swings and roundabouts

Okay, making your own digestive biscuits is not cheaper than buying a pack, but they do taste fine, very fine indeed.

And what could be more fun than baking with a toddler, right? Um, well, depends on what you're baking. In this case not so fun. You mix the bran, sugar and flour with butter in the way you would a crumble - not with a wooden spoon that flicks it all over the place.

'Spoon mummy, mix' he declares as my precious ingredients go flying. Mummy takes over firmly at this stage. Stir in a beaten egg. Then we come to rolling out, which toddler boy loves almost as much as mixing, he just doesn't grasp the need for it to be flat. Mummy attempts to take over which results in toddler boy declaring war and taking the pottery pekeko hostage. Biscuit mix isn't the only thing he's capable of flinging. So mummy offers a peace treaty in the shape of a star biscuit cutter. Now we're getting somewhere. The stars land safely on the baking tray and toddler boy is delighted.

Then he discovers the off cuts, which mummy plans to roll out again and make yet more stars with, but no, toddler boy grabs and eats. Yum? I doubt it but it doesn't stop him having another go, at which mummy intervenes with a swift lift and swoop manouvre placing the other side of the safety gate. Ah, that's better. Raw egg and toddler tums should not meet.

So that was digestive biscuit making day. An hour of toddler entertainment, 16 biscuits all for the price of a few ingredients and a mild stress head, not bad.