If there’s one way to mark Mother’s Day, it is with cake. I have helped the kids to bake stuff for Mrs Adams in the past and it has always been well received.
For Mother’s Day 2016, I accepted the challenge from baking brand Dr. Oetker to do something I have never done before; bake a Strawberries and Cream Cake. The recipe, taken from the new Bake Mum’s Day recipe book, created with ex GBBO contestant Ian Cumming, aims to encourage kids to get baking for Mum.
My youngest daughter, Elizabeth, helped me with much of the baking while older sister Helen did much of the decoration. It’s essentially a sponge cake recipe with very indulgent filling and icing. Even if I say so myself, the end product was amazing.
The recipe is below. Alternatively, you can find it in this #BakeMumsDay book on the Dr. Oetker website. You’ll also find a host of other recipes so I’m sure there is something that will appeal you could create before the day itself on Sunday, 6 March.
As the images below show, Elizabeth, Helen and I had great fun making this cake. In fact the images are very poignant. We cooked the cake before our old kitchen was gutted. We’re presently in the middle of installing a modern and much needed, kitchen/ diner! All going to plan, the job will be finished just before Mother’s Day.
Back to the matter in hand. The recipe is really simple and I was able to get the kids involved with appropriate tasks.
Before cooking, I did what I usually do and weighed out all the ingredients. If I’m cooking with my eldest daughter, this isn’t much of a problem but Elizabeth can get bored waiting while items are measured out. I usually weigh them out first and then get her involved with the mixing.
Being a cheeky three-year-old, she wasted no time in going behind dad’s back, licking the spoon and eating the decorations. You know what, I was her age once and did exactly the same!
With the sponges cooked, it was time to wait until we could ice the cake. Needless to say, Elizabeth wasn’t all that keen to wait but she eventually got the message.
The filling and icing is straightforward to make. All it involved is mixing cream, strawberry jam, some jelly mixture and chopped strawberries. It is so simple to make and delicious (if a little high in calories!).
With the cake iced and filled, it was time for Helen to get decorating. The recipe did put forward its own suggestions for decorating the cake. Have you ever tried to tell a determined seven-year-old how she should decorate a cake? Presented with Dr Oetker wafer flowers, chocolate hearts and marshmallows, she just went for it. I wasn’t going to step in; she was being creative.
Needless to say, little sister also lent a hand. Surprisingly there were no arguments as the two of them worked on the cake together.
The finished item was fantastic. I have very little experience of baking sponge cakes, but this one was incredibly moist. As for the filing and icing, well, it was very decadent. It’s just as well Mother’s Day only comes round once a year.
Here’s the finished article, with my smiling girls showing off their work.
What do you have planned for Mother’s Day? Will you bake a cake? Do you like the sound of this recipe? Please leave a comment below, I love reading them.
Dr. Oetker Twitter Competition
For more family friendly recipes, head over to oetker.co.uk.
Dr Oetker is also running a competition on Twitter to win a copy of the book as well as some baking goodies. To enter, just RT the competition tweet and follow @DrOetkerBakes.
Disclosure; this post was produced in collaboration with Dr Oetker
2 thoughts on “Marking Mother’s Day with Dr Oetker”
Lovely! It’s so nice to bake with little ones and they look like they had great fun.
It certainly is fun to bake with little ones. I have fallen out of the habit recently as we have been having a new kitchen installed but I used to bake weekly with my youngest.