Baking with Kids - Bigjigs Young Chef's Baking Set

Bigjigs have sent Freddy a Young Chef's Set so he can have some fun cooking up a storm in the kitchen making some tasty treats.  Freddy really enjoys cooking with me, so he was excited to have his very own set of cookery items including a cake tray, loaf tin, shape cutters, rolling pin, whisk, cake cases, measuring spoons and oven glove. Everything is just the right size for little budding chefs to use easily, it's fully functional and good quality.

The set comes in a net bag and is suitable for ages three and up. Everything is made using responsibly sourced materials and conforms to EU safety standards.  It encourages interactive and creative play sessions with parents in the kitchen, as children learn a whole host of important skills.  It can also be used for imaginative role play.

Cooking in itself is an important life skill.  My three eldest children are now all self-sufficient adults who thankfully know their way around a kitchen!  Teaching basic cookery to children and letting them help you in the kitchen is a great first step towards helping them become competent and confident adults who know how to cook for themselves.

Cooking also helps develop a wide range of other important skills too.  Using a recipe allows little ones to practice their reading and teaches them how to follow instructions. They can learn vocabulary and find out about different ingredients and their uses.

Measuring, weighing and counting are all important maths skills that are used when cooking. The science of mixing things, heating things and exploring the textures and consistencies of ingredients gets children thinking scientifically.

We decided to make Fairy Cakes, which is a nice, quick and simple thing to make with kids, giving a delicious end result to reward them for their hard work.

Fine motor skills are put to the test with all the different techniques needed when baking a cake. Freddy is a dab hand at cracking eggs and stirring with a wooden spoon!

Children need to use logic and problem solving when it comes to working out how to divide the mixture out between the cake cases (while leaving a little cake mix so you can lick the bowl afterwards!)

Kitchen safety is also an important lesson as children understand the dangers of hot ovens and other potentially risky things such as electricity and sharp knives.

Putting the cakes in the oven is a chance to brush up on telling the time and thinking about how many minutes they will take to cook.

Exercising patience while the cakes cook and cool can be quite tricky, but with a little help from big sister Kezia to decorate them with frosting and fudge pieces, the end result was well worth waiting for!

We all enjoyed Freddy's cakes and he had a great time in the kitchen, having lots of fun while learning lots of new skills.

The Bigjigs Little Chef's Set is £11.99 and can be found at : http://www.bigjigstoys.co.uk/p/young-chefs-baking-set

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths for Kids with Blaze and the Monster Machines

Nick Jr's latest show Blaze and the Monster Machines is a great way of introducing the STEM subjects to little ones.  Blaze finds solutions to problems by using his scientific knowledge and changing into different machines with the help of his friends.

To celebrate the UK premiere of Blaze and the Monster Machines we hosted a Twitter party with UKMums.tv.  Freddy and his guests enjoyed taking part in some fun science experiments and enjoyed watching the first episode of Blaze and the Monster Machines.

We had some 4M science kits from Great Gizmos  to try out alongside some other educational activities, all designed to make the children think about science, maths, engineering and technology in an entertaining and fun way.  The Magnetic Racer and the Hover Jet worked particularly well.

It was great to see the children enjoying the science activities.  They loved predicting whether things would sink or float in the big bucket of water, exploring the buoyancy of objects. They predicted what might happen and excitedly tested out their predictions to see if they were right.

They enjoyed building vehicles out of boxes with wooden wheels and also out of chocolate bars and sweeties!  The cardboard box vehicles proved quite challenging as the children worked out how to attach the wheels in order for them to be able to spin.  Seeing them puzzle through the problems and come up with a solution was great and showed exceptional team work skills.

They used balloon power and magnetism to make vehicles move, exploring the laws of motion. There was lots of thinking, lots of learning...and a lot of laughter!

Blaze and the Monster Machines proved a big hit.  The children loved the first episode and were joining in with Blaze's challenges and laughing at the funny, slapstick humour.  I was impressed with the educational content of the show, which explored friction as well as getting the kids to think about materials and types of machines.  It will definitely be a TV show that Freddy regularly tunes into to, it was right up his street.

Catch Blaze and the Monster Trucks on weekdays at 4pm on Nick Jr from Monday 9th March.

My Love for Le Creuset

When I was a teenager I had a 'bottom drawer' filled with household items that I planned to one day use in my own future home.  I loved homewares and really longed for my own kitchen where I would have free reign over the cooking and baking.  Eventually, I got to use my bottom drawer goodies, and my pride and joy was, without doubt, my three piece Le Creuset pan set.

The hazelnut brown enamelled cast iron Le Creuset cookware came all the way from France, where, back in the 1980's, they were much cheaper than here in the UK. I bought the three different sized pans with their separate matching lids on a day trip to Boulogne. My Le Creuset buy turned out to be an even bigger bargain than I had originally thought. In addition to the pans, my parents and I had a trolley full of wines, beer, cheese, chocolate, baguettes and all the other continental delights we had crossed the channel for. It was only when I got home and looked closely at our receipt that I realised that the cashier had only taken for the lids and not for the pans themselves. Being back in another country and not fluent in their language, I felt that phoning the hypermarche to explain their error was not really an option, so I pushed aside my buyer's guilt and enjoyed my absolute bargain.

