*From Loosha's Fridge, with Love*: Chocolate Chocolate Cake
If you want to feel really good about your parenting, go bake this with your kid and then devour it together with abandon. Plus, it's kosher for passover!
I realize for many this type of activity with a kid(s) reads as automatically messy (it is), complicated (it doesn’t have to be!), and maybe not worth your time (I’m here to disagree.) While it most definitely does require more effort and energy to bake with kids than without them, the value of watching your offspring learn to follow a step-by-step process, using so many of their faculties at once, not to mention invigorating their senses before your eyes, is a serotonin and dopamine cocktail straight to the dome.
Clean up will likely suck. But, at that point you can send them away to whatever is the easiest thing in that moment while you get your kitchen back to normal. And you will probably want to give them a bath or at the least a hearty wipe down afterwards. But hang with me, I still say it’s worth it!
Time to Bake with a Three Year Old:
“Let’s make a chocolate chocolate cake!” Loosha announced while holding both cocoa powder and chocolate chips in her teeny hands. “Great idea!” I said. After all, it was a rainy day and we had nothing else on the docket apart from a dinner later at our neighbor’s house, and a cake would be a lovely thing to bring over.
My first tip is to store your kids cooking and baking tools in a drawer they can access by themselves. These can be actual kid sized whisks or spatulas or just regular ones that your child gets to consider “theirs”. Letting her be in charge of much of the set up means I have a couple of minutes to scan recipes and she learns the greater effort it takes to get to the part where she’s licking gooey sweet chocolate off a spoon.
Same goes for ingredients. I don’t keep everything within her reach but I will take them out and leave them somewhere she can get to and ask her to move it to our work space. Things like sugar, vanilla, and baking powder are familiar packages and she confidently grabs them herself. Even if you can’t keep these things on a shelf they can reach, I still think familiarizing them with each ingredient and the packaging or jar you keep them in is cool and helpful and again it’s buying me precious time while engaging them.
She is in charge as much as possible. We measure together. She stirs and asks for help and I oblige. She gets bored and just wants to lick things. I let her. This is also part of it. She can even walk away completely not interested anymore and I will be ok with that too. Having extremely managed expectations of a 3 year old (or any aged human being for that matter) helps you to feel constantly delighted and surprised.
We talk about steps along the way and she asks questions. (see video for examples). When the cocoa powder was moistened by the oil and vanilla extract it became immediately shiny and glossy. This was marvelous to witness! Loosha, saw this and needed to taste it right away. She quickly found out that dutch processed cocoa powder before sugar is added to it is not yummy. In fact, she winced and said “Mom, that’s very bad”. Once we added the remaining ingredients it transformed again and she couldn’t believe the difference!
Speaking of managed expectations…she is usually maxed out on attention span for the activity after it goes in the oven and I know that I will be left to clean most of it on my own while she runs off to play. And that’s ok with me. I can clean as thoroughly as I need and if she wants to help with that part, great too!
If there is a point in the baking process where I need to check the doneness I make sure to grab her for it. In a funny way I see it as an easy exercise in patience. We open the oven door and a whiff of deliciousness hits the air and she wants so badly to eat it, of course. We check the toothpick together and decide it needs more time. Patience my sweet child. Chocolate cake is worth waiting for.
My rule is if Loosha baked it she gets to eat as much as her body wants. To some that might sound nuts! You imagine my kid eating an entire cake by herself BUT trusting her to see these delicious baked goods as pleasurable, fun, but also like all foods - if eaten in excess will make her belly hurt, is important to emphasize here. She knows too many blueberries will do that too, or mac and cheese. Plus, saving some for friends or family is the other best part! Loosha feels proud and excited to have others try something she baked herself. It’s freaking awesome. So we dig in and at some point (usually sooner than you think) we both look at each other and know we’ve had enough.
Now for a recipe:
This is Nigella Lawson Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with a few minor alterations.
⅔ cup regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (sifted)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup almond flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips of choice
powdered sugar for dusting
Preheat your oven to 325ºF. Grease a 9” cake pan with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
Measure and sift the unsweetened cocoa into a bowl or jug and whisk in ½ cup of boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
In another smallish bowl, combine the almond flour with the baking soda and pinch of salt.
Whisk the sugar, olive oil and eggs in a big bowl and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale, aerated mixture.
Add in your cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in add in the almond flour.
Fold in 1/3 cup chocolate chips of choice.
Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A toothpick should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then run a butter knife carefully around the edges to loosen before flipping out onto a plate and then again onto a wire rack.
Once it’s cooled a little dust with powdered sugar, and eat with some ice cream or whipped cream.