Kids who Cook

My eldest LOVES to bake cakes, I think most children do. Not just fairy cakes, Barbie ones being her favourite, but anything else I decide to make. So far we have made banana cake (mainly due to it being so easy and we always have bananas on hand), blueberry muffins, choc chip cookies and chocolate tartlets. Please excuse the random sparkly headband and various beads, typical girl loves to dress up even for the most messiest of occasions. And goodness knows why I didn't put an apron on her!? Think I was living on the wild side that day...

Cooking is a great activity to do with children and it can be quick and easy or you can use longer more complicated recipes - they just love pouring, sieving and mixing and could probably do it for hours! Even babies enjoy watching all the flour clouds and mess being produced. The best thing is to start with some pre-packaged fairy cakes as these are the most child friendly and easiest, everything is contained in the box and all you have to do is add an egg, butter and water/milk. The children get to pour the mixtures into bowls, add the eggs and butter and whisk away. They can also help spoon the mix into cases and once baked and cooled decorate to their hearts content. A great way to spend time with your child whilst also teaching them about baking.

Another fun activity you can do while the cakes are cooking is a cooking sequencing game. This is where you can print off pictures (best done the night before so may require a bit of prep work) of how to cook a cake and get your child to play a game of sequencing them in the right order. You could also print off two copies and play snap or a turn over matching game with them. This is a great way to fill the gap between the cooking and icing of the cakes and besides who's ever desperate to wash up straight away  :).

Below is an example taken from dltk-teach website which is full of great printable resources for extra learning activities. Their sequencing cards are available in colour or black and white and could be laminated for extra durability and to be used by younger siblings.

They also suggest on their website to read a book relevant to cooking and then play the sequencing card game. For example if you were cooking ginger bread men then reading 'The Gingerbread Man' would be a great way to link reading a book into your activity to help further your child's understanding of how we cook. Instead of buying new books all the time hunt down some children's story cooking books in your local charity shop or at boot sales etc or hire some from the library if you are going to plan ahead your baking activity.

Eventually as your children get older your cooking can be turned into a mini science lesson where they are able to measure out liquids and solids into measuring beakers and learn how to use measurements of weight to make correct mixtures. You could also talk to them about the compounds of the ingredients and how self raising flour works and how the heat in the oven works to cook the mixture etc. The learning never ends!

~ Happy baking ~