Talk to Plum about cooking with your DCs and you could win a Plum Snowdrop Interactive Kitchen worth £99.99 NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Plum, the active play specialists want to know what MNers love to cook with their children. What tasty treats do you try and make together? Whether it’s savoury snacks, heavenly cakes or delicious dinners, let Plum know.

Plum says “Cooking with your little one can be so much fun. We’ve launched the first ever Interactive Kitchen Range for children aged 3+ offering a fresh and exciting way to play that will whip up your little ones imagination into a cooking frenzy. Mini-Mary’s and pint-size Paul’s can take the challenge and cook up some mouth-watering meals in their very own, beautifully crafted wooden play kitchen. Sprinkle on a huge dollop of fun and bring the kitchens to life by simply inserting a tablet into the kitchen’s secure compartment and downloading the free Plum app for lights, fun and baking action! Blending tradition with technology, there are three kitchens to choose with four different foods to cook including popcorn.”

So, tell us your favourite recipes for cooking with your DCs, and maybe get some inspiration from other MNers.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a Plum Snowdrop Interactive Kitchen worth £99.99.

Please note your comments may be included on Plum’s social media channels, so please only post on here if you are comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

PS: Please click here for the terms and conditions of this thread.

My DS and I made these scones www.mumsnet.com/food-content/8-tips-perfect-scones at the weekend for an afternoon tea party to celebrate Granny's birthday.

DS is nearly 3 and enjoys watching me make dinner most nights. He doesn't really like getting his hands messy so prefers to watch the process and eat it all up afterwards. He also likes to make me imaginary food to eat but often reminds me that I can't actually eat it and just have to pretend!

DD has just turned 4 and we love to bake together. She does the stirring while I weigh the ingredients. We usually do some kind of muffin so she can add the berries / choc pieces and then helps me to spoon them into the cases. It's a silly lovely activity that we enjoy plus we get to gorge on the results afterwards!

Our favourites are cupcakes and peanut butter cookies. All four children get involved, the older ones at 8, 11 and 12 can pretty much bake by themselves but the 4 year old needs help. He will add and mix ingredients and put into cases or on the baking tray himself. he also insists on making his own sandwiches and buttering bread or toast when he is having it.

We make cheese scones together, DD does not have a sweet tooth, and she loves mixing the ingredients together, I help her measure and obviously deal with the oven side, but she likes to do everything herself.

I also involve her in cooking dinners and let her taste the spices as we go, which makes her more inclined to eat what's being cooked. I often ask her to taste things and then ask if it's too salty/sweet or what she thinks we need to add, we got some funny suggestions like honey to spag bol, but she really enjoys being involved.

I can't wait for her to be able to read so we can really cook together

we love baking mini pizzas

Ds3 loves making anything chocolate flavoured these are his Easter efforts

Even the youngest of kids can get involved! Even if you make a basic cookie mixture, they can help you cut them out using clean play doh cutters, and decorating Them with smarties or M&m's helps with learning colours and numbers.

Ah cooking with children. In my head it is going to be a lovely, bonding experience. In reality there is flour everywhere and I am trying to stay patient and not shout "oh just let me do it".

We bake muffins and roll out biscuits that can be decorated. She asks to help with dinner and lunch but inevitably says "I don't want to do that" when I suggest what she can do. Meanwhile the baby empties the cupboards around me. S'lovely. Domestic bliss.

Oh, and she tries to lick the spoon the whole way through. Which when it's pancake batter really isn't worth it. Or just flour. She doesn't care.

Dd, almost 2, loves cooking. Dh takes her shopping on saturday morning while I have a lie in and she always comes back with a cupcake mix, toy story cakes are her favourite at the moment but monsters and peppa pig have also been a big hit. She loves the mixes because she can already do it all herself, break the egg, spoon in water, 1, 2, 3 and a scoop of butter pour in the mix and beat for as long as she likes, mummy puts it in the oven then latter that day she can ice them. We deliver them to granny or grandad's work after she gets first taste.

Yoghurt cake is great fun to make with lots of scooping. We make bannna cake, easy bread and butter pudding, savory bread and butter pudding, bannaa flapjack, fruit muffins, chese straws, scones and buscits too. We're on the rota to make cakes for our church toddler group. This summer she made mini cakes for people's birthday which have gone down well.

When we've got the time, which I try to plan into the day she helps chop vegetables for dinner and fruit for breakfast or pudding. She spreads her own toast and sandwhiches. Makes up her own mix for omlets and scrambled eggs and will pour it into the pan for me to cook. She loves eatting what she's helped to cook and will try so much more if she's involved. She can even remember what she did when when we batch cook and eat it latter on. So chilli becomes 'cut pepper' bolognase is 'pour juice' and lasanger is 'on top' because she helps to layer it. Shopping is easier to because she recognises what we are buying so can help find it then talk about when we do to it and will make with it.

I'm pleased she's learning about food at kitchen saftey so young and how much she already understands. It makes meal times easier. She loves to do the washing up and cut things away in the cupboard. She has her own cupboard in the kitchen that she's allowed to play with and will put things away when she finishes and won't touch anything else.

