Eat Sleep Bake Repeat - Northampton’s award-winning children’s baking club

25/09/2026

The kitchen is closed this weekend, giving me time to kick this lingering cold’s butt, once and for all.

25/09/2026

🤭

Spicy baps

Who are you?

Moist Sausage Roll knows how to get the party started...

22/09/2026

👩‍🍳 **I need your help, Northampton parents!** 🧁

I’m looking for a local school that might like to have a **children’s baking club** — and I wondered if you might know just the place!

The school would need to have a **DT room with a built-in kitchen**, including sinks, work surfaces and **permanently installed ovens**.

So, unfortunately, a normal classroom or a space where we’d need to bring in a portable oven wouldn’t work.

But if you’re thinking, *“Ooh, I know a school that has exactly that!”* 👀

**Please tag them below or send me a message.** ❤️

And if you’re a parent who would absolutely LOVE a baking club at your child’s school, I’d love to hear from you too!

Let’s see if we can find the right school for some very happy little bakers. 👩‍🍳🍪❤️

21/09/2026

🥣 MIXING BOWL MONDAY

One table. Four bakers. Four bowls.

If you look around an Eat Sleep Bake Repeat class, you’ll notice something very deliberate.

Every child has their own bowl and their own workspace.

We’re all making the same thing.

We’re all sitting around the same table.

But nobody is sharing a mixing bowl.

Why?

Because I want every child to experience every part of the bake.

If five children make one batch together, someone cracks the egg.

Someone else pours the milk.

Another child mixes.

Someone spoons it out.

Everyone has technically “baked”…

…but each child may only have actually done one or two jobs.

Give everyone their own bowl?

Everybody cracks.
Everybody pours.
Everybody mixes.
Everybody portions.

Everybody gets to make mistakes, work things out and experience the whole process.

And at the end they can look at their bake and genuinely say:

“I made that.” ❤️

But here’s the bit I really love.

They’re working independently…

without working alone.

They still chat.

They watch what their friends are doing.

They ask each other questions.

They wait while I’m demonstrating.

They notice when someone needs help.

They laugh when something goes spectacularly wrong. 😂

They’re part of a group while still taking responsibility for their own bake.

And that’s a pretty useful life skill in itself.

Being independent doesn’t mean doing everything alone.

It means having the confidence and skills to do your part, while still being able to learn, laugh and work alongside other people.

So those individual bowls aren’t just there because they’re convenient.

They’re giving every child ownership of the whole process.

One table. Four bakers. Four bowls.
Five children who get to say: “I did it myself.” 🥣❤️

Mixing Bowl Monday — the little things I do in class that aren’t actually little things at all.

17/09/2026

SOCIAL SKILLS 🥣

COME FOR THE BAKING.
STAY FOR THE THINGS YOU CAN’T PUT IN A CAKE BOX. ❤️

This photograph is one of the reasons I love small-group baking.

Look around that table.

Everyone has their own bowl.

Everyone has their own bake.

But they’re doing it together.

And while they’re concentrating on spooning mixture into cases, something else is happening.

They’re learning to wait.

They’re listening while someone else speaks.

They’re watching what their friends are doing.

They’re asking questions.

They’re sharing the space.

They’re learning that sometimes it’s their turn…

…and sometimes it isn’t. 😂

They’re chatting.

They’re laughing.

They’re learning to be part of a group.

None of those things appear on the recipe card.

There isn’t an instruction that says:

Step 6: Practise patience.

Or:

Step 8: Build confidence speaking in a group.

We don’t need one.

Because those things happen naturally when children cook together.

At the end of the session they’ll leave carrying something delicious that they’ve made.

But some of the most important things they take home…

don’t fit in the cake box.

Come for the baking.
Stay for the friendships, confidence and social skills that happen around the table. ❤️

15/09/2026

💡 TINY TIP TUESDAY

Don’t just tell children to “be careful” with a knife. 🔪

Teach them HOW to be careful.

In my classes, knife skills start with nylon safety knives and two very useful techniques:

🌉 The bridge — making a bridge over the food with their fingers and cutting underneath.

🐾 The claw — curling fingertips safely away while holding food still.

Instead of repeatedly hearing:

“Careful!”

children learn what safe cutting actually looks and feels like.

And this is really easy to start at home.

