Apple and Pear Cake

I truly enjoy doing homework with my kids. Theoretically concise and succinct, in practice it requires sometimes lengthy convincing and persuading, but we always get there in the end, to our parental astonishment. As they are still very young, it’s all mostly play-based and often maths turns into baking tasks, to understand volume and mass. This little apple and pear recipe is a result of one of those weekly assignments. We had to think about zero waste and decided to rescue some unappealing (but equally pricey) pears from the corner shop and then exercised gentle encouragement for the youngest to practice measuring, with the never-failing promise of spoon licking upon completion, the whole family’s partaking and reward.

Short and sweet, it filled our winter afternoon with warmth and purpose. Hope it fulfills you too!

Corona de Reyes

We haven’t stopped baking since the beginning of Christmas and were determined to keep it up until Epiphany, aligned with our Christmas tree. We celebrated the arrival of the 3 Kings with our debut of the Corona de Reyes, a rolled, wreath-type of cake, stuffed with dried fruit and nuts and decorated with candied cherries and walnuts. A delight for all senses. Ideally we would have loved to include a ceramics figurine, as some Latin American traditions suggest that whoever finds it in their slice will then host a meal at a Candlemass on the 2nd of February but we all know that for the moment, I embodied that figurine myself so it would be rather cynical to be formally allocated that role. Perhaps next year we’ll be a little bit more sociable and enjoy it in the company of other families and finally play the game. A resolution for 2027!