Well, it may have come to your attention that I'm not always the most observant of people. I told you all about the blog competition over at English Mum and showed you my lovely pavlova that I entered. But it wasn't until Emma mentioned that Grace had entered (see it's not just me that bakes all the time, I must get some of her cakes on here- yum) and I read the latest post from English Mum with some teasingly tempting pictures of some of the scrumptious entries that the two pieces of information connected in my head:

1. Kids can enter

2. I have kids.

Yes, I know the information came as a surprise to me too.

So today was a bit of a non day- it seemed to either be bright sunshine or heavy showers, completely randomly and without warning. A perfect opportunity to enter. Handy that as the deadline is midnight tonight.

I've baked with the girls before but always all of them making the same thing. For some unknown, quite obviously insane reason I let each of them decide what they wanted to make and I somehow co-ordinated all three with randomly great success (and I only had to use one oven!).

So here it is:

Charlotte, Age 6 years and 2 months.

Lemon Butterfly Cakes

Charlotte's reading is good enough that she can follow the recipe and measure out her ingredients (as long as mummy helps her find the bit on the dial of the scales). She is able to do everything- including weilding the sharp knife to cut out her butterfly wings. The only thing she didn't do was take them out of the oven. And they taste great, must have been all that mixing to get them nice and fluffy.

Lexie, Age 5 years and 1/2 a month.

Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

As this is a "whizzy" recipe Lexie was in her element playing with the food mixer. She took great pleasure separating the mixture into her two pans. With some close mummy attention she was able to melt the chocolate and butter for the icing. She loved mixing up the icing and dolloping it onto the cake and spreading it about- mummy just evened up the edges. I swear there are sections with inch thick icing. Ah well, she does love chocolate. For the record, the grimace is because of the weight of the cake and plate and a determination to smile.

And finally...

Minnie, Age 2 years and 5months.

Chocolate Teddy Biscuits with Chocolate Icing

It goes without saying that Minnie had the most help! The recipe contains nothing but flour, sugar and butter though so once it was in her bowl - in saying that she loved seiving- she could use her hands and a wooden spoon to mix it up. We had a great time cutting our the teddy bear shapes, although one or two were torn limb from limb.

Icing was fun, she was more interested in eating than icing the bears. After one or two she got slightly hungry and one disappeared. If you look at the finished plate there is one bear without a foot too. Ah, she had a blast and was so proud of herself - when we picked up daddy she told him at the top of her voice that she made "chocit bikits". Bless.

So that's it, we've entered the competition and I rekon we are winners because we only have to submit pictures and we get to eat the cakes. What else do you want from a bake off? Exactly.

Remember how I had all of these blueberries?

Well, I had a rummage around for a recipe for blueberry muffins in my recipe books. And lo and behold I found one. But it was for Low Fat muffins (ant btw, I don't object to low fat on principle but...) and alas I did not have the requisite ingredients... however, I did have other ingredients...full fat ones.

And they made these...

For the record they were delicious. (and yes, those are duck and pirate muffin cases...aren't they awesome?)

Here is the original and full fat recipe, both are yum. It makes between 9-12 muffins.

Ingredients:

8oz plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch of allspice or cinammon (optional)

2oz caster sugar

3 large egg whites

3 tbsn margerine

1 tsp vanilla extract

3oz blueberries (or as many as you fancy really)

For low fat- use 150ml of low fat or fat free yoghurt.

For full fat- use 150 ml of anything you have- single cream, double cream, sour cream...

So how to whip up these delicious (and potentially not fatty) muffins?

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5 (190C or 375F) and prepare your muffin tin (or baking tray)

2. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, allspice and sugar.

3. In another bowl whisk the egg whites together. Add the margerine, yoghurt/cream and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in blueberries until thoughrally mixed.

4. Add the fruit to the dry ingredients then gently stir until just combined- don't over mix, don't worry if its a little lumpy.

5. Fill the muffin cases 2/3 full, you can sprinkle some allspice and sugar on the top if you fancy.

6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until risen and golden. Remove the muffins from the oven and serve warm.

7. Eat until your belly aches from all that fruity goodness.

So, I guess since I'm officially trying to lose weight, it's the low fat version for me from now on. *sigh*.

I've never found a chocolate cake recipe I didn't like but I have also never found a chocolate cake recipe that I loved.

Until Now

{this one was used as Lexie's birthday cake}

This is delicious. It's easy enough to make although quite ingredient heavy- certainly not only eggs, flour, butter, sugar. In saying that, the only thing you are unlikely to have in your store cupboard is sour cream (unless you normally have this in your fridge!). It's what I call a "whizzy cake"- because the recipe suggests you make it in a food processor - i.e. my whizzy machine. Excellent.

The icing is what makes it really, absolutely sublime. It's made with dark chocolate too so technically it's good for you. Yup, that's what I'm telling myself!

I can see this cake becoming a regular on my baking list. If you want to give it a try you can find the recipe here. Thanks Nigella.

This was made to the same recipe as this one that was text to me by Emma. The recipe as created by the Domestic Goddess herself, the lovely Nigella.

I have never even attempted to make meringue before (not sure why since I adore meringue) but this was ridiculously easy to do. I was slightly alarmed that it would end up oblong in my baking tray but it ended up square-ish but thats okay too as by the time it gets "broken" round the edges it doesn't matter.

My biggest problem is that I didn't really have a plate big enough for it- I'm not sure if it was because I didn't make it quite right or if I need a bigger plate. I would say that it tastes just deeeelicious.

I've entered this into English Mum's Big bake off and I challenge you to do it too- the rules are- bake something, take a picture, email it to her. That's it. And you could win a yummy hamper of chocolately lovliness...