Easy St. Patrick’s Day Chocolate Treat for Kids

March 14th, 2013 · 2 Comments

I love cooking with my kids. However, what I love even more is that my 10-year-old daughter can make some of favorite desserts all by herself now. How cool is that! I was telling her that I was looking for a St. Patrick’s Day themed dessert to make and feature on the blog and she came up with a cute idea to add some Leprechaun charm to one of our favorite desserts – Chocolate Nutella Cheesecake Mousse. One of our good friends made this recipe that we found on Pinterest and we have made it at least 10 times since.

It’s easy and no baking is involved so it’s perfect for cooking with the kids. It’s also incredibly tasty! You can find the recipe here at MyBakingAddiction.com.

But back to St. Patrick’s Day! To make this dessert more Holiday-ish, we added some Leprechaun flair by drawing shamrocks and Leprechaun faces on marshmallows with edible markers. We also dyed a marshmallow black to look like a pot created an indent in the top and added yellow M&M candies to make it look like a pot of gold.

All you need are regular size marshmallows, mini marshmallows, edible markers, black food coloring, and yellow M&M candies.

To make the Leprechauns, we made two versions – one where we just drew the face and hat on a regular size marshmallow. In the second version, we stuck a mini marshmallow on top of the regular sized one to make a hat. We then colored it black with the markers.

To make the pot of gold marshmallow, add black food coloring to a cup of water. Submerge the marshamllow in the water for a few minutes. The longer the time in the water, the darker the “pot.” We used black food coloring paste to get the marshmallow so dark. Regular liquid food coloring didn’t cover as well. After you’ve achieved the color black you want, dry the marshmallow for a few minutes on a paper towel. When dry, use your fingers to create an indent in the top of the marshmallow. Insert several yellow M&M candies in the indent to make it look like a pot of gold.

We also added green food coloring to our whip cream to add a colorful dollop to our dessert.

There you have it. A delicious dessert recipe to make with the kids and some crafty decorations to make it the perfect ending to a St. Patrick’s Day party or dinner celebration.

For more ideas check out my other recipes, crafts, and activities to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your kids or head over to my St. Patrick’s Day Board on Pinterest.

How do you like to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your kids?

{Cook with the Kids} Scary Halloween Cheesecake

October 3rd, 2012 · 1 Comment

We made this Scary Halloween Cheesecake two years ago for my son’s Cub Scout Cake Bake and I’m still proud of how it turned out. I love the scary looking rats eating the cake. The cake was pretty easy and my kids and I had a blast making the rats. (Some of them looked downright goofy and not scary so we had to play around with the faces a little.)

Our inspiration was a recipe from Redbook Magazine for Creepy Critter Cheesecake and Chocolate Rats. Like I said, it was very easy to make although we couldn’t find some of the ingredients, so we fudged a little.

For the Cake, I couldn’t find Famous Chocolate Wafers in the store so we used Oreo Thin Crisps. We could have also used Annie’s Chocolate Bunny Grahams, but the Oreos were darker. My son was 10 when we made the cake and I was really impressed that he was able to make the whole thing with just a little guidance from me and the Mixer. We followed the instructions for the cake exactly so you can grab them from the link.

Here’s how we deviated from the original recipe to make the rats:

For the rats, we couldn’t find black decorating sugar! It’s Halloween season and we could find every other kind of Halloween cookie and cake decoration except black sugar. ‘Sup with that? After 3 stores I was disgusted so we used chocolate jimmies to give the rats a “furry” texture. We also couldn’t find black rope licorice. What happened to rope licorice? Why don’t they make it anymore? Red or black. We had to use black Twizzlers and just cut strips for the tail. Finally, we couldn’t find “Yellow and brown candy-coated chocolate-covered sunflower seed. Personally, I don’t think these really exist. So we used a red cinnamon heart for the nose and we make the yellow eyes from candy corn. I just cut a small sliver of the yellow part of the candy corn, twirled the candy between my fingers to make it sort and then shaped it into the eyes we wanted.

Almond Ears for the mice:

Chocolate Coating:

Furry Sprinkles:

Rats on Cheese:

Rat Wearing a Party Hat (my daughter wanted hers to look more festive):

Woo Hoo! We won for Most Original Cake in our class at the Cub Scouts’ Annual Cake Bake.

You might also like:
Totally Cool Halloween Cake Ideas
Halloween Crafts
Halloween = Lots of Family Fun

Fun Dessert for a Family-Friendly Cinco de Mayo Party

May 11th, 2012 · No Comments

We invited some friends over for a casual Cinco de Mayo party last weekend and we had a blast catching up with our friends and letting the kids have fun. We kept the food simple, so we could have more time to enjoy our Queso Fundido and Margaritas. (Which we greatly enjoyed, by the way.) We put the kids to work making their own dessert, Ice Cream Banditos, which was a huge hit! I mean “un exito bien grande!” So, I wanted to share how to make this fun treat.

These ice cream banditos are easy, tasty, and they kept the kids occupied. They’re perfect for a Cinco de Mayo party, Mexican Fiesta or just summer day dessert. All you need is ice cream, tootsie rolls, M&Ms, marshmallows and edible markers. It was a blast to make.

You’ll need:

Jumbo size marshmallows
Regular size marshmallows
Edible food markers – I bought mine online from Foodoodler
Tootsie rolls – we used the size up from midges to make a larger mustache
M&Ms
Vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt
Optional Waffle bowls – if you want to keep the calories down, just use a small bowl for the ice cream

Step One: Make Your Sombrero

Step Two: Make Your Mustache

Step Three: Make Your Bandito

The girls gave their banditos more of a handlebar mustache but they still look super cute. If you make one, please upload a photo on our Facebook Fan page. I’d love to see your creations!

Chocolate Strawberry Pound Cake Hearts

February 13th, 2012 · 4 Comments

The kids and I were experimenting in the kitchen again and came up with an easy Valentine’s Day dessert idea. Believe it or not, the inspiration for this dessert came from my son’s science project. We needed to puree Strawberries for an experiment he is doing to see how fast mold grows. Yum! We had leftover Strawberry puree that looked and smelled too good to throw out so we ad libbed, using what we already had in the house, and came up with a fun Valentine’s Day dessert.

You’ll need:

1/2 pint of strawberries
Pre-made pound cake (your choice)
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
Heart cookie cutters
Sprinkles!

1. Put strawberries in food processor and puree until smooth. No chunks, please.

2. Cover the bottom of a dessert plate with the strawberry puree.

3. Cut a 1/2 inch slice of pound cake and use the cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes. I used a large and small cookie cutter to put both on the plate. You may need to cut the pound cake lengthwise to have enough surface area for your cookie cutter depending on the size of the cutter.

4. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, according to the directions on the package. Once melted, frost the top of the pound cake with the chocolate.

5. Add sprinkles, sprinkles, and more sprinkles, then serve. You can also add whipped cream or sprinkle powdered sugar over the top to make it look even more finished.

It was quite yummy and super easy.

Cooking with the Kids – Valentine’s Day Chocolate Mousse

February 10th, 2012 · 3 Comments

Pin It

Last week I was excited to get in to see Gale Gand, host of Food Network’s “Sweet Dreams” and author of several dessert cookbooks, at our local library. Her presentation was fun and she demonstrated how to make Chocolate Mousse. With samples. Yummy! It looked easy enough that my daughter and I decided to make it for Daddy and to jazz it up with some Valentine’s Day accents. (Don’t get your hopes up too high with the “jazz it up” part.)

Gale gave the audience members the recipe, from her Chocolate & Vanilla cookbook. Here’s a link to download her Chocolate Mousse recipe.

There are only 4 ingredients in the recipe (nice!) and you get to use the electric stand mixer a lot, which my daughter thinks is the coolest part of cooking. This is a great recipe to teach your kids how to separate egg whites or egg yolks. I generally crack the egg and pass the yolk back and forth between the two shells to separate out the egg whites. Gale showed us her preferred method which was to drop the egg into your hand with your fingers slightly separated and let the egg whites drip down into a bowl between your fingers. It worked great, just wash your hands when you’re done. (As if you weren’t going to figure that part out, but I felt the need to throw in a safety tip.)
(more…)

Valentine’s Day Brownies

February 1st, 2012 · 8 Comments

My daughter and I got a little creative this past weekend making Valentine’s Day brownies. Chocolate is a huge hit in my house, as you can imagine, so ooey-gooey brownies were on the top of our baking list.

You’ll Need:

Brownie Mix – We used King Arthur’s Gluten Free Brownie Mix for the first time and I have to say they were so tasty! I highly recommend it.
Frosting – Chocolate and Vanilla
Pink food coloring paste
Large and small heart cookie cutters
Candies – Heart-shaped York Peppermint Patty, Valentine’s Day M&M’s
Gum paste
Sprinkles, sprinkles and more sprinkles

1. We baked the brownies in a large baking dish (9 x 12) since I wanted them to be flatter so we could make a sandwich. I cut down the baking time by about 5 minutes since these brownies were thinner than indicated on the package. Let them cool.

2. Use the large Heart cookie cutter to cut your brownie shapes. Cut some small hearts out of the remaining brownie pan left-overs or cut a small heart out of the center of one of your larger heart brownies.

3. Add pink food coloring to the vanilla frosting. We wanted hot pink so we added quite a bit of pink food coloring paste to get the intensity we wanted.

4. Now decorate. You can frost the brownies and decorate with sprinkles, make shapes with candies, or put two brownies together to make a sandwich or whoopie pie effect. My daughter created the white bear and white heart out of gum paste. While she had fun making shapes with the gum paste, no one really liked it enough to eat it.

My favorite was the mouse. Which do you like best?

No matter how you decide to decorate your brownies, they’ll all taste great.

Yummy Groundhog Day Pancakes

January 23rd, 2012 · 9 Comments

Groundhog’s Day is next week and I was racking my brain for something fun to do to celebrate with the kids. Since all of the fun occurs in the morning – Punxatawney Phil gets up pretty early to see his shadow – I thought a breakfast treat would be ideal. So, I came up with these Groundhog’s Day Pancakes and I think they came out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. You can make them and surprise the kids when they come down for breakfast or have fun cooking together.

Here’s how to make the the Groundhog and his Shadow.

You can use any Pancake recipe you like. Here’s a good, basic pancake recipe from MarkBittman.com. However, I used a Whole Wheat Pancake Mix for this project. Whole wheat flour made the pancakes a little more brown in color which was perfect for a Groundhog. I made a double batch of pancake mix, split it in half into two separate bowls, and added black food coloring to half of the mix for the shadow pancakes.

I used my Pancake Dispenser Pen to pour out the batter into a circle head shape and then added little ears. (I have to say, of all the weird kitchen gadgets I’ve bought, I use my Pancake Dispenser Pen a lot.) If you don’t have a pancake pen, it’s no problem, just use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the mix onto the griddle making one big circle and then adding to little circles to the top for the ears. I made the “brown” Groundhog pancakes first and kept them warm in the oven. Then, I made the black batch of pancakes and tried to make them about the same size as the brown pancakes.

For the face, I used sliced bananas for the cheeks, strawberries for the ears and tongue, a blueberry for the nose and finally two chocolate chips for the eyes. To assemble, put the shadow pancake down on the plate first, the brown pancake on top and then decorate the face.

My daughter and I played around with two other design versions to see which we liked best. What do you think?

Shadow or no shadow, your kids will love this fun breakfast idea to help celebrate Groundhog’s Day next week.

Here’s even more ideas on how to celebrate Groundhog’s Day with the Kids. If you are on Pinterest, you can follow my Groundhog’s Day Fun Board or any of the other boards I’ve created to have more fun with your family. Need an invitation to join Pinterest? Shoot me an email at sue (at) chocolatecakeclub.com and I’ll invite you.

Cook Up Some Fun with Your Kids at the Young Chefs Academy

October 11th, 2011 · No Comments

My kids love to cook and I really enjoy spending time with them in the kitchen creating and talking. So, I was excited when Karin Wilcox, owner of Young Chefs Academy in Glenview, IL invited me out to see her kids cooking school. Bright, cheerful and spacious, this Young Chefs Academy location just made you want to hang out and explore the tools and recipes. To get your kids interested in cooking, you can sign up for weekly classes or host a fun birthday party. They offer Adult/Child workshops, which would be a fun idea for a “date night” with your child.

Cooking Classes
I was impressed with the amount of classes that they offer and how they appeal to all age ranges. The Young Chefs Academy encourages kids as young as 4-years-old to take age appropriate classes but they have Teen classes for kids up to 8th grade, as well. But there is a ton of variety in the class themes and recipes. The recipes aren’t all sugary treats either, which I like, so you can get your kids excited about cooking everyday meals. I’m all for encouraging kids to make dinner for Mom and Dad! My daughter has Type 1 diabetes and I’m always looking for kids cooking classes or recipes that aren’t so sugar and carb heavy. If you aren’t sure if your child will love a cooking class, you can register for a “Drop In” class where you just go once to try it all out.

Every week a new theme is introduced and the class creates fun recipes that correspond with the theme. For example, during “Let’s Take a Field Trip to the Fire Station” KinderCook kids learn how to make fire station stew and “code one” bread. I love the variety! The recipes focus on the seasons and upcoming Holidays too. For Eektober!, Junior Chefs get to make Jack-O-Lantern Quesadillas, Sinister Salsa, and Halloween Candy Pie. Yum! You can take one class or sign up for the whole season.

Birthday Parties
You can also host cooking themed birthday parties at Young Chefs Academy. From a birthday bear picnic to a Calzone party to an old-fashioned tea party, your kids can choose one of several birthday party themes that will entertain and teach the kids some special recipes. Most parties are 90 minutes long and the kids get to eat their creations as well as go home with some new recipes.

Young Chefs Academy also has some Holiday cooking camps coming up in December when the kids are out of school. Check the website for information on what is available.

If your child loves to cook or you want to give them a fun experience that also teaches a life skill, give them the gift of cooking classes at the Young Chefs Academy. Perfect for a unique Holiday gift!

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids

Family-Friendly Fall Cooking

October 7th, 2011 · No Comments

We’ve got a guest post today from writer Megan Gates, who shares her ideas for spending time this Fall in the kitchen with your kids. Take it away, Megan!

When cooking with children, health and safety are of utmost importance. Children should always be reminded to wash their hands before and after preparing food. And parents should choose recipes that do not require children to be near the stove or oven. Children typically like to work with recipes that require a lot of ingredients. This can also be a good way to initiate hesitant parents who are not accustomed to having their children involved with the cooking.

Recipes for fall cookies or warm, hearty soups require numerous ingredients that parents can have chopped and measured out ahead of time. Children simply need to pour the pre-measured ingredients into a bowl or pot and mix everything together. Parents should then move the pot of soup to the stove or the cookies to the oven. However, for the parent who is ready to allow her children to be even more hands on, the children can drop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet or even cut out autumn shapes from pressed dough.

