SOMETHING FOR THE KIDS

Party time or teatime treats, these homemade delights will get the little ones excited

THE REAL TOFFEE APPLES

A delicious treat for the kids, and one which they can help make too. Be extra careful with hot caramel and little fingers.

• 10 wooden skewers
• 10 small granny smith apples
• 500 g granulated sugar
• 1 cup water
• 5 ml vinegar
• 45 ml golden syrup
• 5 ml red food colouring

PREPARATION

1. Place a sheet of baking paper onto a baking tray. Insert a skewer into each apple, arrange the apples on the tray and set aside.

TO MAKE THE TOFFEE

1. Place the sugar, water and vinegar into a saucepan over low heat and stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Then add the syrup and bring to the boil. Boil until the mixture reaches 150 °C on the sugar thermometer (this is the temperature test to follow when making hard crack caramel).
2. If you don’t have a thermometer, test a little syrup by dropping a teaspoon of syrup into cold water. If it sets rock hard immediately it is ready. Remove from the heat and place the saucepan into a sink of cold water to cool the mixture. Once it has stopped bubbling, add the red food colouring and swirl around until fully incorporated.

DIPPING THE APPLES

1. Dip the apples into the toffee syrup and swirl around until they are fully coated. Remove from the syrup and place onto the baking paper. Set aside until completely cooled and the toffee has hardened.

AUTHOR’S TIP: Wrap coloured twine or tie ribbon around the skewers and place the toffee apples on a wooden board. If you are using them for a party you can make little flags to glue onto the skewers with the child’s name written on them.

Makes 10

OREO AND MARSHMALLOW CUPCAKES

What more could a kid want? Best of all, these all-time favourite ingredients can be enjoyed together. My number 2 kids’ delight.

CUPCAKE BATTER

• 100 g softened butter
• 2.5 ml vanilla paste or
• 5 ml vanilla essence
• 115 g castor sugar
• 2 extra large eggs
• 160 g self-raising flour
• 30 ml milk

MERINGUE ICING

• 325 ml granulated sugar
• 125 ml water
• 90 g egg white (about 3 extra large eggs)
• 10 Oreos, finely crumbled
• 100 g mini pink and white marshmallows
• 6 oreos, broken in half, for decorating

TO MAKE THE CUPCAKE BATTER

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cases. Place all the ingredients into a mixer and beat until soft and fluffy. Divide the mixture among the cases and bake for 12–15 minutes or until a metal skewer inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean. While the cupcakes are baking, make the meringue icing.

TO MAKE THE MERINGUE ICING

1. Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. Test the temperature of the syrup with a sugar thermometer. Bring to the boil and when the sugar syrup reaches 110 °C, whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl to the stiff peak stage. When the sugar syrup reaches 113 °C, remove the pan from the stove and slowly drizzle the syrup down the side of the bowl into the egg whites, whisking continuously until the meringue has thickened and the bowl has cooled.
2. Fold in the Oreo crumbs. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and arrange on a wire rack to cool. Place the icing into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pipe the icing onto the cooled cupcakes. Top each cupcake with some mini marshmallows and half an Oreo biscuit.

AUTHOR’S TIP: I always pipe my meringue icing, but if you don’t have the equipment, spreading it evenly with a knife will do.

Makes 12

CRUNCHIES

Wholesome and healthy, these crunchies are made with agave nectar as opposed to sugar. They still taste sweet and the kids will never know.

• 125 ml agave nectar 
• 250 g butter
• 500 ml oats
• 250 ml cake flour
• 250 ml desiccated coconut, toasted
• 10 ml ground ginger
• 5 ml ground cinnamon
• 2.5 ml bicarbonate of soda

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 160 °C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

TO MAKE THE CRUNCHIES

1. Melt the agave nectar and butter together in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the dry ingredients and mix well to combine. Turn the mixture out onto the lined tray and spread out evenly. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave to cool for 30–40 minutes.

AUTHOR’S TIP: Crunchies will keep for a few weeks, if stored in an airtight container. This will make planning kids’ parties that much easier!

Makes 24

SALTED CARAMEL POPCORN

The perfect treat for kids’ parties, I often use it as a topping on cakes.

• 5 handfuls home-made unsalted popcorn
• 200 g granulated sugar
• 100 ml water
• juice of¹⁄₂ a lemon
• Maldon salt

PREPARATION

1. Line a baking tray with foil and arrange the popcorn in a single layer on it.

TO MAKE THE CARAMEL

1. Heat the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil until the sugar syrup starts turning a caramel colour.
2. Work quickly as the caramel burns very easily. Pour the caramel over the popcorn and give it a good mix. Scatter generously with Maldon salt and set aside to cool.

