Cooking with children is an activity that I have done with both my own children, and the ones I used to child mind. You can simply let the children help with baking, my own children used to like to stand on a chair beside me so that they could reach the kitchen worktop and help to stir and mix the ingredients together, then spoon the mixture into the cake cases.
They also liked to lick out the mixing bowl, but be aware that cake mixture will contain raw eggs. Children love to help with pastry too. Mince pie making was a favourite, as they could roll out the pastry and fill the tarts with the mincemeat. Let children have some of their own pastry and cut shapes and decorate with raisins and sultanas.
A favourite with the child minded children was at Easter. We made Easter nests, by mixing shredded wheat with chocolate and spooned it into nest shapes, When cool, place 3 or 4 mini eggs inside and you could even pop a yellow chick decoration (widely available for little cost, at this time of year) on top.
At Christmas, we made marzipan fruits by simply colouring the marzipan with a little food colouring and making fruit shapes.To achieve the mottled effect of orange skin, gently roll the marzipan against the fine side of a cheese grater then push a clove into the top for the stem, cloves also look effective on an apple, as the core, or a stalk at the end of a banana.
Don’t forget the simplest idea of mixing rice crispies, or corn flakes with chocolate, to make cakes that even young children can prepare, with little supervision as these won’t require cooking. My son used to enjoy making cookie dough, for the child minded children to roll and cut out Christmas themed shapes, they would decorate when cool with tubes of coloured icing.
Cooking with children can also be a good way of encouraging them to talk, about anything that may be worrying them, as they are not having to look an adult in the eye, but can carry on with what they doing, while chatting.
Always take care when children are in the kitchen, keep them away from a hot oven and ensure that sharp knives are well out of harms reach ( as they should always be!)
As always, comments and suggestions are welcome. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or if you would like to contact me via email you can do so by clicking here
I also love cooking and baking with the kids, its beneficial for all involved. Try not to forget to add the logo if you are joining in with a linky…
I used to love making cakes with my girls when they were small,my next door neighbour used to put a notice in her window to let my eldest daughter know that she could go there to help. I used to sometimes make little cakes and let them decorate with chocolate and chocolate buttons. ( I was not as adventurous as you Karen ) . The best fun was letting them actually mix the cakes and watching them clean the bowl with little chubby fingers. I must admit this has always been one of my pleasures too. Thank you for another lovely blog .
Oh! These are such brilliant ideas! I can’t wait to get started on some Easter crafts, and chocolate nests can’t really be missed. I am so impressed by your marzipan fruits. They are fantastic! My kids always lick the bowl out, it’s impossible to stop them! #LittleMakes
I am not very good a baking but we are going to be making cookies and birds nests with my 2.5 year old after nap time as even I can do that. #littlemakes
I’m looking forward to doing chocolate nests with my daughter over the next few weeks! #littlemakes
My kids love to cook, those marzipan fruits are amazing #littlemakes just a reminder to please add the #littlemakes linky badge to your posts.
l have good memories of cooking with my Mum, so have always been keen to do it with Meg. Even something simple like letting her have control with sandwich making.
Marzipan fruits, rice crisp cake, peppermint cream were all things we made at Christmas.
I absolutely love cooking with the children, such a fun simple activity that teaches them life skills too x