Toddler Baking

One of the best things about having children is seeing yourself in them. Over the past three years I have come to notice that Little T has my eyes, my nose, my silly sense of humour, my love of animals, my total lack of patience and most recently I have seen that he also has my love of baking.

Every few days, as soon as Little T wakes up his first words to me will be, "I want to make pancakes". As a result I can whip up a batch of pancake batter pretty much with my eyes still closed, and that's with the help of a toddler. The real challenge for me comes on a day like today when he asks to bake cake. For me, baking has always been about order, precision and processes, but since adding a toddler into the mix, I have had to learn to change the way I bake. I have now learnt (the hard way) that simple is definitely better and the less ingredients and steps there are, the better your chances of success. My go-to book is still from the queen of easy baking, Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess and today I settled on a plain and simple Madeira cake.

I have also had to learn to just let go and to embrace the ensuing chaos, mess and extra spoons, spatulas and fingers that will end up in the batter. So what if more egg and flour ends up on the counter than in the bowl, it's all part of the process now! Oh, and I no longer worry about the unavoidable Licking of the Spoon, I just make sure I use good, fresh, organic eggs and that the spoon only goes back into the bowl once the cake is in the oven :)

 

In the end, the cakes my not be pretty and they may not rise to dizzying heights, but they taste pretty darn delicious and most important of all is that we had fun baking them!

Now, if only Little T had some of his father's patience and could wait until the cake has cooled down before trying to dig in...