"This is almost easy" cupcakes

We have been without an oven for six months. Six months! I kid you not! While waiting for a part to arrive in Australia (thanks to our inherited Italian oven), we have cooked pasta, stir-fry and risotto, and pan-fried or barbequed our meat. But the list of what we have missed is long - cakes of all descriptions, this blueberry scone, slices, rhubarb crumble, chocolate pudding, roast lamb, zucchini slice, chicken parmigiana, these chocolate chip biscuits, scones, baked snapper, homemade pizza ....

But last week, the oven part arrived and was installed by my wonderful neighbour - and we have literally been cooking with gas!

Annalise requested cupcakes, and we chose our recipe from this picture book - "Ruby and Leonard and the Great Big Surprise" by Judith Rossell. Ruby and Leonard are two mice who decide to cook some cupcakes as a surprise for their brothers and sisters. "It will be easy," Leonard said.

I am slightly biased towards this book as Jude, the author and illustrator, taught me in an RMIT writing course last year. And now I am even more biased after cooking her cupcake recipe!

This is a lovely book for kids who love to cook. My kids have cooked enough with me to know that of course, you need eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla essence etc to make cupcakes. So the instructions in the story are already familiar. Annalise tended to agree with Ruby - "This is almost easy," said Ruby.

The humour comes from the illustrations - gorgeous mice with heaps of personality who are cracking eggs, sifting flour and mixing ingredients. The scale of the illustrations - small mice trying to manage large cooking utensils - really appealed to Annalise's imagination.

And the cupcakes really appealed to all of us! The kids mixed up the icing - Tom's lurid blue is nowhere near as delicate as Jude's colours - but apparently it tasted good!

MasterChef learning

Gentle readers, be warned, this is not a post about a book. Nevertheless, it is a story, the story of a boy and his sister, a sponge cake, a television show and that old adage, 'Practice makes perfect.'

Let me set the scene. The television show is Junior MasterChef. The sponge cake recipe is from Lucy, one of the young contestants. The action takes place in our kitchen, with the peeling cupboard doors and Scarlet, our red kitchen mixer. The boy, is of course, Tom, with his able assistant, Annalise. And gosh, did we practise this cake.

We cooked it three times in a week - the first time, just for fun. The second time, we baked it for Pop and Nana to say thank you. The third time, we cooked it for Uncle SP - it has to be the most feminine cake my brother has ever eaten for his birthday!

Each time we cooked it, the kids contributed a little more. This is what we learnt:

* Tom read the list of ingredients, Annalise put them on the bench - sibling communication and teamwork - got to love it!
* We mentioned fractions - 1/3 of a cup - I did say mention, way too early to explain them!
* Tom turned the oven on - 175 degrees is halfway between 150 degrees and 200 degrees.
* Annalise was mainly responsible for turning Scarlet on, which meant reading the numbers on the speed dial - pre-school numeracy.
* By the third cake, Tom had learnt to separate eggs, slice strawberries and turn a cake out of a tin. He also assembled this one with Annalise, while I washed the dishes.

And as for me, I learnt to let go of my perfectionist tendencies. I certainly added the strawberry coulis swirls around the first plate as delicately as I could, but Tom decorated the next two plates. I sifted the icing sugar evenly over the first cake, but Annalise was in charge of the next two sprinklings.

And the moral of this story, gentle readers, is that a solo-baked cake in a clean kitchen is not as much fun as two proud kids with strawberry-stained clothes and cream around their mouths in a messy kitchen! Practice does make the imperfect perfect ...

Literacy in Junior Master Chef

As many of you will know, Junior MasterChef started last night. Way too late for my little ones to watch it all, so I taped it for Tom and Annalise to watch this morning.

We don’t watch much television at our place – hence our thirteen-year-old rather chunky television. But as Tom is so interested in this MasterChef series, and it is a big topic of conversation at school, I don’t mind him following it. I found the adult version earlier this year really inspiring, and I hope that my kids will have a sense of what is possible for a kid to create in a kitchen. I loved the sense of family tradition that some of the contestants exhibited on last night’s show.

So as we are likely to be fully immersed in MasterChef for a little while, I gave both Tom and Annalise a new notebook and asked them to draw and write down any great cooking ideas they had as they were watching the show. Annalise drew a couple of plates with cheese on them. Annalise has never met a cheese she didn’t like – her favourite cheese is blue cheese. I’ve said it before, this girl has taste!

Tom, no doubt inspired by the bubbling chocolate fountain, drew and labelled a plate with strawberries, chocolate and ice-cream, and was very particular when explaining the way the chocolate was to be drizzled over the strawberries. He also had plans for a fruit kebab, based on one of the contestant’s vegetable dish.

