Legopalooza

    Before we dove into the Lego cake  we had activities for our young building enthusiasts at our Harry Potter Lego party. First up was the Lego head jars.  On Pinterest, they were prepared ahead of time and filled with candy Lego bricks to bring home as favors.  Instead, I used this as our opening activity as guests arrived.

Notice the additional Harry Potter touch?

Lego head jars:
10 baby food jars (labels peeled)
1 big jar of yellow paint
10 paint brushes
Sharpies

I set out paper plates with globs of yellow paint and let the kids go to town painting their jars.  When the jars dried, they drew Lego head faces.  Each guest took home a jar to use to store those tiny Lego pieces.

Lego artists

Next we painted with Legos.  We had a big bag of outgrown mega blocks.  The kids dipped these in different colored paints and used them as stamps.  I was surprised how much the kids got into this one.  When dried, we used the creations as wrapping paper or place mats.

Where will the sorting hat place you?

Next came the most popular activity of the day, the Lego Hunt.  Thanks to Librarian extraordinaire, Chrissie Morrison for sharing this idea.  The kids took turns hopping up on the stool to be sorted into their house colors.  When I took the hat off, I slipped a post it note from under the edge to reveal their color.  The guests really enjoyed combing the yard to get the hidden Legos.  Then the teams spontaneously built small creations with their found bricks.

 At this point we headed inside for Harry Potter Wheel of Fortune.  Using a dry erase board, I used the words and clues from a crossword puzzle I dug up from my lesson plans. The children remained seated in rows according to their team colors.  After their turn they went to the back of the line.  Luckily I had cousins to assist this activity.  We had to step up the difficulty when the teams solved the puzzle quickly!

We ended the party with cake and presents and every guest went home with their Lego head jar and a Harry Potter potions class Lego set.  It was a fun party to plan and of course, the birthday boy received many wonderful Lego sets to continue the building experience!

Lucky Seven

Lego cake for a lucky 7-year-old

    I had a request for a Lego cake.  I pulled out my favorite cake recipe.  It is made with carob, but comes out moist and rich and nobody guesses it isn't chocolate!  I have tested the recipe out, unlike my interesting results in Dinosaur Delights.

   Two things, I need to share with you.  First of all, the cake serves 12 so I figured I needed to double the recipe.  The original recipe was for a double layer round cake.  The doubled recipe produced so much batter that I made two sheet cakes.  That was on Wednesday. I froze both cakes.   I learned the hard way that it is easier to shape cakes when they are frozen. The first cake became the party cake.  The day before the party, I mixed up my favorite frosting and added giant mega blocks in the shape of a seven.  I had found interesting Lego cake ideas, but this one came to me and I stuck with my idea.
   
   The second detail  worth noting is that I usually use oat flour to create a gluten-free cake.  I have tried brown rice flour, but it doesn't seem to raise well.  This time I used regular flour and the cake was drier than I expected.  I may have to go back to oat flour only or try a mixture of flours.

 
   The second cake stayed in the freezer for school visit day.  I mixed up a fresh batch of frosting and iced the cake, adding mini-marshmallows to each piece to create Lego blocks.  Note to self: cupcakes are easier to serve at school, since you don't need to slice and serve.  It would also eliminate the need to bring forks and plates.

   This recipe is time consuming compared with a box mix or calling the grocery bakery.  I really like knowing that my kids are eating a caffeine and sugar free cake that is a wonderful treat for their special day.  By baking the cake on Wednesday, I was able to make my mess ahead of time and that freed me up to get the activities (and cleaning) prepped for the party.

   The last time I made this recipe it got smudged with carob powder.  This time I learned my lesson and cut and pasted it to fit on one page.  Then I add I plastic sheet protector.  This time I got to keep my copy, although I did have to sponge it down!

