Perishable 4H Projects

Her foods and food preservation projects were due on Thursday. 

Her food project was a square, oblong, or round layer reduced-fat cake without frosting.  She needed to use fruit puree or baby food fruit product to reduce the amount of fat.  I searched the internet and found an orange cake that I thought was unique and perfect.  It was more of a chiffon cake using an egg white base which I had limited experience with but thought would be fine.  We started whipping it up on Wednesday night about 7pm.  I didn't like that I had to help more than usual because of the "uniqueness."  It seemed to come out alright, but when we tasted the sample, I was just not overly thrilled with the texture.  It was very much like an angel food cake which made sense, but not what I thought would go over. 

So at 10pm, I whipped out her 4H manual and found the chocolate cake recipe.  It was straight-forward and she did it all herself.  The recipe called for applesauce, but I made the decision to use pumpkin.  I didn't see that we had to double the recipe to make two, so we had all our eggs in this one cake.  We were in bed by 11:30 with a cake to turn in.

This judge wanted parents to sit with their kids so we could hear too.  The saran wrap was stuck to the top of the cake.  It either wasn't cooled enough when wrapped or just a very moist cake. 

When he cut the cake he said it was very dense.  He thought it was the pumpkin substitution that probably made it that way, as well as what made it so moist that the wrap stuck.  But when he tasted it, he said it did not taste too dense and had a delicious flavor.

He said it would have been a blue star, but for the above reasons, he was giving it a blue ribbon.  She was fine with it, but I hated that it was my decision to use the pumpkin instead of the applesauce that may have contributed.

For foods preservation, she had to make one uncooked frozen mini-pizza using whole-grain pita bread, English muffin, bagel, or already prepared crust with toppings of her choice.  It must include items from all 4 food groups.  She made 6 bagel pizzas with mini-pepperonis and sliced mini sweet peppers.  We picked the best three and sealed them up carefully and labeled them correctly.  She picked the one she thought was best and we submitted.  Champion!!