Getting your kids in the kitchen is a great way to kill an afternoon, spend time bonding, teach valuable skills and hopefully to end up with a tasty (or at least edible) result. Help your little chef feel like king or queen of the kitchen with our five favorite cooking tools and kits for kids. — Kate Bayless
If you're looking for an easy way to introduce your kids to the kitchen, The Playful Chef is a great starter kit. Packaged in a clear plastic backpack, the Playful Chef kit comes with an apron, ten kid-sized kitchen tools and five recipes. The recipes each have ten steps and include fun facts about the ingredients, recipe history or kitchen techniques used. We especially liked that the recipes included breakfast, dinner and dessert options, since many kits seemed to focus only on sweets. The recipes we tried were easy to make, decently delicious and brought immense satisfaction to our little chefs. In addition to a small mixing bowl and loaf pan, the set includes a sand-timer, whisk, scissors, wooden spoon, spatula, pastry brush and color-coded measuring cups and spoons. The quality of wooden spoon and plastic measuring cups and spoons leaves a little to be desired, but they do the job. For the under-five crowd, The Playful Chef also offers a young chef's kit that has bladeless-scissors, easier recipes and a smaller apron.
Get the Playful Chef Kit (Ages Five and Up) on Amazon
Get the Playful Chef Kit (Ages Three to Five) on Amazon
Kids' Cooking Tools: Runners-Up
Sassafrass Kids Baking Kits - $14.95-$24.95
From tools sets and aprons to kits for making pizza or pretzels, marshmallows or chocolate mousse, Sassafrass has a kid-friendly cooking kit to fit chefs of every level and interest. Budding bakers will enjoy the Cake Making Tool Kit ($19.99), which comes with a pair of polka dot oven mitts, a timer, spatula, cake mold and recipe. The whole family can have fun with the crust mix, sauce, pan and accessories that come with the Pizza Making Kit ($24.95). Sassafras also offers lots of baking-in-a-bag kits ($14.95 each), like the Green Dinosaur Cookie Kit, the Ooh La La French Toast Kit and the Flower Pot Pudding Kit, all of which would be ideal to keep on hand for birthday gifts or holiday treats. Bonus: Shop their online store and receive 10% your entire order until 5/15 when you use the code "BABBLE" at checkout!
Get the Kids Cake Making Tool Kit at the Sassafrass Store
Get the Kids Pizza Making Kit at the Sassafrass Store
Shop all Kid Baking Kits at the Sassafrass Store
If your kid can't find the fun in cooking, introduce some silliness with the Head Chef line of kid cooking tools by Fiesta Products. The nine tools in the collection, including a pastry brush, whisk, sifter and measuring spoons, have bendable arms and legs and suction cup feet; the dish can never run away with the spoon. We loved that this line was kid-sized and silly enough to keep our little chefs amused while we did the stove-top cooking, but that they also worked effectively as kitchen tools. Constructed out of durable, food-safe silicone, each colorful piece in the collection is dishwasher-safe.
Get the Fiesta Heads Spatula at Amazon.
Get the Fiesta Heads Whisk at Amazon.
Get the Fiesta Heads Pastry Brush at Amazon.
Get the Fiesta Heads Measuring Cup at Amazon.
Get the Fiesta Heads Silicone Spoon at Amazon.
Sur La Table Sous Chef Baking Set - $29.95
If your pint-sized pastry chef is already ahead of the game, consider this twenty-five-piece baking set from Sur La Table. Stylishly enclosed in a reusable, burlap bag, the set includes six crimson-colored mini baking containers including a cookie sheet, loaf pan, four-cup muffin tin, spring-form pan, flan pan and bundt pan. The set of eight baking tools (including a pastry bag and tips, rolling pin and pastry wheel) is complimented by seven cookie cutters to ward off any hint of baker boredom. With the exception of the spatula, the quality of the tools is superb, but the whole set is pint-sized and probably best for those eight and under. Though the bakeware performed well in the oven, their small size meant that we had to do multiple batches or cook the remaining batter in regular pans. Any kid who knows his tart pan from his spring-form would be thrilled to get this gourmet baking set. (Just don't tell mom that all two dozen pieces need to be hand-washed!)
Get the Sous Chef Baking Set at Sur La Table.
Kids in the Kitchen Color Coded Cooking System - $21.99
For those who like primary colors, this thirteen-piece color-coded cooking set includes quality plastic measuring spoons and cups, a mixing bowl and spoon, a cake pan, adjustable hat and apron and fifteen no-bake recipes. All the recipes are egg-free (for worry-free tasting) and fairly easy to follow, including both a basic recipe for beginners and a "Jazz It Up" option that requires additional ingredients and a dose of imagination. Our testers certainly didn't seem to mind that the recipe book included almost entirely desserts, and we didn't seem have any trouble finishing off the results of their labor. As an added bonus, the recipe book comes with stickers for junior chefs to track their progress and rate recipes.
Get the Kids in the Kitchen Cooking System at Amazon.