Looking forward to giving her her very own kitchen for her birthday in november. She's going to love it!

dd has an egg allergy so does not eat cakes. we do cook chocolate crispy cakes for birthdays, dough pizzas... (requires a lot of patience from me and an oven set to the incinerate setting to get them cooked) dd helps make sandwiches and is just starting to do beans on toast herself. ds make sandwiches and likes cheese and apple.

dd's favourite though is making iron age bread at the iron age fort in pembrokeshire.

they love getting their own breakfast... but it is surprising how far oats can get trodden through the house when they have ended up on the floor.

I also cook them egg free pancakes which they like helping to mix and top.

dd and ds help with dinner. dd can get the stuff out for the just-arrived-at grannies-ovenchips and fishfingers with lots of veggies far quicker than her father. she she can do all the prep except the oven bit. they both peel and chop mushrooms, chop courgette with a plastic knife and help with the fetching and carrying.

I like the sound of cheese scones so may pinch that idea!

DD is 3 so mainly helps with baking rather than cooking, although she likes to ask what everything is when I'm making something!

If we are baking she likes to feel all the raw ingredients and helps measure out and stir and then waits in the hope of being allowed to lick the spoon!

Then sits in the kitchen asking "are they ready yet" repeatedly until they are. Not all cakes get to decoration stage in our house. At least one usually "needs" to be eaten as soon as possible!

Another one who's little un is too young for proper baking just yet. We are still at the exploring stage!!

There is nothing more satisying than watching him enjoy food I prepare - but I think when he gets to make food and eat that I will feel even prouder!

I like to do flap jacks with my dc. You can't really go wrong and they are ready to eat quite quickly, which is handy as they are hungry all the time. I also try to get them to help with dinner so they can gradually learn how to make a meal. We love to eat so we love to cook.

We make fairy cakes, biscuits, jam tarts and, DS's personal favourite, scones. He likes to make a 'snake scone' out of the bit of dough that is always left over.

He does love to fling flour all over the floor!!

Baking is best. Today we went blackberry picking then got some apples from the garden to make a blackberry and apple crumble. They mixed the flour, sugar and butter with there hands to make the crumble and chopped the apples and stirred the apples on the stove with butter and sugar then mixed the blackberries in. I believe in letting them help as much as possible, they are 3 and 5 and the knife isn't very sharp and I supervise of course.

Then we get to eat the results after tea. And strangely I seem to do the clearing up on my own!

My dc have been helping prepare veg for meals since they could hold a knife and follow instructions ( around 2yrs). Since 3+ they've been making their own recipes. My 5 yr old recently asked to try and make marmite buns ( we did) and my frozen obsessed 3 yr old wanted to make snowflake bread (didn't quite work). But it's the ideas, creativity, interest and little moments like drawing on flour or making it snow which make us like cooking together.

fairy cakes are fab.and great if you get all the stuff ready in the bowls so the little ones just get to pour it in and mix.
pasta is a fantantastic thing for cooking with the children.a creamy based sauce and then some veggies of their choice works a atreat.
mini pies are good becasue they love working with pastry.making little designs for the tops.

i think its really important that they help or witness me cooking as much as possible.chopping veg with me.choosing veg.getting them to find me the tins of beans out the cupbaord or the right shaped pasta.its little thoughts that will creep into their minds embed there and slowly teach them. and they do really like to feel helpful.and really like to feel clever and all grown up find ingredients are tasting the spag bol.i say things like "come and taste this for me i need your skills"

I used to bake a lot with DS1 but I've really slipped since DS2 was born. I think now they are both a bit older, I can start baking with them again. Although DS2 loves helping me to stir food.

We like to make simple things, such as: pancakes, fairy cakes and gingerbread men.

The most fun we had was making a gingerbread house for Christmas.

my dc's 5&4 love helping me to bake bread, even the 20mth old has a go.
They like to measure out the ingredients. My ds favourite bit is getting the water temperature just right before pouring it in.

We have made cakes, biscuits, and pizza.

Well, I mainly make the dough and he helps put toppings on. He calls pizza "Dob dob dobbers" because that's the noise we make while putting toppings on. At least I know he will eat it!

DS has really amazed me by suddenly getting interested in cooking and he's only just turned two. I'd never have thought he'd have the attention span but loves making mini scones and muffins... Now if only I could get him to sit still for 5 mins for any other reason!

Cooking or baking together is a good way to keep them entertained and chat to them whilst you get your cooking done too! It teaches them useful skills and inspires me to make the cooking or baking a bit more fun i.e. shape sandwiches with large cookie cutters, make puddings in jelly-baby shaped moulds, score shapes in pastry or let them froth their milk using a milk frother and sprinkle cinnamon or cocoa on top, so they can have a babyccino whilst you have your coffee for example.

DD(3) and I have had fun together baking blueberry muffins, making samosas and icing fairy cakes. Baking biscuits was less successful as the recipe I had chosen required too much precision.

But DD's favourite cooking activity is breaking eggs. And she is actually rather good at it.