Baking with Bèbè

Baking French yogurt cake with my bébé…

Ever since I read the book Bringing Up Bébé: One American Woman Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman I have been thinking about that damn yogurt cake that all the French kids eat (and help make) for their single snack of the day, or goûter. I’ve been thinking- this cake must be insanely good if it can make a kid wait patiently for their snack. AND they help bake it?? My imagination has been getting the best of me. Until now. I baked it with my 2 year old.

My children tend to approach baking tools and ingredients like they’ve just come out of a piñata: all hands touch everything, grab everything, and try to pocket or eat most things. Sooooo, we don’t bake together all the time.  I tried this recipe out while I had just one child present (highly recommended).

I followed a googled recipe for “French yogurt cake,” choosing the one that included ‘simple’ in the title. The ingredients are indeed simple. It was a typical grab-fest with the little one. She really wanted to taste the raw eggs. But because there were so few steps in the recipe, I was able to stay ahead of those little hands (this made me happy).

In about 45 minutes total we had two warm little cakes out on the racks to cool.

The verdict: this cake was just…okay. It tasted like a cake, but not like a good cake. I would be sad if this is what I’d waited all afternoon for as my only snack. It was extremely basic. I don’t know that frosting would make it much more than that. I did end up adding some fresh fruit and whipped cream on the side for my second serving (hey, I wasn’t going to let even a basic cake go to waste). My older kid had one bite and was like, I’m good instead of asking for more.

It’s a lovely idea to bake with the kids though. And we did have a nice time. Buuut…I probably won’t make this one again.