A Mommy Blog About Raising Men, Not Boys.
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Friday, June 30, 2006

The Bake With Your Child Challenge


I get a lot of Meme's and hell I even do some of them. I've done Oddmix's Weekly Words Challenge once, it was cool and I should do it more. But I want to throw out the gauntlet to everyone I know and all of you lurkers.
Bake something.
With your child/children.
Baking is great. Baking is something that you don't have to be able to cook to do. You see, I cannot cook worth a crap. But baby, I can BAKE. Baking is awesome, because unlike cooking - there is no intuition, there is no tasting and testing that is really involved (there is one exception and I'll get to it). Baking is a very specific set of instructions. Do step one, do step two. Etc. If you can follow instructions, you can bake. When you are done, you have a sweet treat to share, and how much fun is it to sit down with a treat with the person/persons you love most in this world?
I think that sometimes people are intimidated by baking because COOKING can be so complicated. Don't confuse the two. Like I said, I cannot cook. But my mom taught me to bake and if I can do it ANYONE can.

So here is the challenge. First of all, I challenge you to make PART of your item from scratch. Nothing is wrong with a cake mix, but for God's SAKE make your own icing. No break and bake cookies or cookies from a roll. Everything has to AT LEAST be mixed up by you. And seriously, buttercream icing is easy (my completely not scientific method - one stick of unsalted butter, one bag of powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla, a splash of milk, put in some powdered sugar - about a fourth of the bag - then using a mixer and keep adding more until it just looks right. And tastes right. This is the only unspecific thing I do when I bake. And it is always delicious. Just have plenty of butter and probably an extra bag of powdered sugar around. And yes - I always make too much.)

The most important thing is to let you little person help. My oldest helps me pour in ingredients and stir, and then he is specifically in charge of putting on sprinkles in all sprinkle possible situations. If we are rolling something then he does the rolling. Sort of. But he is completely IN to it. And the joy is worth the mess.

I think that this will cause chaos and fun in your kitchen. But I am anxious to see how many of you will take up the challenge to create something with your kids in the kitchen.

Here is our creation. It is a devil's food cake (from a mix) with buttercream icing. Covered in, pink and purple sugar sprinkles. And nonpariels. And these little sugar flower decorations.

I didn't say it had to be good.

The gauntlet has been cast down. Let's see what you guys can do!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do most of my baking these days in a bread maker - does that count? I don't often have time to bake the "traditional way" though I like to. I do let my kids help if they are around. Annelise, my three year old, helped me with the very first loaf in the machine.

Gidge Uriza said...

I just got a breadmaker recently and am embarrassed to admit I haven't tried it out yet. I really want to. My best friend had a bread machine when we lived together and that stuff smells SO good while it bakes.
I think it completely counts. It's time spent together, and the result is something yummy to eat!

Anonymous said...

Hell no. You have met my children. I don't even like them in the kitchen if the refrigerator is open - let alone when the oven is on.

I think it sounds like a great idea for people with regular kids - or maybe reasonable kids, but The Squad is out.

April Brandon said...

does making fudge count?? I let hunter help me and my mom make fudge at her house. He LOVED it.