Does your little explorer have an upcoming birthday party or a love for animals? If so, I’ve put together three fun inspired recipes that will complement any celebration or ‘Into The Wild’ table setting.
Below you’ll find three different recipes, two sweet and one savoury. The first recipe is a cupcake inspired by the lion, the second is stipey cookies inspired by a zebra and finally a balanced savoury recipe which is a pinwheel scone resembling a snake. If not all of them, you’re bound to find one recipe your little explorer will love. For these recipes I’ve also tried to add in some instructional photos, so I hope they help make the baking process easier to follow or understand.
This content was originally created back in April 2020 together with Bobux, right when the global pandemic caused New Zealand to go into a nationwide lockdown. Bobux acknowledged all the children celebrating their birthday parties in isolation, so approached me to come up with some fun recipes to inspire parents and keep birthdays special, even in isolation. I thought these recipes were fun, so not only are these recipes shared on Bobux’s website, but I’ve also decided to share them here too. I hope you enjoy them, and I’d love to see your photos!
Pineapple & Coconut Lion Cupcakes
The king of the jungle, a cupcake inspired by the lion itself. With a moist cake filled with the light flavours of coconut and pineapple, this is then topped with a buttercream full of more coconut and pineapple flavours, perhaps that’s why it’s called the Pineapple & Coconut Lion Cupcake! If you’re wanting to learn a new skill and add that extra lion-like look, try dehydrating some pineapple wheels to look like a lion’s mane, it will really give that wow factor to your table.
- 1 Whole Pineapple
- 60g Desiccated Coconut
- 130g Self Raising Flour
- 130g Caster Sugar
- ¼ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 130g Butter – Room Temperature
- 2 Eggs
- 3 Tablespoons Crushed Pineapple
- 150g Butter – Room Temperature
- 340g Icing Sugar
- 1-2 Tablespoons Crushed Pineapple
- 12 Dried Pineapple Wheels
- Shredded Coconut
- Chocolate Chips
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Remove the skin from the pineapple and cut ½ cm slices through the pineapple.
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Carefully cut out the circular core from the pineapple to form rings.
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Place on a lined tray and bake at 80°C for 8-12 hours or until completely dried though. Turning often. Alternatively you can use a dehydrator.
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Preheat oven to 180°C bake and line a cupcake tray with paper cases. Set aside.
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Either using a hand-beater or stand-mixer, beat together all of the cupcake ingredients until smooth.
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Fill cupcake case about ⅔ full and bake for around 16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and cakes spring back when touched. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
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Either using a hand-held beater or stand-mixer, beat butter for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy.
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Add the icing sugar in two stages, beating for 3 minutes between each stage.
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Add the crushed pineapple and continue to beat until well incorporated and smooth.
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Pipe blobs of buttercream on top of each cupcake and roll through shredded coconut.
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Pipe a small blob of buttercream in the center of dried pineapple wheels, create eyes and a nose with chocolate chips and use dried pineapple offcuts to create ears.
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Using toothpicks, insert these into the tops of the cupcake and sit the lion wheels atop securely.
Vanilla & Chocolate Zebra Cookies
Lucky stripes, cookies inspired by the fun pattern on zebras. Surprisingly, these cookies aren’t overly sweet, so they make the perfect addition to any party table without overdoing it. The technique to make these cookies is quite fun once you get your head around it, and once baked, well worth the effort! Give these lightly flavoured vanilla and chocolate cookies a try with your little explorers and see who can decorate the best looking zebra face.
- 240g Plain Flour
- 80g Butter – Room Temperature
- 1 Egg
- 3 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 40g Icing Sugar
- 20g Cocoa
- 100g Milk or Dark Chocolate
- White Chocolate Chips
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Either using a hand-beater or stand-mixer, beat together the butter and icing sugar until fluffy
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Beat in the egg and vanilla before adding in the flour. Continue to beat until a dough comes together.
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Divide dough into two evenly sized balls. Place one of the balls into another bowl, add the cocoa along with a teaspoon of cold water and continue to fold through until even in colour and consistency.
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Now with two balls of dough (one vanilla, one chocolate), flatten slightly and press both doughs on top of each other. Slice dough down the middle and place on top of each other, molding dough back into a log. Slice down the center once again and place dough on top of each other, moulding again into a log shape. Repeat this several more times until you have nice layers of vanilla and chocolate.
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Finally, mould into a log one last time, wrap in cling-film and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
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Preheat oven to 220°C bake, line a baking tray and set aside.
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Once dough is chilled and firm, cut the log into 1cm circular slices. Arrange on a baking tray and bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly coloured and baked through. Remove from the oven and cool.
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Melt milk chocolate in a small pot over a larger pot of simmering water until smooth.
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Using a piping bag or bottle with a small nozzle, draw a circular snout shape toward the bottom of the cooled cookies before placing 2 white chocolate chips to resemble nostrils.
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Continue to use this milk chocolate to place some eyes before allowing chocolate to cool and set.
Cheese & Pesto Pinwheel Snakes
Snakes on a stick, or simply leave them to slither around on a plate. Either way, these savoury additions are fun, easy to make and delicious. Children love cheese and the pesto gives a neat green colour to these snake pinwheels. So simply fill, roll up, slice and bake. Before serving, don’t forget to add the most important feature of the snake, it’s tongue! Ssss…
- 250g Plain Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
- 30g Butter
- 190ml Milk
- 50g Pesto
- Grated Cheese
- 1 Red Capsicum
- 12 Sticks
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Preheat oven to 220°C bake, line a baking tray and set aside.
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In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, along with a pinch of salt.
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Add butter and rub through dry ingredients with fingertips until it resembles a fine bread crumb.
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Pour in the milk, mixing and cutting through with a metal knife until the dough comes together.
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Pour out onto a floured surface and knead into a ball. Using a rolling pin, roll to a 20x30cm rectangle.
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Spread rolled out dough with pesto and sprinkle with a handful of cheese.
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Carefully roll dough from the long edge until you’ve created a log. Evening slice 1.5cm segments, lay on prepared baking tray and tidy segments into circular shapes.
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Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly coloured and risen. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
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Slice thin strips of capsicum and trim to resemble the shape of a snake tongue.
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Using a toothpick, carefully make an incision big or wide enough to insert the tongue into the end of the pinwheel. Again use the toothpick to help maneuver and push the tongue inside the incision.
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To insert the stick, firmly hold a pinwheel with your hand and push the stick half way through, arrange your snakes in a jar.
Thanks so much to Bobux for helping me make this post possible.
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