Baking with Caroline

I have to admit, I really look forward to the day when Caroline can help me cook. She already loves being in the kitchen, and thanks to her new play kitchen Santa brought, she gets to "practice" more often. On a side note, this was the best gift ever. Caroline plays with it non-stop. Even though the reviews say for 3+ years, Caroline is the perfect age. And the online reviews are correct - it took f o r e v e r to put together.

Anyways. Over the holiday, Caroline finally helped me bake for the first time. She was such a little helper. She helped stir, and pour the eggs into the bowl, and scoop flour.  I found this recipe from Bringing Up Bebe and it's literally made for little kiddos. (Which, I will say it again, if you haven't read, I would highly recommend this book for those with kids!) The base of the cake is yogurt, then you reuse the cleaned yogurt containers to measure out all the remaining ingredients. It makes it super easy for little kids to help in the kitchen.

Just be prepared for a bit of a mess! But we had fun, us two girls.

Gâteau au Yaourt  (aka Yogurt Cake)

2 6-oz. containers plain whole-milk yogurt
2 eggs
2 containers sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Just under 1 container vegetable oil
4 containers flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Berries, powdered sugar, crème fraîche or plain yogurt for serving (I used frosting, because I had it on hand)

Preheat oven to 375ºF and grease a 9-inch cake pan.

Gently whisk together the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing just until combined. Overmixing will make your cake chewy! (I did this by accident, and they weren't kidding! Don't over mix!) Pour into the greased cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool on the counter before removing from the pan.