Baking to bond with the kids

Remember those childhood days in the kitchen with your mum busy baking and you’d ‘help’ her just so that you could lick the spoon? And later the wonderful smell of cakes and scones wafting through the house from the oven?



Well, a mother of two young children in Kilcullen believes that a generation of kids have missed out on such treats, with parents too busy trying to hang on to the Celtic Tiger’s tail, and finding it difficult to get the time for such activities. Hazel Gaynor, pictured above with her children Max and Sam, wants to bring it all back to home baking basics.

“It all seems to have got pushed aside, lost in the madness,” she suggests. “I was reared in the kitchen with my own mother’s baking, and it is something I really enjoy doing whenever I can.”

Originally a Yorkshire lass, she well remembers those smells and tastes of her own childhood, and is determined that her own children will experience them too.

Hazel is at the beginnings stage of a book based around baking with your children, and is looking for like-minded people in the area to get involved through sharing recipes. She is also open to the idea of setting up some kind of mums and kids ‘baking circle’, which could meet in each others’ kitchens on a regular basis.

“In the current economic situation, mothers are looking for simple, low-cost things to do with their children,” she says. “What I’m trying to do is show that this doesn’t cost much money, and is really enjoyable for everybody involved.”

Hazel already has a store of recipes from her own mother’s days, handed down through the family. “And there are others that came from members of the extended family, so there’s plenty to be getting on with.

“I know there are lots of books out there by celebrity cooks and chefs, and they are wonderful, but I think people can be put off by something that takes a lot of preparation. My thing is that you can do this in half an hour on a Saturday morning. If it’s raining outside it gives the kids something to do.”

And it’s also an opportunity to improve nutrition, because home baking isn’t necessarily all about sugary stuff. “It gives the children a chance to experience and get to know some healthy alternatives for their snacks.”

Hazel works part time in a law firm in Dublin, and her children are currently aged three and fifteen months, so she is well aware at first hand of the difficulties of fitting in home life activities and a job.

“Any time you can spend actually engaging with your children is so important now. There’s so little time for many parents, and for the children who are being rushed around, packed off to a play centre. This is an activity that everyone can take part in, it’s great fun. They make a mess, they get their hands dirty, which kids love, and they get something to eat at the end. So it’s a perfect activity.”

Hazel also feels that it is important to show children where food comes from, that it doesn’t just come out of a packet from Tesco. “They love watching the cake rise in the oven and the other simple aspects of cooking from scratch. These are the things that get lost in the ethos of a supermarket store bakery.”

So, as she rolls out the pastry in her own home at Castlemartin, Hazel is hoping to tap in to a network of people in Kilcullen with like minds and a wish to get back to some of the simple pleasures.

“I guess it’s something of a passion of mine, it is something I was reared on, and I want to pass it on to my kids and to anyone else who’s interested.”

Brian Byrne.