Baking contest

Wednesday was gray and a bit dismal here.  The forecast called for rain, and while that never materialized, we planned our day by the forecast - intending to be stuck inside and needing things to do.

The kids came up with the idea for a baking contest (after having watched a kid baking contest on TV at the hotel in February).  They decided it would be judged on appearance and taste.  It took almost the whole day to do everyone's baking.  The girls split a white cut-out cookie recipe three ways, but it needed to chill for 2-3 hours.  In the meantime, Karl made chocolate zucchini muffins.  Then everyone had to frost and decorate their bakery.  Matt and I were the judges.  The kids had an absolute blast and everyone won a prize (Clare: "I knew you'd do that, Mom, because that's what moms do").

Here's Nora getting ready to bake by practicing with play-doh.  Her idea was star cookies with sprinkles and she stuck steadfastly to that idea the whole time even when presented with a myriad of fun cookie cutter options.

Karl spent quite awhile drawing his ideas on paper.  Then we had to come up with a recipe to fit his drawings.  (The circled drawing was his final choice.)

During this "Stay home and stay safe" order I haven't gone to the store so his options for decorating were old Christmas sprinkles and candy corn leftover from Halloween.  He added Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for some reason.

He agreed that Chocolate Zucchini muffins would match his drawing (prompted by me because we have health-ified them and they'll be good for breakfast or snacks, plus they're his favorite).

Whisking eggs.  He learned how to crack eggs for the first time.

Lena was so happy to be doing what everyone else was doing.  After a demonstration on the use of a rolling pin and cutting out cookies, she took over and worked independently to roll and cut hers out. I wish I could post a video but with my old computer it's too time consuming.

The kids made a huge poster for the Baking Contest and throughout the day we took photos of their work and little videos, interviewing them about their bakery and how they thought they would do in the contest.  Before bed, we watched the videos and gave out the awards.  The kids are already begging to do another contest.

Karl with his muffins.  Note the Lego umbrella, not edible.  ;-)

Nora with her perfect star cookies, all the same size and shape and uniformly decorated.

Lena with a random collection of cutouts, frosted with a knife that was licked clean between cookies.

Clare chose two frosting colors and made a "summer" collection: butterflies, ice cream cones, flip-flops (which she made from a heart cookie cutter), and flowers.  

It was a lot of extra dish washing and there were a few spills, but they had such a fun day!