Tip of the Week

Here’s where I tell you some of my best tips, hacks, and shortcuts for making feeding your busy family easier and less stressful. I’ll share tips about cooking, lunch packing, cleaning, and more. Sometimes these are longer and more in-depth, sometimes they are just quick little time saving tips and shortcuts. I hope you enjoy!

Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter so you never miss my weekly tips.

This week’s tip:

This week I thought I’d talk about birthday cake, and how as busy moms haven’t we got enough going on without pressuring ourselves to feel like we have to make a homemade cake? Not everything has to be homemade perfect.

Just buy the grocery store cake.

I promise you the kids will love it just as much.

I have been a fan of grocery store bakery cakes for years. We’ve been lucky to have a few great grocery stores near where we’ve lived and they always have great bakeries. The secret is to not order the sheet cakes out of the book with the cute kid designs and that awful greasy frosting - but to special order their fancier cakes. You know the ones they have in the case that always look amazing, with whipped cream or fruit fillings, or chocolate ganache frostings. I think most people don’t realize that you can special order and customize these fancy ones and not just the sheet cakes. Ordering a fancier cake from the grocery store gets you a really good freshly made cake for a lot less than a specialty bakery.

But what about homemade cake?

If you want to bake a homemade cake, I’ll tell you my favorite recipe, and it’s not from a cookbook or a food blog.

My favorite recipe for the best homemade chocolate cake and icing I’ve ever made is the recipe straight off the Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder container. This cake is amazing I am telling you. I follow it pretty closely except I like to substitute a cup of coffee for the water (decaf for kids). Even if you don’t like coffee, just trust me on this one. Coffee amplifies chocolate flavor, but it’s not enough that you will taste coffee at all. I always keep some instant coffee in my pantry for just this reason. Here is a link to my favorite espresso powder, or you can try this one if you need decaf.

Have a Question?

Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.

Reply to this email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.

Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.

➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Facebook | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads

Wishing you an easy week ahead!

– Lisa