Food for thought; Dinosaur Cakes

The toddlers apron, a bit worse for wear these days (available here)
Sharing a car works for us most of the time, but an imminent move to somewhere where public transport is less accessible, has led to us buying our second car.  We pick it up in 7-10 days (apparently) so we are on our last week of car sharing.  Which is good.  Because I tend to leave the pram in the car.  And the Ergo.  And my prescription sunglasses (non-essential but they look good).  And off they go a 15 minute drive down the Sheikh Zayed Road away.  And with it our chance to venture any further than our pool or the lake.  I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried walking far with a 13kg toddler?  Mine is good for, oh, all of 2 minutes with hand holding and going the direction I want him to.  So the 20 minute walk up to the metro is a definite pram.
I’m sure you can see where I am going with this.
Today was one of those days.  I made plans to go out and have a playdate where I would need to get the metro.  Up we get and wave Daddy off to work.  Sit back and chill with my cup of tea while the toddler terror pulls out his choo choo train demanding that I “build it” when 15 minutes pass and I realise that I have left all toddler transporting equipment in the car.  Cue one phone call to the husband later confirming what I knew, i.e. that he is pulling into the car park at work so tough luck.  And a house (or well Greens) bound day beckons.
So I decided to play on the toddlers love of baking.  And my own sweet tooth.  Oh and to play with my new electronic scale toy, and cracked open my +The Hummingbird Bakery cake book.  And the toddlers new dinosaur silicon cake moulds (hence dinosaur cakes!).  And we made chocolate orange cakes, sans chocolate orange frosting, as I ran out of cocoa powder and couldn’t be bothered to drag said toddler terror the one mile to the shop!
Dinosaur moulds; (available here)

The Recipe; Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

 

Ingredients (for the cake):

70g butter, softened
210g caster sugar
105g soft light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest*
255g plain flour
50g cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml whole milk

How to do it

1. Pre-heat oven to 190

2. Weigh out all ingredients so toddler terror doesn’t have to wait around and play with mummy’s new scale toy

My new toy, available here

3. Cream together butter and both sugars using hand held whisk

baking with toddler

4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla essence and orange

 

 

5. Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl

 

6. Add sifted mix to the creamed mix in 3 batches with the milk.  Once everything incorporated turn up the speed and give it a good beating (and terrify the toddler who will now be screaming “Mummy carry Mummy carry”)
7. Divide the mix between the paper cases/dinosaur moulds.  Make sure each is about two-thirds full
8. Place in the oven and bake for 18-20 mins
9. Give up baking with toddler and frost using whatever icing you may have in a tub.  Or not at all!

 

 
And because the husband came home and claimed all cakes to take to work….I don’t actually have a picture of the finished product….however I am reliably informed that he was particularly popular that day!

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28 Comments

  1. February 4, 2015 / 4:54 pm

    How cute and fun! My son's favorite thing is to make stuff in the kitchen. It may be a huge mess, but I love seeing him so happy!

  2. February 5, 2015 / 4:48 am

    Ah yes the mess! Can't wait until he's big enough to help clean up!

    • February 6, 2015 / 4:13 am

      Thanks, we think so!

  3. February 6, 2015 / 3:22 pm

    Aw, I love this! What a cute little baker you've got there! And those cupcakes sound delish, I am adding to the recipe round up for my Weekly Button Up! Happy Friday!

    • February 7, 2015 / 3:31 am

      Thank you! He loves to help in the kitchen good to train him! Ooh off to look at the recipe round up!!

    • February 7, 2015 / 3:32 am

      Eating cake mix is the best part of the experience right?!

  4. February 7, 2015 / 4:00 pm

    They are fab! Lovely pics, maybe consider making them or uploading them bigger-if your theme allows. Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays x

    • February 7, 2015 / 4:30 pm

      Oh they're small! technical ineptness…. better fire up the laptop and fix it!

  5. February 9, 2015 / 2:06 pm

    I was a little confused by the last instruction…did you mean frost the toddler? lol, he looks seriously yummy! Thanks for linking up to Kids in the Kitchen I believe you've truly experienced the joy of cooking with kids 🙂

    • February 9, 2015 / 2:27 pm

      Definitely frost the toddleR! If only to keep him quiet licking it off for a while! X

  6. February 10, 2015 / 9:26 am

    Lovely to bake with the kidlets… Though would be nice to see the cake too. #CookBlogShare

    • February 10, 2015 / 2:08 pm

      Daddy stole the spoils to take to work before I got chance! Lesson learnt for next time we bake though!!

  7. February 10, 2015 / 1:03 pm

    Oooh, I like the idea of orange essence. I never have fresh oranges, and if I do they don't look appealing to zest or I can never find the zester!
    Your young man is clearly a chef in the making, his studious face and pefect hand movements are great 🙂
    Visiting via Raisie Bay Kids In The Kitchen 🙂

    • February 10, 2015 / 2:09 pm

      Thank you! He tries bless him!! And I can't believe how much he has learnt over the last year on the kitchen!!

      The essential oil was great I ccouldn't believe how orange-y it made them!!

  8. February 19, 2015 / 11:13 am

    Fantastic! Looks like great fun! Love the dinosaur moulds and the Gruffulo apron 🙂

    • February 20, 2015 / 5:02 pm

      Thank you – I love the apron as well! Its so cute now he tries to wear it and demands I wear mine (not Gruffalo unfortunately!)

  9. February 20, 2015 / 4:27 pm

    I really hope yours turned out better than my giant pink dinosaurs!! x

  10. February 20, 2015 / 5:03 pm

    The dinosaurs weren't quite dinosaur like…..

  11. February 21, 2015 / 1:56 am

    Love the apron very nice!! My little one loves oranges, and anything orange flavoured so I bet he would love to make these too!

    • February 23, 2015 / 3:33 am

      They were delicious!! And actually easy to make even with toddler in tow!

  12. February 22, 2015 / 11:04 pm

    I'm impressed at your little one cracking eggs. Whenever mine tries we end up having to fish out a lot of shell! I love the chocolate smeared picture at the end too.

    • February 23, 2015 / 3:34 am

      Lots and lots of practice….. and lots and lots of eggs…..

  13. February 23, 2015 / 3:19 pm

    So cute! Chocolate orange cakes sound delicious!

    Thanks for linking to #toddlerapprovedtuesday xx

  14. February 23, 2015 / 9:22 pm

    Yummy! Chocolate oarnge cakes sound amazing! May have to make some tomorrow…for the kids of course not me…nooooo none for me!!!

    #ToddlerApprovedTuesday

  15. February 25, 2015 / 1:30 pm

    He looks like such a baking pro in these photos! Sounds delicious too!
    #kidsinthekitchen

  16. February 25, 2015 / 8:22 pm

    Love the idea of the dinosaur moulds! Potato would have a lot of fun with them. That recipe sounds delicious too. I love chocolate orange!
    Thanks for linking up with #LittleChefs

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