Wednesday 1 February 2012

Wednesday Cake Club

It's easy to get caught up in life sometimes and not enjoy quality time with the family. Last year I made a conscious decision to do something each day just for the boys, to give them my full attention and forget the dishes, washing, and domestic humdrum which often takes over.

Like me, Max and Finn love baking. I guess what we enjoy naturally rubs off on our children as that is the thing we're most inclined to do with them. So once a week, we don our aprons, raid the cupboards and spend an afternoon baking.

I want the boys to grow up with a healthy relationship with food and don't believe in banning anything. I want them to enjoy chocolate, cake and biscuits but in moderation, limiting them to once or twice a week. If they are going to eat sugary food I want to make sure I know what's in it and by making it myself I know it'll contain less nasties and chemicals than shop-bought alternatives.

I've decided to start a new feature on the blog, a weekly recipe featuring the cake or bake of our afternoon session. This week we made oat and raisin biscuits, as featured in The second Great British Bake Off book.

You will need:
125g softened unsalted butter
150g light brown muscovado sugar
1 large, free range egg
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g self-raising flour
75g raisins
150g porridge oats



Heat the oven to 180 c/350 f/gas 4. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. In a separate bowl whisk the egg, milk and vanilla esscence until just combined then add to the butter mixture. Stir the flour, oats and raisins into the mixture, mixing well with a wooden spoon.


Dollop heaped teaspoonfuls onto a greased or parchment-lined baking tray. My mix made 28 biscuits. They need to be well spaced as they'll rise and spread as they cook. I did them in 3 batches.



Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and leave for a few minutes to cool in the tin before cooling completely on a wire rack. The recipe states that they last for up to 5 days in an airtight container but they are so good, I very much doubt they'll last that long.



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