Bake Shop Center

Our Bake Shop was so fun this winter!  I am just now putting it away and changing things around for Spring.  We put together a hodge podge of things we had laying around in the kitchen and some play food sets we've used for other things.

Please excuse yet another post filled with photos with horrible lighting.  Our basement toy room is great, but the lighting could definitely use some work!

I was PUMPED to find this Hape Mixer on our Swap page for $5.  I had been eyeing it on Amazon for a while, but didn't have the heart to pay full price.  It was the full set - complete with the bowl and pretend bags of brown sugar and flour.  Be still, my play-center-loving-heart... 

I'm becoming more and more impressed by the Learning Resources brand - dare I say even more than Hape or Melissa and Doug?!  This the Learning Resources Just Dessert cake stand that Charlotte got as a gift last Christmas.  I love that each Learning Resources set is made with thick and crazy durable plastic, meaning my kids can bash it, throw it and play with it in water.  (We do tea parties with real water and throw our play food in the bath tub to make "soup.)  They're also easily washed, as opposed to some of the other adorable, but mainly wooden toy brands.

I've left a chalk board in the main play center area, which makes it fun to create a little backdrop for each theme.  

I've been known to dig empty food canisters and jars and potato sacks out of the garbage for extra props.  I can never throw an Archer Farms jar - isn't this pretend cinnamon shaker cute?  Smaller jelly Bell jars make cute Bake Shop extras, too.

Wal-Mart always has a dollar section of tiny spatulas and kitchen tools that came in handy.  I had several of these muffin tins and half cookie sheets left over from another project.

Learning Resources has the cutest Cookie Jar counter I bought a few months ago for a preschool lesson.  Each cookie has a certain number of chocolate chips with the corresponding number printed on the bottom of the cookie.  It's a fun learning activity and adorable prop for centers.

We used a couple of pieces from Melissa + Doug's tea set, a Christmas gift from a few years ago, but really, this bake shop would be great with a variety of things that are probably already sitting in your kitchen and toy room.  As always, shop your house, dig in your garbage (wink, wink), and see what you come up with!