WIC Kitchen: A yummy (and healthy) birthday cake

Jun. 12, 2024

By Mary Wade Burnside and Sarah Moore

It’s the 50th birthday of the Women’s, Infants and Children’s (WIC) program, a federally-funded nutritional plan for qualifying pregnant and postpartum mothers as well as children up to the age of 5.
To celebrate, Monongalia County Health Department’s WIC program will be holding birthday parties in some of our six regional offices, which include Monongalia, Preston, Marion, Harrison, Doddridge and Taylor.
And what’s a party without a cake? So for this month’s WIC Kitchen, we’re making one and, of course, sneaking as many healthy ingredients into it as possible.
We made this yellow cake by slightly tweaking this recipe from Jessica Seinfield’s cookbook “Deceptively Delicious,” which she compiled after working to create yummy yet nutritious food for her children.
Adding pumpkin and yogurt to the cake not only provides extra protein, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins and minerals (pumpkin) and calcium, zinc, B vitamins and probiotics (yogurt), but it also makes the cake more moist. Fruit on top makes it pretty and colorful and also packs more nutritional value.
And if you can sneak carrots into a fruit punch, why not?
Wondering if you qualify for WIC? Check out the generous income guidelines at monchd.org/departments-programs/pages/wic-eligibility-guidelines.
And remember, foster parents or family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.) raising their grandchildren who have been certified as “kinship care” by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), automatically qualify for WIC. Some pregnant women who are losing income from being away from work might as well. To find out, call 800-675-5181.

Yellow Cake

Ingredients:
Nonstick cooking spray
One box yellow cake mix
1 cup canned pumpkin puree*
¼ cup water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large eggs*
1 large egg white*
6 ounces nonfat lemon, banana or vanilla yogurt (we used lemon)*

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat a 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray and flour lightly
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cake mix, pumpkin puree, water, oil, eggs, egg white and yogurt. Beat until smooth, one to two minutes.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the cake center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool and decorate.

Fruit Punch
2 cups raspberry puree*
1 cup pineapple puree*
½ cup carrot puree*
2 cups cold water
¼ cup sugar
Ice, for serving

Instructions:
To make a puree, add desired fruit/vegetable to small amounts of water until you blend to get desired consistency.
Combine raspberry, pineapple and carrot purees, water and sugar in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Serve over ice and enjoy!
Items marked with an asterisk* are available through Monongalia County Health Department WIC. Please contact us at 304-598-5181 for more information.