Another good fall meal that allows a child to be a bit more involved in its creation is stromboli. Parents can prepare the dough ahead of time and then allow children to fill the stromboli to their liking, most likely with a parent-approved assortment of deli meats, cheeses and vegetables. The parent then simply needs to wrap the dough and place the stromboli in the oven. This same idea can be carried over into the creation of personal pizzas. Providing an assortment of vegetable toppings and allowing each child in the family to create his own pizza may also help to develop some more varied and healthy eating habits.

As previously mentioned, parents should always keep health and safety in mind when inviting children to help with cooking; however, other than that, creativity is encouraged. Once a parent is used to cooking with their children, she can most likely adapt numerous recipes, allowing for more fun, maybe even educational, family experiences during those chilly, autumn months.

Great ideas, Megan! If you’re thinking about making pizza with the kids, check out my family’s kid-friendly Homemade Pizza Recipe that is very kid-friendly.

What fall dishes or treats do you like to cook with your kids?

Megan Gates is an active blogger who provides written work to the blogosphere pertaining to New York Real Estate, Suffolk Rental Properties, design, fashion, and family holidays. Follow her on twitter @MEGatesDesign.

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids

Which Kids’ Cookbook Should You Choose?

October 3rd, 2011 · No Comments

Want to spend more quality time in the kitchen cooking with your kids or grand kids? Not sure which kids cookbook to get for inspiration? Let me help you with my review of a few of the more popular kids cookbooks on the market.

I went to the library recently looking for a kids cookbook and decided to take a bunch home and compare them. I love to cook with my kids and I’m always trying to get them more interested in learning new recipes. We mostly bake fun treats together but I really want to encourage them to think about cooking meals. So, when I read the books I brought home, I was looking for recipes that would inspire the kids to get in the kitchen, to make something other than cupcakes and cookies. (Not that there is anything wrong with cupcakes and cookies. I’m a HUGE fan!)

This is not an exhaustive study of all of the kids cookbooks on the market. I just grabbed the ones I could get from the library. Our favorite cookbook is at the end, so read the whole post!

Note: I provided links to buy these cookbooks to make it easy for you to find. I randomly chose the vendor and I am not compensated in any way if you do purchase the books.

Here are the books that my kids and I reviewed:

Betty Crocker’s Cook Book for Boys and Girls

This cookbook is a reproduction of the original 1957 cookbook that you might have seen as a child. I loved looking through the book at the retro illustrations and the kinds of recipes popular back in the 50′s. They had a very cool section on Campfire Cooking and since my son is learning to cook with his Boy Scout troop, we devoured this section.

Part of the charm of the book is the advice they give kids in addition to the recipes. My favorite pieces of advice were:

“Take Pride in the Table. For happy family meals, set the table just as carefully and attractively as you would for company.”

“Good manners are not something to put on for company, but should be a part of all of us.”

I also really liked their advice to “Make Dinner a Fun Time. Start a game of Table Topics.” I’m preaching that to families almost 50 years later!

The recipes aren’t too difficult. Several recipes encourage you to make fun shapes out of food, which is a very popular trend today. I like the Three Men in a Boat recipe using Chipped Dried Beef, although I would probably make it with something other than Chipped Dried Beef. Shudder!

Bottomline, I enjoyed reading the book for nostalgia’s sake but neither my kids nor I were really inspired to try any of the recipes. However, if you have fond memories of this cookbook growing up, grab a new copy and share your favorite recipes with your kids. I would say it’s for kids ages 7 and up.

Williams-Sonoma’s The Kids Cookbook
The best part of any William Sonoma cookbook is the photography and their kids cookbook is no exception. Not only is the food photography crisp and enticing, I liked that the photos showed kids doing the work. There’s some great information up front on how to measure, clean vegetables, zest a lemon, cut an onion and other kitchen basics. My kids really liked some of the recipes and the full page photograph of each completed dish helped to entice them. You knew what you were making and what it was supposed to look like.

There are plenty of entree, breakfast, side dish and dessert recipes so even your picky eaters should find something they want to try, although there aren’t that many recipes in the book compared to some other kids cookbooks. Many of the recipes are healthy and I really liked that the book encourages children to make many of their store-bought, processed favorites, like Macaroni and Cheese, from scratch. It’s a nice way to get you and your kids talking about processed food and comparing the difference between processed and homemade foods. Although processed food is convenient, it’s great to show your kids how a little extra work adds a whole lot of better flavor and it’s healthier. The book lists the kitchen equipment needed to make each dish so you can round it up and have everything ready before you start. Very helpful.

This kids cookbook is one to have on the shelf as a good, safe reference cookbook. I think it’s geared for kids aged 9 and up.

Paula Deen’s My First Cookbook
This is a cute cookbook from the Queen of Southern Cooking. There are definitely recipes in here for Southern comfort food. This book appears to be written for younger kids who have adult supervision, although older kids won’t find it too cutesy and could certainly handle the recipes. The instructions all talk about the help a child needs from an adult but older kids can skip those parts. While the illustrations are super cute and appealing, I personally like to see a photo of what I’m cooking to get inspired.

There are quite a few recipes in here – way more than in some of the other books which is nice for a lot of variety. Apples with homemade peanut butter, frozen chocolate bananas, and other snacks are a great idea too. When the kids come home from school starving and Mom is busy working, this is a good option for them to find and make a healthy snack. Chicken Pot Pie, Green Eggs with Ham, and even Donut recipes were some that my kids liked. There’s even a section called “Happy Birthday to Me” with recipes for a birthday cake and special birthday cookies.

I loved the section on cooking FOR Mom & Dad with instructions on how to serve us breakfast in bed. Cute! If you want a book with a lot of variety and a lot of recipes or if you want a cookbook for younger kids, I would recommend this cookbook. For kids ages 3 – 7 with adult supervision, 7 and up by themselves.

Spatulatta Cookboook for Kids

By far, the cookbook that my kids and I loved the most, was the Spatulatta Cookbook by Isabella and Olivia Geraole, the two girls behind the James Beard award-winning Spatulatta.com site. If your kids seriously enjoy cooking, this is the book to buy.

This kids cookbook gives you basic cooking information, as well as instructions on food safety and setting the table properly. The cookbook divides recipes into seasons, which is a different touch, to highlight ingredients available at different times of year or seasonal comfort foods.

I really liked the ethnic diversity to the recipes in this book. These are not your run of the mill kids recipes that you see in every cookbook like spaghetti, quesadillas, and ham roll-ups. Boring! The recipes in the Spatulatta Cookbook dare kids to cook and taste something different like Orange-Carrot Soup, Green Beans with Garlic, Pomegranate and Pink Grapefruit Salad, Tofu Salad, and Crunchy Chicken Yakitori. My favorite recipe was Ghosts in the Graveyard Meatloaf, but I’m a sucker for spooky Halloween stuff.

Every recipe shows the two girls making the food so kids will be inspired that they can do it, too. Some of the recipes are good for younger kids but this book is written as if your child is going to do everything. Cooking for Mom, I love it. I would say kids need to be 8 or 9 years old at least to tackle some of the recipes alone. Check out the Spatulatta site to see if they have a video of the recipe. Sometimes it’s easier for kids to follow a recipe once they have seen the girls make it on the video.

One of our other favorite kids cookbooks is Bean Appetit. I reviewed that kids cookbook in a separate post, so check it out.

As a final note, I wish kids cookbooks would include a lot more nutritional information for their recipes. My daughter has Type 1 diabetes, so we HAVE to know the carbs of the foods she eats so that we can give her enough insulin. With a lot of cookbooks, we have no idea how many carbs are in the dishes and we end up having to guess. In the future, I would love to see kids cookbooks concentrate more on nutritional information so that parents can help kids to read food labels, understand how to read the nutritional information to make smart choices for what they eat, and for kids which special dietary concerns, it’s so helpful to parents to have that information spelled out.

What is your favorite kids cookbook? What is your favorite recipe to cook together? Share it with me and I’ll feature it on the site.

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids

Bean Appetit Kids Cookbook Review

September 23rd, 2011 · 1 Comment

I was at the library this week and picked up a copy of the kids cookbook Bean Appetit by Shannon Payette Seip, Kelly Parthen and Carisa Dixon. I love cooking with my kids and so I’m always looking for fun new recipes to try with them. The authors, who founded Bean Sprouts a cooking school for kids, bill the cookbook as “Hip and Healthy Ways to have fun with food” and I think they did a great job delivering on that promise. I’m all about Family Fun so I love all of the creative ways the authors incorporated recipes, fun facts, conversation questions for the dinner table, and just silly activities to do with food.

As a book, this cookbook is fun so it’s easy to read. It’s the kind of book I want to write with whimsical illustrations, interesting little fun tips and ideas beyond the recipes, and most importantly, filled with ideas I can actually use. Moms will enjoy reading it and coming up with fun ideas for their toddlers but the book is very approachable, so your 7 – 12 year old kids might like reading it themselves.

Recipes
I loved that the recipes were healthy. Most use a lot of fruits, veggies and whole grains as ingredients. While my kids eat a lot of those anyway, it’s nice to see fun recipes that incorporate healthier ingredients. The ingredients are also pretty easy to find so you don’t need to go to 3 grocery stores to find that one essential herb or grain, etc. As a busy Mom, I appreciate that.

I also like that the recipes are different. I just read through 7 kids cookbooks to review them for the blog and most of them have the same recipes over and over because I guess they feel kids have limited tastes. With Bean Appetit, I like how they take a traditional kids’ cookbook recipe like pancakes but throw a little creativity at it and turn it into a fun recipe like Stick Stacks which is mini pancakes on a stick with fruit to make a pancake kabob.

For many recipes, the authors recommend using their Flour Blend which includes whole wheat flour, unbleached flour, wheat germ, and flax meal in place of regular flour, and their Chickpea Puree instead of butter which really boosts the healthy factor of a lot of their recipes. I don’t know if I would take the time to make the chickpea butter but I am definitely mixing up the flour blend.

My only negative on the recipes is that I wish there were more of them in the book. The book does such a nice job of adding extra interest items like fun facts, games, table conversation starters, etc. but I really do wish there were more creative kids recipes.

The recipes that I am dying to make with my kids include the Campfire Crunch snack, Pear Penguins, and Cherry Pie Pops. Get a copy of the book from your library and see how fun these recipes are.

I would recommend this kids cookbook to any budding little chef and Moms who want to inject a little more fun and silliness into their family’s day.

Note: I was not compensated for this review in any way. I just picked up the book at my library and I liked it so much I’m going to buy a copy for myself.

You can grab the book at BarnesandNoble.com.

Want some kid sized cooking utensils or aprons to get started in the kitchen? Check out the Kids Cooking Section at our sister company ChocolateCakeClub.com, where we sell Playful Chef Kids Cooking Sets, really unique kid-sized aprons for girls and boys, birthday party cupcake kits, and fun food mixes to help you and your kids or grandkids connect and have fun in the kitchen.

You Might Also Like:
Fun Pancake Recipes
Fun Halloween Cupcakes for Kids
Homemade Pizza Recipe for Family Pizza Night

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids

Tasty Treats for a Race Car Theme Party

June 23rd, 2011 · 1 Comment

Whether you are hosting a race car theme birthday party or just racing your Matchbox cars on the driveway, here are some fun treats to make for the kids to get their engines revving. We got the inspiration for these treats from MakeandTakes.com, and their race car party post. We just built upon her theme. It was so easy to make these race car treats that you can either make them ahead of time for the kids or have them make their own. (My kids wanted to make their own.)

(more…)

This Summer Make all Kinds of Fun Pancakes Recipes … for Dinner

June 14th, 2011 · 4 Comments

Allrecipes.com Pancake images

This summer get all silly with it and make breakfast food for dinner. It doesn’t matter how old your kids are, they still love messing with the “norm.” Idea #6 in our 51 Ideas for Summer Family Fun Activities is cooking pancakes for dinner with the kids.

Pancakes. They’re not just for breakfast anymore. It’s a fun way to shake your family’s day but, don’t just make your regular old pancake recipe. Do something fun -shapes, colors, extras. I remember my Dad used to make Mickey Mouse pancakes for my brother and I. We loved it and it was a tradition that is a fond memory still today.

Shapes: For fun shaped pancakes, buy pancake molds at kitchen supply stores or old cookie cutters that can lay flat on a griddle. Fill them with batter and amaze your kids. You can buy a Pancake Pen or use an old, clean condiment squirt bottle to “draw” pancake shapes on the griddle. You don’t need any special tools to make Mickey Mouse or bear shaped pancakes. Just make a larger circle and then two smaller circle pancakes and put them together on the plate to make your faces.

My son loves Star Wars so when we saw the new Star Wars pancake molds at Williams Sonoma, we ran out to get them. We added green food color to some of the batter to make the Yoda pancake shapes. (We liked these molds because they actually laid flat. We have bought molds before that weren’t completely flat and the batter leaks out to the side. Not cool.) How did we do?

Click here to see the coolest pancakes ever for inspiration.

iammommy.com's rainbow pancakes

Colors: Add food coloring to your pancake batter to make colored pancakes. Use a variety of colors and overlap them on the plate to make a rainbow. iammommy.com has a recipe for some awesome Rainbow Pancakes. Depending on the shapes you are using, choose a matching food color to enhance the design. If you are going to add some whipped cream to your pancakes (this is incredibly delicious with pumpkin pancakes), you can also color the whip cream.

Extras: For the Piece de Resistance, add some fun “extras” to your pancakes like Hershey kisses for eyes, red hots for buttons, cherries, bananas, baked apples, and M&Ms. Go wild. Use a piece of bacon or sausage link for the mouth.

What’s great about cooking pancakes is that it’s a perfect meal for kids to help out. They can put the ingredients in the bowl, stir, and decorate with the special ingredients at the end. To help make your time in the kitchen together even more fun, get your kids their own cooking apron. My son loves to cook and we were frustrated that most of the kid-sized aprons were all girlie, so we went and found some boyish kids aprons that we know you’ll love too.

Here’s a basic recipe for pancakes.

Send me a photo of your pancake creations to sue (at) chocolatecakeclub.com. I’d love to include it on the blog.

Guy Fieri Champions Cooking with Your Kids

May 12th, 2011 · 1 Comment

For me, cooking with your kids is the ultimate “Chocolate Cake Moment.” Making cooking a SHARED activity you not only teach your kids a life skill, it brings the family closer together. Your talking, sharing ideas, learning, experiencing something together and most importantly connecting … without any headphones, TVs, computers, or other distractions.

