Empty Nest Mummy

After two delicious weeks of hanging out and chilling together, it had to come to an end – school starts again tomorrow.  (And then I’ll be back to counting down the hours until 3.30 again, or rather to learning how to make my blog look good (and work properly), get rid of my fat belly and lift my saggy ass. But let’s not focus on that now.)

As the Last Day of the Hols is so very precious (well, to me anyway, my Big Boy and Littlest Angel are bouncing off the walls in excitement to see their friends tomorrow), I thought we’d do a fun activity together. Now, the infants are 6 and 4, with very different interests, so this required a bit of thought. ………..As I couldn’t think of a game combining both Football and Princesses, I thought baking could be a winner.

Big Boy is actually not too keen on the idea of baking really, but does muster up quite a bit of enthusiasm once he is up at the breakfast bar …. particularly if there are eggs to crack. Actually, I think his initial reluctance is not to do with baking, more than he doesn’t want to be dragged away from his Match Attax!

Littlest Angel absolutely loves baking …. especially if there are eggs to crack. And this gives her the opportunity to show off one of her favourite presents from Father Christmas, ‘a baking apron of my very own!’.

So, hands washed, noses picked, hands rewashed, a talk (yet again) on Health & Hygiene and off we go!

We decided to bake focaccia for the first time; we have been talking about it for ages, since we fell in love with its beautiful, salty oiliness in Italy in the summer. And, as we have bananas so overripe that their skins look like giraffes, banana cake is making an appearance on the menu too.

I have to be honest, we did have to take several breaks to rewash hands, and there were warnings aplenty about licking fingers and putting them back into the bowl. But, apart from some slightly sketchy personal hygiene, we had a great time.

Focaccia is great for a bake-off with kids as it’s super easy. Highlights included seeing the yeast bubble away and work its magic, measuring the dough before and after proving and, of course, really getting stuck in and poking our sticky little fingers in the dough to make the focaccia dimples!

The banana bread involved cracking eggs, frenzied mixing it, clouds of flour-dust everywhere and, one of the highlights, having a giraffey-banana each to mash up (with a plate each to lick like puppies at the end). A big thumbs up from Big Boy and Littlest Angel!

The banana cake was very popular; we’ve agreed we need to try again on the focaccia – my chefs agreed that it needed far more oil and a bit more salt to compete with the real McCoy.

All in all, a resounding success and a great end to a lovely Christmas break.