Easy Slow Cooker Raspberry & White Chocolate Chip Cake

Fresh picked peas and strawberries taken straight from our Community Garden are the perfect finger food right now for my young girls living in the city. As always, my mind is on expanding my culinary repertoire. So when the raspberry canes are giving up their ripe fruits, Meg and I are making Raspberry & White Chocolate Chip Cake.

Not only do we feed ourselves and exchange our garden excess, but we set some aside for our local Women, Infant and Children (WIC) food and nutrition service for those at nutritional risk.

Born out of a triangle of wasteland at the end of my street, Merchant Park Community Garden came to life in the Spring of 2011.

The realization of a vision by our neighbors, we pitched in to help create a colorful patchwork of thirty small and life giving raised beds. Behind each little plot of land lies a personal story about how we all came to share in this space, and the foundation on which they were built as “a backyard for us all”.

In that first year I meticulously planned the planting of our 8′ x 8′ plot by following the square foot gardening method. I drew pictures, took measurements, researched companion planting (who knew peas and onions must be kept apart, and tomatoes don’t like potatoes?). We planted on a rainy Sunday morning and things began to grow. My girls ate straight from the garden and began to see a connection between their food and the land. It grounded us at exactly the right moment and we pivoted from that in ever increasing circles, acquaintances turned into friendships and that triangle of wasteland unexpectedly touched our lives.

The garden is now in it’s third year and we have 50 raised beds and a wait list. I’ve learned that no 2 seasons are the same and am a more relaxed gardener than I was in the beginning (no more tape measures.) The organic dirt is once again packed with plants slowly making their way into our kitchens and nothing is going to waste.

Prep Time 10 minutes Cooking Time 2 hours Servings 10-18 depending on size

Ingredients

½ cup/1 stick butter (or ½ cup olive oil)
a scant 1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour (or half and half white and wholewheat)
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup white chocolate chips
6 oz raspberries

Grease a 2 lb loaf pan with butter and turn on your slow cooker to high. Place a piece of aluminium foil on the bottom of the slow cooker.

Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and cream together.

Stir in the eggs, flour, baking soda, salt, milk, vanilla and chocolate chips until you have a thick pastey mixture.

Fold the raspberries into the mixture carefully and evenly.

Spoon the mixture into your loaf pan and place into your slow cooker (on top of the foil). Set on High for 2 hours.

Test for doneness with a fork, if it comes out clean from the cake then it’s cooked.

Zen Toolkit
Meg had this cake baking when showing people around her home during it’s sale. Knowing that it wouldn’t burn while she was occupied gave her peace of mind, while still having that homely smell waft around the kitchen.

 Zen Moment
Do all you can to make your dreams come true.
-Joel Osteen