Give your child a nylon safety knife and ask them to help prepare a salad.

🥬 A head of lettuce
🥒 Cucumber
🍅 Tomatoes

Start with the easy lettuce and progress to foods that need a little more control.

Show them the bridge and claw.

Stay with them.

And let them practise.

They aren’t just chopping your salad — they’re learning how to position food, control a knife and keep their fingers safely out of the way.

As their skills, maturity and confidence develop, there’s another important conversation to have.

A blunt knife isn’t necessarily a safer knife.

A blunt blade requires more pressure and can be more likely to slip. That’s why, when children are ready to progress to real kitchen knives, teaching them to use a suitable sharp knife properly and under close supervision can be safer than giving them a poorly maintained blunt one.

That doesn’t mean I’m handing my preschoolers a chef’s knife tomorrow. 😂

We start with safety knives.

We teach the grip.

We teach where fingers go.

We supervise.

And we build the skill gradually.

My own children are Scouts, so I’ve seen first-hand the value of teaching children to use knives safely and responsibly rather than simply keeping knives away from them.

Removing every risk doesn’t teach a child how to manage risk.

We don’t want children frightened of kitchen knives.

We want them to understand that a knife is a tool — and tools require knowledge, respect and practice.

So next time your child wants to help make lunch, grab a lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and a nylon knife.

And instead of:

“BE CAREFUL!”

try:

“Show me your bridge.” 🌉

Now you’ve given them something they can actually do. ❤️

14/09/2026

🥣 MIXING BOWL MONDAY

Why do I LOVE rubbing-in for little hands? 🙌

Flour.

Butter.

Fingertips.

And approximately 30 seconds before somebody asks:

“Maria… is THIS breadcrumbs?” 😂

Rubbing-in is one of those traditional baking techniques that looks incredibly simple.

Take cold butter and flour and rub them together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

But for little hands?

There’s an awful lot going on in that bowl.

They’re pinching.

Squeezing.

Rubbing.

Feeling.

Using individual fingers.

Coordinating both hands.

Learning how much pressure to use.

All those tiny movements are helping to strengthen the hands and fingers and develop fine motor control.

The same little muscles and movements children need for things like holding a pencil, using scissors, fastening buttons and manipulating small objects.

But there’s something else I love about rubbing-in.

There’s no instant right or wrong.

At first they can still see big lumps of butter.

So they keep going.

The lumps get smaller.

The texture starts to change.

They feel it between their fingers.

They look again.

And eventually…

“IT’S BREADCRUMBS!”

They’ve used their hands, eyes and judgement to work out when the job is finished.

I could put the ingredients in a food processor and have breadcrumbs in seconds.

It would certainly be quicker. 😂

But the food processor would get all that lovely learning.

And I’d much rather give it to the children.

So when you see a little baker with both hands buried in a bowl of flour and butter, they’re not just making scones.

They’re strengthening little hands.

Developing coordination.

Exploring texture.

Making decisions.

And learning to trust what they can see and feel.

All while thinking they’re just baking.

And that’s rather the point. 🥣❤️

Mixing Bowl Monday — the little things I do in class that aren’t actually little things at all.

09/09/2026

GLORIOUS MESS 🍩

COME FOR THE DOUGHNUTS.
STAY FOR THE GLORIOUS MESS. 😂

May I present Exhibit A.

The cooling rack.

The baking tray.

The icing.

EVERYWHERE. 😂

Could these doughnuts have been decorated more neatly?

Absolutely.

Could I have shown them exactly where to drizzle the icing, controlled the spoon and made sure most of it actually landed on the doughnut?

Also absolutely.

But where’s the fun in that?

Because sometimes learning looks like this.

It drips.

It splodges.

It spills.

It doesn’t look remotely like the photograph on Pinterest.

And that’s OK.

Children need somewhere they can experiment without worrying about getting everything right.

They need to discover what happens when icing is too runny.

What happens when there’s too much on the spoon.

How hard to squeeze.

How high to hold it.

And the only way they learn those things?

By doing them.

Mess isn’t evidence that something has gone wrong.

Sometimes it’s evidence that a child was allowed to have a proper go.

Besides…

We have cloths. 😂

Come for the doughnuts.
Stay for the glorious mess. 🥣🍩❤️