Alfies First Baking Adventure

OK, so on Monday I had a super productive day.  I made the most awesome tomato, mini pumpkin and chili soup for dinner and it was all sat with fresh bread ready to eat before Tash got home ... and so I had the genius idea of prepping some ingredients to bake some cakes with Alfie.

The plan was to get everything ready so we could do it when Tash got home ... cos I was sure it was gonna take two to monitor Alfie with floury ingredients!

Everything was kept simple, ideal for a child with about a 13 second attention span - and what could be more perfect than vanilla cupcakes with a chocolate frosting/icing!!

The cake recipe was 150g butter, 150g caster sugar, 100g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 3 eggs ... and Alfie was only too keen to help out with the measuring, literally diving in with two hands!

And he mastered the electric mixing quick-smart, and only tried to stick his fingers in the whisk attachments about four times! (which I considered a success!)

Tash measured out the batter into the cupcake cases and each one was baked at 160 for about 20 minutes.  Whilst the cakes baked Alfie got on with cleaning the whisk attachments!

 

Once cooled I gave half of the cakes a chocolate frosting and half a chocolate icing (cos my awkward wife doesn't like frosting apparently).  Far from baked works of art, they are however baked gems of tasty joy!  Alfie confirms this with lots of pointing at the cake stand accompanied with 'mmmmmmmmm' noises.

Incidentally, if you would like to learn how to decorate cupcakes properly (not like my half arsed attempts) then you might like to know my gorgeous friend Holly Bell (who was in the final three of this year Great British Bake Off) is now running classes up in Leicestershire.  She's got a real eye for this kinda thing, and I can guarantee she'll be the most welcoming host and helpful teacher.  Click here to be taken to her website where you can book your place!