103. Drop Scones

I fancied making these for breakfast; they looked easy enough, and I woke up having a real craving for them! I thought I'd probably be able to tempt Elizabeth with them as well, but the husband isn't really a fan of sweet things for breakfast, so he only nibbled the corner of one just to sample the texture!
They were pretty straightforward to make: a basic batter, with the requirement to get it to the consistency of thick cream (not especially precise when you're not an expert on the thickness of cream). Having got it to the thickness I imagined it needed to be, I poured some into the hot pan, but it seemed a bit on the stodgy side, so I loosened the mixture with a little bit more milk. My 'shaping' in the pan was very rough and ready: next time, I might use a cookie cutter to either get nice round ones, or character shapes to appeal to the kids. I had to trust Mary that they'd be cooked through ok by watching for the bubbles and then only leaving them for a minute on the other side, but I was worried about them still being wet in the middle. I also fiddled about with the temperature of the pan, and several were a bit on the dark side with it being too hot, so there's definitely room for improvement.
They actually turned out very well. They were quite small, but two (for Elizabeth) and four (for me) were ample for a decent breakfast, served with golden syrup as suggested. I had one cold later, slathered with chocolate spread as well.
Baker's verdict: easy and not too stressful to make for breakfast. A nice alternative to the shop-bought ones, and you can easily adjust the sugar quantity for younger children. Tasty and a great texture.
Husband rating: didn't have enough to be able to comment, but did say they seemed a good texture.

102. Sugared Pretzels

So, again, we were feeling a bit 'caked out' the weekend I made these. I trawled through the book to find something of a biscuit nature, so that I could offer some guests something home-baked (as my good friend Cathy always has something for me). These looked straightforward and a bit quirky, and I had the idea of melting some chocolate for dipping them into. Little did I know that they would be more trouble than anticipated!
Firstly, the dough was incredibly wet. I couldn't even handle it, so as soon as I put it on the worktop, I rolled it around in more flour. Secondly, once I started to try and roll each piece into the required long, pencil shape, I found that the dough just kept flattening and was impossible to keep rolling. I attempted to shape it into a pretzel, but found it wasn't long enough, and as I was pressed for time, I abandoned ship and made sugared 'straws' instead!
Misshapen nature aside, they were rather bland, and definitely needed something to dip them into. They'd be ok as biscuits with a brew, probably, but I'm not in any great rush to make them again. Having consulted my fellow blogger's attempt, I will steal her ideas not to flour the worktop to roll the dough, and also practise with play-doh to get the length right for shaping into a pretzel. I will revisit when I can be bothered and have more fiddling time!
Baker's verdict: fiddly and not tasty enough to warrant making again in a hurry!
Husband rating: 3/10 - not a pretzel!

101. Cherry Loaf Cake

I decided to make this as a bit of a Fathers' Day treat for my dad, who, as I've mentioned before, loves cherries in cakes. It also contains ground almonds, for that bakewell flavour he likes. Aside from the initial fiddling about rinsing and drying the cherries, it was a very straightforward bake. I decided to use the tried and tested method of putting some flour in with the cherries to help them to stop sinking to the bottom of the cake, and this worked well. I tested the cake ahead of time with a skewer to make sure I didn't over-bake it, but it did turn out a bit dry. This may have been because of it being a hot day and it being left out on the side for longer than it needed perhaps, but it wasn't excessively dry.
Baker's verdict: easy to make; quite like madeira cake with cherries added. Could do with more of an almond flavour, so I might put some almond extract/essence in next time.
Husband rating: 8/10 - good flavoured sponge; the cherries made a nice addition and were very evenly spread. Nice texture when you bite into them.

100. Pineapple and Cherry Loaf

***MILESTONE BAKE!***

I can't believe I've finally got to my one hundredth bake! When I started this project, I imagined it all being done by now, but two babies came along and my spare time dwindled. However, when I talk about my baking to others, they are invariably shocked and impressed that I've produced so many different bakes, and I suppose it is a pretty big deal when you think about it. That said, I'm still under half way, so plenty more to do, and some complicated things to attempt in the process.

