Easter baking party

Now that half-term is upon us (or nearly upon us for some), all the baby groups have stopped. My group of lovely mummies were a little stuck for things to do to keep the babies entertained for a morning. The weather isn't great so picnics aren't the answer, and soft play centres are places to be avoided during school holidays. So what to do? My friend Kirsty is a bit of a domestic goddess, and she came up with the idea of holding a little baking party at her house. I thought it was a great idea - I don't bake very often (I hate my kitchen, which doesn't help!) and Stanley hasn't had much of a chance to bake with me, so this was a fun new activity for him to do.

First Kirsty laid out some pre-made cookie dough onto a floured table and we set about rolling out the dough and creating Easter-shaped cookies using cutters. I have no photos of this. Must try harder! Once the cookies were in the oven, we broke up pieces of milk chocolate into bowls, which Kirsty melted before adding a handful of cornflakes. The babies loved mixing this together...

...but they enjoyed eating it more!

Mmm yummy!

 

We spooned the mixture into pretty Easter-coloured paper cases and added some egg-shaped sweets on top...

...some of the babies even attempted this themselves! The cornflake cakes looked fab and, while we left them to one side to set, we were able to have a go at decorating our cookies, which were baked and cooled by this point.

I was so impressed at how the babies got on with this, and they all attempted to use the icing to decorate their creations.

Even Stanley gave it a go, and he's the youngest of the group at nearly 17 months. It just goes to show what they can do at this age! I wouldn't have thought to try this with babies so young as they are still mastering their motor skills, but it seemed to come naturally and they really enjoyed it!

Stanley's cookies turned out beautifully. They tasted pretty good too!

One of the good things about getting together to do this activity is there were four of us to clean up. Within 10 minutes you would never have known we'd just been on a baking spree! I would definitley do this again, especially as the babies get older - think cupcake decorating, or baking and decorating Christmas gingerbread. A different way for the babies to socialise and explore their creativity, and a great way to spend a morning!