Food Projects For Kids To Make In Summer

If you’re a parent, you’ll know how much joy your little ones get out of helping you cook or bake. It might be slightly hair-raising for you of course, especially if you’re a clean-freak, but it can be a very exciting thing to experience with your kids. Choosing food crafts for kids can be daunting though, what to choose for what age child?

We’ve created some tips on how to get your child involved in food projects according to their age. Making a mess and exploring is essential for toddlers, while following a recipe and learning how to measure exact quantities can be a great experience for your teen. Summer is the best time to do fun, edible crafts for kids because you can set them up outside and keep the mess to a minimum in the kitchen.

Here are a few great ideas for what to do this summer when it comes to food projects for kids.

What are the Best Easy Food Projects for Kids?

We’ve put our heads together and come up with a few great food project ideas for you according to age. This will help you know what is age appropriate for your little ones and will enable you to have as much fun as possible.

Messy Play for Toddlers

When it comes to edible crafts for toddlers, the name of the game really is mess! The more mess the better for them as they learn to explore new textures and flavours. Trying to get your busy toddler to follow a recipe or plan, just won’t work. Rather put ingredients out for them and let them make a mess with it.

We recommend using a baking tray and putting these easy to find ingredients out on the lawn so that they can make as much mess as they like – just be sure to dress them on old clothes because it’s going to get messy.

• Try bowls of plain yoghurt with different food colouring in so that they can begin to recognise colours and mash them together to create new ones. This is yummy and safe to eat as well.
• Open a tin of baked beans or sweetcorn as another great messy play idea that fun to play with, has some textures that are interesting and is safe to eat.

Edible Projects for Kids

Ice-cream Popsicles are always a big hit in summer. You simply need some fruit juice (orange juice works well), vanilla ice cream and jelly. Make the jelly as per the packet instructions, defrost the ice cream. Mix it all together and fill some plastic or silicone popsicle trays and Kids – of anywhere from three years and above – can start to understand the concept of following a plan or a recipe, that isn’t too technical of course.

Baking with your kids is a great way to get them to start learning about how to pour ingredients from one bowl to another, which is great for their hand-eye co-ordination. Here are some easy-to-follow, summer ideas for cooking with kids;

• put in the freezer. They’ll be ready to eat in one to two hours.
• Kids love to bake, no matter how old they are. Vanilla Cup Cakes are easy to make and can be spiced up with any kind of colour icing your child wants. They love to see the process of putting the ingredients into a bowl, mixing it all together and watching it bake. Plus, getting to lick the bowl is always a favourite too. Here is our easy Vanilla Cupcakes with Butter Icing Recipe that’s perfect to create with your kids.

Cooking with Young Adults

Junior MasterChef here we come! If you have a young adult or teenager in the house, now is the time to start introducing them to the joy of cooking. They will love getting the responsibility of having to make a meal for the family as well as the satisfaction of creating something all on their own. You’ll have to be on hand for help and advice, but you’ll be able to sit and watch and sip a glass of red wine while you do it.

Here are two recipe ideas that are not too complicated and will be the perfect introduction for your teenager;

• How does a lie in bed with a cup of coffee while your teenager makes breakfast sound? Wonderful, right? Our quick, tasty American Pancakes Recipe takes only 25 minutes to create and will feed the whole family.
• Is your teen ready to tackle something a little more technical? This delicious Chicken Lasagne Recipe is easy-to-follow and is absolutely delicious.

What ingredients are needed for food projects?

Cooking or baking with your kids is all about planning. Choose the recipes or craft ideas you like and make sure you have all the ingredients you need for the recipe or project before you begin. Get more great food for kid’s ideas from us today.

Browse our Food for Kids Recipes now.