Between working, both kids feeling under the weather, teething, laundry, marriage, friendships, and you know… life… sometimes it’s hard to find the time to get certain things done—like baking cookies. I love baking and my three year old daughter thinks that helping in the kitchen is one of the best things. She loves playing “bakery” with me, however that means a 30 minute baking task quickly and easily turns into an hour long adventure, not to mention the massive kitchen clean up. Good thing she’s adorable!
Enter the cake batter cookie. Busy parents, rejoice! I don’t care if (you think) you’re an awful baker, these really are SO SIMPLE! I remember seeing the idea floating around Pinterest, and knew I had to give them a shot. After a party we had, there was extra cake mix laying around and I decided to try them out—a tasty decision indeed! I could not believe how simple and easy they were to throw together.
Recently I was wracking my brain for something fun and easy to do with my daughter in the kitchen, and this recipe came right to mind! Being only three, her ability to ‘help’ is limited, so this recipe is especially great for active and kitchen-curious toddlers and preschoolers in your home!
What you need:
– 1 box of cake mix, flavor does not matter
– 2 eggs
– 1/3 cup vegetable oil
– Preheated oven to 375 degrees
THAT’S IT! Seriously. How awesome is that?!
What you do:
Pour and mix the three ingredients together in a bowl, form the dough into regular size cookie dough balls (about a tablespoon each) and bake @375 degrees for 7-9 minutes…violà, you’re done!
This recipe is so simple, and the best part is that a helpful toddler, or even an older kiddo, is able to do quite a bit. My daughter poured the cake mix in the KitchenAid mixer, I measured the oil and she poured it in with the mix, and to ensure nobody would eat eggshells in their cookies, I took care of the eggs. She helped me turn the mixer on and watched in amazement as it whisked everything together. (Let’s be honest, I watch in amazement too… the KitchenAid is my favorite thing in the kitchen!)
While they aren’t the same consistency of regular ol’ cookies, they’re still very easy to decorate. My daughter loves sprinkles so we baked a few with rainbow sprinkles on top. I told her I would make a Halloween surprise for the rest of the cookies. A quick Pinterest search for Halloween cookies gave me the idea for spiders and mummies and they were, again, SO EASY! Some melted chocolate, ziplock bags for piping and I decorated the rest of the cookies in about 5 minutes.
These are a must do if your toddler or preschooler is obsessed with baking. I LOVE regular, traditional, made-from-scratch cookies, but these are just so simple and most of us probably have these ingredients already in the pantry. It’s a perfect activity for those small toddler hands to help with. Give it a shot and let us know how your cookies turn out in the comments!