Tag: baking

Baking with children

The return of the Great British Bake Off has got us all in a bit of a bakey mood and what better activity to fill those occasional wet summer days than a spot of baking?

Baking is great for children. It incorporates key skills such as literacy (reading a recipe and identifying ingredients) and numeracy (weighing and measuring quantities, or doubling a recipe if you’re feeling greedy), and introduces children to scientific concepts (mixing, melting, solidifying and why does it do that?), healthy eating (yes, really), and food hygiene. All that mixing and pouring, spooning and decorate works those motor skills to, so it’s not just about having a tasty cake for your afternoon snack, although that is obviously very important.

You can start baking with children from a very young age, as soon as they can hold a wooden spoon they can get involved in the process albeit mostly by banging on a saucepan but they’re seeing, and smelling, and learning, and it gives you a lot to talk about. Obviously it gets a lot more interesting, and messier, when they can start stirring for themselves, and even more interesting, and messy, when they can start weighing, pouring and spooning. But then they learn the important life skill of Clearing Up After Themselves.

If you’re a baking novice, never fear! You can learn along side the children, so here are some Really Easy Fairycakes to get you started and then you can graduate to Mary Berry GBBO standards. Happy baking!

 

Frances Norris is a former nanny and mother of two, whose children aged 3 and 8 months are in training for GBBO 2028.

9nifty no bake treats

Sometimes you want to have a yummy treat but you don’t want to use the oven or you’re too impatient to wait for a cake to bake. Maybe you don’t have any eggs, or flour? Don’t worry – we have 9 nifty treats to the rescue!

1. Chocolate cornflake crispies

They’re an oldie but a goodie.

Ingredients: chocolate (as much as you like) and cornflakes or rice crispies (just enough for the chocolate to cover them)

Equipment: Hob, saucepan and heatproof bowl or microwave and microwaveable bowl, large bowl and spoon for mixing, cupcake cases, fridge

Melt some chocolate either in a bowl over  saucepan on the hob or in the microwave, mix it with some cornflakes or rice crispies, spoon it into cupcake cases, pop them in the fridge and wait for them to set (that’s the hard bit!).

2.  No bake cheesecake

And you thought cheesecake was complicated…

Ingredients: Half a pack of digestive biscuits (or hob nobs or ginger nuts), 125g butter , 375g cream cheese, 1 x 400g tin of condensed milk, lemon juice (to taste)

Equipment: A freezer bag, rolling pin,  microwave and microwaveable bowl or hob with saucepan and heatproof bowl, mixing bowl and spoon, round baking tin with removable base (ideally springform), fridge, cling film, scales, tin opener

Take the cream cheese out the fridge to soften. Put the biscuits in the bag and crush them with the rolling pin. Melt the butter and combine it with the biscuit crumbs to make a base. Put that in the baking tin and chill until set (usually around 15mins). Then mix the cream cheese, condensed milk and lemon juice together, spoon it over the base and leave overnight.

3. Fruit ice lollies

Make these on a rainy day so when the sun comes out they’re ready!

Ingredients: Fresh fruit (berries, kiwi, peaches, apricot and mango all work well) fruit juice

Equipment: Ice lolly sticks and moulds, or you can improvise with lolly sticks and little plastic cups, chopping board, knife, freezer

Chop the fruit up and pop it in the moulds, fill to 2/3 with fruit juice, pop them in the freezer and enjoy!

4. Iced biscuits

It doesn’t much simpler (or messier) than this

Ingredients: Biscuits, tubes of ready made icing or  icing sugar, water and food colouring mixed to a smooth paste

Equipment: None if you’re using ready made icing tubes, a bowl, spoon and piping bags or bottles if you’re not

Give children the biscuits, give children the icing. Stand back.

5. Yoghurt dipped fruit

Fun and healthy!

Ingredients: Fruit (strawberries, blueberries, bananas, kiwis, raisins), greek yoghurt

Equipment: Knife, chopping board, bowl, trays suitable for freezing, baking paper, freezer

You can choose whether to leave fruit whole or cut it in half or into slices, depending on the fruit. Cover the trays with baking paper. Once prepared, dip the fruit in the yoghurt, put them on the tray, put the trays in the freezer and leave for an hour or so. The idea is to set the yoghurt but not to freeze the fruit (although you can if you want!)

6. Coconut lemon slice

A classic combination of flavours to try with children

Ingredients: 200g shortbread biscuits, 200g condensed milk, 2 cups coconut, zest of 1 lemon, 30g butter, 2 cups icing sugar, 3tbsp lemon juice

Equipment: Freezer bag, rolling pin, mixing bowl and spoon, deep baking tray, baking ppaer microwave and microwaveable bowl, lemon zester, fridge, scales, tin opener

Crush the biscuits in the freezer bag using the rolling pin, then put them in the mixing bowl with the condensed milk, coconut and lemon zest. Combine these, melt the butter and stir it in. Transfer the mix to the baking tray and press it down firmly. Make the icing by combining the sugar and lemon juice and spread it on top. Chill until set and keep in the fridge.

7. Eton Mess

Quick, easy and infinitely variable

Ingredients: Meringues, whipped cream, fresh fruit (traditionally strawberries, but other berries, pineapple, passionfruit and mango are yummy alternatives)

Equipment: knife, chopping board, small bowls

Prepare the fruit, add the meringues broken into small pieces, gently mix in the whipped cream and serve

8. Mini banoffee pies

Ingredients: Digestive biscuits, Carnation caramel, banana, whipped cream

Equipment: knife, chopping board, tin opener, spoon

Arrange the digestive biscuits on a plate, top with caramel, sliced banana and whipped cream

9. Microwave chocolate cake

Who said no baking meant no cake?

Ingredients: 4tbsp flour, 4tbsp sugar, 1tbsp cocoa, 2tbsp beaten egg (can be left out), 3tbsp milk, 3tbsp sunflower oil (or melted butter, or apparently mashed banana works too),  chocolate chips, optional flavouring – vanilla or cinnamon work well

Equipment: Microwave, microwaveable bowl, tablespoon

Mix ingredients together, microwave. My microwave cooks this to perfection in 1 min 30s but you may need to experiment a little.