I am a big fan of minimal effort, maximum impact ideas, especially when it comes to parties! 

For Sammy's Birthday, instead of a sweet table, I have a selection of homemade candy lollies. When I say homemade, I mean the cheat's way!

Take a rice crispy square bar and cut in half. Push your lolly sticks in half way and dip in icing.

Dip and roll gently in your chosen topping. Set in the fridge for 10 minutes.

You are done!  

Of course you can choose not be a cheat and make the crispy cakes yourself but when you have lots to make sometimes you are allowed to cheat! 

This week is National Doughnut Week, with bakeries up and down the UK raising money for The Children's Trust. 

Whilst I am no baker, I can make things look pretty and take one or two photographs.

My favourite food crafts are those which take minimal effort but have maximum impact. 

I adore these cheats mini pretty doughnuts, they take minutes to make and you can get little ones helping. 

I bought a box of 20 miniature doughnuts from the supermarket for £1, a tube of freeze dried raspberries, a bag of chopped roasted hazelnuts and used some left over strawberry jam from the fridge.

I used egg cups for the nuts and raspberries as they were the perfect sized dipping pots. 

I thought they looked sweeter stacked in threes and tied with some bakers twine. The fondant roses, which you can buy in pre-made packs, were just perfect pressed snuggly into the hole of the top doughnut. 

I could imagine these as cute wedding favours!  If you want to have a go at freeze drying your own raspberries, place them on a baking tray and set in the freezer until hard. Take them out and place in a sandwich/freezer bag and squeeze all the air out of the bag. Freeze over night. Chop and use the next day.

I love that this was a good way to get the boys eating nuts too, in a consistency that didn't make me nervous about them chocking. 

Beautiful and delicious and eaten in as many minutes as they took to make! 

What could be more delicious than something that looks too pretty to eat. 

Edible flowers are just the most beautiful ingredient. With all the hot weather we have been lucky enough to experience over the last week, I have been inspired to make lots of lollies! But the petal ones have to be my favourite. 

I used elderflower cordial and cherry flavoured water for the lollies themselves and then dropped the petals in at random. 

If you want a perfect look then freeze a third at a time to keep the flowers evenly spaced. I love the perfect imperfect look, so just popped the sticks straight in and whacked them in the freezer. 

I used wide wax spatulas instead of normal lolly sticks  (A timely gift from a friend who said "I was having a clear out and thought, I know someone who might be able to use them for something crafty!") as they have more room to write on. You could ink stamp words on too, or names of party guests, if you made a big batch for a special occasion.

I was totally inspired by these, these and these and there are loads more to choose from on Pinterest like these edible cheese towers, if you are feeling motivated to make petal creations of all descriptions. 

I had a few petals left over so made a few pretty cocktails. I'll share those beauties next week :) 

I always remember my Mum used to make an ice bowl with flowers in it for 'dinner parties'. Take a large bowl and fill it a third full with water. Take a smaller bowl and place it in the water so the bowls sandwich the water between them. Add more water to ensure it almost reaches the top. Almost - remember it will expand in the freezer. Drop your flowers into it, they don't need to be edible if you are only using it for display purposes. Freeze for at least 4 hours. If you want a perfect look freeze a little at a time and add more flowers to ensure they are evenly spread.

They went down very well on the hot summer's day we had this week. I bought my flowers from Greens of Devon . What would you make with edible flowers?

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