Vegan Carob Cake with Fudgy Carob Frosting
alteredplates.blogspot.com
Serves 12

Cake Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup carob powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup oil (I used grapeseed.)
2 cups agave nectar (I know this sounds like a lot, but the original called for 3 cups of maple syrup -- an expensive recipe, for sure. Still, it's a LOT of cake.)
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar (Don't omit this ingredient, whatever you do!)
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups filtered water



Cake Directions:

1. In a large bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients. Give them a stir for about 2 minutes, until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
2. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, mix the wet ingredients for 3 to 5 minutes, until they are well combined.
3. Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Here's where things are very weird. It's going to be extremely lumpy. Don't overmix this no matter what your head tells you. Mix until the dry ingredients have been moistened -- about 3 minutes.
4. Let the cake batter rest a few minutes while you preheat your oven to 325 degrees F and oil and flour your two 9-in. cake pans. You definitely want to line the bottoms of your pans with a circle of parchment paper as well. Trust me on this. The cakes WILL stick if you don't.
5. When the pans are prepared, pour the batter into the pans. Don't be concerned that there is a lot of batter, it won't over flow. However, feel free to put the pans on top of a cookie sheet with a lip.
6. Bake the cakes for 35 minutes or until a tester comes out with just the barest of crumbs. Do NOT open the oven for the first half hour. This important for the lump-killing abilities of the cider vinegar. You will regret it if you don't leave the layers alone.
7. Cool the layers completely before frosting.
 
For my favorite buttercream frosting, I use salted butter, rather than adding salt at the end.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
 from www.madhavasagave.com

1/2 cup unsalted butter
6 tbl Agave Nectar
1 cup nonfat dry milk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
4 tbl whole milk
pinch of sea salt

Cream the butter with an electric mixer until light in color. Slowly add the agave nectar and beat until fluffy, about one to two minutes. Gradually add the dry milk and beat again.  Add the salt, turn the mixer to high speed, and beat about two minutes, or until very fluffy.  Makes 2 cups. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Piece of Cake



Dan's Birthday Cheesecake

      I know I should know better.  I actually thought of making things easy on myself.  I told myself it was okay to pick up a cake for my husband's birthday this year since it was in the middle of the week and he had a meeting that night so we weren't going to have much time for a big celebration that night.  I was out at lunch with a friend on Friday and saw that our local coffeehouse sells cheesecakes.  I e-mailed them to see if I could order one.  In the meantime, I remembered that I had a healthy recipe for cheesecake in a cookbook at home.  I decided to go ahead and make the effort to have a homemade cake.  Plus, I googled the Cheesecake Factory and I could make this whole cake for the price of one slice of theirs. 
     The cookbook suggested a cranberry-raspberry sauce, but I wasn't sure how that would be received.  I decided to save my fresh cranberries for Thanksgiving and made a strawberry-raspberry sauce variation instead.  I used regular cottage cheese instead of lowfat. I opted for the food processor rather than the blender. My cake baked up shorter than I expected, but I used a wider springform pan than recommended in the cookbook. The cake was very popular.  I had to grab the last slice off the table to share over tea in the morning with my favorite blogger: http://cleaninguptheclutter.blogspot.com/.

Cheesecake
from: Fat Flush Cookbook by Anne Louise Gittleman

1 pound 2 percent cottage cheese
1 cup mashed ripe banana
2 packets Stevia Plus
Juice of 1 lemon
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cottage cheese in a blender and blend until smooth. Add mashed banana, lemon juice and Stevia Plus and blend until mixed. Beat eggs one at a time and add to the mixture, blending well after each addition. Pour the mixture into a lightly greased (use butter), 8-inch springform pan. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and loosen cake from sides of pan with a knife. Cool and then chill for several hours or overnight before serving.

Quick Cran-Raspberry Sauce (also from Fat Flush Cookbook)

1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
3/4 teaspoon Stevia Plus

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Heat in a saucepan for about 2 minutes or until hot. Serves 1.

My Stawberry-Raspberry Sauce
2 cups frozen raspberries
2 cups frozen strawberries
2 packets PureVia (Stevia)
3 Tablespoons Orange Juice

Thaw berries for 2 minutes in the microwave. Blend all ingredients in the food processor adding just enough orange juice to moisten the berries. Place berry sauce in pastry bag and dot on plate for serving or decorate cake.  This produced a large quantity of sauce to use up on another project later.