Summer holidays are long and a great time to let your children try their hand at some baking. I was talking to a young 12 year old girl the other day who was saying she was desperately keen to try some baking but her Mum was always finding excuses, so she still hadn't ever done any.

Both boys and girls usually love to do some cooking, and it is a good way of giving them some important cooking skills to carry through to adulthood. The younger they start, generally the better they are at cooking when they get older is my general observation. There may be a little mess......but teaching them that cleaning up is all part of the joy of cooking, is also a good way to overcome that problem. C23TJTZCK838

Cooking covers meals while baking is more about making cakes, biscuits, squares and slices and sweet things. It is not only creative, but teaches kids about nutrition, ingredients and measuring, along with the thrill of eating something they have made themselves.

Hopefully they will be inspired to cook and bake rather than wanting to eat takeaways. I explained to this young girl how to make a bacon and egg pie they could take on a picnic. I hope she tries it.

There are several recipes on www.cakefare.com that are excellent for children starting to bake. You may need to supervise if they are using a food processor or pot on the stove. Let them try the Easy Banana Cake Recipe or the Easy Banana Bread. If they don't like banana so much perhaps the Eggless Chocolate Cake  or Favourite Fruit Cake.

These are all easy, and they have a good chance of producing a yummy cake to share with the family.Once they get used to reading recipes and how to measure the various ingredients, how to prepare the cake pans and what to do and not do once the baking is in the oven, they can progress to more challenging recipes.

I am always surprised at adults who say they can't bake......even those who cook perfectly well with savoury dishes . Most just lack confidence because they didn't learn to bake when they were young and maybe tried and had a disaster. Like most things, it is learning the skills and practice. So do encourage your children to do some baking.......and it will fill in some holiday time and your cake tins as well.

Christmas over it is summer holidays here in New Zealand, and a time to catch up with friends and family. For New Year we made our annual visit to a beach area at Mangawhai north of Auckland, where we have several friends who now either live there or have beach bachs ( houses)

It is always everybody bringing baking and salads to share with BBQ'd meat. I didn't have much time and opted for a sultana cake which is always popular. The dried fruit is boiled, the butter chopped into the hot, plump fruit, then cooled a little before mixing in the flour and other dried ingredients along with beaten eggs and sugar. Made in one pot this is a quick cake, yet large, very moist and great for picnics, lunchboxes or with a cup of tea or coffee.

I found I was short of sultanas as it needs a full 1 lb (450gram ) packet. However I did have dried cranberries and realised these would  go well with the sultanas.

The Sultana and Cranberry Fruitcake  was still warm when we arrived and we cut into it  immediately. The cranberries gave it a delicious tang and proved popular. I would definitely make this recipe with the cranberries again for something a little different. It is always good just with sultanas... but it is always nice to have a change.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and may 2014 be