Lessons Learned when Baking

I’m sure you have read some baking blogs that Lia the Baby Blogger wrote on her Friday Story Time but I just realized something as we baked cookies today. There are lessons learned when baking and Lia is learning more than baking when we have our baking sessions!

Neatness

Before we start our baking project, the first thing Lia does is put her apron on. When I’m tying it around her I tell her we need an apron to keep any messes off her clothes. The apron that Lia wears is the same one her mommy wore when she was baking with me at Lia’s age! I do the same thing when we do crafts and she puts on her craft shirt for neatness.

Good hygiene

The next thing we do is wash hands but Lia doesn’t stop there, she washes her arms up to her elbows! This is something she has been taught to do before every time we bake, not just since the virus hit. It’s a good way to teach children about good hygiene by washing their hands before handling food.

Follow instructions

Even though Lia is only 18 months old, she follows instructions very well. It could be from repetition since we usually bake every week but she loves following the different steps when baking. From adding the ingredients, waiting for my to tell her it’s okay to turn the mixer on to sampling the batter!

When it’s time to put the cookies on the baking mat, she works so carefully to get the dough in the right place. About a month ago, Lia and her mommy were baking rolled cookies and Alexandra showed her how to pat, pat, pat the dough down flat. She has since done that to her cookies! When we were making sugar cookies today, as soon as she finished dropping the dough on the mat, she started her pat, pat, pat.

Patience

Sometimes little ones don’t have much patience, they want things right away. But with baking it doesn’t work that way. Although Lia never takes anything out of the oven, she puts the oven mitts on and stands in front of the door, saying “hot” while peeking in the oven to watch her cookies grow. When the timer goes off, I tell her she has to stand back when I open the oven door. She steps back and waits with a big smile for me to get the cookie sheet out of the oven.

Testing

The final reward to baking is testing the product. Since it’s Lia’s baking project and she was so patient while they were baking, she gets to be the first to try her cookies! Her latest batch of sugar cookies with sprinkles added before baking was a big success and they tasted so good!

Cookie Recipe

This cookie recipe is so easy and perfect when baking with little ones. All you need is a box of any flavor cake mix, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup cooking oil. Mix the eggs and oil to the dry cake mix, drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake about about 8 – 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Clean Up

Like everything, there is always clean-up to do after a project. Whether Lia is baking or painting, she helps with the clean up. She loves to dry the utensils we used when baking.

Variations to the Recipe

Once you have the batter ready, you can add so many different ingredients. The latest was adding sprinkles to the batter before baking, the other day we sprinkled them on top before baking. You can add flavored chips or mini M&M’s, raisins, nuts, coconut, or cinnamon. There are so many different options to add, what ideas do you have? We haven’t tried it with this recipe yet, but I’m sure they would be great thumbprint cookies and add a bit of jelly or jam. Maybe even a dollop of peanut butter or add a pecan or walnut to the top before baking. So many ideas to make your cookies one of a kind!

So next time you do a baking project with you little ones, remember you are teaching them so much more than just baking a delicious cake or cookies. Without them realizing, they will learn neatness, good hygiene, how to follow instructions, patience, testing and clean up. All these will come in to play throughout many things in life.

I love baking with Lia, it brings back memories of when I did the same thing with her mommy. Now mommy and Lia bake too! My mom was an awesome cake baker and made many birthday, wedding, anniversary and specialty cakes. She decorated them beautifully too. I hope she is watching down and smiling as Lia and I continue with her baking passion.