This was another of my 'child friendly' choices, although I prepared the fruit by myself beforehand. I made sure I took extra care with the drying of both the pineapple and the cherries, and got though lots of kitchen roll in a bid to ensure the cherries didn't all sink to the bottom. Unfortunately, I didn't have the right quantity of sultanas in the cupboard, so I topped up with raisins (I'd considered using more cherries, but thought this would be too much of a deviation in flavour from what was intended). Next time though, I'd use just sultanas, as the raisins at the edge of the loaf caught a bit and became tough, spoiling the flavour in places.

Apart from fiddling about with the fruit to start with, the recipe was very straightforward, and easy to bake as well. I reduced the baking time a bit and kept an eye on the colour/checked with a skewer, so it was cooked perfectly, I think. I seem to have got the measure of the oven now, and also have more confidence to trust when things are 'done', to stop them going over. It smelt delicious and looked great - a lovely golden colour and packed full of fruit. 

We couldn't wait to try some, so had a botched attempt at slicing a warm cake, but it was worth it to experience the tastiness. The recipe suggested keeping it in the fridge once cooled: because of the fruit content and its moistness, there's a risk of it going mouldy. Storing it that way also meant that it was really easy to slice; it didn't dry it out at all either, so it kept well for about four days.

Baker's verdict: easy to make and worth the effort with the fruit. Absolutely delicious and one of the best fruit cakes I've made so far.

Husband rating: 8.5 - probably one of the best fruit cakes I've had. The middle parts were the tastiest.

Chocolate Mint Cake

Not one from Mary's book, but worth a mention...I baked this after being given a big old handful of mint from a friend's garden and not being sure what to do with so much. I found this recipe online and it looked simple enough (although decadent and fattening), so I gave it a whirl.
The only faff was washing and chopping the mint leaves, and I was worried that there'd be the texture of bits of leaf in the cake. Happily, although you could see the flecks, there was no leafy residue while eating.
I'd make this again; the mint was there but very subtle, so could probably benefit from either having some extra leaves in or the addition of some peppermint oil. It was also best served with some fresh raspberries. It was a very dense cake, so definitely needed something 'fresh' on the side. Cream would probably be nice, but there was so much in the icing that one needs to consider calories and cholesterol!

Recipe:
http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/534644/mint-chocolate-cake

99. Cheese and Celery Crown Loaf

I feel like I could easily maintain this tradition of making some sort of bread for our Sunday picnics; it's so nice to have something a bit special at the weekend. I'm not sure that this really qualifies as 'bread' though, as it turned out more like a scone, although we treated it as a loaf and made sandwiches with it. I was fascinated by how it would turn out, with the combination of three celery sticks, garlic and a lot of grated cheese, and was actually pleasantly surprised. I'm not a fan of celery, but I stuck to the recipe to see what it would be like, chopping the sticks as finely as I could.
The recipe suggests either forming 12 balls and baking in a round cake tin (like the crown loaf I made the other week) or free-forming on a baking sheet. I chose the latter, partly because it was quite hard to make 'rolls' (filled ones) with the small ones I got out of the crown loaf. As it turned out, doing it the first way would have basically made us 12 separate scones, which I'll probably do next time.
Anyway, it was very easy to make and handle; I adjusted the baking time to ten minutes less than suggested, but popped it back in for an extra 5 just to be sure, and it was perfectly baked. It was quite moist as a result of the celery, and it also had quite a salty flavour (the combination of cheese and celery). It smelt lovely during baking; the garlic helped it to be really appetising. We ate slices of it warm with butter, and had some apple and walnut chutney with it. It would work really well as an accompaniment to a cheese board.
Baker's verdict: really easy to make and very tasty. I'll definitely bake it again.
Husband rating: 8/10 - nice flavour; lovely crust; quite heavy though.

