Toddler In The Kitchen: Apple and Cinnamon Cake

I love baking with Luke. I really want him to feel confident and at home when it comes to cooking. It’s one of those life skills that many boys these days just don’t have any more and I really would like Luke to be self-sufficient when he’s older. He has improved vastly over the last couple of weeks and is far better at mixing and egg-breaking. I encourage him to participate in the kitchen wherever possible and today we thought we’d share one of our recipes with you.

Whether you’re looking to fuel your active lifestyle with healthy savoury snacks – perfect for pre-workout bites or afternoon pick-me-ups, or you’re looking for healthy toddler bakes, this is the recipe for you.

Luke and I made this really delicious apple and cinnamon cake that, as it turns out, is absolutely perfect for his afternoon snack. It’s lovely and moist and packed full of scrummy apple!

As I mentioned previously, Luke is fully involved in the preparation process – all I have done for him before he gets started is the creaming of the butter and sugar – this was simply because the butter wasn’t at room temperature and was still quite hard.

When we bake, I lay all the ingredients out so Luke can help transfer them to the mixing bowl. So for this, I put flour and a pinch of salt into a Pyrex bowl, the cinnamon into a small glass, all the apples (pre-sliced) in a Tupperware container and finally the eggs and a fork on the side.

Luke picked handfuls of flour from the bowl and dropped it into the mixture. He’s played with cloud dough a lot in the past and likes to “help” during play dough making sessions, so he is very familiar with this texture and transferring it from one container to another. I think playing with the flour is his favourite part of baking.

He is getting a lot better at cracking eggs, but we still get some shell – to ensure we don’t get any nasty surprises, we break eggs into a bowl with a plate underneath. Any shell can easily be fished out and any eggy spillages can be scooped up into the mix again. No wastage!

I cannot tell you how good this cake tastes and how quick it is to prepare. However, it is worth noting that, because of the amount of apples in the recipe adding moisture to the mix, the apple and cinnamon cake takes a little longer than a traditional sponge cake to fully bake.

The best part of baking is licking the bowl out, right?

When the cake is cooled, remove it from the tin and cut it into slices or cubes. We intended to individually wrap portions in cling film and freeze them so Luke could have a nice little afternoon snack every day, however, we ended up eating a bit too much and it didn’t seem worth it any more.

Here’s the recipe:

• 175g butter
• 175g sugar
• 175g flour
• Pinch of salt
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 peeled/cored diced eating apples
• 2 tea spoons of cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 180.
2. Grease your loaf tin.
3. Cream butter and sugar together.
4. Add flour, salt and eggs – mix well.
5. Add cinnamon and apples.
6. Stir all ingredients together and transfer to loaf tin.
7. Sprinkle some demerara sugar on top of mixture.
8. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this little gem as much as we have! Comment with your favourite toddler bakes.