Design your own cup cake! - Cooking with Small People! -

The second instalment in my cooking with kids adventure...


My slightly older class (6-7 yr olds) get an hour for their cooking. They also have experience as they spent most of last year cooking very simple things, so I try to make their sessions more challenging.

I have given them a cookbook each which they stick the recipe in, writing any changes they made, and then they photograph their own food to stick in with the recipe. (training for tomorrows food bloggers!)

They made cup cakes this time. 
I made a basic mix with them (based on Nigella Lawson's Fairy Cake recipe in "How to Eat".)


Basic Cup Cake Mix
125g Self Raising Flour
125g unsalted butter (very soft)
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 tspn baking powder
few tablespoons milk


Put all ingredients except milk in food processor and blitz.
Add the milk and continue to process until you have a smooth batter.


Divide into 4 bowls - one for each child.

Then I had a range of things they could choose to add:-

Cocoa powder

Lemon zest and juice

Sultanas

Oats

Orange zest and juice

Dessicated coconut

Mashed banana

Grated apple

Food colouring

I asked them to talk to me as they added things so I could help with quantities and whether we needed to tweek the mix a bit e.g. if they added a few liquids I added a little more flour.

The kids then stirred their mixtures and spooned it into 4 patty pans. (I had different coloured patty pan cases so that we could tell who's was who's.)

 

We then cooked the cakes for about 15 minutes at 200C.

Whilst the cakes cooked (and cooled fast in the freezer) the kids did a bit of the clean-up, wrote their modifications onto their recipes and coloured/flavoured their icing.

The Icing - Butter cream icing

• 185g butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups icing sugar mixture
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 
  
• Using an electric mixer, beat butter in a bowl until pale. 
• Gradually add icing sugar mixture and milk, beating constantly until combined.

Kids were offered a drop of colouring, a squeeze of lemon or a little cocoa in their icing and sprinkles, fresh strawberries or glace cherries for the top. 

They then iced and decorated. They chose their favourite of their 4 and took 
a photo of it. Then they scoffed them down or wrapped them to take home or some of each!

 

One group went with the 'I want everything she has' approach and we ended up with lots of similar cakes with almost everything in them. 
The second group were more restrained. We had plain chocolate, orange and chocolate, lemon and vanilla. 
The third group were more adventurous. One made a lemon and soy sauce cupcake!!!!! One made a fruit salad one with lemon, orange, banana and apple. This group also put colouring in the cake ( the others just put it in the icing)

 

This activity ran overtime for every group (allow about 1 hr 20 min) but none of them minded, they enjoyed it so much they were happy to stay in and finish, with the lure of 4 mini-cupcakes each at the end.


I have done something along these lines with my family too. With much older kids it is still a fun activity and you end up with more appetising results.

Nicola

Tuscan Plum Upside Down Cake

We had family for dinner last night. I don't always do dessert - but my father-in-law is a dessert fan so I decided to find a dessert using our plum surplus. With our Italian leaning this week a Tuscan Plum Upside Down Cake seemed to fit the bill. I haven't made an upside cake before!

Ingredients

• 275 g Sugar
• 150 ml Water
• 
  
• 900 g Plums, Halved and Stoned 
• 
  
• 150 g Soft Butter
• 175 g Sugar
• 200 g Self Raising Flour
• 3 Eggs

   

Method

Preheat the oven to 170’c.
• 
  
• Put the sugar and water into a heavy based pan (that can go into the oven).
• Stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then cook without stirring until the sugar caramelises to a golden brown. (I turned it off at a hint of brown as the cast iron pan I used held heat and the caramel continued to darken after I removed it from the stove)
• 
  
• 
  
  
  Carefully and immediately arrange cut side down in a single layer in the caramel (this will be the top of the cake when it is cooked).
• 
  
  Put the butter, sugar and flour into the bowl of an electric food processor, whiz for a couple of seconds, then add the eggs and stop as soon as the mixture comes together. ( if you don’t have a food processor, just cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one by one, then mix in the flour).
• 
  
  Spread the mixture in an even layer over the plums in the pan.
• 
  
  
  
  Bake in the preheated oven for about one hour.
• 
  
  The centre should be firm to the touch and the edges slightly shrunk from the sides of the pan.
• 
  
  
  Run a knife around the edges to make sure it has not stuck anywhere.
• Leave it to sit for 3 or 4 minutes before turning out.
• 
  
  Serve with whipped cream, ice cream or crème fraiche.

It was delicious, hot at the time and in my lunch box today. I also have a nectarine stack - I could see this becoming a regular dessert!