Be My Baking Valentine

This week I've enjoyed baking with my boys.  Koen reminded me the other day that we never made cut-out cookies at Christmastime (he loves decorating them).  So, I figured why not do some heart-shaped Valentine's cookies.  Koen loved the idea.  Here he is yesterday cutting them out after we made the batter.

I used a trick I was reminded of while reading Boxcar Children with Koen (yeah, they bake pies!)...we rolled out the dough between wax paper.  Brilliant.  No mess!

Here are our pretty baked hearts.

If you are looking for a good whole wheat cut-out cookie recipe.  Here's the one I've been using from allrecipes.com for years.  It works great and is so simple!  Best of all, the dough doesn't need to chill before rolling out.  We did need to wait until today to decorate them though as we ran out of time to let them cool and then do it.  But Koen was so excited to look forward to that project after his full day at Kindergarten today.  He came right in after being dropped off at 3:30pm and was geared up for decorating.  Good thing I had everything ready!

Koen was quite impressive this year as a co-decorater.  He wasn't too messy (I know it's not a big deal to some, but I was thankful for that!) and he was particular and careful and just seemed to enjoy the process.  It was a really nice time for us.  We'll have to remember that this is a good activity for the two of us to enjoy together.  

Here's the finished product (these are the ones I did, Koen's are a little more intense with the sprinkles).

Now, I also did some baking with my Tavington Bear.  This morning we made chocolate chip/Valentine's M&M blondies.  Tav was pretty excited to bake with Mommy again.  He did a great job and it was a special time.  

Look at this funny face he's making because the spoon is dirty.  He wanted me to stop mixing and clean it. I had to explain to him that we would have to clean it after we finished baking.

Phew...  It's time to clean up.  Tav was so excited that I let him do the dishes.  It took him forever to do the few measuring cups and spoons, etc.  So cute.  After he scrubbed them forever, then rinsed them forever, then he would ask me if that one was done and then he would carefully select a spot in the drying rack for it (upside down of course because I taught him that).

I love my boys.  Happy Valentine's Day a few days early guys.  It was fun baking some sweet treats with you two.