98. Oat and Sunflower Squares

Unfortunately, there is no photo to accompany this post; I think the end result was so uninteresting that the thought of taking a photo didn't occur! They were very quick to make, following the usual flapjack process. Elizabeth was too busy having fun in the garden on a hot day to participate, so I made them very quickly. They came from the 'bakes for children' section, and it was interesting to note that there was no sugar included besides the golden syrup. There was also only a small amount of butter in the mixture too, so I imagine these were intended to be a more healthy option for children. I made a bit of a mess of the baking as I forgot to press start on my timer, but in any case, Mary suggests 20-25 minutes, which I thought would be far too long. I set the timer for 10 minutes, but have no idea how long they actually had. They were definitely over-done though, as they were a bit too brown at the edges and were very crumbly: not easy to cut and get out of the tin. I'll make them again and be more careful with the timing, because they were very easy and tasted good. Much less sweet and fatty. I also need to add a photo!
Baker's verdict: easy and tasty; great for making and eating with children.
Husband rating: 7/10 - nice, light alternative to a flapjack for a snack.

97. Dorchester Biscuits

Husband is still having a cake amnesty, so I chose another savoury bake for this week's endeavour. These looked very easy, and the only extra ingredient I needed to buy was the chopped nuts; I was troubled to discover that husband had used the baking butter though(he doesn't realise it's my designated baking butter), so I had to use the spreadable kind. The recipe, strangely (for biscuits) stipulated that softened butter was required, so this was actually fine. However, the 'dough' was so melty that it couldn't really be handled for very long. I'd use cold (hard) butter next time and see how the biscuits turned out after that. I've had this issue before; usually where biscuits are concerned, you need to rub the butter in. You can't do this very well with softened butter! Anyway, there seemed to be a high ratio of cheese to flour, so that I thought I'd measured things wrongly. It was a bit of a suck-it-and-see bake, but the end result was good. The recipe suggests serving them with drinks - they certainly had that canape sort of feel to them. They were bitesized and very tasty, even after a couple of days. Husband said they were rich, but I found them really moreish. They were very cheesy!
Baker's verdict: easy and tasty; I'd make these for 'nibbles' in the future and I'm sure they'd go down well.
Husband rating: 7/10 - very nice; quite rich so you'd
want no more than a couple at a time. Not really had anything like this before so not got anything to compare it against.

96. Crown Loaf

I've fancied making some bread for a while, and upon realising that we were getting a bit short, decided to make this for us to enjoy for our Sunday tea. Although I'd suggested to Elizabeth that she might like to help, I ended up doing this one solo, which was actually a welcome break from having to coordinate someone else.
It was pretty straightforward, with minimal ingredients: just flour, yeast, salt, butter and water, and the process was fairly simple too. Everything behaved as it should: the dough was a bit hard to handle owing to its stickiness, but I managed to get a good rise in the provings (it needed two; the second one being once it was divided into rolls and put into the tin), and it looked great when it came out of the oven.
I initially baked it for the minimum 20 minutes suggested, but let it go for the full 25 in the end, just to be sure that it was properly baked. It was a little darker than I wanted on the top, but it was so well baked once I'd cut into it, that I'm glad I left it in that bit longer. The yeast I had was best before 5 months ago, but it doesn't seem to have been detrimental to the bake, so I'm glad I didn't discard it. We had some of the rolls for a picnic tea (I cut them off, but they did actually tear ok, particularly on the second day) and were really pleased with how it turned out.
 It had the taste and texture of bread you'd get from a bakery: I feel chuffed that I managed to achieve this result at home.
Baker's verdict: easy recipe; great flavour and texture.
Husband rating: 10/10 - perfectly baked; a lovely bit of bread. Can't imagine it being done any better than that.