Over the years the Le Creuset range and its accessibility has grown.  Stainless steel toughened non-stick pans, bakeware, stoneware and ceramics have joined the cast iron cookware. The innovation , quality and performance of Le Creuset has put it at the forefront of cookware brands for over 100 years and it remains a favourite of professionals worldwide.

I love the range of colours available: Cerise, Coastal Blue, Cassis, Volcanic, Teal, Almond, Soleil, Cotton, Kiwi, Marseille Blue and Satin Black.  They offer so much choice when it comes to matching your kitchen decor or making a bold culinary statement.

The new cast iron Signature Casseroles from Le Creuset are absolutely gorgeous.  They come in round and shallow, with sizes from 20cm to 30cm diameter.  Prices range from £79.20 to £210.  In my ideal kitchen I would have a set of these casseroles in Satin Black ready to cook up some wonderful vegetarian delights.  I love that they are stylishly designed while still retaining a homely, traditional, farmhouse quality.

Le Creuset is such an iconic brand and the products last for years.  They aren't cheap but you are paying for their timeless design, quality and durability.

Unfortunately I don't have my pans anymore.  At some point in my late 20's when we moved house, we made the decision to buy a new lightweight, non-stick, fancy looking saucepan set and gave away my cast iron Le Creuset.  I wince when I think of what a bad decision this was.  That replacement set of pans have been replaced ten times over, but I bet my Le Creuset pans would still be cooking up a storm had I have kept them.  I do however, still have a cast iron rectangular Le Creuset oven dish that is over 20 years old and is still going strong!  I use it for lasagne and vegetarian shepherd's pie and love being able to serve my food from it.

You can see the Le Creuset collection of products at House of Fraser where you can currently claim a free 18cm stoneware dish if you buy a Signature cast iron casserole plus you can find some homeware items on sale too.



This post has been written in collaboration with House of Fraser but I retain all editorial control.

New exhibit CLAWS coming to Sea Life Manchester this Easter

Goodbye to the star attraction

Sea Life Manchester is preparing to say goodbye to the stunning Starfish which have been on display since May 2014, as they prepare to move across the country to be exhibited at Sea Life Birmingham.

The starfish, which have been on display, include Giant Pink and Sunflower Starfish, as well as the Brittle and Common Starfish, which are native to the UK.  We loved seeing the huge starfish when we last visited, they are such strange creatures!  Freddy loved climbing through the tunnels and popping his head up into the glass domes to get a close look at the wonderful displays. 

The Manchester aquarium is now getting ready to welcome an exciting new exhibit CLAWS which will arrive in Easter.  CLAWS suggests to me that some crabby inhabitants may be moving to Manchester to entertain the crowds very soon!  

The CLAWS exhibits will be joining Ernie the Green Turtle, the brilliant octopus, the Blacktip Reef Shark, the seahorses and the other incredible creatures housed at Sea Life Manchester.  

Find out more about Sea Life Manchester at: https://www.visitsealife.com/manchester/

Making whites three shades whiter - Vanish Gold for Whites Challenge

I have taken part in my first challenge from the Vanish Blogger's Club.  I received a box containing a pot of Vanish Gold for Whites along with a white shirt, which has been aged to give that characteristic dingy grey colour, that can come from washing and wearing whites.  The challenge was to restore the white shirt back to its dazzling glory with the help of Vanish Gold for Whites!

To help monitor the restoration of its original white colour, we were given a white colour chart. The shirt matched the greyest of the whites on the chart.  As Kezia wears white shirts as part of her school uniform, the slow decline of bright whiteness to dinginess is a laundry problem that I am all to familiar with.

The Vanish Gold for Whites powder comes with a scoop and can be used three ways:

1: As a pre-wash by adding one scoop to 4 litres of warm water and soaking for up to six hours, thoroughly rinsing then washing as per the garment's washing instructions.

2:  As a pre-treat stain remover by mixing a quarter of a scoop of powder to three quarters of a scoop of water to make a smooth paste, which can be applied directly to the stain for 30 seconds (up to a maximum of five minutes) and then rubbed in, before washing.

3: As a boost to your detergent, by adding one scoop in with your normal detergent to boost its stain removal power.

Vanish Gold for Whites is safe to use on cotton and washable synthetic blends such as polyester.  For delicates there is a gel, and colour/fabric testing is recommended before use, by pre-treating in an inconspicuous place.

I used the Vanish as a boost to the whites wash, adding it straight into the drawer, to enhance the effectiveness of washing with my usual detergent alone. To get three shades whiter, five to seven washes with the Vanish Gold boost is recommended.

I used a 1 hour 40 minute wash at forty degrees to wash my loads of whites washing, which is the usual programme that I use for my laundry.  So my challenge was not assisted by using a hotter or longer wash. The only change made to my usual laundry routine was the addition of the Vanish Gold for Whites powder.

