YaYa’s in the Kitchen: Red, White, Blue & Chocolate Too!
Category : A Day in the Life of This SLP , Autism , Blog , Childhood Apraxia of Speech , Summer News , YaYa's in the Kitchen
Happy Fourth of July!
YaYa’s in the Kitchen at my house for the holiday with choices for me to make before starting the bakery treat of the day. Will it be a red, white and blue edible pizza, flag, or what?! See what we decided…
Let’s open the box & get started!
Should we make a rectangular flat? A round pizza? Square brownies? Small cupcakes? Or, a two-layer cake?
Drum roll please…
I chose my first two-layer BROWNIE cake and you can make it too! Here is what you and your child/ren will need (YaYa helped me make the list):
- A brownie mix, or your favorite brownie or cake recipe – check the ingredients and add to the list
- Mixing bowl, spoon, spatula, and measuring cup
- Your choice of icing or whipped topping
- Red and blue fruit: We used blueberries, strawberries & raspberries
- Sprinkles are optional, but I said, “YES!”
- Pan(s) for baking
- Cooking spray or butter and flour for the pans
- Small safe knife for slicing fruit
- Small child size scissors to open the plastic bag
- Off-set spatula for icing
- Tasting bowl for to minimize tasting the bakery treat from the common bowl/s or pan/s.
- Adult to supervise young/er children
- Oven mitts
- Paper towels, wipes, and of course, clean hands!
- YOUR camera
Our recipe started with the Ghiradelli dark chocolate with chocolate chips. YaYa asked and I said, “YES” to adding 1/2 cup added blueberries to the mix!
Of course, these are the blueberries (see the plastic bag next to the raspberries) that we picked earlier in the month at Green Meadows Farm, so juicy!
Be organized and prepared before you start… I even cut the bag open with my little kitchen scissors with smooth hand action! YaYa helped hold the top of the bag so I could cut straight across 🙂
YAY, our second egg made it into the bowl; whereas, the first one oozed off the table. Can you say slimy?! We laughed as we cleaned up!
We mixed the oil, water, and egg into the brownie mix till it was smooth and shiny. Then we stirred in 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries.
Dividing the batter evenly into two cake pans was fun!
YaYa brought her small serrated knife to help me learn to cut with a sawing motion.
Trimmed, sliced, and sorted. YaYa will bring her strawberry huller next time, that will be a real fine motor skill activity, but I know I can do it!
Fabulous! Finally, a raspberry for me to taste! YaYa said, YES, when I asked to put the long sprinkles inside the raspberry.
YaYa put the cakes in the freezer to cool them faster. This one is ready.
Time to start spreading the icing on the top, first pull it out from the center & then smooth in a circular motion. Thanks, YaYa, who knew?
Mom says the peaches are for a pie tomorrow!
Wondering what my left hand is doing in the tasting bowl? Guess?!
Apparently, helping the icing find its way to my mouth for tasting!
YaYa decided I should use my fingers to place the blueberries one at a time in a circle so I had to move a few from the center to make room for the red berries! Of course, I know YaYa is also making sure I am listening, following her directions, using fine motor skills, and sustaining my attention!
I learned sliced strawberries are slippery, but whole raspberries are not…
Whoa, we put the top layer on the finished bottom layer and started again! This time I chose to use the large, green off-set spatula for spreading. Yes, I know, be careful, it has a sharp edge!
For the top layer, YaYa said I could “sprinkle” the fruit and red/white/blue sprinkles on top, so here is my abstract creation! Proud smiles all around…
YaYa took the four pieces of foil out from under the cake now that we were done icing and decorating. This kept the doily clean for our grand presentation!
Yes, I will pose for more pictures from the 3 cameras pointed at me. Mom, Dad, and YaYa are smiling at me too!
Happy Fourth of July from us! You can make this with your children too. Enjoy!
Things you should know: YaYa is also a pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist and she and I have been friends for more than four years and baking almost that long.
This baking activity was filled with more language, literacy and motor skills than you might think. So, we were not “just baking”, we were working at the same time.
Did I mention that this took more than 90 minutes from start to finish? Be sure you plan like YaYa and have activities to do while the cakes are baking.
We read books, planned the next steps, and reviewed what we had completed.
This activity started with YaYa telling my Mom that she (YaYa) was going to let me do as much as I could with as little help as required while being safe.
I would say, mission accomplished YaYa!
AND, YUM!
Now a message from YaYa:
This was a day celebrating my friend’s independence as he accomplished many new skills during this exciting YaYa’s in the Kitchen activity! I agree, mission (more than) accomplished!
An independence day of more than one kind in the life of This SLP,
Lori (YaYa)