95. Carrot and Orange Loaf

This week's bake followed the fruit/veg theme and is the first carrot cake I've made to one of Mary's recipes, although I've made loads before. I can clearly remember baking a carrot cake at school - I must've been in Y9 - and it turning out really well; since then I've always been a fan. I actually prefer them without the cream cheese frosting which seems always to accompany them, so this recipe appealed to me, and I was intrigued by the inclusion of the orange.
It wasn't a great bake for Elizabeth to get involved with: grating carrots is tedious and a bit too challenging for a little one, as was the grating of the orange and the removing of the pith/slicing. But she got involved in the cake side of things, and thoroughly enjoys using the electric hand whisk to mix everything together. It was another all-in-one cake, so very easy to make; the orange slices were placed on the top with some runny honey spread over for the last 15 minutes of baking. I expected the orange to do something, but it remained pretty 'raw', rather than caramelised, and I'm not really sure what it's meant to be like. It looked pretty at least, and I've actually enjoyed the taste of it.
I tested the cake with a skewer, but when I cut the first slice, it seemed quite wet in the middle. I put that down to moisture from the carrots - it certainly didn't seem raw as such. As the days have passed, the top has become quite wet from the oranges too; it's probably best polished off within a day or two. That said, it's kept very well, without needing to be stored in the fridge as Mary suggests.
Baker's verdict: easy and tasty - a good carrot cake. The orange flavour is a nice touch.
Husband rating: 8.5/10 - lovely flavour. Best on the first day, with a nice crispy outside.

94. Crunchy Top Lemon Cake

Husband chose this one for this week's project, without much hesitation, as he loves lemon cakes and desserts. It was super easy, and only required the extra ingredient of a lemon, which I sent husband to the market for. It was basically an all-in-one Victoria sponge mixture, with lemon zest grated in. The 'crunchy top' was a mixture of granulated sugar and the juice of one lemon (I opted for granulated rather than caster sugar to maximise crunchiness), poured over while the cake was still hot and in the tin. Most of it dribbled down the sides, but I figured that if it was then left to cool in the tin (as per the recipe), it would still get absorbed into the cake. I was pleased that it held its shape and didn't sink in the middle; it was generally a really nice cake.
Baker's verdict: easy and tasty. Not quite a lemon drizzle, and the sponge didn't taste especially lemony, but it was tasty all the same.
Husband rating: 8/10 - very nice lemon sponge; nicest in the first day when it was still crunchy on top, but if you want a nice lemon cake, then you might as well have a lemon drizzle cake.

93. Irish Soda Bread

I fancied a break from cakes (ok, that's a lie; I thought it would be best for our waistlines if we had a break from cakes), so decided to try my hand at some bread. I've made soda bread before, years ago, and this was a super easy recipe for Elizabeth to help with. It contains very few ingredients; I used a mixture of yoghurt and milk instead of buttermilk (not easy to come by), and for the first attempt, made two separate loaves, as my Mum only had small baking trays.
They didn't require as much baking as suggested in the method, but despite the hollow sound when tapped, I wasn't convinced they were fully baked in the middle. I researched the required texture, and my Mum recalled soda bread being a bit scone-like. It was certainly very dense, but didn't seem stodgy or underbaked. It was nicest warm with butter and cheese, but the taste of the bicarbonate of soda made what my Dad described as a bit of a fishy flavour.
I made a second loaf a few days later, as I had plenty of yoghurt left and we'd run out of bread; this time I added some dried oregano to give it a different flavour. I'd need to add more next time as it was a bit too subtle. I think there's lots you could do with flavours; it's such an easy bread to make, and I knocked up my second loaf while waiting for the porridge to cook! It doesn't keep very well - it really needs to be eaten the day you make it, or filled with something quite 'moist'/dipped in soup on the following day. Quite a handy loaf to just knock up, and easy for kids to be involved in the making of.
Baker's verdict: easy to make; nice warm with proper butter. Quite a nice texture to eat.
Husband rating: 7/10 - nice with some butter; nice texture on the outside. Not had soda bread before, but it was very heavy and cakey - not sure what it's supposed to be like. Certainly very nice with a meal, on the side.