My idea is for the kids to use these notebooks for culinary inspiration, and then to build on this in the kitchen. The kitchen is such a fabulous place for learning – reading recipes, measuring with spoons, cups and scales, writing a menu or a shopping list, taking turns to do the fun stuff like cracking eggs and of course, sharing the final product.

Thanks to my generous brother SP, we have in our possession a genuine MasterChef mystery box. It's empty at the moment, but I'm looking forward to filling it with some surprise ingredients for my aspiring chefs.

I’m also keen to increase their food vocabulary, talking about food texture, presentation and flavour, but my first priority is just to find a more polite way of saying “Yuk!”

It’s my birthday …

Yes, it’s my birthday today! My gorgeous children and husband have spoilt me with homemade cards, hugs and lovely, thoughtful presents. I had a fancy lunch out with friends, and my family came over for pizza tonight. Perfect.

While the anticipation for an adult birthday does not match that of a child’s excitement for their own birthday, it’s still absolutely a day worth celebrating. I think as an adult, birthdays can become just as much of a measuring tool as a milestone. A bit like New Year’s Eve but without the fireworks. Time for a stocktake. Time to count your blessings. And there is plenty to be grateful for.


In this book by Helen Oxenbury, the little boy tells all his friends that:

It’s my birthday, and I’m going to make a cake.

Beautiful watercolour illustrations from Helen Oxenbury. Lovely story about everyone contributing. A funny, hold-your-breath ending. And it does end with cake, so all’s well in the world.

Lucky me, look at the cake my clever brother-in-law made! Would you like the last piece?

Soup night

Soup for dinner. This version of lamb shank soup, really hearty and nourishing, was adapted from a Notebook magazine recipe.

Lamb shank soup
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 lamb shanks
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 fennel bulb, green fronds removed, finely chopped – use half if you think the flavour might be too strong
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1L beef stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Serves a family of five

Heat olive oil in a large, deep pot. Add lamb shanks and brown on all sides for about five minutes. Remove from the saucepan.
Add carrots, celery, onion, fennel and garlic and cook for three to four minutes, until the onion is soft.
Add the lamb shanks back into the pot. Add the stock and tomato paste.
Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for two hours.
When the meat is falling off the bones, remove lamb shanks from the pot. Shred the meat and add back to the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Like lamb shank soup, there are quite a few versions of this traditional story, “Stone Soup.” We have the Zen version by Jon J Muth, but there is also one where the fox makes the soup with the help of other animals and another which has a traveller as the soup maker and an old woman who finds all the vegetables. This Zen version doesn’t focus on the stone soup maker, out to gain some food, but rather tells the story of three Buddhist monks who wish to spread enlightenment. The author’s note provides a lot of detail about the origins of the story and the symbols he explored using a Buddhist story tradition.

Hok, Lok and Siew travel to a remote village in China, where the villagers are fearful and selfish.

“These people do not know happiness,” they all agreed.
“But today,” said Siew, his face as bright as the moon,” we will show them how to make stone soup.”

The soup begins with a stone, until the curious villagers begin to appear and gradually offer a vegetable or spice.

Siew took a taste. “The last time we had soup stones of this size and colour, carrots made the broth very sweet.”
“Carrots?” said a woman from the back. “I may have a few carrots! But just a few.”

Of course, the soup becomes more and more delicious as the villagers become more and more giving.

“And to think,” said the monks, “to be happy is as simple as making stone soup.”

Eggs with hats and eggs with flutes

Everyone knows the story of Humpty Dumpty. Not so many know the story of his little sister, Dimity. Now her story can be told …

What an epic opener for a story about an egg! “Dimity Dumpty, the Story of Humpty’s Little Sister” by Bob Graham balances evocative, lyrical writing with an original, exciting, funny plot.

Dimity’s parents and her brother Humpty are part of a travelling circus. They perform on the trapeze, no mean feat for a family of eggs. Dimity, however, is more retiring, and prefers to play

her silver flute –
soft as a snail on a cabbage leaf,
quiet as the grass growing on the hill,
gentle as a beetle’s breath,
making sounds known only to birds
and things that slide in the night.

No light had ever caught Dimity in its bright glare.

However, when she is needed, Dimity finds her voice and her courage.

The illustrations are a great discussion point for perspective and size – you can see the wonderful contrast between Humpty and the soldiers and their horses – yes, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men” do get a mention!

Our own eggs for dinner were not quite as adventurous as Humpty or as musical as Dimity. However, they did look pretty! The instructions for the hats came from “Usborne Activities – Easter things to make and do”. The hats were made in the time it took for the eggs to boil! 

