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Anyone who follows me on social media may have noticed that my kids and I do a lot of cooking together. I didn’t realize how much until I started looking through some of my online feeds. Every week there is something we are doing in the kitchen. My kids are older now and like being more independent in their cooking.

Once October arrived, all the Halloween treat recipes started flooding the internet. The kids and I were very excited to try out a new baking technique we haven’t done before. We decided to try making cupcakes with frosting in the middle. We weren’t going totally crazy. Baby steps.

The Cupcakes

I have a chocolate cake recipe I adore! We make a lot of chocolate cakes and cupcakes since I found it on Allrecipes. It is called One Bowl Chocolate Cake. It uses a cup of boiling water. Don’t get freaked out about the watery batter. It comes out divine. I read some reviews where people wouldn’t put it in. Make sure you do! It bakes up nicely.

The kids busily took out a bowl, measuring cups, and ingredients. They kept bickering to a minimum over who was going to do what steps in the recipe. My son doesn’t like to crack eggs, so his sister swapped out something she was going to do for that. Overall, I was impressed. They worked together to get the batter made. My son poured the batter in the cupcake pans, and I put them in the oven.

The Frosting

The frosting recipe I used is one by Life, Love, and Sugar. It tastes good. It is a basic buttercream frosting. If you plan on frosting all 24 cupcakes, I would double the recipe. We had barely enough to frost 12 of them. 

My daughter got all the ingredients out, and my son mixed it all together. He loves using the mixer. The kids then decided on the colors for the frosting. They kept it simple. They chose green and orange. We had bought Halloween sprinkles to use to decorate instead of making things like ghosts or witches. 

I took out the food coloring, and the kids started mixing it in the frosting. They hadn’t done this before, so they were very cautious about how much they were adding. I was glad.

Decorating

Once the cupcakes were cooled off, my daughter used one of the decorating tips to make a hole in the center of each cupcake. Using the wide opening, she poked it through the middle and pulled it out. Now there was a hole to squirt the frosting into. Boy, it wasn’t easy getting the tip out of the middle of the cupcake! It was quite interesting.

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When all the cupcakes were ready, we put frosting in a decorating tube. The kids began filling the middles with frosting. After, they took the opposite color and frosted the tops. It took a few tries to get the hang of making the swirling pattern on the top. They did it, though!

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Finally, it was time for sprinkles. We had a container with a variety of Halloween colors and designs. They had a blast. My son is always over the top so he had to try all the sprinkles; sometimes on the same cupcake. We had sprinkles everywhere. It was a lot of fun.

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Finally, they could eat their creation!

Why Baking with Kids is Important

• Life skills: Kids learn how to use kitchen equipment, read a recipe, and learn cooking techniques.
• Confidence: Kids build confidence when they see they have successfully made something.
• Bonding: It is a great way to bond with your kids and let them know you enjoy doing things with them.
• Fun: You get to have fun as a family and have a yummy treat to share.

We had a great time together making Halloween cupcakes. I let the kids do all the work but talked them through things and demonstrated skills when needed. They were so proud of the cupcakes THEY made all by themselves. They couldn’t wait to share it with their dad when he got home. The kids learned some new decorating techniques, but more importantly, they gained confidence in their abilities. It was great to see. 

What do you like to bake with your kids?

Happy Homeschooling!

P.S. I will not mention what happened to all the cupcake middles. Only my daughter and I know that secret. : )