How to Bake a Cake

My mom is the inspiration for getting my kids in the kitchen. From early on with Teagan, she has had special projects in the kitchen. They will spend an entire day making snacks and inventing recipes. And I know that Zach will be part of the fun soon enough. I'm not nearly as committed to being in the kitchen with my kids. But I make an effort and we do have fun when it happens. Sunday was going to be Chocolate Mug Cake day. But it occured to me that it wasn't the best option for Teagan. The key to having fun in the kitchen with kids is to keep things on track with what they enjoy or else you will not enjoy the time in the kitchen! Step 1: Crisco on a paper towel to grease the pan. Easy and fun for kids!

Step 2: Dump the cake mix into a mixing bowl. Step 3: Add ingredients as indicated on the box. Watch out for little fingers sneaking tastes of butter! Teagan did all 3 eggs by herself. Cracked them and everything. And I only had to dig out one piece of shell! Step 4: Mix. Adults, don't do this without a kid's help! Step 5: Scoop the batter into the greased pan. Grown ups just pour but that big bowl can be tricky for small hands. So we prefer to scoop.

And the best part of baking a cake? Licking the beaters, of course!

And being the bad, horrible mother that I am, I allowed my baby boy to eat CAKE BATTER!

And even better than licking the beater? Sharing the spatula with a loved one. Or watching your kids share with each other... yup. That's it. My heart melted when my kids made this adorable Duncan Hines ad!

Some for Teagan... And some for Zach!

And the results! We ended up doing 2 single layer cakes. Teagan's is plain yellow cake with butter cream frosting and autumn sprinkles.

And mine had butterscotch chips mixed in. They melted during cooking and made this really yummy butterscotchy bottom of the cake...

So- I WIN!! Fun time with Teagan, adorable time with Zach, and I got to eat cake! Huzzah!