Food for My Family

...one plate at a time.

Hey, Babycakes! A Weekend Giveaway.

· · 374 Comments

Enter to win a Babycakes Cupcake Maker and cookbook that makes more than just cupcakes. It can make your entire meal in minutes.

My kids are generally pretty excited in the kitchen, especially that pink-apron-wearing one up there. If I so much as walk towards the kitchen she is asking if we can make something. The mere mention of a mixing bowl has her pulling out aprons left and right.

The kids’ enthusiasm in the kitchen makes me smile, and while sometimes I am less then thrilled about having them underfoot, I want to encourage them to love the act of cooking, creating and eating. It doesn’t have to be a profession they hope to go into later in life, but everyone must eat. I view teaching them how to feed themselves as an essential life skill, just like tying their shoes or washing their own laundry.

While I admit to being skeptical about adding another appliance to my collection, especially one that makes cupcakes, I was pleasantly surprised when a quick glance through the Babycakes cookbook revealed that the possibilities with the cupcake maker were endless, and when my four children then adopted it as their own personal oven and way to make desserts, breakfasts, lunches and dinners, well, I won’t be giving it back anytime soon.

The Babycakes Cupcake Maker is an EasyBake Oven for real food. The kids have made cupcakes baked from scratch, brownies from our favorite recipe, mini quiches as appetizers, sandwiches, pies and even baked eggs with Parmesan and herbs all with little to no assistance. For my younger kids who aren’t quite ready to use the oven on their own, it’s given them the ability to have more control over what they can create in the kitchen. Making their own snack can be a half-hour activity that produces eight mini Dijon and chive quiches (quite tasty) from leftover pie dough, an egg and a bit of milk.

The cookbook is great for giving you recipes for cheesecakes, cupcakes, pies, quiches and more, and it has served well at sparking our own creativity when using it. Plus, the freedom in having the kids make their own eggs for breakfast on a Saturday morning? Those last few minutes of sleep are precious.

THE PRIZE

One lucky reader will win a Babycakes Cupcake Maker and a copy of the 175 Best Babycakes Cookbook!

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN

1. Leave a comment. When did you start playing in the kitchen?

2. Follow @FoodforMyFamily on Twitter and tweet the following, and come back and let me know you did:

Enter to win a a Babycakes Cupcake Maker from @FoodforMyFamily http://su.pr/2mck08 #giveaway


3. Join the Food for My Family community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so. If you already do, THANK YOU. Just let me know.

4. Join the Plugged into Cooking community on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

THE RULES:

This giveaway will run until Wednesday, November 23rd at 11:59 p.m. ET and is open to all U.S. residents. A winner will be chosen at random using Random.org from all eligible entries. Each reader has 4 chances to win by completing the above tasks and leaving a separate comment for each entry method completed. Chosen winner must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize. Good luck!

This giveaway is sponsored by Babycakes. Tips, opinions and random thoughts are 100% mine.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  15. I didn’t get too much cooking/baking time as a small time with older sisters being busy there, but I made up for it as they grew older and moved on! Love to cook/bake, and have a daughter, 21, who also loves to create in the kitchen, always tweaking recipes, and, almost always improving upon them!

  16. I started cooking with my Mom, my Grandma, my Granny and my Aunts when I was very young. Now I am cooking in the kitchen with my grand daughter. We make our family favorites from generations back and create our own new things too.

  28. I’ve been playing in the kitchen for as long as I can remember! I always loved helping my mom cook and bake, and now that I’m on my own, making dinner is my favorite part of the day. 🙂

  45. Ooh! I started cooking in the kitchen when I was little…before I quite understood recipes and make a coffee cake where i substituted coffee grounds (used) for flour in a “coffee cake”.

  56. I have always loved to bake but it wasn’t until I was married that I ventured into making everything from scratch. My mother in law was my mentor and she opened me to a whole new world of cooking and baking. My kids (4 & 3) are always in the kitchen cooking with me too (I understand the under the foot)and I love the memories we make. My daughter has been begging for an easy bake oven but I think this is so much better! Thank you

  65. I started playing in the kitchen when I was in 3rd grade. My parents would let me help bake. I’ll never forget the first cupcakes I made. They did not come out right. But it was a great memory.

  70. I don’t think I ever played kitchen. For the last few years though, I have been trying my best to teach myself how to cook. My mom has even asked me what happened to the little girl that never wanted to help in the kitchen. 😛

  74. What a wonderful story about your children! My kids love the kitchen too. Sometimes my eye brows raise at what they produce but they eat it! I’ve joined the Food For My Family & the Plugged In To Cooking FB pages and am now happily following you on Twitter!

