Lockdown Baking with the Kids :)

I vaguely remember making cakes with my Mum when I was tiny. I had this plastic kids mixer you could beat one egg in at a time. From memory it was the best thing ever as it looked like a stand up mixer and it worked with a turn handle. So my memories of 'helping Mummy' make cakes were fond.

My Mother remembers is slightly differently! She says she used to dread the 'sound of the chair' which meant I was dragging the kitchen stool across the floor to get to her and that meant I was about to interrupt whatever stage she was at ;)

While I can relate as cooking with kids is a whole different ball game, I think baking with kids is great! They get SO much from it and they have absolutely NO IDEA whether your bakes are any good or not (depending how young they are when you start!)

It's no surprise then that I started baking with my daughter when she was still one! I used to put a line of chairs up in the then 'old kitchen' and she could walk along the side 'helping' me with our baking. It was an activity and not a task. There is a stark difference. If you need to get something done, it's a task, in which case involving smalls is not the way as it becomes far too stressful. But if it's an activity, it doesn't matter how it turns out or if it turns out at all because the end result is not important - it's all about the experience of getting there.

There's a Life Lesson in there somewhere :)

We started with cakes as I recall. We had no allergies to contend with, so probably chocolate brownie-esque cakes of some variety. They were probably a disaster as the limit of my baking remained at the memory of mixing one egg in a bowl and occasionally peeling some apples! But THEY WERE FUN!! And that's what I and my daughter remember and that's what prompted us to keep on baking.

One day I'll get a sign that says 'Keep Calm and Bake On'.

I have one of my favourite photos ever of me in my apron (the same one I still have today) with my daughter looking up at me awaiting the answer to some baking related question. And the look of total trust on her face brings a tear to me. In her eyes, I knew everything there was to know. In truth I completely learned on the wing, but what I could do when I did know something was teach it, and so that is what I have done! We have the luxury of Google that my Mum didn't have which of course makes all of this a LOT easier and since Baby A was around 3 we stumbled across the likes of Nerdy Nummies on You Tube and more recently Cupcake Gemma - both of which remain firm favourites.

Now her baking has moved on to creating really quite good 'big' birthday cakes and cupcakes and as Cub has allergies to milk and egg, she is also becoming an accomplished vegan baker! Roar and Cub like to get involved too :). Here are some pics of our baking journey.

WM x