It is strawberry farm picking time again, I go on about this every year and am always so excited when the first fruits are ready to be picked, the strawberries just taste so great!

I always cave once or twice during the long Tassie winter and buy a overpriced punnet from the supermarket mostly so disappointing. My kids love fruit picking as much as I do and good fun for them. I especially love the Sorell fruit farm it is a great spot with the kids they have a good outside area so the kids can have a play and nice food and coffee. They have jam picking when they have lots, $6kilo minimum 3 kilo call ahead to see when it is on.

With the first lot of strawberries we picked we made the strawberry tart recipe from my book The Real Food for Kids Cookbook

The Real Food for kids cookbook, you can find more information about the book here: https://eloiseemmett.com/buy-my-cookbook/

the girls love helping with the cooking, mags neatly arranges the strawberries and steph chucks hers on. Still  looks good in the end

and then we made this cake for Oscars first birthday cake

I made a double batch of the Thermomix  too easy chocolate cake, melt the butter for a minute longer because you have doubled it and beat for about 40 seconds longer. Into 2 lined and greased cake tins. If you don’t have a thermomix this same recipe could be made with beaters  or find a basic chocolate cake recipe or use a packet mix.

I made Chocolate crème patissiere for the filling, this is the old classic recipe from Drysdale house.

Crème Patissiere

500 ml milk
100 grams caster sugar
1 vanilla bean split
60 grams eggs yolks (from 3 eggs)
50 grams cornflour
50 grams cocoa

200 grams whipped cream to fold through the custard when it is cool

Place milk in a saucepan. Add vanilla bean, scraping in the seeds. Bring to boil, stirring. Use an electric beater to beat sugar and egg yolks in a bowl until pale and creamy. Gradually beat in cornflour, cocoa and milk mixture. Strain into a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir well for 1 minute or until thick. Transfer to a bowl. Cool slightly. Cover surface with plastic wrap. Place in the refridgerator to chill

But I made it  in the thermomix: put  the milk, sugar, scrapped vanilla bean, egg, cornflour and cocoa in the bowl and 8 minutes/ speed 4/ 90 C and put in the refridgerator to cool once cool, fold through the whipped cream.

Ganache

600 grams chocolate
300 grams cream

Melt together in a heavy based pot gently over a low heat on the stove. Leave to cool and thickne before pouring

Or in The thermomix 3-4 minutes/50C/speed 3

To assemble cut both cooled cakes in half and fill with the crème patissere and pour ganache on top, add strawberries.

 

and froggy fruit salad, I am planning on getting a life sometime  soon and not spending so much time on pinterest!

 

buggered birthday boy!

Like this recipe? Find more in my first cookbook The Real Food for Kids Cookbook. When you cook this please let me know how you go with it and share it with your friends!

I had my first cooking for kids workshops at the Bream Creek Farmers Market last Sunday. I am hoping to do them again at the December market and at the Koonya Garlic festival in February. We cooked a few recipes from my new book The Real Food for Kids cookbook. The market is held on the first Sunday of every month at  the Bream creek showgrounds. We made Rice paper rolls with the little preschool kids and then prawn and pork dumplings with the older kids.

First lets look at all the cool vintage props in the Bream Creek Show grounds kitchen!

Ok enough about the props and I didn’t pinch any I promise!

What a gorgeous location for some cooking. I sliced all the vegies for the kids and then they could each choose what they wanted to put in their own rice paper roll. I dunked the rice paper in the water for them. And it was very cute that on Tuesday one of the little boys at Stephs family day care who had made a rice paper roll spotted my book on Angela the day carers bench and they had to make them again.

they did end up all random sizes but the kids have fun making them and they all enjoyed eating them.

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especially my girls!

This is the dough getting kneaded for the dumplings, most people are surprised at how easy it is to make dumpling wrappers. It was a pregnancy craving and not living anywhere a shop I could buy wrappers from that made me learn how to make them.

and they really are lots of fun to roll out and wrap up.

again lots of odd shapes and sizes and the filling is very easy to prepare too! the recipe in my book for the prawn and pork dumplings, like all the recipes, is simple with ingredients you mostly have or are easy to get.

My girls left me to hang out in the ginger beer stall, steph decided she was good at putting the straws in the bottles.

The kids loved eating the dumplings and they are easy to cook too.

 

After the market we stopped at Bangor for wine, oysters, icecream and more ginger beer  on the way home. Bangor also has my book in stock in their lovely gift shop.

Steph is loving her ice-cream, if my kids are to have a treat I think its great if its homemade, or locally produced. I love that my girls now choose gillispies ginger beer over lemonade or other soft drinks (it is a much better choice sugar content and preservitive wise too) and they are disappointed when we go somewhere that doesn’t stock it. This fab choc top steph is loving is from valhala supporting another local business. I think I could  just about convince  myself I need to  buy more Bangor Pinot Gris… for the good of local economy of course!