Great Summer Bakes for Your Little Ones

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One of the best parts of the summer holidays is the amount of time you get to spend with your little ones, and all of the fun activities you can finally enjoy! Baking is such a great way of keeping your children stimulated and engaged throughout the holiday period and a great way of interacting with each other as well.

Baking is great fun all year round, however there are certain recipes that work so well through the summer months, and it’s always fun to add a little challenge in there every once in a while! Here’s a few tips and ideas on how to keep the little ones’ creativity flaring throughout the holidays.

The first step with any child related kitchen activity is to keep things simple. Baking is so exciting, and for a youngster the idea of getting messy and eating delicious food at the end is probably too much to handle. Keeping your recipes, methods and ideas simple will work perfectly for you to ensure you enjoy your baking experiences too. Start with a quick recipe, such as Lemon Butterfly Cupcakes, or even Monster Eyed Cupcakes. Giving them exciting names will instantly spark your child’s imagination and keep them interested in the baking process. Choosing recipes that are easy to follow, and most importantly include your child, for example the mixing or adding of the ingredients, is perfect as your child will feel involved and proud of the steps they are taking. If you feel that the recipe is maybe a little complex or difficult, you could always play around and make it work best for you.

Baking is also a perfect way of introducing new foods and flavours to your child’s taste palette. Many recipes include fruits such as blueberries, raspberries, bananas, apples and lemon, which many children would take one look at and say “I don’t like it”! However, once you add these to the mixture and create glorious blueberry muffins, lemon cupcakes, raspberry tray bake and banana bread, your little one probably won’t mind that the fruits are in there, as the overall taste is so delicious and exciting that they’ll begin to enjoy the taste of these different fruits. Similarly, by baking with your child, you’re encouraging them to generate a bond with the kitchen, a new found love for baking. With confidence and positivity in the kitchen, children will enjoy making new things and this passion will hopefully grow as your children do, developing their skills and confidence when experimenting with new recipes.

To keep your little ones engaged and switched on, icing and novelty features are always a good idea. Adding icing to a beautiful cookie or cupcake will encourage your child to be creative, whether they write their name or even just draw a little picture, it’s a great way of sparking concentration and creativity in their minds. As well as coloured writing icing, you may also want to consider using buttercream icing, which is very, very tasty. Easy to make and it looks beautiful, buttercream icing would work perfectly on cupcakes and other cake bakes that you and your child have created.

The best kind of bakes for your little ones this summer are focused around fruity, exciting recipes. As mentioned before, simplicity is key. But this doesn’t mean you can’t be adventurous and playful with your added flavours. Fruit Tarts are a gorgeous summer bake, using pastry, cream and fruit you can create a tasty yet healthy dish that your child will love. Blueberry Muffins, Lemon Curd Cake, Pancakes, Raspberry and White Chocolate Tray Bake and even cookies are all perfect recipes for a quick yet tasty treat. By baking these with your child you are encouraging them to enjoy creating and tasting new things, whilst being able to take pride in sitting down and tucking into those tasty treats that they created themselves.

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Even taking your little ones to the supermarket to stock up on all the ingredients that will make your kitchen cupboard doors burst open will encourage them to take an interest in baking, as well as teach them how supermarkets work, what ingredients you’ll need and what they look like.

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