Christmas baking with kids seemed a good idea at the time! I blame all those beautiful Instagram shots of happy kiddos licking spoons and concentrating hard on cutting out elaborate shapes like reindeer or proudly presenting their gingerbread houses with neat rows of chocolate buttons and haribo as decorations (though I have a sneaky suspicion mum might have had a hand it the latter).

Nostalgia also got the better of me wanting to carry on the Christmas baking tradition and remembering fondly baking cookies with my mum and grandmother during the festive season. They never complained that I was hard to manage why should my kids be any different!? And really… how hard can it be!?

Truth is, really, really hard! And even harder when you’re trying to get some half descent shots done of the whole process with the ridiculous ambition to later write a blog post about it. Ha! What a fool! I must have lost my mind or at least temporarily forgotten that my kids are boys and very lively, on top of both being under 4 years of age.

In between my shouting ‘don’t throw that on the floor’, ‘cover your mouth when you sneeze/cough’ and ‘just a small hand full of flour, not two hands’ as well as rolling dough, cutting neat stars, trying not to burn the cookies in the oven and preventing toy cars to run through cookie dough I managed to snap a few shots on my iPhone and DLSR which now needs a good clean after getting covered in flour.

I guess it was a tad ambitious trying to carry out this wholesome act under the illusion of being an earth-mother – I really am not (!) and take my hat off to all pre-school teachers and nursery staff who deal with this sort of thing day in day out.

On the plus side the kids loved the experience and the little one was delighted that he could actually eat the ‘playdough’. Plus we now have a tin full of super duper gingerbread cookies – click here for recipe – and I live to tell the tale and write the blog post. All good!

Now, should I tell the kids that I’ve got 2 more batches of dough in the freezer?
 

NOTE: The fab wooden cutting board with leather handle in the last shot is from The Hackney Draper which was kindly given to me by StreetHub – but more about them in January.

 
MORE INFORMATION | The Hackney Draper & StreetHub
PHOTOGRAPHY | Yours Truly – Please don’t use my shots without my permission.
 
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