Baby Food Puree Cake Recipe

I was organizing my food shelves the other day when I noticed that I had a box of cake mix that was about to expire. I know my boys would absolutely LOVE to have some cake, so I decided to make some.

As I was getting ready to follow the instructions on the back of the box, I noticed there was the option of making a lower fat version of the cake by using applesauce instead of oil. In the past, I have used this type of substitutions in other recipes to make them a little healthier, so this concept wasn't new to me. However, at that moment I got this crazy idea of taking it one step further by adding a different substitute to the oil. Okay, you might think I'm crazy but it actually worked great and I LOVE LOVE LOVE how I get to add some vegetables in a cake. Are you ready to find out what my mystery ingredient was??? drum roll please........BABY PUREE SQUASH...

Pureed squash has a fairly mild taste and it was easily masked by all the other flavors already in the cake mix, so you will barely notice that it is in there. I would imagine that you could even experiment with different kinds of baby food puree for this recipe. For instance, carrot puree would probably be yummy and give it a carrot cake feel. Zucchini puree sound delish as well in this recipe.

I have a KitchenAid mixer which I absolutely love because it makes my life so much easier when I am making many of my recipes, but for smaller less complicated recipes like this one, I used my Hamilton Beach hand mixer. It is much easier to use and to clean up for smaller recipes. I also love that it comes with a snap on case for easy storage. Before I bought this hamilton beach mixer, I used to have a simple hand mixer that I bought at a yard sale a while back for $5. I used that mixer for more than 9 years until one day it finally died on me. It was a sad day, but that mixer has served me and my family well over the years and it  has lived a good and long life. But it was time for me to replace it and the Hamilton Beach mixer has served me well thus far.

This baby food puree cake recipe is so easy to put together. Just combine everything in a large bowl and mix it all together, then bake in the oven

As much as I thought it was a successful recipe, the ultimate taste tester is always my family. If they love it, then I know it really was good. And guess what, I am pleased to say that my boys loved it, so it was a win-win for all of us.

Baby Food Puree Cake Recipe

1 Box Cake Mix

3 eggs

3/4 cup water

1 jar baby food squash

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix on low for 1 minute, then turn the beater on high and beat for 2 more minutes until all the ingredients are well combined. Pour the batter onto a buttered and floured 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 F for 32-33 minutes or until completely done.

Here is the printable version of the recipe

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Orange Vegetable Smoothie

Last week oranges and carrots were on sale at a local store, so I thought about making an orange vegetable smoothie for my family. My oldest is a little on the picky side when it comes to eating, so anytime I can get him to eat something I always get so excited. And when the something he eats has hidden vegetables in it, I get even more excited :)

This smoothie only has 5 ingredients and it is super easy to make, just dump all the ingredients in the blender and let it do all the work. I didn't have any store bought frozen mangoes so I chopped up a fresh one and put it in the freezer overnight.

The main hidden vegetable component in this recipe is the carrots, but I took it an extra step further and added V8 veggie blend juice as well, giving this smoothie an extra dose of veggies which I absolutely love doing whenever I get a chance. The one I used this time was the mandarin orange kiwi flavor because that was what I had in the fridge, but some of the other orange-colored V8 veggie blend flavors such as carrot mango or golden goodness would probably work as well.

For best results you should use a good quality blender that can crush up the frozen mangoes really well so you won't be left with chunks floating in your smoothie. I used my beloved Ninja nutri blender system for this recipe. I got it for myself a few years ago for Christmas and absolutely LOVE it because it came with a full size blender, cup blenders, as well as a food processor attachment. When I thought about buying a good blender, there were so many different options I could have gone with but I went with this ninja because for one good price I got several different attachments that I knew I would definitely be needing and using, instead of having to buy 3 separate expensive kitchen appliances. I've been using my ninja for all kinds of recipes, not just smoothies and it was definitely worth the investment I put into it.

For this recipe, I used the 24 oz nutri ninja cup attachment and selected the nutri ninja ultra blend feature to extract the nutrients and blend all the ingredients together.

Orange Vegetable Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 orange

1 cup frozen mangoes

1/2 cup carrots

1 Greek yogurt (5.3oz)

1 cup V8 veggie blend juice

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.


Here is a printable version of the recipe

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Welcome to Mama Ducky's Kitchen

Welcome...
Here at Mama Ducky's Kitchen I will be sharing ideas and techniques to add more vegetable in recipes. These recipes work great for little kids, but they can definitely be used for people of all ages.

When my oldest first started solids, he pretty much gobbled down anything and everything that I gave him, which made me a very happy mama ducky. Then he turned into a toddler and realized that he can control what to put in his mouth, and sadly veggies weren't on the top of his list. That was when I started to develop creative ways to add healthy nutrients to his diet without him realizing it. Of course ultimately I would like for him to develop a love of all kinds of foods without having to hide them here are there, but in the meantime at least I can get a little peace of mind knowing that he ate something nutritious that day.

Many, but not all, of the recipes I will be sharing involves creative uses of baby food purees as a way of adding an extra serving of fruits and/or veggies.

Whether you have little ducklings who are transitioning away from baby food purees, or picky eaters who refuse to even look at vegetables, or perhaps you have a lot of extra baby food purees and you are looking for creative ways of using it, Mama Ducky's Kitchen is definitely the place to be.