Birthday Cake Impromptu

You know those minor crisis' that always pop up when you're doing something important (like preparing for a birthday get together)?  Here is ours from the other day.

My sweet husband has been doing the grocery shopping for me occasionally.  I have a hard time managing three kids and a full grocery cart, so one of us will run out for groceries in the evening or after kids are in bed.  This week I had "birthday cake and frosting" on my list.  I forgot to tell him to look for an organic one.  He brought home Betty Crocker (probably remembering this time when I sent him with specific instructions for just that).

I didn't want to complain, after all, he had done the grocery shopping for me!  On Esther's birthday I opened the mix, poured it into the bowl, and read the ingredients.

Enriched flour (white flour),
corn syrup,
partially hydrogenated oils,
baking soda with aluminum,
and four or five other words I couldn't even understand.

I had a flashback to the day before at the chiropractor's office and a pamphlet I had seen.  It said in no uncertain terms that hydrogenated oils and partially hydrogenated oils were poison.  I already knew that, but the little poison skull illustration had stuck in my head.  I couldn't make this for my child's first birthday!  There was absolutely nothing good or natural in it.

I picked up the white frosting.  More hydrogenated oils, food coloring (in white frosting?!), and lots more junk.  Ugh.  There wasn't exactly time to send Ross back to the store.  I did a quick search at Tammy's Recipes and Heavenly Homemakers for vanilla cake.  Eventually I decided that this would be a great excuse to buy the recipe cards What To Do With the Vanilla In Your Kitchen.  They contain a recipe for vanilla cake and vanilla frosting, among other things.

So... crisis almost averted.  I didn't have quite enough powdered sugar for the frosting, but used my blender to make some from cane sugar.  I also used rice milk instead of regular because we were out of that too.  The cake turned out pretty dense, but tasty.  I even avoided having to put yucky colored sprinkles on it by using some birthday picks we had in the house.  We thought the frosting was too sweet (but there is a cream cheese frosting recipe that looks delish).  In the end though, Esther enjoyed her birthday cake.  Phew!

Now I have plenty of cocoa recipes and vanilla recipes to try out!  Anyone want to come over for dessert?  It seems I have some practicing to do.

Mmmmm....

The girls and I decided to make brownies today.  We tried out a recipe from Heavenly Homemakers "What to Do With the Cocoa in Your Kitchen" recipe card pack.  They turned out well, a little too dark chocolatey tasting for me, but I added peanut butter on top and that made it all better.  They were just as easy as using a boxed mix, but healthier.  I might need to try experimenting with some different brands of cocoa powder to find one that works better.  We have 13 cocoa recipes to work with.  I'm not complaining.

Click here to visit Laura Coppinger @ Heavenly Homemakers.
(Scroll to the bottom of the shop for the recipe card packs.)

The cocoa recipe card pack can be printed off through Shutterfly or whatever photo printing service you use.  Each recipe prints out nicely on its own card.  We gave these recipe cards along with some organic cocoa as Christmas gifts this year.  As long as you don't share the actual files, you can print out as many of the recipe cards as you would like to, which makes these a great deal.

I want to try the "What to Do With the Chicken in Your Kitchen" cards next, but gifting those to someone along with a chicken just didn't seem to work as well so we went with the cocoa set first.

Disclosure:  We received these cards for review.  I'm an affiliate for Heavenly Homemakers so if you happen to make a purchase through my link it helps support my blog.  Thanks!

Links

Some nights most nights lately my brain is too mushy to write a post that makes sense.  I sit here and browse, reading all kinds of fun things and thinking about blog posts that never make it to the page.  Half written sentences float through my head and get mixed up with recipes I need to try and ...what was I supposed to do tomorrow?  Yeah, it gets confusing.

Don't worry, I won't write much more tonight, I'll just send you straight to the fun posts.

Tammy's Recipes - Berkey Water Filter Giveaway

Sew Sara - fun sewing project I want to try

Heavenly Homemakers - which of her recipes should I try next?

Let's Explore - 10 Ways To Play in January

I'm sure there is more I could post, but I'm falling asleep....

Another Sale

I'll be back to regular blogging soon, but wanted to let you know about another deal.  Heavenly Homemakers has some great sales going on through January 6.



Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve preschool curriculum is $8 off, and you get a free downloadable Kid's Character Chart as well!  (I purchased this kit to use with Julia and think it looks great.  We haven't started using much of it yet though.)

Also on sale are the e-books Fill Em Up! (cookbook and spiritual lessons for kids) and Do The Funky Kitchen (tips for organizing and making your kitchen functional).  Both of these are priced under $4 and would be great ways to start off the new year.

I am an affiliate for Heavenly Homemakers.  Clicking on the button above or links and making a purchase helps support my blog and gets you a great deal.  :)