Forgive Me, but I Like to Bake

I'm sure many of you read the title to this and starting breaking out in hives, gagging, or even rolled your eyes in disgust.  Whenever I tell people I enjoy baking, they look at me like I've suddenly contracted some incurable disease or have completely lost my mind.  Or, I'm lying through my teeth trying to impress them.  I've noticed that saying I like to bake is like saying I love cleaning toilets or I love cleaning up dog shit.  I mean, no one really likes to bake, do they?  But, I do!  Oddly enough, it's a stress reliever for me, and I've found that it's something I enjoy doing with my son.

Yep, you heard me right.  I let my three-year-old son bake with me.  And, he actually gets to help - not just lick the beaters (which, of course, he also gets to do).  If you didn't doubt my sanity before, I'm certain that you are now.  It wasn't always a fun experience, but I wanted him to be able to help me, so I've learned a few tricks along the way that have helped make baking with Gavin easier and a lot less stressful.

Making chocolate pie.

The first thing I learned is to always have extra ingredients on hand - usually enough to make TWO of whatever I'm making.  Why?  Well, I let Gavin do things like pour ingredients into the bowl, whisk ingredients together, even measure out items such as sugar and milk.  Of course, no matter how many times I tell him to be careful, watch what he's doing, and stir slowly, he always seems to forget one of these things.  I'll say, "Stir this nice and slow," and the next thing you know his arm is moving so fast that the bowl of ingredients goes flying off of the counter and onto the floor.  Oops.  Or, he'll get distracted and accidentally dump an entire cup of milk onto the floor rather than into the bowl.  Uh oh.  So, I've learned to be prepared for these situations and always have back-up ingredients.

Frozen Strawberry Pie

The second thing I've learned is that once we're done mixing, all bets are off.  The moment he gets to lick one of the beaters or lick the bowl, it's like he goes into a batter-eating trance.  He has no interest in helping me finish or even in the final product.  The batter is his ultimate goal, and I don't really blame him.  I mean, it is the best part - salmonella be damned!

Ice Cream!

Most importantly, I've learned to let go of a lot of control.  Gavin's three, and he's very opinionated about what he wants to do and what he thinks he can do.  For instance, he really thinks he can crack open eggs, and I'm not going to stop him from trying.  So, 11 eggs later, we finally have a cracked egg we can use.  Only three more to go . . .  So, while it would be a lot faster if I just did all of it myself while he watched some annoying cartoon, I'm willing to spend the extra time so we can bake together (and by extra time, I mean give or take an hour - minimum).