My toddler was out of school for over a week as she was sick. All she wanted to do one day was bake a cake. She asked over and over again and honestly, I could not imagine anything messier or more difficult to do than to bake a cake with a toddler. Finally, I thought, surely there must be easy cake recipes to make with toddlers!
In the end, I found quite a few and I will be sharing them with you in this article. Easy cake recipes to make with toddlers are not as hard to find as you might think.
You might also be wondering if your toddler is even old enough to go through the baking process with you.
When can you start baking with toddlers?
As long as they are being supervised by an adult the whole way through, toddlers can start baking as early as they want. If you, as the parent or caretaker, can guarantee that you will be next to them the whole time, you can be sure that there will be a low risk of them hurting themselves in the process.
Minimizing mess, on the other hand, is another story but it is part of them making the most of the baking experience! Kids can learn a lot from baking.
READ: 20 Fun self-regulation activities for toddlers
How baking helps child development
Depending on what kind of goodies you decide to make with your toddler, baking can be beneficial for honing their motor skills. There is pouring, measuring out quantities, kneading, whisking, cutting and more to be done in the baking process. All these actions provide your toddler with the opportunity to sttrengthen their muscles and improve their hand-eye coordination.
Let us not forget that it is also a great chance for you to teach them new things such as the names of items used in baking. It is a fine time to work on improving their communication skills with the conversations that you have around the baking process.
In baking, therefore, toddlers learn and improve upon their:
- Mathematics – they are measuring and adding up ingredients
- Social skills – as they communicate with you about what they are doing
- Motor skills – in the physical actions involved in baking
The sense of achievement gained at the end of the process when they can see their end product in front of them is also priceless and a good life lesson on working for what you want.
How do you bake with a toddler?
Whether you have a specific fear of messes or not, the cleaning up process post-baking with your toddler is sure to occur to you at some point.
This is why it is important that cakes for kids to make are as simple as possible. They will not only be less time consuming and easier for your toddler to remember how to replicate, but they will be simpler to tidy up after. The quicker they are, the happier your toddler will be too – toddlers do not tend to have a lot of patience. Waiting 2 hours for a cake to be done in the oven is just not going to cut it!
Generally, in looking for easy cake recipes to bake with toddlers, you should be looking out for the following three criteria:
- Few ingredients
- Quick preparation
- Short bake time
Based on the top three criteria, find the best cakes for kids to make below.
10 Easy cakes for kids to make
It does not really get much easier than a mug cake! This recipe has a few more ingredients to it than I thought it would but I did not mind at all as they were all items I already had in my kitchen and the total cooking time came down to about 3 minutes! Wonderful.
2. Raspberry cake (from boxed vanilla cake mix)
A delightfully vibrant raspberry cake. It is flavored with a packet of raspberry jello. You will enjoy how simple and whimsical this cake is. It takes 48 minutes total baking time if you included toasting your almonds.
This 5-ingredient mug cake is simple, warm and perfect for all chocolate lovers. As with other mug cakes, it is one of those fun and easy cake recipes to make with toddlers that also make for cute gifts and quick, indulgent treats.
This chocolate no bake cake recipe is perfect for hot days or when time is not on your side. With only 40 minutes to make it from start to finish, your toddler will not have to wait too long to enjoy their handiwork.
This dump cake only requires four ingredients. It is also done in 80 minutes.
6. Wacky cake
This is a pretty straightforward and simple recipe to follow with your toddler. You will also be pleased to know that it takes a total of 35 minutes to make.
7. Banana cake
This delicious cake is done start to finish in under 45 minutes. It is part banana bread, part cake, and most importantly, a million times delicious.
This recipe only calls for two ingredients! It does not get any simpler than this. It is moist, sweet and flavourful.
With only three ingredients required, you really can’t go wrong with this recipe. It’s perfect as an easy cake recipe to make with toddlers.
You will enjoy that for such a delicious cake, there are not that many steps involved to complete it. It is also takes a total of 70 minutes to finish making.
So there you have it – those are the top 10 easiest cake recipes I found to make with a toddler!
What is the simplest cake recipe you have seen and tried so far? Can you suggest any easy cake recipes to make with toddlers?
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2 Comments
Lovely post. My daughter loves banana cake and enjoys joining me in baking.
Thanks, Rancy!