A concerned mom posed a great question on the Betty Crocker message board last week.  Her daughter is an avid baker who aspires to be a professional chef when she grows up.  The trouble is that the would-be chef enjoys making treats like cookies and brownies as hands-on learning, and perhaps enjoys too many sweets, according to mom.

As a cookbook author and recipe developer, I can definitely relate.  Often it takes me a few tries to perfect a recipe.  When I was working on my last cookbook, I was adjusting a bagel recipe and ended up baking five dozen bagels over a single weekend.  With just my husband and me in the house, that was several dozen bagels too many.  Since I try to avoid wasting food, I wanted to find eaters for all these bagels.  I donated them to a seniors’ recreation group that met at a local community center, to which my neighbor belonged.  They were happy and so was I.

I also understand the value of learning by doing, but there are ways to avoid eating too many treats just because they are around the house.  This young baker can:

• take cooking classes designed especially for kids.  Many city recreation programs offer kids’ cooking classes for a reasonable fee.  Many grocery stores (especially co-ops and “healthier” stores) offer kids’ cooking classes.  These hands-on classes often offer just a sample of food, and it stays out of the house.
  
• continue baking, but bake for a cause.  Work with a community group to host a bake sale to benefit a charity.  The Great American Bake Sale that benefits Share Our Strength offers great ideas. 
  
• contact family, friends and neighbors and ask them to “sponsor” her baking.  They can decide on a day when the young baker can deliver a baked good, and the “sponsor” can contribute gift cards or money to support future baking endeavors.
  
• reach out to local organizations—with mom’s help—to find an organization which will accept home baked goods.  For example, Jessica at the Pictures of Cake blog has just started contributing desserts to Dessert Corps, a program which supplements meals at a soup kitchen.  No Dessert Corps in your area?  Work with a soup kitchen to start one!
  
• turn her attention to studying baking by reading cookbooks, watching cooking shows and exploring the web.  She can even put together her own cookbook!
  
• join a baking club.  Groups of interested people come together to bake, taste and share.  Where I live in St. Paul, there is an amazing Bread Baking Club.  It would be fun to start a club for baking, and maybe even approach a small bakery to host it. 
   
• create a calendar for baking and stick to it.  Perhaps the young baker will make cookies twice a month, and her family can plan to avoid shopping for other sweet treats those weeks. Planning, creating anticipation and baking and eating deliberately can avoid sugar overload.
  
• learn about how to lighten up traditional recipes.  Cheri is a blogger at Betty Crocker who is great at this.  Read her ideas and try them at home.  Check out this pretty angel food cake she recently blogged about.

Tags:  Bake sale, baking, baking club, charity, children

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granna2 said:
WOW! What great ideals, i really like the one about getting family members to share in the goodies and the cost,:-). Keep up the good work loung lady!!!! Granna2
9/14/2009 5:56:39 PM