What are your favourite baking and school holiday activities to do with your DCs? Tell Flora for the chance to win a £150 John Lewis voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

With warmer weather still far away, Flora would love to hear about Mumsnetters' favourite baking activities, as well as other indoor activities for you and your DCs.

Here's what Flora have to say: "We know that here in the UK, we're not blessed with the most predictable weather and as the first school holiday approaches and you’re still stuck indoors, it’s not always easy to keep dreaming up activities to keep the kids from climbing the walls that don’t eat into the household budget. Flora is here to offer a helping hand, baking with Flora Buttery is about having a good time, and not making the perfect creations – our all-in-one recipe couldn’t be simpler and needs just 15 minutes prep time, five ingredients and one bowl. Even better when you are all baked out and the tub is empty it can be used for fun, simple arts and crafts activities!"

So, do you have any baking activities which you love to do with your DCs? What do you like to bake? Are there any recipes you follow, or do you prefer to get creative while baking with your DCs?

If you're not a baker, do you have any other fail-safe activities for you and your DCs to do indoors? Maybe you like to work on arty projects? Or perhaps you've invented some games to play together?

Whatever your favourite activities are, Flora would love to hear about them.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £150 John Lewis voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on Flora's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

[CMOTDibbler]

Ds and I like to cook in general together, but for baking his favourites are carrot cake (which takes a reasonable amount of preparation too, rather than fairy cakes which are done and dusted), or rainbow cake (which makes a mess, but is fun).

Make your own pizza is a sure fire hit too. I use HFWs magic bread recipe which is dead easy, and then let visiting children loose on the fridge for toppings. For tomato base I just use ketchup for theirs, which apparently is most pleasing

[26Point2Miles]

We love to make homemade pizza too

My older teen children like to bake too.... We get quite a fewer recipes from good old mumsnet recipe section. Favourites are muffins/coffee cake/scones and marble cakes

[Safmellow]

DD (age 3) loves baking. Started off with shortbread as it was simple and egg free, now doing other kinds of biscuits. She also likes mashing bananas for banana bread and breaking eggs (for anything!).

[IvyMay]

I've enjoyed teaching my two how to make weight of an egg sponge and drop scones - partly because they 're such simple recipes they quickly learnt them off by heart

The sponge is just a variation of Victoria sponge but you weigh the egg/s and then use the same weight of SR flour, soft marge and sugar - and a few drops of vanilla essence.

For the drop scones you just have to remember the fraction 1/4 and use
1 egg
4oz SR flour
1/4 pint milk

If you want French style pancakes, just up the milk to half a pint.

[Pantone363]

Buy some big cardboard boxes from storage places and attach them together on the floor. Use a Stanley knife to cut tunnels and make a big maze!

[Tzibeleh]

I love baking, but I'm no good at sharing it until they are old enough to do things relatively unsupervised. Then I can look away and not shudder at the mess and the mishandling of my beloved tools.

Oh the bliss that my dc can all now make basic meals, cut salads, make scrambled eggs, make soup, bake cakes and biscuits. Not only does keeping them busy during the holidays mean "dc, go and make lunch", but when I do cook with them they have the basic skills and it is do much more fun than it ever was before.

And, sorry Flora, but I only ever cook with real fats: butter, oils or dripping. Very occasionally I might use a dairy-free solid fat substitute, if I have absolutely no other choice.

[Patilla]

We don't have much space so our favourite food activity is decorating shop bought biscuits. Nice and easy and matches a toddlers attention span.

If I'm feeling adventurous I'll make biscuit dough and refrigerate or freeze it. Then when the time is right it's a case if rolling and cutting and baking. It might not be as good as baking from scratch but we don't have a kitchen table for DD to sit at so it's hard to bake from scratch.

[StillNoFuckingEyeDeer]

DD1 loves baking, especially if it's chocolatey. Her favourite thing to eat is chocolate cake, but she loves to make biscuits that she can cut out. We make very good oaty cookies and chocolate cake together, but we're still in search of the perfect, easy chocolate cut-out biscuit recipe.

[Coffeechick]

I've made fairy cakes in the past with my DC but we have moved onto home made pizza. It's fun something they will eat and dinner is sorted as well. I make it educational as well with the weighing of ingredients and we will move onto other dishes as they grow up so they can cook some dishes for themselves.

[Gumps]

My favourite thing to do is make biscuits with the 3-2-1 recipe. 3oz flour 2oz sugar and 1oz butter. Each of my 3 kids gets their own dough and rolling pin and then we have loads of shape cutters. Whilst they are baking we make loads of different coloured icing and, together with sprinkles, they decorate for ages. Very easy and fills lots of time.
I'm a get out in all weathers person so a walk a day in the holidays is a must. However if stuck in doors my boys enjoy building lego and then taking lots of photos. They are not at the movie making stage yet but that's next.

[BornToFolk]

Banana bread and pizza here too! DS (7) is a dab hand at kneading dough and it keeps him quiet and busy for 5 mins. We do love making pizza on a Saturday afternoon and then eating it watching a film in the evening.
I get him involved in every day cooking too and he's great at grating, peeling veg and stirring. We talk a lot about what we're cooking and he tastes as we go. My Granny and mum taught me to cook and it's such a valuable life skill, I want to pass it on.

