Montessori in the kitchen - Baking a cake

I am super excited to write this post as this is something that I enjoy doing with my child. Though I'm absolutely terrible at cooking I somewhat manage to make decent desserts! 

I would like to share with you everything about our 'baking day". What is it? It's one day per week where I have my little helper assist me in baking. It is something fun and I am sure that your kids would love it too. But what does it have to do with Montessori? A lot! The baking day has everything to do with Montessori practical life. Some Montessori mamas prefer to have utensils and recipes that are kid-size and kid-friendly. Ultimately it is up to you and what you think that your child can handle. For us, I usually do chocolate chip cupcakes or chocolate cakes. 

Today, we decided to do a Devil's Food Chocolate Cake. Yum!!

I found my recipe online on Demotivateur Food. I chose this recipe because it was simple. I printed it out so that my daughter could follow along. It is important to let your child assist every step of the way. If your child can read then let them read out the ingredients and instructions for you. 

First, we gathered the ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs etc. This is one of the fun parts. You will see that your child will love to search for the ingredients and name them. I usually lay out what we need and clean up and arrange them in the right places as soon as we are done using them. 

Then we measured and mixed the ingredients together. Sometimes I let my daughter do the mixing alone or I gave her a hand. I pointed out the measurements for each ingredient and weighed them, asking her at each step if I have the correct amount. For example, the recipe called for 320g of white sugar. This time I poured and she counted as the numbers went up and said to stop when I got to 320g. Then I let her pour the sugar into the batter. I explained to her things like why we add baking powder etc. She is still too young in my view to know how the oven works (I do not teach her which knobs to turn) but I let her know that when it's on it is hot. 

At the end of it all, my daughter was so proud that she made a cake and for once I didn't burn it. Haha.

Top 2 Benefits:

• Children absorb everything in the environment. They do so by being a part of it and experiencing it. 

• They develop their motor and executive functioning skills (this is through a sequence of steps aka recipe).

Don't forget:

• Stay close to your child in the kitchen. Be careful of sharp objects and hot appliances.

• Demonstrate what to do. Be the example while explaining to them. Add extra value by telling them the use of each ingredient, utensil or appliance.

• Let your child add the ingredients. It works on their transferring skills and they love it.

• Just simply let them be apart of the entire process! They learn so much.

Devil's Food Cake Recipe - because the one I linked is in french...

Cake Ingredients:

• 300g flour

• 200g chocolate (I used cocoa powder)

• 320g white sugar

• 3 eggs

• 150g soft butter

• 60ml milk

• 20ml water

• 2 teaspoons of baking powder

• pinch of salt

Icing ingredients:

• 250g chocolate (or cocoa powder)

• 50g butter

• 60ml crème fraîche

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease two round cake pans. (I used one large one).

For the cake:

2. Melt the chocolate and butter together.

3. Mix the eggs and sugar together then mix in the melted chocolate mix (#1). Mix well to avoid the eggs from cooking. Add milk and water.

4. Add flour and baking powder and mix until the batter is even.

5. Pour the finished batter in the cake pan and cook for 30 minutes.

For the icing:

6. Melt the butter, chocolate and creme fraiche.

7. Once the cake is finished baking, cut it in horizontally to make three separate cakes. Add the icing on top of each cake using a spatula and mount them one on top the other.

8. Refrigerate the cake and take it out 30 minutes before eating.