More Roald Dahl recipe fun.

We've carried on with our adventures with boiling sugar.
First, at Bill's request from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'; 'Candy Coated Pencils for sucking in Class'

Only one second degree burn sustained...definitely NOT for kids to cook on their own.

so elegant you'll agree :)

Mmm...not a lot of drawing going on.

Today- from 'James and The Giant Peach'- magic green crystals made of crocodile tongues (possibly)

Should have stirred that colouring in better. And no photo of the moment of magic adding the bicarbonate of soda but I was a bit flustered by the burning caramel.

Don't run with them!

Now what magic occurrences are going to happen overnight to us? (possibly just the loss of all our teeth)Will we still be here tomorrow? Wait and see.

Half Term Frobscottle

Half Term this week.
That means that posting may be somewhat erratic but it will also be possible to give the floor over to my Fellow Reviewers more as we've a bit of Book Fun planned.

Eddie's turn first.
I've mentioned his Roald Dahl enthusiasm before here, so when I saw 'Roald Dahl's Completely Revolting Recipes' discounted on 'the book people' I felt it a justifiable investment. I was right. He has been poring over it since.

This is not it has to be said a recipe book heavy on vegetables and healthy eating but it's hard to resist the possibility of finally realising many of our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory dreams. It's got the recipe for Hot Ice Cream for Cold Days which may be next on our list although Bill is after the Candy-Coated Pencils for Sucking in Class. Today we made Frobscottle from 'The BFG'. I've always wanted to taste it.

'And oh gosh, how delicious it was! It was sweet and refreshing. It tasted of vanilla and cream, with just the faintest taste of raspberries on the edge of the flavour. and the bubbles were wonderful. Sophie could feel them bouncing and bursting all around her tummy. It was an amazing sensation. It felt as though hundreds of tiny people were dancing a jig inside her and tickling her with their toes.'

Here's how it went.

I actually thought it was pretty good. And a weird enough combination to feel properly Dahl crazy.

A few whizzpoppers may have been heard in the kitchen since consumption *blush*. Not from my lady bottom though obviously.

'Roald Dahl's Completely Revolting Recipes and other tasty treats', illus. Quentin Blake, pub. Random House, isbn 978-0-224-08535-9

Pop up Charlie

Eddie my younger son has a long history of sleeping with books. His first obsession was with Lucy Cousin's 'Hooray for Fish' to which I shall certainly give proper consideration at some point. He carried it around with him like a comfort blanket from about the age of 1 and snuggled up to it (along with his purple magnetic letter S -but that's another story) in bed. He now sleeps surrounded by a tower of books on all sides and I worry slightly that I will find him crushed one morning like the princess's pea under a layer of hardback picture books. He favours a weighty tome. I worry even more since my husband read a history of Chairman Mao which revealed that he had a specially constructed bed on a slant to cope with the weight and amount of books that he too liked to sleep with, but Eddie's similarity to Chairman Mao hopefully will end there...

His current obsession (he goes in for obsessions) is Roald Dahl and particularly a beautiful new pop up version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that I knew had his name on it as soon as I saw it in the bookshop. Quentin Blake in 3D! Hooray! Finally it is possible to almost literally (almost- mind) enter that chocolate factory and dive after Augustus Gloop into the river should you wish to.

Eddie holds the page open where the chocolate factory gates spring up to you and presses his nose up to them in much the same way as a starved Charlie Bucket. He also enjoys unwrapping a chocolate bar within and revealing his own golden ticket again and again.

The text is abridged but not to the point of desecration; obviously purists should have the original as well. The pop up tricks are fabulous; illustrations extending round the back of the book, and robust enough to cope with the treatment he has been meting out to it daily. My particular favourites are the pull tags with which you can help the bad children along to their fate, eg. rolling the violet Violet as giant blueberry along or tugging the appalling Veruca down the chute. Pulling them out makes the children disappear and reveals the Oompa Loompa's song of their downfall. Most satisfying.

The final page has the Great Glass Elevator shooting out the top of the book just like breaking through the factory roof. I hope they make the sequel now...but feel a frisson of fear at what those paper artists might do with the Vermicious Knids...

This was Eddie's choice to take into school on 'take a toy to school' day. It's also part of the bed tower...the highest accolade he can award.

I have just edited out photos I took where the smears of chocolate beetroot cake can be seen on the kitchen worksurface..but maybe I should have left them in for authenticity. Must clean kitchen worksurface now.

'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Pop-Up Book' Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake and designed by The Story Works, pub. Puffin, isbn 978-0-141-32887-4