A Week With An 8-Year Old!

I was away over the last week to take care of my amazing 8-year-old nephew Paeton while my brother and sister-in-law were away. I legit lived the life of an 8 year-old boy for about 5 days— we watched about 12 hours of Transformers (the original cartoon that is…I now know the theme song by heart!), went to Target to get new Bionicles and read every Lego Comic book we could get our hands on! My goodness it was exhausting! In between playing with Optimus Prime and legos, we did a little baking… so I wanted to share our adventures with you.

One morning we got up early to bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast. They really have everything in them that an 8-year-old would want for breakfast! Sugar, cinnamon and loads of frosting! I opted to use the pre-made Cinnamon Buns Dough-in-a-Can by Pillsbury. There were enough steps in making these that kept his attention, yet weren’t too complicated to bore him either. We went a little crazy and added lots of exciting sprinkles prior to baking… really what child doesn’t like sprinkles!?!? They were a huge hit. After topping with lots of frosting, Peaton of course was super specific on which cinnamon roll he wanted (of course the one with the most sprinkles and frosting!) and also specified which ones we should save for mom and dad. How thoughtful!

Later that day we headed to Target to get some toys and brownies mix to make mom and dad ‘Welcome Home Brownies.’ In the midst of our shopping a little crankiness set in, so I thought a treat at the bakery would boost our moods. Paet got a Brownie and I got a Cheese Danish from the Bakery in the store— (This is what I would call Pastry Tasting at the 8-year-old level). And with Paetons prompt “Let’s Dig In!” we did just that! Oh this was exactly what we needed! He gave his brownie 2 thumbs up and was excited to try his first bite of my danish— which he thoroughly enjoyed and kept steeling bits of! He’s a little mischievous, but that’s what makes him so freaking adorable!

Once in the brownie mix isle we got a bit distracted by something new and exciting. It was a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Bar Mix. This was a must buy for mom and dad’s welcome home treat. Both Paeton and I were really excited to try this. It was a no-bake kinda deal… and Paet really liked them, but I wasn’t too impressed. It came with a “baking dish” to make the bars in, and it was uber tiny, the chocolate sauce to go over the top didn’t cover the whole bar (even in the tiny dish they provided) and the peanut butter center came out kind of chunky. They were edible, but not great. Of course we also topped these with sprinkles and Paeton loved them! They made him happy… as well as made his mom and dad happy… and that’s all that really mattered!

I of course loved spending every minute I could my nephew and the fact that we had some quality time baking was even better! Thanks for letting me share it with you! If you have any special childhood baking memories, of you own, please share!

Happy Baking and Memory Making!

-Kristy

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Wednesday, November 18th, 2009, by admin and is filed under "It's Delish!, Pastry Tasting!, Random but Exciting! ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.