Guy Fieri Cooking with Kids Show

So, it’s great to see Guy Fieri, of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and Guy’s Big Bite on Food Network, championing cooking with your kids. His foundation and new Food Network show “Cooking with Kids” are designed to mentor kids of all ages and educate families on the importance of getting kids into the kitchen from the very beginning. Hear, Hear! Check out the show site for tips on cooking with kids and kid-friendly recipes.

Guy answers questions on what motivated him to focus on Cooking with Kids over at the Food Network Blog. You can even watch a clip from the show.

Check out all of our kids cooking products to get you started having fun in the kitchen. With kid-sized kitchen tool sets, to kid-friendly recipe books, to personalized aprons for girls and boys (these are hard to find!), and finally food mixes for pizza, cookies, and cupcakes, we’ve got what you need to get in the kitchen and cook up some fun.

What do you like to cook with your kids?

Fun with the Kids at the Farmers Market

May 10th, 2011 · No Comments

It’s finally warm enough in the Midwest that the Farmer’s Markets are now open. Yeah! I love Farmers Market Season. Browsing the Farmers Market stalls on a lazy Saturday morning is one of my absolute favorite summer traditions. I bring the family, the dog, and my iced Coffee Toffee and enjoy myself. We’re together, outside in the sunshine, discovering new foods, promoting local farmers, and exercising by walking the neighborhood. (That’s almost an overload of family goodness, but we deal.)

But don’t think of it as a grocery run! At our Farmers Market there’s live music, food samples, dogs, dogs, and more dogs. The kids love the entertainment value. With a little creativity, a trip to the Farmers Market can be an adventure for your kids.

Here’s how to make it more fun:

1. Shop. Give the kids a bag and let them buy their favorite foods. Our Playful Chef Farmers Market Bag is PERFECT for this! The set includes a bag to carry your purchases, a scrubber and cotton towel for cleaning your produce, and a booklet with information on which fruits and vegetables are best in each season, where they are grown and how best to prepare them.

2. Learn. Give your kids a small notebook or “Adventure Guide Book.” Have your kids visit each stall and identify a food they like best. Have them write notes in their book on who they met, which foods they tasted and liked or didn’t like, and where the farm is located.

3. Hunt. Create a scavenger hunt for the kids. Have them find an item for every letter of the alphabet or find as many colors as they can. Find something from another state. Find 5 raw foods and 5 cooked.

Now, go home and enjoy the fresh taste of summer!

Do you take your kids to the Farmer’s Market? What do they enjoy the most?

One Last Peeps Easter Cake Idea

April 26th, 2011 · No Comments

I know Easter is over. And I hope you had a fabulous Holiday with your family. My kids and I have one last Easter treat idea to share. You can change the theme, easily. Check out this Easter Kit Kat Cake that I made with my daughter, having fun in the kitchen together.

We were inspired by this post for a Kit Kat Cake from Made in Melissa’s Kitchen.

The cake looked great but we wanted to give ours an Easter flair. Here’s our version, using Peeps:

You need:

Chocolate Cake Mix
Chocolate Frosting
6 Kit Kat bars (4 pieces each)
Bag of Shredded Coconut
Green food coloring
Peeps, robins egg, or jelly bean Easter candy
Ribbon

First we baked a Chocolate Cake using 2 round cake pans. We used our knife to even off the top of one cake so that the top layer would sit a little nicer on the bottom layer. We generously frosted the bottom layer of the cake, then added the top layer and frosted it. We finished up by frosting the sides.
(more…)

Easter Cupcakes to Bake with Kids

April 25th, 2011 · No Comments

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter or Passover last week with their families. After finding so many creative ideas for Easter cupcakes last week on other blogs, my daughter and I were inspired to bake up some fun treats. Here’s our take on some cupcake ideas:

Carrot Patch Chocolate Cupcakes

I saw this idea on the Frog Prince Paperie blog and just had to try it. Not only because it looked tasty but had huge visual appeal. You can get the whole tutorial for how to make the cupcakes on their site but here are our photos of my daughter making the “carrots” and our end product. It was VERY easy to make and kids can help out all along the way – baking and decorating. It just has several steps – make cupcakes; let cool; make “carrots”; let cool; frost cupcakes, and insert carrot tops – so you need a little time.

Dipping marshmallows in orange candy coating, then dipping top in orange sugar sprinkles, and finally sticking them into styrofoam block to dry.
(more…)

A Most Unique Easter Centerpiece – A Cupcake Topiary

April 6th, 2011 · 2 Comments

Cupcake Topiary

I have been collecting what I think are the best of the best Easter craft and recipe ideas to delight and have fun with your kids. I’ll kick things off with this Easter Cupcake Topiary created by Christy from the Girl Who Ate Everything blog.

Is it a recipe or is it a craft? It’s both! I just loved the idea for showing off your cupcakes in such a unique way. It’s THE perfect centerpiece for Easter or for an upcoming baby shower.

While I was checking out the recipes on her site, I found this recipe for Angry Bird Cake Pops. Now you can literally feed your obsession. I LOVE it! My kids were so psyched to see this! As she says in the post, it’s a little complicated to make so I’m just going to look at the picture and drool.

If you have a kid-friendly recipe or craft idea for Easter that you’d like us to share, please send it in! We’d love to feature your creativity and if you have a blog site, we’re happy to give a link back. If you can, take a second and vote for us in the Leading Moms in Business contest. It only takes a click!

Fun Food to Cook with the Kids this Weekend

April 1st, 2011 · No Comments

While blog hopping this week, I ran across some super fun recipes and ideas that would be perfect to cook with the kids this weekend. Have a little fun creating “moments” in the kitchen talking, cooking, and then eating with your kids.

Pasta Nest

CraftyMoods.com Pasta Nests
Celebrate Spring and turn a boring bowl of spaghetti into a Pasta Nest with Birds. I love this idea as a fun take on traditional spaghetti and meatballs from Craftymoods.com. She uses candy eyeballs in her recipe but if you didn’t have any, I would suggest using black olives or even raisins for the eyes.

(more…)

6 Fun Ways to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday

March 1st, 2011 · 7 Comments

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! Can you believe that 107 years ago, Theodore Geisel changed the world by teaching children to read, and enjoy it, when he introduced “The Cat in the Hat.” We want to honor his memory and thank him for entertaining and educating us and our children. He has stimulated our imaginations and engaged us with fun, humor and a whole lot of goofiness. To keep his memory alive, here are 6 ways to help celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday with some family fun activities. (more…)

Valentine’s Day Treats for the Kids

February 4th, 2011 · No Comments

There are some amazing recipes out there for Valentine’s Day treats for the kids. I went looking for the ones that would intrigue my kids (and me) the most. Make them ahead of time to surprise the kids when they come home from school on Valentine’s Day or you can prepare any of these recipes WITH the kids for even more fun on Valentine’s Day.

Sprinkle Bakes Flaming Cupcakes

Sprinklebakes.com is a very cool baking site and I just love these flaming Chocolate Cupcakes. While she is pushing them as romantic, I would push them as worthy of amazing the kids. I would definitely keep the liquor and the flame out of the kids’ hands, but having them gaze upon a cupcake that is on fire would heat up Mom’s coolness factor. (Note: Although you need to add liquor to make the flame, the heat burns away the alcohol so kids can still eat it. Or, light some on fire but keep some liquor free cupcakes on the side to serve the kids after the “show.”)

This Box of Chocolates Cake from AmazingMoms.com is pretty cool as well.

Barbara Beery's Chocolate Fondue Recipe

Barbara Beery always has some fun and easy recipes for cooking with the kids. Check out her Kid-Friendly Valentine’s Day Chocolate Fondue and Heart-shaped Chocolate Chip Peppermint Scones. Yum to both!

FamilyFun.com's Watermlon Heart treats
Finally, if you want something healthier and non-chocolate, these Watermelon Heart treats from FamilyFun.com looked super yummy and easy.

What are your favorite treats to make the kids for Valentine’s Day. “>Please share.

You May Also Like:

No Babysitter for Valentine’s Day? No Problem!

Small Ways to Say I Love My Family on Valentine’s Day

Cooking with the Kids – Red Velvet Heart Cakes

Celebrate Groundhog’s Day with the Kids

January 31st, 2011 · 2 Comments

Here in Chicago we are going to celebrate Groundhog Day with 12 -20 inches of snow. Yippee! (Note to self: Get gas for the snowblower today!) I don’t foresee any Groundhogs popping out in the blizzard to look for a shadow. However, since we might be trapped indoors, I went on the hunt for some Groundhog day fun for the kids.

Cook Up Some Fun

Gourmet Mom On the Go Groundhog Day Hot Chocolate

Check out these incredibly creative Groundhog Day inspired recipes are from the Gourmet Mom on the Go blog. I love the Groundhog sticking up out of the hot chocolate!

FamilyFun.com had some cute Groundhog Day Cupcakes.

Finally, you can buy these Groundhog cookie cutters. Use your favorite cut-out cookie recipe and ice them in brown. Yum!

Pure Fun

Groundhog Day Shadow Fun

Shadow Puppet Theater

Here are some Groundhog Day Activities to do with the kids from the official Punxatawney Phil website. I’m all over the Groundhog ornaments to print out and hang from a chandelier or indoor tree but the Word Searches and coloring pages are cute, too.

Groundhog Day movie
If your kids are a little older, watch the Groundhog Day movie. My kids think it is hilarious. “Don’t drive angry!”

What do you do to celebrate Groundhog Day with your kids?

You Might Also Like:
Yummy Groundhog Day Pancakes

Say No! to the Back-to-School Blues

January 3rd, 2011 · 1 Comment

My kids were positively gloom and doom this morning when they had to go back to school. (Why does school start so early? Why do I even have to go to school? Ninjas don’t need to learn math. Why don’t you ever buy me any decent pants?) Insert your kids’ favorite whining here.

Now I like a good wine, I mean whine, when it’s me doing the whining. I certainly don’t want to condone the kids’ whiny behavior, but I was thinking of doing something special for the kids this evening to “celebrate” or “ease the pain” of going back to school after the Holiday Break. My plan? Chocolate Fondue! What better way to create a Chocolate Cake Moment than with hot, gooey chocolate?

You can certainly surprise the kids with this treat after school today or maybe on Friday after school to celebrate them getting back into the swing of homework.

Kirchner’s Chocolate Fondue

Break the chocolate bars into pieces and place in your fondue, hot pot, or double boiler. Keep on a low setting. (If you don’t have any of those, just use a regular pot on very low setting and make sure you keep stirring.) Add cream and stir constantly until chocolate is melted and smooth. (If you are melting this on a stove top, watch the heat. Don’t walk away or the chocolate will boil and be ruined.) Stir in the vanilla right before serving. Then dip away!

Dipping Suggestions (In order of our kids preference):

Large marshmallows
Sliced bananas
Salted pretzel sticks
Cubed pound cake
Angel food cake
Stem strawberries
Hazelnut or almond biscotti (more for the adults)

Serves 6

Have fun! What do you do to ease the pain of going back to school for your kids?

Love to Entertain? Check Out MemorableEntertaining.com!

December 31st, 2010 · No Comments

I love to entertain! Whether it is a small dinner party, a casual pizza party with the neighbors, a family celebration, or cool kids party, I love to plan, host and most importantly have some party fun. But I’m a busy Mom so although I want my party preparations to be memorable, I want them easy as well. I want to spend more time having fun at the party than planning it!

So, I was thrilled when my friend Debra Delaney-Kavalos announced that her fabulous site MemorableEntertaining.com was now free to all. I have had a subscription for her home entertaining site for over a year now and it is my Go-To source for ideas on recipes, party themes, or simple, but Wow! decorations. She has some wonderful recipe contributions from local and national chefs. I was excited when she asked me to submit some Kids’ Parties last year because it challenged me to come up with some unique ideas.

Head on over to MemorableEntertaining.com and register to become a user. It’s now a free resource site, but you do need to register. Then check out my Kids’ Sledding Party here.

Does the idea of entertaining at home make you break out in hives? Relax! Read my post on 5 Fun, Easy Ways to Entertain Friends, Even If You Are Afraid of Entertaining.

How to Choose the Perfect Kids Tea Set

December 29th, 2010 · 2 Comments

There is nothing more fun than a tea party! Dressing up, pouring “tea”, serving cookies, and inviting your favorite friends – real or imaginary – is one of childhood’s greatest pleasures. At least, I think so! Even as an adult one of my favorite things to do is have tea with my BFFs.

If you know a little girl who would love to host her own tea party, then she needs a tea set. There are so many options and sometimes it’s hard to choose the right tea set for a child.

Tea sets come in a variety of materials, sizes and shapes. Porcelain, ceramic, tin, and plastic are the most common. While the first two are breakable, they are also more “dainty” or feminine in design which appeals to a lot of little girls. They are also more like “grown-up” tea sets and little girls definitely want their pretend play to be as realistic as possible. Here are some considerations to hopefully make it easier for you to choose the perfect set.

Toy vs. Heirloom
Here’s my take on this debate. I think buying a beautiful tea set that your daughter or granddaughter can keep as an heirloom to remind them of you is wonderful. However, if the child is young, don’t give it to them until they are older. Or, have Mom or Grandma keep the tea set and host special tea parties for the child when they are younger and then give them the set when they are older. It will be so much more special if they remember using it with you once they get it as their very own.

Giving a young girl a beautiful, expensive tea set that she can’t touch or play with is cruel. She either won’t be allowed to touch it, which then in their eyes they are denied something fun or they will play with it anyway and feel terrible if it does break. Make a tea set gift fun for them! It is the experience of having tea with you or their friends, that they will remember.

The Age Appropriate Myth

First, of all, how old is your tea party cutie? In general, the younger the child, the more durable the tea set should be. Younger kids may not be as dexterous and need a larger tea cup. Even though they have little fingers, it might be harder for them to grab tiny cups.

Most toys give an age appropriate guideline on the box. Keep in mind this is a guide. The manufacturer is afraid you are going to break it and accuse them of not warning you, so they err on the cautious side. You are going to have to gauge whether your daughter or granddaughter can handle a breakable tea set. My son is almost 11 years old but I cringe any time he goes near glass. After all, he is officially the sworn enemy to all snow globes. If he even looks at one, it breaks. My daughter on the other hand has had a ceramic and a porcelain tea set since she was 3 years old and hasn’t chipped or broken a cup yet. She treats her tea set like gold and is dexterous enough to handle it carefully.

So look at the age guidelines on the tea sets, which are usually set for a worst case scenario and make a judgment call on whether she can handle a more fragile set. What’s the worst case scenario? She breaks a cup and you need to buy a new one. I’d rather see my kids playing and enjoying their tea set than worrying about breaking it. If you find a tea set you love and are worried it might get broken, buy 2 sets. That way you always have a back-up and no one has to worry.

