Kids Recipes

Everybody Has Fun In the Kitchen

Of all these years of writing, I had never thought of kids recipes, until my son came along.

Kids of all age groups enjoying with family in the kitchen.


I have to admit that cooking with a child, it does take longer to finish a dish. Sometimes, it is way much longer than you expect.

Most of the kids-friendly recipes are not 100% done by the child(ren) throughout. Adults need to be there to supervise.

However, there are a lot of benefits for everybody involved in kids recipes:

1) This is a great bonding time with your child(ren). My mom and I are not very talkative. But we did talk the most while we were cooking in the kitchen.


2) My son is a bit behind when it comes to fine motor skills. But when he is in the kitchen with me, he is a totally different child. He can handle the hand mixer, electric mixer, juice the lemons, sprinkling shredded cheese, cookie cutter,
vadalian onion cutter and so forth. Of course, you must be there to supervise. Any activities in the kitchen could cause accidents.

My son started doing it before he turned 3. So, if a little boy at his age could do this, so as yours.

3) My original plan getting him into the kitchen was to keep him busy and, the most important of all, to expose him to different kinds of food individually.

4) Many parents or experts say that kids tend to eat the food that they helped to cook. It's not 100% true. I do realize that my son would like to try almost everything, voluntarily, while we are cooking or mixing something together. He will tell me what he likes or dislikes.

At the end, it helps him to develop the sense of smell, relationship between the smell and food and vocabularies.

5) While my little one is in the kitchen, I always like to utilize the opportunity to teach him the following things. You can adjust what fit your child(ren) based on age, interests and so forth.

Let your little helper(s) to decorate the Easter Bunny Cake for you. They will be very proud of themselves.Let your little helper(s) to decorate the Easter Bunny Cake for you. They will be very proud of themselves.

a) Counting - we do this very often when we mix the ingredients for any baking recipes. When he is proficient in counting in English, I asked him to count with me in Chinese. If your kid(s) is multilingual, take the advantage of this, too.

Also, try this method when it comes to building up the vocabularies.

b) Calculation - This mostly happens with the baking recipes, too. For instance, the recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar.

Instead of using a cup measurement, use the 1/2 or 1/4 cup to do it. As I said, it takes longer to complete a recipe. But bear in mind, your child(ren) learns faster in this way. He/she is not under any pressure, but it's play time to him/her.

c) Measuring unit - what is a cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, pound, ounce and more? I suggest teaching to a child at least 6 years of age or above. But don't be afraid to tell them. My 4-year-old just shocked me lately picking up a measuring spoon and told me that what he was holding was a tablespoon. I was so happy and proud of him. You will never know.

d) Science - if you look at the following events through a child's eyes, they are like magic. You can explain to him/her during the process:

  • the jello powder dissolves in the hot water
  •  transparent egg white turns to white stiff foam after beating it with a mixer
Using kid-friendly containers will help your little one to get the job done easily with lesser mess to clean up. This is the Old Glory Popsicles.Using kid-friendly containers will help your little one to get the job done easily with lesser mess to clean up. This is the Old Glory Popsicles.

e) Concept/consequences - you may get the kick out of this. There was a time my 3-year-old didn't like the way how I cut an orange. He asked me to put those 2 halves back together and cut it again the way he wanted. I explained to him that I could not undo what had been done. He was mad at me and cried.

You may think that only toddlers do not understand the consequences. But my mom always quoted this Chinese saying to us even we are adults now. "Once the rice is cooked, you can't make it what it was."


Kids recipes - always find a way to cook with your kids. It's a lot of fun.My little one was so looking forward to making lemonade. He was 3 when this pic was taken. If he can do it, so as yours.

As I mentioned earlier, almost all kids recipes cannot be done by a child 100% except under adult supervision and/or assistance.

While my son is in the kitchen with me, I always make sure that my oven and/or stove is not on. You can consider let him/her to cook by the stove and cutting food when he/she is around 8.

But please do NOT let this scare you.  Cooking with your child(ren) is a lot of fun.

Here are some kids recipes suggested to you:

Making Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake with my little oneMaking Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake with my little one

List of Kids Recipes


Recipe Ingredients and Tools


You May Also Be Interested In:

Thank you very much for your visit.  Please check regularly for more update of this page.

Home > Kids Recipes

New! Comments

Be the first of your friends to comment what you just read