This recipe for a soft apple and cinnamon cake came from Dora's Little Cooks Collection. Lara is really enjoying her subscription to the magazine - I'm not sure what she enjoys more... the cooking, the stories about Dora, Boots and their friends, or the exciting Dora cooking accessories that come with each issue (subscribers get even more freebies!).
Over Easter weekend, as a bit of a break from the chocolate eggs, Lara and I cooked a butterfly cake using the silicone cake mould that had come free with the latest copy of Dora's Little Cooks Collection and followed the main recipe in the magazine to make an apple cake using the mould.
Lara very cautiously grated an apple (I'm not sure who was more scared about her finger tips, Lara or Mr. B).
She stirred the apple into 150g of self-raising flour and 65g of soft brown sugar and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon with a great big grin as she followed the recipe.
Then she added 65ml of milk, one egg and two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Several of the Dora recipes have used rapeseed oil as the main fat in a baking recipe which is something I had never come across before - the cake doesn't come out tasting as rich but I'll admit it has a brilliantly soft and bouncy texture.
Lara and I scraped the mixture into the butterfly mould (this was a very messy experience!) and put it into a 170 degree fan oven for about 35 minutes. While it cooked, Lara coloured in some of the pictures of butterflies in her magazine and we learned a new spanish word - Mariposa (butterfly).
Once the cake had cooked we cooled it on a rack and then I trimmed off the top of the cake to make a flat surface.
Lara and Daddy chopped some fresh bananas and strawberries and then Lara had great fun decorating the top of the cake... and oh look, there's her posing face again!
Over Easter weekend, as a bit of a break from the chocolate eggs, Lara and I cooked a butterfly cake using the silicone cake mould that had come free with the latest copy of Dora's Little Cooks Collection and followed the main recipe in the magazine to make an apple cake using the mould.
Lara very cautiously grated an apple (I'm not sure who was more scared about her finger tips, Lara or Mr. B).
She stirred the apple into 150g of self-raising flour and 65g of soft brown sugar and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon with a great big grin as she followed the recipe.
Then she added 65ml of milk, one egg and two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Several of the Dora recipes have used rapeseed oil as the main fat in a baking recipe which is something I had never come across before - the cake doesn't come out tasting as rich but I'll admit it has a brilliantly soft and bouncy texture.
Lara and I scraped the mixture into the butterfly mould (this was a very messy experience!) and put it into a 170 degree fan oven for about 35 minutes. While it cooked, Lara coloured in some of the pictures of butterflies in her magazine and we learned a new spanish word - Mariposa (butterfly).
Once the cake had cooked we cooled it on a rack and then I trimmed off the top of the cake to make a flat surface.
Lara and Daddy chopped some fresh bananas and strawberries and then Lara had great fun decorating the top of the cake... and oh look, there's her posing face again!
