Cooking Games

Cooking games put you in front of the stove: you pick the ingredients, follow the recipe steps and serve up the finished dish. There are more than 300 of them, from a relaxed cupcake to a kitchen racing the clock, and anyone can play, whatever their age.

What you'll be cooking

Baking is the most common theme. Cakemania, Unicorn Cake Pops, Hello Kitty Inspired Cake and the Sue Cake series are all about mixing, baking and decorating. For fast food there's Hamburger, Zombie Burger and Hot Dog Bush. And some recipes come with characters attached: Ratatouille, The Smurfs Cooking, Sponge Bob Flip or Flop, Baby Hazel Kitchen Time or Gran premio cocina con Rachel chocolate.

How they play

Nearly all of them work with the mouse or a finger. You drag ingredients onto the counter, tap the tools (chop, whisk, bake) and wait for the dish to finish. What changes a lot from game to game is the pace. In some, the result is what counts and you can take your time decorating. In others, like Overcook, Cooking Chef Food Fever or Mom Mania, customers keep arriving and you have to hurry.

If you try the fast ones, here's a trick that works: don't take orders strictly in the order they arrive. Start whatever takes longest first, like anything that goes in the oven or the fryer, and put together the quick items while you wait. Garnishes come last, and only if you have time left over.

Where to start

Pick by theme: a cake, a burger or a recipe from a movie. If a game stresses you out in the first minute, just switch. There are plenty, and they don't all ask for the same speed. With small kids, short recipes with familiar characters tend to work well, such as Baby Hazel Kitchen Time, because there are no long instructions to read.

A couple of games stray from the usual kitchen, like Grate It or Patata. They're worth a look if you want something different from yet another cake.