IN the Quinn household, cooking is a family affair, so it’s only fitting that the latest recipe collection produced by full-time food writer Sue is entitled The Kids Only Cookbook.

Full of both sweet and savoury recipes, the book aims to get more children cooking by themselves, and using their imagination to create their own flavours and ingredients.

“A lot of children’s cookbooks are just icing fairy cakes,” said Sue, who has previously written books on Spanish food, Japanese food and making your own crackers.

“This was an antidote. This is all food that the kids like to eat and what their friends like to eat, so there are cakes in there, obviously, but there’s savoury stuff as well.”

The book is a collection of 50 recipes for children to cook on their own, with simple instructions and step-by-step photographs.

It is aimed at children aged eight and over, although parent helpers are needed with some of the recipes, and Sue said it could even serve as a basic cookbook for adults who lack confidence in the kitchen.

She admits to having a rather hefty collection of recipes, but Sue and the children, Ruby, 11, and Ben, eight, set about emailing all their friends, as well as relatives in Sue’s native Australia – where the book has also been published – and taking surveys to find out their favourite dishes.

“I wanted to put sushi in,” pipes up Ruby, as she deftly takes a tray of rather delicious looking sausage rolls out of the oven. “I want to do another book now.”

“It was worth all the hard work,” agrees Ben. “My favourite recipe was the Awesome Chocolate Cake, because we decorated it ourselves.”

The children clearly thoroughly enjoyed making the book, although Sue admits it was a lot of hard work – more so than usual as she ended up taking all her own photos this time, at their Southbourne home.

“We started making it and doing the photos and stuff at Christmas,” she says.

“It took three or four months. I could have had a photographer doing it, but the idea is that the kids are literally making all the dishes. If you do a photo shoot you get through five to ten recipes a day and that’s just too much work for them.

“We had to fit the photos around school, so they were sometimes up at 11 o’clock at night making stuff.”

Several of Ruby and Ben’s friends also feature in the book, and were quick to add their own ideas – including a diamond-shaped pizza.

“The aim is to get kids into the kitchen, and to have fun cooking, that’s the bottom line,” says Sue, 46.

Now try this: Tin Can Ice Cream, from Sue's book. No freezer or ice cream maker required! 

“There are some basic vanilla cupcakes in the book and we try to encourage kids to put their own ingredients in. It might seem a bit wacky, but if you just go with it, you never know what might happen.

“And we’ve found that mistakes can lead to really great results. It’s about being having fun, being creative and putting your own ideas in.”

The philosophy is one Ruby and Ben have grown up with, having parents who are, admittedly, ‘a bit addicted’ to cooking.

But Sue recently realised the real benefits of having children who thoroughly enjoy cooking.

“You think you’re just going through the motions of just making cakes, but then they turn around and make you a meal,” she said. “We didn’t even ask them, they just offered to do it.”

  • The Kids Only Cookbook by Sue Quinn (Quadrille, £12.99), is now available at bookshops across Dorset.