Bread Pudding is super easy to prepare and great if you have bread which needs using up.  This recipe came from a family member and it's one of those 'throw it all in the bowl' jobs which means you can't really go wrong.

Ingredients:

500g White or Wholemeal Bread

300g Mixed Dried Fruit

1 tsp Mixed Spice

600ml Whole Milk

2 Large Eggs, beaten

140g Light Brown Soft Sugar

100g Butter, melted

2 tbsp Demerera Sugar (for the top if desired)

Recipe:

• Tear the bread into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle on the spice.  

• Mix the eggs with the milk, pour on the bread with the sugar and scrunch it up with your fingers to mix it well.

• Add the fruit and leave the mixture to sit for 15 mins while the oven is pre-heating to 180C/160C fan.

• Butter and line a 20cm square tin.

• Stir in the melted butter and make sure it's all coated. 

• Tip it all into the tin, flatten and sprinkle with sugar if desired.

• Bake for about 90 minutes and put some foil on the top if it looks like it starting to burn.  

Please remember, every oven is different and the sqewer test will let you know if more time is needed.  Once it is out of the oven, leave it to cool on a wire rack and cut when cold.

Top Tips:

There are lots of other ingredients that can be added to jazz it up more including glace cherries, mixed peel, orange or lemon rind or grated fresh apple.

Chop up half of it and wrap individually so they can be put in the freezer and taken out as and when desired.

Happy Baking!

Once upon a time, there was a young girl just days away from her 30^th birthday and close to her first mid life crisis.  Deciding that there had to be more to life, she left her job and her man and went back to the house of mum and dad with a car full of boxes and a ginger cat as her only dependant.

7 years on, the parents have custody of the cat and I am the proud owner of a husband, a toddler, a candy apple red kitchenaid and several grey hairs, and I wouldn’t change a thing. 

Life could not be more different now, one minute I was in hospital with the joys of labour and the next I’m battling in the world of toddlerdom!  In the last few weeks alone I’ve nearly been banned from the Co-Op as my boy makes a dramatic ‘grab and throw’ with a whole box of crème eggs and the day after that he decided his teddy would like to go swimming with the starfish in the Bourenmouth Oceanarium!  Some days I feel like my life is spent protecting him from impending danger as he climbs, fiddles, grabs and forever turns the bathroom taps on.  We’ve had countless items go fishing in the bath and loo including the TV remote, shoes and my beloved jewellery box!

So in my quest of trying to be a good mother I have taken him to a variety of clubs, toddler groups and attractions and found that there is tons to do in Dorset with children and I felt I’d like to share them with all the other families that live around us.

So from here on in, my Blog will hopefully include some funny stories, good ideas and fails (like the Weetabix and Banana Cake I made the other day which I could start selling as house bricks) and info on special offers that I see for attractions or family events.  I am also working on other pages which will include Dorset’s great beaches and pools and everything you need to know to plan a children’s party. 

So please come back now and again and Contact Us if you come across any events or clubs that you think are amazing. 

Thanks for reading.  

Dorsetmum.xxx