Recipe: Orange & Carrot Muffins with a crunchy oat topping

Bonfire Night Recipe: Cinnamon Catherine Wheels

Here's an easy peasy recipe the kids get involved with for some yummy cinnamon swirls aptly renamed for Bonfire night as Cinnamon Catherine Wheels.

What you need

375g pack of ready rolled puff pastry

75g Caster Sugar

75g Softened butter

2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon

Sultana's (optional)

1 Egg beaten with 2 tbsp Milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°c/ Gas 6. Roll your puff pastry out into a flat rectangle.

2. Beat together the butter, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and then spread over the pastry. Scatter with sultana's if desired the roll the rectangle pastry from the short side into a sausage. Chill for a minimum of 10 minutes (the longer the better as it will make it easier to cut!).

3. Cut into 1cm wide slices and place flat on a baking sheet. Press them slightly so they spread out a little. Chill for 20 minutes (Or you can freeze them at this point. Open-freeze until solid then freeze in a sealed container for up to one month. Bake from frozen (brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with caster sugar half way through)

4. Brush with egg mixture, sprinkle with sugar and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden. 

Best served warm, sprinkled with sugar. Yummy with custard or just as nice cooled as an afternoon teatime treat!

Source

Recipe: Simple summer berry cheesecake

There is nothing better when the sun is shining than to head to your local PYO fruit farm for some super delicious British berries (and eaten a few along the way)

Here is a seriously simple but very tasty recipe to use up the berries in a delicious cheesecake. A good recipe to get the kids involved in too. Mine particularly enjoyed hitting the biscuits into crumbs, and I particularly enjoyed arranging the berries into the union jack (feeling very patriotic after the opening ceremony of the Olympics!)

I don't faff about with measurements, just spoons, cups or packs of ingredients so you will have to adjust for what size you are making. We made 4 individual cheesecakes, I would double all ingredients for 1 large one.

Home made Salt Dough

Salt dough is so quick and easy to make and provides hours of entertainment, not only is it the initial process of making your model, but also decorating them afterwards. The end result could make a fab gift for someone too!

Home made Puff Paint

Inspired by this picture circulating the internet '40 things I must do with my toddler in 2012', we decided to try out puff painting. We have done a lot of things on the list but this was one that we hadn't and it sounded fun.

AND IT WAS!

An old classic - home made!

Kicking off a new series of recipes for old classic, tried and tested kids meals is good old fish fingers. Home making them as cheaply, healthy and easy as possible and where we can getting the children themselves involved in the cooking process. They love getting their hands sticky and are much more likely to eat something they have made.  

One of the children who I tried these with would only eat chicken and pizza, but soon wolfed down every fish finger in front of him at this meal time!