Childrens' Baking with Annabel Karmel *review*

My children love baking and cooking with me but I just don't make enough of an effort to find the time to do it with them so when we were sent an Annabel Karmel Kids Set from Casdon it was the perfect excuse to get baking!

There is a range of bakeware and cooking sets aimed at children aged 5+ and we received the Baking Set with Accessories. 

Included in the set is a mixing bowl, round tin, 10 cookie cutters, measuring jug, spatula and  6 measuring spoons and two recipes for ginger cookies and vanilla shortbread.

Harry is quite little for his age so having smaller versions of my kitchen equipment makes baking much more manageable for him. The bowl has an anti-slip base and grip so he can control his mixing and the small jug is perfect for little hands.

We decided to use our favourite biscuit recipe (see below) as I knew we had all the ingredients to hand. It's a really easy recipe to make and ideal for little ones.

Harry was able to do most of it himself, although the spatula was a little flimsy for the tough mixing needed at the beginning until everything was mixed in thoroughly.

He loved the little cutters and the gingerbread recipe suggests making a scene with people, houses and animals. They're just the right size to have as a quick snack or you could put a couple in a packed lunch as a treat. Harry didn't want to decorate the biscuits but with them being quite small I'd suggest using the small icing pens to make it easier.

Harry can't wait to get baking again and wants to try chocolate cookies next time. I've promised him that as soon as we've moved house we'll definitely get the set out again. It was a lovely hour of quality time with him.

Many thanks to our photographer Charlie!

Basic Biscuit Recipe

175g/6ozs plain flour
100g/4ozs butter or margarine
50g/2ozs caster sugar

Preheat oven to 150˚C/300˚F Gas Mark 2

Cream the butter and caster sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Gradually stir in the flour and once mixed thoroughly knead the dough together until it forms a ball. If the dough is sticky add a sprinkle of flour.

Lightly flour your work surface and roll out your dough until it is about 5mm thick (we made ours a little thicker as the biscuits were smaller). Cut out the dough with cookie cutters and place the biscuits on a floured baking tray. Bake in the centre of an oven until golden brown.

Cool the biscuits on a wire tray and then decorate.

*We were sent the Baking Set for the purposes of this review. All opinion is honest and based upon our own experiences of the product.