Chocolate Cake

One of the coolest gifts Sweetpea got for her birthday was a baking set, a personalized "chef in training" apron, and the DK Children's Cookbook. It's a bright colorful book with a variety of kid friendly recipes and step-by-step photographs that clearly illustrate the text's instructions. It has photos of all the ingredients needed and a list of "tools" needed for each recipe. It also highlights relevant food facts and recipe ideas with an eye-catching mosaic tile border.

As we had family visiting, we decided to try out the recipe for Chocolate Cake. Sweetpea had a lot of fun wearing her new apron, measuring out sugar and flour, and operating the speed settings on my Kitchen Aid mixer. Needless to say, it was delicious! The cake is a two layer sponge, but the layers are fairly thin so its not a massive cake. The cake was moist and not too chocolatey. Sweetpea decorated it with chocolate butter frosting and mini chocolate chips. You just can't beat homemade!

Chocolate Cake (adapted from DK Children's Cookbook):

3/4 cup butter, softened and cut into small cubes
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1-1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 tsp coco powder

Preheat the oven to 350. Cream together the sugar and butter under light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten egg, about 1/3 at a time, and beat until smooth. Sift the flour,baking powder, and coco into the egg mixture and stir just until mixed.

Butter and line two 8" cake pans. Distribute the batter equally between the two pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm to touch. Allow to cool before removing. Frost and decorate, as desired.