You made this!
Today was baking day. I wasn't sure how it would go since right before we were going to start on the muffins, you told me, "Momma, I changed my mind. I don't want to help you."
Urgh.
So I told you to go ahead and play with your cars in the living room, then, while I made the muffins. And you changed your mind again.
You were a fabulous helper! You scooped the flour into the measuring cup and I held it while you leveled it off very precisely. You measured all of the dry ingredients and even poured the buttermilk (with me holding on to the bottle just in case), stopping when you saw it was at the one-cup measure. You stirred the ingredients together and you mixed in the apricots. Then you helped fill the muffin cups. It was so much fun! And the muffins were so good. Although you only at two bites of yours. You told me you were saving it for tomorrow morning. Hmmm.
After the muffins, I needed to bake cornbread to go with the chili that was in the crockpot. You had some flour and sugar near you that had spilled as we were measuring, so you started gathering it into one of the bowls that came with your baking set. As I mixed the cornbread, you would ask for some of my ingredients. So I shared more flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda, sugar. Then you wanted some wet ingredients so you could mix it all together. I thought, why not? So I dished you some buttermilk, an egg and some melted butter as I was using them myself.
I got the cornbread into the pan and put it in the oven and you were stirring your little heart out with your "special cake." Then you asked me why we couldn't bake yours. I didn't really consider baking it since we hadn't made sure the ingredients were of the right consistency. But I took a look at your bowl and it looked pretty good. I stuck my finger in for a taste, added a smidge of sugar and figured it was worth a try. So your batter went into your little cake pan and hit the oven after the cornbread was done.
We watched it anxiously as it rose above the pan. I wasn't sure if the temp would be right for the small cake. Or when I should take it out. I just used the old toothpick-in-the-middle method. And, voila...it was done!
We let it cool for a few minutes, then cut it into quarters. We each took a bite. And you know what? It tasted pretty darn good! So you mixed up a batch of cakey-cornbready goodness with no exact measurements. Maybe we have a future chef on our hands. Now that would be a fun career!
