Welcome to our Easy Recipes and Tips for baking with kids! In this household we LOVE to bake. Since the girls could hold a spoon they’ve sat and baked with me. On the floor when they were tiny and then up at the counter with me once they could stand on a chair!

It doesn’t need to be perfect, or elaborate or instagram worthy. It just needs to be a good (or messy) time shared with your children. Below you can read our top 5 recipes (baked many many times!), links to our favourite websites for inspiration and our go to recipe books (including links to purchase).

Read on for our easy recipes and tips for baking with kids!

Our Top 5 Baking Recipes

Shortbread

If I ever want to do something quick and easy I follow this amazing recipe from ‘The Tickle Fingers Toddler Cookbook’ (linked below). Shortbread is really easy to make and is always popular with kids and adults alike. Perfect for an afternoon treat, a picnic or a pick me up (bribe) during a walk!

Ingredients:

125g butter (I use stork but any unsalted is fine)

60g brown sugar

180g plain flour

Method:

Preheat over to 170c/240f/gas 3

Rub 1/2 tsp of butter over a cake tin or line with baking paper.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and squish and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Mix in the flour until it’s just combined. It may well look crumbly, that’s ok!

Put the mixture in a tin and spread and pat it down as if you were making a sand castle.

Lightly prick the dough all over with a fork.

Bake in the over for 40 minutes until lightly brown.

Once it’s done remove from the oven, gently sprinkle with caster sugar and leave to cool.

Easy biscuits

This recipe is my go to time and time again. You can just make the biscuits as they are, or you can sprinkle them with icing sugar or decorate with icing. Better still, you can shape them however you like, with whatever cutters you have (or an upturned cup if you don’t have any!)

The dough also freezes really well, all you need to do is take it out of the freezer and into the fridge the night before you want to use it.

These biscuits are also really good with sprinkles on!

Cheese straws

These are so easy to make and the children love rolling them into straws. The great thing about cheese straws is that they work easily well as part of a light lunch as they do as part of a buffet for a party!

This recipe is from The Baby-Led Weaning Book which is linked below.

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter

100g plain flour

50-75g of grated cheese (we usually use mature cheddar)

1 egg, beaten

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200c/400f/Gas Mark 6 and grease a baking sheet or line with baking paper.

Put the flour into a bowl. Cut or break the butter into cubes and add it to the flour. Using your hands rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs (the children LOVE this bit).

Stir in the cheese and mix well, then make a well in the centre. Pour the egg in and stir until it begins to form a dough. Add a tiny bit of water if it doesn’t hold together.

Place the dough on a floured surface and knead it with your fingertips for a few minutes. Then roll the dough into pencils (about 4-6 inches long, although it doesn’t matter if they’re not that long!)

Place then 2cm apart on the baking tray and cook for 10 minutes, until they’re pale golden in colour.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Chocolate chip cookies

This was one of the first recipes I got really confident doing and I’m yet to find a chocolate chip cookie recipe that is as tasty as this. It’s from a really old Marks and Spencers cookbook (The American Cookbook, 2005) which is full of good recipes, but this cookie recipe is our favourite.

Ingredients:

215g sifted plain flour

1tsp baking powder

115g soft margarine

125g light brown sugar

50g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

115g chocolate chips (the recipe calls for dark chocolate, we most often use milk chocolate)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190c/375f/Gas Mark 5. Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat until they are thoroughly combined.

Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. Place 18 tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheets, spacing them well apart as they will spread during cooking.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown.

Carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Plain Cupcakes

The basis of so many cupcakes this recipe couldn’t be simpler. So easy for children to do and then they can have loads of fun decorating them.

This recipe is from the Cupcake book linked below.

Ingredients:

125g softened butter (we use Stork)

125g Caster sugar

2 medium eggs

125g self raising flour

2 tbsp milk

You will need a bun tray lined with paper cases.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190c/375f/gas mark 5.

Beat together the butter and sugar in a bowl until soft and fluffy. Add the eggs, flour and milk to the bowl and beat until the mixture is smooth.

Divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the cakes have risen and are just firm to touch.

Remove the cakes from the oven, leave to cool and then decorate as you wish.

Baking links

https://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipe-filter/baking-recipes/ Annabel Karmel is fantastic for all things children’s food. This section of her website has some brilliant, easy, baking ideas for kids.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/category/all-cakes-baking This is my go to website for baking. With 100’s of options, you can go simple or elaborate depending on your mood.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk If you have pinterest then you can delight in the THOUSANDS of amazing baking ideas on there. If you can dream it, you can find it. We recently made this incredible Dutch Apple Cake from Pinterest, it was a great success.

Baking Books

Like many people we have numerous recipe books sitting untouched on our shelves. The three linked below are absolutely our most used and are excellent.

This book is excellent for baking with young children. Simple, easy to follow recipes and essentially – it’s full of recipes the children will actually like!

This is a wonderful book for all things cupcake. It’s extraordinary how many different ways you can make a cupcake! What I love about this book is that they’re all logical and fairly simple – nothing too out there.

The Baby-led Weaning Cookbook has been my go to cookbook since my eldest was born 6 years ago. I still use it weekly despite my girls being way beyond weaning 🙂

The breads and baking section is in tatters we’ve used it so much, a sign of a very good cookbook!

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading my easy recipes and tips for baking with kids. We love it and hope with the help of this post, you can too!

Looking for other ideas whilst stuck at home? Try our Travel activities for kids at home.

If you want to try a Baking subscription service then how about this Junior Baking Kit from Bakedin.

Or do you fancy a tasty dinner recipe instead? Then why not try this amazing Goats Cheese Al Forno Recipe here.

Sometimes we need to focus on ourselves as Mums and our own energy needs, if this sounds like you then check out this post here on healthy snack ideas for busy mums.