Today I was invited, along with some other lovely bloggers to the Cheshire Cookery School in Altrincham where Oven Pride were hosting a cookery masterclass. We saw a demonstration of how effective Oven Pride is at cleaning the built up grime we all secretly have in our ovens, before chef Kurt Thomas taught us how to make a soda bread that doesn’t need proving, some simple meatballs and homemade baked beans. But that wasn’t the best bit. Did I mention that they invited my kiddies along as well? And then entertained them for me…for 3 hours!!

So where to start? I’ve never visited the Cheshire Cookery School before but I was very impressed. There are steam ovens, induction hobs and very sharp knives which put mine to shame. (I demonstrated this by nicking my thumb while chopping an onion immediately after they told everyone to be careful.. it would only be me wouldn’t it ;)). Today was an event for the grown-ups to cook while the kiddies were kept busy but they also do children’s cookery classes which sound fabulous. We watched Kurt the Chef demonstrate all the recipes before being let loose ourselves. The soda bread in particular was very easy and takes maybe 30 minutes from start to finish.

Ingredients:

170g Self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 pint of milk

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 200c.
• Add the lemon juice to the milk to sour it (or alternatively you could use buttermilk).
• Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
• Slowly add the milk to the flour mix stirring with a wooden spoon until most of the flour is picked up then use your hands to bring the mix together.
• Form into a rounded loaf shape and cut a cross in the top.
• Bake for about 20 minutes.

After making the soda bread we moved on to the meatballs and home made baked beans, both were really easy to make and so much healthier than the supermarket options. I brought most of mine home and fed it to my husband for tea which he really enjoyed.

While we were cooking the kiddies were busy decorating ginger biscuits, colouring, sticking and playing with toy fruit and veg. (Well I say toy; I suspect they were really to look pretty but they got attacked by curious 2 year olds.) My son loved decorating and eating the gingerbread and after we got home we used royal icing to assemble the houses they had been using. See if you can guess which one the 4 year old had most to do with?