baking success for kids of all ages
King Arthur Baking Company has been supplying flour to America since 1790, so they’ve learned a thing or two in the last 200-plus years. Their latest cookbook is Sweet & Salty!, a book with over eighty recipes specifically written for kids to bake. There is a wide variety of sweet bakes, but there are also a bunch of savory recipes. Honestly, there is just a little bit of everything in this beautiful cookbook.
There are pages and pages of cakes, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, pies, breads, and pastries. Everything from Pig in a Blanket to Super-Fudge Brownies, Banana Pudding to Garlic Knots, Empanadas Three Ways to Berry Easy Cheesecake pop from the pages with photos and lots of helpful tips. Each recipe is labeled either Easy, Medium, or Project, so readers can see right away how many skills will be needed and how much time they’ll need to invest.
Easy projects include a Super Simple Strawberry Cake, Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie, Any-Fruit Cobbler, No-Knead Crusty Bread, Fake Focaccia, and Better-Than-Boxed Mac and Cheese. Medium projects are a little more challenging, like the Gingerbread Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Fluffernutter Cookies, Caramel Apple Galettes, Ranch Monkey Bread, Pizza Party Buns, Maple Bacon Biscuits, and Sausage Rolls.
The recipes marked Project take a little more skill or more time, like the Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cake with Frosting and Ganache, 2-layer Happy Birthday Cake, Super-Size Peanut Butter Cup Tart, Profiteroles with Ice Cream and Hot Fudge, Ooey-Gooey Cinnamon Buns, or Spinach and Feta Pastry Pockets.
The recipes build skills, from easy to medium to project. But there are also short articles that explain baking concepts, like how yeast works or how to temper eggs or what the difference is between baking soda and baking powder. There is an explanation of Cake Gymnastics (how to get a cake out of the pan), how to separate eggs and how to knead dough by hand, all with extra photos to show techniques that bakers need to know.
The cookbook starts with some quick lessons, to help set young chefs up for success, including the very important do not use the oven or a sharp knife without an adult in the room. It emphasizes reading the recipe all the way through first and getting everything together that you need. And then explains things like the best way to measure ingredients, the best way to line a pan with parchment paper, when to sift the flour or other ingredients. how to soften butter, and how to cream or fold your batters.
From page one, this cookbook is setting young bakers up for years and years of success in the kitchen, and that is my favorite thing about it. It’s clearly written for young chefs, but it gives understandable instructions to any new baker, so it could be just as helpful to adults wanting to learn more about the kitchen. I love the colorful layout, which adds so much joy and energy as I read through these pages. My biggest disappointment with Sweet & Salty! is that it wasn’t around for me when I was 8, because I would have loved it. It would have taught me so much about ingredients and techniques, things I didn’t learn or understand for decades, and I would have worn out these pages baking some of these dishes over and over. I think it’s the perfect gift for any beginning baker.
Egalleys for Sweet & Salty! were provided by Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.
