Welcome to Cooking with Kids from Bounce Energy! Think of the kitchen as a science lab or a living classroom. It contains so many elements that can provide hands-on learning opportunities for your kids – measuring, learning temperature, time, chemistry, fermentation, and more. Join us as we show you how to introduce your kids to the best room in the house!
If working safely with a knife or turning on the broiler hasn’t sparked your child’s interest in cooking in the kitchen with you, then we can almost guarantee that learning to use an Electric Beater will draw them in like ants on sugar!
In this installment of Cooking with Kids from Bounce Energy, we take a look at a tool in the kitchen that will save you time, and blend your ingredients in a different way than a blender or food processor does.
As a child, I was so excited when the electric beater made its way from the cabinet and onto the kitchen counter. It meant that a Cake was going to be made!
We share tips on how to introduce your child to the electric beater, and the rewards of cake making that goes along with it!
Caution with Electricity
As with anything that needs plugging into the wall, talk to your child about the danger of electricity around water, and how to carefully plug it in. You also want to teach them to make sure the appliance is off before plugging it into the wall.
Learning the Parts
First, show them how the Beaters go in and out of slots. They need to ‘click’ in place before the beater gets turned on.
Electric beaters have various speeds. Before you put your beaters in food, do a test run in the air and show them first the low speed. Allow them to hold the beaters and get over any fear of fast-moving parts! Then go up to second speed, and third. Show them how to maintain control of the beaters, and move the knob back down to off.
What to Make?
An electric beater can help you in the kitchen with all sorts of foods, especially ones that are suited to a child’s palette.
They’re great to use for beating eggs when you’re making breakfast for a big group, blending up the ingredients for a cheese quiche, getting mashed potatoes smooth and lump free, making smooth butter icing, making anything meringue, and making cakes!
A Cake Maker’s Best Friend
Whether you use a cake mix or make your birthday and other cakes from scratch, using an electric blender makes blending so fast and removes all lumps in the sugar and flour. It also makes creaming butter and sugar a breeze. You’ll never need to grind your fingers again to soften butter!
Check out this recipe for little orange cakes, one that was from my Nana’s recipe book that is now being enjoyed by her great granddaughters!
Nana’s Orange Cakes
6 oz butter
3/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
3 1/2 level tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of orange juice
1 tsp orange rind
1/4 cup sultana raisins (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in rind and eggs, one at a time. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt, and add to mixture gradually with milk and orange juice. Raisins can be added here if you are using them. Continue mixing with beaters, and allow your child to hold the beaters, too!
Grease a muffin tin and place a teaspoon full into each. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the cake leaves the side of the tin and “bounces.”
Ice the little cakes with 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon of butter, a pinch of orange rind, and a dash of orange juice just to get the consistency right. Ice and enjoy!
Washing the Beater
It’s important to teach your child that the little metal beaters come out, and that the body of the beater does not get immersed into the water. If the conversation of not submerging appliances into the water or sink hasn’t been had, now is a good time.
The body of the beater can be wiped down with a damp sponge. The beaters themselves can go into the dishwasher, though it’s better to hand wash them. They have all these little crevices where it makes batter hard to get out.
Happy cake making!
