My 100th Post!!

in , by Jada, October 30, 2012
I would just like to say thank you to all my lovely readers, subscribers, members of GFC, my visitors and all my family and friends, the companies who have given me opportunities to review their products, thank you for your continuous support for me and my blog. I started my blog wanting to shout out about the non-stereo typical teenage mother, I have received some lovely comments and personal emails in regards to teenage parenting.

  I have shared some personal things with you, lots of product reviews, hosted a few competitions, cyber met loads of lovely lovely people, hosted a feature party and I am attending my first blogging event very soon.

I hope in the few posts I have shared that some of you have changed your mind on teenage parent's. Not all of us have our babies for the money and the accommodation, not all of us leave our babies every weekend to go out clubbing and binge drink, not all of us are under social services care, not all of us have naughty children, we are not all the same.

I am Unique Young Mum.

Unique Young Mum blog has become a part of my life, whenever I am out and I receive a email on the go (technology these days!) from one of my lovely readers/visitors it always puts a smile on my face, I love engaging with my readers/visitors and fellow bloggers from all over the globe, not just parent bloggers all bloggers, food bloggers, multiple bloggers, review bloggers, support bloggers and many many more!

I am here to stay folks I'm afraid, you've put up with me for nearly 3 months now, it has been one of the best experiences I've ever had, blogging can bring so many emotions, its such a great relief to be able to get things off your chest, who knew a laptop/computer could bring such a thing!! 

So again a massive thank you to all of you, I hope you will continue to support me and show the blog some love.

Until next time,
Jada x
Now you may of read my title and thought to yourself who is HER Cakes? Well I am going to tell you all about HER Cakes. HER Cakes is the name of a local cake maker in Reading who makes absolutely beautiful cakes.

HER Cakes very kindly baked us a lovely 2 tier Halloween cake and 30 Halloween cupcakes for our Halloween feature party.


The picture above is the beautiful 2 tier Halloween cake Hannah from HER Cakes made for us, everything from the taste to the decoration was just perfect!


6 witches hats cupcakes and 6 beetle cupcakes all on a orange coloured butter-cream icing layered on top of the sponge cake, complete with edible glitter for decoration.


6 eyeball cupcakes and 6 pumpkin cupcakes on a bluey/green coloured butter-cream icing layered on top of the sponge cake, complete with edible glitter for decoration.


6 ghost cupcakes on a chocolate flavoured butter-cream icing layered on top of the sponge cake, complete with edible glitter for decoration.

 

The above shows some of the beautiful cupcakes on the Poundland cake sent we was sent from their Halloween range (read about that here).


Above is a picture of the treat sweet table we set up after the party food was demolished, the picture shows the 2 tier HER Cake Halloween cake we was sent, and the cupcakes that HER Cakes sent in the back ground are being displayed on the orange cake stand from Asda (read Asda's Halloween range of items here) and the other cake stand is from Poundland (read about their Halloween range here) along with all the other sweet treats we had at the party


One of the ghost chocolate cupcakes close up.


The cake cut up and ready to be taken home.

Below are some other great cake designs that Hannah from HER Cakes has made.







Hannah from HER Cakes is a Reading cake maker, to find out more about Hannah or HER cakes you can find her on Facebook.

Until next time,
Jade

Disclosure - I was baked the 2 tier cake and the 30 cupcakes for free on the basis to review HER Cakes. I  have not received a payment for reviewing this products but instead was compensated as I was not charged for the products. All comments and views are of my own/Spud's unless other wise stated and was not influenced in any way shape or form. 

Popagami Halloween Bats

in , , , by Jada, October 29, 2012
Have you read my review on Popagami? If not you can find it here.

Popagami very kindly sent us a envelope full of bats to make at our Halloween feature party (read up about that here).

This is a very short post introducing the bats that Popagami have produced, here is 2 of the bats that the children made, how tiny are they?


To find out more about Popagami read my review in the link above, check out the official website here, follow them on Twitter here or find them on Facebook here.

Until next time,
Jada
The Busy Box is a new company who has recently just started up. Me and Spud love arts and crafts as you may be able to tell from some of our previous post. The Busy Box company does loads of different Busy Boxes all on different themes.

''Busy Boxes are full of craft activities and projects. Each box comes with all the bits and bobs needed to complete the several projects, with plenty left over for more creativity!

Busy Boxes are sturdy and reusable, with their own child sized carry handle. They are perfect for storing lots of crafty bits and completed treasures!''