Size Does Matter

Tea sets come in different sizes. There are mini tea sets which really are more collectible items or doll-size so your dolls can pretend to have tea. Your child will not be able to drink out of these. We sell this Mini Crown Tea Set which is perfect for a doll tea party. If you are buying the tea set online, it should say the size in the product description. If not, don’t hesitate to email or call, to get a better sense of the size of the tea set.

Who’s invited to the party? Believe it or not, it’s hard to find kids’ porcelain tea sets that have 4 cups. Most only have 2. We only carry one porcelain set that has 4 cups. Our plastic and tin tea sets do include 4 cups so you might want to look at tea sets in other materials, if you need more than 2 cups.

You can always buy mismatched porcelain tea cups at estate sales, flea markets, or second hand stores to add more cups to your set. I know I needed to invite ALL of my stuffed animals to the tea party or they would get upset.

Drinkability

Here’s the million dollar question. Is your child going to drink out of the tea set? When your child is younger, they have no problem pretending. They don’t need liquid in the cup to have a good time. When your child hits 5 years old or older, they might want to be a little more “grown-up” and serve the tea at their party, drinking water, ginger ale, root beer, or juice out of the tea cups. It’s as much fun to pour as it is to drink. If that is the case, you need to make sure that the tea set is food safe, FDA-approved, and water resistant. If the set is plastic, make sure it meets all BPA, phthalate, and lead safety standards. Basically, it needs to be non-toxic. While a tin tea set may be non-toxic, once you add liquid to it some tea sets start to leak or rust.

If she wants to drink out of the tea set, look for a cup size that is at least 2” in diameter. You won’t get a lot of liquid in these cups, about 2 ounces, but it’s enough. The porcelain tea sets we sell at Chocolate Cake Club, like our Daisy Tea Set, fit this bill.

Green Toys Eco-Friendly Tea Set

If you really want to put a “drink” in the cups, at least 4 ounces, then our Green Porcelain Tea Set or our Green Toys Eco-Friendly Tea Sets are a better bet.

I hope these considerations have helped you to choose the perfect kids tea set for your little girl’s first or next tea party. We’ll be adding a post on How to Host the Perfect Tea Party next week so come back for tips on how to make your kids’ tea parties even more fun and unique.

You might also like:
Mom’s Night Out – Holiday Tea

Thanksgiving Family Fun Ideas

November 17th, 2010 · No Comments

Looking for some fun ideas to do with the family around Thanksgiving? Here are a few of my favorites as well as some great ideas from other Mom bloggers.

Get Active! Our town hosts a Turkey Trot 1 Mile and 5K race every Thanksgiving morning. While we usually travel out of town to visit family on Thanksgiving so we have never been in town to participate, several of our neighbors run as a family every year. It’s a great way to burn the calories before you pack in the carbs!

Bake Up Memories. We have a family tradition on Thanksgiving Day. After we gorge ourselves and the boys go watch football or take a nap on the couch, the women folk go back in the kitchen and make our favorite Holiday cookies. Each person brings their favorite recipe and we bake, bake, bake. (It keeps us awake and standing so we’re burning the Turkey dinner calories, right?)

When we started this tradition it was fun to see what Grandma’s favorite cookie recipe was when she was a kid. Now that she is gone, we still make those cookies to remember her by. The other benefits of this tradition are that everyone goes home with a plate of assorted cookies. Freeze them and pull them out for your Holiday parties. If that’s not a stress-bustin’ tip, I don’t know what is.

Here’s a post I wish I had written! Check out the great A to Z Thanksgiving Family Fun Ideas from Cindy Bultema at the SheSparkles Blog.

Marie at MakeandTakes.com offers some fun ideas for Turkey Bowling and Turkey Bingo.

TheMotherHuddle.com also had some very cute ideas for Thanksgiving family activities. I love the Ornament Exchange idea!

What fun activities does your family do on or around Thanksgiving?

Halloween Cupcakes

October 27th, 2010 · No Comments

I shared my family’s Halloween Cupcake Creations earlier today but then I ran across a whole discussion about Halloween Cupcakes over at Halloween Seasonal Celebration at TheBlogFrog.com.

There are some totally awesome designs over there so click on over for inspiration.

Fun Halloween Cupcakes for Kids

October 27th, 2010 · 2 Comments

This past weekend for our Halloween fun activity, we decorated cupcakes. I had seen so many incredibly cool cupcake designs on other sites that I wanted to see if we could recreate them. The goal was to make them for the kids’ school Halloween parties this Friday, but guess what? They’re gone already.

There are a million cupcake recipes out there to make the cupcakes from scratch (go ahead, Google Cupcake recipes and prepare to be overwhelmed) but we made life a little easier and just chocolate cupcakes from a mix. We were in the mood to decorate, not bake. So, how did we do?

Jack Skellington Cupcakes
I love the movie Nightmare Before Christmas so when I saw these Jack Skellington cupcakes on the Disney Family.com site, I started to drool. I thought it was easy to do and the instructions were very helpful however, my daughter got mad because she couldn’t get the face to come out right. You need fairly good icing control. Her cupcakes looked like a cool ghoul, but not exactly like Jack.

Spooky Owl Cupcakes
Owls are the “it” animal this year, as I said in my post Owls are Hot! Hoo Hoo Knew? So, my daughter, who was a big fan of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole wanted to make these cupcakes. You can find slightly different versions of these owl cupcakes on a variety of different sites (as I said, owls are hot) but we chose this photo at TheCupcakeBlog.com as inspiration.

We used, chocolate frosting, Oreos, white frosting and M&Ms. These cupcakes were super easy and my kids could put them together like pros. We frosted the cupcake. Split open Oreo cookies for the eyes and “ears.” Once the Oreos are split, take the piece without the white center and break them into “ear” shapes. Then put M&Ms on for eyeballs and an M&M turned sideways for the beak.

The only two issues we had were that the Oreos were hard to break open. I remember as a kid you could just twist them apart so I don’t know what’s in these cookies now but the centers are like super glue. These needed to be pried open with a knife or they would break in pieces. Also, when we did get them to break open cleanly, the white center part had black crumbs all over it from the other side of the cookie. It didn’t look like a nice, clean, white eyeball. So we used white frosting on the inside of the cookies which actually made it easier for the M&M eyeballs to stick. All in all, a great recipe for the kids.

Spider Web Cupcakes
Our inspiration for these easy spider web cupcakes came from Bakerella.com. We did it in reverse with white frosting on the cupcake and a black web. We also used M&Ms for the spider since we had them out anyway.

Finally, we just got out our collection of sprinkles, almond slivers, and other toppings to create our own ideas. Creating bats, cats, tarantulas, and werewolves was a pretty fun afternoon with the family.

Have you made any cool Halloween cupcakes that you’d like to share? Send me a link to your photos and I’ll post them on the blog.

Fun Halloween Food Recipes

October 8th, 2010 · 1 Comment

We love cooking with the kids as a way to spend some quality time together, creating “Chocolate Cake Moments.” This weekend, our goal is to try out some fun Halloween food to get in the spirit of the spooky Holiday and test out some recipes for our upcoming Halloween party posts. We’re also going to be putting our annual Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead shrine together. Check out my posts to learn more about Day of the Dead celebrations or How to Teach Your Kids About Day of the Dead?

On to the food!

Banana Caterpillars

TipJunkie.com had a great collection of Halloween food recipes that we are thinking of trying this weekend. I’m voting for the Parmesan Witch Brooms or the Banana Caterpillars.

It’s a big Cub and Boy Scout Camping Weekend so why not try these Halloween Owl S’mores from Living Locurto. They look yummy and easy!

Spider pizza

Spiderweb pizza anyone? Gourmet Mom on the Go has an easy recipe.

Both of these sites have some great Halloween fun recipes and ideas so check them out and tell me about your favorite Halloween recipes.

How to Make Ghost Pretzel Halloween Treats

October 8th, 2010 · 1 Comment

The kids and I are cooking up some Halloween treats this weekend. Last year we had great success making Pretzel Ghosts. It’s easy peasy!

1. Put some vanilla chips or almond bark in a microwave safe bowl.

2. Melt vanilla chips according to package directions.

3. Dip or roll the pretzel logs in the melted white goo and stand up to let the candy coating drip down a little.

Don’t eat them yet!

4. Either stand these up in a paper cup to dry or lay flat on a wax paper covered cookie sheet.

5. When dry, take black icing (not the gel kind!) and draw ghostly faces on your pretzels with a toothpick or other very small icing tip. You can use cinnamon hearts for noses or any other sprinkles that catch your fancy.

These look so cute all bunched together in a cup on the table. They are a perfect treat for a kids Halloween party.

Here’s a similar idea for Mummy Pretzel Treats.

Would you rather bake a Halloween cake instead? No problem, check out our Scary Rats Eating Cheese … Cake.

How to Make a Scary Halloween Cake with Your Kids

October 6th, 2010 · No Comments

Hopefully you saw my post yesterday on Totally Cool Halloween Cake Ideas. I’m going to tell you how we made the “Scary Rats Eating Cheese” … Cake. It was pretty easy and my kids and I had a blast making the rats. (Some of them looked downright goofy and not scary so we had to play around with the faces a little.)

Our inspiration was a recipe from Redbook Magazine for Creepy Critter Cheesecake and Chocolate Rats. It was very easy to make although we couldn’t find some of the ingredients so we fudged a little.

For the Cake, I couldn’t find Famous Chocolate Wafers in the store so we used Oreo Thin Crisps. We could have also used Annie’s Chocolate Bunny Grahams, but the Oreos were darker. My son is 10 and I was really impressed that he was able to make the whole cake with just a little guidance from me and the Mixer. We followed the instructions for the cake exactly so you can grab them from the link.

Almond Ears for the mice:

Chocolate Coating:

Furry Sprinkles:

Rats on Cheese:

Rat Wearing a Party Hat (my daughter wanted hers to look more festive):

As I mentioned, we won for Most Original Cake in our class at the Cub Scouts’ Annual Cake Bake. Time to start planning for next year …

You might also like:
Totally Cool Halloween Cake Ideas
Halloween Crafts
Halloween = Lots of Family Fun

Totally Cool Halloween Cake Ideas

October 5th, 2010 · 2 Comments

I love making Halloween cakes with my family.

Cake + Spooky Creativity + Family Together Time in the Kitchen = Chocolate Cake Moment!

Every year the Cub Scouts hosts a Cake Bake in October and it has become a family tradition to make a scary Halloween cake. (There are themes every year but we just go for spookiness. What can I say? It’s how we roll.) This year we won for Most Original in our class with our “Scary Rats Eating Cheese” Cake. Tomorrow, we’ll tell you how we made it.

I am constantly amazed by the creativity these kids come up with every year, so I thought I would share some of the cake designs our family and our Cub Scout Pack have cooked up over the past few years.

Last year we won Most Original with our “A Cake Made of Vegetables? Scary!”

The year before the theme was Your Favorite Book. We chose Frankenstein. My son even dressed up as Igor. We won for Best Theme!

Pull Zee Switch!

Here are some of my favorites from the past few years:

Since this is our last year in Cub Scouts, I’ll have to make sure we keep this family tradition alive next Halloween.

Have you made any Halloween cakes? I’d love to see your cake creations. Send me your cakes pics to sue (at) chocolatecakeclub.com and I’ll post them on the blog.

Celebrate National Family Day Today!

September 27th, 2010 · No Comments

Today is National Family Day! Hurray! Created by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children™ is a national movement to inform parents that interacting with your kids during frequent family dinners is an effective tool to help keep America’s kids substance free. Research shows the simple act of eating dinner together as a family can have a major impact on the happiness and well-being of both parents and children. I know my family is much happier when we are talking about the best parts of our day, how to solve a challenge or planning our next Family Fun activity.

We have always been a big proponent that Family Mealtime = more Chocolate Cake Moments. Read my articles on Bringing the Family Mealtime Back, Family Mealtime Fun: It’s Not About the Food, Getting Your Kids to Pitch In at Dinner, and Want to Have Dinner Together More? Make a Date.

At the National Center on Addiction’s site, you can download their annual study on the Importance of Family Dinners and how that impacts your teen’s happiness, health and self-esteem. You can also download some fun dinnertime games and conversation starters.

Box Girls Family Dinner Box of Questions

We sell some great Conversation Starter Games at ChocolateCakeClub.com. Our favorites are the Family Dinner Box of Questions and Chat Pack for Kids, which is the perfect size to throw in your purse and use when traveling or going out for dinner.

Have fun with your family at dinner tonight!

You might also like …

6 Ideas To Get Your Kids To Talk More About Their Day
How to Cook More with the Kids

Kids School Lunches: Pack In Some Fun

September 9th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Does the idea of packing healthy school lunches for your kids make you break into a nervous sweat? Have 5 days of school gone by and you have depleted your creative ideas for lunch? Do your kids come home telling you that they didn’t eat because they didn’t like anything in their lunch box. Don’t fear. Getting your child to eat his or her lunch just takes a little planning and creativity.

Shake it up.
One easy way to shake it up is to vary the food that you normally use. Instead of a regular peanut butter and jelly on white bread (ho hum), make Pinwheel PB&Js by rolling up the PB&J in a flour tortilla and slicing it into pinwheels (fun!). Try a peanut butter and raisin or banana sandwich. My daughter loves Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter sandwiches. While some kids freak out when they see a new “food form,” as kids get older they will be willing to try more things, so don’t be afraid to shake it up. (And, if they are really hungry, they’ll at least try it.) Plus, if your kids are like mine, they actually try new stuff when they aren’t at home. I still remember my son coming home one day to tell me how awesome salami was because he had it at a friend’s house. Obviously, my many attempts to get him to try it were lame.

Sally Kuzemchak, a registered dietician with Parents.com, provides several ideas for healthy lunch combinations. One is for Pretzel Kabobs, with ham, turkey and cheese rolled up and skewered with a pretzel stick. You could serve these with ½ cup mandarin oranges, ½ cup shelled edamame or sugar snap peas and 1 container of sugar-free chocolate pudding. You can find her 20 great lunchbox ideas in her article on Healthy School Lunches and Snacks at www.parents.com.

FamilyFun.com has some very creative, school lunch sandwich ideas to keep you inspired.

When lunch needs something special.
If your child has food allergies, don’t despair. Check out Cherrybrook Kitchen Mixes for tasty treats that are peanut-, dairy-, egg- and nut-free. My daughter has Type 1 diabetes so we are always looking for ideas to make a healthy, lower carb lunch. This site has some healthy ideas for any kids.

Get ‘em to pitch in.
Getting your child involved with the meal preparation is a great way to help ensure that they eat their lunch, not trade it away. It also makes them feel more grown-up. You could try filling one of each of three plastic baskets with fruits, vegetables and snacks. Then allow your child to pick one item from each basket for their lunch. Add a sandwich and a drink, and you’re done. They might actually eat all of their lunch if they got to choose what’s in it.

