Monkey Bread

I thought this looked very interesting :)

Source: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/recipe-ideas-monkeybread

monkey bread

ingredients

• bread
• 2 x 7g (¼oz) packets dry yeast
• 240ml (8fl oz) lukewarm water
• 225g (8oz) butter
• 175g (6oz) caster sugar
• 840g (30oz) plain flour
• 1½ tsp salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 240ml (8 fl oz) boiling water
• topping
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 225g (8oz) brown sugar
• 225g (8oz) butter

method

1. Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water in small bowl.
2. Mix the butter, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add boiling water and mix well.
3. Add eggs, then add the yeast mixture. Add half of the flour and mix. Add the rest of the flour with a spoon and mix well.
4. Cover and let rise to double, then knead.
5. Make the topping by melting the butter then add the cinnamon and sugar.
6. Form dough into approximately 1 inch balls and layer to cover the bottom of the pan using ½ of the dough mixture.
7. Pour over ½ of the topping mix. Continue to layer 1 inch balls of dough until it is gone. Pour remaining topping over the mixture.
8. Place on baking sheet to catch any over flow of topping and bake at 180°C for 35-40 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and wait 5 minutes to turn out on large plate and serve.

Hot Cross Buns

Source: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/090326-hotcrossbuns

hot cross buns

MAKES 16

ingredients

• 4tsp dried yeast
• 55g caster sugar
• 250ml warm milk
• 600g plain flour
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 60g butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 125ml warm water
• 110g currants
• 40g mixed peel
• 1tbsp apricot jam
• Flour paste:
• 75g plain flour
• 1tbsp caster sugar
• 80ml water

method

1. Combine yeast, sugar and milk in a bowl, whisk until yeast is dissolved. Cover bowl, stand in warm place for 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy. Sift flour and cinnamon into a large bowl, rub in butter. Stir in yeast mixture, egg, water and fruit, cover and stand for 1 hour in a warm place or until mixture has doubled in size.
2. Turn out dough onto floured surface, knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 16 portions, knead into balls. Place into greased 23cm sq. cake pan, stand in warm place for about 20 minutes until dough has risen to top of tin.
3. For the paste, combine flour and sugar in a bowl, blend in the water, stir until smooth. Using a piping bag and small plain tube, pipe crosses onto buns. Bake in moderately hot oven for 10 minutes, reduce heat to moderate and bake for a further 15 minutes. Turn buns onto wire rack, brush with warm sieved jam.

History of the Simnel Cake and Hot Cross Buns

Simnel Cake

I've just read a few articles online about this cake and they all seem to agree that originally it was baked as a gift for mothers on mothering Sunday. It seems to date back to the 1600s (17th Century) and the name is thought to come through Old French from the Latin simila which referred to a fine flour.

The cake is mentioned in a verse written in the 17th Century:

I'll to thee a Simnell bring
'Gainst thou go'st a mothering,
So that, when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou'lt give to me

Source: http://www.wyrdology.com/festivals/easter/simnel-cake.html

Whatever its origins - it looks totally scrummy and appears to be somewhat like Christmas cake! On the top 11 balls of marzipan are placed and these (traditionally) represent the 11 disciples which were left after Judas betrayed Christ and hung himself.

Hot Cross Buns

Buns have long been associated with holy festivals, as have crosses of various sorts. The symbolism of an equal-armed cross is often associated with the "four corners" of the world or the ancient elements.

Of particular interest is the ancient Greek bous, a bun with "horns" given as an offering to the gods. The circular bun was said to represent the moon with the cross dividing it into its quarters.

These buns were also said to never go off - since none have survived we can probably assume that was an exaggeration!

To modern Christians, the bun represents the cross and the crucifixion of Christ. The earliest known reference to such a bun in written English is from "Poor Robin's Almanac" in 1733. These became "Hot" Cross Buns in the early 19th century.

Traditionally these buns were eaten on Good Friday. Now, of course, we can buy and enjoy them all year round - which seems to rather defeat the point.

