Thursday, February 9, 2017

Mini Cake from a Regular Sized Oven

See recipe for mini chocolate cake below
My youngest creative little heart is always throwing birthday bashes for his stuffed animals.  He makes decorations, plans games for all their stuffed animal friends and makes and wraps gifts for them.  He often uses play food or builds a cake out of paper or legos, but this week he heard wind of a thing that his friend got: Easy Bake Oven.  I’m sure my easy bake oven is still in my parent’s basement.  I remember it with mixed feelings, the idea is so appealing, but the light bulb that heats it never really did that stellar of a job at cooking the miniature cakes and cookies and when the kit ran out of tiny mixes, the honeymoon was officially over.  I cook with my kids all the time with our boring old regular sized oven, but most recipes make a large cake or a dozen or so cupcakes which isn’t really what we need when mouse or a beany baby is celebrating.  Yesterday was decidedly Om Nom’s birthday.  If you aren’t familiar with the little green monster from the game “Cut the Rope” he is a cute friendly green monster that munches candy.  A small peppermint candy (or doughnut – there are optional settings for this) is tied by a rope and dangles out of reach.  The object of the puzzle game is to figure out how to get the treat into Om Nom’s mouth.  I found some ceramic ramekins adapted a recipe to make the perfect cake for Om Nom.   Below is the recipe so you can also help your little creative one bake a miniature cake for a pretend tea party or birthday bash for their favorite stuffed animal.  Have fun letting your creative little heart celebrate.

Mini Chocolate Cake makes two 3 ½ inch cakes

Ingredients:
1/3 c. flour
1/8 tsp corn starch
3 Tb granulated sugar
2 Tb unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 Tb vegetable oil
¼ tsp vanilla
¼ c. milk
1 tsp white vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
spray ramekins with baker’s non-stick spray with flour
whisk together dry ingredients pour in wet and stir
Bake 20-24 min
Cool 15 minutes on a rack



Buttercream Frosting:
4 Tb butter
½ tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1 c. powdered sugar
1-2 Tb milk
Beat together
divide into small bowls and add food coloring to make different colors
frost cooled cake

Enjoy!