I’ve not baked anything new in quite a while, but I enjoy it immensely. I got an email from Baking Mad asking if I’d be up for trying out some christmas baking, I was more than happy. 

The Baking Mad website is lovely and has so many recipes to choose from. I decided to wait until my little nephew came down with my Mum, stepdad and grandparents this weekend before I got stuck in and tried the recipe out for size.

The recipe is supposed to make 24 little muffins and requires something called chocolate extract. I hunted high and low for that extract but could only find it online, but it wouldn’t have been delivered in time, and so decided to miss it out. In retrospect, I think I should have substituted it for extra chocolate to make the muffins a little bit sweeter.

Baking with a three and a half year old is something of a novelty! He was determined to have a go at mixing, pouring and tasting as we went along. The first thing he did after I’d made him wear my floral pinny (poor lad) and stood him on a chair, was to put his hand on his hip and say “first you put the ingredients in!” Like a little Jamie Oliver! He’s such a bright little boy.

I’m not sure what it is about boys and cars, but whilst making our rocky road mixture, he also decided to make a rocky road car. It was brilliant, if not a bit messy!

I made the muffins on Sunday afternoon, not the best timing as it wasn’t long until my family actually had to leave. Silly me didn’t have enough muffin cases and so I had to pour the rest of the mixture into a cake tin. I was also a bit naughty and didn’t wait for them to cool properly before I put the icing on but my family had a long journey back up north and I didn’t want them to go without any cake.

If you’d like to attempt one of the Baking Mad christmas recipes, check out their website and see what tickles your fancy. Let me know what you try!

http://www.bakingmad.com