We was sent a busy box for review during our Halloween feature to review during our Halloween party, unfortunatly I wasn't able to get any picture's of the children busy with the busy box but I was able to save 2 of everything so this post is of Spud and his little friend reviewing The Busy Box for us. 


The Halloween Busy Box contains a scratch art skeleton, a design your own Trick or Treat bag, a mask, a cut out to decorate, a pumpkin and bat to decorate, spooky foam stickers, black and orange card, pipe cleaners, gummed stars, googly eyes and black pom poms to make spiders and a glitter glue. 


What I first noticed about The Busy Box was the warning on the back of the box advising it is not suitable for children until the age of 3 and adult supervision is required.


Our Busy Box was full of fabulous craft items!


I shared out the items so Spud and his friend both had 1 of everything. The above picture is what Spud's friend chose.


The picture above is the items Spud chose.


The children got 'busy' straight away colouring in their mask that was included in the busy box.


Then they got busy making a picture each, we wasn't sent a guide on what to do with the items included in the box but I have since discovered that guide's are now being sent out with The Busy Box which is fab!


The children then got busy colouring in their Halloween shaped plain cards.


The mask was really easy to make, I literally had to put the elastic provided through the already made holes and that was it, the mask were made.

Above is a picture of Spud and his pumpkin mask he decorated himself.

 And lastly is a picture of Spud's friend with the mask he decorated by himself.
We still have loads of stuff left in our Busy Box, I will definitely consider purchasing one in the near future! 
The Busy Box has everything in it that you need to keep your children 'busy' for a couple of hours and can easily last for a few weeks with all the fabulous items included!

The Busy Boxes cost £9.99 plus P&P, to view the other great Busy Box items check out the official website.

Until next time,
Jada x

  Disclosure - I was sent this product on the basis to review it, I have not received a payment for reviewing this product but instead was compensated as I was allowed to keep the product. All comments and views are of my own/Spud's unless otherwise stated and was not influenced in any way shape or form.

Halloween is just 3 days away, and I have discovered the perfect book to read to your little ones this Halloween.

Tamara Small and the Monster's Ball.



We was very sent the newest book by Giles Paley-Phillips, illustrated by Gabriele Antonini and published by Maverick to review during our Halloween feature.



The first thing I noticed about the book was the fabulous illustrations by Gabriele Antonini, a good children's book needs good illustrated picture's to keep the children engaged.


I love poems and anything that rhythms so I loved the fact that every paragraph in the book did rhythm, talking about paragraph's there is just a small one on each page word's are used, I wouldn't actually call it a paragraph I would say a few sentences.



The book starts off sounding scary, with Tamara laying in fear clutching her bear Ted, then Tamara gets 'grabbed' by a monster who takes her to the monster's ball.


 It's nothing to worry about though as a few pages on and Tamara is giggling and dancing away with the other monster's at the annual monster's ball.


Above is a photo of the children at the Halloween feature party being read the book by my Dad (Grandad to 3 of them).



Tamara Small and the Monster's Ball is the perfect book to read children this Halloween, if you cant get it in time for Halloween don't worry, this book is perfect for every day reading, Spud is now convinced thanks to this book and Monster's Inc if he ever did come across a monster (which I assure him will never happen) then they will be friendly.

Put your child's mind at ease with monster's or anything else they think will come out at night and get them, a lovely worded book with fabulous illustrated picture's to go with the story.

Tamara Small and the Monster's Ball is available to buy now from Amazon

Until next time,
Jada x

Disclosure - I was sent this product on the basis to review it, I have not received a payment for reviewing this product but instead was compensated as I was aloud to keep the product. All comments and views are of my own/Spud's or have been taken from the official press release in regards to this product unless other wise stated and was not influenced in any way shape or form.
We got sent a new Halloween film from Lionsgate to review during our Halloween feature, the new film is called Daddy I'm A Zombie. I took the Daddy I'm A Zombie DVD along to our Halloween feature party (you can read about that here) for the kids to watch.


The main plot of the film is about a teenage goth girl called Dixie who has been unhappy with her life since her parent's divorce 5 years ago, the film is quite depressing, well it was to me anyway, I am an emotional person so felt very sorry for Dixie. At school she gets bullies and then things get even worse when she discovers her best friend hooks up with her boyfriend, then it gets even more worse when a ferocious storm kicks off and Dixie is knocked unconscious and awakens to find she has been transformed into a zombie
 
That's when the drama begin, Dixie meets Isis (a Egyptian mummy princess) and Gonner (a pirate cabin boy) who she must befriend. Dixie needs to get back home (to the land of the living) but to do that she needs to defeat a evil witch (Nubulosa) along with her friend's who has she met since becoming a zombie, Vitriol (the wise zombie sage), Isis and Gonner.


