Please note – this is a collaborative post
My love of baking
I’ve written on the blog before, about my love of baking and how I once wanted to turn this passion into a career. But making extravagant cake-creations takes time. And as a busy Mum, I usually don’t have much of that. Here is the previous post about baking:
WHY IT’S TIME TO LET YOU IN ON ANOTHER ONE OF MY PASSIONS SO YOU CAN GET TO KNOW ME BETTER
Baking with a little one
When my little one was about one year old, the thought of baking with her used to give me great anxiety. Back in those days, I wasn’t in a great headspace mentally. Due to pregnancy, birth trauma and general exhaustion.
Despite the anxiety and fear of mess, I still pushed through – to create some wonderful baking memories with my little girl. And once we started the task, we enjoyed making a complete kitchen mess.
Some of our baking memories to share with you
I love looking back on these cherished memories. We have a highly creative child and she loves putting all the elements together and being proud of the finished product.
These buns were lovely. The little one enjoyed making them and offering them to friends and family.
Not following the recipe
I am a bit of a rebel when it comes to following recipes. I became so well-practised in baking that I knew roughly how much each ingredient looked correct. However, these days I am totally out of practice. On top of that, I also live with two very organized people. Both my hubby and little one have a very analytical mind. And they need precise measurements. So we’ve bought some scales and sometimes use the cup method if needed.
Some recipes we follow require us to use a conversation calculator, like the one available at culinaryschools.org. Depending on what recipe book you choose, and what country the recipe creator is from, different measurements are used. With the introduction of the internet and platforms like TikTok, it’s also possible you could be looking at a recipe with measurements you wouldn’t traditionally use in your country.
In this post, I want to discuss five of our favourite UK recipes for baking with a toddler:
Let’s get stuck in and make a mess together…
Cornflake Buns
- Put 50g butter, 100g milk or dark chocolate broken down, and golden syrup in a saucepan. Use 100g cornflakes in a different bowl.
- Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in the saucepan – on low heat, stirring.
- Allow to cool a little before pouring over the cornflakes.
- Mix the cornflakes and chocolate mixture.
- Add the mixture to 12 cupcake cases.
- Put in the fridge to set.
Super easy Birthday Cake
- Butter two 18cm cake tins and line the bases with baking paper.
- Beat the butter and sugar – add the eggs, one at a time. Mix in, the milk and vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.
- Divide between two bowls. Add cocoa powder to one bowl.
- Add the vanilla batter into one tin and the chocolate batter into another – levelling the tops.
- ALWAYS A TOP TIP TO CHECK YOUR BAKING – Bake for 20-25 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool for five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
- To make the icing, add the butter and icing sugar a little at a time- until you have a smooth, creamy icing.
- Add pink food colouring.
- Sandwich the two cakes together with icing and spread the rest on top using a knife.
Easy Butterfly Cakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 160g soft unsalted butter
- 160g golden caster sugar
- Beat 3 medium free-range eggs
- 160g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
For the buttercream
- 160g softened unsalted butter
- 270g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
gooey chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients
- 165g plain flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Small chocolate chunks
- 100g softened unsalted butter
- 100g soft light brown sugar
- 100g granulated sugar
- 1 medium free-range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
Heat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/gas. Use an electric mixer to cream together the butter with both the sugars. Slowly beat in the egg and vanilla bean paste, then beat in the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda until combined and smooth.
Divide the mixture evenly into 16 balls, then put them on a couple of large baking sheets at 5-6cm intervals so they have room to spread. Flatten the balls slightly, then push in small chocolate chunks (as many as you fancy).
Bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes until the cookies are golden around the edge and the chocolate chunks have melted. Serve just cooled with a glass of ice-cold milk.
Mary Berry Cupcakes
I saved the best recipe until the last. These are my absolute favourites and as you can see, I even have this recipe written down in my lovely recipe book. It was the trusted recipe I used whenever I took on a project for someone else’s special occasion. Because you can’t go wrong with this recipe.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 175 g butter (at room temperature), cut into large pieces
- 175 g self-raising flour
- 175 g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
For the icing
- 175 g butter, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp. milk
- 350 g icing sugar, sifted
- 3 drops of pink edible colouring
- edible pink hearts or other sprinkles, to decorate
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases.
Put all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat – until smooth. Divide the mixture evenly between the cases.
For the icing. Put the butter, vanilla extract, two tablespoons of the milk, and half the icing sugar in a large bowl and beat until smooth. Beat in the remaining icing sugar, and pour in the rest of the milk to make the icing the right consistency.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cakes are well-risen and firm on top. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Put half of the icing into another bowl and add pink food colouring (two tablespoons may be enough so add slowly).
Carefully spoon this down one side of a piping bag fitted with a number eight star nozzle, then spoon the non-coloured icing down the other side of the bag. Twist the end of the bag to seal the icing in.
Pipe swirls of the icing on top of each cupcake. Scatter with the edible pink hearts or other sprinkles, to decorate.
Summary
I hope you enjoyed reading my post, all about my favourite recipes and my love of baking.
What is your favourite recipe? And do you bake with the kids?
