purple velvet

what does any mama in her right mind say when her two year old asks to make a cake at 5 p.m. and dinner has not yet hit the oven?  no - absolutely not.  but i tend to thrive on a jam packed schedule and little bit of chaos so i wholeheartedly agreed we needed a cake for a friday night celebration.  and not just any cake.  red velvet.  and not from a box, but the cooksillustrated recipe that takes every bowl in the house because the two year old wants the white icing (cream cheese!) and red cake we made for a friend's birthday 4 months ago.  the slight problem was realized after the sugar and butter were mixed and the eggs were cracked.  no going back.  we do not have one drop of red food coloring in the house.  daddy is no where to be found and it is -4 degrees outside so even this chaos loving mama is not bundling up a toddler and a 2 month old to go to the giant eagle a stone's throw away from our house.  well, the two year old takes after her daddy and is a problem solver so after looking through our food coloring choices she exclaims with the biggest smile, "i know mama...purple cake!"  genius.  and so here you have our process of making purple velvet cake.  perhaps a new tradition?!

perhaps the best part of making cake - licking the beater!  

so here it is prior to baking - pretty purple right?  just wait for the end result...

oh the excitement!  and we throw in a little science talking about the changes that occur while in the oven.  

candles - is it someone's birthday?  nope.  we (and i mean abby) just have an obsession with lighting candles.  there will be more posts about that later.    

the purple velvet in all its glory.  do not tell abby that it looks slate gray, ok?  

what a fun way to end the week.  abby helped every step of the way.  eleanor hung out in her sling.  daddy came home to a great surprise.  dinner was made and eaten.  cake was devoured.  all in a good day's work.