cooking with children - alternatives to cakes

[Londongran]

I love to cook with my small grandchildren, but their favourite thing to cook is cupcakes which we can decorate. I'd love to cook something healthier that is as much fun, and can't remember what I used to cook with my own children. The grandchildren do help with cooking lunch when I have them for the day, but it's nice if they cook something like cupcakes that they can take home. Suggestions for fun savouries gratefully received!

How about bread rolls or cheese twists

How about homemade pizza? My kids like to watch the dough rise, make shapes with it and then put the toppings on in fun designs.

Cheese scones, cheese straws.
Savoury muffins, eg cheese and herb, olive and feta
Pizza ~ use a rich scone mix for the base if you are short of time

cheese biscuits - dd loves playing with the dough and cutting out different shapes.

www3.sainsburys.co.uk/littleones/pregnant-mums/recipes/item/cheese-star-biscuits

Look up "my daddy cooks" online - there are lots of things you can get children to help cook!

Lots of pre-schooler friendly savoury recipes to do with a grown up here.

www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/i-can-cook/makes/i-can-cook-savoury/

I second pizza - I used to get a pizza base and lots of toppings to choose from and let my DSS go wild, he got very creative and was always really proud of it when he was done.

DS likes making the dumplings to go in my stews.

DD (2) likes making flabreads with me, but any kind of bread is good as you can't overwork it!

Flatbreads: (makes 4)
100g flour (I use chappatti flour which is essentially finely ground wholemeal plain flour - but normal plain/plain wholemeal or a mix works fine)
Pinch salt
Good glug of olive oil, maybe a couple of tablespoons
Water to make a dough

Bring it together, knead until smooth, then cover and rest it for about 20 mins.

Divide into 4, flour the surface and roll eac one out to approx dinner plate sized.

Get a large frying pan very hot and then dry fry the breads. They will get air bubbles in them, just push down with a spatula so the bread in in contact with the pan. Turn once.
Put cooked breads in a clean teatowel so they stay a bit warm but don't sweat. Eat asap!

Yummy with soup/as a wrap/with a curry.

She also loves using the blender, so making soup or hummous is approved of.

Anything messy? Like homemade bean burgers or falafels that they can get their hands in to squish up, but doesn't involve raw meat?

Cracking/Beating eggs up for omelette/quiche/fritatta?

Making pastry? All the butter into flour rubbing, then shape cutting.

We make cheese scones, but usually use different shaped cutters - favourite is cheese scone teddies. We sometimes stick things in to be the eyes and nose - they like using bits of black olive (always fastidiously removed before eating though!)

Pizzas (halved muffins make great child sized bases, if you don't want to make dough), scones, little quiches.

And for something sweet but not too sweet, you can make something like banana muffins (I use a bbc recipe and reduce the added sugar, which isn't a lot to start with), or there's a nice and not too sweet carrot cake recipe on the rapeseed oil benefits site. Or oyu could make a tea loaf, such as Mary Berry's Bara Brith recipe which is basically dried fruit, soaked in tea, then mixed with flour and an egg and a little bit of extra sugar (again, can be reduced with no bad effects to the eating quality of the cake). All better alternatives to sickly iced buns!

Cake making just involves assembling the ingredients, mixing and whacking in the oven. But making bread involves so many other activities.

As with anything else, there's the assembling and mixing bit - plus:
Kneading
Playing with the dough - making shapes, etc (after all, this is the original^ playdough!), cutting out shapes with a variety of implements - cutters, pizza cutters, etc
Rolling out the dough if you're making pizzas, mini-pizzas, etc
Decorating with various ingredients - sultanas, seeds, etc - before putting to prove
Proving - watching the dough increase in size before your very eyes!
Baking
Painting with a sugar glaze, sprinkling with sugar (Chelsea buns/healthy jam doughnuts, etc)

Here's a few ideas on my blog.

These pics are from a morning spent teaching my daughter's entire year group (5) breadmaking - 82 kids in all, in 4 hours!

Echoing the others: pizza, bread, cheese crackers/scones.
Mine love cutting up mushrooms and other soft veg.
Savoury muffins etc are also popular.
Enjoy the cooking.

If it's not to take home, then mine love cooking with eggs. They love cracking them, and then stirring for eg scrambled eggs. Then buttering toast etc.

I prefer involving them in cooking rather than baking, as baking needs to be so precise.