Keeping Them Occupied

My four year old daughter asked me recently if we could make cupcakes with sprinkles, emphasis on the sprinkles. I said we could do it on the weekend, and when the weekend arrived, she asked every 5 minutes until we finally made them. Patience is not one of her virtues, but she gets that from me.

We pulled out the pulled out the trusty Edmonds Cookery Book, a must for every kiwi kitchen, and got baking. The cupcake recipe is nice and simple, and works well every time. We made both chocolate and vanilla. We then decorated them with buttercream icing/frosting in blue and pink.

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

125g butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 free range eggs
1 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup milk

For vanilla cupcakes:

1 teaspoons vanilla essence, added to wet ingredients

For chocolate cupcakes:

2 tablespoons cocoa, added to dry ingredients

Buttercream icing/frosting:

2 cups icing sugar
115g butter, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1–2 tablespoons milk
food colouring

Sprinkles:

a selection of sprinkles

Instructions

Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 190°C (374°F).

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the free range eggs one at a time, beating well in between. Sift the flower into a bowl and fold in wet ingredients. Stir in the milk. Place the mixture in 24 mini cupcake cases (or 12 regular cupcake cases) in an appropriately sized muffin tray.

Bake at 190°C (374°F)for 15 minutes or until the cupcakes spring back. Cool cupcakes to room temperature before decorating.

Buttercream icing/frosting:

Cream butter, vanilla essence and icing sugar together until smooth. Add milk until consistency is good for piping. The desired amount of icing can be coloured with food colouring to whatever colour you like. We chose pink and blue this time.

Choose a piping nozzle and put in a piping bag, add the icing on top. Fold over the top of the piping bag and squeeze the icing to the bottom. Decorate the cupcakes as desired.

Add the sprinkles.

What the kids can do

Hand washing: Don’t forget to get the kids to wash their hands before you start. Little hands always seem to end up touching everything, including the ingredients.

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.

Mixing the ingredients: My daughter (age 4) likes to add the ingredients to the food processor. Bear in mind that little hands can fit down the shoot of the food processor, so always supervise this step. The biggest messes seen to happen when sifting and mixing dry ingredients with the kids. There is not really any way around this, so just be ready to clean up afterwards. When fold wet into dry ingredients, you want to mix thoroughly, but not too much or the cakes will go flat, this usually requires the grown up to either finish off the mixing and/or intervene before mixed too much. Kids can help fill the cupcake cases with two teaspoons, but the grown up may have to even the cupcake mixture out at the end.

Icing and sprinkles: Kids can help mix the icing in the food processor (see above). Let the kids pick the colour for the icing, and they can help mix it in and help decide if the colour is strong enough. My four year olds hand are a bit small to actually pipe the icing. So I set up a production line, were I put the icing on and they are chief in charge of sprinkles. I bought several different types to put on. I put the cupcake in the centre of a dinner plate, this way any sprinkles that go astray, and they will, can be caught and collected in a bag for next time.

These cupcakes keep a few days at room temperature. Don’t feel like you have to eat all these cupcakes at once, they do freeze well. I like to make mini cupcakes and wrap them individually, that way you can thaw them one at a time for lunch box or snack time treat. This also means you can limit when, and how many, cupcakes the kids eat and you don’t have to feel as bad about the sugar content. These also make great kids party food.

My Mum used to make these painted biscuits with my sister and I, when we were kids. Once I had kids of my own, I wanted to start this tradition with them. I was able to track the recipe down online at netmums, but have since adapted it to avoid left over egg whites. These are great fun to make, and the kids can paint them any way they want. We often make these on play dates, and send our guests home with a bag of biscuits they painted themselves.

Ingredients

Biscuits:
100g butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
3 free range egg whites
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 1/2 cups plain flour

Paint:
3 free range egg yolks
food colourings (red, yellow, blue)

Instructions

Place softened butter and sugar in the food processor, and beat until light and fluffy. Separate three free range eggs, and set the yolks aside, each in a separate container. Add the egg whites and vanilla essence and beat further. Add the flour a bit at a time, and beat in the food processor until the mixture comes together in a ball. Cover and chill dough in the fridge for at least and hour. You can chill it overnight, in preparation for the next day if you want.

Take the egg yolks and add a drop of food colouring to each. If you used red, yellow and blue food colourings you can make every other colour, by mixing them together. These can be covered and chilled alongside the dough until you are ready to make the biscuits.
Preheat the oven to 190°C (374°F).

Take chilled dough and kneed on a floured board until workable. Roll out dough 3-4 mm think and cut out shapes, either custom or using cookie cutters. Place these out on a greased baking trays (approximately 4 trays required total) and let the kids paint them however they want. Bake at 190°C (374°F) for 9-10 minutes or until brown.

What the kids can do

Hand washing: Don’t forget to get the kids to wash their hands before you start. Little hands always seem to end up touching everything, including the ingredients.

Mixing the ingredients: My daughter (age 4) likes to add the ingredients to the food processor. This recipe is great because you can just chuck it all in there, and don’t have to fold in wet ingredients in a bowl, which always ends up making a mess when baking with kids. Bear in mind that little hands can fit down the shoot of the food processor, so always supervise this step.

Separating the eggs: Pro tip for separating 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. It doesn’t matter if you get some yolk in your whites or vice versa, so it doesn’t really matter if the yolk breaks. 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 make sure raw ingredients don’t end up in little mouths, and little hands are washed after handling dough or paint.

Cutting and painting the biscuits: The kids may need help with rolling out the dough but enjoy cutting out the biscuits. These can then be placed on greased baking trays. I normally give one tray to each child until they are all painted. Bake each tray separately in the middle of the oven until all are cooked.

These biscuits keep a week or so in the cupboard or can be frozen for longer storage. They make a great lunch box or snack time treat. We have also used them as a nice personalised gift from the kids for teachers or relatives.

Cupcakes with Sprinkles!

Painted Biscuits/Cookies