January 27^th is Chocolate Cake Day.

Yum!

I found some old pics of my (now grown up) children “licking the bowl”.

The expressions on their faces say it all don’t they?

It looks to me as if they have pulled the chair up to the bench to find out what was left in the bowl….

Today is a very wet day in Sydney – just the sort of day to do some cooking with the kids.

Cooking and following recipes help kids develop skills of remembering a sequence of actions and instructions.It’s great for maths language as well.

Point out the names on the packets and use lots of maths language in measuring and pouring.
If you have family recipes that Grandma has passed down, you can talk about her cooking when you were little. Kids love hearing family stories.
You might like to gather up some family recipes and put them in a scrapbook to try.

If you have some supermarket junk mail, you could write out the recipe, then paste some of the ingredient pictures beside each step- flour, chocolate, baking powder, butter and so on.

Easy kid friendly chocolate cake and slice recipes online.

Some of our family recipes – well used.

Kidspot has a couple:

http://www.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/Budget+23/Easy-chocolate-cake-recipe+3635.htm

This is a one-bowl mix and can be made a number of ways- cupcakes etc.

The post has lots of other recipes down the bottom = a volcano cake recipe with orange lava looks like fun.

http://www.kidspot.com.au/funzone/cook-everyday-chocolate-cake+1828+569+sponsor-recipe.htm

This recipe has a short video- good for older kids to watch first and then follow along.

Hedgehog slice- no cooking and quite easy.

http://www.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/Slice-recipes+51/Hedgehog-slice-recipe+1590.htm

Siesta Kids has a You Tube video with sound, words and graphics with pause prompts.

Just check the oven temperature, as it seems a bit low for Celsius ovens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL4R-AwMh-Q

Favourite stories:

My most recent favourite is “Can we lick the spoon now “by Carol Goess, illustrated by Tamsin Ainslie, Working Title Press (Penguin).

The Penguin website explains,”What’s the best thing about making a cake?

Licking the spoon, of course!

What’s the worst thing about making a cake?

Waiting!

Share in the fun as Dad and the children get busy in the kitchen.

A light-hearted book about making a chocolate cake and all the things that can go wrong in the process.”

This book was chosen as best book for language and literacy development in the Australian Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards, 2011.

http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9781921504259/can-we-lick-spoon-now

Cooking with Dad is lots of fun.

And of course:

The Gingerbread Man.

The Little Red Hen.

A 30 + year old award winning favourite-

There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards, illustrated by Deborah Niland. (Penguin). Available in Braille, Auslan, Mandarin and e book as well as paperback.