Baking cookies!

Whenever grandchildren are visiting, I make time to whip up a batch of cookies with them. We make them from scratch, and they love the chance to help with measuring, breaking eggs, mixing, and, of course, taste-testing.

This visit was no exception and we did a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies on a rainy morning early in the visit. Both Freya and James were eager to help. The result more than lived up to expectations, and we had cookies for dessert after meals the next couple of days.

When it came time to bake James’s birthday, Freya was eager to help again. We used a mix for the cake, but she helped add the oil, eggs, and water, and kept watch on the batter. She took care of much of the cake decoration as well, spreading the icing, drawing white circles on the chocolate frosting with white frosting, and using a red gel pen to add the seams that turned them into baseballs.

Later she asked if there was anything else she could help me cook. I pulled out one of my favorite soup recipes, an Italian sausage and vegetable concoction. Freya helped brown the sausage and stir the ingredients in. I handled the vegetable chopping while she mixed, stirred, measured, and added things at the right time. The result was delicious and provided a very tasty and nutritious lunch for all of us. I was actually surprised by how much Freya’s help sped the process up.

She enjoyed it, too. We did a final joint baking project on the morning of their departure, a coffee cake that is easy to put together but tastes great. It came out well, too, and was enjoyed by all. I sent her home with copies of the recipes we’d used.

Interesting side note about the final project. When I first proposed the idea of a coffee cake, Freya was a bit dismayed. In England, a coffee cake is made with coffee and tastes like it. She’s not a fan. I explained that this project was a cake that was great to eat with coffee, or without it, but doesn’t contain the titular beverage. It’s simply a plain baking powder cake with a crumb topping made from a mix of butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The recipe I use has been in my family for a while. My grandmother passed it down to my mother, who gave it to me. I’m thrilled to pass it down to my granddaughter.