Wall-E Cake
made by Mo for her Daddy

Look at this adorable cake topper, made by Mo. Have I mentioned she's really in love with Wall-E right now? To her, this is the next best thing to having a Wall-E birthday cake of her own. Her birthday isn't until August, but she's already making plans. *grin* To make the cake topper, she found a site online with Wall-E coloring pages and printed out the picture she liked; she cut it out (she's excellent with her safety scissors) and then glued it to a craft stick. Et voila!

So, in keeping with my resolution to consume only homemade, non-processed foods as much as possible, this cake was made from scratch. I modified a buttermilk cake recipe from The Joy of Cooking; I know, I know, baking is a science and even a slight modification changes the end result, but I didn't have cake flour (ohwell). The cake came out lovely anyway; it was pretty dense and a little chewy, but overall very nice and the birthday boy (can you call someone a boy who just turned 62?!?) liked it, so all was well. It's frosted with chocolate cream cheese frosting, which everyone also loved, but next time I'll add more choc. The recipe called for 5oz of choc chips--I think it needs twice that. But then I prefer a darker, fudge-like frosting. Yum!

Daddy's Birthday

Today is DH's birthday, and Mo couldn't be more excited. I've promised to let her help make the cake, and she's even made some decorations. She's into the movie Wall-E right now, so she's cut a picture of the robot out of a coloring book, colored it, and glued it to a craft stick. It's really cute, and she's happy that Daddy will have a "Wall-E cake."

I'll post some pics later today---she and Daddy are off to the store at the moment, picking up cake ingredients. :)

Inaugural Post

Welcome to my newest site, where I will share information on cooking with and for your kids. My oldest daughter, Maureen, is almost 4, and she loves to help me in the kitchen.

A little bit about me: I'm a late in life mom, or what my OB called "advanced maternal age." Grr. Even now that still sets my teeth on edge. My husband and I tried for 9 years to conceive our first child; I was 35 when she was born. Imagine our surprise when, not quite two years later, we conceived daughter number 2! Sometimes I still can't believe it--I had resigned myself to being an "Auntie" forever.

So what happened when our little stinkers entered our lives? Total chaos, that's what! My toughest challenge has been adapting our meals to be both kid and parent-friendly. I refuse to become a short order cook; I make one meal and that's it! It's a balancing act most days--the husband won't eat the kids food and vice versa. I try not to rely on convenience foods, but I will serve Kraft mac-n-cheese if I'm feeling lazy that day. Mo loves it with ketchup...what a kid thing to do! :)

Recipes and pics coming soon. Tonight we had a very simple meal of burgers with tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese; oven-roasted potatoes and milk on the side. The kids and Daddy scarfed it up! Mo's dessert was applesauce with animal crackers.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. Stay tuned.