This past week the girls studied the 2nd state to join the Union, just five days after the state of Delaware, the state of Pennsylvania! Throughout the week we read
K is for Keystone a couple times, and the girls worked on completing their Notebook Pages.
Pennsylvania Notebooking Pages
by Twinkle Toes (L) and Chiquita (R)
After their pages were complete, it was time to decide on a recipe for this state… That didn’t take long!
“B is for Bill Cosby,
Pennsylvania’s famous son.
Author, entertainer, comedian –
many awards he has won.”
Are my children the only ones that automatically start singing “Dad is great… He give us the chocolate cake!” at the mention of Bill Cosby? (Thank you, Grandpa M.)
“Eggs are in chocolate cake! And milk! Oh goody! And wheat! That’s nutrition! “What do you want?” “Can I have some chocolate cake?” “Chocolate cake coming up.” . . . And five children sat at breakfast and the morning music was playing and they were eating chocolate cake and singing songs to me: “Dad is great! Give us the chocolate cake!” ~ Bill Cosby
It didn’t even take a second for the girls to ask if they could make “Chocolate Cake” this past week. We did a little searching and decided on this Pumpkin Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Breakfast Cake, with a couple modifications. It cracked me up when they started singing: “Mom is great! She let us make breakfast cake!” instead! 😉
Pennsylvania Hershey’s Chocolate Breakfast Cake
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
(we used Turbinado Sugar)1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
(HERSHEY’S!)1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup applesauce
2 eggs
2 tablespoons oil
(we used coconut oil)1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pureed pumpkin
(we used canned)3 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease, or spray with non-stick spray, a 13×9 pan.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside. Combine all of the wet ingredients in a medium bowl, and whisk until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently mix and fold together with a rubber spatula until just combined.
Even Snuggles got to help!
They all thought it was hilarious when the pumpkin wouldn’t come out of the measuring cup…
… and Snuggles, who happened to sneak a taste of some pumpkin that eventually went flying said, “Eeeewwwww! That’s disgusting!” before ducking down behind the counter! lol!
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking pan, spreading it evenly, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or almost clean.
4. Cool completely before cutting into squares. A plastic knife makes nice, clean cuts, plus it is perfectly safe for younger children to use on their own. Serve plain or sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Of course we made sure to use “Hershey’s Chocolate” since:
“M is for Milton Hershey,
the finest chocolatier around.
Crowned the “Chocolate King” in later years,
he created a Chocolate Town.”
The cake was absolutely delicious, and it is definitely a recipe worth saving. I am actually thinking of ordering the girls this great looking
Loose-Leaf Recipe Easel to create their own recipe books. It would hold all 50 recipes from the year, plus a cover page and index page, perfectly!
Another book we are really enjoying is
The United States Cookbook: Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States. I checked this book out from the library this past week, and think it is one we need to add to our personal collection! This week they enjoyed reading about Philadelphia Soft Pretzels, Milton Hershey, Shoofly Pie, and how
“Philadelphia is not only the birthplace of our country, but it is also the birthplace of the ice cream soda. It was invented in Philadelphia in 1874 when Robert M. Green ran out of sweet cream for a drink that also used syrup and carbonated water. He substituted ice cream for the sweet cream, and the first ice cream sodas were a big hit!”
Resources we used for this State Study:
K is for Keystone Teacher’s Guide (
pdf)
Other Posts of Interest:
State-by-State Scrapbook
State-by-State Scrapbook :: Pennsylvania
Prayer of Mothers
Father in heaven, grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me. Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege—to share in your creative miracle and bring new Saints to heaven. Make me a good mother to all my children after the example of Mary, the Mother of your Son. Through the intercession of Jesus and Mary I ask your continued blessings on my family. Let us all be dedicated to your service on earth and attain the eternal happiness of your kingdom in heaven. Amen.
My boys would probably sing that song too! We love Bill Cosby and The Cosby Show in this house. This sounds like a delicious cake, may be worth trying with my budding chefs (ages 2 and 4). At least they can crack the eggs!
How Neat! The girls always make me smile and Snuggles ALWAYS cracks me up……..how adorable……..they all are. I am looking for a couple of good chefs…….wish they could travel……smile. Blessings….PJ
Our library has a few books from that series and we loved the ones we read, too. I really like how you have used them to create little unit studies – what a fun way to learn about the states! Your children are adorable 🙂 Love your girls' aprons, too.
This looks like a recipe I will have to try! Love the picture of your girls holding the book!!
Can you believe that our library doesn't have any of these great books?!? I even tried to suggest them for purchase, but was turned down. 🙁 At that time I decided to start our own collection and have been purchasing them slowly, as I am able to find them inexpensively, and only have a few to go before our collection is complete!! They have been worth the investment!
Can't believe your system charges so much for inter-library loans!! They are fantastic books…I haven't been able to figure out why ours only has a few but not the whole series, either. I have thought about collecting them, too… LOL – in the end, it usually ends up being less expensive for me to just buy our favorite books used on amazon, because we tend to run up fines at the library w/late returns :0)
I'm the same way with library fines, but I am trying to get better… We'll see how that goes! lol!
My worry is that our libraries will close again due to funding – they were closed for a couple years when I first started homeschooling – and so, since then, I tend to purchase more books than I should!
In addition to purchasing this series on Amazon, I also got quite a few titles from Paperback Swap! Love that site!!