92. Double Orange Cake

This week (yes! I'm baking weekly!), I decided to give husband the choice of which cake to bake, from the highlighted list of bakes suitable for child interference. This was his choice, and I was really pleased to see that the only additional ingredients I needed to buy were two oranges.
Apart from the initial faff of lining the tin, this was a really easy recipe, once again following the all-in-one method. The highlight for Elizabeth was juicing the oranges (the zesting bit is too difficult/dangerous at the moment); so much so that I had to sacrifice an extra orange, just so she could juice it. She did at least drink the juice though, and I enjoyed nibbling the flesh from the oranges as well.
The method suggested baking for 35 minutes, so I plumped for 25 minutes, but although it had risen well and was springy to touch, a quick skewer test proved that it wasn't cooked through, so I put it back in for 5, and then an extra 5 minutes. It was perfectly baked by then, so this must be one of the only bakes which required the full time in our erratic oven!
The icing bit was simple enough, although I did make it a fraction too runny and lost a lot over the sides, which I kept scooping back on. I was a bit too early with the orange shreds - I learnt why the icing needed to have set before you decorate: they sink into the icing! Luckily I kept some in reserve, to do it properly.
The recipe suggested it was best served the day it was made, so Joe had a small slice that evening. The rest was saved for a brunch date with some mum friends the next day, but three days later, we're still eating it and it's still very moist and flavoursome.
Baker's verdict: really simple to make, apart from a bit of fiddling with the oranges, and very tasty.
Husband rating: 9/10 -  I love this sort of cake; quite similar to lemon drizzle in a lot of ways; lovely, moist, citrusy sponge and the icing on top went really well with it. Would be 10/10 if it was a bit more orangey.

91. Easter Simnel Cake

Mum and I have been talking about baking a simnel cake for years and years and never got round to it, so this one has been a long time coming. It also looked like a nice easy recipe to involve Elizabeth in, so we had a fun few hours measuring and mixing, and playing with bits of marzipan.
The method, happily, is the all-in-one approach, which just meant lots of adding of ingredients to the same bowl on the scales, and lots of good number recognition practise for the preschooler. There was no temptation to stick her hand in and steal any of the ingredients as she currently has an aversion to a)dried fruit and b)anything we tell her she'll like, which she's never tried before. She wouldn't even try a glace cherry! She proved very helpful with checking we'd included all the ingredients. The list was in a peculiar order (I always like to put the flour and sugar in first) and I was a bit sleep-deprived, so it was essential to check that I'd got everything in. I also had to read the method really carefully, and could easily have missed the instruction to put a disc of marzipan on top of half the cake mixture.
The recipe suggested baking for about 2 1/2 hours, so I baked it for 1 hour, then put a disc of foil on top to stop it browning too much (this didn't really work!) and popped it in for another hour. When I tested it, the skewer came out clean, so I followed my gut and ignored the suggested extra half hour. I was disappointed that it looked dark around the edges, despite my best efforts, but it wasn't burnt, and I knew it'd taste ok.
Time constraints meant the cake had to be finished the next day, and having slept on it, Elizabeth decided she would try some marzipan after all, and then wouldn't stop nibbling the offcuts! I attempted the 'crimping' but it looked rubbish, so I gave up. My layer of marzipan didn't seem as thick as the one in Mary's photo, so I didn't have much to pinch. I also failed to read the instructions about the marzipan balls on top, and accidentally included Judas (the 12th Apostle) when tradition holds that he should be cast out of marzipan land for being a turncoat. The lack of symmetry presented by the number 11 bothers me anyhow. It was all finished by an egg wash and a spell under the grill to brown the top -  a new technique; not grilled a cake before!
First sampled yesterday, on Easter Sunday, by the family. We were all pretty impressed, and there's still half of it left for us to plough through over the next few days.
Baker's verdict: easy to make and really tasty. Loved the addition of the lemon zest. A winning fruit cake recipe!
Husband rating: 8/10 - new convert to fruit cakes, but probably one of the best I've had yet. Really nice with the lemon zest and I like the fact that it didn't have much spicing in it. The thin layer of marzipan on top, which added a nice bit of chewiness, was just right.

