It has been stated before that a child is more likely to have a healthier lifestyle the more that they are present and cooking in the kitchen. In today’s society, most families are so busy that teaching their children to be comfortable in a kitchen and teaching them how to cook is not a priority. Teaching children basic skills such as cooking and baking is important because that is a skilled that will be carried on to their adult life. The Muhlenberg County Cooperative Extension Services recognized the importance of teaching young participates basic life skills such as food preparation and presented a program called Let’s Bake. The Let’s Bake program had 30 participates of the ages 9-13 and was led by the Family and Consumer Sciences Agent, 4-H Agent, the SNAP Assistant, and the 4-H program assistant. Some of the objectives for the Let’s Bake program are as follows; participates will demonstrate how to properly and safely use the oven when baking, participates will accurately describe and demonstrate the difference between measuring dry and liquid ingredients. The goal for the Let’s Bake program was to teach participates proper food safety techniques such as properly handling raw egg, decreasing germs, and testing the finished product for doneness. During the Let’s Bake program participates also learned about proper baking techniques such as cutting fat into flour, preparing a pan for baking, and following a recipe. The program was designed to teach basic baking skills and then let the participates experience hands-on baking. The participates learned important skills such as following a recipe, identifying kitchen tools, measuring ingredients, and food safety. Various recipes were taught to the participates such as making homemade biscuits, homemade cake, and homemade cookies.

This program was a success because the basic skills taught the participates were reinforces during the whole program which then leads to the participates retaining the skills they learned. The participates were evaluated at the beginning and the end of the program. Because of the Let’s Bake program 47% of the participates increased their knowledge of properly and safely using the oven while baking. Most of the participates did not have the skills to properly measure dry or wet ingredients and because of the Let’s Bake program 57% of the participates increased their knowledge of measuring dry and wet ingredients. One of the largest changes because of the Let’s Bake program was that 100% of the participants increased their knowledge of cutting fat into flour to make baked goods. Some of the comments from the Let’s Bake program from participates parents were, “Thank you for this event my child now loves to be in the kitchen and bake”, “As soon as the program was over my child was in the kitchen show us all the skills they had learned.” One last success from the Let’s Bake program is that 3 of the participate from the program have now joined the 4-H cooking club and have continued growing their skills in the kitchen. Also 3 of the Let’s Bake participates entered baked goods in the county fair.Participates of the Let's Bake program demonstrate how to properly cut fat into flour to make homemade biscuits.


Participants of the Let's Bake program demonstrate how to properly prepare of pan for baking.