  77. When I was four my mom let me combine condiments in a bowl and “cook” w/her 🙂 Later my cousin showed me how to draw faces in my toast w/food coloring, and my grandma taught me how to fry my own eggs for breakfast.

  80. I started playing in the kitchen after I became a mother and my grandmother died. My grandmother always made *everything* from scratch, and every time I make a loaf of bread or her pepperoni rolls (or homemade fudge), I think of how happy she’d be that I’m finally cooking!

    I grew up not *needing* much talent in the kitchen because she lived right beside us. Go figure. 😉

  86. I remember wanting to play at the age of 10 in the kitchen. I learned how to bake cookies with a reluctant Mother (she just hated to clean up messes!) Some point after that I headed into a pancake adventure with my Dad (I wanted to make them for Father’s Day but didn’t know how) so we followed a recipe in my little “secret diary.” From there, it was just a life long art!

    Thanks so much for the give-away! This is a fantastic post, and I was struggling with the thought of getting my daughter (who has been asking for) an easy bake oven – something for the holidays. Now I have a “real” easy bake oven to give her!

  98. When did I start playing in the kitchen? Really? Probably last year. No kidding! My mother tried to teach me how to cook/bake through my growing up years, but I was never that interested. Now that I am running a home of my own, and have three little girls, I love love being in the kitchen and making them food.

  106. Love this blog! What a great giveaway. I started playing in the kitchen at the ripe old age of 3, when my mom would give me a bowl of flour and a whisk and tell me to pretend that I was mixing cookie dough. Such good memories. 🙂

  107. I’ve been following you on Twitter for a while now, but hadn’t joined the FB communities – can’t say that now 🙂 Love your work, and adore the Babycakes Cupcake Maker! I started playing in the kitchen in kindergarten, haven’t stopped since!

  108. I didn’t get to start playing in the kitchen until I was married. Now, 25 years later, I can’t stop. I love including my children in the meal prep and they love it, too.

  113. I started playing in the kitchen. Probably before I should have, safely. I think I started being in charge of cooking thanksgiving dinner around third grade. I love kitchen items but seldom buy ones that only have one use. It is great to see all the ways this can be used.

  114. I have never played in the kitchen but would love to start!!! This looks so fun…I have 11 children. Its pretty deadly serious in there! I would have a difficult time buying something like this…but wow, how cute!!
    holly

  115. I got started at 5 with the Easy Bake Oven I asked for for Christmas! My father took it away when there were some safety concerns related to the light bulb (!?) that cooked the mini-treats, and then I started baking in the “real” oven. Imagine if the BabyCakes existed then! Now, I know my 5 and 6 year olds would love cooking in BabyCakes with me!

  116. I didn’t start playing in the kitchen until junior high when I started baking cookies. I would love to get my kids started earlier then I did. This would be a fun tool to do just that.

  121. I came late to the cooking world, it wasn’t until I was married that I started cooking..my Mom was a great cook, just not one to let the kids in the kitchen

  132. I started messing the kitchen when I was 7 . I just love to cook. Now I’m a stay at home Mom. and love to have my children help. I do follow you on facebook and have done the other site. I however don’t do twitter. Please still consider me.

  135. Probably around the age of 4 or 5. My sister worked at McDonald’s and brought home containers for me. My best friend and I cooked up a lot of things to fit in them!

  141. I started playing about 2 yrs ago when I discovered I could make my own baby food and that my kids had food allergies. It’s now something that I really enjoy doing!

  143. To be honest I didn’t start playing around in the kitchen until my Junior year in college when I was no longer on the meal plan at school and I no longer lived in a dorm with a cafeteria. I had my own apartment and I had a choice either to cook my own food or order pizza out everyday.

  166. I definitely began with an easy bake oven but in middle school I graduated to the real oven with many batches of banana muffins. I have already been eying that little piece of equipment and I agree that it is like an easy bake oven with grown up results. I hope to be getting one sometime in the future 🙂

  171. I started cooking after college. My mother and grandmother did not like cooking. I hope to break the trend with my daughter since we love cooking together.

  195. I started playing in the kitchen at about 3 making “concoctions” with anything and everything in the shelves. As I got older I started helping mom out and then by about 6-7 I was baking with a bit adult supervision. I remember wanting an Easy Bake Oven and mom said NO you already know how to use the big stove! So true!