I won't tell you anymore as there will be no point in watching it!
The film had both funny and scary moments throughout, the older children at the party aged between 4-11 years enjoyed the film along with the adults, we all laughed at certain parts of the film and all said ''aww'' at other parts of the film.
The great thing about this film is it also mentions things children all over the world go through, bullying, feeling different because they are unique and dealing with parent's divorces.

The film is rated PG (parental guidance) but I have let Spud watch the DVD all by himself as I honestly don't think there are scenes where he needs to cover his eyes!
The film last for 79 minutes, great to watch all together in the run up to Halloween or on Halloween night! 

The film has a RRP of £6.99 and is out now, available to buy on DVD in Asda and Amazon to say the least.

Jada x

MU Cheese Creepy Cottage Pie Recipe

in , , , by Jada, October 27, 2012

Have you promised the kids a delicious Halloween banquet fit for ghosts and ghouls but are stuck for ideas? MU, the funky new cheddar brand who I recently done a review on (read it here), has thought of some great ideas to help make Halloween MUtastically tasty for the little ones.


Now before I start this post, I will admit I am cheating, I had a problem getting the MU Cheese to me in one piece (long story) I am so busy I have no time to follow the idea's anyway so I have simply copied and pasted this from the press release. I will however one day get round to using the cheese to make something like this, not the exact same as me and Spud are not fans of all the ingredients!

 Mu Creepy Cottage Pie


Makes: 6 portions Prep Time: 45mins Cooking Time: 25mins Preheat oven: 180c

Ingredients:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
450g minced beef
1 large onion
100g leek, diced
150g mushrooms, chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
200g swede, diced
200g carrots, diced

Seasoning

500 ml beef stock


For the mashed potato:

675g Maris piper potatoes, peeled

50g salted butter

6 tbsp milk
Sprinkle of white pepper
220g MU Mature, grated
1 egg yolk, beaten for brushing the top
  

Method:
First make the meat sauce. Take a large pan and place on the hob on a high heat. Heat the oil and fry the mince until golden then add the onion and diced carrot and cook for 10mins on a medium heat.

Add the tomato puree and cook for a further 5mins. Then add the mushrooms, leeks, swede and seasoning and cook for a further 5mins.

Add the stock and simmer for 20mins until the stock has reduced by half.

While the meat is cooking boil the potatoes for the mash for 20mins. Drain and mash the potato, then add the milk, butter, cheese and seasoning and beat the ingredients into the potato and set to one side.

By this time the meat should be cooked. Add Worcestershire sauce and stir through.

Place the meat sauce into an oven proof dish and pipe the potato on the to.

Brush with the egg glaze and then bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25mins until golden brown and crispy.

To find out more read my review on MU Cheese here.

Until next time,
Jada x


Disclosure - I was sent some MU Cheese on the basis to review it and feature it in my Halloween feature, I have not received a payment for reviewing this product but instead was compensated as I was aloud to keep the product. All comments and views are of my own/Spud's or have been taken from the official press release in regards to the product unless other wise stated and was not influenced in any way shape or form.

Mmm another Cadbury post, this time I am reviewing the Cadbury Cinder Toffee Cake Bars. The cake bars were sent for our Halloween feature party, you can read all about that here.


In each packet you get 5 Cadbury Cinder Toffee Cake Bars. Cadbury chocolate is one of the best chocolates around, everyone knows Cadbury!


They are mini, around the same size as a Cadbury mini roll but they are full of amazing textures and a amazing toffee filling.  I wasn't sure what cinder toffee was, a quick search on Google tells me it's honeycomb flavour toffee.


The outer part of the cake is all Cadbury chocolate, inside you have the sponge layer at the bottom and then the cinder toffee sauce layered on top.


The sponge to me was a little bit dry but the cinder toffee makes up for that!


I would say these are perfect for treats at home this Halloween, or even to lay out on a treat table like we did with ours.

Cadbury Cinder Toffee Cake Bars are available from just £1, keep an eye out in your local shop's and supermarkets!

For more information on Cadbury check out their website here.

