Seriously, how long are these holidays?
These are some of the things that happened when I decided to make biscuits with the small people. I'd taken them all to the joy that is soft play in the holidays in the morning - some children really know how to scream don't they? It wasn't too bad though, I got to read a few pages of my book whilst my little munchkins ran around - without screaming their heads off - as, for all my parenting foibles, I've managed to teach mine not to screech like banchees just for the hell of it. For all the screeching, soft play is somewhat easier than the park - there are toilets, chairs and tea and getting them too and from the building is easier than carrying a tired two year old whilst trying to push a pram. Although Sally is getting good at pushing the pram, which is actually genuinely helpful.
But it's the Easter holidays, and one activity per day is apparently not enough. Thus baking.
The little dude helped me make the dough - I was expecting it to be tricker than when I bake with Sally, but actually, as he didn't want to help measure and thus pour flour everywhere, it was significantly easier. He was fascinated by turning the dial and watching everything mix, and he is just too bloody cute with his little explanations of 'we mix it' and 'too fast' with his nose pressed up against the bowl.
Sally appeared for the rolling out and cutting of spring animal shapes. This was where is got a bit more complicated. Turns needed to be taken, children need to be convinced not to put their cutters dead centre of the dough and the whole thing needs re-rolling every two minutes. Motherhood really ought to come with extra arms. However, it seemed to be going reasonably well, there was no crying or snatching cutters or falling off their chairs. Then I noticed why Pip wasn't getting cross....
... see the lump of biscuit dough Pip has in his hands? I do not know how much raw mix he managed to squash into his mouth when I wasn't looking, but I think it was rather more than I might normally allow!
We also made way more biscuits than it was going to be remotely reasonable for us to eat so we took a bunch next door to spread the biscuit joy to the neighbours. They're a bit wonky in places, but they all taste nice and that's the main thing right?
And what was little Cleo doing whilst all this mixing and cutting and baking was going on? Sleeping of course!
She doesn't look anything like her big sister does she?
To make Easter Biscuits you need to cream 200g golden caster sugar and unsalted butter, add a large egg and half a teaspoon of vanilla essence before mixing in 400g of flour.
Roll out sections of dough with a sprinkling of flour and cut into fun shapes with your choice of cutters.
Bake for about 8 minutes, but keep an eye on them as they go from a pretty golden to a little burnt pretty quickly!
Then you have tasty biscuits to eat. Simples.