Chart it.
For siblings who like different foods, make a chart of favorite foods with the child’s name at the top and foods they like and will eat for lunch underneath. Then you can simply pick items from the list when you are still tired in the morning before your coffee kicks in. Keep it simple and easy for Mom! I love it.

Theme of the week.
Another tip is to incorporate a theme every few weeks, such as serving all red foods. Pair a strawberry jelly sandwich with cherry tomatoes and low-fat ranch dressing with cherry Jell-O for dessert. Meals could be all round foods (a bagel with cream cheese sandwich, an orange, and carrot rounds) or a backwards lunch (a sandwich with meat and cheese on the outside and a note written in reverse telling the child to eat dessert first). We just found a fabulous book called Yum-Yum Bento Box by Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa. The bento box lunches they create are so adorable your kids will love it.

Click here to find more creative ideas for cute Bento Lunches for kids.

A rose by any other name might be worth eating.
To make those healthy greens more interesting for your boys, label your food with a gross name. Cooked spinach could be Sea Monster Hair. Snow peas are Alien Fingers. Broccoli are mini trees from the Haunted Forest. They’ll look forward to your creativity. (So will I. Let me know what you named everything.)

Yes, these ideas take a little time and prep to make. But remember; planning it on Sunday night for the weekdays will save you precious time on weeknights from trying to think of new lunch ideas. Or, just throw in the fun randomly when you have time. Your kids will never know what they’ll find that way.

Have fun and here’s to healthy lunches for your kids this year.

Looking for some fun kids lunch boxes to tote their healthy and fun creations to school. We’ve got plenty of cool designs and eco-friendly, waste-free kids lunch boxes to choose from at ChocolateCakeClub.com.

You might also like:
How to Buy the Perfect Kids Lunch Box

Awesome Kids Cooking Classes!

August 20th, 2010 · 2 Comments

We were visiting my parents in Austin, TX last week and we stopped in to visit a wonderful kids cooking shop called Batter Up Kids Cooking Shop. I am passionate about how cooking with your kids is not only essential for teaching them a life skill but it is one of the best ways I know to share a “Chocolate Cake Moment” together, bonding as a family.

The owner of the shop is Barbara Beery, successful author of several of our favorite kids cooking books like the Spa Princess Cookbook, Pink Princess Tea Parties cookbook, and Fairies Cookbook.
Spa Princess Kids Cookbook

Barbara and her daughter were so gracious when my daughter, Mom and I cruised into the shop. (Three generations of food lovers, oh boy!) You can certainly buy kids cooking kits in the store and they host kids cooking parties and classes, but more importantly you can just walk in and make something. The recipes change every week. My daughter was thrilled. She got to choose to make either a Flowerpot Ice Cream or Groovy Grasshopper Vegetable Dip. (I loved that Barbara had a healthy alternative, even if my daughter didn’t choose it.)

Before she got down to business making her ice cream treat, my daughter got to decorate a cooking apron with markers and stickers. Barbara mentioned that several kids save their aprons and bring them back to the store to add new decorations as they continue to take classes.

Check out some of Barbara’s fun recipes at her blog site.

If you are in the Austin area and looking for something fun to do with your kids or grandkids, the Batter Up Kids Cooking Shop is a delightful way to have some fun.

Day #21 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge: Cook with the Kids

July 26th, 2010 · No Comments

Sure, making dinner some nights can feel like a total chore but cooking with your kids is a tremendous way to spend time together talking in the kitchen. You’ll be teaching them a life skill, and with childhood obesity on the rise, you have a chance to feed your kids a healthy, home-cooked meal where you control the amount of salt, sugar and fat in the meal. For our 21st Family Fun idea for the summer, we recommend Cooking with the Kids focusing on some fun summer foods.

Even if your kids eat healthy foods in general, there is nothing like sharing the joy of fresh, in-season produce. We all know that a homegrown tomato is so much better than the waxy, flavorless version we get most of the year at the grocery store. Show your kids what some of their favorite foods taste like when it is fresh and in season. Pulling the fresh ingredients from your garden to taking a trip to the local Farmers Market makes cooking summer flavors even more special.

Depending on the age of your child, give them a task they can handle, whether it is filling a pot with water, stirring a sauce, or cutting the vegetables.

There are all kinds of kid-friendly recipes online to help inspire you in the kitchen. I’ve included some of my family’s favorites below.

Chicken Shish-Kabobs – kids will have fun “spearing” the meat and vegetables on a stick.

Fresh Fruit Popsicles

Add ingredients to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Pour into Popsicle molds and freeze until solid.

Here’s a No Bake Brownie Cupcake recipe from Barbara Beery, perfect for summer since you won’t need the oven, which makes it hot in the kitchen.

Send me a recipe by Friday, July 30th at sue@chocolatecakeclub.com and we’ll enter you to win a Playful Chef Kids Cook Book with fun recipes perfect for kids. Don’t want to wait to win? Order one by Friday and get 20% off.
Playful Chef Kids Cookbook

Cooking together is the perfect way to end a summer day. Have fun enjoying the tastes of summer! What recipe do you like to cook with your kids in the summer?

Day #18 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge: Travel Around the World

July 20th, 2010 · No Comments

It’s Day 18 of our Summer Family Fun Challenge. Are you having fun yet?

World Map Kids Plastic Placemat
Today’s idea is to take a trip around the world. If you can afford to that literally, then by all means, Bon Voyage. For the rest of us, pick a day, pick a country and then spend time celebrating it’s culture. For example, if you pick Italy:

Go online and look up some fun facts about Italy.
Go to the library and check out some Italian music or an Italian movie.
If you know someone from Italy, invite them over for dinner and have the kids ask them questions about what it’s like to live there.
Get some language instruction tapes and learn some words in Italian.
If your kids like animals, learn which animals are indigenous to that country.
Read about an Italian family tradition that sounds interesting and try it at home.
Grab an Italian cookbook, have each family member choose a dish they would like to try. Spend the time in the kitchen cooking and experimenting together.

If you are fortunate to have an international trip coming up, then definitely use this time to learn more about the country and get the kids excited about what they might see.

Don’t know which country to pick? Research your family ancestry. Or, have everyone in the family write down ideas on a piece of paper. Throw the paper into a jar and pick. Or, hang up a world map and let someone close their eyes and point to a country. (If you don’t have a map, use our World Map Kids Placemat or World Map Sticker Set.)

Want even more help? Try our Playful Chef French Cooking Set.
Playful Chef Kids French Cooking Set
This kids cooking set includes kid-sized cooking tools, recipes for popular French food, and fun information about French history, vocabulary and geography.

Which country are you going to start with?

Day #17 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge: Learn Something New

July 19th, 2010 · No Comments

Happy Monday! It’s Day #17 of our 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge and our idea today is to learn something new as a family.

Is there anything you’ve always wanted to learn how to do? Speak Spanish, play guitar, play golf, tennis, take better photos, dance the tango, or cook a perfect souffle? Why not get the whole family involved and take a group lesson or start a new family hobby? (I suggested we all learn how to balance the checkbook but they “booed” my idea.)

Families that play together, stay together. Learning a new skill, hobby or sport is a fun way to spend time together and expand your mind. You’ll all be starting at the same level – newbie – and it will be interesting to see who in the family really takes to the lessons.

Find a class
Contact your local park district or community college to see the continuning education courses that they offer. If some of the classes look interesting for the whole family, sign everyone up. Look online for some local language classes or check your local health clubs, park district or YMCA for swimming, tennis, golf or even scuba diving lessons. Since you will have 3 or more “students” in the class, it might be worthwhile to find an instructor and see if you could arrange for private lessons in your home.

Now, show off your new skills
Once you’ve discovered your new skill and if everyone likes it, plan your next family vacation so you can apply this new knowledge or start a new family tradition.

Take Spanish lessons then vacation in Mexico or Spain
Take Cajun cooking lessons and then plan a trip to New Orleans
Take golf lessons and then swing away in California
Learn to scuba dive and head to the Caribbean
Take some wildlife photography lessons and then head to Yellowstone National Park

If no one really takes to the new skill, there’s always next summer to try something else. My husband loves to golf and my kids have been taking lessons for the past two summers. I always swore I would never golf (after having waitressed in a snobby golf club in high school and swearing I would “NEVER” be like those people) however, I’m rethinking taking lessons because it would be a fun thing to do as a family or with another family. (If I’m no good, I could always lay on top of the golf cart and just get a tan. That’s quality time together, right?)

Extra Practice
Ask around and see if another family you know loves the same skill or hobby. Invite them over to practice together. The more the merrier.

If you are going to tackle learning Spanish, we have some fun products to help practice with kids.

Spanish Bingo Game
Spanish Bingo

Spanish Ring Flash Cards
Spanish Flash Cards

Or if you are going to take cooking lessons, get the kids excited about the lessons with their own apron and cooking utensils, like our best selling Playful Chef Kids Cooking Kit.

Is your family taking lessons to learn something new? If not, what do you think would interest them?

Day #11 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge: We All Scream for Ice Cream

June 29th, 2010 · 1 Comment

It’s Day 11 of our 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge. Have you tried any of the ideas yet? If so, please leave us a comment and tell us all about it.

Today, I scream, you scream, we all scream for homemade ice cream. Summer and ice cream just go together like salt and pepper, milk and cookies, cheese and crackers. You can survive without one or the other but then life just wouldn’t taste as good. (Can you tell I’m hungry while I’m writing this.)

To make today extra special and fun for your kids, make homemade ice cream together, have an ice cream sundae bar, or best yet, do both.

Homemade Ice Cream
There are quite few recipes online for ice cream you can make in a Ziploc bag with kids. Here’s the first one that caught my eye from Kaboose.com.

At the Chocolate Cake Club, we sell a great ice cream maker for kids that is easy and let’s you make two different flavors at once, in case the kids can’t agree. Whichever method you choose, it’s bound to be fun and delicious.

Ice Cream Sundae Bar
Ok, you’ve got your ice cream, homemade or one of your favorite store varieties. (I’m a vanilla girl myself much to the dismay of the chocolate ice cream lovers in my house. When it comes to ice cream, it’s all Vanilla, all the time. It is the finest of the flavors.) Now, get creative with a sundae bar to put all of the ice cream parlors to shame. (Are they even called ice cream parlors anymore?)

Here’s a list of ingredients to inspire the tasty imaginations of kids and adults (really just big kids) alike:

Caramel or Dulce de Leche
Butterscotch
Pineapple
Strawberries
Bananas
Peaches
Marshmallow
Chocolate Fudge/ Chocolate Syrup
Maple syrup
Crumbled milky way bars
Crushed malt balls
Crushed vanilla wafers
Toasted coconut
Cinnamon sugar
Chopped nuts
Dried cherries or Maraschino cherries
Candied dried ginger – (mixed with vanilla ice cream and caramel syrup – editorial aside “Purely awesome!”)
Red hots, sprinkles, or crushed rock candy
Don’t forget the whipped cream!
Crumbled raw cookie dough – We like the tubs of Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip that you can buy at Costco

I’m a firm believer in making it a party, inviting others to share in our family fun. Invite another neighbor family over to participate and ask them to bring their favorite toppings. Heck, invite the whole neighborhood.

Don’t want to get quite this complicated? We sell a fun Ice Cream Sundae Kit that your kids or grandkids will love. It includes 4 cute ice cream bowls and spoons, a scoop, toppings and even an old-fashioned ice cream parlor hat.

Today only, take 25% off of the homemade ice cream maker for kids and ice cream sundae kit.

Send us your idea for the perfect ice cream concoction. Who knows, Ben & Jerry’s might be calling you for ideas.

Day #5 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge: Pancakes for Dinner

June 20th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Allrecipe.com: Pancakes

Welcome to Day #5 of our 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge, where we’re giving you 30 days of simple, creative & most importantly memorable ideas to make this the most fun summer EVER for your family.

Pancakes. They’re not just for breakfast anymore. Here’s a fun way to shake up your family’s day. Make pancakes for dinner. But, don’t just make your regular old pancake recipe. Do something fun – shapes, colors, extras. I remember my Dad used to make Mickey Mouse pancakes for my brother and I. We loved it and it was a tradition that is a fond memory still today.

Shapes: For fun shaped pancakes, buy pancake molds at kitchen supply stores or old cookie cutters that can lay flat on a griddle. Fill them with batter and amaze your kids. Or use a condiment squirt bottle to “draw” pancake shapes on the griddle. You don’t need any special tools to make Mickey Mouse or bear shaped pancakes. Just make a larger circle and then two smaller circle pancakes and put them together on the plate to make your faces.

Click here to see the coolest pancakes ever for inspiration.

Colors: Add food coloring to your pancake batter to make colored pancakes. Use a variety of colors and overlap them on the plate to make a rainbow. Depending on the shapes you are using, choose a matching food color to enhance the design. If you are going to add some whipped cream to your pancakes (this is incredibly delicious with pumpkin pancakes), you can also color the whip cream.

What’s great about cooking pancakes is that it’s a perfect meal for kids to help out. They can put the ingredients in the bowl, stir, and add the special ingredients. To help make your time in the kitchen together even more fun, get your kids their own cooking apron. My son loves to cook and we were frustrated that most of the kid-sized aprons were all girlie, so we went and found some boyish kids aprons that we know you’ll love too.

Boys cooking apron
To get your started on your breakfast at dinner fun, today and tomorrow, take 25% OFF all of our kid-sized cooking aprons.

Here’s a basic recipe for pancakes.

Send me a photo of your pancake creations. I’d love to include it on the blog.

Mom, what’s for breakfast?

May 20th, 2010 · No Comments

I don’t know about your family but we tend to get into a breakfast food rut quite often. The morning rush is chaotic and stressful and no matter what time I set my alarm for, it wasn’t early enough.

Now that my daughter has diabetes, we are trying to get more choices into our breakfast routine. Not just to overcome the creativity rut (frozen waffles, again???) but to balance out our most important meal of the day.

I’m not a huge fan of the ModernMom.com site since it was purchased last year, but I did really like their post yesterday on 10 Super Easy Breakfast Ideas for the Morning Rush.

Check it out and tell me what you make for breakfast tomorrow.

Morning Smile: Coolest Pancakes Ever!

May 15th, 2010 · No Comments

I was lost in the social media click-through haze this morning when I came across a site that made me smile in childish glee. (I can still do that even as a jaded adult.) Jim’s Pancakes is the coolest site about a dad just trying to make some pancakes for his little girl. But, oh, the pancakes he makes. What a cool Dad!

Jim's Pancakes Cheeseburger Pancake Stack

I love the creativity behind the pancakes and admire his dedication to this fun cooking endeavor, but what I love the most is the memory and special moments he is creating with his daughter. What a cool Dad/ Daughter thing to do. Wouldn’t that be a cool tradition to start with your family. Even if you only did it one day a year.

