This evening we attended the year end preschool program to celebrate our five year old son and his classmates. This was our fourth consecutive and now final time to do so! Our two children have each spent two years in this wonderful preschool program and so we have spent the past four "Friday before Memorial Day" evenings making this a family tradition! LOTS of families to feed and so we needed to double our recipe. Category of dish to share was assigned according to your last name and where it falls within the alphabet. I did have to spend several rather nerve-wracking moments explaining to my seven year old that yes, I realize that "Dessert" does NOT begin with "P". Our last name does begin with P. However, our SECTION of the alphabet was bringing desserts. Sometimes I have lots of patience (Well, maybe not lots. How about an adequate amount?? Sometimes.) for these conversations and other times, not so much! And this leads me to the beginning of the story of the Cocoa Cake which was incorporated into the recipe pictured above!
Amelia Bedelia. I find her to be rather polarizing figure! I remember first learning about her when I was a kid. I wondered if she really could be that clueless? And now as an adult reading these books at the request of my seven year old daughter, I can go either way! When my daughter "gets" the funny parts, great! She is so delighted with their ironic simplicity that I can't help but laugh along with her. BUT when I have to stop many times within a reading session to explain exactly WHY the blatant misuse/misunderstanding of words IS funny, well, that tests my patience! And back to how some days are marked by a higher threshold in this area than other days! I have to be in the right mood to really enjoy Amelia Bedelia! I must admit that there are even Library visits where I may attempt to steer clear of Amelia Bedelia right then and there... but this week I did not! And it all worked out just right!
The kids have been wanting to bake something. I really have not had a need to bake anything lately. But given that we were assigned a dessert for this evening's festivities and since we needed to be "nut-free" with our dish to share, this recipe from the back of the Amelia Bedelia book pictured above fit perfectly. I made it pretty close to what you will see in the photo below. I will list just a few modifications that I made based on what I had available here in my own kitchen. I do all of my baking on Pampered Chef stoneware and I find that this really helps with things baking evenly and remaining more moist than they would be if baked in some of the other pans that are out there.
I had Wegmans White Whole Wheat Flour on hand and used that. I reduced the sugar to 1 1/3 cups and used Organic Cane Sugar. Cider Vinegar was all that I had for vinegar and it worked out just fine. Other than that, we followed the directions! This recipe is GOOD! Very dense and "cocoa-y". Well, let's put it in context that I have baked with sugar one other time in the past 8 months. So this tasted sweet enough to us and the cocoa flavor really came through in a delicious way!
Here is why my kids enjoyed preparing this recipe MORE than any more traditional cake that we have made:
1) No raw eggs for mom to be declaring a potential hazmat zone due to whatever mishap may occur while baking together.
2) No mixer needed. No fighting over whose turn it should be right now. No one jockeying for position near the mixer.
3) Dump everything into a pan and then pour water over the top and really, really mix it with forks to combine it??? With a 9 X13 pan, there was plenty of work space for both kids and they could easily see the progress of the dry and wet ingredients coming together. A win-win for everyone!!
To make the trifle that you see in the top photo, here is what I did:
1) Allow cake to cool completely. You are going to use perhaps 3/4's of it while making a "double batch" sort of thing like what we took this evening.
2) Cut cake into cubes right inside of your 9x13 pan. Use a mini-serving spatula to remove enough cake cubes to cover the bottom of a trifle bowl or other bowl.
3) Add a layer of just-almost-but-not-quite-thawed frozen berries. I am partial to the triple berry blend (raspberry, blackberry and blueberry) that I find at Sam's Club. It is just under $9 for the 3 pound bag and that is a decent deal for frozen berries. They are a staple in our menu planning here at home! I used the entire bag between the trifle bowl and other bowl pictured above.
4) Add a layer of Wegmans Plain Greek Yogurt. Within your trifle this will look pretty like whipped cream or cool whip or some cream cheese based thing but plain Greek yogurt is so much better for us!! You may be dubious of this while reading about it here within my blog. But give it a try!
5) Continue with another layer of cake cubes, berries and Greek yogurt. Top with a few more cake cubes. Place in refrigerator and chill for 2-3 hours. This will give the flavors a chance to combine a bit. The cake will absorb some of the juice from the berries that are now thawing completely. * DO serve this within 4 hours. Otherwise the yogurt will begin to separate a bit and things could become mushy.
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