Baking Sundays

For the last three Sundays, I've had the girls bake something themselves for dessert.  Mostly I was tired of them asking for some Little Debbie brand brownie and wanted them to try some new things.  They're old enough now to do most of the work themselves, especially if it's a box mix.  Lily LOVES to make the Trader Joes pumpkin bread mix by herself.

Our first adventure was individual chocolate souffles.  This was all from scratch.  They got to watch me use a double boiler for the first time.  I told them how I had gotten it from my grandmother, so it gave us the opportunity to talk about my Grandma Bench and the things I would do with her.  I was distracted enough to scald the chocolate and have to start over, so we learned the importance of reading the entire recipe first or you have to start over.

Here's Madeleine learning how to "fold" the chocolate into the egg whites.  Souffles were a success, however very rich so they couldn't finish their ramekin.

Last week we tried a chocolate cream pie.   I cheated a bit here and used Jello pudding for the filling and a pre-made Oreo crust.  But we whipped our own cream to put on top and added a dusting of cocoa powder for a garnish.  A big hit even though I don't have pictures.

This weekend we did a red velvet cake box mix with a cream cheese filling.  They said to buy frosting and microwave it for the top, but Madeleine and I made a glaze from confectioner's sugar and milk to put on top.

We're learning to measure and about fractions.  They have to read me the recipe or instructors before we start.  Unless it involves heat (like melting chocolate), I pretty much let them try everything themselves.  Madeleine was proud of herself for no eggshells in it this week.