Dirt Cake

Every Wednesday, I teach an after school lit club to a group of 1st graders as part of one of my children's lit classes. It's been fun (well, last week not so much, post-halloween kids are a terror). I was trying to think of something special to do for the last week I had with them. I built a whole lesson plan around food and digestion, so the last day we read Megan McDonald's Beetle McGrady Eats Bugs then I had the kids write me a story about how they thought something that would be nastiest thing they ate wasn't really all that nasty.

Tuesday night I thought "oooooh, I'll make dirt cake." Looks gross but is totally awesome right? One of my friends suggested I make it vegan, so since I've had such issue making vegan baked stuff, I went for it.

Verdict? Pretty awesome. I'm not sure if this is traditional dirt cake but I loved it. My kids all said it was the best cake they ever had. The only thing I'd do different is maybe use ground flax seed/water instead of the egg substitute, but I was short on time and didn't know the correct measurements.

Cake

1 box no dairy cake mix (I used a Duncan Hines marble cake mix), prepare with egg substitute and then the oil and water on the box directions

6 oreos

Mix the cake ingredients, pour in pan and top with broken up oreos. Bake the cake according to box directions, set aside to cool.

Frosting

2 half sticks softened Earth Balance shortening

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2-3/4 c confectioners sugar (just taste it as you go)

4-5tbs peanut putter

Start with beating the shortening then add liquid ingredients. Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time, then mix in softened peanut butter. If it tastes to shorten-y, add more sugar as needed.

Dirt

One package crushed oreos

Gummy worms

Cover the cake with a thin layer of icing. You really don't need that much. I used probably half of what I listed above but it's pretty good and will keep for a long time. Cover the cake with the crushed oreos and top with gummy worms.

Pretty good!