Food Archives - Dad Does Autism

Simple Jam Tart Recipe

October 10, 2020October 10, 2020Adam

Today we are bringing you a very simple Jam Tart recipe, which only uses 3 Ingredients. All you need is self raising flour, butter and jam. A quick reminder that you can find the other baking recipes we have had a go at, on our post Top 20 easy bakes for kids.

This is another first time bake for me. I don’t know why as we all love jam tarts, but I’ve just never thought of making them before. Anyway let’s get to it.

Ingredients

85g of butter
170g self raising flour
Choice of jam to be added to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 200c/gas mark 6
Rub together the butter or margarine with the flour in a bowl until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in a few tablespoons of water to form a dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface. Use a pastry cutter to cut out about 20 circular shapes. We got 16 out of ours,
Put each pastry case into an individual cupcake tin. Add a teaspoon of jam to each case, you could add a bit more jam, but be careful not to add too much. Otherwise them jam will ooze over the edge during baking.
Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the pastry has gone pale brown (check the tarts after 20 minutes). Then hopefully the tarts should just come straight out of the tray like ours did.

Undisputed champion

These were amazing! So simple and easy for anyone to do, and yet so tasty. I’ve been told we have to make some more, unfortunately we’ve ran out of flour. So the kids will have to wait until I can pop down to the shop to get some. Which they are not happy about. We have enjoyed all the things we have baked so far, but the jam tarts are the undisputed champion so far. It is unanimous from everyone, that this has been the favourite so far.

When I go and get that flour, we will be making some more. I’d like to get some different jams, and some lemon curd in too. I highly recommend giving this simple jam tart recipe a go. You won’t regret it! As always, thank you for reading.

Dad Does Autism

Chocolate Sandwich Cake Recipe

October 1, 2020October 1, 2020Adam

Today we are bringing you a chocolate sandwich cake recipe. I’ve had complaints from the kids, that we are not getting through our top 20 bakes for kids recipes fast enough. So I was ordered into the kitchen to bake this cake, which was done with both Jack and Lily. So a real team effort.

The chocolate cake was the one the kids had been really waiting for, and they were both delighted. When I told them that’s what we would be doing.

Ingredients

For Cake

100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
75g self raising flour
25g cocoa powder

For butter cream
100g butter
225g icing sugar
30ml milk
a few drops of vanilla essence

Method

For Cake

Cream butter and sugar together until it has a light and fluffy texture.
Beat in eggs one at a time, with a table spoon of flour each time.
Gently fold in remaining flour and cocoa powder, then transfer the mixture to 2 sandwich tins.
Bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 mins, when finished leave to cool.

For Butter Cream

Beat Butter until soft.
Gradually beat in sugar and milk until light and fluffy
Stir in drops of vanilla essence, to taste.

To finish, take the cakes out of the tin and put the butter cream on one side of one of the cakes. Then put the other cake on top and sandwich together. Finish off with a dusting of icing sugar on top.

For those who like their cake really chocolatey, you can make the buttercream a chocolate cream. And even put the cream on top of the cake as well. We find that way a bit too sickly for our taste, apart from Mum who likes it all chocolate.

I have to say that this chocolate sandwich cake recipe, is probably our favourite so far. It definitely is for the kids, and I have to say I probably agree with them. It was a nice light chocolate taste, not too sickly and went great with a nice cup of tea.

We definitely recommend giving this a try, and that you enjoy it as much as we did. As always, thank you for reading.

Dad Does Autism

Chocolate chip loaf cake

August 28, 2020August 28, 2020Adam

The latest recipe we tried from our top 20 easy bakes for kids, is the chocolate chip loaf cake. I personally love loaf cake, it’s my favourite kind of cake. Lemon drizzle is my favourite, but the kids wanted chocolate chip. The kids always win!

Ingredients & Method

250g butter
250g caster sugar
4 eggs
250g self raising flour, sifted
100g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4. Lightly grease and flour a 900g (2 lb) loaf tin.
Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the sieved flour, then stir in the chocolate pieces/chips.
Pour into greased loaf tin and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Fun to make

Lily had a great time making this, as with all these recipes. The idea is that they are simple enough for Jack and Lily to make, with minimal involvement from me. I helped with weighing the ingredients, breaking the eggs (as Lily gets very anxious about getting shell in the mixture), and putting in and out of the oven.

Like I said, Lily really enjoyed making the chocolate chip loaf cake. It’s a pretty big mixture so takes a bit of work to mix, but Lily had some music on to keep her motivated.

Lily sieved some icing sugar on the top of the cake to finish it off. It turned out pretty well, all of the chocolate chips seem to have sunk to the bottom half of the cake, but I like the texture of the cake. And in my humble opinion it tasted awesome.

