My mum loved to bake and cook and she didn’t leave us on these. Once we were old enough to understand what was going on, we were in the kitchen with her.

She had a few cook books, a treasure filled with some delightful recipes. I remember our cupcake 🧁 baking days, always a delight to look forward to. I think these were mostly Saturdays. We were allowed to help mix the batter and it was exciting to watch the cakes rise while baking. The best part of course was eating the scrumptious cupcakes 🧁😁

As simple as this act of baking together was, it provided us the opportunity to bond, gave us something to look forward to, something to talk about.

I still enjoy being in the kitchen with my mum and sisters. I’ve started the baking tradition with my children and they love it. Whenever there’s a picnic or party at school, their first thought is that we’re going to bake some muffins.

They’re thrilled to help out and my son keeps tabs on all the ingredients we need for baking. Yesterday they took chocolate and vanilla cupcakes to school. They had already decided what they would take along for the end of summer camp party, they asked if we could bake them and we went shopping for the ingredients we didn’t have at home.

Over time, we have baked muffins, cupcakes, apple crumble, oatmeal cookies, pizza and sausage rolls. My son still has a list of what mum needs to bake 😆.

I love this simple act of bonding with them and it’s most rewarding to hear my son say he wants to be a ‘great cook like mum’ when he grows up.

Do you have any family traditions at yours? Were they affected by your childhood? What are you teaching your children? What activities do they look forward to when you’re around?

Even if you never shared experiences with your parents, you can create some to enjoy with your children. Start today. It’s not too late 😉