Thanks to Rachel for recommending this recipe. I have adapted it a little, mainly to make up for a lack of fresh ginger.
Ingredients:
200g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar packed
4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup trim milk
1 free-range egg
4 small pears or 2 medium pears, diced
2 cups self raising flour
2 Tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp salt
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F).
Add butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and vanilla to a pot. Heat gently on stove until melted and take off heat.
Whisk to combine milk and free-range egg. Add to melted butter and sugar above and mix to combine.
Peal, core and dice the pears, and add to the wet ingredients.
Sieve dry ingredients together, then fold in wet ingredients and pears. Pour mixture into a greased loaf tin and bake at 160°C for about 1 hour, or until loaf springs back when touched.
What the kids can do:
Hand washing: Don’t forget to get the kids (and grownups too of course) to wash their hands before you start. Little hands always seem to end up touching everything, including the ingredients. This is extra important given the current Covid-19 situation. For good 20 second hand wash, have them sing “happy birthday to me” twice.
Melting on the stove: Miss 4 wanted to stir the ingredients on the stove. Careful to let her know not to touch the element, and keeping an eye on the situation, I let her do the stirring.
Eggs: Pro tip for breaking eggs with a 4 year old, break eggs into a separate glass bowl before adding to your other ingredients. That way you can see and pick out any bits of shell before they are added in by mistake. I like to use free range eggs, because it is kinder to the chickens, and they also taste better. Bear in mind that raw eggs can carry Salmonella so wash little hands if they end up the raw egg. I also don’t recommend eating raw cake batter, just in case.
Mixing the ingredients: My daughter (age 4) helped mix all the ingredients. The biggest messes seen to happen when sifting and mixing dry ingredients with the kids. A great tip from reader Dana M is to put a towel down underneath, which catches any stray ingredients for easy cleaning. When folding wet into dry ingredients, you want to mix thoroughly, but not too much or the loaf will go flat. This usually requires the grown up to either finish off the mixing and/or intervene before things are mixed too much.
Keeping Them Occupied 