My lil baker

Many of you know my daughter is homeschooled.  An area we focus on, besides core classes, is life skills.  It’s so important for a child to know how to take care of him/herself.  One area, that I truly enjoy teaching my daughter is cooking and baking.  She may not take initiative in cleaning her room or showering (what is with tweens???), but cooking and baking are becoming her thing.  She doesn’t even realize she’s reinforcing fractions, reading and science concepts.

Having worked in the hospitality industry most of my life, I am constantly taking pictures of my culinary creations.  My lil miss has picked up on this and now takes pictures of her creations.

Yesterday, I saw she posted a pic of green whipped cream that she was beating by hand.  I called her and let her know, she’d need to beat it a lot more.  Even I use the Kitchen Aid mixer for whipped cream; but to each their own.

I asked why she was making homemade whipped cream.  Without missing a beat, she replied, “to go with my bundt cake”.  Her inner artist comes out to play, especially, while baking.  Her homemade biscuits, that she made earlier in the week, received sprinkles.  I kid you not.  They were very colorful.

She then informed me that cake was gluten-free.  I was surprised, but happy.  She really wants to make sure I can eat what she makes.  I normally always cheat to taste everything she makes.

I get home to see her bundt cake in a baking dish.  I let her know that wasn’t a bundt cake.  She said, “I couldn’t find the pan.”  I showed her where it was and then tried a little piece of the cake.  It was SOOOOOOO good!  I noticed it was slightly pink and had a little crunch, here and there.  I asked her about it.  Of course…should have known….SPRINKLES!!!  She cracks me up.  She puts her own spin on everything she makes.

It turns out the Betty Crocker bundt cake recipe can be made gluten-free just by substituting the regular flour with gluten-free flour.  I prefer to use Pamela’s Artisan blend as my gluten-free flour of choice.  The results are amazing and you’d never know it was gluten-free.

My daughter may not realize it yet, but she’s creating her own memories that she will pass down to her children one day.  My future grandchildren will get a kick out of hearing how colorful their mom’s baking used to be.  I’m so proud of the thoughtful, independent, capable, young woman she is becoming.