Baking with kids is not a wonderful parenting experience

[helenabonhamfarter]

It's one of those moments you always thought would be a great domestic experience? I mean baking with your delightful children showing them patiently how to knock up delicious morsels. That little girl spinning in her pretty dress sucking on a raspberry in the intro to GBBO comes to mind. You drinking tea whilst gazing and laughing at your gorgeous off spring and then eating the products of your labour together.

But no...

It always ends in a row.
Kids arguing over who is doing what
Flour and sugar all over the floor and surface
The incorrect measurements
The wrong oven temperature
Putting salt in instead of sugar
Disgusting hands and fingernails
Inedible cakes

And then the washing up- that's left. For YOU to do.
But to be honest that probably better if it's going to be done properly.

Big sigh.
Back to school tomorrow

Nothing with kids is like cocomelon

While I don’t disagree with you, I’ve had much greater success with just doing actual cooking with mine. Chopping veg, making burgers & meatballs etc.

In fact my 7 year old son can make meatballs himself from scratch. It’s a miracle as he can’t remember to brush his teeth or open or close his curtains, but comes into his own with meatballs…!

I bought child friendly knives about 3 years ago and honestly, for the likes of stews or faijitas were smallish but just any type of chop veg will do, it’s perfect!

I hate baking anyway, let alone with kids! It costs loads by the time you’ve bought everything, it never turns out right (for me anyway), and when you’re done you’re left with a million brownies or a whole cake, which I inevitably eat when I really don’t need to.

Much prefer buying a slice from a local baker in a nice coffee shop.

I find the supermarket cupcake kits are worth it just for the lack of hassle. Chuck an egg in and you're done. We like 'baking' but it's almost never from scratch because I cannot be arsed. So we make poo or unicorn cupcakes that teach DD absolutely no measuring or real baking skills but we all get cake.

A bit like this OP?

Narrow, tall mixing bowls are your friend, as they tend to keep the ingredients in. I have a very small number of recipes that have 4 ingredients max that we use, otherwise we do like @Hugasauras and buy Betty Crocket mixes. Life's too short to get cake mix off your ceiling and have kids fuming in seperate rooms.

Any activity with small kids will, however, be chaotic and messy. I think you just have to bite the bullet and accept that. My mum used to do loads of baking with small children when she was a childminder and yeah, there would be mess and bickering, but she stuck with really simple things and the kids mainly just tipped the weighed-out things in and did the mixing when they were little.

I do remember that the kids would give their parents a big tub of cookies or cakes they'd made and the parents would be really impressed and say 'Oh, but 10HailMarysMum, don't you want to keep some for yourself?' and my mum wouldn't hear of it. She then told me afterwards that the reason she never kept any of the kids' baking was that kids have zero concept of hygiene and while she could cope with eating something her own had sneezed in, that didn't extend to other people's kids.

I’ve stuck with just decorating so far. Bought plain cupcakes in the shop and make icing with icing sugar, water & food colouring then let them dunk that and some sprinkles on top. Still makes a horrific mess but at least the results are edible

Baking with kids is an act of parental self-sacrifice. It's like pretend play, only messier. You do it for half an hour and then stick the kids in front of the TV for the rest of the morning while you recover (and clean up!).

It's true op! It gets better though...my DD is 11 and for the past couple of years baking together has been genuinely enjoyable.

I don’t mind it. Making pizza dough is good as it’s actual dinner at the end.
All in one pot muffins like apple/ blueberry/ carrot are fairly easy.

Its messy but at least we eat results. I prefer to play dough which just makes blue pink, red stain mess everywhere, then turns brown, and ends up in the bin, dry.

Has anybody IRL ever actually used salt instead of sugar? Seems like a thing that only happens in Little Women.

It’s not fun until they’re old enough to do it by themselves while you just sit and read out the instructions or tell them where the whisk is.

My DS is 14 and we now have a great time baking together. Don’t ask about when he was 7. <shudder>

it truly is 🙂

😂. This strikes a chord! Brings back memories of DC cracking three eggs straight onto the kitchen floor.

Yah, Betty crocker is the way forward

I always remember it as a messy disaster but our children as adults always remember it fondly and some of the bigger disasters brought up 20 years later. So maybe that is what it is really about.

It is messy but most creative activities with little ones are. My dd are 8 and 10 now and getting better - the 10yo can pipe icing as well as me!

Of course it isn't relaxing though. I do a lot of baking and like to try new, interesting cakes etc, so I find it quite hard to unclench and let the kids make vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles!

When I first started baking with the kids I'd make sure everything was measured out first then I just read the recipe and they follow by adding in the ingredients in the right order and taking turns to mix.
The only part I let them actually make a mess is cracking the eggs which is super messy but such a laugh and feels like a right of passage for them!
My youngest is 3 now and cracking eggs is also her favourite.

DH peaked the day we had friends over and DH took their wee one and ours into the kitchen to bake (maybe 4 or 5 year olds). We had got a packet mix in for this. DH came sauntering into the living room and sat down with the adults. We all looked at him and asked if he had just left the kids in charge of making cupcakes. He swigged his coffee and said "yes, they're happy". Obvs they didn't do the oven side of things. Cupcakes like hockey pucks with pictures of Peppa Pig stuck on with sweet goo. Contented children. Wipe it all down. Fine.

DS is 13 now and quite a good baker and cook but it's still better just to leave him to get on with it.

You then move onto letting them spoon out the sugar and flour and I agree always use your largest bowl even for the smallest recipe

Love baking with the kids but only when we have got lots of time as it does take ages. My go to recipes are measured in cups which is a lot easier for younger children. May get wonky shapes and OTT decorations at times, but never inedible.

I do this too. In fact if people ask what my girls would like for their birthdays I suggest those kits. The girls are happy as they like the pouring and mixing, I'm happy as the arguing and room for error is reduced and it's a faster process, we all get cake and the giver is happy, especially when I send them a photo of the making process as a thank you note, lol.

I always steal a couple of the cake cases when they aren't looking, the mixture makes softer fatter cakes that way...

Far too relatable. We mostly bake in the garden now. Or, if I'm being honest, I bake while shouting at the kids to wash their hands because they keep licking things. At least the kitchen isn't totally sticky after.