Keep on flipping them ‘jacks, Jim. (Any time you need a tester, count me in.)

5 Ideas for a Date Night with your Child

May 14th, 2010 · 4 Comments

Looking for something fun to do this weekend with your kids? Consider splitting up and spending some precious one-on-one time with your kids by going on a date. My kids just GLOW when they get Mommy or Daddy all to themselves. It doesn’t even matter what you do, it’s the time together that creates the gooey “Chocolate Cake Moment.”

Bonus for parents: If your kids are going through a patch where they are just fighting all the time and it’s driving you nuts, cut the fighting off at the pass by separating them. Trust me, the peace and quiet is soooo worth it.

Make sure you choose an activity that your child wants to do. If it’s not, then it’s just like running another errand to your child and the magic of the evening is lost. When you are together, make sure you spend some time communicating. This is the perfect time to ask your child about their day, their school work, what classes they love taking, and who’s their best friend. Get to know them and learn a little more about their personality and what they love. Discuss ideas for your next date night or what the family is going to get Mommy for Mother’s Day. (OK, that was just wishful thinking.)

Date night doesn’t have to be at “night” either. If you can’t schedule something in the evening, go out for breakfast together or do something in the afternoon.

Here are some ideas for Parent/Child Dates:

1. Dinner and a movie. Let your kids choose their favorite place to dine and then go see a flick together. Bonus tip: Dads, bring your daughter a flower for your date. Transform into a superhero because there is Power in a Flower.

2. Cooking class. If one of your kids likes to cook, check out some of your local cooking class locations to see if they have parent/child classes. You get to talk, eat and laugh together. Mangia!

3. Museum Trip. If one of your kids is really into history while the other is into astronomy, splitting up and hitting different museums in town can be a great way to indulge your child’s hobbies without the other child whining “Can we go, yet?”

4. Book Store Excursion. My kids love to read so they are thrilled when we go to the library or especially the book store, because they can sit and eat. Head on over to your local book store and spend time finding a book your child would love to read. It’s a perfect way to find out what interests them. Then go sit in the coffee bar section and share a hot chocolate or dessert while reading your own books together or reading your child’s book out loud. Bonus tip: Go to brunch before the bookstore trip. Make it a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning outing.

5. You’ve Got to Move it, Move it. Head on over to the gym and teach your child to play basketball. Go for a run together or train for a local 1 Mile or 5K race in your area. Ride your bikes and stop to have a picnic. Walk to a local park and play catch. Figure out what motivates your child to get up and move it, move it and get active with them.

I hope these ideas have inspired you to get a Date Night on the calendar with your child. What do you like to do on Kids Date Night?

May 15th: National Pizza Party Day

May 7th, 2010 · 1 Comment

I just discovered that next Saturday, May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Day AND National Pizza Party Day! How cool is that! Our dinner menu and family activity is now set, so thank you to the people who get to declare these days. You’ve made my life easier. We’re going to make homemade pizza and bake chocolate chip cookies.

We have posted before about How to Throw a Pizza Party at home and shared our Killer Homemade Pizza Recipe, so feel free to read up. If you don’t want to start from scratch, check out our Pizza Party Kit where everything but the cheese is included to make 6 individual pizzas at home. There are even paper hats for you to decorate while you are waiting for the pizza to cook.

While Nestle’s Toll House Cookie recipe is still our favorite, if you are in the mood for a richer, more chocolatey cookie, here’s another family favorite and the recipe we include in every Chocolate Cake Club order:

Chocolate Brownie Cookies
Makes 4 dozen cookies

Cookies
1 (21 1/2 oz.) package of Fudge Brownie Mix
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1 (10 oz.) package of semi-sweet chocolate chips, (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Glaze
Reserved 1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. butter

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine brownie mix, oil and eggs. By hand, stir with spoon until well blended. Stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips and the nuts, if desired. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 9 to 13 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

4. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate chips and margarine, stirring constantly. Drizzle over cookies. Let stand until set.

You don’t have to wait until May 15th to enjoy but we hope you have fun cooking together as a family.

Win a Playful Chef Kids Cooking Set!

April 19th, 2010 · 23 Comments

This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Meghan for winning the Kids Cooking Set Giveaway. Thank you all for entering and spreading the word.

Our sister site, the Chocolate Cake Club is celebrating it’s 4th Anniversary! To thank you for all of your support, we are giving away some of our top-selling items to lucky winners every four days until the end of April. Our goal is to help you have more fun with your family.

With our first givewaway, you’ll have fun cooking with your kids or grandkids. We are giving away one of our best-selling Playful Chef Kids Cooking Kits and our new Chocolate Moose Mousse Cooking Kit. We foresee a Chocolate Cake Moment in your future!

One lucky winner will receive:

A Playful Chef Kids Cooking Set
Chocolate Moose Mousse Kit
A Chocolate Moose Mousse Cooking Kit

So, how do you enter? Just leave us a comment on this post about your favorite memory cooking with someone you love. Who did you cook with? What did you make? Share your favorite recipe, if you want.

Don’t forget to include your email address so we can contact you, if you win. We respect your privacy and your email address will never be sold, it’s for contest purposes only. One lucky winner will be chosen at random. Must be 18 or older to enter. Open to U.S. residents only. If winner fails to respond in three days a new winner will be chosen. This contest ends at Midnight CST on Thursday, April 22, 2010. Next contest begins on Friday, April 23rd so check back to win again.

Want even more chances to win? Help us promote the contest:
• Become a Fan on our Chocolate Cake Club or Chocolate Cake Moments Facebook Pages (+ 2 entries)
• Twitter – Tweet about our contest, but make sure you add @ChocCakeMoments to the post (+2 entries)
• Facebook – Add the contest to your Facebook page. Let us know you’ve done so, with the link, in the comments below. (+ 3 entries)
• Blog – Link our contest page to your blog. Let us know you’ve done so, with the link, in the comments below. (+ 3 entries)
• Newsletter – Sign up for the Chocolate Cake Club newsletter here. (+ 2 entries)

Hint: The last four winners of our Spring Break Travel Contest all had extra entries, so their chances of winning were greater.

Good luck and tell all of your friends to enter!

[Read more →]

Tags: Contests · Cooking with the Kids

Family Mealtime Fun: Make a Date

March 16th, 2010 · No Comments

Family meals aren’t just for dinner anymore.

Let’s face it, no matter how hard you try, life interferes with dinnertime. Dad works late, kids have practice, Mom’s going out to a networking meeting. So, if you know you have a crazy week of evening activities ahead look at your planner and pencil in mealtimes at any time of the day. Sunday brunch, Saturday lunch, Wednesday breakfast. Just schedule 4-5 times a week where everyone will be sitting together and sharing. Mark it on the central family calendar so everyone knows they are expected to be present at those times.

So, what are you waiting for. Go ahead and schedule those family meals for the week. If you are uber organized, you can even plan the meal ahead of time and have the groceries bought and bagged. Whoa! I know that’s crazy talk but try it one week and see if it makes your life a little easier.

Family Mealtime Fun: Pitchin’ In

March 12th, 2010 · No Comments

Get the kids to pitch in for family mealtime.
Our kids set and clear the table as part of their allowance. But lately, I have been asking them to help me cook the food as well. It teaches them a life skill (I don’t want my son growing up thinking it’s OK to eat a microwave burrito over the sink, no matter what his Uncles tell him), we get a chance to talk more in the kitchen, and it makes my life easier. (Some nights that’s the most important part, because hey, if Mom ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.)

To make it even more fun or “add some frosting”:

1. Dinner is Served. Lately we have been playing restaurant on weekends when we stay home and cook. My daughter is the waitress and my son pretends he is the chef. As you can see, he even went for the Chef’s outfit and pencil thin mustache. As they say on Chowder, the new authority on cooking according to my children, “Every chef needs a great mustache.” (Psst … We don’t normally have flowers on the table. This photo was from Valentine’s Day when we opted to stay in and cook and not go out. I didn’t want to create a great impression … that is false.) They love serving Mom and Dad at the table. I have to say I like it too.

2. Dancin’ in the Kitchen. To keep things lively, we like to crank the dance tunes and dance or sing while we get ready for dinner. Grooving some calories away before dinner. It’s good for the heart. What are we grooving to these days? The Glee Soundtrack. There’s nothing like watching your kids belt out “I Ain’t Saying She a Gold Digger … ” while the macaroni and cheese congeals.

3. Choose or Lose. Another way we get the kids involved in dinnertime is to let them choose the entire meal on certain nights. I ask them to choose an entree, side dish, veggie and fruit for the meal. That way I am teaching them to include all of the food groups when they plan a meal. We can also have the enlightening discussion on why Gummy Bears are not a side dish. (I have to say they made some valid points.)

Have fun making dinner tonight!

Celebrating Groundhog Day … Late!

February 12th, 2010 · No Comments

OK, Groundhog Day is well in our past but I just came across these fun ideas for cooking up treats for Groundhog Day and thought I would share because you could make these recipes with your kids for really any day of the week.

These incredibly creative cooking recipes are from the Gourmet Mom on the Go blog. Pretend the animal is a teddy bear and not a groundhog, and you have a tasty fun treat to make with the kids. What a cute birthday party idea. Hmm …

Friday Night Fun Ideas – WGN Video Clip

February 9th, 2010 · No Comments

I was on WGN News a week back talking about some inexpensive ideas for having fun at home on a Friday Night. I was able to showcase some of our favorite Friday Night Family Fun products on the segment. Check out the clip and let me know what you think.

Hint: There is a coupon code in the segment for 20% off some of our Family Fun favorites.

Valentine’s Day Treat to Bake with the Kids

February 9th, 2010 · No Comments

I was looking up recipes for something special to make for the family for Valentine’s Day and came across this blog post at the Mother Huddle. In their post today, she made Red Velvet Heart Cakes and I thought it looked fabulous enough to share. It looks like a good, easy recipe to cook with the kids so we’re going to try it out this weekend.

What are you going to make as a special treat for your family?

Yippee! Today is National Chocolate Cake Day!

January 27th, 2010 · No Comments

Today is a very special day for us for two reasons. First, it’s my son’s birthday. He turned 10 and is in the double digits now. Scary. In 6 more years he is going to be driving and he still can’t tie his shoes properly! I guess we need to hunker down and look into finding a shoe-tying tutor.

We have a tradition in our house where we set up our kids “guys” or “animals” at the table on the morning of their birthday. Their toys wish them a Happy Birthday and the kids love it. This morning, Star Wars Clones and Jedi wished him a Happy Birthday, while guarding his precious birthday chocolate donut.

Today is also a great day because it is National Chocolate Cake Day which for us, is on the same level as Halloween or Valentine’s Day. You know, a day to be celebrated … heavily, and with lots of ooey gooey treats!

Here’s our new favorite recipe for Molten Chocolate Cake, that we found over at the Pioneer Woman site.

Have a favorite recipe for Chocolate Cake or a fun way to celebrate this all important day? Please share! May your day be filled with Chocolate Cake Moments.

Kid-Friendly Homemade Pizza Recipe

January 14th, 2010 · No Comments

We promised to share our killer Homemade Pizza Recipe so you and your family can make pizza for some Friday Night Family Fun or host a Pizza Party. If you have a standing mixer, the dough is super easy to make. If not, it just takes a little muscle power to knead the dough. We love crispy crust so for this recipe we use a pizza stone. You could certainly use this dough in a pizza pan as well, but you’ll have to watch to see when it’s done. The dough comes out a little softer in a pan.

Warning: This is one of those family tradition recipes that isn’t really writen down but we have developed over several years of practice. I’ve tried to write it as exact as I can, but you might just need to eyeball some things and add your own touch.

Pizza Dough:
3 cups flour
1 pkg. yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp. corn meal, extra corn meal for rolling dough

Pizza Sauce:
1 16 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 6 oz. can of tomato paste
2-3 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. onion salt
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried basil

Cheeses:
1 lb. low-fat Mozzarella cheese
1 lb. Mexican Chihuahua cheese
Parmesan cheese

Note: Since low-fat Mozzarella cheese has lost it’s flavor and doesn’t brown nicely, we mix it with Mexican Chihuahua cheese. The Chihuahua cheese melts nicer, is a little saltier, and browns up great! If you can’t find it, mix in whole milk Mozzarella or just use the low-fat Mozzarella. It will taste good, just not brown up as nicely.

1. Dissolve package of yeast in warm water in a small bowl. Mix well.

2. In a large bowl or standing mixer bowl, add all of the dry ingredients and mix well.

3. Make an island in the center of the dry ingredients and add the egg, yeast and vegetable oil. Knead dough thoroughly with a standing mixer or your hands. (Use the bread hook attachment on your standing mixer and this is a breeze. You can turn it on and walk away. However, don’t overknead the dough. 3 – 4 minutes is all that is needed.)

4. Let the dough rise in the bowl for at least 10 minutes or set aside if you are going to make a double batch. Put pizza stone in the oven, sprinkle a little corn meal on the stone, and heat to 500 degrees. (The hotter the stone, the crispier the crust. Don’t be afraid to let it really heat up.)

5. Divide the dough into 3-5 balls to make individual pizzas. We can usually get 2 or 3 adult-size 12″ pizzas and 2 smaller 9″ kids-sized out of one batch of dough.

6. Sprinkle some flour on your rolling pin and sprinkle corn meal on a flat surface. Roll out the dough as thin as you like into a circle (or as close to a circle as you can get.) The dough will snap back a little when you go to pick it up and move it. That’s OK but if it snaps back too much, you need to roll it out a little more and make the dough less elastic.

7. Place the circle of dough on a pizza paddle or a large cutting board that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Before you start putting the toppings on, gently shake it back and forth to make sure that the dough isn’t sticking and will easily slide off.

8. Spoon on the tomato sauce, use as much as you like. Add the toppings and cheese. Sprinkle a little parmesan on at the last minute and slide the pizza into the oven on the stone.

9. Bake for 8-10 minutes or when the cheese turns golden. Mangia!

Here are our favorite Pizza Topping Ideas:
My son: Sausage
My husband: Sausage, mushroom, onion and green pepper
My daughter: Cheese, please
Me: Goat cheese, sliced fresh basil, plum tomatoes, freshly shaved parmesan

If you are looking for something a little more exotic, we also like:

Taco Pizza – taco seasoned ground beef, tomato sauce or taco sauce, monterey jack and cheddar cheeses, (after baking garnish with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, and crushed Doritos)
Hawaiian Pizza – canadian bacon and pineapple tidbits
Swiss and Onion Pizza – This is a great appetizer. Carmelize onions. Brush pizza crust with rosemary flavored olive oil, put slices of swiss cheese and carmelized onions on top. Yummy!

What are some of your favorite pizza toppings?

