‘Tea for Two’ is one of my favourite songs of all time. With its catchy tune, it describes a life most girls dream about. (for those anti-domesticity feminists out that, note that this is a very very general statement). One of the lines in the song goes, “We would raise a family, a boy for you and a girl for meee, Can’t you see how happy we would be!.” This is Ryan’s ideal of kids, a boy and a girl! In fact my mum used to say that if you have a girl and a boy, it spells “hao” (good) in Chinese.
I probably stop here at this point to assure everyone that I am currently NOT pregnant. However many of my friends are having cute little ones a long the way and this definitely makes me think about parenthood. Besides I feel that parenthood is a state you need to prepare for and one needs to research and experiment before you get Mr Stork to deliver the goods. Ryan and I were wondering if boys or girls would be easier to take care of (not that we would ever have a choice).We decided to conduct a little experiment where we would have to baby sit our nephews and niece on two separate occasions. The common task we did with both of them was well, baking.
As I pretty muched AWOLed my science exam papers under the advice of my principal, I must admit that this experiment is purely unscientific. Lets just call this a wacky social experiment
Case Study 1
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Name: | Ariel! |
Sex: | Girl! |
Accompanying help: | Cousin Kieffer (16 years old), great buddy of Ariel |
Loves: | Barney the purple dinosaur, Dora the explorer and all Disney Princesses Movies |
Task: | To bake and decorate a jar of cookies for her mummy. |
The process
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| Concentrration! |
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| Using edible food markers to decorate cookies |
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| Ariel loves butterfly shaped cookies |
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| Cookies in a row! |
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| Ariel wrote I heart mum so sweet! |
Case Study 2
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Name: | Ryan and Rayson! |
Sex: | Boyzz |
Accompanying help: | My sister and her helper (fine we were not entirely babysitting) |
Loves | Barney duh purple dinosaur, Pixar movies especially Finding Nemo and Cars and now Toy Story 3 |
Task: | To make fondant decorations for vegan cupcakes |
The process
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| what better way to start baking by eating the frosting |
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| Ryan's finished product! |
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| The tuptakes ! |
The report:
Ariel was real excited to bake the cookies. It was almost as if she had this vision from the start when she arrived the night before, she just wanted to touch the cookie dough. It was almost as if Barney was banished to the sidelines for awhile. To cut a long story short, Ariel did sit down for about four hours making those cookies. She really enjoyed herself.
The naughty:
She did not do anything particularly naughty, was just a little cheeky and sneaky. For example, I told her not to dust the icing sugar on the carpet. However she was caught on camera doing this by Ryan (yes we monitor our subjects very carefully). She was also not the most hygienic baker, we caught her eating the sugar sprinkles and then attaching them with her saliva to the cookies (Its ok, only her mummy was going to eat them).
Awwwww moment: When Ariel decorated a “I <heart> mum” cookie with her edible food marker and when she made a “black” coloured cookie for her grand Auntie J, yup wicked ahah
Ryan and Rayson had zero concept of what a cupcake (or tuptake according to Rayson) was. We did vegan cupcakes because my sister’s family was sometimes vegetarian. Even though they were moderately excited about tuptakes they were also blown away by the prospect of swimming, Barney watching and hitting each other.
The naughty: Was constantly distracted by each other and the perennial question of “how do I hit my brother?” constantly tormented them. Oh yes the crazy chiming of “ta bian” (shit in chinese). Come on focus on the right kind of cake making boys!
The Awww. Factor: Boys are just so mischievous and they are so funny! I think I just loved it when Ryan tasted the vegan chocolate frosting and went BANANAS! So no sweet messages for mummy but lots of fun!
The verdict—still dunno leh. What do you guys think? Are boys or girls easier kids? Of course all kids are different so this discussion is purely general. Post your comments and my favourite comment will win a little surprise gift! (will be posted to you)
I am going to end this post with the activity which I did with all three kids. You can download and print the worksheet for the kiddies to do while you are making the sugar cookies. (The recipe for the sugar cookies are in the worksheet) CLICK TO DOWNLOAD WORKSHEET
What you need;
1) Cookie jar,
2) Cookie cutters,
3) Fondant (Pettinice brand)
4) Edible food markers
5) Corn Flour
6) Rolling Pin
You can get a range of pretty cutters from Daiso at reasonable prices. I got my jars from Daiso too you can get fondant and edible food markers from either Phoon Huat or Kitchen Capers.
1) Simply dust corn flour on a your work surface.
2) Show your kiddo how to roll out the fondant with a rolling pin (or do it for them).
3) Using the cookie cutters show them how fun is it to cut out shapes with the cutters, get them to do it as you roll out the fondant for them
4) Wait for the fondant cut outs to dry for abit (in the air conditioned room in sg, it would take about 15 minutes)
5) Get them to decorate the cut outs with their edible markers and sugar sprinkles (or anything edible you can find),
6) Attach these fondant cut outs on to your cupcakes or to your cookies by brushing a little vanilla extract as adhesive.
7) Enjoy watching the kiddos marvel at their creations!
Do take some pictures of your little ones’ creations! Send them to me and I will post it on this blog! Remember to share your views! There is a surprise Prize to be won!
