Cake Baking with Lucas

Well we missed Aunt E's birthday earlier this week but since her & uncle D are down for the weekend I figured Lucas & I could bake her a birthday cake today.

I called him on thursday and asked if he wanted to and he said yes, so I rounded up everything we would need, packed it into one of my reusable shopping bags (hey mom I remembered a round this time aren't you proud)

Lucas is so funny about cake baking, when I got to Mom's house (after he greeted Divo of course) he ran into the kitchen and pulled a chair over to the counter yelling "I got it I got it" and then climbed up. Before I even moved the mixer or got anything else ready to go. Then he "directed" the rest of the proceedings - the mixer had to go "right here", the pans "here here here", the scraper "me hold".

Now you have to understand my version of baking with kids - I think they should do all the work. Yes I know he's 2 1/2 and as long as you keep an eye on his fingers (shouldn't have taught him that cake mix is good) he does a really excellant job. He knows how to lock the mixer into place, turn it on and add stuff already. He just isn't allowed to touch the oven or hot things. And he knows how to count eggs. It's too cute.

So anyways - Lucas did all the work and when he decided everything was mixed properly (not what the package says) he turned it off, sprayed the pan's with bakers joy and away he went (seeing as his "cake" bit was done). I got the mix poured into the pans and into the oven to bake & washed up all the used utensils - cause I'm a good girl (plus I needed them for the icing part). Pulled the cake out 20ish minutes later and up on the counter to cool.

Let Lucas play around for a bit - then asked if he wanted to make the icing.

In a "Flash" he was back up on his chair, but since this was the first time I let him help make homemade icing he wasn't sure what to do. So I talked him through it - put the butter in, lock the mixer, turn it on. Wait. Turn to low, add a cup of powder sugar & some vanilla. Wait. Add another cup of powder sugar. Wait. Test. Mmmm, good. Add a splash more vanilla. Wait. Test. Add more powder sugar. Hey Aunt Wee it's icing!!!!

Now comes the fun part - put the icing on the cake instead of in the baby. I'm so glad he enjoys doing this kind of thing. It's fun for me too.