please give me some positives about baking

[peppajay]

Please help me. I hate baking with a passion it is the biggest waste off time and so time consuming. My son loves it. He wrecks my kitchen though and leaves so much mess behind. He will always do the most complicated things which take proving, chilling etc. He has spent nearly £100 of his own money on gadgets, but the mess that he leaves behind. I can't understand why he can't just go to Asda and but cakes, biscuits, truffles etc . He would have so much more free time!!!!! I literally have no more space in my kitchen for anything and spend hours cleaning it and washing everything up but he has so many gadgets. Should baking be this messy and time consuming!!!

Asda -mass produced, full of preservatives not half as tasty, plastic wrapping.
Home made-baked with anticipation of people enjoying it (which gives the baker the feel good factor) using quality ingredients, a sense of satisfaction and much tastier no plastic needed if you stick it in a cake tin.

It’s lovely he enjoys it so much. However, the rule should be if he bakes he cleans up -properly!

Appalled he’s not cleaning up after himself!

Why isn’t he cleaning up?

He does the basics, he washes up the pots pans and dishes but he loves to put all the ingredients in dishes, and bowls before adding it which creates so much washing up, He is only just 10 and quite small so he can't reach alot of the cupboards. I am going to re arrange the cupboards at the weekend and put his baking stuff in a low down cupboard. The whole kitchen floor and floors are covered in flour and sugar. He has so many different bowls and attachments to his food processor which he bought at the weekend and I don't understand what half of them do. I know this is a really really good hobby for him to have but it just seems to create so much extra mess and stress. Last sunday he started baking at 10am and wasn't finished till 4pm!! He hates anyone getting in his way but the rest of the family still need food and drinks.

Do you enjoy eating the results? I like baking, but I think at his age I'd be gently enforcing more thorough clean up by him. Even if he can't put his bowls etc back in the cupboards he can wash them ready to go away. And he can mop the floor if he's got stuff all over if. The more cleaning up he has to do, the more careful he'll be to make less mess. I used to be a messy baker when I was a child, nowadays I don't even need to wear an apron. Because I hate cleaning and always want to minimise having to do it! 😂

Awww that’s really sweet. He has discovered a proper passion, that’s a great thing!

But he does need to finish the job properly - He needs to rinse all dishes and stack them ready to be washed, wipe counters and sweep or run the hoover.