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

dropped scones are a favourite - eat with butter and raspberry jam

My kids and I play ready steady cook! We use food we can find in the kitchen - fridge and cupboards, and they help plan dinner.

Chocolate chip cookies are my son's favourite recipe. He loves to make and eat them... The only problem is they get eaten so quickly!

We love baking and decorating cakes and cookies, as well as making our own pizzas on a Saturday night.

My children like baking for their friends. They know to ask first and I usually say yes if I don't need the kitchen, as long as they clean up afterwards and add any ingredients we run low of to the shopping list.

When a friend has a birthday they bake cookies, muffins or cakes. I got them various things to help with their baking for Christmas (they haven't used many though). Last week DD1baked a big chocolate cake, it turned out very well. She got the recipe online, it used gluten free flour and it was a really good cake. DD2's favourite thing to make is chocolate brownies.

We're also learning to bake bread. I made some vegetable and lentil fougasse last week which worked really well.

I used to bake with them but recently realised it is not always the best. They gorge themselves on biscuits and then have a massive sugar rush which is really unpleasant. However, not long ago when both my kids were off school we spent the whole morning making a tropical paradise. The rule was that they could use anything in the house that was no longer in use or that we needed.

My eldest made a lego house with a swimming pool, and a wind catcher to stop typhoons from destroying the paradise.

it had palm trees made from used toilet rolls and cardboard.

There was a beach which was made from an old coat and old card (it had a sandy colour) and sea was an old blue scarf I had. There was even a bridge which connected both

A jeep and a helicopter - and a helipad which was in the sea (there was a bridge to this).

We then put on the heaters and pretended we were on a beach and ate ice cream - it was hours of amusement for two frustrated children.

If it is a midweek -after school activity, then we generally make something like flapjacks, gingerbread or cupcakes which can be wrapped up and put in tomorrow's lunchbox. If it is the weekend, then we tend to make bigger cakes where they spend the most time over decorating it (or pinching smarties / buttons when I'm not looking).

We love to make marble cake mixing chocolate cake mix with plain cake mix, we sometimes just make mini cakes by just replacing cake tin with bun cases :)
It's hard to keep them both away until the buns cool as the like to eat them warm lol

Rock cakes are a good favourite of ours that don't require too many presentation skills (!)

Baking bread.

My DS and I love making muffins, cupcakes and biscuits together.
We also love making doggie treats for our lil King Charles Cavalier have to hide these ones though otherwise daddy eats them.

I'd be the first to say I'm not a great cook! However, I'll give things a go and I'm keen that my daughter who is nearly 5 tries different flavours and textures so I'll be baking muffins, cupcakes, pizza and my piece de la resistance - Moroccan Chicken.

Whether they will be eaten though.....;)

Getting all the left over Christmas chocolate melting in a pan and making chocolate rice crispy cakes with my boys

DCs favourite things to bake are chocolate chip cookies and making their own pizzas. The cookies are scrummy, but the pizzas sometimes end up with some weird cominations of toppings!

We use the chocolate lolly maker all the time,so easy and quick and fun,any extra choc we use to dip in fruit.
Other ideas for the holidays,try city free farms,or pets at home.

Gingerbread men - although we always end up in an argument as to how long to leave them in the oven for. I like them soft by the OH likes them with some crunch!

My daughter is nearly 2 and has just started getting interested in the kitchen. I'm not much of a baker but we've so far made polar bear muffins and cheesecake. She loves stirring the ingredients together, and even likes washing up afterwards! Am hoping to do lots more this year.

You can't beat fairy cakes.

No pun intended

My son and I love making bread together as well as flapjacks!
We do loads of things indoors from making books, cutting and sticking, building indoor dens to playing with cornflour, making dough and drawing and painting.

I'm not confident letting my almost 3 yr old baking so we stick to things which don't require cooking like chocolate cornflake cakes.

We do love making arts and crafty things, yesterday we made a bird and a flower using card and then sticking little coloured squares on, my MIL was very pleased with her flower

I usually whip up a bunch of fairy cakes (are they called cupcakes these days?) and let the kids go wild with decorating them...their imagination is pretty impressive sometimes - they created hamburgers the other day...

My son always wants to bake cupcakes but is only really interested in licking the bowl and helping to decorate them...and eating them of course!

We also love playing good old fashioned board games as a family. Fun things like Twister are always entertaining and keeps them away from their Xbox and iPad for a while :)

We love drawing together, playing hide and seek, rock scissors stone and baking fairy cakes. My daughter has never really been too interested in TV and loves cooking, drawing and playing games, I try to encourage her as I know technology will take over once she's older. :)

I'm not big on baking and only do it for the kids. Simple but tasty things that usually includes cream, chocolate, icing etc and the kids really enjoy being able to lick the bowl!

Pancake day is a few weeks away. Try to not make pancakes a once a year activity though as they are far too good for that. Today was the first set of the year.

Like to mix it up and do different styles. Today was fluffy American style with Maple Syrup. Scotch pancakes with butter next week.