baking


Peanut butter and Jelly Scones

Peanut butter and Jelly Scones is a paid collaborative post with SKIPPY® peanut butter to celebrate summer. So when I think of afternoons in the garden or picnics in the park, I always think of scones. They are a summer favourite and an English classic, so I decided to combine the classic American flavours of Peanut Butter and Jelly and create some delicious peanut butter scones to be served with seedless raspberry jam (or jelly as it is called in the US) using my boys favourite SKIPPY® peanut butter which is creamy and delicious.


The Ultimate Kinder Bueno Brownies

My teen has been begging to make Kinder Bueno Brownies since seeing them on Tik Tok, but he forgot to save the recipe, so we adapted our favourite brownie recipe and a week, a lot of chocolate and taste testing later we have perfected our recipe for Kinder Bueno Brownies.


Quinoa apple cake – cooking with kids 21

Do you like quinoa?  Do you even know what it is?  I am going to admit we are late to the quinoa party.  It is a 50/50 split of love it and tolerate it here, but this delicious quinoa, apple and cinnamon cake is loved by the whole family and a great autumn recipe and a fab way of introducing quinoa to kids.


M&M Cookies – Cooking with kids 25

We are at F is for Flour in our A- Z of ingredients cooking with kids series.  We could have made many things, but with the Easter holidays and spring in the air we decided to make some simple M&M cookies.  My SIL had just got back from Florida so we had a wonderful selection of spring coloured M&Ms to use and these cookies are perfect for making with kids.


Weekends With The Kids: Ideas Of What You Can Do To Fill The Time

Those two days after Friday can feel like a huge chasm, when you have kids to entertain. It’s easy to get stuck into the same routine and lose all inspirational ideas. Here are a few new ideas to help with bonding between yourself and your children. Make the most of the time that you have!


Cooking with Kids – Aunty Chris’ Yorkshire Parkin 25

I love cooking with my boys and this is a recipe from my childhood and one that Mini loves to make and loves to eat!  Yorkshire Parkin was my Aunty Chris signature bake.  Hers was always perfectly sticky and delicious and tasting it takes me right back to her home filled with cousins fitting in front of the coal fire under one of her crochet blankets.


Kids in the kitchen. My top tips for baking with boys! 19

I say boys, but really these tips are great for baking with any child.  My children have been helping me in the kitchen from when they could sit in a high chair.  I tried to involve them from a young age, even if it was just giving them some pastry to play with.  I wanted them to feel comfortable in the kitchen and be involved in preparing their food. Baking is a great exercise for children, it involves lots of different skills such as reading recipes, measuring and weighing ingredients, following instructions, motor skills (mixing), measuring time and also is a great way to connect them with the food that they […]


Apple printing and apple eating! 8

Today is apple day and we are celebrating it in the mad house, by apple printing and eating delicious apple pie and the last two apples from our tree.  When we moved in to our new build home 7 years ago one of the first things we did was plant an apple tree and a pear in the garden.  We have watched over the years as those trees have grown and developed just like our children and watched the joy on the boys faces when the apple bears fruit (the pear never has, yet………).


Smartie Birthday Cake 5

It has become something of a tradition that Maxi always has a chocolate smartie cake for his birthday. This year I decided to try and do something a little more eye catching. I love baking, but find icing larger cakes something of a chore. So this cake is very forgiving.

Cake Ingredients

6 oz of butter or marg
6 oz caster sugar
5 oz of self raising flour
1 oz of coco powder
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 eggs
half teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of milk

Method.

Cream together the marg/butter and sugar. Then add the rest of the ingredients in and mix well!

Put in two 7 inch cake tins (I line the tins with parchment and grease) and place in to a preheated oven of 180 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. You can tell if the cakes are cooked if when you press the top it gives slightly but springs back.

Remove from oven and leave for 2 minutes before removing from tins and placing on to a wire rack to cool.

Icing Ingredients:

1 block of butter (250gm of 10 oz)
450 grams icing sugar
50 gms of coco powder
half teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 tablespoons of milk
Method

Soften the butter in a mixer before adding the other ingredients. Make sure you start mixing very slowly so you do not get icing sugar everywhere. If your mixer does not have a splatter guard then cover with a tea towel.

Assembling the cake

Sandwich together your two cakes with icing and then apply the remaining icing around and on top of the cake. You are going to use the using around the cake to stick the chocolate fingers to the cake, so make sure you have enough at the sides.

I applied the fingers and then refrigerated the cake overnight, before covering the top with smarties the following day.


Easter Baskets and Egg Free Peppermint Creams 4

Ingredients

225g icing sugar, sifted
115g Condensed Milk
peppermint extract
Food colouring
Dark Chocolate
Method

Gradually mix the icing sugar together with the condensed milk. We used the mixer for this on slow.
Add peppermint extract to taste and knead until smooth.
Dust a clean surface with icing sugar and roll out the mixture to 5mm thickness. Cut into shapes with small cutter (the boys chose hearts and bells).
Leave in a cool place to dry for two to three hours.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.
3. Drizzle the peppermint creams with the melted chocolate
Allow to set.
This keeps refrigerated for up to three weeks.