I love baking! I have always enjoyed the process of putting together a bunch of random ingredients and then, after a brief spell in the oven, to receive the delightful fruits of my labour; it is such a joy, and so yummy! I am grateful that my parents allowed me many adventures in the kitchen from quite a young age. My creativity in the kitchen loved to roam free. Yes, there were times this creativity was barred from being released due to my habit of not cleaning up very well, some things haven't changed! (fortunately now no one can stop me! And I am getting better at the cleaning part) but all in all I was pretty lucky to have the freedom they gave me.
Now that I have children of my own I have the delightful experience of sharing my love of baking with them. It certainly seems to come pretty naturally in this family. Both of my girls LOVE helping me in the kitchen and it is all I can do to stop them from pulling up a chair and reaching for the aprons any time I am preparing something! I try to include them as much as possible, but for this to be successful it takes a little bit of organisation. Hands are washed, aprons are put on (Carla made them the cutest little aprons, sooo adorable!) I try and get all the ingredients up on the counter before I call them over as this prevents me from having to leave the bench during the process, CLOSE supervision is required at all times!
Yesterday we made cookies. The girls had a chair each, aproned up and enthusiastic. Esther took responsibility for the stirring while Charlotte got to tip in the ingredients, one by one as I measured them up. It's great fun watching them as they do enjoy it so much. If you haven't braved cooking with your little ones I encourage you to try it. Yes it is messy, but you know, just clean up afterwards! Great practice for team work (if you have more than one) giving them each a little job to do works well I have found. Your product won't be achieving high standards for hygiene if your kids have the same irresistible urge to 'taste' the mixture constantly as mine do! Esther seems to enjoy even the taste of raw egg, anything is pleasurable out of the mixing bowl- apparently. As much as I tell her 'it doesn't taste good' she appears to be deaf to my pleas to reason.
I think my favourite part of baking is the egg cracking. For this I say 'JUST DO IT' let them have a crack (pardon the pun!) ! What's the worst that can happen? Egg all over the floor? Well, yes, that has happened a couple of times to me, but it is so hilariously liberating to let a toddler have a go at this that I think it is worth it. And you know what? They do learn from their mistakes. Esther is an AMAZING egg cracker for a three year old! I have to say I am very proud of her abilities in this area. She always goes for the opposite side of the bowl and keeps the egg inside as she does it, very careful, more so than me, rarely ANY shell gets in the mix. The first time I let her do it, she had to hit it so many times before finally getting a small crack and then she more or less squeezed the egg out (and then i picked out all the shell!). Another time, in the early days of our cooking together, she cracked the egg on the outside edge of the bowl and the egg came out and slid down the bowl and straight onto the floor! I didn't get angry with her, it was an accident, but she was a bit put off by this experience and the next few times didn't even want to try it again, which I was happy to oblige with. I think she watched me and when she was willing to try again she did brilliantly!
Oh the joys of cooking! It really is a fun learning curve for both the girls and I. The more I do it the less of a hassle it becomes and it is really rewarding watching them both learn and grow in their understanding of cooking and all the other skills that go with it, not to mention the working together and sharing as we go. So I hope I have inspired you to give it a go or keep going with it if you already have and have thought it 'too much hassle'. And if you want some cute aprons for the kiddies to wear I might just know someone who can make them to order.
Happy cooking!
