Born Sunday 6th March 2011
Cooking with Daisy
Her life: Birth ♥ Week 1 ♥ Weeks 2-3 ♥ Weeks 4-7 ♥ Weeks 8-13 ♥ Weeks 14-22 ♥ 5-7 months ♥ 7-8 months ♥ 8-10 months ♥ 1st Christmas ♥ 10-12 months ♥ 1st birthday party ♥ 12-15 months ♥ 15-18 months ♥ 18-21 months ♥ 21-24 months ♥ 2nd birthday ♥ 2-2½ years ♥ 2½-3 years ♥ 3rd birthday ♥ 3-3¼ years ♥ 3¼-3½ years ♥ 3½-3¾ years ♥ 3¾-4 years ♥ 4th birthday
In summary: Index ♥ From birth to four years old ♥ Four years old onwards
Special features: Daisy translator ♥ Daisy cookery ♥ Daisy phrases ♥ Golden Bear
Recipes: Chocolate fairy cakes ◦ Cheese scones ◦ Coconut and lime macaroons ◦ Chocolate cornflake cakes ◦ Iced fairy cakes ◦ Biscuits ◦ Iced fairy cakes (reprise)
So, after a fun summer (of 2013) in the garden, and a break away in Menorca, the challenge was to find things to do with Daisy at the weekend (other than watch TV) that would keep her entertained. And so we decided to do some cooking. Daisy, I think, had most fun playing with the different coloured cake cases. First things first, though. We need some ingredients. Such as sugar.
The opening gambit was to make chocolate fairy cakes (which were advertised as being both easy and light on washing up, so win win). Daisy eyes up the camera whilst mixing the dessert basics together in a bowl: butter, flour, eggs and sugar.
Now it's time to pour the well-stirred mixture into the cake cases...
...which really requires precision. Er, sort of.
With the fairy cakes cooking in the oven, our attention turns to the chocolate icing. Stood on the chair like a big girl, Daisy seems a picture of innocence when stirring the icing mixture. I know, though, that if my back turns, she will be tasting it within seconds.
The fairy cake bases are done and they look good.
Ah, I must have turned my back. The thin chocolate moustache is a dead giveaway. I rest my case.
The affinity for chocolate is far too strong to even pretend now, and it's interfering with the icing of the cakes. At some point, it will be done, but no time soon.
We focus on getting one done, adding some sprinkles (colourful stars and chocolate peelings) for presentation (or, if you like, unnecessary additional sugar content). An arty close-up shot is obligatory (and properly in focus, unlike modern cookery programmes).
Daisy is certainly very happy with the end product, the chocolate moustache still not completely eradicated.
It doesn't take long for Daisy to want to try the freshly made cakes; in fact, we haven't even finished decorating the other cakes yet. She is far too eager to sink her teeth into the sugary goodness.
It doesn't last too long, although partly that is due to a significant proportion of it being deposited on her face and hands.
Satiated, it's time to return to the kitchen to finish the production line. Sprinkle, sprinkle, on the cakes...
...some for me, that's all it takes.
And here we are, the finished articles. Hmmm, we baked twelve and now there are ten. If I remember correctly, Daisy was allowed a second. We took them to Katie and Jordan's new house the next day in order to spread the consumption around a bit more. I seem to remember Lynne polishing the last few off, although she was eating for two so EVERYTHING IS JUSTIFIED.
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Just the merest week later, and with our appetite for culinary wizardry undimmed, we headed back into the kitchen to create something else that we might unevenly share around the household. First, Daisy mixes the butter into the flour...
...and before you know it, she has created a rolled-out circle of the mixture. There's no obvious sign of what we were cooking here but I can assure you that it was cheese scones. (A recent conversation in the office suggests that such a delicacy is not universally known, which seems somewhat unbelievable.)
With the mixture rolled out, we were ready to create our scone shapes. In the absence of any proper cutters, we simply used an upturned glass.
It was left to Daisy to carefully arrange the scones on the baking tray before popping them in the oven.
And here they are post-baking. Some have risen more than others, although partly this was due to whether they were taken from the original rolled out mixture, or the subsequently scrunched together mixture.
Cheese scones are best served warm, pulled into halves and buttered, and there was no stopping Daisy in giving them a try in this form.
Yum yum, I like cheese scones.
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Perhaps a sucker for punishment, I got us back in the kitchen for a sweeter dessert. This time, I'd got a recipe for coconut & lime macaroons which, I was reassured, was extremely simple. Simply combined the ingredients together in a bowl and then pat into shapes. Easy. Except that we had no egg whites, and so I had to wait for Graham to (kindly) nip to the shop to pick up some eggs.
What the recipe didn't say was how ridiculously messy it was. Daisy seemed hell-bent on ensuring that coconut was distributed as evenly throughout the kitchen as possible. Given that the mixture was a little sticky, this was not helpful. Here's what the scene of decimation looked like, and that's probably after I have wiped up a few times.
