Make Cooking Fun and Educational: Strawberry Poundcake Kabobs
These kabobs are easy to create ahead of time with your kids, plus they can practice many math skills. They also make great “take-alongs” for a picnic or outing; simply place in a container and go. Your children will take pride in delivering these colorful, tasty kabobs. To friends or family for Memorial Day or the Fourth of July.
Kitchen Appliances & Tools Needed: Strawberry Poundcake Kabobs
skewer, knife, strainer, baking pan, mixing Bowl, fork, and microwave.
Watch Video
To learn how to make recipe
ingredients
- 2 packages of strawberries
- 1 Pound cake (baked, family size)
- Almond Bark Vanilla flavored coating
- Blue colored sprinkles or (Red, white and Blue)
- Skewers
Prep and directions: Strawberry Poundcake Kabobs
Clean and Cut stems off of strawberries and halve them (if needed) in order to create uniform sizes.
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Tip: Using the cleaned and cut strawberries, organize them into rows of three. Line up three similar sized strawberries together in each row. By planning this step out in advance, it will make it easier for children to follow the pattern of alternating between adding one strawberry and then a piece of pound cake to the skewer.
Cut shortcake into 2-inch cubes.
Use Skewer to poke hole in the center of pound cake square to help child skewer pound cake correctly.
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Take skewer and alternate strawberries and shortcake cubes (I like to do three each per stick).
Tip: We used a premade pound cake and cut into thirds (lengthwise) and then cut each of those pieces in half and then cut those halves into 2-inch cubes. Tip-Parent: to help the child find the center of the pound cake, poke a small hole in the center of the individual pieces of cubed pound cake (a visual reminder of where skewer goes) during assembly of the kabobs.
Melt 3 to 4 squares of almond bark in microwave according to directions on package.
Once bark is melted, add about 1-tsp of coconut oil and stir until it is all smooth and clear and then drizzle over the top of kabobs. Note: The coconut oil will make the coating easier to drizzle. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
Tip: After each kabob is assembled on a skewer, place it on the baking sheet for the next step of drizzling coating.
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Sprinkle Blue sprinkles on top of kabobs and vanilla coating drizzles.
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Eat! Talk! Enjoy!
Language time tips:
1. Build vocabulary: Use nouns and action words. Nouns: skewers, pound cake, Almond Bark, etc…Action words: cut/cube, drizzle, sprinkle, pour, etc.
2. Colors and Size: There are different colors in this mix: : red for the strawberries, blue for the sprinkles, etc… You can practice your child’s receptive language of sizes and textures: With all of the ingredients being different, you can ask, “What does the pound cake feel like? Are the strawberries smooth or bumpy?” or “Which ingredient smells the best?”, or “Which ingredient is red or blue?”, etc.
3. Comment and Describe: Let your child taste each ingredient of the recipe and discuss the flavors and textures. Encourage your child to describe the ingredients that are hard, soft, crunchy, sweet, tart etc.
4. Sequencing and recalling information: This recipe has a specific order to follow; some of it can be prepared ahead of time so that it can be assembled in a uniform manner. Ask your child to tell you which ingredient they remember working with first, second, etc…. See how your child follows the steps. Ask them to tell you the order of the ingredients. Ask them if it matters what order the ingredients are placed on the skewer? What happens if they do not follow the order?
5. Answering and asking “wh” questions: Sample “wh” questions include: Sample “wh” questions include, “What is the bark?” or, “What makes this taste so good?” or, “What would happen if we didn’t use the center of the poundcake cube?
Literacy! Try a fun syllable activity by counting how many syllables are in each ingredient. What ingredient has the most syllables? How about the least amount of syllables? The word “potato” has several syllables, for example…how does that sound and what other words can you think of that have that many syllables, etc…?
Encourage Speech & Create Yum With These Recipes for Cooking With Kids [6]
https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/cooking-kids-kiddie-cobb-stick/
https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/fun-food-kids-grape-sicles/
https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/cooking-kids-kefir-lemon-pound-cake/
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This post originally appeared on our May/June 2018 Magazine [18]