Customer Reviews

Baking Kids Love

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wish Amazon didn't consider 3 stars a negative review because this is not a negative review. I consider 3 stars average, and I give this nice book a slightly better than average grade of 3 1/2 stars.

Why not five stars? A few reasons. For instance, the pictures are great, but there isn't a photo of every recipe, a big mistake in a book for kids. And in many cases the picture of the dish is on the next page - not where the recipe starts. Also a mistake in a book for kids.

Which brings me to my big question: is this a book for kids or isn't it? I don't think the publishers could decide, either. It isn't written "down" to kids' level, and although the first "rule" listed is to not make everything complicated and just enjoy the process, the rest of the "rules" go on for two pages. Very adult-oriented.

But the colors are kid-appealing, and there's that "kids" in the title. And the author's darling daughter is in most photos, as are other kids.

So it's a book for kids with an adult cooking with them, I think.

About the recipes: nice, good, but nothing groundbreaking, unless you think adding crushed cornflakes to chocolate chip cookies makes them a whole new dessert.

Recommendation: A nice enough book, and very attractive. But only a 3 1/2 star rating, because nothing really distinguishes this book from the thousands of other cookbooks out there.

I am a sucker for a cookbook to use with kids. Some of my favorite moments with my children are when we are all wrapped in aprons, covered in flour, and licking a spoon. This latest book from Sur la Table, Baking Kids Love, offers up just the right recipes to get you and your kids in the kitchen. It is very (very) similar to Williams Sonoma Kids Baking, and if you own that then you probably don't need this...unless you're like me and like to have choices. It has the same features as that title which I think are absolutely necessary for baking with children: 1) spiral bound so the pages lie nice and flat so everyone can see the instructions, 2) ingredients and tools are listed separately at the beginning of each recipe so you can make sure you have everything you need before you get started, 3) nicely paced and numbered directions (so everyone knows what's happening) and, 4) a nice mix of easy and slightly more complex recipes so that this cookbook can last even after they graduate from needing your assistance in the kitchen.

Kids love being in the kitchen, but cooking is so much harder--it involves sharp knives, hot pans, steaming water, and a host of other things that your pre-schoolers' through elementary aged children are probably not as able to navigate. Baking offers a wonderful way to spend time with your children, sneakily teach them math and cultural awareness, and helping them toward becoming more self-sufficient. Cindy Mushet's intro to this book frames this nicely, and she carries that idea about baking with children through her book. If you're ready to get in the kitchen with your children, or know a child or parent who is, then you can't miss with this book. Let the baking begin!

This book is a prime idea if there ever was one! Well remembered are the days when my Mom brought me into the kitchen intent upon my learning the basics of food preparation. Regrettably, little of it took - perhaps because I was assigned to peeling, paring, chopping detail.

With this bright, fun cookbook young ones take an active part in the total preparation of 30 kid-friendly, tempting recipes. They'll prepare cookies, pies, tarts, fruit desserts, quick bread, cakes, and yeast breads. Now, these aren't just ordinary cookies or cakes. But some cookies are so colorful and shapely you almost hesitate to bite into them. Budding artists may decorate them with sprinkles, sugar pearls, large crystal sugar, dragees plus candies if they wish. Cakes and cupcakes are presented with equal flair - decked out in swirls of frosting, even with cherries on top!

Especially helpful is an opening "Notes To Adults" - my favorite reminder here is "It's food, not world peace. Memories are made and lessons are learned even when disaster strikes." Kids will enjoy and connect with the comments from Cindy Mushet's 11-year-old daughter, Bella, such as "My favorite part about making cookies is eating them warm." or "I like decorating cakes because I can swipe a taste of frosting when no one is looking."

Both practical and palate-pleasing Baking Kids Love is spiral bound for easy reading when cooking, recipes are step-by-step numbered, and the book is printed on sturdy paper that sponged off easily when I mislaid a few drops!

