Igniting the love of baking

[MissDJ]

What activities do you do with your little ones to foster the love of baking?

When I was around 6 or 7 I loved to watch my grandmother bake pies. She would always give my sister and me a bit of the left over pastry dough to roll out, cut into shapes with a cookie cutter, sprinkle with some cinnamon and sugar, and bake. I know she did it to keep us out of mischief, but it taught us how to handle pastry dough and sparked a lifelong love of baking. (Eventually, I graduated to making apple turnovers, and by age 12, pies of my own.)

When my little nieces and nephews come to visit, they love making little pastries cut-outs just like we did. For variety, we leave the sugar and cinnamon off of the dough and bake them plain. After I take them out the oven and let them cool, the kids frost them with peanut butter and chocolate I've melted in the microwave or a little strawberry jam.

What things do you do with your own little bakers?

 

[zoeysmama2011]

With any of my baking, I'm always sure to let my daughter be super "hands-on". Even though she's only 19 months old, if I'm making a cake, I let her get her hands in there at some point. Textures are great for her cognitive learning, so she really enjoys that. I also let her shape the cookie dough when we make cookies. At this point I just really want to get her familiar with it. She loves helping even if all she gets to do is stir and mash things up.

 

[Dorothy]

depending on the occasion my daughters and I like to make seasonal cookies, in different shapes and colors and sometimes just for no reason at all we like to make different kinds of cookies. Actually one time when my daughter was younger and just learning her shapes and colors, we made cookies to help her learn, in the shapes of circles, squares etc and different colors. It worked really well, she learned her colors and shapes while eating the cookies lol, it was fun.

 

[Jameela280]

I am learning about baking with my baby in the kitchen, she is still little so all she can do is stir and maybe taste a little. But these women are offering such great advice and tips and when she gets a wee bit older we are going to do cookies and pancakes and healthy pasta dishes, I am looking forward to it.

 

[Dorothy]

I am learning about baking with my baby in the kitchen, she is still little so all she can do is stir and maybe taste a little. But these women are offering such great advice and tips and when she gets a wee bit older we are going to do cookies and pancakes and healthy pasta dishes, I am looking forward to it.

It really is a really good way to spend time with your kids and at the same time can be learning and having fun doing so. I love the fact it gives me time to do something fun and exciting with my kids and letting them have hands on experience, I just love it, and of course we love eating what we baked afterwards while talking about what we would tempt to bake next it is fun. That is good that you are letting your little one help in the kitchen, it will become a family tradition.

 

[dre5546]

Baking cookies, having them roll up the dough and placing them on the oven sheet. One thing that this will do is help the kids bake when they get older, and maybe eventually start baking you stuff.

 

[Jameela280]

I am so looking forward to baking with my little one but for now since all the baby can do is stir and play in the mix, I will take that and continue learning so I can be a good instructor when I little one starts the kitchen process.

 

[sking]

I like to have my son get out the milk but not the eggs. I may have him help me get a cup so that he can put water in if the recipe requires it. I may have him break pieces of chocolate for chocolate baking recipe.

 

[VioletxSkye]

Well, when you're baking you can have them make a mini version of their own. I believe there a baking tools that actually work that can be used for children. When the parent is making a pie, you can have a small dish.. or a muffin tin so they can make their own. The same goes for small cakes or even cupcakes. The real and better version of Easy Bake.

 

[Josie]

My grandmother used to bake the leftover dough for us as well.. but she would sprinkle strips with cinnamon and sugar and roll them up into mini cinnamon buns. So yummy. It was my favourite part of pie baking with her.

 

[kammy]

My daughter is now twelve years old and i allow her to help me with just about anything...i think her favorite is mixing the batters whenever we are baking cakes.

To my delight at this point in time she is now baking cake mixes on her own..even though she haven't got around to doing frosting as yet.

I am hoping this Christmas we can do some cake decorating together...i just love having her in the kitchen with me she is a bundle of joy.

 

[Trellum]

I started baking pies, my nieces love to help me prepare the pie fillings, so I let them do that all the time. They help me prepare the ingredients and all. I do the crusting tho. I really feel they like are starting to love baking, start them on something easy is always the key!

 

[Trellum]

depending on the occasion my daughters and I like to make seasonal cookies, in different shapes and colors and sometimes just for no reason at all we like to make different kinds of cookies. Actually one time when my daughter was younger and just learning her shapes and colors, we made cookies to help her learn, in the shapes of circles, squares etc and different colors. It worked really well, she learned her colors and shapes while eating the cookies lol, it was fun.

My sister actually started them that way, they love baking cookies and decorating them. The part they love most is of course the decoration, sometimes we just sit together and start decorating. The Christmas ones are they favorite ones.

 

[Clare]

I used to go to after school clubs and activities, and also my parents used to buy the packet mixes for an afternoon activity! Sometimes our schools used to do bake sales and that encouraged us to bake.

For many years though I wasn't that bothered but about a year ago I got back into it as every now and then my mum likes to create nice puddings and also I inevitably joined pinterest, and just got incredibly inspired.

 

[Tina Nord]

My son loves to mix and pour the ingredients and both my kids love to eat the batter. I know that some people think that raw batter is bad for you, but I never got sick off of it. I only let them have a spoonful or lack the beaters though, nothing extreme. I also encourage them by letting them try what we have made. My problem right now is letting them help out because I tend to be a perfectionist in the kitchen.