Source: http://www.wyrdology.com/festivals/easter/hot-cross-bun.html

Simnel Cake

Recipe taken from:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/recipe-ideas-simnelcake?src=email&email=100318eastercooking%20%28main%29

simnel cake

ingredients

• 110g butter
• 110g soft brown sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 150g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• ½ tsp ground mixed spice
• 350g mixed raisins, currants and sultanas
• 55g mixed peel, chopped
• ½ lemon, grated zest only
• 1-2 tbsp apricot jam
• marzipan:
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ tsp almond essence

method

marzipan

1. Place the sugar and ground almonds in a bowl.
2. Add enough beaten egg to achieve a fairly soft consistency.
3. Add the almond essence and knead until paste is smooth and pliable.
4. Roll out a third of the paste to make a circle 18cm (7") diameter, reserve the rest for the top and to make the marzipan balls.

cake

5. Preheat oven to 140°C/275°F.
6. Grease and line an 18cm (7") round cake tin.
7. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
8. Gradually beat in the eggs until well mixed, and then sift in the flour, salt and mixed spice.
9. Add dried fruit, lemon zest and mixed peel, and mix well.
10. Put half the mixture into the cake tin, smooth the top and cover with the circle of marzipan.
11. Add the rest of the mixture and smooth the top, leaving a slight dip in the centre to allow for rising, so you end up with a level top. Bake for 1½ hours, then remove from oven to cool.

to decorate

12. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
13. Brush top of cake with the apricot jam.
14. Divide the remaining marzipan into two. Roll out a circle to cover the top of the cake and make eleven balls with the other half. Place the circle on top, then place the balls around the edge.
15. Put in the oven for approx. 10 minutes or long enough for the marzipan to brown.

Expert Advice?

We are becoming more and more reliant on the advice of so-called experts in a variety of fields in life.

This mentality brings about a subservience towards the authorities which is unhealthy and also unhelpful. Take, for example, child rearing. There have been TV shows about super nannies who go into people's houses and teach them how to discipline their children. Do those nannies have their own children? The Children's Commissioner has never had her own offspring. Go into most maternity wards and you will probably find that the majority of Midwives have not had their own children. So what do these so-called experts know about child-birth, family life/child rearing when they have never experienced it themselves? Having your own children compared to merely being a nanny who has never had their own small people is not the same.

How can a Social Worker who has never had his/her own children pre-judge a situation without knowing the pressures that child bearing brings upon a new mother? A mum may be stressed out and tired due to lack of sleep but that doesn't make her a bad mother - she may just need help, even if it's only for an hour. A short break can be highly beneficial to a new mum!

How about the Children's Commissioner who has no children of her own - how can she make policies/recommendations/comments without ever having run a home after going through X hours of labour, countless sleepless nights, sore breasts, stitches, posseting babies, stinking nappies, terrible twos, independent threes, formidable fours, active fives etc.

How can 'experts' write countless books on child rearing when they have not had their own children? They not writing from experience, but from the ideas of others, perhaps. We would NEVER allow a man or woman to perform an operation unless they had completed countless years of training in medical school and yet there are many parents who are happy to have these so called experts telling them how to rear their children even though they have none of their own! WHY?

The government loves these experts to spout out ideas - we are a brain-washed population who have been led to believe that the expert knows best! See how words are used to control and manipulate people - EXPERTS! Well, I metaphorically stick my two fingers up at so called experts and say - experience counts for far more than all the hours of study these people have done from books (which were probably written by more childless experts!). Parents can't even feed their own children without there having to be sites on food - if the government is THAT concerned about the food children are eating, why don't they ban fast food - well that's not going to happen as I expect they are hoping to become company directors when they are voted out of parliament...

It's so convenient to get shot of your kids to the childless experts than actually get to know your children. This mentality has been dripping gradually into society for decades. We have health food experts, childcare experts, health experts. Books for this and pamphlets for that. Let's get out of this ridiculous oppressive and manipulative expert driven society and into one where people become their own experts by experiencing life as it is and not making life like a text book!

European countries which allow/disallow home education

This is from Wikipedia (which isn't always accurate, but if it is - a few European countries allow children to be home educated!!)

EUROPE:

Austria
Status: Legal
Homeschooling is legal in Austria.

Belgium
Status: Legal
The child has to be registered as home educated and they are tested at 8, 10, 12, 14.[citation needed] The tests are new and there is still a lot of confusion on the tests and the legal situation around them.

Czech Republic
Status: Legal
Homeschooling has been legal since 2005.

Denmark
Status: Legal
It follows from § 76 in the Danish constitution that homeschooling is legal.

