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Mr Kipling cakes and the legendary Roald Dahl… Splendiferous!

We are big foodies in our house and when we were invited by Mr Kipling cakes to explore the Roald Dahl museum in honour of their collaboration with Roald Dahl this summer, we felt like Charlie when he found his golden ticket 😊

My five-year old loves writing and illustrating her own ‘stories’ so it was a great opportunity to show the children behind the scenes of one of our favourite authors…. plus, I was confident we could give Augustus Gloop a good run for his money when it came to gorging on Cherry Bakewells and Angel Slices…! If you are a fan of Roald’s epic stories, you want inspiration for the summer holidays or you just plain love cake, especially cake that can win you great prizes this summer including a trip to New York, read on for my review….

The impressive Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

The museum is in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire which is an idyllic village surrounded by beautiful countryside. It’s set in an old coaching house around a pretty courtyard. We arrived through the archway of the old coach house to huge metal gates – a replica of the gates from the Chocolate Factory in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, given to the museum by Warner Bros when the originals from the film were too big for the museum to take.

On arrival, we were welcomed with a talk about the archives which form the backbone of the museum. Roald Dahl kept most of his notes and scribblings while he was writing his books, and the museum holds all these manuscripts. We got to see the actual shoe which Quentin Blake sent to Roald Dahl when he described the sandals which he wanted the BFG to wear – quite cool when you picture the BFG in his sandals in the illustrations.

The notes Roald kept in his ‘ideas books’ provide wonderful insights in to drafts of his stories before they reached their final cut. Sophie from the BFG was actually a boy, Jody, in the initial version – it was the arrival of Roald Dahl’s granddaughter Sophie which prompted the change of name and sex of the main character!

After the talk, each child was given their own ‘Ideas book’ (to replicate how Roald used to jot down his notes) and a worksheet and we set off to explore.

Exploring the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

The museum is a perfect size for allowing children a bit of freedom to explore on their own as it isn’t very big at all. It is aimed at 6 to 12-year olds but the youngest in our group was almost 4 and she got a lot out of the day. My 7-year old nephew was the perfect age as he has read every single book and was able to get really involved in all the interactive tasks, many of which involve reading instructions/guides.

There are three rooms within the museum. In the first room – Boy – we learnt about the early life on Roald, his love of growing onions and enjoyed dressing up in school uniform like his.

In the second area – Solo – the original chair which Roald Dahl wrote his books in is housed, along with other contents from his Writing Hut.

There is also more dressing up in here too, with a plane replica which describes Ronald’s time in the air force. A great mural on the wall in this room has a height chart with all the characters from the books from smallest up to largest (the BFG obviously!) There were a few giggles when one of my rabble realized he was the height of his favourite character Charlie!

The newest area of the museum – the story telling area – in a purpose-built building is home to the interactive area. In here, you can make a movie, make up rhymes and mini stories, put together a photo fit of a character you have made up to stick in to your story ideas book and enjoy various crafts.

Here there is also story telling every hour, on the hour, where a couple of story readers ask children to come up and play the part of a character whilst the tell the story. The children were all enthralled – the storytellers’ love of the stories comes across and everyone was pretty spellbound. My 4-year old could have listened for hours on end!

Inspiration from his hometown 

Roald Dahl lived in Great Missenden for 36 years when he wrote his books and much of the inspiration for them is found in and around the village. We went on one of the guided tours of the village – the children loved seeing sights which feature in the books (including the library from Matilda and Sophie’s norphanage) and it made for a fun addition to the trip to the museum.

We spent 3 hours around the museum and on the village tour and that was before a stop for food, so the museum is easily a good family day out. There is a cafe on site and an indoor Willy Wonka themed seating area, but you are also welcome to picnic in the beautiful courtyard in the sunshine.

Angel cakes and happy kids – Mr Kipling have the perfect mix

Sooooo, cake time! Mr Kipling and Roald Dahl know the importance of spending quality time with loved ones, which is why they are bringing you a Splendiferous Summer of prizes for you and your family! Whether that’s out having an adventure or at home reading another magical story together, Mr Kipling and Roald Dahl have got it covered.

To find out if you’ve won one of the gloriumptious prizes, all you need to do is purchase a pack of Mr Kipling cakes from Tesco and enter your unique code into the Mr Kipling Roald Dahl Splendiferous Summer website. Just be sure to pick up a pack that features the Roald Dahl promotion! The wonderful prizes include tickets to see Matilda The Musical in the West End, a trip to Buckingham Palace, a selection of Roald Dahl books, family tickets to the Roald Museum, a BFG jump squiffling giant jigsaw and lots more – the perfect recipe for Splendiferous summer of fun!

You can also head over to the ‘Inspire’ page for some whoopsy wiffling ideas to keep you and your family fuelled with things to do. In the true spirit of Roald Dahl, you can spend your summer creating dream jars or inventing your own Gobble Funk language with the kids!

Get your limited edition Mr Kipling Roald Dahl cakes exclusively from Tesco this summer for £1.

Disclaimer: This is a collaborative post. We were provided with free entry to the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in return for this blog post. My post reflects my own thoughts and opinions on the experience and the products.