How To Eat Dessert

Between  D week and E week and the arrival of all things pumpkin, we have eaten plenty of desserts around our house lately, so it was only natural to cover How to Eat Dessert for our weekly manner:

Attention Getter: I set the table with a fork set at the top of the plate.  An added utensil always gets the kids attention.  (We would be eating pumpkin cake for dessert later. See recipe below).

I told them we were going to talk about the different ways you can eat dessert.

Manner: Some desserts you eat with a fork, some with a spoon and some with your fingers.  The trick is to know what to use when.  Here are general guidelines:

Fork– cakes, pies and fruit

Spoon– icecreams, puddings, mousses, fruit stews, sorbets, and other soft desserts

Fingers– donuts, cookies, and bite-sized pastries

Activity: I first typed up a list of desserts.  Then I cut them up into strips.

I put the strips in a bowl.  Next I sat out 3 cups labeled fork, spoon, and fingers.  As we ate our pumpkin cake, we passed the bowl around the table and we each pulled a dessert out of a bowl and read it.  Then we determined which cup it should go in.

We had a debate over eclairs.  Chad thought they were like a doughnut so you could eat them with your fingers, but I thought the filling and frosting complicates matters. Plus one book I read eluded to the idea that they are eaten with a fork and you may need to use the edge of your spoon to help cut them.  I am still not sure.

Recipe: I have had a few friends ask me for my Pumpkin Cake recipe recently so I thought I would share it here.  The cake is my MIL’s recipe and the frosting is my mom’s recipe.  Now the cake is yummy, but to take it to the next level you must make the homemade cream cheese frosting.  I simply will not allow you to use canned frosting.

Pam’s Pumpkin Cake:

4 eggs

2 c. sugar

1 c. oil

Combine.  Beat well.

Add 2 c. pumpkin

Mix again.

Sift together

2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients into pumpkin batter.

Pour onto greased and floured jelly roll pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

After cake is cool, frost with cream cheese frosting.

Kerry’s Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 cube butter

8 oz. cream cheese

2 1/2 lbs. powdered sugar

2 T. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Set out 1 cube butter and 1 8 oz. cream cheese frosting early so it can get to room temperature.   When they are ready, cream butter and cream cheese together well.  This is where you get all the lumps out.

(I usually just wing the next part, but I included rough amounts to get you started)

Mix in powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.  If frosting is too thick add more milk.  If frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar.

Enjoy your cake and remember to eat it with a fork!