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

If you have a little girl or a niece like I do, who aspires to be a good cook, or is even showing an interest in cooking, then you might want to take a look at this child friendly baking book. There is a whole heck of a lot of mother daughter (or aunt niece) fun between these pages. Cookies, pies, tarts, cakes, bread and so much more your child will learn to bake and she'll learn how to bake safely. I know to an adult that might sound silly, but it's important that a child know about the tools she's using.

Your child will learn how to measure ingredients, how to kneed dough and she'll learn the joy of smelling the bread in the oven, the bread she made. She'll like making cookies too.

This book is full of bright, child friendly colors with plenty of photos of what the finished product should look like. It's a joy to share with a child. My niece and I shared the Gone Bananas Chocolate Chip Cake last night. It was delicious and making it with her was more fun than I can say.

I have dubbed this cookbook the "family" baking cookbook. It is awesome! First of all, the colors are brillant. Also I love the spiral bound. Very nice when you are cooking, it won't flap over on you!

The recipes inside are EVEN better! Very easy for young folks to understand. I have a 15 year old that LOVES to cook and this cookbook she read like it was a book! No ingredients that we couldn't get either. It is hard when you live in a small town to get ingredients sometimes, but this one is simple yet delicious recipes!

Try the Pumpkin Gingerbread, the Gone Bananas Chocolate Chip cake (which will put you into chocolate heaven I swear!!) or my favorite Blueberry Swirl Cobbler!

Also wonderful for gifts if you know other families that love to cook like ours!!!

I enjoy baking with my children and it is tough to find recipes that produce something that is fairly simple but yields an interesting product. I mean, how many batches of cookies can you make before that gets old?

The beginning section of this book is several tips both for children and for the parents who are assisting. Granted, a lot of it is common sense, but there are reviews of measuring skills (wet and dry), guidelines regarding testing for doneness, and an interesting section on choosing basic baking ingredients (different kinds of milk, sugar, flour, etc.). Beyond that, there are a few more advanced skills: peeling, coring and slicing apples and melting chocolate to name a couple.

When cooking with my children, I like to make sure we've got everything we need prepared and measured before we start (I *like* to do that, but it doesn't always happen). To facilitate this practice, each recipe in this book has both 'ingredients' and 'tools' sidebar sections. The pages are colorful and have large pictures of both the finished products and children having fun in their creation. A nice touch is the tips from the author's daughter regarding her favorite practices or memories regarding various recipes.

We have made several of the recipes from the book and found them simple to prepare, assemble, and complete. The finished product has been consistently good and I look forward to my next one: either the 'Nuts for Nutella Chocolate Tart' or the 'Soft and Sweet Cinnamon Rolls.'

On the downside, I found the index to be all but useless. I forgot where the recipe for cinnamon rolls lived and found an entry for neither 'cinnamon' nor 'rolls, cinnamon' -- not even 'Soft and Sweet Cinnamon Rolls,' which is the title of the recipe. Instead, it is listed once under 'yeast breads, Soft and Sweet Cinnamon Rolls.' The index is only 3 pages and not terribly difficult to scan through completely, but that annoyed me.

The book has a hard cover with a spiral binding, and will lie flat on the counter or stay open nicely on a cookbook holder.

My daughter often helps me cook and bake in the kitchen, but as she gets older I recognize that she is wanting to do more than just "help." That is where this book comes in. It isn't a simple kids "cook" book where you just cut sandwiches into shapes or smear tinted frosting on pre-baked cookies, but a legitimate cookbook for kids, including explanations of techniques and tools. Definitely a step beyond book for kids whom have graduated that stage. I like it because my daughter can feel more confident in her knowledge of the process, not just me hanging over her shoulder explaining everything. While I think that baking together is wonderful, sometimes they like to independently acquire some knowledge beyond only what "Mom says." I really love the spiral binding...wish more "grown up" did this!

