Children's Summer Picnic Cooking
Alison Crouch, Cookery School Manager, Ferry Project Cookery School Manager
In this session, Alison Crouch, an experienced cook, restaurant manager, recipe creator, teacher, and food presenter, shares a series of cute and easy to make summer snacks for kids.
In this fun cookery session, Alison shows you how to make three playful recipes that are perfect for getting creative in the kitchen: savoury potato boats, cucumber bugs and ice cream cone cupcakes. From a tasty lunch or snack to a fun summer treat, these easy recipes for kids are a great way to make food more exciting and enjoy some creative cooking together.
About Alison:
Alison is manager of the Ferry Project Cookery School in Wisbech which teaches cooking skills. As a social enterprise, the Ferry Project Cookery School provides vocational skills and work experience in hospitality for its homeless clients, alongside training in useful cooking skills – all of which assists homeless people in their journey towards independent living.
You can find out more about the Ferry Project on their website - The Ferry Project Website
Preparation
Set out your ingredients and equipment
Video time
30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 large baking potato, cooked, left from a meal, or cook in a microwave for 5 to 10 minutes
- 25g butter
- 1 tbsp parmesan, grated
- 1 tbsp cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 tbsp sweetcorn
- 1 rasher cooked bacon Or 2 tbsp tuna
- A handful of fresh basil
- Salt and pepper
- 25g grated cheddar
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- 2 cocktail sticks
- 2 cucumber ribbons
Method:
- Cut your cooked baking potato in half lengthways. Scoop out the flesh and place into a bowl.
- Mash in the butter, parmesan and cheddar. Mash well (it is easier when the potato is slightly warm). Stir in the sweetcorn, bacon or tuna, and basil. Mix well and season.
- Place on a baking sheet. Spoon over the sour cream and cheddar and bake at 180C for about 25 minutes, or place in an air fryer for 10 minutes and bake until golden brown on top.
- Use the cucumber ribbons to make a sail by threading onto the cocktail sticks. Once the potato is cooked place into the skin to look like a boat.
Ingredients:
- ½ cucumber
- 1 tub cream cheese
- Plain pretzels
- Currants or sultanas
Method:
- Slice the cucumber lengthways to make rectangular bases. Thickly spread on cream cheese.
- Place on the pretzels at an angle to make wings. Put the currants as eyes.
Ingredients:
Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
- 12 flat-bottomed ice cream cones
- 175g softened butter
- 175g golden caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 175g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
Icing
- 150g butter, softened
- 350g icing sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Sprinkles
- Flakes
- Glacé cherries
- Sauces
Method:
- Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Sit the cones in a muffin tin to hold them upright.
- Put the butter, sugar, eggs and flour in a large mixing bowl. Cream together the mixture or beat together with an electric whisk until smooth. Stir in the vanilla essence. Fill the cones.
- Bake the cone cakes, still in the muffin tin, for 25 to 30 mins until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool.
- Make the icing: beat the butter until smooth, then add the icing sugar and vanilla, and beat again until well mixed. Put into a piping bag fitted with a big star nozzle, then pipe icing on top of each cake as you would a cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, cherries, drizzles of sauce and a flake.
Alison's recipes
If you enjoyed this session with Alison, you can explore more of her recipes here!
