Teaching our kids to cook when they were younger is a skill that they are still using today. And baking with them has also paid off.
We started teaching our kids to bake and cook when they were quite young. We believe that kitchen skills are essential to learn, and starting kids at a young age gives them the confidence to cook for themselves when they are older.
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What Age Is Best To Teach Children To Bake?
There is no magic age that says when a child is ready to bake.
Our children started as young as 18 months, but some didn’t take an interest until 3 or 4 years old. And one of our kids didn’t show an interest in baking or cooking until he was almost 10 years old.
We didn’t push them, but we did encourage them to help occasionally, and eventually, they started helping more.
How To Introduce Baking To Kids
We started our kids off young when it comes to being in the kitchen. They were still toddlers, and sometimes all they did was watch us. This was enough to get them started.
Then we let them help gather ingredients and equipment. They also helped us with the clean-up afterwards.
Eventually, they started stirring batters and adding ingredients to the bowls.
These tips and tricks can help get you started in the kitchen with your little ones.
Have Patience
When it comes to teaching kids in the kitchen, patience is needed by both parents and kids. Baking is a science, and it takes time to prepare and bake. Waiting for the oven timer can be the hardest part of baking.
Our kids started in the kitchen when they were around 2 or 3 years old. It took a lot of patience because, for one, toddlers have a lot of questions. They question everything, and sometimes we don’t know the answer. Be prepared for these types of questions.
Reading through the recipe with your kids before starting the recipe gives you an idea of what to expect. We have always made the recipe ourselves, before introducing it to our kids, just to make sure the recipe turns out. Until our kids were older and had experience in the kitchen, we always stuck with recipes we had made before.
Safety Is Important
Baking is a lot of fun, but safety is a very important lesson to teach them. Teaching your kids the basic rules of the kitchen can help avoid burns and cuts.
Having a designated workstation that is clear of clutter is a good idea. And having a stool that is sturdy for a child to stand on helps.
If your child is wearing an apron, make sure the strings are not too long. You don’t want to get them caught in anything, especially in something like an electric mixer.
And for the girls, we always tied their hair back to avoid it getting in the batter. It also kept it out of their faces so they could see what they were doing.
Keep It Simple
The first, and even the second, and third recipes you decide to make with your child should be simple and easy to make.
Kids have a short attention span, so quick and easy recipes are best to start with. Cookies and muffin recipes are usually the easiest to teach kids, and they are treats kids like to eat. Chocolate Chip Cookies and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins were the first recipes we taught our children.
Cut-out cookies are also a big hit with kids. Our Vanilla Almond Sugar cookies are still a favourite with our kids. They love to cut out all kinds of shapes and decorate the cookies afterward. Cut-outs are perfect for any time of year, and we have stocked up on cookie cutters of all shapes and sizes.
Be Prepared
Having everything ready to go when you start is key. Have your child help you gather all the ingredients and line them up on the work surface in order of use. This way, everything is ready to go.
Do this with utensils and tools as well. Check the recipe to see what size measuring cups you’ll need and take out only the sizes necessary to avoid questions about why some sizes weren’t used.
Also, it’s a good idea to have a kitchen towel or hand towel ready for spills or wiping hands.
Bake and Share
The best part of baking is sharing afterward. Our kids always enjoyed baking cookies or cupcakes before going to a friend’s house. They loved showing off what they baked.
When it comes to birthday cakes, there have been years when our kids have baked their own birthday cakes with our help and then decorated the cakes themselves. They loved doing this and were very proud of the work they put into their cakes.
Celebrate with Praise
Celebrate your child’s accomplishment with lots of praise. They are learning, and although the finished product may be the furthest from expected, it’s important to praise them throughout the process. This encourages them to want to continue to learn to bake.
Clean Up
We are all for clean as you go, but when you’re teaching a child to bake for the first time, clean up can wait til the end. Have fun and leave the cleaning for last, unless it’s a hazard like spilled liquid on the floor.
Afterwards, make cleaning up fun for the little ones. We used to play some music and sing along as we cleaned.
Always include them in the cleanup. We believe it teaches them responsibility along with kitchen skills. Have them rinse measuring cups and utensils, or have them help to load the dishwasher.
Our kids always loved to spray the counters and wipe them afterwards. Instead of giving them kitchen cleaners, we kept a spray bottle of water handy. They could spray the countertops and wipe them. We would use cleaners to disinfect the counters later. The kids thought they were helping, so we let them do their thing.
The Best Advice For Baking With Kids?
The best advice we can give is to make it fun. It’s a learning experience for the kids, and it won’t be perfect, but as long as it’s fun, we have found that the kids come back for more.
Now that our kids have grown up, they are still baking the recipes we taught them and creating their own as well.
We’d love to hear if you have tips or tricks for baking with kids. Let us know below in the comments.