My daughter and I used to spend hours cooking together every week, until her baby sister was born and our cooking sessions became a little more sporadic. Recently, however, we've had reason to head back into the kitchen - we discovered the Disney Cakes And Sweets Collection.
At first glance, the recipes in this book might seem a little intimidating, and not really for children, but that's something that I really like about this collection: it spans a range of ages and abilities.
The recipes in issue one, for example, start with Giant Mickey Mouse Cookies, - with the giant Mickey Mouse cookie cutter included - is a basic sugar butter flour biscuit recipe, perfect for little ones to get involved in. My four year old loved making cookies and cutting them out, even as a two year old, so it's a perfect starter recipe. The decorating is slightly harder, which gives the recipe a difficulty rating of two out for four.
Further in issue one there's a recipe for Minnie's fruity chocolate chunks - a difficulty rating of one - and again, perfect for children.
But, for higher abilities and the more adventurous, there's a 'Build A Castle Cake' recipe, with detailed cake covering and building instructions.
Another thing I really like is that they include basic recipes, which you could get from anywhere on the internet or your granny's cookbook, but the fact that they are included gives you confidence that they'll work with the decorations and recipes as intended.
The first issue also comes with two Winnie the Pooh themed icing moulds for cupcakes or cakes, but they also work really nicely on babychinos - you know? Frothy milk for toddlers who like to copy mummy's coffee habit? They make really cute outlines on the frothy milk.
As these things normally work, the first issue is 99p, the second is £2.50 and when you're well and truly hooked they're £4.99, but if you look at the free goodies and the masterclasses on cake decorating and sweet making, they're well worth the money.
I also love the quality of the books. They're not that cheap throwaway magazine quality, but are a thicker glossy paper which should last for many years, allowing my girls to grow with the books.
A subscription to Disney's Cakes and Sweets would make a lovely gift that keeps on giving, both in receiving your four issues every four weeks, and in the time spent together cooking from it.
I'm really quite happy with this set, and can't wait for the next issue to arrive.
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