Until next time,
Jada x


  Disclosure - I was sent these products on the basis to review them, I have not received a payment for reviewing these products but instead was compensated as I was aloud to keep the products. All comments and views are of my own/Spud's unless other wise stated and was not influenced in any way shape or form.

Mr Kipling Halloween Review

in , , , by Jada, October 27, 2012
I love Mr Kipling, I'm not alone, Mr Kipling is the maker of the nations favourite cakes! I'm so sure of my statement I reckon if the question ''Name the nation's favourite cake companies?'' was asked on Family Fortunes Mr Kipling would be number one!


We was sent a packet of 6 Shock and Orange Slices and a box of 8 Frankenstein Fancies for review at our Halloween feature party (you can read all about that here).
First up for review is the Mr Kipling Shock and Orange Slices, the quickest and easiest way to describe these slices are 'orange flavour sponge sandwiching a raspberry flavoured filling topped with chunks of dark chocolate'.
Now I personally would never put orange, raspberry and chocolate together, orange and chocolate yes, even though dark chocolate is my least favourite chocolate! But raspberry and orange, hmm. I wasn't so sure, I placed the 6 individual slices onto the table, and waited for someone to pick one up so I could have a little piece of theirs.

The time come, my sister picked up a Shock and Orange slice, I watched eagle eyed and finally asked to try a little bit, Mr Kipling had once again won not only myself but the whole party over!

The 3 flavours work really well together, the orange sponge is just right, not too much so it takes over the other flavours, in my opinion just right! The raspberry goes well sandwiched between the 2 layers of sponge and the chocolate, the dark chocolate which I normally despise was the final beautiful taste that made the Shock and Orange slices.
As the Shock and Orange slices are individually wrapped they are great for trick'or'treaters this Halloween!

The RRP for the slices are just £1 and is available at a shop near you now!


Now I am not the biggest of fans when it comes to fondant fancies, so I left the other party guest to taste these out for me, considering by the time I went to take a close up picture they was all gone, I presumed they went down a treat, I took out my note pad and pen and went around asking my big and little guest if they had tried one and if so what they had thought.
These are some of the replies which I received from the little monsters;
  • It wasn't a Frankenstein Jade, Cameron's a Frankenstein, it was a green cake with stripes.
  • It was yummy and now its in my tummy (followed by lots of giggles).
These are some of the replies which I received from the adults;
  • A real tea time treat.
  • Delicious but a little sweet.
  • I've had 3 that's got to say something Jade!!
    Mr Kipling Frankenstein Fancies are available to buy from a shop near you! The RRP for both products are just £1 each.
Why don't you pick up a packet for your table this Halloween?
  • To find out more about Mr Kipling and their fabulous cakes, check out their website here.
Until next time,
Jada x

 Disclosure - I was sent these products on the basis to review them, I have not received a payment for reviewing these products but instead was compensated as I was aloud to keep the products. All comments and views are of my own/Spud's unless other wise stated and was not influenced in any way shape or form.
Are you Trick'or'Treating this Halloween? Or maybe watching a family film all together? Why not treat the family this Halloween with a Domino's Pizza takeaway!

We was sent 2 vouchers to redeem for a portion of Domino's Twisted Dough Balls (x2).

In each portion you get 6 Twisted Dough Balls with a choice of 3 flavours: Ham, Pepperoni or Cheese.


Me & Spud along with my friend Lauren chose to get the Pepperoni ones as we had heard through another friend they was delicious!!
 
The 2 boxes of 6 (12 altogether) dough balls we was sent for review went down a right treat. 

Each dough ball brushed with garlic oil and loaded with cheese and pepperoni was simply beautiful to taste, the 3 main flavours really mix well together and the taste is just lush! I was really impressed as they was still hot when they got to us which is great as 90% of the time food from delivery places gets to you cold!


If you have not already tried these amazing dough balls I really do recommend and urge you to try them now! OK maybe not now, but how about this Halloween? With only 4 days left to go Domino's is my recommendation on a Halloween dinner feast treat!

The Twisted Dough Balls are available to buy directly from Domino's, a portion of 6 costs £2.99

To find out more about Domino's Pizza or to find your nearest Domino's check out the official website.

Until next time,
Jada

 Disclosure - I was sent 2 vouchers to redeem for 2 portion's of Twisted Dough Balls for free as part of the review. I have not received a payment for reviewing this product but instead was compensated as I was not charged for the product. All comments and views are of my own/Spud's unless other wise stated and was not influenced in any way shape or form.


© Unique Young Mum · THEME BY WATDESIGNEXPRESS