🌿 Companion Post
🌿 Baking Together: Simple Tools That Make It More Fun
There’s something special about sharing the kitchen with someone you love.
In Episode 16: Baking Together, I wrote about why those ordinary hours spent measuring, mixing, frosting, and laughing together can become some of our sweetest memories. But if you’ve ever tried to bake with another person—especially a very small person!—you also know that having a few helpful tools can make the experience a whole lot easier.
The good news? You don’t need a perfectly stocked kitchen or a cabinet full of specialty gadgets.
A few simple things can make it easier for everyone to participate, whether you’re baking with a friend, your spouse, your grown children, or a grandchild standing beside you at the counter.
So today, I’m sharing some of my favorite ideas for making baking together easier, more comfortable, and just plain fun.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only share products I genuinely think may be useful or enjoyable.
🌿 Aprons for Everyone
There’s something about putting on an apron that says, Okay, we’re baking now.
And when you’re baking together, why should only one person get one?
I love the idea of keeping a couple of washable adult aprons on hand, along with a child-sized apron for younger helpers. Matching aprons could be especially fun for grandparents and grandchildren—or perhaps everyone gets to choose their own.
Look for aprons that are comfortable, adjustable, and easy to wash. Because if you’re baking properly, somebody is eventually going to wear some of the flour.
A few things to look for:
- Adjustable neck straps
- Roomy front pockets
- Machine-washable fabric
- Child-sized options
- Matching adult-and-child sets – This style has many design options. So cute!
And those pockets? Perfect for a wooden spoon, a recipe card…or possibly a chocolate chip or two.
Little Hands Can Help
Children don’t need to do everything to feel like they’re part of the process.
Give them a job that’s truly theirs.
A lightweight mixing bowl, colorful measuring cups and spoons, a small silicone spatula, or a child-sized rolling pin and tools can make it easier for little hands to participate.
Younger children can pour pre-measured ingredients, stir, sprinkle, brush, roll, and decorate. As they grow, they can gradually take on more of the recipe themselves.
And there’s something wonderful about watching a child realize:
I helped make this.
Some useful little-helper tools might include:
Small mixing bowls
Light enough for little hands to manage.
Silicone spatulas
Great for stirring and scraping—and relatively forgiving when enthusiasm overtakes technique.
A small rolling pin and tools
Perfect for sugar cookies, biscuits, pie dough, and other projects that don’t need to look perfect.
Colorful measuring cups and spoons
Learning sneaks into the kitchen quite naturally when we’re measuring half cups and teaspoons.
Cookie cutters
Choose a few simple shapes and let creativity take over.
🌿 Tools Worth Having Two Of
Here’s something I don’t think we consider very often:
If two people are baking, sometimes you need two of something.
Nobody wants to stand around waiting for the only whisk.
Fortunately, many of the tools worth doubling up on are inexpensive.
I especially like having extras of:
- Silicone spatulas
- Wooden spoons
- Whisks
- Pastry brushes
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Bench scrapers
- Cookie scoops
A second set of measuring cups is particularly handy. One person can work on dry ingredients while another handles wet ingredients, and suddenly everyone has a job.
It’s a small thing, but it makes baking together feel much more like together.
Make Decorating the Fun Part
If you’re baking with children—or anyone who loves to play with their food—this may be the best part.
Decorating doesn’t have to be fancy.
Set out a few piping bags and frosting tips, cookie cutters, sprinkles, sanding sugar, or small bowls of toppings and let everyone create. These are the piping bags I use for my mini cakes:
Don’t worry about making everything match.
In fact, please don’t.
One cookie might have three sprinkles. The next might have approximately 437.
Both are correct.
Some handy decorating supplies to keep around include disposable or reusable piping bags, a basic set of piping tips, offset spatulas, cookie cutters, decorating brushes, and small prep bowls for holding toppings.
The goal isn’t bakery perfection.
The goal is fun.
🌿 Baking With Grandchildren
I’m particularly drawn to this category these days.
For very young bakers, one of the most useful investments may not be a baking tool at all—it may be a safe, sturdy way for them to reach the counter.
A kitchen helper stool or appropriately designed step stool can bring little ones up to working height while allowing them to participate more comfortably.
Pair that with a child-sized apron, small utensils, and an easy recipe, and you have the makings of a pretty wonderful afternoon.
Start simple.
Cookies. Muffins. Pizza dough. Cupcakes. Biscuits.
Let them dump.
Let them stir.
Let them make a mess.
And let them be proud of whatever comes out of the oven.
I have a feeling the memories will be worth every bit of flour you sweep off the floor afterward.
A Few Favorites for the Grown-Ups
Baking together isn’t only for children and grandchildren.
Invite your sister over and learn to make bread.
Try a new scone recipe with a friend.
Make homemade pizza with your adult kids.
Spend a Sunday afternoon baking with your spouse.
Because baking together is even better with coffee.
You Don’t Need All the Things
Before we finish, this may be the most important part of this companion post.
Please don’t feel as though you need to buy a kitchen full of new things before you can bake with someone you love.
You don’t.
Use the mixing bowl you already own.
Share the wooden spoon.
Tie on an old apron.
Pull out the recipe card with the stain in the corner.
The products I’ve gathered here are simply things that can make baking together a little easier or more enjoyable. They’re ideas—not requirements.
Because the thing that makes an afternoon in the kitchen memorable isn’t the rolling pin.
It’s the person standing on the other side of the counter.
🌿 Start With One Recipe
Choose something easy.
Invite someone you love.
Put on some music. Make a pot of coffee. Pull out the mixing bowls.
And don’t worry too much about how the finished product looks.
Because years from now, the thing you remember may not be whether the cookies were perfectly baked.
You may remember the conversation.
The laughter.
The flour everywhere.
The tiny hand reaching into the bowl for one more chocolate chip.
And the wonderful, ordinary feeling of having nowhere else you needed to be.
Those are the things worth making together. 🌿
Finding the Calm
Small Habits. Big Change.