AS a father of five children, Lee Grant has seen his fair share of school holidays.
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But the baker, who has owned Grant’s Cakes and Pies, on Camooweal Street, for the last 22 years, has one little secret to busting boredom and sneaking in some quality time over the break.
It may be whipping up “just a plain old chocolate cake” or perhaps a delectable slice. But for his children, who get to spend time alongside him, it’s much more; it’s a memory.
“The kitchen is the heart of your house. A lot of love comes out of your kitchen,” Mr Grant said.
“You grow up with your mum’s cooking and coming home to the smell of the food – it’s a special place.”
Like many parents across Queensland, Mr Grant is anticipating a busy couple of weeks for when the youngest three – aged 14, 7 and 4 – are home for school holidays.
His love for baking has been passed on to his two eldest children, Isaac, 21, and Moesha, 18, along with his daughter-in-law, Majestic, who now all work alongside him in the family business.
Mr Grant said getting in the kitchen is a great way to spend some quality time with children.
“It’s very much one-on-one. Making food is a tremendous way to initiate interaction with them,” he said.
“It’s not boring – you can quite easily spend two to three hours in the kitchen.”
He said there are a number different things to try your hand at with the kids in the kitchen.
“You can do lots of good things like icing patty cakes, or making them if your kids are a bit older, jam drops, chocolate crackles, lamingtons are all fun and easy to make,” he said.
It doesn’t all have to appeal to the sweet tooth either.
“If you want to do savoury you can even do sausage rolls,” Mr Grant said.
“You just get some puff pastry from the supermarket and make the mix up yourself with the kids. Mini pizzas are good too.”
A love for baking seems to run in the Grant family.
Lee’s grandfather, Alex Grant, was a pie maker from Caboolture, in south-east Queensland.
His father was a bread vendor.
It wasn’t until a high school that Lee turned his eye to donning the hat and apron, when he was offered work experience in a bakery instead of as a surfboard maker as hoped.
“It was inevitable,” he chuckled.