Vanish Gold for Whites has a RRP of £5.75 for a 470g tub of powder or a 940ml bottle of gel.  This is a small price to pay to preserve the pristine look of white garments.  I hate it when pure white tops start to look dingy and grey, so to avoid that would definitely add to the long term wearability of favourite items.

The results are in...after just five washes with the Vanish Gold for Whites there is a distinct improvement in the whiteness of the shirt.  Using the colour chart, the colour is indeed between two to three shades whiter. The shirt's colour has definitely been restored.  Kezia's school shirts, which were starting to look slightly grey have had their whiteness lifted too, especially around the collar and cuffs. They look brighter and smarter.

I was slightly sceptical as to whether the Vanish Gold would live up to its claims, but was genuinely pleasantly surprised by its results on discoloured white laundry.  I haven't tested it on heavily soiled whites washing, but I am definitely impressed on the results on lightly soiled and well worn whites.

Eat Your Heart Out Chocolate Cake Recipe #evenbetterbaking

Chocolate cake is one of life's little pleasures.  There is not many things to rival a piece of rich, moist, chocolate cake topped with an indulgent frosting.  So when Dr.Oetker challenged me to try a new chocolatey bake, I decided to make a heart shaped chocolate cake, perfect to share with my lovely husband (and the kiddies too of course!)  We missed our Valentine's celebrations this year as Freddy was very poorly, so by making a gloriously romantic chocolate heart cake, Ian and I will get to have a belated celebration.  Chocolate always tastes better if it's shared with the one you love!

The recipe I chose, Eat Your Heart Out Chocolate Cake, is from the Dr.Oetker's website, where you can find lots of baking inspiration for chocolate cakes and bakes.

I received a parcel of Dr.Oetker's delicious cooking chocolate and edible decorations to use in my bake.  The range makes cooking with chocolate so easy, and with a variety of different products from white chocolate to 90% extra dark chocolate, there is something for all tastes.  The chocolate melts so well whether you chose to use a microwave or to melt it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Eat Your Heart Out Chocolate Cake Recipe

Cake Ingredients

50g Dr.Oetker Fine Cooks' 72% Extra Dark Chocolate

115g butter

225g dark brown sugar

2 eggs

150ml set yogurt

200g SR flour

25g Dr.Oetker cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients

85g Dr.Oetker Fine Cooks' 72% Extra Dark Chocolate

115g butter

175g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Decorations

Dr.Oetker milk and white Chocolate Hearts

Dr.Oetker Silver Pearls

a dusting of cocoa powder

Method

Preheat oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees C

Melt the Fine Cooks' Chocolate (I used the microwave on a medium setting but you could melt it in a bowl over simmering water).

Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar.

Mix eggs and yogurt together and add to mixture along with other ingredients including melted chocolate.

Beat for 2 minutes.

Place into a 10 inch heart shaped prepared tin (I used a silicone mould with Cake Release).

Cook for 40 - 45 minutes until cake is risen and springs back to touch.

Leave to cool for 15 minutes then turn onto cake rack.

To make frosting melt the chocolate.

Beat together the icing sugar and butter.

Add vanilla extract and melted chocolate and beat until smooth.

Spread over cake and around edges.

Dust lightly with sieved cocoa powder.

Decorate using Dr.Oetker's milk and white Chocolate Hearts and Silver Pearls.

Throughout March, Dr.Oetker wants to celebrate all things chocolatey and is running a competition on Twitter to encourage everyone to have a go at baking their own yummy chocolate cakes and bakes.

To enter, simply Tweet @DrOetkerbakes a photo of a chocolate bake you've made and tell them who you will be sharing it with using the hashtag #evenbetterbaking. You could win a deluxe hamper of Dr.Oetker chocolate products!  

You could try the Eat Your Heart Out Chocolate recipe that I made or one of the other delicious chocolate recipes at www.oetker.co.uk.

Blaze and the Monster Machines Twitter Party on March 6th

This Friday at 4pm, a brand new series starts on Nick J,  Blaze and the Monster Machines.  

Blaze is Axle City's greatest hero and its number one racer! Fast and fearless he's unbeatable on the track thanks to his blazing turbo speed. But he not only drives fast, he can think fast too. Blaze knows everything about science, technology, engineering and maths. When things get really tough he can use his scientific know-how to transform himself into any machine such as a hang glider or a hydrofoil by adding new parts. Blaze's driver is his best pal AJ. AJ and the other monster trucks help Blaze on his adventures by exploring the physics of how things move, tackling problems and discovering the component parts needed to make everyday technologies work.

To celebrate, we will be hosting a Twitter party with UKMums.TV where we will be exploring science, technology, engineering and maths through taking part in some fun experiments and activities.  We will also be sitting down to watch the first episode of Blaze and the Monster Machines on Nick Jr and sharing our thoughts.

Join in from 3.45pm to 5.45pm on Friday 6th March over on Twitter.  Be sure to follow @UKMumsTV and the hashtag #NickJrBlaze to join in the fun and for the chance to win some great prizes.