This was number 9 of our top 20 list, we are getting through them slowly. We all hope you enjoy these posts, and they inspire you to get baking. As always, thank you for reading.

Dad Does Autism

Simple homemade cookies

August 13, 2020August 13, 2020Adam

It’s time to try another of the recipes from our, top 20 easy bakes for kids post. If you haven’t already seen that post, click the link to see all 20. Simple homemade cookies are what we have in store for you today, and who doesn’t love homemade cookies?

This was another one where I sat back and Lily did most is the work by herself, perhaps because it’s been a while since we last did some baking. She was very enthusiastic about making these. Weirdly this was the most difficult one so far, to find a simple recipe for. It seems like everyone to make their cookies extra fancy, personally I just want a good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie.

Ingredients

112g butter
55g caster sugar
1 large egg
112g plain flour
100g chocolate chips

Method

Preheated the oven to 180°C (gas mark 4). Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
Cream together the butter and the sugar until its light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat.

Sieve the flour and mix in with the butter and sugar.

Once you have your cookie dough, divide to make the number of cookies you want. It depends on the size of cookie your after. We got 10 medium sized cookies out of it. Place onto baking tray and press the mixture down slightly.

Bake them for 8-12 minutes. When they are cooked leave them for 15 minutes on the tray then transfer to a cooling rack.

Simple homemade cookies

And there you have the finished article! Lily piled in some extra chocolate chips, so these are a bit extra chocolatey. I think I left them in the oven a little too long, I’m a bad judge on when cookies are ready. A couple of them were a little burnt, some still had that chewy texture you want. They all tasted nice which is the main thing!

They must have been good enough, as they didn’t last long. I’m hoping we will do another couple of the recipes from our top 20 bakes post, that we haven’t done yet. In the next week or so. As always, thank you for reading.

Dad Does Autism

Simple Rocky Road Recipe

July 24, 2020July 24, 2020Adam

The latest trip into the kitchen, sees myself and Lily making this simple rocky road recipe. This is number 7 of our attempts to make the recipes from the top 20 easy bakes for kids list, that we came up with. I’ve eaten plenty of rocky road in my time, but this would be my first time making it.

One thing that stuck out to me, as I was looking online for a recipe to follow. Is just how many slight variations there are to a Rocky Road recipe. In the end I picked one, and made my own slight variation. This is quite similar to the chocolate digestive fridge cake, that we have already made. The main difference is that you want to break the biscuit into much bigger chunks this time, and we are adding more ingredients.

Ingredients

200g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate
250g butter
200g digestive biscuits
2 table spoons Golden Syrup
75g mini marshmallows (for mixture)
25g mini marshmallows (for decoration)
25g raisins

Method

Great a baking tin.
Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of boiling water. When the chocolate has melted add the butter and golden syrup. Stir regularly until its all melted and combined.
Mix the biscuits, raisins and the 75g of marshmallows in a bowl and pour in the chocolate mixture. Stir until the biscuits and marshmallows are evenly coated.
Pour the mixture into a tin and refrigerate. After 15 minutes remove from the fridge and top with the remaining marshmallows. Then return to the fridge.
Once the chocolate has set, remove from the fridge and cut into pieces.

And there it is, another easy one that require no baking. Our simple Rocky Road recipe. It was a team effort this one, as we wanted to get them made quickly, so they would be ready for a picnic in the garden. It went quite well for a first attempt, I thought the chocolate mixture was a bit too runny, and was worried it wouldn’t turn out right. But they look okay and they tasted nice, and that’s a win in my book. After a couple of easy ones, we might have to do some real baking next time! As always, thanks for reading.

Dad Does Autism

Simple chocolate digestive fridge cake

July 20, 2020July 20, 2020Adam

Next up on the bakes we are trying from out top 20 easy bakes for kids post is, the simple chocolate digestive fridge cake. This one is not strictly baking, all you need are 4 ingredients and a fridge. A bowl and a spoon, plus a way to melt some chocolate and you are good to go.

Ingredients

200g chocolate (any you like, we used Galaxy)
225g Digestive biscuits (crushed)
125g butter
2 tablespoons of Golden Syrup

Method

Melt the butter and golden syrup in a pan. Add the crushed digestive biscuits and mix. Break the chocolate up and add to the pan. Mix as the chocolate melts. Once it is all mixed together, add to a lined cake tin and put in the fridge.

Completed mixture — *Mixture before going in fridge*

After an hour or 2 the mixture should be set, and ready to take out of the fridge. Take the cake out of the tin, and cut into squares/rectangles.

This is one of my absolute favourite treats, these ones tasted so good. Then considering how easy they are to make, for me nothing beats them. Simple chocolate digestive fridge cake, easy to make and taste great. If you’ve never tried this before, you need to give them a go. They probably aren’t good for the calorie count, but as an occasional treat, they are lovely!

