Chocolate Cake in a Hurry

Today I had to magic up a birthday cake on 2 hours notice. The solution? Buttermilk Chocolate Cake with powdered sugar on top. The girls cut out stencils of the number 33 out of stiff card, which they then laid on the cake and we put some powdered sugar in a tea ball and shook it all over. When we lifted up the numbers they were so excited to see the design on the cake! I did this about 20 min. after it came out of the oven, so it is faster than waiting for the cake to cool and then frosting it.


Buttermilk Chocolate Cake

350 degrees F
9 x 3 pan

In a saucepan, bring 1 cup butter, 1 cup water, and 2 T cocoa powder to a boil. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl combine 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon EACH of baking powder and baking soda, 2 T buttermilk powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Add cocoa mixture; mix well. Add 1/2 cup water, 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 2 eggs. Beat until well mixed. Batter will be quite thin. Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick tests clean.


In other news, Rebecca got the name "Sweet Strawberry" and Leah got the name "Running Deer" in school today. The preK studies Native Americans while the K studies Colonial times and then they get together for a big Thanksgiving feast.

My Sunday School class was a disaster because the children dropped their trays of paint and now we have blue splotches in the carpet. Lesson-wise it was good, though. I shared a chapter of Little House in the Big Woods about how Keep the Sabbath Holy used to be honored -- very different from modern times! And then we looked up the legend of how Ra turned Nut into a golden cow. I wanted the children to know that the Israelites weren't just making a golden calf for no good reason, that this was a remnant of the religion from the land where they were captive for all those generations. I also make a calf out of modeling beeswax and next week we will sketch and write our composition pieces in the MLBs. No way to have the children model a cow -- it took me an hour to make mine.