Quick kid pleaser

So who doesnt like a meal with these properties;
* quick assemblage
* kids going to wolf it down
* kids can do most of the work
* involves puff pastry and cheese

This is not a recipe. Its instructions.

Tuna puff platter
1 pack puff pastry
1 185g tin tuna
3 spring onions
Big handful of sweetcorn
3 heaped tablespoons cream cheese
3 tablespoons of tom puree
3 tablespoons of ketchup
1 ball mozzarella

Heat oven to 200c
Get a small minion to roll out pastry to fit baking tray
Place in tray build up sides as a crust
Prick all over with fork and bake for 10mind
Get small minion to slice or cut sp onion with scissors
Mix drained tuna with corn,  onion, cream cheese
Mix ketchup and puree together
Spread ketchup mixture over pastry base
Spread tuna mixture over ketchup mixture
Rip up mozzarella and scatter over platter (rhymes)
Bake 10/15 mins

This can be done with all manner of ingredients. Just have small minion on hand as child labour.

The not so humble fairy cake

Up until about ten years ago the average British kid made one type of cake with their harassed mums, the humble fairy cake. Now the only cake that will do is a cupcake. Do children even know what a fairy cake is anymore?

My earliest cooking memories consist mainly of scooping out flour from a massive Tupperware box and pouring it into a Sunbeam mixer with my mum and then being able to lick the mixture off the whisks once we'd added the batter to the tiny paper cases. Once cooled, these cakes were more often than not gobbled up before a topping could even be thought of. Very rarely mum would make white glace icing and we'd spoon it on messily, letting it ooze down the sides of the cases. That would be it. And we were happy. They were fairy cakes. The food of the Faraway Tree, of Moon Face and Silky. Sometimes, to ring the changes dried mixed fruit (from another Tupperware tub) would be scooped into the mix - I still make these and they are a really winner with my children. On very special occasions we would have butterfly cakes, which some countries call fairy cakes, and this was the only time we'd see butter icing. These were dusted with icing sugar and didn't last very long at all. Again, cakes to make Enid Blyton's tea table smile. But now the poor, humble fairy cake has to compete with the cup cake.

Some think cupcakes are just a larger version of a fairy cake but they are sadly very mistaken my friends. You see its like comparing someone from Buckinghamshire to someone from Texas. Cupcakes typify the American stereotype. Large, brash, loud, excessive, overly sweet and style over substance. Fairy cakes on thte other hand epitomise the British stiff upper lip. Dainty, light sponge topped with a small dollop of glace icing and if you are a child of the 80s traditionally decorated with those hard sugar flowers made by Super Cook or jelly orange and lemon segments. Fairy cakes are dependable  Not overbearing. They are very reassuring

When my children need entertaining (always) out comes the mixer and they recite the ingredients we need for our favourite treat. And here they are...

 The (not so) humble lemon fairy cake 

 100g stork margerine 

100g caster sugar

 100g self raising flour

 2 eggs 

Zest of 1 lemon 

 Icing 

170g icing sugar 

 Juice of above lemon 

 Preheat oven 180c (fan). Add papercases to a 12 hole fairy cake tin. Bung all the cake ingredients in a mixer and whizz till pale and smooth.

Spoon into cases equally. Bake for 15-18 mins till golden. Cool (be patient my friend) Make the icing by mixing the juice and icing sugar. It should be thick in consistency so add more sugar or juice/water as you prefer. Get a small person to dollop this onto each cake and allow them to adorn each little beauty as creatively as they like.

Eat!
Hundreds of variations are possible. The world is your fairy cake. Try adding a handful of dried fruit. Or cutting a disc to make wings and plonking some buttercream on. Or adding cocoa.

Siân