Christmas is a very exciting time for everyone especially the kids that are under five. They like to be involved in all the preparations, especially when baking the Christmas cake. It would be more productive to rein in their help and teach them, than to war with them and try to keep them away. And why not? After all it is educative and quite an enjoyable experience if you follow the dos and don’ts. Often it is the preparation and the waiting that is more enjoyable than the event itself! Here are some suggestions about how you can go about it:
1. Making a list and getting the ingredients
Be sure to involve them right from the beginning. You can appraise them of the process and excite them about going shopping for the ingredients. Start with the list of ingredients. At the store, they can search for all the items you need and fetch them. At this age they feel quite important to be able to identify the items that you are looking for and getting them. Just make sure of the quantities required. They can even put the packets in the trolley and wheel it around.
2. Collecting all the must haves
Then get them to collect all the ingredients needed before you start baking. Keep it a fun thing all through and don’t kill their spirit. It can turn out to be a hide and seek game, making him or her run up and down and reach the shelves to fish them out.
3. Lining the mold
Start with ‘lining the little baker’ with an apron to save you the bother of laundering the clothes, before you entrust the child with handling the flour. It would be a good idea to give a small cup of flour and a brush to butter the paper and dust the flour. The child can even cut the paper to size with a pair of paper scissors which is sure to thrill them.
4. Weighing out
You can weigh out the flour and sugar when the kid is busy lining the butter paper, however if you loose in the race and are caught while measuring them, you can get the child to read the number on the weighing machine. He/she would love to do this as they might have just started learning and recognizing the numbers and more importantly this will keep them out of any danger of dusting the whole kitchen with flour. Then get the child to empty the measured quantities of the ingredients into a large container and mix them. You can spread a sheet of paper and set the container down for this to prevent it from spilling.
5. Noise is ‘in’
However much we may be averse to noise, kids love making a racket and seem unmindful of it. So when it is time to use the blender, get the child to switch it on and off. They go ecstatic over the noise and may sing and dance too. You can help yourself to some earplugs first!
6. Stirring it up!
This is something the child will find hard to do, so do give them the chance to find out what is difficult and what is not by themselves. Be sure to hand them the container and stir up the cake mixture preferably standing it on the floor as they will be too small to do it on the counter or table.
7. Icing and decoration
It would be better to keep them away while handling the microwave or the oven. You could however take their help in pouring a small quantity of the batter in a little mold which is all theirs. This would help them while decorating the cake. When the baking is done and the cake cooled you can finish the icing and let the child decorate it in any way he/she wants or use the smaller one just for them. This can be set on the table on Christmas day along with yours.
This is the recipe for baking your Christmas cake along with kids safely and joyfully! Merry Christmas!
