It's a fine weekend to get the kids to roll up their sleeves and do some baking. Hugo Arnold has some suggestions
Filling the kitchen with a team of cookery mini-enthusiasts takes a bit of organising. Make sure you have enough bowls, wooden spoons, measuring jugs and sieves. For a session of Paddy's weekend baking last year, I split our group of six into teams of two - white, green and orange. Pre-measuring the ingredients is worth doing if the whole idea seems daunting, but provided you can keep an eye on things, the children would far rather do this themselves.
It was the queue for the cake mixer that really threw me. I had thought they wouldn't be ready to use this all at the same time. I should have known better. Right on cue, they all lined up, so distractions had to be found.
And this is where the biscuits came in. The Smarties were a time-stalling device, but picking the green and orange ones out meant something had to be done with the remainder. So we kept our colour theme and the log-jam was cleared.
For grown-ups, it's a good time of year to bring out the Baileys - it works well in a cheesecake.
FAIRY CAKES
Makes around 24
1 vanilla pod
250g butter
4 large eggs
250g self-raising flour
250g caster sugar
5tbsp milk
500g icing sugar
food colouring (green, orange and whatever else you fancy)
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the butter. (The scraped pod can be stuck into your sugar jar to flavour it.) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/gas six.
Tip all the ingredients, bar the milk and icing sugar, into a cake mixer or food processor and blitz until smooth. Pour in the milk - you may need a little more - until the mixture is loose enough to fall gently from a spoon.
Spoon the mixture into 24 paper cases and place on a baking sheet in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Transfer the cases to a wire rack and allow to cool.
Mix the icing sugar in a bowl with some hot water, to form a paste. If you have quite a few children it may well be worth doing this in batches. Then transfer a few spoonfuls to another bowl and add colour. Repeat, depending on how many colours you are using.
PADDY'S BISCUITS
Makes about 40
175g butter
200g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
3 eggs
500g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
salt
large packet Smarties
200g icing sugar
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas four.
Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Scrape the vanilla seeds from the pod and add to this mixture, along with the eggs. Beat in to combine. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and salt and work in to form a soft dough. You can do all of this in the food processor if you like; the mixture is robust enough.
Wrap the mixture in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour.
Using extra flour on the surface and on the rolling pin, roll the dough out using extra flour on the surface and on the rolling pin to a thickness of half-a-centimetre. Cut out into rectangles, five centimetres by eight centimetres, using a knife. Arrange the biscuits on a non-stick or lightly-greased baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes.
Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack and allow to cool slightly.
Put two tablespoons of hot water into a bowl and sprinkle the icing sugar into it. Mix in to form a thick paste. Use a blob of paste to stick on Smarties.
We did green and orange to the left and right, leaving a white stripe in the centre.
BAILEYS CHEESE CAKE
The idea for baking this in a bain marie (water bath) comes from Nigella Lawson. It makes the cake smoother and more delicate.
200g digestive biscuits
75g butter, softened
600g cream cheese
150g caster sugar
4 large eggs
200ml Baileys
1 tbsp lemon juice
Blitz the biscuits in a processor or blender until they resemble crumbs, then add the butter and blitz again to combine. Press into a 20-centimetre spring-form tin to form a base layer. Place in the fridge for an hour to firm up (or the freezer for 20 minutes).
Gently combine the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, Baileys and lemon juice until it is smooth. Spoon onto the biscuit base and level off.
Place two sheets of strong tin foil under the tin. The foil must be watertight. Lower into a roasting tray and pour boiling water to come half way up the spring-form tin.
Bake in a preheated oven, 180 degrees/gas four for one hour. It should be set, but only just. Remove from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool.
Refrigerate, but remove about 20 minutes before eating.