Cinnamon Tea Cake

Cinnamon is our ingredient of the season. You can find our archive of cinnamon posts here.

With the long weekend coming up, this simple cake makes a delicious breakfast that’s perfect for sharing (and snacking!). Yes, the cake’s combination of basic ingredients + easy prep makes this the perfect cinnamon snacking cake.

Cinnamon Tea Cake

With a list of pantry staples for its ingredients, it’s likely that you’ll have everything that you need to bake this on a whim. It’s definitely the sort of simplicity that I really appreciate when want to bake something first thing in the morning… and then snacking on it all weekend.

This recipe comes from the Sweetest Menu site. I often find myself making minor adjustments to recipes. Reducing sugar content is my m.o., but in this case I didn’t have to make a single change. The recipe was perfect as is! So perfect

  • 1 stick butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup whole milk

  • 1 Tbsp melted butter
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour an 8-inch round cake pan Instead of flouring, you could grease and line with parchment paper.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until well blended and light (about 1-2 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides between each addition.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk to the batter, mixing in on a low speed. Add the remaining flour and milk and mix until the batter is smooth, but being careful not to unnecessarily over-mix.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes. Until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. While baking, mix together the remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 Tbsp sugar.

When the cake comes out of the over, brush with the melted butter and then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Cooking with Kids : Banana Pancakes

Our Cooking with Kids post are taking a major step forward this week in that there are no parents involved! We’re going to have to change to name of this series to Kids Cooking. And I’m 100% A-OK with that.

Both boys love to help with meal prep, but 7 y.o. Alex was really itching to make a meal (that required the stove) completely on his own. And it couldn’t be something as a simple as an over-easy or scrambled eggs. He wanted it to be more complex, so we gave it a thought a came up with banana pancakes!

These are nothing new, and I’m sure most parents of toddlers are familiar with this tasty two-ingredient recipe (four ingredients if you count the salt and butter!). Anyway, we realized that not only is this dish a great early food for your baby, it’s also a great “first recipe” for your budding chef.

Banana Pancakes

  • 1 ripe banana
  • 2 eggs
  • butter
  • salt

Peel and mash the banana. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs. Add the mashed banana and mix well.

Warm a frying pan over medium heat. Add a tab of butter and let it coat the bottom of the pan. Pour in the appropriate amount of batter to make a pancake that’s a “flippable” size for your kiddo. We found that having a smaller ladle for pouring the batter into the pan helped with this task and with keeping the pancake size consistent.

After the pancake has cooked on one side, flip it and allow the other size to cook. We determine doneness based upon color and how well the pancake sticks together (it can fall apart if you try to flip it too soon).

Add a sprinkle of salt and then serve! We don’t add any additional condiments, like maple syrup, but you’re welcome to cross that sticky bridge if you’re feeling courageous.

Additional Tips

You know your kids and their skill level best, but here are a few things that we found helpful.

  • Teach the kids how to use the burner and be specific about where the knob should be facing for the best cooking temp. We helped Alex learn the trick to turn the burner to high at first and then turn it down to the best temp for the burner he commonly uses. You could even add a tiny sticker to the knob area to identify where the knob should be pointing.
  • Having designated tools for the job really helps kids to tackle the task without your help. As I mentioned above, we have a specific ladle that he uses which helps to keep the pancakes consistent. He also has two different pans that he’s comfortable cooking on. Neither of them are non-stick (one is cast iron and the other aluminum), but he’s become comfortable using either.
  • Rather than using hot pads, we really like these pan handle covers. They stay on the pan well while he’s cooking so he doesn’t absentmindedly grab a hot handle and there’s no risk of them getting too close to the burner and catching fire.
  • Get a good metal spatula. This is one of our favorites and it’s make in the USA! I find that the thin metal spatulas make lifting the edge of pancakes and flipping them easier than trying to wiggle a thick spatula underneath. I also like that you don’t have to worry about the end of the spatula getting banged up or misshapen from the heat.
  • Your kids will be so excited to make a meal for the family. You can make it an extra fun experience by letting younger kids wait on you. They can take your order and deliver the dishes to the table.

