Tasty Mistake

My middle child L doesn't have a great deal of experience in the kitchen. She is only 9 and very much away with the fairies most of the time. So usually when she asks to help cook or bake I'm on hand to help and guide her. However, her older sister, at the ripe old age of 11 is very capable in the kitchen and can happily follow a recipe with great results. So I felt that it was time to give L a bit more independence in the kitchen. The other day she asked if she could make up a jelly for after tea that evening. A simple task I thought, so I let her get on with it. I walked into the kitchen to find a large jug filled with orange liquid. Upon asking "you did read the instructions to see how much water you needed, didn't you?" I got a blank stare in return! I had taken for granted that she would read the instructions on the box (silly me) and she, bless her, said that she see's me make jelly without reading any instructions all the time. Needless to say the jelly didn't set!
So when she asked this morning if she could bake some fairy cakes by her self I agreed but made a point of showing her where the recipe was and insisted that she needed to read the instructions, which she assured me she would.
I chose a recipe from The Dairy book of home cooking. It's full of good basic recipes and was given to me by my Mum when I was about 18. It's got lots of information about different cuts of meat, kitchen hygiene and storing food etc. Great for a cook just starting out. The methods are broken down into clear instructions and I still refer back to this book for certain recipes even now. With all this in mind I thought it would be a good place for L to start.

So I showed her a basic sponge recipe that can be used for a  Victoria sandwich or fairy cakes.

100g Butter
100g Caster sugar
100g Self raising flour
2 eggs
3 tbsp jam
icing sugar sifted.

Had she read the instructions and not just the list of ingredients she would have known that the jam and icing sugar are for the Victoria sandwich version, but no!

I was called to the kitchen as she was so proud of her measuring skills only to find that everything had been placed in one bowl. No creaming of butter and sugar here, no adding one egg at a time, no gently folding in of flour, just a big bowl of ingredients unmixed and topped off with a huge blob of raspberry jam!!

I calmly asked what the jam was doing in the bowl and was told that "that's what it said in thew book".
Oh dear. I think a little work on reading INSTRUCTIONS is required, don't you?!

I told her to go ahead and mix it all up & we'd just have to see what results we got.

Raspberry Jam cake mix

Next L got out our collection of my Mum's paper cake cases. So many pretty patterns & colours to choose from.

some of these are, as my Mum would say "Donkeys years old!"

L likes to work in a mess!

The cakes were baked in the oven on 190c/gas 5 for 20 mins (although I think they could use a couple of minutes less)

They smelled delicious

Next came L's favourite bit. Icing the cakes.

Of course sprinkles were required

And I have to admit they actually tasted really nice. She was very pleased with them and I guess that's all that counts and I wouldn't have her any other way x