to think Guides should be able to make cakes?

[bonbonours]

Maybe I'm just old.... My 10 year old goes to Guides and came home having done Valentine's baking with a pretty bag containing a chocolate crispie cake and a cupcake. She told me the cakes were a Shopkins cake mix where you just added water. They then iced them with runny water icing and sprinkles. Now I thought Guides was partly about learning life skills. Am I unreasonable to think learning to make a basic 4442 sponge cake should not be beyond a group of 10-14 year olds? My 6 year old could tell you the ingredients for a sponge cake. Using a cake mix is a) not real cooking b) tastes horrid c) more expensive than buying ingredients so not teaching good money skills either.

I'm a Guide leader. I'd love it if we were able to bake something from scratch. But in a 90 minute meeting, it just wouldn't be feasible. A whole unit of Guides weighing / measuring out ingredients takes far, far longer than one person at home, and then we have to deal with a rather dodgy gas oven in the church hall in which we meet, which is nothing like the ovens any of us leaders have at home, and which can take AGES - we've known it take an hour just to do biccies before now. So in 90 mins, even getting them baked would be a challenge.

For this reason, if icing were to come into it, as it did last term when we did the confectioner badge as part of a GBBO theme, we had to take in premade buns.

I'm a brownie leader , I generally try to tend towards promoting activities they wouldn't do at home, most of my lot bake at those so I'd avoid that on principle.

Also I can't bake. I don't particularly see it as a life skill TBH.. cooking yes, nutrition yes, but making cakes no.

Having said that, I'd be happy to work with a volunteer who did want to do a baking session. It's just not my skill set or interest.

making endless cakes is why lots of girls leave Guides. Some of us preferred camping and bulding things and burning stuff you know.

Good point, but since they do make cakes, they could do it properly, so that at least there is some learning done.

And why are they doing something for valentine's day? Perhaps I am oldfashioned but I do not think 10 year olds should be interested in romance. Baking cakes would be something to be done for mother's day, if at all.

making endless cakes is why lots of girls leave Guides. Some of us preferred camping and bulding things and burning stuff you know

It's not an either or situation at my girls' Guide troop, they do outdoor cooking on BBQs, go to an annual camp outside where everyone gets covered in mud (with the Scouts), do activities such as climbing, canoeing.

It's not cooking or camping!

We've done valentines to celebrate loving a family member! It doesn't have to be about romance.

I don't think you should be put off cooking things from scratch. I am really surprised by what we can achieve in 90 mins. Before Xmas we made a proper rolled Yule Log, chocolate icing & all. I really didn't think they had a hope in hell but with some creativity - e.g. putting the cake outside covered up to cool quicker! - we did something great.

I did measure out most of the ingredients and put the oven on before they got there, & because it's each cake (only 2 patrols) only took 10 mins it was doable.

Oh dear, is this thread giving the idea that all guides and brownies do is cooking?
Well no, actually. Both Scouts and Guides do cook stuff, yes, they enjoy it and frequently ask to do it.
Recently our guides have gone raft building, climbing, hiking, done archery, rifle shooting, built shelters, played wide games, played quiditch ,done a variety of crafts, some cooking, science experiments and have first aid lined up as one of the activities this term. We camp every year, (sometimes in the winter) as well as an indoor winter break, we cook outdoors on wood fires as well as on gas.
What we don't do is "bake endless cakes".
Hope that cleared that up.

since they do make cakes, they could do it properly, so that at least there is some learning done

Maybe they did learn something, such as teamwork? Maybe it was just a fun activity. It's not fair to say they didn't learn anything, just because they didn't bake from scratch.

YABU. Having run both Brownie and Guide units for nearly 10 years, it is almost impossible to bake anything from
scratch for aeveral reasons - 1) facilities. If ae want to bake, at least one leader (and we are all UNPAID volunteers) needs a food hygiene or a parent with one. We also need a kitchen with decent enough facilities and enough staff to support all the guides.

2) expense. Buying a pre-mix may seem silly but is quite often more cost effective. We have to account for every penny spent - and it is all from subs. this has to covet the rent for facilities, any badges, materials, annual subscription to Girl Guiding, everything. So the pack (or two) will do enough cakes for each guide without waste. And before people say 'well get the parents to pay' - if units do this then some guides will miss out.

Guides does indeed teach life skills - including that sometimes a short cut enables all to have fun and participate, regardless of background.

To get my hospitality badge had to bake a Victoria sponge and have my guide leader round for tea and cake and introduce her to my parents with the correct etiquette .....I learnt from that adding water to a mix and taking it home is not learning anything in my eyes ....would love to see the badge handbook today to see what it takes to get their badges if thats all it takes to get the baking badge

guides.girlguiding.org.uk/gfibadge/badges/index.html

As you asked

Pretty sure you don't need a good hygiene cert to cook with the kids - only if you want to sell what you're making (but you can accept donations).

