Nothing is more fun for moms of little ones than spending time in the kitchen baking yummies to share with friends and families. Kids are just so proud when they see their finished goodies laid out on a plate and ready to dig into. If you are looking for delicious sweets to ‘bake’ with your little ones, here are five that you will have loads of fun with. Get out the measuring cups, baking pans and beaters. Just remember to have cleaning rags on hand as you’ll probably need them!
1) No-Bake Rice Crispy Treats
Okay, so we’re cheating here! If you aren’t in the mood to fire up the oven or it is simply too hot, why not make rice crispy treats? They’re easy to make and when they’ve been spread out in the pan, your little ones probably won’t even care that they never made it to the oven. You’ve probably made them at least a dozen times by yourself, but if you don’t have the recipe handy, you can find the original Kellogg’s Rice Crispy treat recipe on their website.
2) Holiday Cookies with Butter Cream Frosting
You’ll probably need to do the baking here since it is a bit dangerous (and out of the question!) to let little people work with a hot oven. However, after the cookie dough is mixed up, kids will get to do the fun jobs, which involve cutting out shapes and frosting them with colorful butter cream frosting. Most cookbooks have easy sugar cookie recipes or you can find more than you’ll ever have time to bake on recipes.com. One thing you may want to do is have the web address ready for online cookie delivery by GJCookies.com. By the time you’ve finished baking a couple dozen holiday cookies with little ones you may be too tired to bake that other 12 dozen you’ll need for the holidays!
3) Birthday Cakes
One of the true pleasures for kids is being able to take part in baking birthday cakes for their brothers and sisters, dad, grandma and grandpa or even for daddy. You’ll want to actually bake the cake, but they can handle a hand whip if they are old enough, in lieu of an electric beater. Let them frost and decorate the cake and they’ll be singing the loudest when it’s time to sing “Happy Birthday.” This can even be a great lesson in arithmetic if you let them count the candles!
4) Pineapple Upside-down Cake
Here’s another type of cake that little ones can ‘bake.’ If you let them spread the crushed or chunked pineapple on the bottom of the rectangular baking pan, they’ll swear they did the baking! Actually, many moms have varied this recipe by using other fruits that little ones like better than pineapple. Some kids are just finicky and would prefer apples or peaches instead. Any yellow box cake mix will do and when the cake is cooled and tipped over onto a serving plate, don’t expect the fruit that is now on top to stay there very long! Kids just love to pick the fruit from the cake.
5) At Long Last – Chocolate Frosted Brownies
Remember, we’re talking about little people here so you need to be creative in sweets that you bake. The secret is for mom to do the actual baking while kids do the embellishing with frostings. Brownies are an all-time favorite and kids look really good in chocolate. This is one of those times you’ll need cleaning rags handy as they will probably wear more chocolate icing than the brownies have. But – that’s okay! It’s the mommy time that matters.
Not only will your little ones be proud of their handiwork but they’ll bask in that time spent alone with mom in the kitchen. It is fun and the rewards are oh, so delicious.
Good tip! I don’t own an oven so a no-bake is my best resolve. You remind me to blog about it too 🙂
No-Bake Rice Crispy Treats were my FAVORITE to make with my mom and older sister when I was a kid (in fact, I loved making all no-bake desserts!) Great list <3
I love memories made over food and time spend with children is precious! Enjoy!
My Mom did not bake so I never learned how from her–my Grandmother on the other hand-actually both of them–would cook up a storm and always let me “help”. Loved helped making the eating that home made whipped cream.
I always had the best time cooking with the kids. Making cookies during the holidays was one of my favorite activities.
Good list of things that little ones can help with. I think it is so important to spend time cooking with your kids.
I love to get my kids involved in the kitchen!! These are great ideas, it makes me nervous to let them use the oven sometimes, or it’s too hot in the summer!
My mom always took the time to bake and cook with us when we were little. I love to have my kids in the kitchen with me now. Even if it takes a little longer, you are so right that they are thrilled with what they have been able to create. We always do homemade birthday cakes and let the kids bake, eat batter, and ice them all alone! Rice krispy treats are one of my favorite, as well as brownies! All fabulous ideas for kids to help with! Just be patient when they help, its totally worth it!
Rice Krispies are my favorite! I also love the pineapple upside down suggestion! I’ve found that my toddler loves to help in the kitchen too, even if it’s to help our coffee grinds into the filter.
These are some great ideas for sweets to make with little ones. Holiday cookies with butter cream frosting sounds like something the little ones would love to help their aunty with. Thanks for sharing.
I was never much of a baker but my mom used to bake all the time with my kids and it’s still one of their favorite memories.
Kids would love the baking birthday cakes. They would enjoy it since they know birthday is so fun.
Such lovely treat ideas to make with little ones. I really want to make some rice krispie cakes with my son 🙂
Those are great suggestions. We usually bake cookies together. She likes using cookie cutters
Great ideas! I just loved baking with my son when he was little. And it’s so fun eating what you make when it’s done.
These are such great ideas. My daughter has just started to understand the whole ‘cooking’ thing. We will definitely be trying these!
I grew up baking with my grandmother so I have always felt comfortable cooking with my daughter in the kitchen. These are some great tips!