Easter Brownies

Not one from Mary's Bible, but worthy of a mention! I found this recipe while trawling through old editions of home decorating magazines for the scrapbook and thought it would be a good one to try with my little helper.
I don't need to say too much about the method as I've included a photo of it all, but there were some necessary tweaks. Firstly, I didn't have a '15cm sq brownie tin'; I had an 18cm one, which was clearly suitable for baking brownies in. In fact, I couldn't really see how all the mixture would fit into a 15cm one!
The next issue was the baking time. I thought 20 minutes seemed remarkably fast, but went with it, even reducing the original 15 to 13 minutes to accommodate my oven. As you can see from the first 'finished' picture, they looked kind of done, so we (my mum helped, as there was a child and a baby to do things with at the same time) took them out and left them to cool. When I asked my mum to lift them out of the tin, she noticed that they seemed rather floppy. A quick skewer test revealed a really runny inside - not by any means 'fudgy', more like molten!
So, we popped them back in, in increments of ten, or five minutes, and kept testing with the skewer until they seemed less raw in the centre. I consulted Mary's brownie recipe, and although the quantity was greater, they were baked for 40-45 minutes! So we used our baker's intuition a bit and watched as they puffed up and got the typical brownie 'crack' and the eggs finally started to ooze a bit. Once the skewer was almost clean, we took them out. I can't say what the exact baking time was, but I'd aim for 35 minutes and then just check them next time.
Baker's verdict: easy and fun to make, apart from the farcical method, and very tasty. Could probably be a bit gooey-er, but were a really nice texture. I'd try the same recipe with different chocolate treats and can see this becoming a bit of a speciality of mine.
Husband rating: 9/10 - lovely, not too sweet, very moreish, nice cocoa flavour. Very good brownies.

90. Banana and Honey Teabread

Once again faced with some over-ripe bananas, but wanting to try a different recipe, I chose this for mine and Elizabeth's next baking collaboration. I later discovered that I had three banana loaves already in the freezer, but one can never have too much cake handy!

Very straightforward recipe and method, but I was surprised to see that nutmeg was an ingredient. Never had nutmeg with banana before, and not a huge fan of the flavour, but was quite intrigued to see how it would work. Quite a lot of honey (the thick pale stuff, not the runny variety) was used: 6 tablespoons in fact, so I expected it to have a really strong honey flavour, especially given the inclusion of honey as a topping. Elizabeth certainly enjoyed tasting the honey, and she's since developed a real passion for honey on toast! She really enjoyed bashing the sugar cubes with a rolling pin to make the topping too - this was definitely a child-friendly recipe.

I kept an eye on it while baking, but still managed to over-do it a little bit - bloomin' oven! I didn't worry though - previous 'browned' banana bread loaves have not been adversely affected by a bit of over-baking.

Baker's verdict: easy to make, substantial and tasty. The nutmeg flavour was a little odd, and the honey wasn't as dominant as expected, but the honey on the top worked really well. I think I'll stick to the other banana bread recipe, but use the honey glaze to make it a bit more special.

Husband rating: 5/10 - compared to the other banana bread loaf, it wasn't as good. The nutmeg flavour was too strong and it didn't really taste of banana and wasn't as moist. The other one is simple, tasty and just better in every way. Baked very well, but the recipe wasn't to my taste.

89. Millionaires Shortbread

This is one of my favourite things to eat, so when I was scanning my list of child-friendly bakes, looking for something for us to make in the run-up to my birthday, this was the clear winner. Plus, I knew there'd be cake imminent, so didn't want to 'over-cake' us!
I've made this before, but not to Mary's recipe. It's so easy, you just need to commit some time in order to fit in the three stages. Elizabeth was very involved in stage one: the shortbread bit. She loves making biscuit dough, but also liked pressing the mixture into the tin and then pricking it with the fork. We were both surprised that there was enough dough to fill the tin - a 13 x 9 inch swiss roll one. The shortbread layer didn't take too long to bake, and I kept a very close eye on it so I could catch it before it got too brown.
Next it was time for what I think is the most sinful part: the caramel. Two tins of condensed milk, plus butter and sugar were measured into a saucepan, complete with spoon-licking (by both of us), and this was all very carefully heated so as not to burn it. I thought I was doing well until the dissolved sugar seemed to start to re-form. I'd not noticed any sticking, but brown flecks started to appear, and I'm really not sure why. Given that the mixture had thickened, I took it off the heat and poured it over the shortbread. I wasn't worried about the aesthetics - the chocolate would cover any flaws!
So then, the chocolate. 200g of milk chocolate, melted over simmering water, and another treat for the resident spoon-licker. Again, it didn't look enough to cover the whole tray, but I was proved wrong, and didn't even make a mess spreading it out.
I left it on the side to set, but the sun moved round and made its position a warm spot, so I decided to risk the chocolate looking pallid by putting it in the fridge. It didn't take long to set at all, and was very easy to slice, even into smaller pieces, to suit Joe's idea of an adequate portion. We tried some after having eaten a big plateful of curry and decided it was very rich and sickly, so, given the quantity, I donated the entire middle section to his colleagues. Apparently it went down very well, despite there being an influx of cake in the office that day. I also delivered some to a lovely neighbour, and there's still one piece left, four days later!
Baker's verdict: easy and enjoyable to make, but as much as I love it, I'd only make it again if I had a large group to make it for. It's too calorific to plough through over several days!
Husband rating: 7.5/10 - really well-made, very luxurious, just a bit sweet for me. Nice, crunchy thick chocolate on top.

