Jonny WicksWho doesn’t love a good cooking show? The ease with which these famous chefs knock up a delicious looking Pavlova or Chocolate Babka (I had to google that one) inspires you to believe that I too could make that Mille-feuille (again google).
But apart from the equipment, a big kitchen, the right ingredients and…well… talent, the thing that sets me apart from Jamie, Nigella and Heston must surely be that when they’re baking, they don’t have three little oiks helpers wanting to do everything for them, from measuring/spilling the flour, to sampling the batter by sticking their head in it. Surely it can’t be that hard can it?
So I decided I would attempt to do something that, if successful, would take pride of place on my CV… bake a chocolate cake with the help of a 6, 4 and nearly 2 year old. Simple.
Ingredients
- 50g Hot Chocolate (didn’t have cocoa powder but googled it and it said that was fine)
- 6 tablespoons boiling water
- 3 large eggs
- 50ml milk
- 175g self raising flour
- 1 rounded teaspoon baking powder (not sure what ’rounded’ meant, all my spoons are round)
- 100g softened butter (As if I’d remember to take the butter out the fridge to soften before it was needed – it was hard, didn’t seem a problem)
- 275g caster sugar
For the filling
- Loads of melted Cadbury’s chocolate (Pinched from the boys Christmas haul no less)
- Icing Sugar (no idea how much – just kept adding the stuff)
- Bit of Golden Syrup
- Splash of boiling water as a ‘binding agent’ (I know, fancy stuff eh)
- Turn the oven on nice and early to 180°C. This is crucial because I will need to minimise the time the raw mixture is exposed to greedy paws before getting it in the oven. Guessing mine’s a fan oven as it has a fan in it, but I like a hot oven so I’ll wing it and whack it up a bit higher just for good measure.
- Grease two cake tins and line with baking paper. Great job for all 3 children because it also doubles up as a Maths lesson “So Harry, what is the full edge of a circle called?”. (Note – to avoid dissatisfaction amongst the troops, where you have 3 small people helping, ensure you have 3 pieces of baking paper to go around).
- Time to start throwing all those ingredients together. Get a responsible child to measure out the hot chocolate (if none are available, pick the least, worst responsible) and mix with boiling water. Once complete, the real fun begins by chucking all the remaining ingredients into the bowl and get the kids to do the hard work of giving it a good old stir until it’s morphed into a smooth batter. It looks like something I’d find in my youngest Jude’s nappy, but thankfully it smells much better.
- Children now becoming slightly restless and desiring to ‘lick the bowl’ despite the fact that the mixture is very much still in there. Distract them with a potential sighting of a Panda in the garden. Whilst they’re checking, evenly spoon the mixture into cake tins and stick in the oven for 25 minutes.
- Whilst cakes are baking, retire with boys to the living room for an epic game of ‘Floor is Lava’. So distracted, forget to set timer and return to oven in panic, though being careful to avoid lava still. Remove cakes from oven to discover lava may have inadvertently splashed cake and caused the side to burn. Nothing to do with turning the oven up too high or not watching the time of course. Charge eldest Harry with scraping the burnt bits off so Grandma won’t notice when we give her some later.
- Leave the cakes to cool on a cooling rack and most importantly at a height which cannot be reached by little wandering hands. Distract the kids once more with episode of Mr Bean (the one where he puts his trunks on over his trousers at the seaside causing many guffaws from the living room), primarily because I want to lick the bowl on this one. Make the filling by melting the chocolate and sugar and golden syrup together and spreading on the cake. Somehow manage to make too much filling for cake and therefore must finish the bowl myself.
- Mr Bean over and cake nearly ready, designate 4 yr old Josh to provide the final touch by sieving icing sugar over the top to finish. Josh tips sieve upside down onto cake. Brush mountain of icing sugar off cake and decide to sieve it myself.
- Nothing left to do but sample our masterpiece. “Delicious” says Harry, “Daddy, can I have a cracker?” says Josh, “Bekfast” says Jude. “Mission accomplished” I think, “Now where’s that CV of mine?”.
The cake looks great, kids love baking. A quick win for kids is a packet of rich tea biscuits, little tubs of different coloured icing and small pots of various sweets. Decorate a biscuits to resemble faces or animals- great fun and they will love eating them too x
That’s a good tip thank you Dominique. They’re not the only ones who will enjoy eating them… 😁
Jonny you are doing such a fantastic job, we had 4 sons so I know how hectic life can be
You should be very proud of your self as I know Rachel would be of you
Thank you Sandra, that’s really kind 😊. You have walked the walk.
You say that you like a hot oven, so you wnged the temperature up. The hotter the oven, the faster it burns. If you turn the oven a bit cooler next time, the cake might take a few minutes longer, but hopefully you wont have the charred bits.