Tuesday 7 February 2017

Valentines red velvet cake motor skills fun

Red Velvet cake motor skills fun

Making cakes is a great way for kids to develop their motor skills and explore their senses.  We had fun making this valentines day themed red velvet cake with the kids.  We used a cake mix which made it easy and cutters so the kids could be as hands on or off as their senses dictated.

If you fancy doing something similar you will need:
One of the reasons I go for mixes is that it avoids the chaos of getting ingredients in our house.  Like many kids on the autistic spectrum, our boys have difficulty with waiting. A cake mix makes it easy to avoid the disappointment over empty table syndrome, where you sit an an empty table and then have to wait for things to happen before an activity can start.

Most cake making involves using bilateral motor skills (using two hands together, like holding and mixing) and listening and following instructions.

Making the cake


Once you've made up, baked and cooled your cake with your kids, trim the 'top' off the cake with a big bread knife or similar (mummies, daddies and carers only).  This can then be used for making the hearts.  Just like with play dough cut out some heart shapes with the kids. Jane said she was 'stamping the hearts out' with the cutters - maybe not the best analogy? The good news is that there are left over pieces that can be munched!

After you have some hearts, you'll need something to stick them with - I used simple icing by mixing icing sugar and water and covered the top of the remaining cake.  The kids then stuck the hearts where they wished and there was a little extra fun adding some red squiggles using an icing pen - great for building hand strength as you need to squeeze the tube.

Finally, pop it into the fridge to let the icing set a bit and all done.  Hope you like our finished result - we certainly did!

6 comments:

  1. Love the idea of using some of the cake, to decorate the cake! I've actually never made red velvet cake, maybe valentines day is a good excuse to try baking it for the first time! x #TheList

    ReplyDelete
  2. We use mixes to hun 💙 Looks scrummy and as you said fab for developing motor skills. I like getting the big lad involved with cooking.mThank you for linking up to #ablogginggoodtime 🎉

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this. Too cute! I bet it is delicious too! #TheListLinky xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awww very seasonal and I do love a good red velvet cake!!
    Thanks for linking to #foodiefriday

    ReplyDelete
  5. This would be so fun to do with my little she loves using cookie cutters on play doh so she'll love doing it on something she can actually eat after!!!
    #FoodieFriday

    ReplyDelete
  6. Red velvet cake is yummy and this sounds fab for helping with motor skills. Munching the leftover pieces is always fun and sounds like Jane enjoyed "stamping the hearts out". Thanks for sharing with #ftmob :-)

    ReplyDelete

I read all your comments and appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me and our readers. I welcome any feedback on my posts and you can always contact me directly. Thank you.

Have a look at our most recent posts:

Follow
@rainbowsaretoo facebook.com/rainbowsaretoobeautiful Ann H on Google + rainbowsaretoo pinterest rainbowsaretoobeautiful bloglovin Instagram rainbowsaretoobeautiful