The perfect cookbook for young bakers from Food Network Magazine
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
| Foolproof and easy to follow recipes from Food Network’s test kitchen! |
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 We’ve learned a lot about ourselves during the pandemic, and like many parents, I’ve discovered that I’m not cut out for teaching my own kids. How do I know this? Well, I don’t understand the math assignments, and all I really want to do when my daughters are home for the day is bake. And bake. And bake.
We baked like lunatics last year, and I’m sure many of you did the same. We baked so many muffins and cookies and brownies that we had to start freezing them, and eventually we had to move the surplus to a chest freezer in the garage. I turned our house into a little quarantine bakeshop, with 20-pound bags of flour and all the tools we could possibly need—cake testers and pastry bags and sprinkles in every color. But I was missing one key thing (other than customers): a great baking cookbook, designed for kids. So we made one!  Chunky Monkey Bars The Big, Fun Kids Baking Book, from Food Network Magazine, is perfect for beginner bakers: We filled it with tons of easy treats, and we wrote the recipes with kids in mind. Junior bakers will find all the tips they need to make great muffins and quick breads, brownies and bars, cookies, cupcakes, sheet cakes, and more. The recipes are simple to follow and totally foolproof, and each one comes with a photo. 
 Mini PB & Chocolate Cupcakes!  Egg-in-a-Hole Cake!
Now that this book is here, I can finally step back and let my girls take over the baking projects themselves—because I know they’ll be able to follow these recipes without any extra help. To be honest, I’m going to make this book part of our home-school library: I figure they’ll learn plenty about measuring, fractions, degrees and even color mixing while they bake. It’s like a whole day of classes rolled into one fun activity. School has been touch-and-go for us this past year, but if my kids can emerge from the pandemic knowing how to double a recipe, separate eggs and level a cake, that seems like a win!    Give them real, grown-up tools—not miniature kid ones.  Put them in charge, from start to finish.  Make a mess! You can always clean it up.  Put together a tool kit with pastry bags and tips and squeeze bottles.  Buy a quality kids apron.  Stock up on sprinkles so kids can create custom blends.
 Get a proper cake tester: Toothpicks are a little short!  Splurge on bakery-style packaging like cupcake boxes and cellophane bags: They make everything look professional!  Keep parchment paper around: It’s the ultimate nonstick surface.   It will be the gift that keeps on giving. |
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posted by June Lesley at 11:07 AM
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