My little guy loves to sit next to me and browse my Pinterest boards. He will totally say, "we should make that project RIGHT NOW!" when he sees something he likes. I have to be really careful about what pops up on the screen or a big tantrum can result if we don't have time to do a particular project right then. He saw these lava cakes and wanted to try them out... so we finally found time to make our version of them last night.
We used Ghirardelli double fudge brownie mix (the best ever- and sold in bulk at Costco) and put the batter in our mini bundt cake pan. We baked them on 325 for about 35 minutes and they were the perfect consistency. The sides taste like chewy brownie edges (my favorite) and the insides are molten and soft. Mmm!
While we baked, we mixed up some frosting with food coloring to make some orange lava. We also had red spray canned frosting from Better Crocker. I hate making an entire batch of homemade frosting for brownies since I never end up using all of it... and I was feeling lazy. 🙂 We have tons of canned frosting in our fridge. I love to make frosting/graham cracker sandwiches as snacks.
While the brownie bundt cakes were still hot, we filled the hole with frosting and covered the top of the cake with frosting. As it got hotter and hotter (kind of like real lava), it started moving down the sides of the volcano more and more.
We added some red frosting too.
Then we had to do some tasting. 🙂 Yum! Definitely delicious!
The little guy was so excited to show his volcano treat to his daddy when he got home from work. The boys agreed that the frosting drenched brownies tasted delicious and we needed to make them again soon!
Since the mini bundt cakes are still pretty good sized (Next time I need to use my mini mini bundt cake pan), my little guy barely made a dent in his volcano cake. He mostly just licked the frosting. He'll be eating his volcano cake all week long and is so excited!
As I mentioned before, he thought I was the awesomest mom ever. It was a great way to end the day.
In addition to having a lot of fun... just think about all of the LANGUAGE embedded in our cooking activity. The Speech Therapist that I used to work with would always encourage parents to get their kids cooking in the kitchen with them because there are so many concepts that can be taught as you are interacting. This article reviews some great strategies in a simple way. I would definitely recommend reading through them to help enhance your conversations while you cook/bake.
Those look amazing! I just might have to try those with my little ones!!