It’s true. I add spinach to cake now. We will get greens into these kids, will we not?!
Look at this and tell me that you see spinach:
Right? And neither did he:
Now, he is a 3-year-old. Therefore, he also eats the occasional dirt or piece of tortilla that has been stuck under his car seat since last Christmas. So can he really be trusted?
Look at that face. If he can’t be trusted, who can? Though he is not to be trusted with choosing an outfit. It was snowing the day he was determined to wear these swim trunks. Why? Because they had sharks on them, which perfectly matched the sharks on his shirt. Obviously.
So about adding spinach to cake. I got the idea from Justus’ fiance.
She can absolutely be trusted. With food, with picking outfits, and of course, with picking a husband. She’s a keeper.
One day in my kitchen she saw me making these smoothies (yes, she already knows we’re weird and she still wants to marry into the Coppinger family). She was like: “Hey, did you know you can add spinach to a cake mix? I saw it on a reel!”
Fascinated, and seeing as I am in a desperate way to get as many nourishing foods into my kids as possible, I decided to pick up a cake mix the next time I was at the store. (<— Read that sentence again. Weirdest thing I’ve ever typed. Hahahahaha. Who even am I anymore?)
Yes, I picked up a cake mix. To help us eat greens. Yo. Betty Crocker gets salad into the children. We love her.
There’s the blender filled with spinach, oil, and water. If that doesn’t look like a delicious cake waiting to happen, I don’t know what does.
Then, in went eggs and cake mix.
It’s a cake mix? It’s a smoothie? No one actually knows what this is.
In fact, Malachi (our 17-year-old) watched in horror as he saw me blend this up and then pour it into a cake pan. “Mom, what are you doing??!!”
Poor kid. He knows his mom is tired. He really thought I’d lost my mind (some more). He thought I was pouring smoothie into a pan and putting it into the oven.
So then I told him what I was actually doing and he was disgusted that he’d seen the entire thing transpire. Not knowing there was spinach in the cake would have been much better, thought he. But alas, the damage had been done. He’d seen the spinach get blended into the cake. He left for soccer practice full of skepticism.
Would you look at that? It’s just a chocolate cake. Full of spinach that no one can see. Bah.
I frosted it, you know, just to add more sugar to our nourishing cake. What in the world. I then took a blurry picture.
Let’s take another look at that first taste-tester, shall we?
Can you see a slight green tint within the chocolate? No, you cannot. Only because you know it’s there do you think that you see greenish-brown.
Below you can read about how you can also put greens into your cake. We have all lost our minds. I guess we don’t care if our kids eat the sugar as long as they are also eating salad??
How to Add Spinach to Cake
- 1 chocolate cake mix
- 1¼ cups water
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 3 eggs
- 3-4 cups fresh spinach
- Blend everything up in a high power blender.
- Pour the batter into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Allow cake to cool before frosting.
And that’s how it’s done.
Will this be a way I frequently get greens into my children?
I don’t think that it will. But then again, I’m kind of on a roll with thinking of new ways to add veggie nourishment to our food. Wonder what else I can add spinach to?
Oh, in case you’re wondering…
Malachi’s Response:
He loved this cake and couldn’t get over it. “It’s so good! How is it this good?!” said we, between bites of cake.
I bet he’ll never be skeptical again when I put green stuff into a cake pan.
Listen, we all loved this cake. We decided that spinach makes it extra moist. I dare you to try it. :)
Sorry, still can’t bring myself to buy boxed cake mixes. ;-) Plus, they contain too many potential allergens for my family. BUT, this sounds like a great idea to try to add to my from-scratch chocolate cake! Thanks for the idea!
I was thinking that too. Couldn’t we skip the chemistry experiment in a box and just through some spinach in our homemade mix? ?
Oh yes, for sure!!!
I’m in!!! I love it. I’m proud of you for buying that cake mix. Good job. :) :) :)
This is so completely awesome! Hey – if it works for zucchini bread, it should also work for about any other vegetable. So brilliant. Thank you!!!
Because I was curious, I wanted to know if any nutrients were lost when cooking spinach. Look at this! (I found this at Consumer Reports.)
“The leafy green is packed with nutrients, but you’ll absorb more calcium and iron if you eat it cooked. The reason: Spinach is loaded with oxalic acid, which blocks the absorption of iron and calcium but breaks down under high temperatures.”
Makes that spinach even more healthy to bake it in a cake! Pretty awesome so I wanted to share!
YES!!!! I wondered about this too. Thanks for doing the research!
I make lots of zucchini cakes, and last Sunday at church (we always have a shared lunch) a man who hates zucchini said that zucchini makes a cake better!
Thank you! For this recipe, can’t wait to try it!
The Sneaky Chef has a delicious (from scratch) chocolate brownie recipe that has spinach and blueberries hidden in it- all you taste is chocolaty goodness.
anyone ever tried this with a brownie mix???
Haha! You crack me up!!! Love your blog! You inspire this old mom of youngsters! Will send you a pic of my crew when we make it!! :-)
Ha! I was laughing about your comments about buying a cake mix. Sometimes we do what we need to to survive. And foster kids and newly adopted, slightly older kids are a whole different ballgame. Glad you’ve found some ways to make it work for you!
OK, I know an idea for you to try. At a La Leche League meeting 12 years ago, a mom shared that you could make boxed brownies by adding ONLY one can of pureed black beans. One box brownies, one can of black beans. No added anything else. Just don’t buy the jalepeno variety.
I think I put too much spinach. Now that sounds weird! My batter definitely had an olive green color from trying to use the whole small container of spinach. I’ll have to see if I can taste a difference or if my family is put off by the color after it’s baked.
Definitely has a green tint once baked but again , I used a small container of spinach. The spinach cflavor is slightly noticeable. But I didn’t frost ours. It’s half gone so it didn’t deter any of us which is good.