Weekend Cinnamon Rolls

cinnamon_rolls5 We’re calling these weekend cinnamon rolls as a formality. But seeing that we’re all in the same crazy boat, we know that every day is a weekend! Ha!

JK. There are no weekends, just days. They don’t have names any more, and we’re just fine with that. To celebrate, bake up a pan of these on… day. Either this day or that day or the other day.  Continue reading

Good Stuff : Steel-Cut Oats

In addition to sharing our resolutions this month (Kate’s | Sarah’s), we’re also going to share some of the good habits that we’ve picked up over the years. We try many things, but these are the ones that’ve stuck.

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As you might expect, we are seasonal eaters. In the winter I love to start my day with a bowl of oats + all the fixings. Since many people are looking to reset their diets after the new year, we wanted to share our super simple method for making steel cute oats.

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Bran Muffins

This recipe is not necessarily part of our Cooking with Kids series, but it could be! I include just a couple of ideas below. And if you are interested in getting your kiddos in the kitchen, this post has many of our tips and tricks.

There’s nothing like a good breakfast (and a strong cup of coffee) to get your week off to a great start. Do you agree? Somehow/somewhere a few months back, my breakfast routine completely vanished. I wasn’t interested in my spiffed-up bowls of oatmeal, eating cereal didn’t fill me up and tasted a bit too sugary (we all make bad choices in that aisle!), and I didn’t have the time or patience to scramble eggs. So I just didn’t eat, which is the worst plan when your mornings start with a bang and you’re running after two kids.

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It took me some time to identify the problem. Maybe I did a little of the five whys? Alex definitely does a whole lot of the 500 whys every day now. Anyway, I realized that I needed to find a healthy breakfast that I could pick up and go. I’m definitely not a fan of processed bars, and I don’t even like that a “grab-and-go” option is what my breakfast urges are calling for right now, but if it fills me up, it’s better than a hangry hangover.

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Cooking with Kids : Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin is our ingredient of the season. We have all sorts of sweet and savory dishes, as well as a face mask to wear while drinking your lattes. Cooking with Kids is an ongoing series where we share recipes that are easy enough to make with a two-year-old. If you’re new to the series, read our first post that provides our detailed tips for cooking with little ones; subsequent posts are less detailed.

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You may have seen these pumpkin muffins on Instagram, they spent Halloween week masquerading around the house as spiders. After browsing the Halloween baking supplies on sale, Alex picked out the spider holders, and they dictated our afternoon baking activity.

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It had been a couple of weeks since Alex helped Calder and I in the kitchen (somehow we had even skipped our usual weekend pancake session), and I didn’t realize how much he was yearning for some kitchen time until we started these muffins. The kiddo went ballistic when I put “his” measuring cup and spoon in front of him. I wish I had a recording of his excited giggles/yelps.

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In the first Cooking with Kids post, I mentioned using my phone to look up recipes while in the kitchen. While I do get recipes online, I’m proud to say that just as often I’m using cookbooks as my source. For this particular recipe (and much of my basic baking), I used the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion. I recently read an article about how kids today aren’t getting the experience of using phone books, dictionaries, and other physical resources because so often we just search for information online. While I could wax poetic about how much I love cookbooks for their recipe ideas, inspirational photos, and stories, I think Alex will pick up on all of those details himself if I just keep the books around and continue using them during our kitchen adventures.

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King Arthur doesn’t have a recipe for pumpkin muffins, but it does have reliable recipe for banana chocolate chip muffins with whole wheat flour. I just subbed pumpkin puree for the banana and white chocolate chips for the semi-sweet. I might have stuck with chocolate chips if we had any, but the white ended up being a delicious alternative, adding an an indulgent candy sweetness to these hearty muffins.

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On this particular day, I decided to let Alex try using the can opener. I knew (and I’m sure you do too), that there’s no way he would be strong enough to operate our basic opener, but sometimes I think it’s nice for him to figure out what we can’t do on his own rather than having me always telling him. With a two-year-old, letting them try can actually make your days a lot more peaceful because you won’t have the whole “you can’t do it/you’re too little”, “but i want to/whining” back and forth. Instead, they try, fail, and then we use “teamwork!” to open the can together.

