Sweet! Area Cooking Classes for Kids

Cooking together can be a good way to spend one-on-one time with your kids. But if yours aren't particularly enthusiastic about helping whip up main-dish meals, show them the sweeter side of cooking at these classes.

Chabad of Chesterfield is offering a hands-on “Desserts in Judaism” class for children ages 5 through 11 that runs from April 13 through May 11. Participants will create their own (photo) recipe books and learn important and essential cooking skills, kitchen safety and food preparation basics as they make and taste their own recipes. Chana'la Rubenfeld, a mother of four boys who has presented at more than 150 cooking demonstrations, will lead the lessons, the products of which students will get to taste and take home to re-create for their families.

Registration is $55 for the five-week session plus $15 for a utensil kit the children will keep. Classes will be held on Tuesdays from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. at Chabad of Chesterfield (in the Trader Joe's shopping center off the corner of Clarkson and Baxter roads). Space is limited, so register early by clicking here or calling 636-778-4000.

At Eckert’s Country Store in Belleville, children ages 4 to 12 can get a dose of Flower Power at cooking classes April 10 and 17 from 1 to 3 p.m. Every recipe will be flower-related or flower-shaped. Cost is $15 per child. For young kids, Sensational Strawberry Treats are on the menu for a “Mommy & Me” Cooking class May 11 and 12 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in the Country Store. It will feature, you guessed it, delicious treats made from fresh Eckert's strawberries. The cost is $8 per child. Space is limited and reservations are required for all the classes, so sign up early at 618-233-0513.

For even more strawberry treats, come back for Eckert's annual Strawberry festival May 15, 16, 22 and 23 and enjoy outdoor festival foods, live music, wagon and pony rides, pony rides, a children’s play area, petting farm, carnival rides and inflatables as well as delicious strawberry treats in the bakery, custard shop and restaurant. 

By Amy Burger, Events Blogger for SmartParenting