Whipping Up Something Good

Happy 6th Birthday Brooklyn

2011-04-07T12:52:00.001-04:00

My niece celebrated her 6th birthday with her Kindergarten class, family, and friends last month. The party theme was gymnastics.

I wanted to work with fondant this time but only to add details to the cake. I found a template online and used it to design the top.

It turned out great! I really enjoyed making it. The cake was chocolate chip with buttercream icing. Wilton fondant was used to design the girl and the balance beam.

Happy Birthday Brooklyn! I'm glad your party was a hit!

Quitter or Fighter?

2011-04-05T10:28:00.001-04:00

It's been a couple of months ((again)) since my last post. Too bad I'm not Catholic or I would be saying "It's been a couple of months since my last confession". Have you ever felt like there are so many things you want to do in your life but you don't have the time to do it? I feel like that everyday. I seriously have a mental list. Sometimes, I have to take a moment, breathe and tell myself to take it one day at a time. There is so much I want to accomplish such has video editing, photography, blogging, dieting, parenting, being a better wife, becoming a true Christian, utilizing my kitchen more, focus at work, and complete my schooling. I just don't feel balance in my life. Does this make me a quitter or a fighter?

At times, I feel like a complete failure. I start things but take forever to finish them. Am I a quitter? My weight has been a slap in my face since I had my last child in 2003. I wasn't able to breastfeed and shed the weight like other mothers. I've tried eating less, energy pills, exercising, and counting calories. I couldn't stick to any method long enough to make any progress. My husband lost a lot of weight to prepare himself for back surgery (2yrs ago) and it was something we were suppose to do together but it just fell through for me. He lost while I gained.

My sister-in-law told me in January about a site called "My Fitness Pal". She and I were going to do it together. I was psyched. I've counted calories using "Livestrong" before but never kept it up so this was the time to start something new. On January 18th, I started my weight loss program. My goal was to lose 20pds and today I've lost 16! Just 4 more pounds to go. I'm a fighter.

I've come close to scratching dieting off my mental list even though I will continue to watch my calories. I never want to go backwards ever again. Dieting has kept me from doing what I love in the kitchen and I haven't been blogging lately. I've been wanting to incorporate meals that are low in calories in my blog but it's so hard to do when you eat the same stuff a majority of the time.

I still have other items on my mental list to accomplish. Coming close to completing one of them is just the beginning. I think to myself in 3 more months I'll be another year older, I've got two beautiful growing kids, a fantastic husband, a great job, and a wonderful church that I attend. I've got to keep fighting.

Thanks for always listening. There is more to come☺!

Happy "Belated" New Year

2011-01-11T19:39:00.003-05:00

Some whirlwinds in my life have caused me to fall behind again on my blog. Since my last posting in November, my kids were finishing up their basketball league and entering into tournaments. They both lost but ended their season determined to try again in the spring. Then we had our practices for our upcoming Christmas play at our church. This was my daughter’s last year to perform and my son’s second. They were both incredible and had my husband and me in tears.

While I haven’t had time to blog, I have been reading my favorites/fellow food bloggers. I happened to notice that Krystle from Smitten Sugar had a giveaway. I found her blog through The Cake Slice Bakers. She has lots of great recipes and a beautiful cake stand with crystal tear drops around the sides.

I’ve tried for giveaways on other blogs before with intentions of winning but never get my hopes up. When I checked her blog a few days later, I read that I had won. I was so overjoyed because I was just starting my day after battling to work because of a minor ice storm. I even told her in an email that winning turned my frown upside down that day. How sweet it was of her to do this close to Christmas. I’ve never owned a muffin top pan before and I can’t wait to try new recipes using it.

So…Since it’s a New Year you’ve got to have New Year’s resolutions. Mine are to bake more, cook more, buy lots more baking/cooking stuff, find a place to put all my purchases *☺*, go out to eat less so I can save money and eat more at home *very hard to do*, be there more for my kids and husband + dog, exercise, and lose weight. Whew! What a year it’s going to be. I can say that I’ve started my year with birthday cakes. I’ve got 3 birthdays in February but it’ll be a combined party and 2 birthdays in March. I can’t wait!

Best-Ever Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

2010-11-04T12:35:00.030-04:00

This cake was made for two ladies in my department to celebrate their November birthdays. They both ♥ chocolate cake. I wanted to find a simple and tasty recipe. I get the Kraft Foods emails each month and this one came up in October.

Best-Ever Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

1 pkg. (8 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, divided
1 pkg. (2-layer size) chocolate cake mix
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
4 eggs
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping (Do not thaw)
2 Tbsp. PLANTERS Sliced Almonds

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F.

Chop 2 chocolate squares. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Stir in chopped chocolate. Pour into 2 (9-inch) round pans sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake 30 to 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Loosen cakes from sides of pans. Invert onto wire racks; gently remove pans. Cool cakes completely.

Microwave COOL WHIP and remaining chocolate squares in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 1 min. Let stand 15 min. to thicken.

