The Best of Times: A Couple of Firsts

We don't have many firsts these days but here is a little round of firsts for C. The first first...today she got to LICK THE BEATER!!!! I have never let her do this, 1. b/c everything I make has raw eggs in it and 2. I don't want her to know it's edible. D let her lick the spoon once when he made brownies with her and holy cow-she wanted to lick the spoon everytime after that! We cook a LOT with C...a lot a lot! Like, literally daily she is on a chair cooking with one or the other or both of us. Since she was little we have just let her stand up on the chair watching and stirring...sometimes stirring what we're making and sometimes just stirring a bowl of water. Sometimes I let her crack an egg...and sometimes there are shells hidden in the cake we take to our friends. :) Sometimes I let her use her spatula and D lets her help pour the waffle mix. If it's a smooth batter we often let her stir b/c it's not as messy as say...a dry or clumpy batter. Dry just shoots everywhere - she doesn't exactly stir slowly (this is a lesson we learned today actually). Clumpy...well, with clumpier stuff her spoon gets stuck and then suddenly breaks free leaving clumpy batter all over the wall or coffee pot or momma. :) Regardless, it's always fun and we try very hard to keep it fun, even when it's messy b/c it's our choice to let her cook and the messes are how we learn what the new boundaries should be. :) I LOVE cooking with her. I do. I remember when she was itty bitty and always wanting held or was under foot and there were a few times I let that get on my nerves but we just embrace it and let her be with us in the kitchen now.

Her first look...........................Her first taste..............Deciding where to attack next.

SOOO today, we made a sheet cake. She was stirring the flour/sugar mixture even though that's against my better judgement. We did have some floury explosions if you will. :) Nothing too major-I just kept reminding her to stir slowly...she pretty much has one stirring speed I learned. Anyway, anyway after making the sheet cake she was playing with D and I was making frosting. She didn't know I was making frosting though. She thought we were all done making our cake for dadda (allllll cakes are for dadda by the way.) I had already put the beaters in the sink when it hit me...she has never licked the beater!!! So you guessed it, I got the beater out, washed them, put them back on the mixer and beat the frosting some more. Then I called to D to bring her to the kitchen with the camera. The pictures speak for themselves...she LOVED it! I would've videod but there really weren't many sounds...just staring and eating. She did look up once and say, "I like this!"

I love cooking with her-I'm sure she'll want to lick every beater from now on but maybe I'll just need to make more frostings so she can. In case you need a good sheet cake recipe I'm going to type this one out for you. It's my moms and it is literally the BEST chocolate sheet cake EVER!!! EVER!

Chocolate Sheet Cake

In a bowl mix 2 cups sugar & 2 cups flour & set aside (or let your 2 1/2 year old have fun stirring.)

In a saucepan bring the following to a boil:
1/2 cup oil
4 TBSP Cocoa
1 cup water
1 stick butter

Once it's boiling pour into the dry ingredients (metal bowls are better than plastic for this step...lol).

In another bowl mix 1/2 cup milk, 2 eggs, 1 TBSP baking soda & 1 tsp vanilla
Mix it together really well, making sure the baking soda is all mixed through, then add it to the cake mix. My mom just stirs this with a spoon but the first time I did that one side was super fluffy and running over and the other side was flat...so I figured we hadn't mixed the baking soda in well enough. We put that cake down the disposal and D picked up some new soda (ours had expired in 02!!!! Yeah, I don't bake too much from scratch!) Anyway, I made a 2nd cake (this is the one C helped with) and I beat the mixture with a beater to make sure it'd mix well and bake evenly. Well...the same thing happened! Apparently our oven doesn't heat evenly or isn't level or something. :) It still tasted GREAT!

Bake at 350 for 15-25 minutes...who knows really how long or what temp...the recipe says 450 for 15 minutes but mom says she NEVER puts it on 450 and couldn't believe that's what the recipe says so who knows. Bake it until it's done. :)

FROSTING: Now THIS is the good part! You make it and then pour it all over your hot sheet cake!!! YUM!
Melt & boil 1 stick of butter, 4 TBSP Cocoa, 6 TBSP milk. Remove and add 1 box (1lb) of Pow. Sugar & 1/4 tsp of vanilla and nuts if you like nuts but yuck...nuts ruin a dessert! Pour it down the center of the hot cake, spread it to the edges...watch it run over the side of the pan and...

ENJOY EVERY BITE!!!!