ROYERSFORD — Hoping to bake a special cake for a toddler’s birthday or a unique treat for the holidays? On the other hand, simply looking for a hands-on family activity but reluctant to spend money on bakeware that mimics characters from kid lit or seasonal symbols like, say, a jack-o’-lantern?
Consider checking out Royersford Free Public Library’s Baking Pan Collection. The RFPL line-up runs the gamut from kid favorites like Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie the Pooh to generic pleasers like a baseball and teddy bear as well as classic holiday icons. The collection was spearheaded by a grant from Target Corporation, and individual pans may be borrowed to complement a specific children’s book (“Bake Me a Story,” as the library puts it) or taken home independently.
October 14-20 is National Baking Week, but the folks at RFPL see baking as a great way to connect with kids year-round.
Central Montco Technical High School Baking Instructor — and mother — Colleen Kriebel agrees. At press time, Kriebel and her students were prepping for the 2024 opening of CMTHS’s on-campus Delightful Desserts Bakery on Oct. 10 (8:15 to 9:45 a.m. and 12:15 to 1:45 p.m.), and her experience includes years as an award-winning custom cake designer.
“Being a pastry chef and a mother, I can confirm that the connection created between adults and children while baking is priceless,” said Kriebel, who graduated from CMTHS’s culinary program in 1999 and Hyde Park, New York’s prestigious Culinary Institute of America in 2001. “Spending quality time in the kitchen, mixing simple ingredients together and creating something for others to enjoy can develop a sense of pride and confidence in a child. Being the person who teaches that child how to achieve this goal will also be a cherished and nostalgic memory for years to come.”
What’s more, RFPL spokesmen note: “Parents play a key role as teachers in developing early literacy skills in children. Activities such as listening to the story, discussing the story and baking a cake develop vocabulary, word knowledge, reading enthusiasm, left-to-right (and) top-to-bottom process skills, narrative skills, letter recognition and phonetics. The baking activity involves counting, adding, subtracting, fractions, measuring, following directions, estimating, telling time, observing, predicting, weighing and testing, all of which support math and science skills.”
RFPL Branch Manager Addy McGarr explains the baking pan collection is part of the library’s evolution as a “library of things…which is anything that’s not a book or a DVD or something that people usually think of as something you’d borrow from a library.”
“We saw the (baking pan collection) as something that promotes bonding between parents and children, between families, but these are things you don’t necessarily want to spend money on because you only tend to use them once,” McGarr continued. “We actually just got a grant that will allow us to expand our library of things, and we’re hoping to get a blood pressure monitor and, maybe, an AED machine (automated external defibrillator), for example … again, things that can be expensive to buy on your own. We’re also looking into buying tools that you wouldn’t necessarily need to use more than once — a survey wheel or a stud-finder, for example.
“Having them here means you can just come to the library, pick up what you need and bring it back when you’re finished with it at no cost. For example, with our baking pans, you might go out and buy a baking pan shaped like a race car pan because your kid’s really into race cars this year, but they may not be into race cars next year. So, this way, you come in, pick up the pan and return it when you’re done with it at no cost, rather than something you had to go out and spend $18, $19, $20 on.”
And although some caution that baking is trickier and more scientific than other cooking methods, it doesn’t have to be fancy to be fun, McGarr says. In fact, a recent New York Times article by Lisa Donovan was titled “The Biggest Lie About Baking” and sub-titled “There’s actually Room to Have Fun.”
Baking pro Kathy Wolper concurs but advises, “don’t seek perfection.”
“This will make it a positive experience for the little ones,” said Wolper, whose Kathy’s Just Desserts and Kitchen Wizards introduced countless area kids (and adults) to baking and cooking for some 20 years. “Let them help with measuring ingredients, and get them used to baking from scratch. They’ll learn how much better the quality is.”
Start with an easy recipe, and limit the session “to about a half-hour for the first time,” she added.
“Cookies are always a good start,” Wolper said. “But don’t start with decorating cookies — make a simple butter cookie, (and) top with a pinch of colored sugar. It won’t take long, and it’ll be delicious. Use parchment paper. It’ll make cleanup easier, (and) get them to help with cleanup while the cookies are baking.”
More information about RFPL’s Baking Pan Collection is available at 610-948-7277; about CMTHS’s Delightful Desserts Bakery, at 610-277-2301.
