Bake-Off

I'm having to be creative these days to entertain the kids while we're somewhat home bound. Not how I envisioned our last weeks of summer, but I have mono. So we are making do. Fancy has really taken an interest in cooking this summer, so on Monday I staged a bake-off. I filled the kitchen island with ingredients, measuring cups, bowls, and wooden spoons. I then left it to the big kids to each come up their own cake recipes. I was so interested to see how they turned out! I did not help them figure out what to mix together, other than telling them they had to stick to the ingredients on the counter. Their reactions were typical. Fancy was so excited and immediately started announcing what she was going to use first. Hi-Hat got very antsy about it and was very concerned that we didn't have a recipe. "What if it doesn't turn out right or tastes bad?" But we moved past that and he did enjoy making decisions about what to mix together. He even broke from the counter items and added a container of butterscotch pudding from the fridge. Fancy added lots of cocoa powder so hers would be very chocolaty, and Hi-Hat wanted to leave out sugar so his would be healthy.

Can you tell from the photos who won the bake-off? Hi-Hat's "cake" turned out more like a giant flat biscuit with hits of butterscotch and no hints of sweetness. :) He was not interested in taking a second bite! Fancy's resembled a dense brownie brick. Actually, it resembled a brownie with chopped walnuts, but there were no nuts in the batter. Hmmm - what were those nut things? Little lumpy batter bits? Anyway, she thought it was delicious, especially after decorating with sprinkles and swedish fish. Maybe next time we'll do pizzas. :)