Monday 28 September 2015

An afternoon in the kitchen with Bob.

The grandchildren and I have not done any baking together for a while. Fifi manages to do baking at home by herself and now the twins are older Bob and his mum usually do some one day a week as part of Bobs home education so little need for me to do much with them. But last week I had gone to watch the twins while their mum did a few bits and pieces and was then coming back up the road to bake. So Bob came with me, was a brilliant afternoon with laughs at his mad antics.

We did two types of baking, Bob friendly and some stuff that wasn't. This is important for him as we feel he needs to learn how to make food with ingredients in that he is not allowed so he learns to handle the products safely.

So as hubby and I had been out blackberry ( bramble) picking on Wednesday first off all we decided to make something with them. So I peeled some pears and Bob chopped, we then added pears and blackberries to the pan and cook them up ready to make crumble. We made two crumbles, one gluten free one not but both dairy free.



Pear and Blackberry crumble



Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20
Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • 2 oz vitalite
  • 2 oz sugar
  • 2 pears
  • 8 oz blackberries
  • 4 oz gluten free self raising flour
  • or 4 oz Self Raising flour




Directions

Peel and chop pears
Place pears and blackberries into a pan with a small amount of water and cook for five minutes.

Preheat oven to 170 oC (Fan) or 180 oC (none fan)

Rub marge and sugar into flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs
Place cooked fruit mix into a shallow baking tin and top with the crumble mix
Cook for approx 20 mins until browned.

Serve with custard, cream or ice cream.



Note - we used home made custard with coconut milk for Bob and I.



blackberry crumble
crumble with soya cream






Lemon Cakes



Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10
Serves: 6

Ingredients

  • 4 oz vitalite
  • 4 oz sugar
  • zest of a lemon
  • juice of a lemon
  • 1 mashed banana (egg substitute)
  • 8 oz gluten free self raising flour




Directions

cream butter and sugar.
add lemon zest and mashed banana and stir well
stir in flour and lemon juice
cook in batches in cake maker ( makes 20 small) , or alternatively at 160 oC for 12 mins ( makes 12)



Variations

eat plain
or make a lemon drizzle topping



lemon cakes


Bob grated the zest off of the lemon.

zesting the lemon


 I love to eat lemons so I was having a suck at what was left and Bob asked for a bit, so being the nice grandma I am I gave him a bit.

its a bit sour


Once we had cleared all Bobs items out of the way we set about making an adaptation to a cake I had seen on another blog a few weeks back. Helen made this chocolate orange birthday cake and I had to give a version of it a try.

Orange and chocolate cake



Prep Time: 30 mins plus cooling time,
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Servings: 8


Ingredients


for the cake
  • 4 oz sugar
  • 4 oz dairy free margarine
  • 2 eggs
  • 8 oz self raising flour
  • 2 tspn vanilla extract

making the jelly


for the centre
  • one orange jelly
  • half pint water







the ganache


for the topping
  • 250 ml soya cream
  • 250 g dark chocolate









Directions
  1. Make the jelly according to the packet but only use half pint of water. Pour into a sandwich tin to set


  1. Cream margarine and sugar together
  2. add eggs and vanilla
  3. stir in flour and add a small amount of water if too thick.
  4. Split into two greased sandwich tins and cook at 160 oC for approx 15 mins until cooked through


  1. break chocolate into small pieces in a bowl
  2. heat cream to nearly boiling point
  3. pour over chocolate, leave to sit for 2 minutes and stir until chocolate is combined.
  4. leave to cool.


Once jelly is set and cake is cooled remove jelly from tin and place on one half of the cake. Sandwich together and top with cooled topping. Decorate with slices of tangerine.

nicely layered





ready to eat


While we were at it we also cooked up some more blackberries, strained the liquid off and made it up to a pint, then made a home made jelly with vege set. Popped the blackberries in and left them to set. Very nice they were too.

blackberry jelly



The Freerange Family

10 comments:

  1. Three lovely looking recipes, Bob' s face is a picture on that piece of lemon! #MagicMoments

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    Replies
    1. why thank you, and yes his face was a fab picture

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  2. Gosh you were busy! They all look lovely and love his face

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    Replies
    1. we had a fab afternoon, and need to do it again soon. they were all delicious

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  3. so glad you made the cake - I hope you liked it! If you have any blackberries left I recommend adding a few to some vodka with some sugar - it's the first year that I've tried it with blackberries & it tastes amazing (if you like a creme de cassis type of liquor).

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    Replies
    1. yes it was deliciously different, a nice light filling instead of heavy butter icing or such like. The topping gives a nice balance.

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  4. So when can we come for tea at yours? Those recipes look gorgeous! :) and i'm suddenly rather hungry! definitely going to try the choc and orange cake - looks yummy #magicmoments

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    Replies
    1. I loved the sound of that too, hence I had to try it, let me know if it works

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  5. Thankyou so much for linking up this week with #busydoinglife it's a real joy to read about your kitchen adventures with Bob. We home ed too and have spent the last 18 months discovering how to adapt recipes for allergies due to our daughters multiple suspected allergies! Looks like you had a LOT of fun together, what a blessing to be able to be so involved with your grandchildren's childhood!!

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  6. oh i am so wishing i had been in the kitchen today reading these Elaine! i am still learning so wouldn't be as good as yours!
    Thanks for linking up with #MagicMoments

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