If you want to bake with the kids in your life, here are 7 things I’ve learned along the way. Ultimately, baking with kids is a lot of fun!
1. It will be messy…very messy.
There will be egg goop on the floor and egg shells in your cake batter. There will be flour on every surface imaginable and you’ll wonder what they could have possibly been thinking when they used the measuring cup to scoop sour cream straight out of the container. If it can be dripped, dropped, or slopped-it will be. Take a deep breath and have an adventuresome spirit.
(Pro tip: if you’re doing something extra messy, like having a sugar cookie decorating party, put down a disposable table cloth on your table and UNDER your table. You’ll thank me later when you’re not finding sprinkles everywhere for days).
2. Choose a recipe you’re SUPER familiar with.
Depending on the age of your kids, you have to be wearing a lot of hats when you bake with kids. The other day I made chocolate chip cookies with my 2 year old while holding my 4 month old. If I was unfamiliar with the recipe, it would have been a disaster.
That being said, don’t be afraid to be a little adventurous with bigger kids-as my niece and nephews have grown older, we try new recipes. Sometimes they kinda suck, sometimes they’re amazing.
3. Different kids have different skills/attention spans.
I currently spend a lot of time baking with my 2 year old. She loves to stir and pour in the ingredients. But she can only pay attention for about 15 minutes at this point. We choose a recipe (usually chocolate chip pan cookies) and I measure and let her stir. She loves it. My 11 year old niece likes to make macrons. Obviously a difference in skill and attention.
4. It’s ok to make things easier on yourself.
If you’re new to baking with your kids, start with something super simple like box mix brownies. You don’t have to go straight for a layer cake (although kudos to you if you try).
If this is your first time making Christmas cookies with your kids, don’t try and make royal icing and create works of art. Make a simple powdered sugar and water glaze for your cookies and go wild with the sprinkles.
If you just had a baby, work full time, are depressed, take care of a million other humans, are a single dad who has never baked anything in his life: grab a can of frosting and some premade cookies and spend some time with your kids slathering on the frosting and eating the cookies. (Frosting on a graham cracker with some sprinkles is dang good and you can’t tell me otherwise).
5. Do some prep work ahead of time.
This one depends on the age of your kids. I would say by the time many kids are 11ish they can read a recipe and can grasp the basic concept of measuring ingredients. That being said, I help out by observing mis en place (certainly don’t do this for myself…) and I try and lay everything that they’re going to need out along with the appropriate measuring utensils.
When my niece and nephews used to do our Christmas cookie baking day, I would bake the cookies and make the frosting ahead of time. That way when the kids get there, we’re ready to decorate. Now that they are a little bit older, we can mix the dough, cut and bake the cookies and decorate all in one day, but that took a long time to get to that point.
6. Baking makes learning math and science fun.
Math was one of my least favorite subjects, but my parents worked to make it fun for me. One of the ways was baking to learn fractions. (It didn’t hurt that my mom only had one set of measuring cups so you were often left with no choice but to figure out how many 1/3 cups you needed).
Not only do kids learn fractions, but they learn accurate measuring and conversions, plus more complex concepts like that Maillard reaction (even if they can’t name it, they know about it).
And the reward at then end of all that math and science is a sweet treat, which we all deserve.
7. It will be worth the work.
Baking with kids is so much fun. It really is. One of my favorite kid memories is the joy that my 3 year old nephew had decorating his own birthday cake one year. I baked and frosted a plain cake and then brought piping bags filled with different colored frosting, piping tips, and tons of sprinkles. He loved it!
I was lucky enough to have a mom and an aunt and Grandma’s who would bake with me, but if you didn’t, don’t be intimidated to try it with the kiddos in your life. You won’t regret it.
Looking for some recipes to bake with the kiddos in your life? Check out my post on 10 Easy Cookies to Make with Kids.
Happy Baking!