You Might Also Like:
How to Throw a Family Pizza Party

Friday Night Family Fun – Pizza Night!

January 13th, 2010 · 2 Comments

We are so excited that our kitchen remodeling is going to be done this week, after several long months! Yippee, Hurray, and Thank Goodness! To celebrate, we asked the kids what they wanted to make as their first meal in our new kitchen. The overwhelming response was “Homemade Pizza!” My choice would have been beef tenderloin stuffed with goat cheese in a cabarnet wine sauce, but so be it. Believe it or not my kids would eat the beef tenderloin heartily, but pizza is more fun to make.

Making pizza is a tradition that my parents started and we have continued with our family. I know my brother has started this tradition with his family, as well. We have a killer recipe for homemade pizza and the kids just love rolling the dough, choosing their toppings, and eating a pizza that they made themselves. It’s family bonding time at its best – we put on the dance tunes and groove while we cook, we talk about upcoming vacations, or we watch a new movie together.

Still not convinced to put away the take-out menu this Friday Night and cook? Here’s 7 reasons why Homemade Pizza Night should be in your arsenal of Family Fun Ideas. (I’m sure I could come up with more than 7, but that’s the limit of my creativity today.)

1. You get to bond and talk with your kids or grandkids while cooking. (Priceless!)

2. You can multi-task by dancing, entertaining, watching a movie, or playing a game while you cook. (So, great for us ADD people.)

3. The pizza is super-tasty, you get to experiment with ingredients, and you can control the freshness of the ingredients. (If it didn’t taste good I wouldn’t recommend it.)

4. You are teaching them a life skill. (Sure, cooking in general is a life skill but I think making homemade pizza is one of the ESSENTIAL life skills.)

5. Homemade pizza is a casual and fun way to entertain. We love to invite another family over when we make homemade pizza, because all of the kids get such a kick out of cooking together. The parents like it, too. (Start inviting people.)

6. Since everyone stands in the kitchen during a party anyway, you may as well put the guests to work while they are there. (Free labor? Count me in.)

7. It’s a reason to use that pizza stone or pizza pan you got when you were married and have never used. (Please dust it off before using.)

If you are going to watch a movie this Friday night while making pizza, we suggest some cooking themed movies: The newly released Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the classic Ratatouille, or if your kids are older, Mystic Pizza, Julie and Julia, or Big Night. (We don’t receive any commission from Amazon on these movie links. At least, not until we figure out how to do it. These links are purely to make your life a little easier if you want to buy the movies.)

We do sell Kids Pizza Baking Kits and the new Pizza Party Kits over at www.ChocolateCakeClub.com, to make this even easier for you. You’ll have everything you need except the cheese and extra toppings. We even have an Alien Pizza Making Kit where the sauce is purple and the dough turns green.

If you have invited some friends over for your pizza party, let the kids make their pizza first and the adults can eat a salad while they are waiting. The fun of a pizza party is standing or sitting around in the kitchen and just talking and muching the night away. While one pizza is cooking in the oven, another person can be making theirs. If you have two ovens, this goes much quicker. When a new pizza comes out of the oven, everyone will be ready to try a new piece.

Check back tomorrow for our killer recipe for Homemade Pizza. If you have a recipe you’d like to share, please do so!

Banish those Back-to-School Blues!

January 4th, 2010 · No Comments

I don’t know about your kids but mine were positively gloom and doom this morning when they had to go back to school. (Why does school start so early … at 9 a.m.? Why do I have to go to school? Reading is for others! Why don’t you ever buy me any decent pants?) Insert your kids’ favorite whining here.

While I don’t condone whining (unless it’s me doing it, of course) I was thinking of doing something special for the kids this evening to “celebrate” going back to school after the Holiday Break. My plan? Chocolate Fondue! What better way to create a Chocolate Cake Moment than with hot, gooey chocolate?

You can certainly surprise the kids with this treat after school today or maybe on Friday after school to celebrate them getting back into the swing of homework. Or, I think I’ll make it for dessert tonight for Dad to participate in the celebration. He would be upset if there was chocolate around and he didn’t get any.

Kirchner’s Chocolate Fondue
1 lb. of your favorite milk chocolate bar (we like Ghirardellis)
4 oz. dark chocolate bar
3/4 cup heavy cream (you can use half and half for less calories)
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Break the chocolate bars into pieces and place in your fondue or hot pot. Keep on a low setting. Add cream and stir constantly until chocolate is melted and smooth. (If you are melting this on a stove top, watch the heat. Don’t walk away or the chocolate will boil and be ruined.) Stir in the vanilla right before serving. Then dip away!

Dipping Suggestions (In order of our kids preference):

Large marshmallows

Sliced bananas

Salted pretzel sticks

Cubed pound cake

Angel food cake

Stem strawberries

Hazelnut or almond biscotti (more for the adults)

Serves 6

Don’t really like Chocolate Fondue? Here’s another Chocolatey Treat we told you about last winter – Hot Chocolate Mug Cakes.

Have fun! What do you do to ease the pain of going back to school for your kids?

Day 4 – 25 Days of Ideas for Holiday Family Fun

December 4th, 2009 · No Comments

Here’s another day’s worth of fun ideas to do with your family this Holiday Season. Good tidings we wish to you, but no figgy pudding.

Watch: It’s Friday night and the kids can stay up so you can watch a longer Christmas show, so let’s start with a classic – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Nothing reminds me more of Christmas as a kid then sitting in front of the TV waiting for the theme music saying that a special presentation was coming up and then watching Rudolph. In today’s age of DVDs and DVRs, kids don’t feel the same sense of “need” that we did growing up to not miss when the show was airing on TV. We had to stay home and be glued in front of the TV when this all important show was on. I think I can recite all of the lines to this one. My favorite character is Yukon Cornelius, of course. “Put some heart into it boy!” But I also love the Burl Ives score as he sings Silver and Gold. Leave a comment below and tell me about your favorite scene is.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas Book
Read: The Grinch. Enough said. (We’ll recommend watching it too in a different post but it is definitely worth reading the book as well.)

Spritz cookies
Bake: My second favorite Christmas cookies, that also remind me so much of my youth, were Spritz Cookie-Gun Cookies. (They call them cookie presses now but we always called it a cookie gun growing up.) My mother made these every year and I love them. However, I haven’t made them as an adult because I can never find a good cookie press. My brother made them last year when our family visited last Christmas and I think I must have eaten 4 dozen of them they just reminded me so much of childhood. We loved decorating them as kids. My favorites were the little flowers with the cinnamon hearts in the center. Grab a cookie press, check out this recipe and introduce your kids to the magic of squeezing tasty dough out of a tube into shapes. They are muy tasty.

Craft:Make these adorable Penguin Christmas ornaments, which we found over at Kaboose. http://crafts.kaboose.com/penguin-pals-ornaments.html

Pure Fun: More computer fun for the kids. Go to http://www.northpole.com/ and see all of the games and Christmas related activities. We liked the dancing Santa.

Leave us your ideas on how to have fun with your family during the Holidays or tell us what your remember about your childhood Christmas.

Day 3 – 25 Days of Ideas for Holiday Family Fun

December 4th, 2009 · No Comments

OK, I missed getting this post out yesterday and I apologize profusely. We were slammed with orders yesterday and then I had a Holiday party to go to in the evening, which is when I usually have the time to write. I had a few glasses of wine at the party and when I got home I decided to follow the wise advice of “Don’t drink and blog.” I think we are all safer that way. Anyway, here are my ideas for today.

DAY 3 – Holiday Family Fun Ideas

Santa vs. the Snowman Movie
Watch: Another favorite of ours is Santa vs. the Snowman. Whether we watch this funny movie with 3-D glasses or not, I love the pop culture references in the movie. Elves battling snowmen with super jets in the North Pole appeals to the goof ball kid in me. I love Jonathan Winters and he makes a great Santa. Note: We took my son to see this movie in 3-D at an Omnimax theater when my son was 3. Big mistake. He freaked at the enormity of the screen and the 3-D objects hurtling at him in the movie. Watch it at home without the 3-D glasses if you think your kids might get a little nervous.

Russell's Christmas Magic Book
Read: We read Russell’s Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton before bed last night. The illustrations are so cute in these books. The red color for Santa and the “fixed-up sleigh” just jump off the page. Even though this is more of a toddler book, my kids still love to read it just for the illustrations.

Bake: When I was a kid I loved it when my Mom made Cornflake Marshmallow Wreath Cookies. They were gooey, had cinnamon hearts and turned your tongue green. Loved every bite! Here’s the recipe for these ultra-fun, kid-friendly, Cornflake Wreath Cookies from Kellogg’s.

Note: Send us your favorite Holiday cookie recipe and we’ll include it in one of our future posts.

Craft: How about this Stuffed Felt Santa Ornament, that we found over at Kaboose. This would be a cute gift for Grandma and Grandpa, friends at school, or even teachers.

Pure Fun: In today’s day and age of GPS and microchip tracking technology, you’ll be glad to know that even Santa can’t stay off of the grid. Have fun with your kids tracking Santa as he makes his way across the globe at www.noradsanta.org. You can play games online and even check the weather at the North Pole. Want even more? Sign up for Facebook or Twitter updates of what Santa is doing. Now who’s who to see who’s been naughty and who’s been nice?

Send us your favorite ideas and we may include them in one of our future posts. Check back later tonight for Day 4!

25 Days of Ideas for Holiday Family Fun

December 1st, 2009 · 2 Comments

There are so many ways to have fun with your family around the Holidays. However, it’s very easy to get caught up in the stress and crazy-busy schedules during the Holidays that we forget to stop and have some fun. (What do you mean we forgot to get a present for your Spanish teacher? Why has the cat eaten all of the curling ribbon? I can’t wait for that gift to come out. Where did I put the Christmas cards that I bought last January on sale?) So, as a way to remind myself to plan some fun for the family every day during the Holiday Season and not become the Grinch, I will be sharing some fun ideas every day. From reading Holiday-themed books before bedtime to watching your favorite Christmas specials to finding that perfect craft or cookie recipe, I hope I can inspire you to do something every day to keep your family smiling during December. Smile and wave kids … smile and wave.

DAY 1 Holiday Family Fun Ideas

Read: Tonight we read Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. While my kids are a little too old for this picture book, it is still a Holiday favorite. The illustrations are too cute and the rhyming words are perfect for lulling everyone to sleep. (I want some of the cookies that Bear makes his friends!)

Ziggys Gift DVD
Watch: We didn’t have a lot of time to watch anything after dinner and homework but we snuck in one of my all time favorite Christmas shows – Ziggy’s Gift. I was a huge Ziggy fan growing up and the first time I saw this Christmas special I was bawling. Guess what?After watching again tonight, I’m still tearing up. I love this story about the true meaning of giving and forgiveness at Christmas. My kids love the thief. Go figure.

Mexican Wedding Cookies
Bake: We are in the process of renovating our kitchen and haven’t had an oven for about 6 weeks now. Because I can’t bake, I have been dreaming about homemade Holiday cookies for several nights now. But if you have an oven, go ahead and make these with your kids. They love rolling the cookies into a ball and then rolling them in powdered sugar. Sure, it makes a mess. Sure, these cookies are pure butter. But that’s why I love them. Here’s a recipe that is close to how we make them, only we use ground pecans because the kids don’t like the texture of nut pieces in the cookie.

Craft: I’ve been on the hunt for some really cute but really easy Holiday crafts to do with the kids. You know the kind where I don’t need to spend all day shopping for supplies, doesn’t take three days of drying time to complete, and actually looks cute when finished. Well I found a fun site called Homemaking Fun and I liked their idea for making Magical Reindeer Food to sprinkle in the snow. If you are lucky, you’ll have everything you need in the house already.

Pure Fun: If your family has adopted an Elf on the Shelf, tonight is the night to start. At least in our house it is. (Some people start the day after Thanksgiving, some on December 6th which is St. Nicholas Day, and some on the 15th because they only want to hide the Elf for 10 nights.) You choose. Never heard of Elf on the Shelf? Well, this post explains it all.

We’ll be sharing ideas every day for 25 days but we’d love to hear your favorite way to have fun during the Holidays. Please share them by leaving a comment here. Check back tomorrow!

Family Traditions – Gingerbread Houses

November 11th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Gingerbreadhouse photo
Another Holiday tradition that we do every year with the kids is decorate a Gingerbread House. We buy the kit where the pieces are already made and all we have to do is decorate. (Saves a huge amount of time!) We have even used old Halloween candy as additional decorations for the house as a way to get rid of the “less than desirable” candy that the kids never ate.

If you are looking for recipes to make the gingerbread pieces yourself, kits or tips on how to best tackle a gingerbread house barn raising, try the Fork & Bottle site.

One year we branched out and made a gingerbread stable since my daughter loves horses. We’ve also made a gingerbread train. You can find the gingerbread train kit here. We even found a Gingerbread Hannukah Cottage online. If you know of any other cool gingerbread kits out there, let us know. We’re always game for trying a new twist on a favorite family activity.

However, if you want to avoid the sticky mess and try something new this year, we found this great idea on the Alpha Mom site to build a cardboard Gingerbread House. Very cute!

Here’s a question for you. Does your family eat the gingerbread house after you have made it? We don’t. We let it sit out for a few days as decoration but we don’t eat it. (No, not the gum drop buttons!) However, we want to know if you do.

Fun on Grandparent’s Day

September 10th, 2009 · No Comments

This Sunday is Grandparent’s Day, so what are you going to do to have fun? I’ve seen some posts lately about ways to honor your grandparents by videotaping their stories about growing up or tagging old pictures together, which are all nice activities, but shouldn’t Grandparent’s Day be about having fun and making new “Chocolate Cake Moment” memories with the grandkids. As my Grandmother used to say, “All that talk about the past makes me feel old. What fun is that?” So, here are some ideas on how the grandkids and grandparents can have some fun and create new memories. Parents, it’s up to you whether you tag along or just let the Grandparents and Grandkids go on their own. But this day is about the Grand Connection between them.

Brunch – Everyone loves Brunch. It’s not just for Mother’s Day, anymore. Take Grandma and Grandpa out for a big stack of flapjacks and get extra whip cream on the side.

Movie time – Pick a family friendly movie and go see it together. Go for ice cream afterwards. Or, ask your Grandma or Grandpa what their favorite movie is. Go rent it and set up your family room like a movie theater. Your kids could make tickets, usher Grandma and Grandpa to their “seats” and serve them popcorn.

Cook Together – Invite Grandma and Grandpa over to show the kids how to bake their favorite meal or something they loved as kids. Everyone will spend time in the kitchen “tasting” and sharing stories. Or, have everyone bake their favorite cookies and then share them for an assortment of sweet treats.