After opening the can (and reminding Alex that the edges were sharp), I gave him a spoon and let him measure out the pumpkin. He started scooping the pumpkin into the measuring cup, but after a few minutes, the temptation was too much, and he ended up tasting the puree. One taste led to two and three, and he completely lost interest in measuring out the puree, so I finished the task. That was no big deal at all. I could have tried to keep him on task, but why cause a fuss that would stop him from eating the healthy pumpkin?

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Other than the pumpkin, the rest of our baking proceeded as normal. Alex measured and sampled. He smelled the cinnamon. He sampled, and spit out, the salt. He ate a few walnuts and a few white chocolate chips.

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

  • 8 Tbsp butter
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup white flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Cream together the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Scrape down the bowl and then beat in the egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin, and milk.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, and then gentle mix them into the pumpkin mixture.
  4. Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups (grease the muffin cups if not using papers). Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the pan.

https://liveseasoned.com/cooking-kids-pumpkin-muffins/


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Bake these muffins, I promise they are anything but scary! Of course, if you’re looking to add a bit of spook to your table, we found the spider holders at Michael’s.

Pumpkin Butter

Pumpkins are our ingredient of the season. In the past we’ve sampled pumpkin brews, used them to make mini pumpkin pies, and have added the seeds to not one, but two, salads.

After seeing Sarah’s request, I couldn’t help but make pumpkin butter as the first recipe for our new ingredient of the season. I have made apple butter many times, this was my first attempt at pumpkin, and rather than use the crockpot, I decided to try an oven-based recipe. I’ve since learned that while they are both butters and methods equally easy and produce delicious results, pumpkin butter cooks up much faster than its apple counterpart! I used this recipe for guidance, but made a few modifications as discussed below.

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For this recipe we’re skipping the canned variety and starting with a raw pumpkin. If you’ve never bought a pumpkin for baking, you want to pick up one of the smaller “sugar pumpkins” and not the big pumpkins used for carving jack-o’-lanterns.

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Cooking with Kids : Lemon Bread

Lemon is our ingredient of the season! So far we’ve used it in a bucklein bars, in a savory pasta, and in the shower. Oh, and there are two on my counter waiting for our next project!

You don’t have to have a kid to make this Lemon Bread, but it’s more fun messy if you do! As you’ll see, the simplicity of this recipe is what makes it the perfect choice for cooking with an assistant, but it’s also what makes it an easy go-to treat. You can bake a loaf in no time at all for a last minute brunch, but it also stores well, so it’s the perfect tangy treat to make on a Monday and eat it all week long with your afternoon tea break (speaking from experience). Now on with the cuteness ~

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We’ve reached a new milestone in our house : weekly cooking sessions with Alex. It’s no surprise that Calder and I love to cook, and we’ve kept the kitchen open to Little A from the start. We recently turned a corner when it comes to sharing the kitchen with a little guy; at first we were just trying to keep him busy and safe, but now he’s actually helping with the cooking and he understands what’s going on!

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Blueberry Lemon Buckle

Lemons are our ingredient of the season. We’re exciting to fill our summer with all things lemony, and until then you can click through our archive of lemon posts, from body scrubs and shower cleaners to lemonade and vodka waters.

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This past weekend we pulled together a last minute brunch at our place, and one of the things we served was this blueberry lemon buckle. Now that we’re fully settled in the new house, we want to do a lot of entertaining, especially during the summer months when we can have everyone out on the deck and the kids playing in the kiddie pool. To make entertaining actually happen, and to keep it stress-free, it’s nice to have a few reliable recipes, like this buckle, that you can make ahead. Don’t know what a buckle is? Read on to find out!

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In my vocabulary, buckles are fruit-filled coffee cakes. You’ll commonly see buckles that call for blueberries as the fruit, but I was introduced to the buckle in Rustic Fruit Desserts, where my mind was blown by the variety of buckle options (rhubarb, apple, blueberry, and cranberry!). You really can have a buckle for each season. So far I’ve made the apple, cranberry, and blueberry varieties, but we recently discovered a rhubarb plant growing in our yard (no joke), so that will be next!

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