Finland
Status: Legal
In Finland homeschooling is legal but unusual. The parents are responsible for the child getting the compulsory education and the advancements are supervised by the home municipality. The parents have the same freedom to make up their own curriculum as the municipalities have regarding the school, only national guiding principles of the curriculum have to be followed.
Choosing homeschooling means that the municipality is not obliged to offer school books, health care at school, free lunches or other privileges prescribed by the law on primary education, but the ministry of education reminds they may be offered. The parents should be informed of the consequences of the choice and the arrangements should be discussed.

France
Status: Legal
In France, homeschooling is legal and requires the child to be registered with two authorities, the 'Inspection Académique' and the local town hall (Mairie). Children between the ages of 6 and 16 who are not enrolled in recognized correspondence courses are subject to annual inspection.
The inspection is carried out to check that the child's knowledge has progressed as a comparison from the previous inspection; sometimes it involves written tests, though those are illegal, in both French and Mathematics, the first of which is used as a benchmark to check what level the child is. The tests are carried out with the anticipation that the child will progress in ability as she/he ages, thus they are designed to measure development with age, rather than as a comparison to say a school child of a similar age.[citation needed]

Germany
Further information: Homeschooling in Germany
Status: Illegal
Homeschooling is illegal in Germany (with rare exceptions). Children cannot be exempted from formal school attendance on religious grounds. The requirement for children from an age of about 6 years through the age of 18 to attend school has been upheld, on challenge from parents, by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Penalties against parents who force their children to break the mandatory attendance laws may include fines (around €5,000), actions to revoke the parents' custody of their children, and jail time.

Greece
Status: Illegal

Hungary
Status: Legal
The Hungarian laws allow homeschoolers to teach their children as private students at home as long as they generally follow the state curriculum and have children examined twice a year.

Republic of Ireland
Status: Legal
From 2004 to 2006, 225 children had been officially registered with the Republic of Ireland's National Education Welfare Board, which estimated there may be as many as 1500–2000 more unregistered homeschoolers. The right to a home education is guaranteed by the Constitution of Ireland.

Italy
Status: Legal
In Italy, homeschooling (called Istruzione parentale in Italian) is legal but not common: children must be registered to the school where they will take their final exams, and parents must justify their decision to homeschool their children at the beginning of every year.

Netherlands
Status: Generally Illegal
In the Netherlands every child is subject to compulsory education from his fifth birthday. The exemptions are extended on the basis of a clause in the law exempting parents from sending their child to school if they object to the "direction" of the education of all schools within a reasonable distance to their home.

Norway
Status: Legal
Homeschooling is legal.

Poland
Status: Legal
Homeschooling is legal.

Portugal
Status: Legal
Homeschooling is legal.

Russia
Status: Legal
The number of homeschoolers in Russia has tripled since 1994 to approximately 1 million. Russian homeschoolers are attached to an educational institution where they have the right to access textbooks and teacher support, and where they pass periodic appraisals of their work. The State is obliged to pay the parents cash equal to the cost of educating the child at the municipal school.

Slovenia
Status: Legal
The number of people homeschooling in Slovenia has been increasing over the years.The Slovenian term for homeschooling is "izobraževanje na domu".

Slovak Republic
Status: Legal
Homeschooling is legal with obstacles in Slovak Republic. Child's tutor is required to have a degree with major in primary school education.

Spain
Status: Generally illegal
In Spain, homeschooling is illegal. However, the regional government of Catalonia announced in 2009 that parents would be allowed to homeschool their children up to 16 years.

Sweden
Status: Generally illegal
Children have to attend school. Homeschooling is allowed when attending school would be obviously unreasonable.

*
o It is not technically illegal. It is, however, very difficult to get approved by the county in which one lives. Stockholm is in general more difficult to get approval than elsewhere in the country. Sweden is currently working on a law that would restrict homeschooling even further. Currently there are about 100 families that have been allowed to homeschool by their county. http://www.rohus.nu/?English_information

United Kingdom
See also: Education Otherwise and Schoolhouse Home Education Association
Status: Legal (England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own education laws each with slight variations regarding education otherwise than at school.)
Education provided outside a formal school system is primarily known as Home Education within the United Kingdom, the term Homeschooling is occasionally used for those following a formal, structured style of education – literally schooling at home. To distinguish between those who are educated outside of school from necessity (e.g. from ill health, or a working child actor) and those who actively reject schooling as a suitable means of education the term Elective Home Education is used.
The Badman Review in 2009 stated that "approximately 20,000 home educated children and young people are known to local authorities, estimates vary as to the real number which could be in excess of 80,000."