Baking with a Toddler

The lovely Baked Potato Mummy recently posted The Importance of Baking With Toddlers.

"Do it" she said.  "It'll be fun" she said.

Papa Owl has done some baking with Little Owl, mainly when they have been visiting his parents, and it did look fun, so what could there be to loose?

Now I don't exactly come from a long line of bakers.  My mother is to baking as hurricanes are to camping, but to be fair, she has never set fire to the house and all injuries were non-life threatening after hospital treatment.

I dug out Little Owl's hat and apron which she was given last Christmas, and also a baking tray with cake cases which I picked up at the supermarket a couple of weeks ago and got started.  "All of the gear and no idea" kept springing to mind, which is also a family trait.

Doesn't that look fun?  The perfect toddler activity, learning to use the knife, sorting out the cake cases, delicately filling the tray with cake mix, edible cakes at the end?!!

Let me tell you.  This was a NIGHTMARE!!!  Little Owl was determined to eat the cake mix at every opportunity including when it was just butter in the bowl.  She would press her hands down on the scales so I was unable to measure anything accurately.  The ripe bananas were so ripe that they got up and took themselves to the bin leaving me with one small banana for a recipe that works best with two or three, ok so that wasn't Little Owl's fault... but....

Little Owl loves to play in mud kitchens, and can often be found pouring and mixing, but given the task of pouring the milk in the bowl and it ends up all over the table.  Mixing became eating.  Don't even mention sieving the flour. We played tug of war with the bowl, the spoon and just about everything else.  The kitchen was a mess.

Cakes finally in the oven and I sent Little Owl into the living room to play with her toys, while I tidied up and thought about pouring myself a large gin.  Something caught my eye and I turned round to see Little Owl with her oven glove on one hand and her other hand on the door of the oven!!!!

ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the cakes finally came out, they tasted crap.  More banana needed.  Little Owl was then on a sugar high for the rest of the day and I was twitching for gin.

So look at the pictures and don't ever be fooled again - baking with a toddler is HARD WORK!


To be fair to Baked Potato Mummy, she can bake better than me and therefore produces edible food, she mentions courgette quiche, and Little Owl did love it.  Baked Potato Mummy also made some brilliant suggestions on how cooking with older children can help their maths skills, including measures and conversions, and ratio questions if you want to use a recipe for different amount - which appears on both the Higher and Foundation GCSEs.