Share Their Hobby – If your grandparents have a big hobby – ours is photography – plan a day to share it with them. Give the kids disposable cameras or have them bring their own and go out and shoot photos of the grandparents and kids together in fun locations – local Museum, botanical garden, or forest preserve. If they like gardening, plan a visit to the local Arboretum, park, or Botanical Garden. If they like to travel, pick a nearby destination for a day trip. If they like to cook, see if you can take a cooking class together. If they love to read, find a unique, independent bookstore to explore. Share the day together doing something that Grandma and Grandpa are passionate about. They’ll love sharing that passion with the kids.

Craft time! – Get everyone to work on a craft together. Make a scrapbook of last Christmas together with everyone designing a page, build birdhouses to put in Grandma’s garden, or create coupon books where the kids make coupons for hugs, kisses, chores, or day trips with Grandma and Grandpa, while they make coupons for the kids to redeem for lunch outings, movie nights, or other fun activities together.

Still at a loss for ideas? Go to www.grandparents.com and download their free report on “100 Free Things to Do with Your Grandkids.”

If you have any other ideas we’d love to hear them. Please share with us how you plan to have fun on Grandparent’s Day.

Pack In Some Fun

August 15th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Does the idea of packing healthy school lunches for your kids make you break into a nervous sweat? Do your kids come home telling you that they didn’t eat because they didn’t like anything in their lunch box. Don’t fear. Getting your child to eat his or her lunch just takes a little planning and creativity.

One easy way to shake it up is to vary the food that you normally use. Instead of a regular peanut butter and jelly on white bread (ho hum), make Pinwheel PB&Js by rolling up the PB&J in a flour tortilla and slicing it into pinwheels (fun!). While some kids freak out when they see a new “food forma,” as kids get older they will be willing to try more things, so don’t be afraid to shake it up. (And, if they are really hungry, they’ll at least try it.) Plus, if your kids are like mine, they eat so much more new stuff when they aren’t at home. I still remember my son coming home one day to tell me how awesome salami was because he had it at a friend’s house. Obviously, my many attempts to get him to try it were lame.

food design

Sally Kuzemchak, a registered dietician with Parents.com, provides several ideas for healthy lunch combinations. One is for Pretzel Kabobs, with ham, turkey and cheese rolled up and skewered with a pretzel. You could serve these with ½ cup mandarin oranges, ½ cup shelled edamame or sugar snap peas and 1 container of sugar-free chocolate pudding.

Get 20 great lunchbox ideas in her article Healthy School Lunches and Snacks at www.parents.com.

The site also has tips for making yummy sandwiches like one with veggie cream cheese and cucumbers or hummus and chopped peppers.

If your child has food allergies, don’t despair. Check out Cherrybrook Kitchen Mixes for tasty treats that are peanut-, dairy-, egg- and nut-free.

Getting your child involved with the meal preparation is a great way to help ensure that they eat their meal, not trade it away. It also makes them feel more grown-up. Family Fun magazine www.familyfun.com has several great ideas for getting the kids involved.

You could try filling one of each of three plastic baskets with fruits, vegetables and snacks. Then allow your child to pick one item from each basket for their lunch. Add a sandwich and a drink, and you’re done.

For siblings who like different foods, make a chart of favorite foods with the child’s name at the top and foods they like and will eat for lunch underneath. Then you can simply pick items from the list.

Another tip is to incorporate a theme every few weeks, such as serving all red foods. Pair a strawberry jelly sandwich with cherry tomatoes and low-fat ranch dressing with cherry Jell-O for dessert. A mom from Elgin(IL), created menus for pioneer adventures, cowboy cookouts and circus parties. Meals could be all round foods (a bagel with cream cheese sandwich, an orange, and carrot rounds) or a backwards lunch (a sandwich with meat and cheese on the outside and a note written in reverse telling the child to eat dessert first).

To make those healthy greens more interesting for your boys, label your food with a gross name. They’ll look forward to your creativity.

Yes, these ideas take a little time and prep to make. But remember; planning it on Sunday night for the weekdays will save you precious time on weeknights from trying to think of new lunch ideas.

Have fun and here’s to healthy lunches for your kids this year.

polkadot skater

Click here for more tips on helping you and your kids organize fun activities!

Celebrating the Last Day of Summer Break

July 24th, 2009 · 2 Comments

While Mom you may be jumping for joy that the kids are finally going back to school, the kids might be a little bummed that summer is over. Just because summer is almost over doesn’t mean you can’t have one last day in the sun. Help your kids to see the last day of summer as something to look forward to by creating a tradition where you do something fun as a family to celebrate. Mom and Dad, see if you can take the day off of work so you can do something fun together.

1. Hit the pool one last time.Your kids have probably been swimming all summer but that’s no reason not to go again. Enjoy the sun and get that last tan of the season.

BBQ
2. Have a block party. Invite the neighborhood kids and parents over. Share your summer vacation highlights as well as talk about who has which teacher, new outfits, bus schedules, etc. The kindergarten kids can ask the older kids for help with getting on the bus.

3. Run Around. It’s still summer, so go outside. Be active and enjoy the outdoors on this last day. Your kids are going to be sitting in a class room for the next 9 months so release as much energy as you can. Go to the local forest preserve and play games, hit the theme park one last time, go for a long bike ride in another part of town, or go horseback riding if it’s available near you.

movies
4. Go see a movie during the day. If your outdoor activities get rained out or you just want to relax, this will be the last time to take advantage of that early bird, weekday discounts to see the latest family flick. It will be a rare pleasure for the kids to see a movie during the day, just because you can.

5. Cook your kid’s favorite meal. Ask your kids what they want as a celebratory meal and have fun making it together. Make cookies in the shape of a school bus or apple that they get to take to school on the first day. Make homemade trail mix or snack mix that they can take the first week of school. Simple, but fun.

Click here to see tips for getting ready to go back to school!

Old Fashioned Fun… A Summer Lemonade Stand

July 1st, 2009 · No Comments

Nothing says summer like cool, refreshing lemonade. OK, maybe watermelon does, but I want to talk about lemonade. My daugher was bored the other day so she asked if she and her friend could make a lemonade stand. Why not? It reminded me of my childhood and seemed like some nice, old-fashioned fun.

We got our plastic pitcher, our lemonade mix, and some cups. I set up a card table on the front sidewalk and my daughter the artist made a sign. Before they could even finish setting up our neighbors were over. The girls were so thrilled that the neighbors would stop by and give them some money that they were out there for hours. Other than coming in for more lemonade or sugar every now and then, they were completely occupied. They set up their shade umbrellas, had the boom box playing Kids Bop, and they were happy as could be.

Here’s the cool part. When they were done and I asked them what they were going to do with all of their money, they said they were giving it to charity. Unprompted! So we took the change and I mailed the equivalent amount in a check to a charity that my daughter chose.

We also had a nice discussion about business and how it works. Now, whether a 7-year-old really understood the idea of profit margin or not, she did get how you have to pay a certain amount for your ingredients and then you subtract that from the coins collected to see if you can buy more lemonade ingredients or have money left over to spend or give. As an entrepreneur, it was inspiring to talk the girls about how you make money as a business and how you can use your money to help others. Go future women entrepreneurs!

Need a little help putting your lemonade stand together? Check out these Mini Lemonade Stand Kits which include a paper hat, wooden spoon, lemonade mix, lemonade stand banner, cookie cutter, lemon cookie mix, and a price sheet.

So, if you are looking for a fun way to amuse the kids this summer, don’t forget the old-fashioned Lemonade Stand. It’s hours of low-cost fun. If you are interested in getting your kids more involved with charity projects, read our post on Teach Your Kids the Importance of Giving Back.

Plan a Family Adventure to Your Local Farmers Market

May 14th, 2009 · No Comments

It’s Spring in the Midwest and that means the Farmers Markets are open. Browsing the Farmers Market stalls on a lazy Saturday morning is one of my absolute favorite summer traditions. There is something about locally grown produce that just seems to make everything taste better – fresher, more colorful, healthier. Whether I’m looking for fresh tomatoes and basil to create a caprese salad or fresh fruit for my homemade peach cobbler, I’m sure to find the best quality ingredients at a Farmers Market. But often the best finds are the items you weren’t specifically looking for. An unusual chili, for example, might inspire me to try out a new taco recipe. Or I might come across some yummy looking artisan cheeses that would be perfect for that Mom’s Night Off party I’ve been meaning to organize. (Note to self: Get those invitations out!)

Another reason why I love Farmers Markets is that they’re a fun, relaxing way to spend some quality time with my kids. We have a great Farmers Market in our town that is kid and pet friendly. Each stall has water put out for dogs and many provide samples for the kids. They even provide music! On Saturday mornings, our family has a fun routine where we first walk to the local coffee shop, because to quote Ralph’s World – “M-O-M-M-Y Needs C-O-F-F-E-E.” Then we walk the dog to the Farmers Market where we get fresh ingredients to try out a new recipe we’ve found. We’re together, outside in the sunshine, discovering new foods, promoting local farmers, and exercising. That’s almost an overload of family goodness, but we deal.

The trip becomes an adventure since each week there is usually something new to see. A new artisan bread, homemade pasta sauce, herbs, fresh flowers, produce, and we even have a guy who sells Buffalo Steaks. My kids look forward to this adventure so much (especially my son who loves the Pickle Guy.) So, to get my kids even more involved in our fresh food shopping, we got them each their own Farmers Market Set by Playful Chef.

It was designed by a Mom to encourage children of all ages to become more involved in their food decisions, and it includes everything you need to buy, clean, prepare, and eat your Farmers Market produce with your family. The included booklet shows kids where our food comes from on a beautifully illustrated map of North America. It even shows kids how to clean fresh produce.

What the kids like the most though, is that they get their own reusable shopping bag to carry home the items that they pick out. That way my son can keep his pickle juice in his bag and not mine. Somehow they eat their vegetables a little more enthusiastically when they picked them out themselves.

Have an adventure this weekend and take your kids to the local Farmers Market. Come back and tell us what they liked the best. Happy Shopping!

Spring Break Boredom Busters

March 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Not going anywhere for Spring Break this year? Don’t fret. Here are some fun kids crafts kits and games to keep the kids occupied while they are at home … and give Mom a chance to hang on to her sanity.

Art Projects
Get the kids started on some art projects. It gets their creative juices flowing and keeps them away from the TV for awhile. At the Chocolate Cake Club, we carry a few art kits that have a lot of craft materials and project ideas to keep kids busy for days, or at least hours. It will give you some kind of break, trust us.

The Giant Art Supply Jar is wonderful because it gives your kids so many different kinds of supplies in one compact, easy-to-put-away plastic jar. My daughter says she hates to do projects at home because all we have is paper and crayons. Well with the art jar, I astounded her with unique art supplies like multi-colored pom poms, glitter pom poms, pipe cleaners, fringed crepe paper, feathers and popsicle sticks. Let the imagination run wild. (Tell your kids to build a diarama and see the glazed look that comes across their face.)

If your kids can’t think of anything to make, then the Little Hands My Giant Busy Box is ideal. Included are 16 exciting arts & crafts projects for kids in one big box. You’ll have all the supplies needed to make dough animals, sticker art, a collage farm, paper bag puppets, and tissue art projects. This way they won’t be asking you to make one more trip to the craft store to get different supplies. The Busy Box Kit also includes 2 plastic frames, 4 animal punch outs, 10 colors of dough, 2 peel and stick tissue art pictures, tons of tissue paper, glue, and instructions. Whoo Hoo!

Games
When your kids’ eyes start to glaze over from playing too much Wii, tell them to play a low-tech game. Here are some that kids like a lot, therefore, they will play them and amuse themselves.

Monkey Hide 'n Seek Safari Game
The Monkey Hide ‘n Seek Safari Game is a lot of fun. You can hide the monkey somewhere inside or outside and then your child will use a “magic” wand to find it The wand lights up as your child gets “hotter” or “colder” to finding the monkey. If you have more than one child, have them take turns hiding and finding – letting you get some things done around the house. Older kids get a kick out of seeing who can find the most clever hiding place. It’s also available in a T-Rex Hide ‘n Seek Safari Game.

The Build a Robot Spinner Game is fun for those rowdy boys who need to slow down for a minute. They’ll have fun with this old-fashioned spinner game trying to get enough pieces to build a funky robot. If your child doesn’t have anyone to play with, he or she can use this game as a puzzle and just build cool looking robots on the floor. How’s that for cool – a game they can still play even if they are alone.

Kids Cooking Kits
We think cooking with your kids is one of the best ways to create Chocolate Cake Moments. Not only are you teaching your kids a life skill, but bonding while cooking up some delicious treats is a special time to be close to your kids. Whether you cook with your kids or have them cook with Grandma and Grandpa, they are going to have fun. Here are some kids cooking kits that we just love to heat up some family fun in the kitchen.

Take a tour of France in your kitchen with the Playful Chef Kids French Cooking Set. All of the tools and recipes you need to make some popular French-inspired dishes are included, as well as fun information about French history, vocabulary and geography. (So your kids minds’ won’t completely atrophy while on Spring Break.) Have fun making Quiche Lorraine for breakfast or Chocolate Mousse for dessert.

Have all of the kids cooking tools but short on inspiration? Check out the Playful Chef Kids Cookbook for some new recipes that are kid-friendly.

Baseball’s Spring Training has started so why not celebrate with your baseball-loving kids with the Play Ball Baseball Cookie Kit. Celebrate the beginning of a new Spring Season with some baseball cookies. You can even bake the cookies, while watching a game on TV. This Kids Cooking Kit includes: sugar cookie mix, decorating gel, icing, cutter, and a recipe with instructions.

So, whether you create fun works of art, play games, or cook up some fun, your kids are sure to be amused this Spring Break … giving us Moms a break as well.

Do you have any other ideas for Spring Break Boredom Busters? Please share.

Treat Idea for a Chocolate Cake Moment – Hot Chocolate Mug Cakes

March 10th, 2009 · No Comments

Family Fun Magazine Hot Chocolate Mug Cake

We just came across a cute (and more importantly easy) idea for a fun Chocolate Treat to help your family create or celebrate a Chocolate Cake Moment. In the February issue, Family Fun Magazine had a recipe for creating Hot Chocolate Mug Cakes. You just use your favorite Chocolate Cake mix and put the batter into an oven safe mug to bake. Put some kind of white topping on top and it looks just like a mug of hot chocolate. They suggest using Marshmallow Creme on top but you could also use Cool Whip or White Frosting. We preferred the Cool Whip. Here’s the recipe for the Hot Chocolate Mug Cakes from Family Fun Magazine’s website. This could be a fun thing to do over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

SPONSORS

GRAB YOUR FREE GUIDE! Ideas to Display and Organize Your Kids’ Artwork

MOST POPULAR POSTS

PRODUCTS WE LOVE!

Follow Us!

Where Else You’ll Find Us

Sites We Like

Archives

© 2012, Sue Kirchner