Baking with Ribena, with help from the monkies!

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Remember the Ribena Blackcurrant Berries Jam that the monkies had a hand in making a few months back? It turned out it was such a hit that the boys had it with their bread nearly every school day morning... and we had to churn out another brand new jar of jam soon after. 

Not that I am complaining of course. Because if you have been regularly reading my blog, you will know that my monkies love cooking and baking... and the wifey and I are more than happy to indulge them. 

Cooking, and in particular baking, with kids is one of the best ways to make connections across many disciplines. More than just making food, a child sees science in action, learns basic math, reading and time-telling skills, knows what goes into the food, builds confidence and creativity, and most importantly, enhances communication with parent and child. Simply put, cooking with little ones is nothing short of awesome.

So when the monkies suggested using the Ribena Blackcurrant Berries Jam to conjure another creation, the wifey - with some help from the Ribena Recipe booklet - zoomed in on the Ribena Blackcurrant Fresco Cake!

Looks pretty, huh? Even though the steps are more than the process of making the jam, the monkies still had a great time whipping this up. For starters, the ingredients are all relatively easy to obtain.

Ingredients:
120g plain flour
80g self-rising flour
30g sliced almonds
25g corn flour
4 egg whites
40g plain sugar
1 whole egg
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
60g castor sugar
125g butter melt together with 60g corn oil
60ml Ribena Blackcurrant Fruit Cordial in 40ml hot water
60g Ribena Blackcurrant Jam

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 40 to 50 minutes
Yields: About 2 loaves

Directions:

1. Sift all the flour together.

Sifting the flour was fun, but not as fun as separating the egg whites from the yolks if you ask the monkies. And one of the cooking hacks that both Ash and Ayd watched online was the precisely that - using an empty plastic bottle.

Ale's commentary made it all cuter, no?

2. Whip egg whites and plain sugar to meringue stage and set aside.

I'm no baking guru, but I guess what this means is the egg whites must be firm enough to not flow out when upside-down.

3. Whisk whole egg, egg yolks, vanilla essence and castor sugar till thick and creamy.

4. Add hot butter oil, Ribena Blackcurrant Fruit Cordial and sifted flour mixture.

5. Fold in the egg white meringue into the mixture in 3 batches. Divide and pour cake batter into a loaf pan. Tap it lightly to distribute the cake mixture evenly.

6. Place the Ribena Blackcurrant jam into a piping bag. Pipe in circles on the top of the batter, and use a skewer to make patterns if you desire. Decorate the surface with sliced almonds.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes at 200°C. Then lower temperature to 160°C and bake for another 30 to 35 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out clean.

Note: We do not have an oven at home, so we made do with the Philips Airfryer.

8. Once done, remove the the cake loaves and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before flipping out.

Slice the cake up and it is all done!

Needless to say, the monkies had second, even third, helpings for breakfast. And they even requested for a cup of Ribena drink to wash everything down - which I duly obliged since not only is Ribena cordial made from 100% New Zealand Blackcurrants, it is rich in Vitamin C and contains no artificial colour, flavour or sweetener!


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