When my kids got home from school today I wasn't feeling all that great (just a headache, nothing major) so I let them decide what to do to occupy themselves for the afternoon. I had decided that if they wanted to run around the living room giving each other wedgies until bedtime I'd survive. I didn't have enough energy to be Super-Mom or referee. During their usual 30 minutes of 'winding down' time, they decided that baking a cake sounded like a good idea. As a family, we have mastered the art of baking cakes without creating drama or disaster, so this seemed like a great idea to me. Minimal mess. Easy clean-up. Good deal. Besides, I love CAKE!
Now I'm not big on keeping a major stash of junk food around the house. I'm one of those moms who places limits on the sugar intake of myself and my children. I try to make the healthiest choices I can 99% of the time. But I will confess that I do usually have an off-brand cake mix or two in the cabinet for emergency baking purposes. Today was definitely a 'break out the emergency cake mix' kind of day.
We hardly ever use oil and eggs in our cake mixes. we usually use applesauce as a substitute for the oil, and egg whites instead of whole eggs. Sometimes we do the magic cake mix and diet soda Weight Watchers trick. Today we had no applesauce and no diet soda, but we did have two bottles of my husband's favorite carbonated beverages in the fridge. Our 9-year-old, decided that we should use a variant of the Weight Watchers recipe (remember, Mommy has a headache and Mommy's feeling generous today so Mommy says why not) so he opted for 6 ounces of Mountain Dew and 6 ounces of A&W Cream Soda and a yellow cake mix. (Yes, Mountain Dew. I know. Go ahead and lecture me in the comments section. LOL)
We buttered and floured the cake pan and baked his experiment according to the box directions. 35 minutes later we had a cake that tasted like something from a restaurant menu. Rich and moist and simply delicious, especially when served with a little vanilla ice cream. Speaking of ice cream and cake... DANCE BREAK!
We'll be making a very special "Mountain Dream Cake" recipe card to keep in the family recipe box. This will be his first official contribution. Pretty exciting stuff for him. He's so proud of himself.
Today's cake recipe is one we will most likely be trying a few times a year. I know it probably sounds horrific, but if you're feeling adventurous you might want to give it a shot. We were all so pleasantly surprised by the results that we couldn't wait for the cake to cool down to eat it! (Kinda reminds me of how we work so hard to keep from trying something NEW on our healing journeys, only to find that when we break down and do it we end up realizing that it's something beautiful that works really well for us. Remember my Inner Child adventure?)
We've often joked that my husband delivers some delicious culinary creations when we just let him go in the kitchen and play. Looks like our oldest son is definitely taking after his dad. (That's a good thing on many levels. He's a great husband and father!)
Do you have any accidentally amazing recipes to share?
Until next time... May you be blessed - and inspired to pass it on!
2 comments:
I have zero amazing recipes to share....except for the one where I blew up hot chocolate while trying to make it, but I don't recommend trying that one! rofl
Creed can make cake for me anytime! I love that he experimented and it turned out awesome.
LOL- it must be family experiment with a cake day! Way to go Creed! Well, Aunt Mary did one too! I let my inner kids play also. I made my first ice cream brownie cake. FIrst, it was going great! I had the bottom layer done, the ice cream spread in the middle then I added the second layer (a little too soon) and all my ice cream melted. So I poured it in a cup let it soak into the brownie, put the brownies (which was now in pieces) on a new tray, smooshed it together with a spatual and and put it all in the freezer, then I tried again with another layer of ice cream, and then froze it. I ended up using 1/2 gallon of chocolate ice cream, over 1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream, and two brownie mixes (with added chocolate chips). It was soooooo good! And yep, I limit the sugar in this house too. But it was one of those days we all needed to just let go! Guess we need to try each other's cake Creed! What a "sweet" day! Love you guys!
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