Shaker Cake – A Kid’s Tutorial

This post is the first in a a series of kid's cooking tutorials brought to you by my daughter, known as SugarBean (with help from Mom).

Today we will be making a Shaker cake.  It is called a Shaker cake because you put all of the ingredients into a jar and shake them up!

This recipe is adapted from the Shaker cake recipe in Home Economics for Homeschoolers, Level One, by Pearables.

It is fairly easy.  Just be sure you have a good grip on the jar. I wouldn't recommend shaking it over a tile floor!  If it happens to slip out, it will probably smash!

What you will need:

• 2 cups flour*
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sugar*
• 1 cup oil
• 1 cup orange juice
• butter for greasing pan
• Powdered sugar
• 2 quart (1/2 gallon) jar with tight fitting lid
• small bowl for cracking eggs
• Medium bowl for mixing dry ingredients
• wooden spoon
• 9 x 13 inch cake pan or baking dish
• 1 cup measuring cup
• 1 teaspoon measuring spoon

What to do:

1.  Have your Mom help you set the oven temperature at 375 degrees

2.  Grease the cake pan

3.  Into the mixing bowl, measure the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4.  Crack eggs into the small bowl.
This is an important step. If you crack the eggs straight into the jar and accidentally get a few shell pieces in there, it will be very hard to fish them out!

5.  If you have a canning funnel, place it in the top of the 2 quart jar (it will make things easier). Pour in the eggs from the small bowl.

6.  Put the lid on tightly. Shake the jar with the eggs about 20 times.

Like this:

7.  Take the lid off the jar and put the canning funnel back in place.

8. Pour in 1 cup each of orange juice, oil, and sugar.

9.  Replace the lid and shake until everything is blended.

10.  Remove lid again and add the dry ingredients you measured into the mixing bowl earlier.

11.  Replace lid and shake until everything is blended and looks nice and smooth.  This is now your cake batter!

12.  Pour the batter into the greased pan.

13.  Bake in the oven for about 30 to 35 minutes.  Ask your Mom to check the cake by pressing the top gently to see if it will spring back up. If it does, it is ready.

14.  Put the cake (still in its pan) onto a cooling rack.  Let cool.

15.  Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top with a small sieve.  If you do not have a sieve, use a spoon to shake the sugar over the cake.  If you are not going to serve the cake right away, wait to put the powdered sugar on.  It absorbs into the cake and won’t be seen if it sits for too long.  If that happens, don’t worry, just add a little more.

16.  Slice into squares and serve.

Enjoy!

*This recipes calls for white sugar and white flour.  We used unbleached white flour.  If you would like to try and make the cake a little healthier, you can use whole wheat pastry flour and sucanat.  We tried this version.  It was still yummy, but did not rise as well and was not as pretty 🙂