Any Home Bakers Here?

[3goodeggs]

I would make really neat cakes for my son's birthdays until I realized it made him sad to eat them. Then we went with plain old cakes.
I think the one that was the most fun was the treasure chest birthday cake. I had the lid open and jewels falling out.
it was also fun hunting down the different candies to look like jewels.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Completely agree on teaching kids to bake. DH learned to cook eggs at 7 years old - simple, nutritious and tasty. His parents got divorced when he was 9 and his mom had to go back to work. He made himself eggs - fried egg sandwich, scrambled eggs - whenever he was hungry and his mom never had to worry about him going hungry when he got home from school. He still makes the best omelets!

 

[ronott1]

ALL kids should be cooking---it's a survival skill for everyone.
Best baking project ever??????
mine was my daughter's sweet sixteen cake---first tiered project

This is very true! Sadly, it is not happening with most kids. Mellenials want pre packaged quick to cook meals--and they expect it to be healthy! Whole Foods announced this week that the were going to build a new line of stores to cater to this.

Completely agree on teaching kids to bake. DH learned to cook eggs at 7 years old - simple, nutritious and tasty. His parents got divorced when he was 9 and his mom had to go back to work. He made himself eggs - fried egg sandwich, scrambled eggs - whenever he was hungry and his mom never had to worry about him going hungry when he got home from school. He still makes the best omelets!

An Uncle of mine was left home for two weeks while his Mom went on vacation. The Uncle did not know how to cook. My Mom heard the Story and made sure that I and my two brothers could cook. She taught us and also sent us to the cooking units through 4-H. We all are the cooks in our families and are all three of us pretty good at it too.

Today I am baking an angel food cake! I baked bread with stone ground whole wheat yesterday using black strap molasses---It is very tasty!

 

[N F C]

@cheepteach Hi, so sorry if I missed your new member debut, so here's a belated welcome….

I love your avatar, That's one of my all time favorite movies. Would love to hear/see what you are baking or cooking

@sunflour , I think I would have liked that movie a whole lot better if I hadn't grown up in KS. Wish I had a nickel for every time I heard a Dorothy, Toto, or land of Oz joke. I'd be a much wealthier person, lol.

Good luck on freezing the egg custard pie, let us know how it works out.

I am a newbie with first hatch in incubator in my special needs classroom. I teach academic skills through a life needs perspective--so we do a lot of cooking for language arts, math, science and social studies. Baking is my preference. After looking around the forums I find I steal a lot of good ideas.
Happy Mothers Day to all! I am NOT cooking a thing all day...after the morning bacon and coffee are done! Then they are on their own!

Hats off to you and all other special needs teachers! All good teachers are valuable but the special needs teachers are gold.

There are a lot of pretty darn tasty recipes in this thread so feel free to "steal" any of them you want!

Good for you!
I home schooled for a while and I found hands on real life taught him the most.
Fractions were real when you got out the cutting board and divided an apple.
"So that's why you multiply to divide!"
We cooked a lot. and he learned how to do laundry.
And we celebrated every culture's holidays with history lessons and food.
Food is a great way to learn.

Welcome to BYC. You will love it here.

I bet you were an amazing home teacher and your son was lucky to have you for one. And you're right, food is a good way of teaching a lot of lessons like math, science, and self-reliance.

Today I am baking an angel food cake! I baked bread with stone ground whole wheat yesterday using black strap molasses---It is very tasty!

@ronott1 , your stone ground ww bread sounds very good. And of course, the angel food cake!

 

[cheepteach]

there's no difference between a good mom and a good teacher--except the pay$$ ! Being a mom makes me a better teacher, I think.
My husband loves angel food cake!

As to the millennials who like quick prepackaged food--we do a food experiment in school Kraft Mac and Cheese VS the real deal:
2 teams, timed, and the results are almost always unanimous (in blind taste-offs) for the real deal.. They learn it's not quicker or better if you just do the right job grocery shopping. The kids love the game-show excitement, and even are involved in making variations--like adding chopped meat---("WOW just like Hamburger Helper" they say) we have fun the kids eat well, and learn something

 

[N F C]

there's no difference between a good mom and a good teacher--except the pay$$ ! Being a mom makes me a better teacher, I think.
My husband loves angel food cake!

As to the millennials who like quick prepackaged food--we do a food experiment in school Kraft Mac and Cheese VS the real deal:
2 teams, timed, and the results are almost always unanimous (in blind taste-offs) for the real deal.. They learn it's not quicker or better if you just do the right job grocery shopping. The kids love the game-show excitement, and even are involved in making variations--like adding chopped meat---("WOW just like Hamburger Helper" they say) we have fun the kids eat well, and learn something

 

[ceancharles]

@ceancharles , that sounds like a really tasty cookie. Care to share the recipe?

One time I made my crackle top sugar cookies for a bake sale (along with several other varieties). One of the other sellers wanted a cookie so I told her to pick out whichever one she wanted, she chose the sugar cookie. This is what I heard the rest of the day:

Her: That is a very sweet cookie
Me: It's a sugar cookie
Her: That's way too sweet
Me: You picked out a sugar cookie
Her: My kids wouldn't eat that, it's too sweet
Me: I made it with sugar, it's a sugar cookie

Ugh, let her pick out the one she wanted, gave it to her for free and all I kept hearing was how sweet it was! Some people, lol.

Absolutely!!
INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature​
• 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar​
• 1 large egg, at room temperature​
• 2 cups all-purpose flour​
• 2 teaspoons baking soda​
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt​
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger​
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon​

PREPARATION

• Preheat the oven to 375°F.
• Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle and beat until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Place the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a separate bowl and mix well. Add to the butter mixture and beat until everything is well incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat again.
• Drop large teaspoonfuls of dough onto an unbuttered cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake until the edges are just brown, 8 to 12 minutes. For crispy cookies, let cool on the sheet. Let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches and repeat with the remaining dough.

 

[N F C]

Thank you @ceancharles !

 

[wyoDreamer]

Oh yummy! I am so going to have to make those.
That recipe sounds a lot like my Ginger Cookie Recipe - except my recipe uses white sugar and is a cut-out cookie. I have little 1 inch cookie cutters that I use - I usually use the teddy bear cutter and call them Ginger Bear Cookies. DH eats them by the handful.

 

[Alice28]

Just reading about the kids and cooking. It is pretty shocking how many kids and adults don't know how to cook and how many parents who do know how to cook, dont let their kids help when they want to. Here's my son, who just turned five, making French toast with me this morning.