A fast, moist and flavor-packed cake is a tasty assignment
Something that I learned in 2020 was that I definitely do not want to home-school my kids. Ever. While I'm not sure if my 9-year-old conquered the basics of his third-grade curriculum last year while “doing school” at our kitchen table, he absolutely grew by leaps and bounds as a mini-chef. We added “baking time with mom” into his morning schedule at his request.
Now, this was a class I loved teaching! We made banana muffins (with Nutella) and brownies (more Nutella). One day, he wondered what we could do with a can of mandarin oranges. Skipping the Nutella trend, we decided to try a mandarin orange cake. (For young cooks with a short attention span, it only took four minutes to prep. It was finished before my oven was preheated.)
I would definitely give my son an A+ on his baking assignment. The cake was moist and delicious, and boy, it made our house smell terrific. The two older online-schoolers and my work-from-home hubby followed their noses down to the kitchen and enjoyed the talents of my tiny culinary scholar.
This cake is super easy to make gluten-free. Just make sure to purchase a box of gluten-free yellow cake mix and follow the same instructions.
• Karen Nochimowski, the mom behind MommaChef.com, has loved cooking for as long as she can remember. After friends and family begged to be let in on her culinary secrets, she decided to create a blog featuring the easy, quick recipes that everyone loved. All Momma Chef recipes are made with six ingredients or less and take less than 6 minutes of prep time. Karen also started and runs Momma Chef's Soup Kitchen and Momma Chef's Little Free Pantry, which provides food at no cost to those in the Chicago community. Karen's first cookbook, “Six Minute Meals,” coming November 2022, is a cookbook of 100 simple and delicious recipes with six ingredients or less, including nut-free and allergy-friendly options, to help busy families get dinner on the table with ease.
Scrumptious Mandarin Orange Cake
1 (15-ounce to 18-ounce) package of yellow cake mix
3 eggs
½ cup avocado or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges, undrained
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Coat a 9x13-inch baking dish or a 10-inch Bundt cake pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, oil and vanilla and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Add in the mandarin oranges with juice and lightly fold into the mixture until well-blended.
Pour the batter into the greased pan.
Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool.
Serves 8
This cake is dairy-free, nut-free, sesame-free and vegetarian.
Karen Nochimowski