This is a guest post from Chris who writes for one of the child sponsorship charities, World Vision UK.. I’m already linked to World Vision as one of the bloggers who does a sponsor share for a child through their sponsorship scheme. You can find out more about what we bloggers did for that here. Interestingly, Chris has chosen to blog about baking with our kids.
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Baking with kids should be many things, fun, entertaining, enjoyable and should hopefully result in some tasty treats. I will offer five small things to remember when baking with kids to ensure you make the most of the experience.
Be Generous
I think being generous goes hand in hand with baking, don’t try and limit the ingredients, I find a nice mix of ingredients makes the baking experience that much more enjoyable. If it’s cookies you are making why not buy a variety of ingredients to make different flavours, a nice selection always works better in my experience. You could use white chocolate, milk chocolate or caramel chunks; basically any sweet treats that you think will add to the taste should be included.
Be Creative
Following a recipe is initially advisable to make sure you have got the basics right but add your own creative touch, in fact encourage the kids to add their own style, this will help get them involved and should add to the enjoyment of the exercise. If its small cakes you are making, Smarties, chocolate chips or multi coloured icing should help them use their creative touch.
Be Prepared
It may seem obvious but making sure everything is prepared can go a long way in ensuring a successful days baking, having the ingredients to hand can help avoid any disasters amidst the potential chaos that may ensue. If you are thinking about baking two or three different treats prepare your time especially for this, it should go a long way to making sure everything comes out as planned.
The Kids are Always Right
My favourite thing to remember when it comes to baking and something I’m sure the kids will agree with is that the kids are always right. Aside from the key basics there are generally no fixed rules which means all sorts of variations will work. Deciding how things are decorated and what is mixed is all part of the experience, fingers crossed the cakes and cookies come out well.
Have Fun
The most important thing to remember in my opinion, baking should be about having as much fun as possible. If you are doing it as a family then great, make it as enjoyable as you can; don’t be too worried if the presentation is not perfect. The main thing is getting the kids involved; let them make a bit of a mess, after all that usually means there will be plenty of fun being had.