One evening, back in the summer of 2020, I walked downstairs to our family room, and a show I had never see before, Cake Wars, was playing on our TV. Our youngest son was streaming old episodes of this series. He was riveted to the TV, and soon, so was I, curling up on the couch to watch this fascinating display of baking prowess that played out in competition, televised long ago on the Food Network. After binging several episodes and feeling inspired to bake creatively, we briefly discussed the idea of us baking different kinds of cakes at home each week. Sadly, life got in the way as online COVID school was about to begin, and we never ended up doing that, though through the years, our boys have helped me bake many times.
Fast-forward 5 years, and he is now living away from home in his college town for the summer, binging things like Southpark when he’s not working or doing summer school classes. However, I stand by our original thought after binging Cake Wars– why not bake together at home? It doesn’t have to be cakes, of course. It could be cupcakes (Cake Wars was a spin-off of Cupcake Wars, after all), cookies (think Crumbl Cookies– there are actually copycat recipes for these types of fancy cookies online), pies- really anything your family wants to try!
Believe it or not, baking is a way for gifted kids to exercise thinking skills. When baking, they must naturally use mathematical thinking (measurement), creative thinking (designing and decorating), and problem-solving (why didn’t my cake rise?)- all in one FUN and YUMMY activity! If you really want to ramp things up, you could always put on a mini-baking war game of your own, and then your kids have to think strategically, as well!
So, what do you think? Are you ready to have your kids dabble in some baking this summer? Or, maybe you’re ready for an all-out family Bake-Off? If so, tell me how things went, and, as always, please send pictures! Now, it’s time for ME to go bake chocolate chip cookies to bring to my friend’s party this weekend! Come back again tomorrow for Idea #4… ~Ann
Teaching for Talent 