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Wednesday, October 26, 2016

October 26: Gingerbread Bat Cake & Halloween Crafts


Today's post is more an idea than a recipe since I used a box of Hodgson Mill whole wheat gingerbread cake mix that I've had in my cupboard for way longer than one should have a boxed mix in her cupboard. And then I followed the directions on the box with regard to what I added to the mix. Oh, and I baked it in my adorable new bat stoneware dish (I got it at HomeGoods for 7.99!)

Assuming you do not have a past-its-use-by gingerbread cake mix already in your cupboard, a quick Google search reveals that Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Krusteatz, King Arthur's Flour, and Trader Joes all have fresh gingerbread cake mixes you can buy. Who knew? Not this girl.

If none of these tickle your fancy, you could make one of your own using this recipe or even this recipe.

Or, if gingerbread cake isn't your thing, you could even substitute in the flavor of your choice. As long as it's somewhere in the 14oz range when dry.


For this mix, I needed 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 egg, 2 Tablespoons melted butter, 2 Tablespoons apple sauce (or 1/4 cup melted butter and no applesauce). Adorable pint-sized helper optional. Since I still have quite a lot of apple butter left and I've been making far too many sweet treats lately, I decided to go the applesauce route, and subbed in my homemade apple butter. It worked just fine!

You can see how the Hodgson Mill brand uses whole grain whole wheat in their mixes so it's got those big grainy grains running through there.

Then I poured it in my nifty bat dish. Which I'd greased with a thin layer of butter so my cake didn't stick.
I baked it using the cook times as a low guideline. Since the recipe estimated 30-35 minutes in an 8x8 pan, I knew mine would take longer because it's a little thicker. In the bat it took about 45 minutes.


Because my older daughter is obsessed with those Sweetzel Spiced Wafer cookies and isn't a big fan of icing of any kind (whose kid is she???), I decided not to ice this. But when I had a slice for dessert, I may or may not have squeezed a healthy dollop of my now-almost-gone cream cheese frosting (leftover from these) on top and it went WONDERFULLY WELL. (My husband, alas, was most distressed to discover this wasn't chocolate. He had ice cream for dessert, instead.)

While this baked, my younger daughter whined that she was bored and asked if we could do some Halloween crafts. We selected a few from our $1 craft stash and got cracking.

We worked together on that spiderweb paper craft and she led the charge on her Halloween headband. (Except for the hot glue part. I did that. And burned myself only once.)


And here's a couple she and her older sister did the other day.
 Foam art
Sun catchers

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