Homeschrewling

Our DIY Adventures in Homeschooling & Homebrewing

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Cop-out Post

When time is short, I take the easy way out and link to something worth reading. Today's winner is a bit on what teachers really need to know in order to get certified, with much thanks to Why Homeschool for posting on this.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

You put WHAT in my cake?

Our baby is one. We celebrated his big day in style: a party at Grandpa and Grandma's house. And yes, I made a whole wheat carrot cake for his first birthday.

You see, the past few months I've been a bit busy going off the deep-end: acupuncture, health food stores, cat's claw, herbal tea...you get the picture. Anyway, it works when I do it. It's breaking the bank and I'm getting lectured by my dear accountant how we can’t afford to eat everything organic, so I have to scale back a bit here and there. But I certainly wasn't going to skimp on my baby's first cake!

By the way, Homeschrewling is up and running again, so we hope you can get back in the habit of checking in on us now and then. Plus, there is a "honey porter" kit sitting on my kitchen counter for all you beer fans, so I'm hopeful that Brewmaster will pop in to tell us how that turns out.

And for those of you who asked, here's that cake recipe. It's the best carrot cake I've ever eaten!

Carrot Cake
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix above ingredients well. Add the following:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flower
1 cup grated carrot
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup chopped nuts [I omitted these for my allergic kids]
8 ounces crushed pineapple, drained
3/4 tsp baking soda

Mix. Bake at 350 in a greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; about 40 minutes. (To double recipe: Double all ingredients. Bake at 350 in 9x13 pan until toothpick comes out clean; about 50 minutes.)

Cream cheese frosting
3 Tbsp cream cheese, softened
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar, about 1/3 cup
Whip cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Sift in powdered sugar gradually and stir until a creamy smooth frosting is achieved.