Baking Kids Love is more of a cookbook entailed to get kids interested in cooking, than preparing meals children would less likely object. If anything, I would consider this cookbook a great family activity source. Simply because this cookbook is broken down into two parts, the first being an introductory instructional segment, and the second being the actual cookbook.

The first segment could be mundane for anyone with any level of cooking experience. However, if you're trying to get your child, aged 4 to 10 interested in cooking, this book might be a good first step for them. The first segment covers basics like grocery shopping, the essentials of cleaning, and proper cooking techniques. They even go as far as to describe different ingredient, and their purpose. This is awesome whenever your child asks what the difference between baking powder and baking soda is. With this book, you'll finally have the answer if you did not already know. The last part of this segment is a list of all the tools you'll need, which I'm pretty sure you can find all of them are your local Sur La Table retail location, wink wink.

As for the second segment, this section deals with the recipes. The recipes are broken down to five sections. The five sections and entailed recipes are;

Cookies
* Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
* Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
* Meringue Crispies
* Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies
* Smile Cookies (They're kind of like a basic Mexican Wedding cookie)
* Milk Chocolate Toffee Bars
* Brownie S'mores Bars
* Be Creative Sugar Cookies

Pies, Tarts, and Fruit Dessert
* Easy Pie Dough
* Top-Crust Jumbleberry Pie (Jumbleberry = a mixture of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries)
* Rustic Apple Pie
* Nuts for Nutella Chocolate Tart
* Blueberry Swirl Cobbler
* Johnny Appleseed Crumble

Quick Breads
* Crunchy-top Vanilla Scones
* Scrumptious Strawberry Shortcake (It's the scone recipe with strawberries and whipped cream)
* Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake Muffins
* Gone Bananas Chocolate Chip Cake
* Popover Balloons
* Mini Corn Bread Muffins
* PB&J Muffins

Cakes
* Chocolate Celebration Cake
* Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
* Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes (Complete with a peanut butter frosting recipe, and a suggestion of topping crumbled Reese's peanut butter cups)
* Pumpkin Gingerbread
* Swirly Milk Chocolate and Caramel Cheesecake

Yeast Breads
* The Amazing Shape-Changing Bread (Basic dough, recipe is to make pretzels)
* Soft & Sweet Cinnamon Rolls
* Cheese-y Pizza
* Gotcha Focaccia
* Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding

At first glance of the recipes, you'll probably say to yourself that you have better versions of each recipe. This is where I remind you that these recipes have been simplified so that kids can actively participate. So far, I've made 7 of the recipes stated, and three I view as highlights...

Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies
They came out nicely, for a basic peanut butter cookie. The texture was soft and chewy, so they managed not to add too much flour, like I've seen some recipes do in the past. What I like about this book is that for most of the recipes they offer side suggestions. Like for this recipe, they suggest instead of using a fork to mash down the batter ball, you use your thumb, and fill the indentation with your favorite jelly. Those small things make this book charming.

Popover Balloons
This is, again, a simple recipe, but quite effective for making a meal appetizer. I will give you a heads up, these muffins are good for the night they're cooked. The night after, they stiffened up, and by the third night, they were in the trash. However, they were so delicious for dunking into chili. Maybe add a pinch of cayenne pepper for some kick and you have a winner.

Milk Chocolate Toffee Bars
I personally didn't like them, but my sons loved them. I don't see the fascination with "bars." It's cookie dough in a brownie form. I have a better recipe for chocolate toffee cookies, but for the most part, my sons gobbled these down heartily and fast within three days time.

Overall, this is a solid cookbook for parents who are interested or have kids who are interested in baking. The recipes are basic, but as I said, the side suggestions overcome that. With that, I give this book five stars.

Good eatings.

Cindy Mushet, author of the award-winning The Art and Soul of Baking, tackles kids' baking in "Baking Kids Love." The sturdy spiral-bound book stays flat and features lots of practical tips (tie back long hair, wear closed-toe shoes, clean as you go) and photos (although the photos are not step-by-step) to help kids learn the basics of baking, from proper measuring to knife skills to a guide on basic baking ingredients. There are plenty of tips for prep, like cracking and separating eggs, proofing yeast, zesting, hulling, mixing and rolling techniques, whipping, and a great guide of basic tools.

