baking

Kids In The Kitchen – Apple and Blackberry Shortcake

March 3, 2014 by Anne Sweet 5 Comments

Hello and welcome to Kids in the Kitchen for this week.
We have a very special edition this week because it’s World Book Day.
Generally on World book day the kids dress up as a character from their favourite book. Last year we had the Gruffalo’s Child and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. This year, Boo is going to be Little Red Riding Hood.

Before I get on to this weeks recipe I’d like to say thank you to those who joined up in my linky last week.
J helped his mum on Rambling Through Parenthood to make a delicious nutella layered banana cake.
What could be nicer than chocolate covered fruit? See how D and Miss T get one with the chocolate fondeu on the Beesley Buzz.
There is also lots of yummy fruit over on Mummy Zen when the little ones get to work making fruit kebabs and Mummy Zen gives a delicious Strawberry, Apple and Almond Crumble.
Who could resist Vanilla Shortbread covered in chocolate loving prepared by Potato and Baked Potato Mummy?

Apple And Blackberry Shortcake.

One of our favourite books is called Ivy Can’t Wait. It’s all about Ivy the impatient iguana who is invited to her friends house for Strawberry Shortcake. Now, poor Ivy can’t wait to eat the strawberries and gobbles them up before the shortcake is cooked. Then she can’t wait for the cake to finish cooking so she takes it from the oven too early and it breaks into pieces. Then she is too quick to add the cream and ends up with a sticky gooey mess.

It’s not a bad ending though, because her friend makes her some more, but she has to wait patiently until she gets all the way home before opening the package that contains her cake.

Now, we decided against strawberry shortcake because the Little Man really doesn’t like strawberries. Also, I had a can of apple and blackberry fruit filling that I need to use up.

My Littlies had to exhibit a lot of patience while making the shortcake because after mixing it we had to put it in the fridge for half an hour. Well, actually, we left it a little longer while we watched Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs on tv. Sadly, my patience wasn’t so brilliant as, like Ivy, I took it out of the oven too early. It was still edible, just a little gooey on the bottom. Another five minutes would have probably sorted that.

Ingredients

185 g unsalted butter
185g caster sugar
1 egg
275g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Can of apple and blackberry fruit filling

Method

The Little Man measured out the butter and put it in a large bowl

Star measured out the sugar and added it to the butter

Then everyone had a turn at mixing until it was smooth and creamy

Star broke the egg into a bowl and the Little man mixed it up

We added the egg to the butter and sugar mixture and mixed it in.

Boo measured out the flour and the Little Man added the baking powder.

Everyone had a turn at sifting the flour and baking powder into the big bowl

We folded it all together, gently

Then we turned out the mixture, which was very soft and sticky and split it in half.

We wrapped each half in cling film and left to chill in the fridge.

We took the chilled dough out of the fridge and lightly rolled one half and placed it in the bottom of an 8inch cake tin.
We then spread the fruit filling over the first layer leaving a little gap around the edge.
Then we lightly rolled the other half of the dough and put it on top of the fruit.
Finally we brushed the top of the shortcake with a little water and sprinkled on some sugar before putting into the oven gas mark 4/ 180C for 35 minutes.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my World Book Day inspired Kids In Kitchen. Joining in is easy, cook something with your kids and share your post about it on my linky. Or even link up an old post, I really don’t mind.

I would love it if you would include my badge on your post so that others might see it and join in.

Kids in The Kitchen – Hedgehog Bread

January 28, 2014 by Anne Sweet 4 Comments

Welcome back to Kids in the Kitchen, my weekly linky where you can come and tell everyone what you have been cooking with your kids. My aim is to teach my children all about cooking, I want them to enjoy it and learn at the same time as filling their hungry tums.

This week we have been making bread rolls, and just to make them a little more exciting we did them to look like hedghogs. I’ll tell you more in a minute, first up I’d like to thank those that joined in last week.
We had The Brick Castle showing us how to make Rocky Road using vegetarian marshmallows.
Next up is In the Playroom with their Shepherd’s Pie Boats, what a great idea.
Also last week, The Beesley Buzz showed us how to make butter at home. (would be perfect for my home made bread)
Finally, we had North East Family Fun with their home made pizzas.

Please come and join in this week, I’ll give you a mention next week if you do. The rules are simple, get the kids in the kitchen then write a post and link it up. Or you could even link up an old post, I don’t mind. We all have something to share.

Hedgehog Bread.

I love making my own bread, there is something really satisfying about kneeding the dough, and the smell of bread baking is wonderful.
However, up until now I haven’t got the kids involved in bread making. I’m glad I did, they really enjoyed it, and they really enjoyed the end results too.

Recipe:

500 grams strong bread flour
50 grams of unsalted butter
1 7gram packet of fast action yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
320 ml warm water

Method:

measure the flour and the butter and rub them together.
add the yeast, salt and sugar
make a well in the middle and add the water slowly while mixing

tip the dough out on to the work surface an kneed for 10 mins
put dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea cloth
leave in a warm room for around 2 hours, when it will have doubled in size

split the dough into small balls
shape into hedghogs and use a pair of scissors to cut the spikes.
use raisins for the hedgehogs noses

leave hedgehogs on a lightly oiled baking tray for 1/2 hour
cook on gas mark 7 or 200C for 25 mins
bread should be golden in colour and sound hollow when tapped on the base.

lots of hands rubbing in the butter

Here we go, here we go, here we go
kneeding dough, kneeding dough, kneeding dough

waiting for the dough to rise

ready for the oven

the finished hedgehogs

Now it’s your turn. Join my linky and show everyone what your kids have been cooking this week.

I would love you to display my badge to help spread the word.

Baking Mad for Halloween

October 18, 2013 by Anne Sweet 1 Comment

In our house baking is something we do together.

The Littlies helping me bake up some treats

We love the Baking Mad website it’s full of wonderful recipes and so easy to use.
As it’s nearly Halloween I’ve been looking at some spooky things to bake and Baking Mad has plenty to chose from.
What about this delicious looking Spider Web Cake, this is definitely on my to bake list:

Click picture for recipe

It’s really easy to make and who can resist all that yummy chocolate?

Or if cakes are not your thing, how about these Halloween cookies? I know my littlies are going to enjoy having a go at these:

Click picture for recipe

If you don’t have the right cookie cutters then BakingMad.com has some tips on how to make your own templates instead.

There are lots of cupcakes to choose from but my favourites have to be these pumpkin cupcakes, and guess what? They actually contain pumpkin!

click picture for recipe

I decided to start off by baking a Devil’s Food Cake. It was easy to make and very delicious. I’d never made the meringue frosting before and was happy to find it was easy. This is my effort with a link to the recipe.