88. Cornish Fairings

When I still had my own very special 'bun in the oven', I decided that I would try and reserve a weekly baking slot with my eldest daughter. I trawled through the list of bakes still to be completed, and highlighted those that looked suitable for her to be involved in the making of. Turns out, there are loads! She might not fancy eating all of them (she won't touch anything with dried fruit in, for example), but I know she'll still enjoy the process of making them, and licking the spoons.
So, last week, I decided to get cracking on our list and gave her the choice of two biscuit recipes for which we had all the ingredients. These were the ones she chose, and they turned out to be ideal for us to make together. She enjoyed doing the measuring and rubbing the butter and flour together. She also helped out with rolling the biscuits into balls and lining them up on the baking tray.
They didn't need very long in the oven as they're very thin once they spread out, and I reduced the baking time to suit our unreliable oven. She got to see the fruits of our labours before her interest was diverted elsewhere, which was good. I baked in two batches and got over 30 biscuits out of it. They turned out like thin gingernuts (and tasted like them) and were very crispy, with a bit of chew at the end, without getting too stuck in the teeth.
Baker's verdict: easy to make and I was impressed with how they turned out looking like shop-bought biscuits. I'll definitely make these again, but give some of them to other people. We're still ploughing through them 4 days later!
Husband rating: 7/10 - very nice, simple biscuits. I enjoyed the crunchiness and chewiness at the same time. Would be nice if they were twice as thick.

87. Iced Animal Biscuits

I've been really getting my daughter involved in my baking, but we've mainly been sticking to tried and tested recipes, like the banana loaf and various sponges and buns. I homed in on the 'Baking for Children' section of the book to see what else we could tackle, and, because I was given a bumper tub of cookie cutters one Christmas, decided that these biscuits would be good fun.

It was Halloween, so instead of 'animal' biscuits, we did witches, pumpkins, cats and ghosts, and used the rather unappetising black and orange food colouring to decorate.

The biscuit dough was easy to make but very wet and need quite a bit of flour on the worktop to roll it in. I found that the dough stuck and was hard to lift off the surface once the shapes had been cut out, so it was quite frustrating and made the participation of a little person quite challenging. Again, they were a little over-baked, but I've made these since and keep a closer eye on them.

We had fun decorating them, but I need to get used to the required consistency of the icing, as it was a bit tricky for my daughter to work with. In the end, I iced and she sprinkled!

Baker's verdict: easy recipe but faffy to roll out and cut because the dough was so sticky. Not great for young children to work with, so best to just let them loose at the decorating stage. Also a little flavourless, so I'd add some extra vanilla extract, or another flavour like almond or lemon.

Husband rating: he's had these biscuits recently and prefers them un-iced.

86. Devonshire Apple Cake

This was baked as a result of being given some cooking apples and not really wanting to make several crumbles. Again, this was made last Autumn and before baby, so I can't remember much about it! However, it was easy to make, using the all-in-one method. The apples were placed on top of half of the cake mixture (in some sort of neat arrangement) so that they were 'sandwiched' inside.
It was meant to be baked for an hour and a quarter and I can't recall if I adhered to that, but as you can see from the photo, the edges were rather dark when I took it out. I've made a note in the book to bake it for 1 hour next time.
Baker's verdict: simple and tasty. Best served as a dessert and warmed up, with some cream on the side.
Husband rating: he won't remember this!