Training Children to be Adventurous Eaters / Pizza Cake

I taking my last prerequisites for a nursing program.  One of them was a basic nutrition class.  A frequent concern of other students was that their children had very defined ideas about what they would and would not eat.

My children are grown and moved out years ago.  I do somewhat miss how we used to "play with our food".  Here are some of the strategies I tried:
 
I asked the kids what country they wanted to "go" to. We had an atlas that also was a picture book showing lifestyles in various countries, some of which I'd never heard of myself. I didn't make any cuisine off limits, but I did decide how much I could afford to spend on groceries. I buy spices in bulk, so it was never a big deal to make a 14-spice Ethiopian dish, for instance, especially since they use lots of lentils, yellow peas, carrots and spinach (which are all inexpensive).

We had other games that included food. Before Presidential elections one year, they "ran" their own political campaigns, made posters and gave "parties" before elections that featured some outrageous campaign promises.  Once they won their elections (which both children did, against imaginary opponents), they also specified details about their own country, including the agricultural products, cooking style, etc.

We entered state fairs with our animals. We went to all the fairs and festivals that specialized in unusual food products like ramps and oysters.

I got dozens of seed catalogs and had them help me pick what to grow - red corn, red brussel sprouts, "radishes" that grew on bushes. I had a few plastic tube soap molds that yielded stars when you sliced the soap. I put them around squash and then placed newspaper over so the squash wouldn't overheat. Then I'd pick the squash three or four days later and it would be in a cool shape.  (I got the idea from some very pricy vegetables grown in Japan!)  Armenian cucumbers naturally look like flowers when you slice them open.

We played restaurant dozens of times - whatever kind of restaurant they wanted to "own" for a few days, as long as it didn't include items off my budget. They usually wanted Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.  My daughter knew the differences between these cuisines before she was six.

I made birthday cakes that looked like various things they were not - pizza, rabbits, etc. We shaped bread loaves like birds and people. We put eyes, ears and tails on pieces of fruit. We stuffed filo with yummy things and tied them with green onion stems (difficult) or string before baking so they looked like packages.

I raised my kids alone for 18 years; we were often poor and sometimes I didn't feel like "making fun".  I did learn, however, that one only has to start "making fun" with children (or puppies, or anyone else who doesn't understand jobs and bills) and pretty soon it really is fun. We enjoyed some great meals together.  On the occasions when the food came out ugly (which happened a lot, even if it tasted good), we learned what not to do next time.

Recently I got my mother and daughter books about making food cute like the Japanese do for their children.  The exact book I ordered for both of them: Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go. Amazon.com has a lot of books in this category and a few rice cutters and other tools.  Many years ago, I bought my daughter the Roald Dahl Revolting Food Cookbook.  Actually, some of the recipes were very high in sugar, so I questioned my wisdom in getting the book.  But it was a fun book.  


There are also many books available about making garnishes.  Although some of the designs within are probably more trouble than they are worth for most people, a good Japanese or Chinese garnish book will also include a few simple tricks with knives to decorate vegetables or with rolling eggs and thinly sliced meats to make flowers.  If you don't spend a lot of money on the book, wouldn't it be a worthwhile investment to raise interest at the dinner table?

Here's a basic how-to for the pizza cake:
Make the brioche dough from the the Beouf en Brioche recipe posted a few days before.  Add more sugar though - 1/3 c. - and leave out the garlic, of course.   Roll it out into a round shape and then pat the center so it is thinner than the edges.  Brush on a little butter and oil before baking at 400 degrees.  Turn your oven light on and check it at 8 minutes to see if it has begun browning just a little.  If it has, take it out and let it cool.  If not, leave it in a few more minutes, checking regularly.  How long it will take will depend on how thick you've made it. 
Spread some strawberry all-fruit jam thinly, but a little thicker towards the edges.
Spread 4 oz room temperature cream cheese that has been whipped with 2 oz. butter, 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 tbsp. honey to taste.  Spread it on top of the jam.  It will be thin, but don't worry because it will thicken in the refrigerator.
Decorate with strawberry slices cut to be round like pepperoni.  Be creative with other toppings, just know they can't be too wet (like drippy pineapple from a can - squeeze out some juice first) or they will mess up the frosting.
Refrigerate to firm.

Out of curiosity, I typed "pizza cake" in to a search engine and found that others have made pizza cake using yellow cake in a round pan, colored frostings and sliced candies for the toppings.  You can do that, too, and you may be more popular with some middle school children party attenders, who will not expect cream cheese and sweet bread to be called cake.  But if your family eats fairly healthfully, I think this is a reasonable treat.  There were years when I would have made my family sit through a cake made entirely of rye flour, and I no longer recommend that stringency for special occasions.  (After it backfired on ME!)