D is for Devil's Food Cake

Making a cake is always a multi step process. Making a cake with Julie involves two baths and a load of laundry. We had to start this project twice because Julie was a little overzealous with the baking soda the first time around. Spencer made his devil's food cake in a tuna fish can so that he could have his very own cake. Then we used the rest of the batter to make cupcakes. Honestly, I sent the kids to go play while I made (and sampled) the frosting unassisted. -L

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Isaac's favorite part of making cake is greasing and flouring the pans, followed by measuring the flour. He was impatient waiting for the cake layers to cool and snitched bites out of each layer. We froze the cake layers for a couple hours, which made them easier to stack and frost.

Devil's Food Cake is a staple at our house. We have tested many recipes over the years and this one is our favorite. (Although, honestly, a good box mix is basically just as tasty if you put real frosting on it). We baked four, 6 inch rounds with our batter. We used two to make our cake and froze the other two for latter use. -H

Printable recipe here

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J is for Jam

Strawberries are in season in Texas. We bought a bunch. The kids have been loving them. The best strawberries are fresh from our garden, but we only get a handful of those at a time. They are a perfect before bed snack. For recipes that involve lots sugar and plenty of cooking time we use store bought strawberries. Julie has been hopping around the house saying "strawberries" for days. She also has utterly refused to wear clothes. She screams and shouts and kicks and thrashes while I get her dressed and then immediately removes all of her clothing as soon as she can. I've decided this is not a battle I'm willing to fight, so she spends most of the day in just a diaper. (I am willing to fight with her to keep a diaper on. I hate cleaning the carpet.) But when I said it was time to get out the strawberries and make jam she ran into the kitchen, grabbed her apron, and said "Put it on Mom." I did not make her ask twice. In addition to convincing Julie to ge...

L is for Lemonade

Isaac had to work hard to get all the lemons squeezed, but it was totally worth it. It was good lemonade. We are so ready for summer! Maybe if we make enough Lemonade we can pretend it's not cold and rainy. -H ---------------- I have a citrus juicer, but it's the kind that you have to squeeze, and neither Julie nor Spencer have big enough hands to really use it. Luckily a friend let us borrow her electric juicer. With the assistance of electricity, making lemonade was a lot of fun. Since simple syrup doesn't require very precise measurements, we let Julie do that part by herself. -L Printable recipe here

E is for Eclairs

When it's a dessert day, Spencer will unload the dishwasher without whining. We cleaned up the kitchen, cleared off the countertops, got out the step stools, and put on our aprons. After measuring the flour, salt, and water, we realized that I haven't been shopping since before spring break and my butter supply was gone. So we put on our shoes and went to go buy some. Since we were out anyway, we went ahead and did all the errands. By the time we were home, Julie was hungry and tired. We fed her lunch and let her take a nap. I'm a little sad that she didn't do this project with us, but she was not disappointed to wake up to fresh eclairs. Spencer felt really strongly about cutting the butter into three pieces before adding it to the water. I'm not sure where he came up with this idea, but he was adamant that it was necessary. The eclairs turned out pretty good, so maybe he knows something I don't. I tried to take a shortcut for the filing and use ...

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