm thickness on a floured surface and cut to size. I used a heart shaped cutter but could easily just use a knife. On half the biscuits cut out another smaller shape. Use a fork and create small dents on the top (as a typical shortbread would have).

– Once finished put the baking tray in the fridge for 5-10 minutes until the biscuits harden up slightly. (If you don’t have icing sugar this is when you would put a little caster sugar on top).

– Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top.

– Let cool and then put jam on the full biscuits and sandwich together with the cut out halves. Dust with a little icing sugar to finish.

LOVE BUG BISCUITS

PHOTO & RECIPE COURTESY OF; SAM SCOTTWOOD

Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out a basic shortbread biscuit recipe, then bake and cool.

For the decoration; the icing is glacé icing (icing sugar and water) with some food colouring (we used red to make two shades of pink) and then any decorations you like (although in our house there have to be eyes on pretty much anything we make

CRAFTS

They are all super simple & fun for everyone! We have spent the past few days actually creating some lovely t-shirts for the boys – we stumbled across these CUTE Baseball Mom SVG & Basketball Mom SVG stickers and it makes me insanely bitter that I won’t be given the opportunity to ROCK them – LOL.

CARDBOARD HEARTS \\PHOTO COURTESY OF; CLARE’S PRETTY THINGS

HEART WANDS \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF; EMILY THOMAS

LOVE BUGS \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF; DOYLE FAMILY LIFE

MOSAIC HEARTS \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DIARY OF MUM

LADYBIRD CRAFT \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF BECKY

– White card (you could use black card for the big if you didn’t want to paint it I just didn’t have any)
– 2 Split pins
– Red paint
– Black paint
– Stick on eyes
– Scissors
– Pva glue
– Hole Punch
– A photo of your choice, of your child, to stick inside.

– Cover your children’s hand with red paint with a brush
– Leave to dry
– Paint half an a4 piece of card black.
– Once dry cut the handprints
– On the back of the card painted black draw around two cups. One larger than the other.
– Cut the two circles out.
– Stick the larger circle to the bottom of the smaller circle.
– Hole punch two holes on either side of the top of the big circle.
– Punch a hole at the bottom of each hand print.
– Stick a split pin through each hand print and put through the holes on the bug.
– Stick on two eyes using pva glue.
– Stick a photo underneath your wings.
– Cut out two antennae and stick to the back of the small circle.

LOVE HEART WREATH // PHOTO COURTESY OF CHELSEY

HEART GARLAND \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF NORSE PROJECTS

LOVE BUG WREATH \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF KAYLEY BAKER

– Thin card/ paper
– Glue/ glue gun
– Paint
– Stickers
– Paper plate (I used an acrylic plate I had laying around)

– Cut your hearts (I folded the thin card in half and then drew a half heart stencil and cut them out)
– Paint the hearts (I blue tacked them to the surface so they were easier for my daughter to paint)
– Use stickers on your plate or cut a hole in the middle
– Glue hearts around the outside
– I then glued a small hoop of string to the top/back so I could hang it up

HEART SHAPED BIRD FEEDER \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF OUR DARLING DAYS

– Cardboard heart wreath templates
– Spread it with peanut butter
– Sprinkle and pat down the bird seeds
– Tie with ribbon

TOILET ROLL PRINT \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF POSH LEMONS

SALT DOUGH FRAMES & HOT AIR BALLOON \\ PHOTO COURTESY OF EVERY DAY MUM

– 4 cups pain flour
– 1 cup salt
– 1 1/2 cups water

– Mix together to make a dough and knead for 10 mins. Roll till smooth and flat (approx 1-2 cm thick). You can use cookie cutters or do free hand.
– Place on parchment paper and bake @250 for 1-2 hours till hard.
– Then the fun not to paint and decorate how you like. We painted them and decided to stick photos