If you haven’t checked out our top 20 bakes for kids post, you can do so by clicking this link. There is a wide variety on there, and this one if possibly my favourite. It certainly is that we’ve made so far, but I’m looking forward to making the cherry Bakewell cupcakes. Let us know what your favourite is, or even any other baking ideas we could try. As always, thank you for reading.

Dad Does Autism

Top 20 easy bakes for kids

July 11, 2020October 10, 2020Adam

Here is our list of, top 20 easy bakes for kids. As I mentioned previously, myself, Jack and Lily have been enjoying the time we’ve spent in the kitchen baking. And that we planned to compile this list, which we have finally agreed on. After much debate…my choice of lemon drizzle cake wasn’t allowed on the list. I’m still sulking…

So far we have made 5 of the 20, and have posts on the website. The plan is to work through all 20, so the list will then link to the blog post of out attempt at making it. So here is out list.

That’s our complete list of the top 20 easy bakes for kids. We’ve enjoyed making the ones we’ve done so far, and wait to get on with making the remaining ones on the list. Which ones are your favourite? Which ones are you most looking forward to us making? For me personally, as we are from Derbyshire, I can’t wait to have a go at the Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes.

As always thanks for your support and thank you for reading.

Dad Does Autism

Mini Egg Rice Krispie Cakes

July 6, 2020July 6, 2020Adam

So after Jack made chocolate biscuits in the last post, Lily wanted to make something. She decided to make mini egg Rice Krispie cakes, the mini eggs are a great addition to the simple Rice Krispie cake. They add some colour, and well I Just love chocolate mini eggs. We found a pack in the back of the cupboard left over from Easter. Personally I just wanted to eat them, but I was overruled by Lily.

It’s another very simple recipe, because that’s how we roll. My involvement was getting the pan and bowl out of the cupboard. Filling the pan with water, and turning on the gas hob. The rest was all Lily.

Ingredients

150g milk chocolate
50g butter
60ml golden syrup
135g Rice Krispies
chocolate mini eggs

Method

Break up the chocolate into little pieces and melt in a large bowl (big enough to take all the Rice Krispies later. I’ve made that mistake before) suspended over a pan of simmering water.
Once the chocolate has melted, add the butter and syrup and gently fold in.
Pour in the Rice Krispies and then fold briskly until everything is combined. When ready put the mixture into cake cases.
Finish by adding the mini eggs. Gently push them into the mixture to give them a chance of sticking.

These tasted great! Like I said in the marshmallow Rice Krispie squares post, I prefer the marshmallow to the chocolate version. Adding in the mini eggs definitely gives these something extra though. Lily was very precise that every cake had to have 2 mini eggs each (#autism), as you can see in the picture.

I’ll leave you with a couple of questions. How do you like your Rice Krispie cakes, chocolate or marshmallow? Also, what else do you think could make a good addition to this treat other than mini eggs?

Thank you for reading, Dad Does Autism

Easy and Delicious Iced Chocolate Biscuits

July 4, 2020July 4, 2020Adam

The latest edition of our simple baking ideas, sees Jack making some easy and delicious iced chocolate biscuits. I’ve never been able to get biscuits quite right myself, but Jack did a good job with these. So let’s get to the simple biscuit recipe.

Ingredients

300g self raising flour
30g cocoa powder
250g butter
125g caster sugar

Baking - easy and delicious iced chocolate biscuits

Method

Pre heat oven to 190c. Sift flour and cocoa powder into bowl and set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and pale in colour.
Mix in the sifted flour and cocoa powder until it forms a dough.
Roll the dough into small balls and place them on a baking sheet, well spaced apart. Then flatten the balls.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Icing and Decoration

Once the biscuits have been baked and cooked down, it’s time to decorate. Jack likes ready to roll icing, so we used that. He rolled it out and used a cutter to get the right size. Now for the fun part! Decorating the iced biscuits, Jack and Lily both think a like. They like each one individually decorated, so you have to get all of the decoration stuff out. Sprinkles, icing pens, chocolate beans etc..

So there’s the finished article, I think they turned out pretty well. They definitely felt and tasted like a biscuit, not like a cake which is what happens when I try to make biscuits. So, well done Jack. They got a big thumbs up from Lily, who I think are most of them!

This is the 4th baking post we’ve done, you can find the others by clicking the following link. Chocolate Fairy Cakes, Scooby Snacks, Marshmallow Rice Krispie Squares. We have been compiling the top 20 cakes and bakes list, I talked about in the Rice Krispie squares post. It has changed a couple of times, but I think it is nearly ready to be shared. Which we are looking forward, not as much as the baking and the eating afterwards though!

Dad Does Autism