Mumsnet Talk

Stuck in the house for a couple of days and I thought we'd do some baking. What do you bake with yours?

We normally eat pretty healthily so I'm not fussed about a bit of sugar and mess will happen whatever we cook so I'm not bothered how messy it is.

Chocolate crisp cakes
Marshmallow crisp cakes
Normal sponge cake with white icing an lots of decorations
Scones
Shortbread

Brownies
Fairy cakes
Rice crispie cakes
Pancakes

Cupcakes - we love splashing the icing sugar around to decorate them!
Biscuits - no idea what they are called officially but we call them Nana's Cookies (made with porridge oats and golden syrup). You don't cut them out or shape them or anything, just roll them into small balls - perfect for small fingers to do.

Sugar cookies are good as they can help ice them and they are really quick and easy

Although DS licks more than he ices

Nigella's cheese stars.

Jaffa cakes are a favorite here.
Pizza.
Shreddies nests because its close to Easter.
Rice crispie or cornflake umbrellas.
Savory muffins.

Agree with posters above - I found the best for very young DC are variations on chocolate crispy cakes with Rice Krispies / marshmallows / raisins / glacé cherries / bits of digestive biscuit etc. Very easy to make and plenty of opportunities for tasting along the way!

Flapjack cookies
Banana muffins are good they always love mushing the banana about
Nigella plain biscuits

We made up a recipe yesterday-
Oats, raisins, melted butter, a little unrefined sugar and honey, some spelt flour, crushed pistachios (she LOVED wacking them in the pestle and mortar), and an egg...you'll know the consistency is right as its a little runnier than biscuit dough. Spread on a baking tray and cook until brown. Yummy!
Also we regularly make banana muffins... Very easy.

To make the activity last longer we do the washing up together while it's baking (well- she kind of plays with the sudsy water and a tea towel while i wash up).

Everything and anything! Banana bread, chocolate cake/cupcakes, carrot cake, simple sugar biscuits, cheese straws/biscuits, plus we get him involved in most meal prep too, he likes washing veg, chopping soft things like mushrooms (with a normal Ikea toddler knife), shelling peas, counting/weighing things things, crumbling stock cubes, peeling onions (just with his hands), helping mash potatoes etc etc.

Tea loaf - you soak the fruit and sugar together, child then bungs fruit / sugar, flour and egg into bowl, lixes and bungs into loaf tin.

Chocolate brownies as well, where you melt chocolate and butter and they bung everything else into a bowl and mummy puts in the hot ingredients, then they all go in a big tray together which DC can grease.

My problem when baking with DS is actually that he won't eat what he makes, even brownies. He picks off icing , sprinkles etc but won't eat the cake.

Oh, and avoid any cakes which require creaming of butter and sugar. It's the surest way I've yet found to getting cake mix on your ceiling.

Oh, and we have a stick blender, with a little food processor attachment for herbs, bread crumbs etc. DS loves whizzing that - if I start to blend / whizz anything, he comes running in with his plastic stool to stand up by the counter and help me.

Ah, you need a mixer/food processor with a lid, Fire! Tbh I think the main reason DS adores cooking and baking is the Kenwood Chef! He got a mini one a year ago which is still his favourite possession.

Same here Vinegar DS4 is six now and loves a bit of veg prep. He is especially keen on rolling out pizzas and chopping up the toppings.
Baking wise we always enjoy making brownies cos that's just a bowl and wooden spoon job, also those crinkly cookies that you roll into a ball and anything that requires rolling and cutting out.
He is also very keen on making stuff like houmous and pesto in the magimix; bunging in the stuff and pressing the button. Small pleasures

Veinegar I have a food processor - DS hates the noise of it and runs off to hide on the sofa with a cushion over his head when I use it. "Got your cushion DS? Yes mummy <whirr>. Makes for interesting baking whehn the parent mixes and the toddler puts their head under a cushion and their bum in the air!

MadStaringEyes, what's your jaffa cake recipe? Mine is "buy from McVities" but I'd love to try yours out!

Banana bread
Flapjacks
Anzac biscuits
Bread - not sweet but useful for pizza bases
Chocolate cornflake cakes

Bread.. never made it before DD but it's a great one. Toddlers have infinite patience for poking the dough about long after I get bored, it's an activity that can stretch across two evenings, and we're now at the stage where she can shape a cottage loaf reasonably successfully. Then I can feel terribly self-sufficient for a brief moment.

Otherwise:
Scones
Pizza base (see above)
Nigella's snickerdoodles
Pretty much any muffin

Quiche is a collaborative effort, but can be done.

My toddler is always extremely disappointed when we make pancakes - CAKE being her fav word & thing, and pancakes simply don't do it. the bewilderment and hurt on her face is dreadful.

Yes DS (just 2) is quite wobbly about the food processor too - think it's the ferocity! And he won't tolerate being in the same room as the stick blender. Otoh the Kenwood is the Best Thing Ever. Maybe because you can turn it up and down? Who knows, toddlers are random.

Nutella 3-ingredient cupcakes. I can't link but easy to find on Google. Dead easy and no creaming of butter and sugar necessary.

nutella 3-ingredient cupcakes

Crikey, they are easy, aren't they? although they do involve introducing DS to the nutella jar that I keep hidden in the back of the cupboard for mummy, possibly for consumption from the jar with a teaspoon

Shes 4, but we make cinnamon buns, she likes "painting" on the butter and sprinkling over the cinnamon sugar.

Cookies that she can cut out.

Anything that requires sieving, breaking chocolate, pouring things in etc.

Wow! So many ideas. We have decided on cupcakes with icing. I'm going to cook the cakes while he naps and then we'll ice together - also got chocolate chips and marshmallows. The shop didn't sell 100s and 1000s

We will definitely do more of these another day though.

DS is not yet 2 so quite young yet. He also is terrified of the stick blender, and the food processor, and the hoover.

Also have to recommend the Haddock puff and Fig and fudge biscuits from the "I can cook" lot. It is the only way I get ds1 (3 and a bit) to eat fish in a sauce and he will devour every last crumb.