Small Successes Vol. 1: Cakes and Pumpkins

I've seen the Small Successes button on a lot of blogs, and I enjoy reading the posts. The idea is to list three things you've accomplished this week that you feel good about, and share them on your blog. I'm jumping in this week, partly because I wanted to show you the results of my creative juices (however mediocre they are--I am not very good at artistic endeavors, and I'm always a little jealous of my fellow bloggers who post pictures of the fabulous knitting, sewing, and crafting projects you've done. I don't do any of those things. But I'm not a bad cook and as you'll see, I can be pretty savvy with a kitchen knife.) And thanks to Danielle Bean for hosting this fun meme on Faith and Family Live! (I think this is supposed to be a Thursday meme, but I'm posting a day early, mainly because I'm not quite awake yet and I don't feel like starting on my chores. If I can finish this in 30 minutes that will be a small success to add to the list. I've only got 20 minutes left, so I better hurry so I can get something done before I have to go to work.) Okay, here goes:


1. Moe celebrated his birthday recenlty and since it's getting close to Halloween, he decided he wanted a tombstone birthday cake. Yep, you read that right. When I asked him what he wanted written on the tombstone, he said, "R.I.P." "What about if I write '2000-2110' so it looks like you've lived for 110 years?" I asked. Nope. "What about Happy Birthday Moe?" suggested his father. "Um, NO, Dad. I'ts a TOMBSTONE." Because of his food allergies I made this dairy-free, egg-free cake, and improvised the design.

I doubled the recipe to make one square cake and one round one.

The dirt mound and the zombie hand were Moe's idea.

Even though we already had plenty of colorful birthday candles on hand, when I saw these black-and-white ones I thought they'd be fun for this cake. The boys were impressed and said they were "Goth."

2. Of course when it's your birthday, you HAVE to bring cupcakes to school to share with your class. Every year for Moe, I bake chocolate cupcakes using a recipe I found years ago on the back of a Hershey's Cocoa box:

QUICK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

1- 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 T white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin cups (2 1/2 in diameter) with paper bake cups. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla; beat with whisk or spoon until batter is well blended. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 16 to 18 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 16 cupcakes.

They are delicious, and Moe says that the kids in his class had been asking him all week if he was going to bring them. I was surprised they remembered them from last year, but that's how yummy they are!

Last years cupcakes...


...and this year's.

3. I picked up a beautiful pumpkin at the Farmer's Market on Saturday; not too big, but just right for carving. Instead of my usual method of cutting out eyes, nose, and mouth without any real planning (i.e. making it up as I go along), the kids wanted to find a pattern online and carve a REALLY COOL one. After vetoing several choices--the Darth Vader and Yoda ones were just too complex, and I'm NOT carving a puking pumpkin again this year--...

(Last year's pumpkins. The kids designed them both; I thought the one on the right was particularly clever. The one on the left--not so much.)

...Curly found a cute Sonic the Hedgehog pattern that seemed reasonably simple to carve, and one that everyone liked.

Definitely NOT professional quality, but we had fun making it and it does look a little like Sonic the Hedgehog.

(One other success: Last week I managed to complete almost everything on my to-do lists every day. Quite a feat if I may say so myself. This week I'm not getting nearly as much done, but I haven't made any to-do lists either. And this post took way longer than 30 minutes; I ended up taking two blogging sessions to complete it.)

Solving a Food Allergy Dilemma

When my youngest son was six months old, we found out he suffered from multiple food allergies. This would explain his extreme case of cradle cap, which developed into horrible eczema. When we started giving him milk-based formula, it got much worse. When we finally had him tested, he showed a strong sensitivity to dairy products. He is also allergic to eggs, nuts, and peanuts; as well as very mild allergies to shellfish and soy. Which means it's OK for him to eat crabs in the summer, as long as it's not too many; and since just about everything you buy in the grocery store contains soy, that's not a problem either. (We just don't give him straight soy milk to drink, for example; or at least very rarely.)

Over the years I've learned to prepare foods for the family that he can eat, and when I do cook something with eggs or anything else he's allergic to, I make sure there's an alternative for him to eat. (Now that I'm getting fresh local organic eggs from the farmer's market again, we have omelets for dinner at least every other week.) So when we were making plans for his first communion party last weekend, I decided to make a cake that everyone would enjoy, and that he could also eat.

I happened to find this recipe online a few years ago when I was planning a birthday party for him. Everyone raved and said it was delicious! It's very hard to find a milk- and egg-free cake that actually tastes good, but thanks to About.com, this is no longer a problem. I usually double or triple the recipe, and the cake is easy to work with if you want to cut it into shapes, because it isn't crumbly.

Milk-Free, Egg-Free Cake with Vanilla Frosting
4 Tbsp. Margarine
1/3 c. sugar
1 cup soy milk (I use Better Than Milk soy powder and water)
1 tsp. vanilla*
1 very ripe banana, mashed*
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (fully preheated before baking). Cream margarine and sugar. Add soy milk, vanilla, and banana.*

In a separate large mixing bowl mix together all the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients--mix quickly, but thoroughly. Spread evenly into greased and floured 8 x 8 baking pan or cupcake pan (with liners). Bake in 400 degree oven for approx. 25 minutes (turn pan around halfway through baking). Cool, frost, eat, or freeze. This recipe freezes very well.

*The recipe calls for 1 tsp vanilla OR 1 ripe banana OR 1/2 c. carrot and 1/2 c. zucchini, finely shredded. I've always used vanilla AND banana.

Vanilla icing

1 lb. confectioner's sugar
1/2 lbs. margarine
1 tsp. vanilla, or less to taste
2-3 T. soy milk (a bit more if needed)

Cream margarine and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla. Add just enough soymilk to make spread-able. Spread on COOLED cake/cupcakes.

I've made the frosting before, but this time around I just bought some. It's pretty easy to find pre-made icing without any milk.

Here's how it turned out! (As you can see, I will never make a career out of my cake decorating skills, but it's fun anyhow.)


I saw this cake on EWTN, believe it or not. I tripled the recipe, put the batter into three rectangular loaf pans, and placed two of them end to end. I cut the third one in half, and placed the two pieces on either side to make the cross.

I used the same recipe for a birthday cake when we had a Pokemon theme:

This one is a no-brainer; just double the recipe and make it in two round cake pans. (Come to think of it, I think I might have used the homemade frosting for this cake. Much better than store-bought.)

I also have made a wizard hat for a Harry Potter party by baking the cake in a 9 x 13 pan, and cutting a triangle with the bottom part of the triangle as the short side of the cake. I used the other two pieces to make the bottom part of the hat. It turned out pretty cute; unfortunately I can't seem to find a picture of it.

Speaking of zucchini and carrots, I have a great bread that I adapted from a couple of recipes from my favorite Southern Living cookbook; Allergy Boy loves it, and he's the pickiest eater in our family. I haven't made it in a long time; once zucchinis are in season, I'll make it again and post the recipe here. It's delicious.

Happy Baking!