Master Chef, family style

Sometimes it’s fabulous to spend a couple of hours on the weekend cooking. Sometimes there just isn’t enough time. Sometimes you still want dessert, even when there isn’t enough time.

We cooked “Peta’s apple betties with cream” – quick, children-in-the-kitchen-friendly and most importantly, delicious. Apples, brown sugar, butter, rolled oats – a wonderful combination. The recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander’s “Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids”. We have made so many of her recipes – Cauliflower with cheese sauce and crusty topping, Lemon delicious pudding, Baked potatoes with grilled cheese and spring onion, Rhubarb and scented geranium crumble tart, Zucchini slice, Chargrilled Middle Eastern lamb burgers with pita breads … mmm. Definitely a feast for a family, but without too many fancy ingredients or fussy techniques.

The recipes are written for children to follow, with adult supervision. There are clear lists for equipment and ingredients, and the instructions are easy to follow. Stephanie explains how the first school kitchen garden started, and writes very passionately about the connection between garden and kitchen. You can find out about her subsequent school kitchen gardens here. This book helped to inspire us to create our own vegetable garden.

I always thought that Master Chef should have had a pressure test with three children in the kitchen – follow a new recipe while simultaneously listening to a six-year-old practice reading, preventing a three-year-old from chopping her fingers off and dancing around a crawling one-year-old getting into cupboards. I might have nearly ‘plated up’ with this apple bettie!

What are you 'plating up' in your kitchen at the moment?

Carrot soup

A Melbourne winter day yesterday. Drizzly rain. Out and about in the morning. Ducking for cover between shops. Culinary inspiration hits at the supermarket. Let’s make carrot soup!

We borrowed “Carrot Soup” written and illustrated by John Segal from the library. The illustrations were done in pencil and watercolour – the watercolour makes the carrots look so real, as they show the graduations in colour. The story is about Rabbit, who plans his carrot crop, plants the seeds, watches and waits – all so he can make carrot soup. However, when he goes to harvest the carrots - something was terribly wrong at the carrot patch.  No carrots! Discouraged and disappointed, Rabbit went home. But there is a surprise for Rabbit - I think preschoolers will love the anticipation.

I really like the link between gardening and cooking. The story is bookended at the beginning with a picture of different types of carrots to grow or buy and finishes with a simple recipe for carrot soup. We made it yesterday – sauté your chopped onion and celery, add 5-6 grated carrots, a litre and a half of chicken stock and simmer for half an hour. Add salt and pepper, and some parsley or dill. I blended it a little but not too much – Baby Joe finds it easier to eat chunkier soup.

This book worked beautifully for us – a lovely new story from the library, Annalise felt proud of her carrot peeling achievements, Joe and Tom devoured it for dinner, and there’s enough left over for a freezer dinner. Everyone’s a winner!

Life lessons with chocolate

We made chocolate chip cookies today to take to a friend’s house. It’s a pretty easy recipe, and it only takes eight or nine minutes in the oven. If you hurry, you can just about clean everyone’s sticky hands, wash the dishes and put the kettle on before they’re ready.

Chocolate chip cookies
This recipe, with a few minor adjustments, comes from an old Delicious magazine recipe by Jill Dupliex.

125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
125g brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 190°C. (I set it at 180°C as my oven is fan-forced).
In a food processor or electric mixer, mix the butter with the caster sugar and brown sugar until creamy.
Add the beaten eggs and vanilla extract and mix again.
Fold in the sifted flour, baking powder and half a teaspoon of salt until a stiff batter forms.
Stir the chopped chocolate into the mixture.
Using your hands, form little balls (about a tablespoon or so) of mixture onto lined baking trays. Allow about 2cm between each ball for spreading.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden, but not browned, then remove from the oven.
Leave cookies on the tray for five minutes to firm before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.
Makes about 20.

Grandma gave us a book called ‘Cookies – Bite-Size Life Lessons’ by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. The text and illustrations depict various children and animals learning valuable lessons – all with the help of a chocolate chip cookie. It’s not a moralistic type of book – how could it be, with a chocolate chip cookie featured on every page?

Modest means you don’t run around telling everyone you make the best cookies, even if you know it to be true.

Trustworthy means, if you ask me to hold your cookie until you come back, when you come back, I will still be holding your cookie.

Now that’s a tough lesson to master!

My favourite would have to be –

Wise means, I used to think I knew everything about cookies, but now I realize I know about one teeny chip’s worth.

Hmm… something in there for everyone, I think …