Easter Baking Hacks

This Easter staple requires bread making, piping and glazing skills, so is a wonderful test for home cooks – try a traditional recipe of hot cross buns. But don’t turn the oven on just before you put the cross buns in – it needs to be at 250°C for at least 20 minutes. Then, drop the temperature to 180°C so the buns still “jump” or rise. Resist the temptation to pull them apart once done and allow them to cool on a wire tray.

Baking is a wonderful way to bond with your kids. Allow your kids to tap into their inner Jamie Oliver. That’s when you get the most pleasure and enjoyment out of it. Kids love kneading and rolling dough and cutting out little biscuits by hand, and generally that means making a mess. Getting children to help with a carrot cake is good because there are so many different element. Let the children grate carrots, ensuring they’re not grating fingers, and allow them to measure sultanas and nuts since they don’t need to be exact. They can also butter the tin and mix the cream cheese until it’s soft. Easter baking is an easy sell for kids, who love to break eggs, mix batter and decorate with chocolate.

Get creative! Replace flour with ground nuts, turning a carrot cake into a parsnip and pear cake, adding raisins instead of chocolate chips or replacing milk with coconut yogurt.

Apples and pears, which you can buy cheaply, lend themselves to home baking well. Think about baked cheesecakes, rich fruitcakes and anything chocolate. You can also combine milk and dark chocolate for a child-friendly treat with adult appeal.

Make hot cross buns half the size, or bake a traditional European Simnel cake in cupcake cases, topped with a thin disc of marzipan while they’re still hot so that it melts on top.

Rather than bake tray after tray of Easter biscuits, use half your dough and save the rest for later. Simply shape excess into a log, roll and seal in baking paper, and freeze. To re-use, slice frozen dough into 1cm rounds and bake per recipe.

To save yourself stress, bake cakes, cookies and bread first thing in the morning. Happy Easter!