  199. My earliest memory of the kitchen is helping decorate Sugar cookies around christmas. My mom let me wear our matching homemade aprons, and get full of sugar sprinkles. It must have been an awful mess, but it was the beginning of my love for cooking and spending time with my mom.

  200. This is awesome!!! I started baking with my Mom when I was 7 and now my own daughter is 7 and starting to help me in the kitchen this would be so awesome

  201. My parents never really taught me to cook and once I lived on my own my idea of a good meal was macaroni and cheese with blueberry muffins. I somehow managed to figure out chicken quesadillas and that was a big accomplishment. It wasn’t until I had my daughter that I took the initiative to cook more healthy meals for my family. I want her to grow up with a love of cooking that I never had until recently.

  203. Would you believe I was 21? My Mother did not allow me or my sisters in the kitchen when she was cooking. My sister was badly burned by some hot grease ( Mother had poured some bacon grease into a cup and my sister, who was only about 4, was reaching for the bacon). The hot oil spilled onto her arm burning her badly. So when I got married I knew nothing about cooking and had to do some fast learning. Wish we had great blogs like yours back then!

  204. I was probably about 4 or 5, my Nana lived with us and she was a very patient lady, she would let me try my hand at whatever she was making. She was the best Nana.

  209. I started playing in the kitchen as a little girl, but I didnt really fall in love with it until about a year ago, and now I absolutely love playing in the kitchen!

  210. At a about 10 my sister and I had our own easy bake oven set which we would make tons of little cakes with. Then at 11 we would help our mom prepping food to cook and her weekly menu. By 12 I was making lasgna! My mom really had us hands on in the kitchen!

  218. I didn’t really start until I was married with children. They were my inspiration for cooking because I wanted to teach them to eat healthy foods and not be as picky as I was brought up to be.

  221. I started cooking when I was young and I used to watch my great grandmother cook when I visited her. I so miss her holiday cooking. There were 7 kids in my family and us girls helped with the cooking, washing, etc.

  227. I started playing around in the kitchen I was 9. I had just received an Easy Bake oven as a gift for my birthday. My cakes never came out the way they looked on pictures but they were sure tasty! =D When I would mess up the icing I would just pile on another cake and make a “sandwich.” Haha!

  234. I have pictures of me at 3 yrs old sitting on the kitchen floor stirring a bowl of cake batter which I am holding between my legs. I still love to bake sweets.

  238. I suppose the first time I played in the kitchen was in 5th or 6th grade when a friend showed me how to make an omelet. My mom never cooked much from scratch so I wasn’t in the kitchen learning much very often. When I got married, my “specialty” was grilled cheese sandwich (with absolutely nothing special about them! LOL) I’ve self-taught myself over the last 8 years since being married and being responsible for our family’s meals.

    Cathy
    [email protected]

  242. I didnt play in the kitchen. My mom didnt like to cook so we didnt get in the kitchen. I didnt start playing in the kitchen until my 20s but I loved it since. 🙂

  249. I was about 9 years old. My father passed away and my Mom had to work part time, so my older sister and I would help to make dinner ( I was MUCH better lol). After that I would love to experiment and my Mom was a good sport and ate my experiments (good and bad), but I learned a lot. I was baking friends birthday cakes for them in high school.

    Thanks
    Debby

  254. How fun is a Babycakes cupcake maker? I started playing in the kitchen when I was a wee little nipper. A toddler for sure! Around 3 or 4. And oh how I adored my Easy Bake Oven. I was actually the *baker* for the treehouse gang on our street…the only girl allowed because I made them treats! *Hilarious*

  255. Now that looks like fun with the kids!! I’ve been cooking for as long as I can remember. I am the youngest of four kids and my mom thought I could do whatever my older sis could do in the kitchen. I now have 2 kids and my 10 year old helped make chicken masala last night. WOW! It was delicious. This cupcake maker looks like so much fun in the kitchen. I am envisioning my kids having an iron chef cooking party!

  264. I started playing in the kitchen when I was about one year old. And by playing, I mean that literally. While my mom cooked, she gave me pots and spoons to play around with so she could keep an eye on me…haha!

  276. I didn’t get started in the kitchen until I got married and boy did I have a lot to learn. Now with 4 boys, I am in the kitchen a lot… both to save time and money, and to prepare wholesome food for my family.

  285. I started cooking with my mom as a small child. I’m not sure how old I was when I started, but I could bake a pie by the time I was seven. At twelve, I was the designated cook for the family of six when my mom worked nights.

