Gingerbread Cake

Ginger. Ha a more delicious word ever been invented?

Shockingly, Kevin does not like ginger. I found this out the hard way. We were walking around Minnehaha Falls, and we stopped in the snack shop for ice cream. Harper was with us, and we couldn't all go inside, so I went in alone.

Inside the gift shop I was confronted with an issue. Kevin wanted cookies and cream, and one of the other ice cream flavors was ginger. Great. We had the flavors figured out. Two cups with one scoop each was $1 more than two scoops in the same cup. What is a cheapskate to do?

I got both scoops in the same cup. Ginger was on the top and the flavor infiltrated the cookies and cream. Kevin was very, very cranky because he couldn't eat his cookies and cream, and he didn't want to go back inside and get another cup. Ahhh... It took several months, but we finally moved past the ginger escapade.

In spite of all the trouble it has caused, ginger will always hold a special place with my taste buds. This cake was dense, rich, and completely satisfying of my craving.

Gingerbread Cake

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C butter, softened

1 egg

1 C molasses (I used half black strap, half regular)

2 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1 t ground ginger (I used 1/2 t ground ginger and 1 t grated fresh ginger)

1/2 t ground cloves

1/2 t salt

1 C hot water

Grease a 9 inch square pan. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, and mix in the molasses. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees, until a knife inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

Train Cake

Warren loves trains. He is the biggest train enthusiast I have ever met, and he is only 6 years old. He beats out our neighbor, who gets up at 4:00 AM every day just to watch the train pass. Warren is a kid in our primary class (ah-hem - our former primary class) and he constantly talks about trains. Today is his birthday, so we brought him a cake to share with the class as a final going away present.

Of course, I used the basic Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. It really has the best flavor and it is the easiest to make.

Are you wondering how I got so many yellow and blue M&Ms? It was quite simple:

1) There are quite a few of both of those colors.

2) I took a handful of M&Ms, used the blue and yellow ones, then ate the rest.

Using those principles in combination, it was a breeze to find just the right amount and color of candy pieces. In fact, I ate a LOT of the candy. For the gummy bears, I briefly considered eating all the red and orange ones and putting only the yellow and green ones on the cake. But then, in a moment of weakness, my conscience got the better of me and I decided that the kids wouldn't want only gross flavors, either. Ah, well...

I'd greatly appreciate it if you don't tell my bathroom scale about this little incident. I have a feeling it might try to retaliate....

Halfway through frosting the cake, I looked down and saw this.....YIPES!

As you can imagine, these cupcakes were CRUMBLY! The kids got really messy, then we ran away and let Kaia deal with it. Bless her heart, she must be a saint...

The cake is nothing special - it is just cake mix in this silicone cupcake set. Once you cover it with candy, the kids won't even notice the cake or the frosting. The fun thing about this set is it can also make a rocket or a truck.