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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Are you looking for fun cooking games? Why not try making a delicious, yet penny-wise, shortbread house with your kids? It’ll be a perfect opportunity for you to let your kids’ creativity flow – they’ll just love decorating the roof, door and windows of this shortbread house! Here is a quick and easy way to make a shortbread house with your kids:

Ingredients

  • 100g butter
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 150g plain flour
  • Tubes of coloured icing
  • Sweets, mini marshmallows, and chocolate M&M’s or Smarties
  • A bowl of glace icing
  • A greased baking tray
  • Icing knife

How to make the shortbread:

  1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees.
  2. Cream the butter and caster sugar together in a bowl.
  3. Then add the plain flour and mix to produce a smooth paste.
  4. Roll out the paste to about 1cm thick.
  5. Use a knife or cutters to cut the paste into shapes: two triangles for the roof ends, and six rectangles for the walls and the roof of the house.
  6. Place the shapes onto a greased baking tray.
  7. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
  8. Remove and leave aside to cool down.

How to decorate the shortbread house:

  1. Construct the house, using glace icing to glue the parts together.
  2. Coat the whole house with glace icing and leave it to set.
  3. Use more glace icing to stick on square candies for the doors and windows.
  4. Draw vines on the house with a tube of coloured icing.
  5. Use the remaining glace icing to decorate the rest of the house with sweeties, marshmallows, and chocolates.

Remember, cooking with your kid is likely to get messy, so don’t get too upset about spilled flour or icing sugar. Encourage them to take responsibility for cleaning up after the cooking. Keep a damp cloth to hand to wipe your little one’s face and hands, and always keep clothing protected with an apron to avoid stains.

There are so many benefits to playing cooking games for kids. Activities like making a shortbread house will stimulate your children’s creative thinking skills, improve hand-eye coordination, and enhance their fine motor skills. Your child will also learn and practice basic maths and measuring concepts.

Cooking and talking about food production can also improve your child’s knowledge and understanding of the world around them. Consider discussing with your older child how climate and resources make a difference to the way people live. Activities like making a shortbread house will go a small way to teach them to appreciate the effort that goes into making their food.

At the end of the cooking session, look forward to seeing your child’s smiling face and the signs of their sense of accomplishment. Now, think about taking a picture before that shortbread house gets devoured!

Earnest Parenting: help for parents who love to cook with their kids.