Autumn is the perfect time to fill your home with some amazing smells including ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice.
Baking supports your child’s development
Baking at home is a great way to support your child’s development. Baking together can help your child develop a number of skills, including:
- Counting
- Problem-solving
- Fine and gross motor skills
- Literacy
- Safety
- Understanding the world
Talk to your children about being safe in the kitchen and how to use cooking equipment safely. Also, discuss safety when using the oven.
Read through the recipe with your children. Take notice of the print on the packaging of ingredients and talk your child through the different symbols you see, for example the vegetarian or wheat sign. Describe what the symbols represent and how we use them.
Autumn spiced biscuits
Ingredients
- 140g butter (room temperature)
- 60g caster sugar
- 190g plain flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
Method
- Beat 140g of soft butter with 60g of caster sugar until the mixture is smooth.
- Sprinkle in 190g of plain flour, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of mixed spice and stir together until you have crumbs.
- Then work the mixture together with your hands until you have a soft ball of dough.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface (about 1cm thick) and use cutters of your choice to cut out the biscuit shapes.
- Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle with a little more sugar.
- Leave in the fridge to cool while your oven heats up to 190°C.
- Bake for 15 minutes and leave to cool.
Pumpkin and ginger cupcakes
A group of children at one of the nurseries have been creating Halloween inspired pumpkin cupcakes this week. They followed our favourite pumpkin and ginger cupcake recipe!
Your children will love making these delicious pumpkin cupcakes. This recipe makes 18 cucpcakes.
- Preparation time: 15 minutes
- Cooking time: 20 minutes
- Total time: 35 minutes
Ingredients
- 275g peeled and deseeded pumpkin (or butternut squash)
- 30g piece of root ginger, grated
- 100g slightly salted butter, softened
- 100g light brown muscovado sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 175g self-raising flour
- 1⁄2 tsp baking powder
- 50g sultanas
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.
- Line 18 sections of 2 x 12-hole cake tray with cupcake cases (or bake in 2 batches).
- Dice the pumpkin and cook in boiling water for 15 minutes until tender.
- Drain the pumpkin thoroughly and return to the saucepan. Mash well.
- Sandwich between plenty of sheets of kitchen paper and press down firmly so the paper absorbs the moisture.
- Put the ginger, butter, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy. Beat in the pumpkin purée and sultanas briefly to mix.
- Spoon the mixture into the cases, filling them three-quarters full, then bake for 20 minutes until risen and springy to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool before decorating.
- You can then decorate your pumpkin cupcakes in any way you like. cream cheese frosting is a favourite