Stack cake layers on plate, filling and frosting with COOL WHIP mixture. Sprinkle with nuts. Keep refrigerated. The fudge-like texture of this cake improves when it is stored overnight in the refrigerator.

Tips
Prepare using JELL-O Chocolate Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Pudding, BREAKSTONE'S Reduced Fat or KNUDSEN Light Sour Cream and COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping.

Source: Kraftrecipes.com

The verdict:
Good

It was very moist.
Loved the almonds on top of the cake. I used a 1/2 cup of slivered almonds instead of 2 Tbsp of sliced almonds.
I will make again.

Bad

The two squares didn't seem like enough chocolate. I should have added an extra square.
I didn't care for the Cool Whip Topping. When mixed with the remainder of chocolate squares, I didn't get the consistency that I wanted. I allowed it to cool for a long time and it still didn't get any thicker. I used container frosting instead.
I should have gotten the sliced almonds instead of slivered.

Quick Decorating Tip: The cake was placed on a glass cake stand and set in the middle of a fall wreath. Using the wreath around the stand made it a beautiful centerpiece.

Incredible Food Show 2010

2010-10-25T23:29:00.004-04:00

This past weekend October 23-24, Lexington Kentucky hosted their 2nd annual “The Kentucky Proud Incredible Food Show” featuring Celebrity Chef Giada De Laurentiis at the Lexington Center. Admission was $15 dollars for adults/$5 for children. Coupons were available on the website for $2 off your admission.

Chef Giada De Laurentiis, host of “Everyday Italian” and “Giada’s Weekend Getaways” plus “Giada at Home” on the Food Network Channel, gave two cooking presentations at Rupp Arena on Saturday October 23rd. Ticket prices which included admission to the Food Show were $35 (upper level seating), $55 (reserved seating), and $85 (floor seating including an autographed copy of Giada’s fifth cookbook “Giada at Home.”

I didn’t attend the cooking presentation but was able to meet Giada from a far. A line was forming right in front of her signing table. This was a perfect chance to take some pictures of a "Food Network" star. She is so beautiful and lively in person. Her smile makes you wanna smile.

Besides meeting Giada, My sister-in-law and I really enjoyed visiting all the vendor's booths at the show. “The Marketplace” had more than 100 exhibitors. There were food samples galore. It was like food heaven. We tried all types of beer cheese, sauces (BBQ, Hot Sauce, Steak Sauce etc…), flavored popcorn, cakes/cupcakes, fudge, creamed candy, pasta, different meats, ice cream and more. Here are just a few of the booths we stopped at:

http://www.houstonsdressings.com/

http://www.rattlesnakehillfarm.com/

http://www.snughollow.com/

http://www.mysassysweets.com/

http://www.confusedconfections.com/

This is a Topsy Turvy Cake demonstration presented by Sullivan College. I didn't get to see the finished cake but was able to watch the starting of it.

I have a cake decorating book that teaches you how to make figurines out of marzipan. They made farm animals to go on the topsy turvy cake. How cute are they!

The wine tasting aisle was amazing. Local wineries were flowing with many different wines and they were full of information about them. We tried all types: dry wines, sweet wines, red wines, white wines, fruity wines. We were so wined out that we didn’t get to visit all the booths.

Kids Craft Cafe demonstrated a colorful way to make toast. All you need is a piece of bread, a little milk colored with food coloring, and a paint brush. Mix some food coloring with a little bit of milk, dip your paint brush, and color the piece of bread. Place in your toaster and TAH DAH you have created a masterpiece.

Last year, Bobby Flay was the celebrity from Food Network. I missed out on that one. Hopefully next year Rachael Ray will be there. I will pay floor seating price to see her. Too be honest any Food Network star would be great. I should start saving.

The Cake Slice: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

2010-10-23T22:51:00.035-04:00

Recorded October 26, 2009 on "The Today Show"

The chosen cake for this month is from “Cake Keeper Cakes” by Lauren Chattman. This is our club’s first recipe from the cookbook and it was a great one at that. I love the smell of pumpkin. It’s the one fruit that really ties Halloween and Thanksgiving as a must have. Just last year, I whipped up 5 cakes for a fall wedding and it was pumpkin cake.

Here is my finished product. It's not an awesome picture (took w/ camera phone) but it is an awesome cake. The chocolate chips and walnuts worked well with the pumpkin in this cake. Along with the spices, it was very flavorful and moist not dry. I was afraid of overcooking it. It wasn't finished baking in an hour. It did take a little bit longer so always check. My work was pleased with the results and so will you.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Makes one 9 by 5 inch loaf cake

1¾ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cloves
Pinch nutmeg
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1¼ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Heat the oven to 350F. Coat the inside of a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust with flour.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cloves and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary.

With the mixer on medium low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the pumpkin puree and vanilla. Stir in the milk.

Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, ½ cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until it is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, 55 minutes to 1 hour.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, invert it onto a wire rack and then turn it right side up on a rack to cool completely.

Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastic for up to 1 week.

Source: Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman

I'm a {dot} com!

