Baking with a 4 year old

[Yumchips]

How do people do it? I feel like people enjoying baking with their young kids but feels stressful for me. 4 year old is too enthusiastic but can't do any task properly and makes a mess. Then loses interest and tries to move on to something else. Am I doing it wrong?

No. Dh bakes with the children. It's my relaxing activity & it's far from relaxing with them. One tip though, if you're making fairy cakes, put the batter in a jug & let them pour in to the cake cases, much less mess.

How about you make the cakes, and just let the DCs decorate them? Far easier!

Sounds about right. As long as you enjoy it. Watch baking with Cole as prep

I found it helped to view it as an activity and anything that emerged fit for consumption a bonus

Thank you, this is reassuring! I thought there was something wrong with me for not enjoy this! I recognise she's 4 so I don't expect her to be a good baker at all. Thanks for the jug tip!

Sorry, his name is Cade. I still laugh every time I see him diving in the bowl after the ingredients

The older they get the better they get though & if you stick with showing them what to do they should be able to do more. But yes at 4 it's hard work for you.

Tips -

• pre measure most ingredients before 4 year old joins
• focus on specific tasks. For example the child learning to crack eggs.
• try to pre meditate the child's negative feedback. For example, acknowledging that it is a bit awful having to wait for things to bake and cool before we can enjoy.
• try to bake something you think they will enjoy eating

Overall, I have found if the child participates for about 5 mins, that is the sweet spot for us. You may find different

All the best

Pizza dough is a good one to do with kids so long as you don't mind flour everywhere from the kneading!

This is all fantastic advice, thank you all so much!! I will check out baking with cade

I would consider this - bakedin.co.uk/pages/subscriptions?wickedsource=google&wickedid=Cj0KCQiAk4aOBhCTARIsAFWFP9GTmOpEZy_5YnoAkeiiOGbFtZq0WHkXuUVLCpW4YiECsw4sqYXaHUYaAhhIEALw_wcB&wickedid=549887660311&wv=3.1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAk4aOBhCTARIsAFWFP9GTmOpEZy_5YnoAkeiiOGbFtZq0WHkXuUVLCpW4YiECsw4sqYXaHUYaAhhIEALw_wcB

The junior baking club is set up for little ones and there is a great Facebook group for support. Four year olds are definitely taking the lead from what I can see!

I have this down to an art as my twins like to bake. I make muffins a lot one does dry ingredients the other wet, mix and pour. Top tips use a nice deep pan makes it harder to chuck the ingredients when mixing enthusiastically. Use a forgiving recipe banana bread/ muffins are good as it tends to be edible no matter what. Chocolate buttons/ stars to decorate whilst cakes are warm rather than hot as they will melt and stick. Lemony icing too shake icing sugar over cake(s) squeeze fresh lemons over till it goes see through. Repeat till you run out of lemons.

Only do this if you have a dishwasher. That way everything can be cleaned away quickly.

Accept and embrace the fact that there will be mess, and try to get them involved with the clearing up while the cakes are in the oven.
My 11 year old DD makes the lightest scones and prettiest cupcakes now, but that is only due to years of practice!

In my house I bake, kids decorate

Bakefulplay on Instagram has some great tips. One is to cover your area in greaseproof paper to make clean up easier.

I generally accept the mess. Accept things aren't perfect and let them have a go. It can be a bit stressful I had 7yr old and 3 yr old helping with gingerbread yesterday and it wasn't easy but it was fun.

I don't but I really should start. I feel guilty that I don't bake/ cook with the dc.

Have a look at these - saves a LOT of hassle 😂 www.bottledbaking.co.uk although, I think they've closed now for Christmas from their social media.

Weigh things out in advance into little bowls, like they do on cooking shows, they just need to add them into the bowl.

I love nigellas alphabet biscuit recipe, and keep a batch frozen. DS helps roll it out , cut and decorate. The chilling the biscuit dough for an hour at some point in lockdown was a bad moment for us

Really great tips here! Think I just need to get organised about it all and perhaps that will make it feel less chaotic, such as measuring the ingredients beforehand etc. Really liked the idea of a subscription service, thanks for that link! Might be a good present to ask for that!

I do lots of cooking with prerolled pastry. They get to use cutters and then put stuff on top (fruit, cream cheese, jam, mincemeat).if they want to squidge the pastry around that works too. Then brush with egg and sprinkle with sugar. Put in the oven.

Jam tarts or similar are good. Make the pastry in advance. Shortbread. Gingerbread.

Trick at this age to to pre weigh and measure ingredients so all they have to do is add, mix and pour into cases. Then decorate when cool.

Best advice us to remind yourself that it's the process that's the most important bit. If you focus on the end result, and it needing to be a certain way, youll feel stressed. Also,buy them a cleaning cloth in their favourite colour. 😁

There is/was a cbeebies show called "i can cook" that's brilliant for that age. I started with dd2 at about 3yo doing recipes from it. Not all sweet food either. Now she's almost 8 and can cook a few things pretty much independently. Her just turned 5yo sister didn't get nearly as much one on one time but did make top hats herself today that she's very proud of!

I loathed it too. Very happy to do lots of messy art with DC but cooking was just grim. Teen DD2 loves baking and cooking and can now be left to get on with it - though washing up still seems to be a mystery to her... However she is making lebkuchen and our Yule log tomorrow, so the fraught years were worth it.