This book is inspired by Louise’s childhood growing up in her grandmother’s kitchen.
About the author
Louise is a graduate of Cordon Bleu Cookery School and like me, has a passion for helping children develop a love of food. Her Grandmother Margaret who wrote the recipes for this book, is one of Australia’s most respected cookery writers. She sounds much like our very own Mary Berry!
The book is very simply split into recipes for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. There is a wonderful blend of photography and illustration in this book in a Charlie and Lola style that makes this book a wonderful read. My 7 year old daughter, Amy, quite enjoyed reading this without doing any of the cooking as there is a little puppy that interacts with the Lulu, the narrator, and Harry, her brother. The language is very simple and engaging for children and all the measures are in cups and spoonfuls whereever possible/
The recipes are simple and include a mix of those children and parents are likely to know as well as other’s which are not traditionally perceived as “child friendly”. I like this mix because it helps to introduce children to “adult” food in a very familiar way.
For example, my children are used to having porridge with fruits and nuts but had never tried Bircher Muesli. Not sure why as my husband and I love it! The ingredients were familiar and after reading and measuring everything out herself, Amy happily ate a bowlful and invented her own combinations.
This is the same for the peach smoothie. We didn’t have any peaches so we used our blueberries. Such a great way of getting healthy botanicals and calcium into children who have given up a daily bottle or glass of milk.
My girls love poached eggs but as yet I have not let them cook these because I’m not quite confident about them cracking eggs over boiling water on their own. With the Eggs in Ramekins recipe, they made their own in little recycled Gu Pudding pots!
The recipes are written very simply and older children could make many of these on their own under your supervision. My girls cook on their own every weekend and if this is something you are keen to encourage with your own little ones, then this book is a perfect starting point. For example, my eldest daughter Amber made Pink Pavlova by herself following this recipe and using our KitchenAid. She really enjoyed seeing the mixture change consistency and then experimenting with the pinkness. Imagine the fun at Halloween with green!
This book is perfect for primary school aged children and parents wanting to take that first step towards raising children to be confident cooks and eaters. Hope you’ll have lots of fun with it. Listen to what my daughter Amy thought of it…
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Recipes
I made the Oat and Raisin Cookies below for my Afternoon Tea event at Pipedream Restaurant for the children and Amy made them with step by step pics for The Great British Baking Club.
Image courtesy of Monica Shaw at www.monicashaw.com
Book details
Hardcover ISBN 9781742701141: £12.99
Published by Hardie Grant Books
Louise’s details
Twitter : @LFultonKeats
Web: www.mygrandmaskitchen.com.au
To enter a giveaway for a copy of this book, simply leave a comment below and for an additional chance, tweet ”I’ve entered the @BotanicalBaker giveaway for My Grandma’s Kitchen”. Closing date Friday 10 February 2012.
I have a very enthusiastic toddler who already enjoys helping in the kitchen. I would love some simply structured recipes to further encourage him
Brilliant! I think that’s the important thing.
Sounds great. I have two young boys that I want to ensure can competently handle a kitchen. Perfect husband material for the future!
I like that line of thinking!
I love the sound of this. My son is an enthusiastic baker and batter eater – trouble is more goes in his mouth than in the baking tins!
To the cook go the spoils!
Please could you add me to the entrants, its a gorgeous looking book!
Tweeting as @kathvbtn
done 🙂 thanks for entering x
My granddaughter is almost three but already learning to cook and will eat almost anything, especially if it has her own home made curry powder in it. She grows some of her own herbs and veg too! Her Mummy has just sterted teaching her to bake, so i would love this bookso that I can join in too.
I’ve also tweeted. @janesgrapevine
That’s brilliant! Thanks for entering. Good luck with your little botanical baker 🙂
I have a toddler who already enjoys helping in the kitchen
Thanks for entering Emma 🙂
My little girl loves cooking we usually stick to the simple fairy cakes and gingerbread men but it would be great to have some different ideas and introduce her to some different recipes.
Perfect! Thanks for entering 😉
I have a 9 year old boy who sometimes wants to m,ake things. This sounds a good book for him to interact with
I would say this is a little young for him but have entered you anyway. 🙂
This sounds great and a lovely thing to share with the nephew and niece when they come to stay, so they can bake and take treats home!
What a great aunt you are! Thanks for entering x
My children love to cook with me, and this looks like it would be really fun.
If they are pre primary school or early primary school, they’ll love it! thanks for entering x
what a fabulous book – know just who I would share this book with! thanks
Thanks for entering Teresa x
My Gran was a huge inspiration to me. I still have her handwritten cookbook, which was a huge A4 hard cover book and I treasure it. She also used to cut out recipes from magazines and paste them the book. It’s a nostalgia trip to page through the book. I’d give this book to my 5 year old nephew, who already cooks with his Granny, my Mum and I have high hopes for his culinary future.
Aww that’s awesome! I am making a book like that from recipes from my aunts. They never wrote things down in their day as many didn’t know how to write. They passed it on by teaching and word of mouth. Thanks for entering the draw x
My 6 year old son and me have been baking together for years, he even has magic words for when cakes go in the oven and they’ve not failed us yet!! Yesterday his 15 month old sister joined in the mixing fun, and even egg washed the scones for us!! Would love this book to give us more inspiration for rainy day baking magic!!!
Brilliant! Thanks for entering x
My children want to write a cookery book, hopefully they won’t have to wait until I am a grandma to do it though!!
Mine write cookery books too. We do them per recipe step by step like this : http://www.greatbritishbakingclub.co.uk/2012/01/budding-bakers-baked-cheesecake.html and then print them off and put them in a folder. Thanks for entering x
This looks lOvely!!
It is a gorgeously illustrated book. thank you for entering x
As a chef and mum of 2 I’m all for etting kids cooking,
I work on a food project with children as young as 6months who cook, explore food, and above all eat!
I’d love to win this though,it sounds like a great inspiration from Amuy’s review!
Fantastic! Thanks for entering x
My 3 yr old and 5 yr old would love helping me make some things out of this book. It looks fab x