Fixing “I’m bored” – school holiday ideas

Right-o. School holiday time again and desperate parents throughout Australia are trying to find fun ways to get through the break without killing their offspring. With Christmas just around the corner, it’s also great to find a few ways to pass the time without spending too much money.

I’ve done a bit of web trawling and here are some ideas about how to fill in those spare half hours (when the kids are starting to climb the walls)

Every kid I know is in love with Mister Maker. Amazing how a few empty containers and some silver paint can keep them busy for a bit. It doesn’t get much easier (or more unisex) than his Lolly Stick Lizard project that you can make in 1 minute.

Despite kids getting older, they still love to have a go with play dough – they can add a few paddle pop sticks and straws and start making a few more sophisticated things. There’s a nice article and playdough recipes at Sixty Second parent. Girls might like to add a big handful of glitter to their dough to make it all fairy sparkly.

On the Youtube disco these holidays, we’re thoroughly enthralled by the Jackon 5’s ‘Can you feel it’ which has enough fire and explosions to keep even Mr Meat & Potatoes dancing. Although he really prefers the 1978 Green Machine commercial. I catch him (with his dad) watching it ALL THE TIME.

And in the kitchen, I’ve introduced the kids to the joys of marble cakes. I like mine bright – there’s no insipid cooking in the VS kitchen. The cake is pretty firm in texture, which transmits the colour well. A nice glossy chocolate icing would be great, but we were too impatient to see the patterns to wait for that. A scattering of icing sugar is a nice understated finish for a pretty outgoing cake.

Psychedelic marble cake 

200g butter, softened
1 ¼ cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
Zest & juice of 1 orange
Food colouring of your choice (I used yellow, green and red)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a Kugelhopt cake tin.

Add the diced butter into a large mixing bowl. Use electric beaters to cream the butter for a minute, and then gradually add in the caster sugar. Don’t rush. Take your time until it is all light and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.

Sift over the flour and baking powder. Fold through. Stir through the zest and juice.

Divide the mixture into quarters. Keep one plain, and then use the food colouring to make the others whatever colour and however vivid you like. Take turns spooning the different colours into the tin. Drag a skewer through to ‘marble’.

Bake for 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Dust with icing sugar.

From www.vegiesmugglers.com.au