Children

Although in cooking I resist strongly the idea that there is such a thing as children’s food, as distinct from ‘real’ food, in baking I have, I suppose, to lighten up. Not that I think that peanut-butter squares are therefore unfit for adult consumption – sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case – or that dolly-mixture cupcakes cannot lie happily with a child-free life, but they are both the sort of thing I have in mind when I talk about baking for children. Indeed, many of the recipes here can be made by children, too, although it would be hard to make a useful distinction throughout the chapter between cooking for and cooking with children – that would inevitably depend on their age. And actually, so much of children’s baking isn’t about what they can be left alone to get on with, but about what you do together. I love hanging around the kitchen with the children, stirring mixtures, licking out bowls, baking fairy cakes or cutting out and icing biscuits. But it’s also incredibly important to me that that doesn’t usurp everyday cooking; I like them with me in the kitchen helping – or not, as the case may be – with ordinary lunch or tea, not just on-side for kiddie cuisine. In fact, even though I’m lucky enough to work at home, I’m hopelessly negligent and never actually do much with my children other than cook.