If there’s one thing that Riley has been fascinated about since he was a baby, it’s food. At just a few months old, he’d wake up to the smell of sautéed garlic in the kitchen. He loves to watch people cooking, be it his dad at home, the chefs stretching noodles in restaurants or the guy frying churros. (His grandparents even gifted him with “cooking” toys!) On most days, he’d ask to sit on his high chair to watch us make our meals and so we thought we might as well let him join the process but with a recipe that’s easy, safe and kid-friendly: hotcakes!
Tip 1 – Let them do the mixing. It’s fun and easy. Just make sure to use either a stainless steel or plastic bowl. Avoid breakables too. (You can also add food coloring here to make things more interesting. Ombre hotcakes perhaps? More on that on our next post. *wink*)
Tip 2– Use a squeeze bottle. Children can be clumsy so to avoid spills, pour your hotcake batter into a squeeze bottle. (Look at Chef Riley go!)
Tip 3 – No heat. For safety purposes, we didn’t let Riley near the stove. Instead, we let him mix and squeeze on a separate table. After this, parents (or doting titos and titas) can do the actual cooking and bring the pan to the stove. Don’t forget to lightly grease the pan before letting the kids pour the batter too. To make the experience more realistic though, we let him “pretend” cook using his toys.
Tip 4 – Stack and serve with honey, butter, candy sprinkles, chocolate chips or even googly eyes!
Tip 5 – Use cookie cutters for interesting shapes. You can even find alphabet and number-shaped cookie cutters in your nearest baking supply shop or the department store.
Bonus Tip – Keep it simple. Since we’re dealing with kids, we wanted to use a recipe that’s quick and easy. For this activity, we used 1 pack Maya Complete Quick n’ Easy Hotcake Mix 250 grams and simply added 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water to create the batter. That’s it.
Here’s a video + a behind-the-scenes footage of Riley cooking. Enjoy! ???