Throughout the book, there are quotes from Cindy's daughter Bella, giving little hints or cute comments about a certain recipe ("When I bite into one, I'm in cookie heaven, surrounded by more cookies that have little halos and wings, sitting on clouds"). There are some fun basic cookies like the secret ingredient chocolate chip cookies (crushed corn flakes), chewy oatmeal cookies (dressed up with dried cranberries), peanut butter, milk chocolate toffee bars (quick, easy, and oh-so-yummy), and brownie s'mores. Kids can also learn how to make and roll pie dough from scratch to create homemade pies. The Nuts for Nutella chocolate tart would make an elegant dessert for a holiday dinner; it's dressed up with a dusting of cocoa. There are also scones, muffins, banana bread, popovers, cheesecake and layer cakes. There are lots of color photos, although there isn't a photo for every recipe, and in some cases the photos are on different pages from their recipes.

This might be more useful for kids who already have a grasp on the fundamentals of baking. It's not that the recipes are very complicated, but not having step-by-step illustrations might be difficult for those new to the kitchen (otherwise, there's a lot of reading at the front of the book, which won't appeal to the hands-on learners). Things like yeast breads take time to learn (and proof), so if your young baker has a short attention span, start with something quick and easy like quick bread or muffins that require little mixing and baking. "Baking Kids Love" is a colorful, tasty way to introduce kids to the kitchen and cultivate a love of baking, as well as responsibility in the kitchen (proper hygiene and cleaning up as you go along).

Baking Kids Love is fun and colorful from the front cover to the back cover and every page in between. I found many of the recipes appealing to adults (not just kids), and the book provides many tips to help young bakers get good results in the kitchen.

The spiral binding allows the book to lay flat on the kitchen counter for easy access to recipes while cooking. There are many how-to photos showing a specific step in the baking process (such as kneading dough, leveling a dry ingredient in a measuring cup, and pressing marshmallows into bar cookies). Many, but not all, of the recipes are accompanied by photos of the finished project (or nearly finished, as in the case of a cake being frosted). I would have preferred a few more photos of the finished products rather than "filler" photos such as the one of the author's daughter holding an empty bowl or the apron with flour handprints.

The first chapter, Let's Bake, has good tips for children regarding how to dress for baking, cleaning up and good hygiene, kitchen safety, measuring wet and dry ingredients, how to tell if cakes are done, and more. Photos accompany some of the tips. I did find it odd that children are advised NOT to wash raspberries and blackberries. I understand those fruits are fragile but I don't think it is advisable to bake with them without washing off residual dirt and pesticides.

Cookie recipes include chocolate chip (with cornflakes as a secret ingredient), oatmeal (which the author suggests could be good for breakfast although I imagine many parents would disagree), peanut butter, sugar, meringue, milk chocolate toffee bars, brownie s'mores bars, and "smile cookies."

The Pies, Tarts and Fruit Desserts chapter includes recipes for jumbleberry pie, rustic apple pie, Nutella chocolate tart, blueberry swirl cobbler, and apple crumble.

The Quick Bread chapter includes recipes for vanilla scones, strawberry shortcake, cinnamon streusel coffeecake muffins, banana chocolate chip cake, popovers, corn bread mini muffins (although the accompanying photo is of a loaf rather than muffins), and PB&J muffins.

Cake recipes include chocolate, vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing, chocolate peanut butter cupcakes, pumpkin gingerbread, and milk chocolate and caramel cheesecake.

The Yeast Bread chapter includes basic bread, cinnamon rolls, pizza, focaccia, and several bread puddings.

This would be an excellent gift for a beginning baker between the ages of 8 and 12 (perhaps accompanied by a personalized apron). It could be good for slightly younger or older children based on their maturity and comfort level in the kitchen.