Tuesday, February 3, 2009

strawberry fields

I must admit that the melamine scare bothered me. So in the middle of the peanut butter scare (which doesn't bother us since we don't eat it) the mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup caught my attention. I avoid HFCS despite their claims of health (1, 2) but it sneaks in as ketchup, salad dressing and fruit cereal bars. (I, too, used to figure that if ice cream came from cows and cows ate grass then ice cream was a vegetable, but then I learned more about math.)

The list of products seems to include many strawberry and fruit items. This is why, when Bug asked for a strawberry cake for his birthday, I paused. I'm sure I'm over-reacting, but I'm just not interested in buying a cake mix right now. When I looked online for a recipe they all called for Jell-O. Also not interested. This is why I am now baking a cake that calls for, yes, strawberries. I've just put it in the oven and the batter was very very thick, so I'm a bit worried about texture. But not taste.

Here is the recipe. I didn't decorate it like a bike wheel, but instead with cream cheese frosting (strawberry glaze between layers) with extra unsweetened strawberry goo on each slice. It turned out fine, although the cake did seem too dense. The extra berries on top of each slice were great to balance the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting.

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Know how much tall I weigh?! 46 1/2!

1 comment:

  1. I am so impressed by how much care you take with what you feed those two delightful boys! I know I just fed my four without much thought to whether there was anything more than the Pyramid involved. And then I had so much trouble with those who wouldn't eat veggies, or let one food touch another on the plate.

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