Activity: Baking With A Baby

Hi guys,
The Easter holidays started with a wet rainy day and a sinking feeling in my tummy. Wilbur loves to be outside and hates being cooped in the house. All of his normal classes and activities were off for the holidays, and it was too wet to go out. What were we going to do? The answer was to bake some fairy cakes:

I know mums with older kids let their little ones get involved with the washing up and opening the oven door etc, but Wilbur is still a bit too small for that. Instead I simplify baking for him as much as possible to hold his interest and make sure the end result is (sort of) edible! Here are a few tips, gleaned from lots of attempts and getting it wrong a couple of times:

-Weigh out all the ingredients before you let the monster into the kitchen, and put them on separate plates. That way he can add all the ingredients himself and I know that the cakes will still rise

- Use paper plates. Not kind to the environment I know, but hear me out! Wilbur loves throwing things. He throws everything he can lay his hands on up in the air and yells 'pop!'as they land on the floor. I don't mind flour and sugar thrown all over the kitchen but I don't want smashed plates, so I use paper ones instead. That way I'm not on edge and we can both enjoy the fun of the messy bake.

-Don't worry too much about hygene! At first I freaked out when Wilbur started eating the icing, licking the spoon and generally dribbling snot into everything. Then I decided to calm down. Noone was going to eat them except him and his dad....and there was no need to tell him what went in them! Making mess is all part of the fun, but....

-Have a strategic clean! When the cakes are in the oven I clean frantically, so that we can mess the whole room up again with our icing. Noone wants to get creative with their icing options on a dirty worktop. Not even a baby!

Do you bake with your babies? And are your results as unedible-looking as ours?!

Love Tor x