AUTHOR’S TIP: For your daughter’s tea party fill teacups with salted caramel popcorn and place on pretty saucers. You can also make paper cones and fill them with popcorn.

Makes 5 popcorn cones

DOUGHNUT CAKE

A ‘cake’ with a difference, but it’s easy to make and easy to serve. It requires no plates and makes no mess. My number 1 kids’ delight.

DOUGHNUT DOUGH

• 20 g active dry yeast
• 250 ml lukewarm milk
• 30 ml castor sugar
• 100 g butter, melted
• 500 g cake flour
• 3 large eggs
• canola oil for deep-frying

GLAZE

• 250 g royal icing, thinned down with a little water (see page 24)
• a few drops pink food colouring, for decorating

PREPARATION

1. Oil a large glass bowl and set aside.

TO MAKE THE DOUGH

1. Place the yeast, milk and sugar into a jug and set aside to allow the yeast to activate. This takes 5–10 minutes. The mixture will form bubbles and start to foam.
2. Place the melted butter, flour and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and knead together to form a soft dough. You can do this by hand or in an electric mixer using the dough hook attachment. Knead for 15 minutes by hand or for 5 minutes in the mixer.

PROVING AND CUTTING

1. Place the dough in the oiled glass bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave in a warm place to prove for 30–40 minutes or until it has doubled in size.
2. Knock the dough back into a ball, then roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1 cm thick. Cut out 8 cm rounds with a doughnut cutter. You can also use a large round 8 cm cutter and then a smaller cutter to cut out the centres. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for 20–30 minutes.

FRYING THE DOUGHNUTS AND ICING

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil to 180 °C. You can test it with a sugar thermometer or drop a small piece of dough into the oil to see how it cooks; if it starts frying immediately the oil is ready. Deep-fry each doughnut for 1 minute on each side or until golden and cooked through.
2. Place the cooked doughnuts on paper towel to drain. Dip one side of the doughnuts into the royal icing.

AUTHOR’S TIP: I like to dip half the doughnuts in white icing and the other half in pink. For pink icing simply add a few drops of pink food colouring to the white icing. Once the icing has hardened, stack the doughnuts on top of each other to create a cake tower. Start with a large ring of doughnuts and work your way up, making the rings of doughnuts smaller as you go, ending with one doughnut on top.

Makes 30

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

A classic biscuit that will never date. Whether we’re kids or adults, we all love these.

• 120 g softened butter
• 100 g castor sugar
• 85 g Demerara sugar
• 1 extra large egg
• 1 vanilla pod, split and deseeded
• 180 g cake flour
• 5 ml baking powder
• 2.5 ml salt
• 250 g finely chopped dark chocolate

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

TO MAKE THE COOKIE DOUGH

1. Cream together the butter and both sugars until pale and fluffy, then add the egg and vanilla seeds and beat well. Sift the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and fold it in. Add the dark chocolate in. Place heaped teaspoons of dough onto the baking paper, leaving some space between each for spreading. Bake for 12–14 minutes. Remove from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

AUTHOR’S TIP: Children love the wow factor, so make giant biscuits and they will be devotees for life. You can also make this dough as a ‘cut and bake’ – roll the dough into a sausage shape, wrap in waxpaper and freeze. Simply cut and bake from frozen.

Makes 24

LAMINGTONS

Home-made lamingtons are an absolute all-time favourite of mine. You don’t need to be young to enjoy these.

SPONGE CAKE

• 250 g softened butter
• 250 g castor sugar
• 4 extra large eggs
• 1 vanilla pod, split and deseeded
• 250 g cake flour
• 7 ml baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 180 ml milk

ICING

• 300 g icing sugar
• 100 g cocoa powder
• 80 ml boiling water
• 50 ml butter, melted
• 100 g desiccated coconut

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease and line the base of a 20 cm square cake pan.

TO MAKE THE SPONGE CAKE

1. Cream together the butter and sugar, until thick, pale and fluffy. Slowly add one egg at a time, whisking well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla seeds.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients and then alternately fold the dry ingredients and the milk into the egg mixture. The batter should be of a good stiff consistency.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and evenly spread out with a rubber spatula. Reduce the oven temperature to 160 °C and bake the cake for 30–40 minutes until golden on top and a metal skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
4. When cooled, cut the sponge cake into 4 cm squares.

TO MAKE THE ICING

1. Sift together the dry ingredients, then add the boiling water and melted butter and mix together.

DIPPING AND ROLLING

1. Coat the sponge cake squares in the icing and then roll them in the desiccated coconut, covering completely.

AUTHOR’S TIP: It is also nice to toast the coconut before you dip the lamingtons, but this isn’t the traditional way. Stack the lamingtons on top of each other and scatter fresh strawberries on top.

Makes 20