A personalised book about baking

Baking is one of the few grown-up jobs a child can properly join in with almost from the very start: pouring, stirring, kneading and waiting. Everything can be seen, smelled and changed. Flour and water turn into dough, the dough turns into buns, and the kitchen grows warm. A book about baking lets your child follow that transformation step by step and be the one who knows how it's done. There is something reassuring in it, too. A recipe has an order, and at the end there is something to share with other people.

A baking book can hold much more than a recipe. The dough might rise so much that it lifts the tea towel and creeps over the edge of the bowl. Your child might bake a secret cake for Dad's birthday and hide it in the fridge behind the milk. It could be an early morning in a bakery, shaping loaves while the town is still asleep. Or a tray of buns big enough for the whole street, so your child gets to knock on every neighbour's door.

Baking also gives you pictures to point at: small hands in the dough, an oven door where something slowly grows, a cloud of flour when the bag hits the floor.

Think about who your child usually bakes with and what you tend to make. Cupcakes, chocolate crispy cakes, mince pies at Christmas or a cake Grandma brought with her from the country she grew up in – it's exactly those details that make the book yours. Tell us which job your child loves most: cracking eggs, brushing on the glaze, scattering the sprinkles. A brother or sister who sneaks a taste of the dough when nobody is looking makes a fun side character. If you have a baking day of your own, like Saturday mornings or the afternoon before a birthday party, the book can take place right then.

A two-year-old gets smells and movements: stir, stir, pat, pat, warm bun. Pre-schoolers like to see everything happen in the right order, one step per page. In the 6–9 age group something can go wrong – not enough sugar, an oven left on – and your child finds a way to fix it. Older children, from 10 upwards, can have a bake-off with suspense right up to the judges' last mouthful.

Afterwards it's easy to make something from the book for real. Let your child use the measuring jug and see that two halves make a whole. And it's fun to show why the dough grows: yeast is made of tiny living fungi that feed on the sugar and give off bubbles of gas, and it's those bubbles that make the bun light and fluffy.

You fill in the child's name, age and what they like, and upload a photo. The story about baking is written for your very own child, and the thirteen pictures and the cover are drawn from the photo in the style you choose. Brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents or the pet can come along, up to five characters. If you would like to include something that has happened lately, a trip or a lost tooth, just write it and it is woven in.

The eBook is ready a few minutes after payment. Read it, change the text and ask for new pictures until you are happy. Then order it as an A4 hardback book, printed and sent to your door, or straight to the child as a gift. Do add the audiobook or the colouring pages. Start creating the book or read more about the prices. Would you like to see a finished book before you decide? Browse our example books.