The Proof is in the Pudding — Making Desserts With Kids

Store-bought desserts can be delicious and it’s certainly easier than making something yourself. But, where’s the fun in that? If you want to make something particularly tasty, and want the added bonus of including your kids, consider making these desserts at home:

Cool Treats

As summer edges closer, it’s time to think of refreshing treats to cool the kids (and yourself!) down. You may have packed plenty of store-bought treats into the freezers, but you can’t beat the fun of making your own.

To make fruit juice ice lollies, buy ice lolly moulds from your local supermarket or favourite online store. Fill the moulds with any type of juice. Orange, apple, guava, pineapple or a mixture of a few will all result in a delicious lolly. If the kids are helping, hand them a measuring jug (plastic!) to test their pouring skills. It’s also a good exercise in patience as it’ll take a few hours for the lollies to freeze.

Ice cream on a hot day is unbeatable. You can buy an ice-cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions or use the bag technique to make your own. Making ice cream in a bag simply requires adding the ingredients to a sealable bag, placing it into a larger bag filled with ice and salt, and shaking it until the liquid mixture takes on the consistency of ice cream. Squeeze the ice cream out of the bag, squirt on some chocolate sauce and cream and you’ll have yourself a delicious ice cream sundae!

Birthday Bakes

Other than Santa and perhaps the festivities of Halloween, a kid’s birthday (for them!) is the highlight of the year. For their next big day, or another member of the family’s, consider bake a birthday cake or some cupcakes together. From mixing the ingredients to frosting the top, every step of the process is fun. Older kids can even help you carve the cake into their favourite cartoon or storybook character.

It’s all in the details as well, so consider sprinkling the top of the cake with some hundreds-and-thousands, M&Ms or coconut. It’ll be a mess, but the satisfaction of making their own birthday treat will stay with your child forever.

Crazy Cookies

Finally, making biscuits or American-style cookies is an easy way to engage your kids in the kitchen. They’ll enjoy whisking the eggs, stirring in the flour with a wooden spoon and adding the chocolate chips.

Cookie cutters are also lots of fun and will help your child work on his coordination. Simply make sugar cookie dough (or gingerbread if it’s near the holidays) and roll it out on a clean countertop. Buy a variety of cookie cutters (you can get monsters, aliens and fairies!) to press into the dough and use a spatula to transfer the shapes onto a flat baking sheet.

So, making your own desserts will not only result in a tasty treat. You can get together with the kids and have some fun. You’ll make a bit of a mess, true, but hey, that’s families!