  291. I was a teenager when I decided to experiment with all kinds of “exotic” foods I had heard about but weren’t part of my family’s repertoire. I remember some disastrous potato pancakes and enough tabouli to feed an army.

  292. I started helping in the kitchen when I was 3. Everyone laughs now because my mom was not a good cook, but I am considered a great cook in my family. I think it’s because while my mom spent countless hours in the kitchen I would sit near and read all her fascinating cook books. Must be where I picked it up from 😉

  293. Awesome giveaway! My earliest memory of helping in the kitchen was slicing my finger open while I was “helping” cut an onion while my mom was on the phone when I was about 4 🙁 I also remember “helping” my mom make cupcakes around the same time and sneaking so much batter that my tummy hurt, haha. It just continued from there… Even I’m amazed that I still love cooking so much!

  294. The earliest I can remember is probably around 7, but my mom tells me I was always underfoot when she was preparing meals as a toddler. I loved the easy bake oven.

  296. I liked you on facebook and twitter (I forgot to leave that when I entered for retweeting).

    My teen daughter would love a baby cakes maker, she loves cupcakes.

  298. I’m not really sure how old I was exactly, but I remember my easy bake oven and I used to always make chocolate chip cookies, then I would ask my mom to help me mix in the butter because it was so HARD! We didn’t have Kitchen Aids back then. Thanks for the giveaway!!

  310. I probably didn’t play around in the kitchen until my teens. My mother would try to have me help but generally ended up kicking me out using the term ‘too many cooks in the kitchen.’ I’m hoping that my children will be like yours and want to learn and I’m also hoping I’ll have a little more patience when the time comes. We’ll see!

  315. A classic photo is of me sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor on top of a plate. I was grinning up a the camera very proud of the sticker I had removed from a piece of fruit and placed on my forehead! I was always “helping” in the kitchen. I even had a play kitchen set up on the front porch where I would take orders through the window.

  317. Young….very young. Then in elementary school my sister and I would come home after school and start dinner every day. I can’t believe I still enjoy cooking!

  321. I started “playing” in the kitchen at about 25 years old after I started having kids and was “forced” to learn how to cook. Now my children are 24 and 26 and I am still cooking and I’m pretty darn good at it!

  327. I started playing in the Kitchen when I was 2 or 3. I always helped my mom and did what she was doing:) I hope to enstill that in my boys as well. So far so good!

  330. I was in the kitchen with my grandmother (my dad’s mom) when I was very little. So much so, that her traditional Christmas cookie recipe is something that I still make today. Interesting trying to decipher the original written recipe, which I got after she passed away. If I hadn’t made them with her year after year, the recipe wouldn’t make any sense.

  342. i started playing in the kitchen when i was 3 and would pull the kitchen stool up to the stove and “help” by saying “come on, lets be gravy” until one of my ponytails caught fire 🙂

  353. I can’t remember not helping my mom in the kitchen, especially on holidays. We’re a big Italian family, so setting up the antipasti trays were always my job! Eventually I was able to help out more but when you’re young, rolling ham to display is a great job 😀

  356. I remember watching my grandma make her pies and cookies out at her farm house. But I do not think I really got into cooking until in had to fend for myself, so in college. Now I enjoy providing meals for my family, sweets to my friends and reading blogs about cooking/baking.

  362. My daughter would absolutely love this. 🙂 I can’t remember when I started cooking, but I probably didn’t really start *playing* in the kitchen (as in experimenting in earnest) until a few years ago. I finally tossed the “rules” aside and started having fun. 🙂

  365. I began playing in the kitchen on my 5th birthday when my parents broken down and gave me the ONLY gift I really wanted, the Easy-Bake oven. I also got a Mrs. Beasley doll and a bike but since my birthday is in January and there was snow on the ground, the bike sat in the garage until spring. But that Easy-Bake oven got a work-out!

    Terrific give-away, thank you for hosting it and providing me with an opportunity to enter!

    [email protected]

  366. Wow after seeing those mini quiches it really makes me sad I passed those up on black friday! I love making things in muffin tins, should have put two and two together!

    I had an easy bake oven, so I think that’s when it all began.

  368. Hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year for my husbands family! Love having everyone around! Our backing consists of pumpkin pecan pie, caramel apple trifle and pumpkin bars!

  369. I remember starting at a very young age, but I don’t remember exactly when. My girls have been helping in the kitchen since they were itty bitty!

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