#BakeForHeroes – toddler style!

When it comes to fundraising activities, there are a lot of things people do.

Some go skydiving. Others run marathons. Me? Well, I always go for the sweeter option. Cake-based fundraisers are more my thing.

Which is one of the reasons I was excited to hear about Bake For Heroes – it’s a fundraising event for Help For Heroes, where everyone is encouraged to do a bit of baking and donate a bit of money for an important cause.

I was even more excited when I heard that the lovely Annabel, author of the Tickle Fingers Cookbook, was doing special baking sessions with toddlers to raise money for the fundraising event.

See, I love baking – but I’ve done very little of it since Pumpkin was born.

I’ve also been looking forward to introducing Pumpkin to the fun of cooking – but so far, I haven’t been brave enough to do much with her.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat on the floor with her and mixed the cold ingredients of some spaghetti sauce in a pot before putting it on the hob. She enjoyed banging on the pot with a spoon, but that’s about all I let her do.

But, when I realised someone was volunteering her kitchen to be the site of my 15-month-old’s first baking attempt, I was more than happy to take her up on the offer. At least there’d be two of us to clean up the mess if things got too out of hand!

So, we signed up for the event and headed to North-West London on Friday for some baking fun.

When we got there, Annabel had everything ready – including a Pumpkin-sized apron, which was adorable.

We made banana-chocolate chip muffins, so the first step was to mash up a banana.

Pumpkin wasn’t really sure what we were asking her to do, but she eventually figured it out. Then, we added the rest of the ingredients.

Annabel brought over each ingredient one at a time, showed them to Pumpkin and let her examine them. She loved to touch the different substances, rubbing them between her fingers and feeling the textures.

Once everything was in the bowl, it was time to do the mixing. Some of this was with the spatula, but she preferred mixing with her hands.

I was really surprised that she never tried to put any of the ingredients or batter in her mouth. The recipe was egg-free, so even if she did try to eat it, it would have been safe.
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Next, we added the chocolate chips and did a bit more mixing.

 

 

Finally, it was time to put the muffin cups in the tray and add the batter. This was the hardest part for Pumpkin, as I think she could have spent an hour rearranging the silicone cups in the tray. Eventually, we helped her out.

 

Then, the muffins went in the oven.

While we waited, we went into the living room. Having discovered her inner chef, Pumpkin played at the toy kitchen, while Annabel and I had tea and talked. I also got to sample some of the other yummy items that are featured in her cookbook.

Once the baking process was complete, we popped them out, let them cool a bit and then put them in the box to take home.

We didn’t get to sample the muffins until the next day, but they went down a treat and Pumpkin was very pleased with her creations – just look at that face!
While I was there, I also bought a copy of Annabel’s cookbook. I haven’t had much of a chance to look at it yet, but from my first quick glimpse, it looks fab. Not only are there plenty of recipes designed for tiny cooks, but there are also a number of tips and other recommendations for making things easier. I’ll be writing a separate blog post about all of that sometime soon.

I’d like to say a massive THANK YOU to Annabel for inviting us into her home. We had a really wonderful time and I’m definitely feeling more confident about doing some baking projects with Pumpkin in the future.

You can read more about Annabel’s Bake for Heroes toddler extravaganza here. Although the event is over now, there’s still some time to get a copy of the recipe we used for a £2 donation to Help for Heroes. And you can always donate to the charity at any time – here’s their website.

Oh, and if you’d like to learn more about Annabel’s fab cookbook, find toddler-friendly recipes and get tips on getting little ones more involved in the kitchen, be sure to head over to the Tickle Fingers website. You can also follow @cookwithtots on Twitter and like her page on Facebook.