I am v much in the middle on this thread b/c while I think the OP is being completely unreasonable - I also think the leaders coming on here defending why they can NEVER cook from scratch are being a bit defeatist! We do it all the time. Since Sept for various badges we have made a chocolate Yule Log, Anzac biscuits, Bolognese sauce & sweet & sour chicken. There might even be other things I've forgotten.

Last year we sold cookies to raise money for the World Thinking Day Fund & we made literally hundreds of cookies from scratch over 2 weeks. It really can be done.

I always cook from scratch with my Guides but it is really stressful, time consuming and messy. I hadn't thought of packet mixes but think that is a great idea and I will be using them from now on. I had decided not to bother doing any more baking as I have to bring my own scales, tins, whisks, blenders/mixers from home and one of the girls put my expensive electronic scales in a sinkful of washing up last time so they were ruined.

Even though cooking is a hassle I do like to persever as the girls do love it. I am teaching them to make sushi in a few weeks and I will have to cook and prepare enough rice and fillings at home for almost 30 girls as no way is there time in the meeting to do it. I would be really upset if anyone was grumpy over the girls not being taught to do it all. To be honest I don't get much appreciation from the parents at all and I am very tempted to stop because of the hassle. I come away from some meetings so tired and worn out that I have started to dread meetings when I know I have a busy day the next day and will be fit for nothing. A few words to the leader to say how pretty the cake was and how your daughter loved doing it won't hurt you but could really give your leader a boost.

gimmeemoore. There are women who are happy to stay at home and look after their kids as indeed are some men. Some people enjoy looking after kids full time. Women now not only deal with some chauvinistic men but some women who seem hell bent on making them feel guilty for not wanting a career.

Oops wrong thread. I've reported

Eggs don't go in the fridge

I would be really upset if anyone was grumpy over the girls not being taught to do it all

I agree. It's so demoralizing. You put in so much effort to make a fun and enjoyable evening for the girls, and someone complains that you didn't do it 'properly'. It's no wonder that guides/scouts have a shortage of volunteers.

I have done both, cooked from scratch with a unit, and given out premade cakes to ice. Have used packet mix at camp when cooking on a fire chocolate cake in oranges - more time is preparing the oranges!

90 mins is not a lot of time when you have girls drifting in 15 mins into the session, girls you are having to teach some basic skills to - like weighing, cutting, creaming etc. I would say 50% of my units girls NEVER bake at home so we are covering a lot of skills.

Clearing up is also something that takes for ever, most expect a dishwasher to sort things out. It can take them up to 20 mins to actually clear up and I refuse to do it for them.

We share our kitchen with 3 other groups so we have limited space, plus a domestic size oven which is not the best.

We also only have 2 leaders and 30 girls - I am sure you can do the sums - we have parent helpers but they can be a bit hit and miss as to how much help there is, last one we had in only helped her own daughter all night even though I asked for her to do other things, this wasn't baking.

Also we do not have a huge amount of equipment - and bake so infrequently its not worth investing, scales, bowls, spoons, measuring spoons, our unit is split into 5 patrols, if we want everyone to do it at the same time I end up with half my kitchen in the car!

As I said I have done it, I have done it using various methods - weighing it all at home - may as well give them a packet mix, only doing a couple of groups a week - not the best if making something for a specific reason.

I tend to look carefully at what we are making and see which is the best way.

As for cooking with 5 year olds, have also done that, would not be a group of 25 of them and 2 adults I can guarentee that. Or if it is then I will happily let them loose on my guides!

It depends very much on the facilities. We have 1 1/4 hours which when you have 20 plus girls to co-ordinate plus clean up time, a badly fitted kitchen and one oven it would be impossible!

I couldn't run a bake off evening for our 20+ Cubs in 90 mins.

We have flag break to start, drinks and a quick game, the programme and cleaning up time, notices and kids collected and all equipment back in the stores in 90 mins or we get charged for more hall time.

As it happens, we have bugger all in the way of equipment for indoor cooking anyway so I will bring my own stuff as making enough icing (for example) for 25 cup cakes in a 4 gallon bowl just isn't gonna work.

Just to recap ground I have already covered, I was not grumpy about it, nor did I complain either to the leaders or my daughter. It was merely a thought that I had to myself (and then shared here). I am in awe of the commitment put in by Guide and scout leaders and try to help out myself whenever I can.

I don't see anything wrong in kids celebrating Valentines day. They have plenty of people they love, it doesn't have to be about romantic or sexual love. They love to make cards for me and their dad.

Also I did not at any point suggest that Guides either should do nothing but housewifely skills, nor that that is all they do. They do a wide range of activities, mostly chosen by them. I would expect a group of Scouts of the same age to be able (with guidance) to cook in the same way that I would expect Guides to be able to. There is no gender issue here, but some people are making one out of nowhere.