April 19, 2023

How To Bake Cheaply With Kids (6 Tips!)

This post may contain Affiliate Links

Baking seems to be one of the most popular activities while we’re on lockdown. It’s giving us something to do while also teaching children invaluable cooking skills and ensuring they’re getting plenty of one-on-one time with us too.

What you may have also noticed is that baking isn’t the cheapest hobby – especially when most of us are already spending more on groceries as it is. The cost of ingredients can soon start to add up and while most of us are saving money by not going out, there are still ways to make baking at home even thriftier. Here are my tips for how to Bake Cheaply With Kids

How To Bake Cheaply With Kids

I love cooking. I quite like baking too although it’s not my forte. I’m much more of a chuck it all in a pan and hope for the best kind of a person, rather than taking to time to weigh everything out and follow precise instructions.

As I mentioned above, baking isn’t always the cheapest activity either – whereas most of my weekly shopping comes from the yellow sticker section, it’s harder to find baking ingredients cheaply.

The cost of ingredients can soon start to add up and while most of us are saving money by not going out, there are still ways to make baking at home even thriftier. Here are my tips for how to Bake Cheaply With Kids

1. Buy Basics Ingredients

You don’t need to buy the absolute best ingredients for bakes to turn out well. I always buy basic flour, butter and chocolate for baking.

It also means if something does go wrong (which sometimes it does!) you’ll have lost less money on those ingredients too.

2. Packet Mixes Are Your Friend

As my daughter is so young, we keep it pretty simple when it comes to baking, especially as her favourite bits are mixing and rolling.

It also means less mess and less washing up at the end too. Sponge cake mixes can be bought for as little 40p and often you only need to add an egg or some water. A good example of how to make this work is my 62p peach cake recipe.

I also buy cookie and biscuit mixes for ease and cheapness.

If you’re looking for something a bit more complex for an older child or teen, something like a cheesecake or trifle packet mix will have lots more steps to it but is still a great budget option when compared to buying all of the ingredients separately.

3. How to Bake Cheaply With Kids: Just do the decorating

Often the children’s favourite part of making cakes or biscuits is the decoration. If you want to occupy them with a simple baking activity let them decorate some digestives straight from the packet.

Packets of mini gingerbread men are perfect for this too. Or you could buy a kit that includes gingerbread biscuits, one tube of icing and some sprinkles. You can often get seasonal variations of these such as Eggs at Easter and Pumpkins at Halloween.

4. Buy Baking Supplies From B&M, Poundland And Home Bargains

Home Bargains and Poundland are my favourite places to get cheap baking supplies – in particular decorations like hundreds and thousands, paper flowers, sugar strands etc are much cheaper than the supermarkets. While we shouldn’t be making any non-essential trips at the moment, if you were going for essentials anyway it’s worth taking a look (I know these places might to be the first place people think of for baking supplies!)

5. Weigh Your Ingredients

The key to a successful bake is weighing out the ingredients properly.

Even when the kids are baking you want an end product that everyone can enjoy eating and it also means ingredients won’t be wasted.

For older children letting them weigh out the ingredients is perfect for helping their number skills. With smaller children, I would tend to weigh the ingredients myself before starting but put them into separate bowls so they can tip them in at each stage of the recipe.

6. Utilize Ingredients You Already Have

Lots of the best and easiest kids’ recipes involve using basics you’ll likely already have in. For example, cornflake and rice krispie cakes are universally popular because they only need two ingredients. Chocolate bark is another easy treat to make – it’s as simple as melting chocolate and topping it with whatever ingredients you have already in the cupboards – such as dried fruits, nuts and marshmallows.

Baking is also a great way to use up leftover ingredients. Leftover pastry can be turned into simple jam tarts (basic jam is around 50p) or cheese straws.

Quiches and Frittatas are a great way to use up leftover vegetables.

Final Tips: How to Bake Cheaply With Kids

Take a good look through your cupboards before getting started – you might be amazed at how many baking ingredients you already have including things like porridge oats, dried fruit, plain yoghurt, chocolate spread, golden syrup, honey and marshmallows.
If there’s a particular ingredient you want to use up, have a quick Google of recipes or search Pinterest for inspiration.
Alternatively, the Yummly app lets you photograph the ingredients you want to use up and recommends recipes based on what you have.
Basics and budget range ingredients are perfect for baking with kids – especially basics chocolate, flour, cereal and butter.
Bake with ingredients that are in season for cheapness, think strawberries in the summer, blackberries and apples in the autumn (preferably ones you’ve foraged for free!)
Use reduced-section ingredients where you can – cheap bread can be made into chocolate bread and butter pudding, and cream can be used in cakes and cheesecakes
You may be able to substitute some ingredients – for example, bananas can replace eggs if you’ve run out. See my full post on egg substitutions here.

Remember Cooking With Kids Isn’t limited To Baking

Of course, as well as baking cakes, bread and other treats, there are also lots of other things you can cook together pretty cheaply.

This week we found some popcorn kernels lurking at the back of our kitchen cupboards – they were well past their best-before date but still popped perfectly.

Popcorn is a great snack to make with kids as they can then choose their toppings and buying the kernels makes a very thrifty snack too.

Children could also try making simple pizzas using leftover tortilla wraps topped with passata, cheese and any other bits that need using up which is then grilled for a few minutes.