Dog Birthday Cake

great recipe to do with kids.  Especially the younger ones as it seems they gain the greatest pleasure from creating something for someone else, in this case one of their favourite creatures - the family dog.

Ingredients
3 eggs
1/4 cup of canola oil
1 tbsp golden syrup or honey
1 carrot grated
1 cup of wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder


1 pack of cream cheese frosting
1 container of pate

Method
1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees centigrade.  Grease the ramekins with butter and place a circular cutout of baking paper, the diameter of the ramekin at the bottom.
2. Add the eggs, this is fine for little hands to do even if they are new to cracking eggs, egg shell is good for dog coats and they are not going to mind the texture of a little egg shell if they happen to have some of it touch their tongues while ducking down their throats in literal break neck speed.
3.  measure and allow your little one to add each of the ingredients one at a time and mix until completely combined.  You may need to take over after they have had enough.
4. Separate between ramekins to give each party member their own cake.  This mix makes three cakes.
 5.  Bake for about 10 - 15 minutes.  Checking the mixture is cooked through.
6.  Once completely cool cut in half and spread a nice thick layer of the pate in the middle of the cake.
7.  Ice with the cream cheese frosting and serve for twenty seconds of madness.

Dog Birthday Party

We decided to have a birthday party for our house guest, Louis the spitzoodle (or whatever).  Mr 4 told me someone had sent a message saying it was Louis' birthday on the 1st of December.  This seemed very specific so I thought my partner must have had an email from Louis family letting us know that.  It wasnt, they hadn't, he is four so he has a very creative grip on reality.  It was awesome!  Kids and dogs loved it.  We had doggy birthday games (just one, bones hanging by a piece of wool laced over a pagoda beam, very funny to watch and every dog ran away with a prize).  I had bought a Spot book while I was out and just left it on my son's bed getting on with the party preparations.  This worked out perfectly because neither of them had seen it until after the festivities and it looked like it had magically appeared there.  So now we have the magic animal fairy who delivers special gifts to boys and girls who treat animals like the special little people they are.

The dog cake was great to prepare together with my little Miss doing all the adding of ingredients and mixing.

Cooking with Pre-schoolers

Cooking with children is so rewarding for you and for your little one as they embrace new foods they may not have wanted to try and gain more self confidence with the responsibility and satisfaction of being the one to make their own food.  Cooking with pre-schoolers was at first, for me, a really bad idea.  I was still trying to get things ready as flour was poured all over the table and total culinary chaos ensued.  After beginning to do cooking classes with Kids Pantry I have a much more successful and less chaotic approach.  Preparation.  Patience.  Portions.  If you have a child who happily heads off and plays by themselves, that's golden, if not make sure you set your child up with something they aren't going to get into too much of a mess with while you prepare everything.
Get out as many small bowls as you can to put ingredients into individually.  If there are a bunch of wet components that you can mix together that require whisking then do that during preparation time ie melt butter and mix into milk with eggs to be poured into dry ingredients and mixed by your child.
The process of cooking is rewarding for your child if they can do it with as little intervention from you as possible.  So make their jobs achievable.  Once everything is prepared your child should have the skills to with limited or no assistance

1.  taste the ingredient,
2.  pour it into the main mixing bowl, 
3. cut up something easy to cut with a child safe knife, safety knife
4. mix together and
5. pour into tin, cake moulds, spoon onto baking paper, roll into a ball and squash with a spoon.

I still go to these classes because the teachers are inspirational, endlessly patient.  Don't forget to get them to wash hands before and after cooking.  It's never to early to give them some task so they feel they're helping clean up afterwards.

Tip:  find a recipe you don't need to whisk too much and can be successful with by just adding one at a time into a single bowl without creaming, whisking to peaks or rubbing together until it resembles bread crumbs.