Passport & Plate - A happy moment with a three year old (butter cake)
Australia | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 1 photos
Ingredients
Butter cake
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup milk
Icing and decoration
60g butter, softened
1/3 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
colouring of your choice (yeah right, your toddlers choice)
lollies of your choice (refer above)
How to prepare this recipeButter cake
1. Preheat fan forced oven to 150C
2. Grease loaf tin
3. Beat butter and sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each
5. Add vanilla essence and beat well
6. Beat it, just beat it (and beat it and beat it and beat it)
7. Fold in sifted flour alternately with the milk in two batches
8. Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth the surface
9. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake
10. Leave in the tin for five minutes then cool on a wire rack
Icing and decoration
1. Beat the butter and icing sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy
2. Add vanilla essence and choice of colouring and beat well
3. Spread over the top of the cake
4. Enlist toddler to decorate with choice of lollies, sprinkles, etc
The story behind this recipe"Let's make cake" my three year old son says with big eyes and excitement in his voice as he walks in on me in the loo. Toddlers... Curious, full of energy and adventure and of course no concept of privacy.
“How bout we make a greeeeeen one he says”.
So off we go to make a green cake.
Constantly thinking of ways to teach and amuse, cooking has become one of our favourite pastimes. Not only is cooking a valuable life tool, it also teaches about reading, numbers, following instructions and patience.
The beauty of this recipe is that it is easy! Sure there are a bazillion recipes out there for fancy cakes with special recipes handed down from generation to generation. Food does not always have to be glamorous. This humble butter cake is deliciously simple, is a wonderful introduction to teaching a child to bake and as a bonus it always works.
My mum taught me this recipe when I was little and I've been making it ever since. I'm sure in years to come my son will look back and remember the fun he had in the kitchen making those big green, blue, orange (etc, etc) cakes and perhaps he will teach his children to cook in the same way.