[Lariflete]

Gingerbread bears are favourite for DD and DS to make because DD (3) is learning how to mix ingredients, roll out the dough and cut out the bears and DS (1) is learning very slowly to put the currants and cherries on the bear without eating them!

We try our best to bake two or three times a week to try and get the DC involved in food preparation and healthy eating (pasta sauce, bolognese etc.). I'm currently building each of them a recipe book of all their favourite foods over the years to give on their 18th birthday.

[diamondsrock]

We don't bake too often but when we do, we love making chocolate brownies or chocolate cake. We try not to eat cakes and biscuits too often though and prefer cooking meals together like lasagne or fish pie. Other activities we like to do are arts-based, we have a lovely screen printing kit at home and like designing our own T-shirts or making pictures.

[crapcrapcrapcarp]

Gingerbread cookies and we use the playdough cutters for a variety of shapes :)

If I can't face baking then we just stick to the playdough!

[clippityclop]

I'm a firm believer in making sure our two will be able to feed themselves and their friends when they've older so right from toddlerhood they've helped me in the kitchen on a daily basis, it's not a treat nor is it a chore just a fun way of encourage them to muck in and build confidence which radiates into other aspects of their lives. In the holidays they have free rein, and on a wet day they like nothing better than making soup and herby cheese scones for lunch or oatmeal and raisin cookies to enjoy when friends visit. The degree of supervision they need has dropped back now they are 10 and 13, at New Year they cooked a complete lasagne and fruit tart dinner from scratch without us setting foot in the kitchen.Our freezer is stocked with their cut and come again apple, lemon drizzle or marble cakes which are so handy for lunch boxes or to take to share at clubs or produce as a little gift if someone is poorly etc. Flora buttery is genuinely the ingredient of choice for cakes in our kitchen as it creams so readily from the fridge.

[MaryWestmacott]

We do a lot of baking together, with 5 year old dc1 we often do fairy cakes, or try the recipes from cbeebies "I can bake" (all on the BBC website, the carrot and butternut squash cookies are a big hit).

Dc2 is only 19 months, so of limited help, however, give her a bowl with some bananas on the turn and a potato masher and she'll squidge them all up for banana bread, and likes pressing the button on the mixer for whatever I'm making. She's also quite good at cutting out the circles when I've rolled out the mixture for scones.

[Petal7]

We also do lots of cooking as it is sociable, messy, educational and fun and can be tailored appropriately to all ages. Fairy cakes are universally popular here as they are quick and easy, everyone enjoys the stirring, measuring, and scooping of the mixture, not to mention the decorating!

We also regularly make cookies, banana bread, shortbread and flapjacks as snacks and scones are also a hit. My children love making the butter and flour in to a breadcrumb texture for recipes and crumble toppings.

I encourage them to help to make family meals too, so a white sauce for a chicken pie, chopping mushrooms, grating carrots for bolognese etc

I think cooking is an essential lifeskill, but also helps create lovely memories together.

[IsabellaofFrance]

We love making gingerbread now that DD is better at waiting the half an hour while it rests in the fridge. Banana Bread is another of DD's favourites as she loves mashing the bananas.

In the past we have painted pebbles and stones, and DD loves bubble painting now that she knows to suck, not blow.

I made DD a lego table with an idea from Ikea Hackers and she loves it. We play a lot of Lego Friends together.

[addictedtosugar]

Mine love hoovering??!!! So they quite often do that, along with washing the windows and car (well, smearing the dirt around).
Home made Play doh is very popular, as you can have mountains of it (and in their choice of colours). It stores quite well in old icecream tubs if you find a heated salt dough.
Cooking isn't really anything special - we would do that at weekends. Anything that involves cutting with a table knife (banana, mushroom, other soft fruit) is popular, as is anything that used chocolate. They also love tasting the ingredients, and the mixtures - so making cake, taste the marge, taste the sugar, taste the creamed mixture.

One other very popular is to buy a roll of the cheapest lining wallpaper you can, and then make massive pictures, or draw round the outline of the child, and let them draw in clothes / fancy dress on their own outline.

[Snog]

We like to make 3D gingerbread!

[TooMuchCantBreathe]

My dc love cooking, they fight over who cooks tea however the fail safe for horrible rainy days is to make tablet, chocolate fudge, smoothies and popcorn then choosing something to watch - usually dr who reruns It's great fun but does mean extra tooth brushing - that stuff is sugary!

[WarmHugs]

I use a recipe from a book my Mum won in school in the 60s. Still works really well!

It's quick plain cakes. Great for the 5yo to practice Maths, and the 3yo loves the stirring and decorating with icing and sweets.

And I love the eating!

[TheSpottedZebra]

We often make 4442 basic cakes, and they probably know that recipe off by heart now. And they love decorating them too of course.

We also make bread rolls, and they seem to really enjoy the kneading, the tucking up of the dough to prove and checking the time, then the shaping into rolls and topping with seeds.

And they oddly like making vegetable soup, and I am grateful for this, as they will seemingly eat any veg that we have put in soup and blended.