Rubber Duck Themed Bento

This week I made bento to please my rubber duck loving children. According to the folks at daycare, this was their favorite lunch yet.

The sandwiches were almond butter and jelly shaped like a rubber duck, complete with champagne grape eyes. To get a tactile sense of the rubber duck there were strips of rubber like cheese surrounding the sandwiches. Corn was included due to its Rubber Duck color. Tiny duck crackers "Quackers" from Whole Foods made a side dish. And a Strawberry topped the whole thing off. Why a strawberry? My kids like them. Not everything has to be duck themed...

Duck Wear

One of our most popular posts is Birthday Duck, a chronicling of the Duck Cake I made for my twin daughter's first birthday. I themed the whole party around ducks, but found that some ducks were harder to find than you would think. So, I made my own. Here is a link to Duckie Town, so you can find duck images on all kinds of stuff. Stuff to wear while making and eating a duck cake.

Birthday Duck

The Babies turned one. I made them a duck shaped cake born out of a pound cake and banana bread recipe combined. It was tasty and duck shaped, what more could a one year old want? What more could two one year olds want? We let them at it unencumbered by spoons, bibs, or reasonable portion sizes. So much mess was never more happily made.



Banana Duck Cake


Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pound (2cups) sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 large eggs
3 sticks butter
2 ripe well mashed bananas
1/2 cup milk set out for a half hour with ½ TBSP white vinegar
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

Need: One Duck Cake Pan (I got mine at Michaels)

Sift the flour, baking soda, and baking powder
into a large mixing bowl.
Stir in sugar and salt with a large spoon.
Next add the butter, melted partially in the microwave or softened at room temperature.
Mix in the mashed bananas.
Add the eggs, one at a time.
Mix with mixer or beater on slow.
Slowly add the vinegar-milk, and then the
vanilla extract.
After it is thoroughly stirred, turn the mixer up to medium for a few minutes,
and then mix on high.
If the mixture is a little thick, add just a touch more milk.
If you don't mix things thoroughly you will have lumps that will
form air bubbles in your mixture and leave holes
in your finished cake

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Take your Duck cake pan and thoroughly oil it with
butter, pam, or shortning. Just make sure it’s greased up in all the nooks and crannies.
Then lightly flour the oiled pan.
Shake the excess flour from the pan.

Pour 5 and ½ cups of cake batter into the bottom half of the Duck pan (the part without the small hole). Fill it to the brim.
Snap the top part of the cake mold on top and tie it to the bottom with cooking twine or string (I used something left over from Thanksgiving). This will keep the mold together when the cake rises.
Put any leftover batter in a greased and floured cupcake pan.
Bake the cake for one hour and twenty minutes.
Check your cake to see if it’s done, especially during the last 20 minutes.
When you think it is done, stick a wooden toothpick into the hole in the top part of the cake mold. If it's dry when you pull it out,
the cake is done.

Allow the cake to cool 5-10 minutes in both sides of the pan.
Gently take the top part of the mold off and set aside.
Let cool another 5-10 minutes and then place the top part of the mold back on and
Turn cake over gently to get it unstuck from the other side.
Let cool thoroughly for about 3-4 hours with both sides of pan on the cake.
Put cake in mold upright on a decorative plate (I just covered a plain plate in foil) and remove each side of the mold carefully.
Hopefully your duck will stand upright.

Decorate with frosting and love.