Amanda Grant's tips

I have been baking for as long as I can remember. My mum bought me a special stool to stand on so that I could reach the kitchen work surface. I helped with everything and anything from greasing trays by rubbing butter all over them with a corner of greaseproof paper to weighing, mixing, peeling, grating, whisking, chopping etc.

My mum was a fantastic cook and everyday she had something good in the aga from a hearty home made stew or soup to a tray of flapjacks, biscuits or a big cake the smells in our kitchen were amazing.

My brothers and I grew up eating a varied diet, we all ate the same meals and never questioned whether there was any choice, we just ate what we were given, and enjoyed eating! I am sure that part of the reason for eating well and appreciating our food was because we were all so involved with the preparation.

Cooking with your kids

Cooking with your children has so many benefits, it is a great learning experience for your children, you can teach them about basic kitchen safety, cooking techniques, good nutrition can even been thrown in whilst you are cooking. It is also a great way to have some quality time to together, something that is particularly precious nowadays.

There are so many ways that you can get your child interested in cooking, from a very young age. My son, who is now 3, has been helping to hold the electric hand whisk for at least half of his life and he loves to count pasta into bowls for me when I am cooking supper. Likewise if your children are older you can start to give them some responsibility in the kitchen by teaching them how to put things into and take them out of the oven.

Try to talk to your children about food when you go shopping and ask them to help choose the ingredients that you need for your baking this is a great way to teach them about good food and where it comes from and to also encourage them to become excited about cooking.

Classic tea-time scones

This recipe is for sweet scones traditionally served with butter or clotted cream and strawberry jam. Scone dough is very versatile and you can easily adapt it if you prefer something fruity or savoury just have a look at the suggestions at the end of this recipe – perfect for a lunchbox for school.

Click here for the recipe.

Making shortcrust pastry

Once you have learnt how to make pastry you can make lots of new things but jam tarts are about the easiest!

Click here for the recipe.

These recipes are from Kids’ Kitchen by Amanda grant – published by Mitchell Beazley

Stay posted!

Over the next few months I am going to be giving you lots of different ways to entice your children into the kitchen without it always meaning lots of mess for you so please keep coming back to this site to get your children baking mad!