Baking expert Briony Williams tests some recipe for kids with her daughter Nora 

<p>Briony May stole the nation&rsquo;s hearts with her fantastic baking skills last year on Channel 4&rsquo;s <em>The Great British Bake Off</em>. Now, the 34-year-old mum, who lives in Bristol with her husband Steve and daughter Nora, three, has teamed up with us to create some unique animal-inspired recipes to bake at home with your little ones.</p><p>In between making doggy biscuits and elephant pizzas, she filled us in on her time in the tent...</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="asda-briony-1__square" class="ci-image ci-square" src="https://ui3.assets-asda.com/dm/asda-briony-1__square_GL?scl=1"></p><h2>How did it feel to cook in the Bake Off tent?</h2><p>It was so hot with last summer&rsquo;s heatwave! But it&rsquo;s such an amazing atmosphere &ndash; it&rsquo;s just buzzing all the time. From the minute you step in at seven in the morning, there&rsquo;s so much going on and so many people who are part of the team. It&rsquo;s busier than I thought it was going to be, but it&rsquo;s great. It&rsquo;s just like you would want it to be.<br> </p><h2>Do you have a favourite contestant from a previous series?</h2><p>I always loved Selasi, he was great, and lovely Liam, too. And Nadiya, obviously. I remember when she won, I was so emotional watching it. When I knew I was going to be on, I went back to the first series and watched it all again.<br> </p><h2>How did you juggle your life with filming Bake Off every weekend?</h2><p>I&rsquo;m so blessed &ndash; I have such a supportive family. My mum helps out a lot and my husband&rsquo;s incredible. We put Nora in for an extra day at nursery each week, and my mum would look after her so I could practice. I don&rsquo;t know how people who work full time manage to do it!<br> </p><h2>Being a Bake Off contestant is hard work &ndash; what kept you going?</h2><p>I remember my husband saying to me, ‘You know, you&rsquo;re never going to get to do this again &ndash; you have to go and do it properly.&rsquo; I&rsquo;m glad he said that because it meant that I tried really hard every week.<br> </p><h2>How did you get into baking?</h2><p>I baked a bit as a kid with my nan, but I really got into it in 2013 when I was off work for nine months. I was ill, but they didn&rsquo;t know what was wrong &ndash; eventually we figured out it was polycystic ovary syndrome. I&rsquo;m not very good at doing nothing, so the nurse at the school where I worked suggested I start baking. It really relaxed me and kept me happy. My uncle was in hospital at the time, so I&rsquo;d go to London with shedloads of shortbread for him and the nurses.<br> </p><h2>And you taught yourself some of the trickier techniques by watching YouTube tutorials…</h2><p>Yes, I learned everything on YouTube. For Bake Off, I watched videos of these Ukrainian women making korovai (a Ukrainian wedding bread) in their kitchens. I didn&rsquo;t understand a word they were saying, but just watched what they were doing.<br> </p><h2>Has Nora always enjoyed helping you out in the kitchen?</h2><p>Yes, she&rsquo;s been helping for as long as she&rsquo;s been able to. We bake a couple of times a week and she loves making cakes and stamping out biscuits. She&rsquo;s learning about what goes into a cake, into bread, into pastry. She loves it.<br> </p><h2>Do you have any tips for parents who want to bake with their kids?</h2><p>First, pre-warn yourself that there&rsquo;s going to be lots of mess and just embrace it! Also, if you&rsquo;re making something that needs exact amounts, weigh everything before you get started, so the kids can just tip it in. They don&rsquo;t have to make something from start to finish either. It doesn&rsquo;t matter if they&rsquo;re decorating with shop-bought icing, as long as you&rsquo;re involving them in one way or another.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="briony-asda-2__square" class="ci-image ci-square" src="https://ui3.assets-asda.com/dm/briony-asda-2__square_GL?scl=1"></p><p> </p><p><strong>Briony's cute, animal-inspired recipes range from bunny apple tarts to elephant pizzas &ndash; which is your favourite?...</strong><br> </p><h2>Elephant pizzas </h2><p>If you're going to make a pizza, why not give it a dough tusk, as with <a href="https://www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/elephant-pizzas" target="_blank">this simple recipe</a>? Briony says her daughter Nora 'loves elephants, so these pizzas, with pineapple ears, are great to make with her'.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="asda-elephant-pizza2__square" class="ci-image ci-square" src="https://ui3.assets-asda.com/dm/asda-elephant-pizza2__square_GL?scl=1"> </p><h2>Lion filo crinkles with butternut squash & pine nuts</h2><p>We've had elephants, so how about lions? We love these <a href="https://www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/lion-filo-crinkles-with-butternut-squash-pine-nuts" target="_blank">lion-inspired filo crinkles</a>. The filo pastry gives the illusion of a mane, while orange of the squash is the perfect shade for a face. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="asda-lion-butternut-tarts__square" class="ci-image ci-square" src="https://ui3.assets-asda.com/dm/asda-lion-butternut-tarts__square_GL?scl=1"></p><h2>Doggy spiced turmeric biscuits</h2><p>Turmeric gives these spiced biscuits their warm colour &ndash; moreish and easy to assemble, <a href="https://www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/doggy-spiced-turmeric-biscuits" target="_blank">these biscuits</a> are also dairy-free. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="asda-dog-biscuits__square" class="ci-image ci-square" src="https://ui3.assets-asda.com/dm/asda-dog-biscuits__square_GL?scl=1"></p><h2>Bunny apple crumble tarts</h2><p>More cute animal-inspired treats! These little <a href="https://www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/bunny-apple-crumble-tarts" target="_blank">crumble tarts</a> have bunny ears and whiskers made from apple. With blueberries, orange, oats, raisins, and maple syrup, these are packed with great ingredients as well as being scrumptious.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="asda-bunnies-tarts__square" class="ci-image ci-square" src="https://ui3.assets-asda.com/dm/asda-bunnies-tarts__square_GL?scl=1"></p><p><em>Fancy trying any of Briony's kid-friendly recipes? Get everything you need now <a href="https://groceries.asda.com" target="_blank">online</a> or <a href="https://storelocator.asda.com/#!/" target="_blank">in store</a></em></p>

Briony Williams' best treats to make with kids

By Asda Good Living,30th January 2019

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