Emma hates my baking style. She decided she was going to teach our daughter Naomi how to ‘properly’ bake. She downloaded a simple victoria sponge recipe, got the necessary ingredients, gathered the kids and set to work.
Using the recipe, they followed all the steps meticulously. Adding in the missing steps obviously. Pick the eggshell shrapnel out of the bowl, wipe off the splatter marks from the kids faces every 5 minutes, lick the spoon.
I was in the office (dining room) while this was going on, and the only way i can describe what it sounded like was ‘chaotically fun’. At one point, Naomi was dancing around with the beaters from the mixer at her sides shouting “whisk hips, whisk hips, check out my whisk hips!” Ryan was happily content using a mixing bowl as a hat, running through to me every few minutes, pressing his face up against the inside of the bowl and shouting “RAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”
Naomi practiced her reading and her counting while helping measure out the ingredients and following the recipe. Cake mix finished, it was time to pop it in the oven. Now, i can tell you from experience that any chefs worst enemy is timing. Even more so with baking.
Open the door too early amd your cake sinks in the middle, open it too late and your cake is too crusty on the outside. Timing is everything.
With two kids and two dogs though, time is not the easiest thing to keep track of. You can set a timer, but as soon as it goes off you can guarantee one of the kids eats a cushion or one of the dogs poohs on the rug.
Unfortunately, Emma was a bit too quick in taking the cake out and it inevitably sank. It was only about 5 minutes out, and it was a really nice cake. Considering Emma hasn’t baked in about a decade, and she was being helped by a five year old and a two year old, i think she did fantastic!