I remembered the 1st time I got Ryan in the kitchen with me. He was 21 months old, 3 months shy of turning into a big 2 year old boy.
We baked an upside down pineapple cake that day. Let’s just say I learnt a lot that day lol. IT WAS A MESS.
Lessons Learnt that day:
- Place him nearer to the sink for ease of washing hands & cleaning up
- Because he was only 21 months and liked to put everything in his mouth, find ingredient substitutes. For example, use applesauce as substitute for oil & bananas as substitute for egg.
- I love baking from scratch but seriously, using a cake mix from time to time just makes your life easier..
- The toddler might eat most of the ingredients so be prepared to have a bit more ingredients than the recipe calls for.
- Prep all the ingredients….every single one of them be it a tsp salt or shredded zucchini or the exact flour measurement
- Place all ingredients in a kid friendly big bowl so it’s easy for him to pour them in
- Have a small bowl of his favorite snacks nearby so when he finishes his baking tasks, you can just bring the snacks in front of him while you finish up the baking. It gives you just enough time to do all that while he is distracted with his snacks.
- Place a big towel on the floor under him and a smaller towel on the chair that he is standing on. Makes for easier cleaning.
- Have all the rest of the items all ready for standby e.g, your spoon, mixer, spatula & etc. The last thing you need is to go find something in the middle of the baking. The toddler ain’t gonna be waiting for you patiently for your to get your shit together. They want to play and they want to play now! lol
- Set up your camera. In my case, it was my iphone. I didn’t have any gadgets then. I only had my iphone but since then, I have been searching for an iphone tripod that will work great for filming Ryan in the kitchen as well as making baking videos. There are many such products in the market but check out this inexpensive iphone tripod that I found at Amazon. It works great and is affordable.
UGREEN IPHONE TRIPOD WITH EXTENDING ARMS FROM AMAZON
I don’t know about u guys but just writing & reading all the steps makes me tired already lol. And yes, it is definitely more work when you bake with a toddler & I honestly just rather sit down and watch TV but the rewards for me is tenfold. Seeing Ryan having fun in the kitchen brings me so much joy. Seeing him being excited to eat the food we bake together.
Would so love to hear any other tips you have.
LAZY MOMMY GUIDE 
that’s clever about substituting the ingredients in case he ingests them. hope this is helpful for other moms and nannies.
Joy at The Joyous Living
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for reading my post! And I hope my tips were helpful 🥰
LikeLike
Great tips for baking with a toddler. Never thought about pre-measuring ingredients or substituting ingredients like bananas for eggs. Will pin!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much for reading my post! And I hope my tips were helpful 🥰
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing your helpful tips how to bake with toddler, I never thought of substituting ingredients, sounds like really good idea!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for reading my post! And I hope my tips were helpful 🥰
LikeLike
I like to keep toddlers busy when I cook, what a terrific idea to get them to help!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It can be messy but also at the same time so much fun for them
LikeLike
Thanks!!! And sure, it can be messy but if I prep it ahead of time, it’s actually not too bad 🥰🥰
LikeLike
These are great tips. Toddlers tend to be super excited and mess the whole place up. But your idea of substituting ingredients… is just awesome.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks!!! And honestly while I love baking from scratch, I sometimes just use a cake mix when I’m baking with him. Makes life a bit easier lol.
LikeLike
It’s so funny how different baking with kids is than baking in general! I loved the idea of having snacks nearby when baking food. No one who isn’t a parent would understand the true necessity of that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So totally true!!!! Want my toddler to behave for 5 mins while I clean up real quick, give him his fav snacks lol
LikeLike
This is a really nice bonding activity we can do with the young ones. I will try this with my grandson this weekend. He is the biggest fan of my cooking so I know he would love to be “involved” in baking too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s so awesome! I’m
Sure your grandson would love baking or cooking with his grandma 🥰🥰🥰
LikeLike