And this is what they look like when baked. They were nice, albeit a bit chewy (although I like that, and it's surely just a feature of something with a lot of coconut in). In a slightly schoolboy error, I did not grease the baking tray and the macaroons were well adhered to the tray.
That didn't bother Daisy, who shared her macaroon with her baby (i.e. the baby had none).
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Almost a month later in what I like to call 'time', the fourth recipe on this page sees Daisy making the classic chocolate cornflake cakes with Nana Sue and Aunty Katie, using the Union Jack scales to weigh out the various ingredients.
The addition of syrup was clearly suitable for adults only and certainly warranted a close inspection by everyone.
This is a perfect microcosm of Daisy's cookery technique. Wait until no-one is looking (or so she thought; my ninja camera skills are clearly improving) then raid the bowl for a tasty snack. Here: cornflakes. In the background, Aunty Katie melts chocolate like she's been doing it all her life.
This is the fun bit: combining the cornflakes with the chocolate mixture. Although I can't yet see any chocolate mixture.
With the mixture fully combined, it's time to transfer it to the cake cases. This is a three-person job.
Some obligatory sprinkles are applied to the near-finished product for extra taste and superior appearance.
These then went in the fridge to set. I don't seem to have any photos of the finished product but needless to say that they were tasty if a little overpoweringly sweet for my taste (a combination of the syrup and the type of chocolate used.
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In Haddington for Christmas 2013, Daisy got some cooking utensils, including a Mr Men bowl and a chef's hat (which she wore with enthusiasm). She seemed a little puzzled at what to do with them at first...
...but she soon seemed to know what she was doing as she smiled at her Grandma.
They were going to make some iced fairy cakes, for which we were (I think) following this recipe. Time for some teamwork, with them each making their own mixture. Avis stopped briefly either to check whether Daisy was doing things adequately, or to get some tips.
Suddenly Graham appeared on the scene to help do some sturdy mixing, seemingly singing some opera as he did so.
A brief moment of down time as Daisy examines a candle closely. They won't be featuring on these fairy cakes, though.
Daisy was quite skilled at putting the mixture into the cases using a combination of wooden spoon and spatula.
Between them, they soon had the twelve cases filled.
And into the oven they go. What to do now?
Ah yes, time to combine the icing mixture.
The fairy cakes were soon golden brown and ready for coating.
Daisy clearly loves her cooking.
Deep in concentration, unevenly coating the cakes in icing.
Then the fun bit: putting on the chocolate chips, some milk chocolate, some white chocolate.
And this was the entire selection of fairy cakes which all had, let's say, rather rustic decoration.
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It's early September 2014, Daisy is three and a half today, and it's time to make biscuits using this basic recipe. I assemble flour, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla essence, bowl, wooden spoon and a Daisy.
It isn't going to plan just yet.
Ah that's more like it; Daisy gets stuck in mixing the butter together with the sugar.
In goes the flour and it's time to get the hands mucky.
As a bit of a treat I threw in some chopped up bits of dessert chocolate, then Daisy started the production line of biscuit making. We got some stencils but it turned out that it was better to engrave them with the letters rather then create letter-shaped biscuits.
And lo, we ended up with some unevenly shaped biscuits.
They turned out ok once cooked, though.
A special 'D' for Daisy, although I think she refused to eat this one, perhaps because it was too precious.
She was, however, happy to tuck into the 'A' biscuit. I think this was probably the first time I'd made a biscuit (excluding possible cooking sessions as a young boy with my mother, for which my memory is woefully devoid of detail, or even recollection).
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A month later, in October, another Saturday afternoon is filled with dessert making. I decided that we would make fairy cakes again (see here for the previous time).
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Daisy seemed happy to be involved, mixing the basic ingredients.
She wanted to be involved in everything; she can be seen here hard at work mixing the eggs.
Her creativity and desire for order was brought to the fore with the chance to fill the baking tray with different coloured cake cases.
Daisy is evidently happy with this layout.
She applies some keen spoon-and-spatula skills to fill the cakes with the mixture, although strangely we don't end up with much in each case despite me being sure that I had used the right amount of ingredients (albeit that I had used a third or half of the amounts since it made 24 or 36).
Time to test the consistency of the icing while the cakes bake (always a difficult time of impatient waiting, so good to fill it with something).
Daisy inspects the cooked fairy cakes. They are a bit overdone, partly due to me trying to leave them as long as possible as they just weren't rising very well (or perhaps there wasn't enough mixture in each case).
Still, they were fine for icing up, as Daisy did with the utmost concentration.
And, after the icing, the Hello Kitty edible stickers (we neglected to use the HEN DO stickers of the previous photo). Daisy seems pleased with the finished product.
Pleased enough to tuck in straight away, anyway.
It seemed a waste not to use this pink, Hello Kitty (these are seemingly superfluous adjectives when describing things owned by Daisy) cake rack to display the freshly made cakes. They slowly disappeared over the course of the week. Which is the point, obviously.
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