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Saturday 19 October 2013

Cooking with Alex........


Last week I had another baking/cooking afternoon with Alex. We have never attempted a savoury dish we usually bake biscuits or cakes, so I decided to increase our repertoire. Alex is a very faddy eater at home although he would never say no to eating fast food especially KFC chicken. I asked Alex if we should make our own spicy chicken strips! Surprisingly he was really up for it so I sort of made up a recipe. We cut chicken breasts into strips, dipped them into beaten egg and then into crushed cornflakes. For extra flavour we added paprika, chilli flakes, ground black pepper and a tiny touch of salt to the crushed cornflakes.

The chicken strips were then cooked in the oven for about 25 minutes turning once half way through cooking. They were delicious, Alex was so surprised and impressed with the chicken he couldn't stop eating them which was an added bonus.





yummy......................
Alex then sat on the floor next to my bookcase flicking through recipe books. He chose his favourite Mary Berry cookery book and decided to make a chocolate Victoria sandwich cake. I helped get the ingredients together for him and lined his cake tins but then Alex weighed and mixed everything himself. When he got them out of the oven I gave him a skewer to check they were ready and then he remembered to press the sponge gently to see if the sponge bounced back - I was so proud of him.

The cakes had risen beautifully and whilst they were cooling he made the butter cream. He started to search for my sieve so that he could sieve the icing sugar. I said he didn't need to as I don't usually bother but Mary Berry does so who am I to disagree. It's funny to watch him follow every instruction to the letter, reading every instruction once or twice to be sure he has got it right.


sorry about the messy kitchen....................
all done and I accidentally chopped his head off the photo.....................
The cake was covered with chocolate decorations not dissimilar to the chocolate tray bake he made last time we baked. The chocolate cake was so light and fluffy I felt quite jealous it was perfect

The next day Vicky phoned for the chicken recipe as Alex wanted to make the spicy chicken strips for everyone’s tea, followed by his chocolate cake which he sadly took home.

Hope you have a good day and a special hello to my new followers – thank you

Talk soon x

( forgot to say I have joined in with the lovely  Cosmos and Cottons Friday Bake)

35 comments:

  1. yummy afternoon!!!! lovely!!!!
    happy weekend Sue!
    xxxx Ale

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  2. What wonderful memories you are creating for him, Sue, having fun and learning new recipes - these were the best memories for me with my grandma when I was a child! Chrissie x

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    1. I hope he remembers the fun we have - thank you for sharing x

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  3. What a lovely post Sue. I think it is wonderful to spend time with little ones in the kitchen and how lovely to be doing it all over again with your grandson. He looks like he is having heaps of fun and I am sure you inspired his ways of eating, soon he might very well turn into the new Jamie Oliver. That chicken looks delicious and so does the chocolate Victoria sponge. I cant say that I have ever made a chocolate victoria sponge before, but my mouth is watering so I am definitely going to give it a go. Which Mary berry book did you use for this?? Thank you for joining in with Friday bake it is always lovely to see what others are cooking and baking. Enjoy your weekend and I hope you have settled back into bing at home xoxo

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    1. Thank you - the Mary Berry recipe is in her Ultimate Cakes Book you can get it from Amazon and its full of great cakes and tray bakes - quite a favourite x

      http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Berrys-Ultimate-Second-ebook/dp/B007KOYYSS/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382345847&sr=1-15&keywords=mary+berry

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  4. How wonderful is that cake??
    Thanks for your lovely comment re being fifty! are you sure you have your sums right...because you look sooo young!
    bestest dasy j x

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  5. This post had me smiling all the way through. To have your young grandson eager to work with you in the kitchen, and to produce a delicious lunch complete with chocolate cake ... awesome!! I love your last bit about the cake results making you a bit jealous and the sad fact that he took the cake home. The cake (& chicken strips!) look amazing, and it's no wonder you were both very proud of the results. Enjoy your weekend Sue. Wendy x

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  6. What a sweet post! Alex is adorable, and it's great that he's enjoying playing around in the kitchen. If this keeps up his future (very future!) wife will love you for it! Those chicken spicy chicken strips sound yummy! xoxo

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  7. He is so adorable, I love that your Alex loves cooking, looks through recipes books and is very proud of his chicken and cake. This is such a great post today.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  8. well done Alex you have done an awesome job of cooking.xx

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  9. Wow! Impressed! It all looks so good!!!
    xo Kris

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  10. That is so great that Alex is baking and cooking with you, glad that he liked the chicken, perhaps his repetoire will increase as he learns to cook more things himself. Shame that all of the cake went home with him though!

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    1. I hope so - we did have a sneaky piece before it left the premises x

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  11. It's wonderful that he loves to cook and bake. I'm sure the chicken was great; we make something very similar and I don't think my kids even know the difference between them and KFC.

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  12. Wow! Can I borrow Alex? His cake looks pretty tasty.

    (Some day, some girl is going to be one lucky lady to get a guy that knows how to cook!)

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  13. How great that he likes to cook with you, and pays so much attention to the instructions. Does he help clean up, too? Hehe. That is an experience he will remember. Nice. xxoo

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  14. Lovely post Sue & thank you for my blog comment. Have a lovely Sunday. Lizzie

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  15. Looks like lots of fun was had and wow that cake looks amazing.
    Clare x

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  16. Top job. how many pieces will the chocolate cake cut into, it won't feed all of us! Jo x

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    1. at least a dozen - I think it would be enough x

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  17. What wonderful memories you are creating. Loved this post.

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  18. That cake certainly looks yummy! Well done Alex.

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