Mandy's Minute

Okay, so I wanted to be a good mom and make my son’s first birthday cake from scratch so I made sure to start trying recipes several weeks in advance to get just the right one.  I tried several from baby cookbooks to online recipes to Williams-Sonoma and let me say…most all tasted like garbage.  Mind you, I’m not a bad cook or baker.   I’m not trying to toot my own horn but I would say my skills in the kitchen are probably above average.    Anyways, my husband, who loves cake, was at first excited to try the cakes but after a couple of these recipes, he became less excited to try.  I finally said to him, “no wonder people make the boxed cake mixes, they’re easy and taste good.”  Which got me wondering, is it just that our tastes have been trained to like processed foods instead of foods made from scratch?  That’s another discussion for another time…back to the birthday cake.  Since the time for his birthday was coming up fast, I decided I would try the “healthy” boxed  cake mix.  I made two;  Dr. Oetker, Organic Vanilla Cake Mix and Cherrybrook Kitchen Yellow Cake Mix.  The Cherrybrook Kitchen had a nice texture and was much better tasting than the Dr. Oetker cake mix but neither was GREAT.  I would certainly recommend Cherrybrook Kitchen to anyone who has a food allergy.  So to make a long story short, when it finally came down to it,  I made Duncan Hines Carrot Cake and homemade frosting and here’s why…I figured that my son will not likely consume much if any of the cake and frosting and even if he does, it’s really only once a year since I do not make make many treats or have many treats hanging around the house.  I made cupcakes for the rest of the party goers and two mini-cakes for him.  One for his party and another to take first birthday cake pictures privately.  And guess what…I was right.  He didn’t know what to do the the cakes.  He just put his hands in it, thought the texture was a little weird, put a messy frosted finger in his mouth and then he was done.  Geez…all that worrying for nothing.   Now it doesn’t mean that I’ll give up on trying the best cake recipe out there but I will says to the food conscience mothers and fathers out there, if you go with a boxed cake mix for their first birthday, don’t feel bad, if your child is anything like mine, he or she will hardly consume any of it and you can redirect the energy of worry to something more concerning…dinner.

When it comes to baby clothes, I’m one who loves a deal…either from Goodwill, garage sales, consignment shops, eBay, Craigslist…you get the picture.  With that said, I’ve found three store brands that are very good quality and fashionable.  One is Jumping Beans from Kohl’s, the clothes are cute, run true to size and don’t shrink.  The only thing you have to be careful of is the pricing.  Kohl’s always (and I mean always) has sales but you have to be smart about them.  If you play your cards right, you can pick up Jumping Beans tops and pants for $3.00 each which in my book is a bargain for a new outfit. 

Another store brand I’ve grown fond of is ToughSkins by Sears.  Now, I can only speak for the tops but I’ve found that they are made from quality material and well constructed.  They also run true to size and do not shrink.   Again, you can get these on sale and save a bundle.

Finally, now I’m sure there will be people who disagree and again I can only speak for the pants but I really like Target’s Circo brand.  I’ve purchased some twill lined pants and really really like them.  They have kept up with an active crawler.  They are a little longer so I have to roll up the pant leg so my son’s feet don’t get caught in the leg but overall I haven’t found that they shrink nor fall apart after washing.   Most Circo items have good everyday pricing.

If your watching your budget like most of us out there, I would give these three brands a chance if you haven’t already, I think you’ll be happy with your findings like I did.