Last weekend, we looked after our two nieces, Leah and Katrina. The big challenge for us was looking for things to do to keep two boys aged 2 and 3 and two girls aged 5 and 12 amused!

They played in the garden in the morning, but just before lunch the heavens opened. After colouring and drawing, they managed to talk me into baking cakes with them. Anyone who has been to our house will know the kitchen is barely big enough for one person, let alone five of us! Leah (the eldest) and I gathered all the stuff we needed for banana cupcakes together and we headed for the dining table.

We talked about the ingredients and the kids helped to weigh it all out. They each had a go at cracking the eggs (swiftly followed by me fishing bits of egg shell out of the mix!), and all had a turn at mashing bananas and stirring the mixture.

Once the cakes had been cooked and had cooled down, they got on with the all important job of decorating them with chocolate fudge icing – I think Alex ate more than he spread!

The finished cakes, as you can imagine, didn’t last very long!