2010-10-07T12:32:00.001-04:00

A few days ago, I made the decision to purchase my domain name and it's so worth it. I'm official. The name has grown on me and I couldn't let someone else have it. Blogger has assured me there will be no problems with transition. It feels really good to expand a little bit. I hope you guys continue following.

Welcome Baby Braxton

2010-10-06T14:28:00.004-04:00

My sis-in-law called me a few weeks ago to tell me about a great opportunity. An old friend of hers was having a baby shower and the mom was needing a cake. My name was brought up and bada bing bada boom I agreed to make a full sheet cake for the occasion.

Theme: Winnie the Pooh (design left up to me)
Cake: 1/2 Chocolate and 1/2 Vanilla with Buttercream Icing
Location: 2hrs away

I thought long and hard about the design. The design was taken from a "Winnie the Pooh" themed party plate. I created an outdoor scene with the sun, tree, and clouds plus had Pooh with his friends looking at a baby caterpillar (which I messed up because I was in a hurry). I could have colored Tigger's face and mid-section a bit lighter but I was crunched for time.

The cake was so much fun to do. I wasn't able to stay for the shower but was told that it was a hit. Everyone loved it.

Newest Cake Club Member

2010-09-23T09:37:00.009-04:00

It's been so long since I've blogged. I've been sooo busy juggling a lot of things in my life and in the end I just get totally exhausted to wanna do anything else. So here I am with news that touches my heart. My daughter became the newest member to Kentucky Cake Society. It's so cute that she wants to be like me but doesn't take instruction very well because she wants to do it all by herself.

pic taken by Renee

I gave her the opportunity to do a project all on her own. I was very impressed how well she did all by herself without me looking over her shoulder. Oh....My little decorator *tear*.

pic taken by Renee

Happy 3rd Birthday Willow

2010-08-29T10:03:00.001-04:00

This cake was for my niece Willow. She was turning 3 and wanted a Dora the Explorer birthday party. I decided to do a tie dye background with Dora in the middle. Since I don’t own an airbrush machine, I purchased some Wilton Color Mist cans. They are awesome. I used them for the skateboard cake and was amazed how easy it was to use.

Let's SK8

2010-08-02T12:55:00.005-04:00

I have lots of celebrations to talk about. This past weekend, I celebrated my 34th birthday *yeah me* and my 12 year anniversary to my darling husband *yeah me again*. I couldn’t have been happier.

My birthday was Friday July 30th. I decided to take the day off *like TGIF*. I had plans to bake a birthday cake for a friend’s son. I know…How awkward to wanna make another person a birthday cake on your birthday. She had asked me weeks ago and it so happened that the party fell on the weekend of my birthday/anniversary. She is a good friend of mine from work so I truly wanted to do this for her. She gave me a list of certain things her son loves to do. From this list, I decided to choose skateboarding.

I searched the internet for skateboarding ideas. Flickr had tons. I would have loved to do a skateboard cake but instead decided to do a skateboard ramp after finding a Skateboard Park DecoSet on sugarcraft.com. The kit came with instructions on how to construct the ramp. Simple enough…NOT! Let’s just say it wasn’t easy to construct because (*again*) I used a soft cake instead of a denser cake such as pound. It still turned out awesome. I didn’t do everything the instructions suggested but I never said my cake was going to look exactly like the professionals that did the instructional sheet.

My anniversary was yesterday. It was spent at Lowe’s looking for a new faucet to replace the old in our kitchen. It’s funny how we went to look for a faucet and ended up looking at sinks, garbage disposals, cabinets and countertops plus scheduling someone to come out to the house to measure. I think it was because the sales lady was really extra super nice to us…yeah…*sigh*... let’s just leave it at that.

Kentucky Cake Society's 1st Annual Cake Show Outcome

2010-06-24T16:23:00.001-04:00

CALLING ALL LOCAL CAKE DECORATORS! The cake club I attend had their 1st Annual Cake Show on June 5th. It wasn’t a huge turnout but the few competitors we had, including myself, was enough. We hope to have more people interested when we have our next event.

Everyone did such a great job. There were some beautiful cakes. I was pressed for time and money when I made mine. My initial cake was suppose to be three tiered but I didn’t have enough money for the design I sketched out so I had to come up with another idea.

I wanted to do a 3D effect of a flower garden. I got the idea to mold a cupcake liner with white chocolate (tinted with green food coloring) and that became my base for my cupcake flower. The neat thing about making the white chocolate liner was that you can eat the whole cupcake without worrying about peeling off anything. I trimmed the cupcake bottoms so they fitted perfectly in the base then decorated. I would have spent more time decorating each flower but again I was pressed for time. I thought the outcome was pretty decent.

Now comes the scoring. In my division, everyone’s cakes blew mine away. I was a bit disappointed with the appearance of my cake but it was my first competition and I still need to learn more so in the end it was o.k.

Judge commented: Love the color, contrast, nice details, purple flower & sunflower, very nice

Judge commented: I wish cupcakes would grow in my garden

Those that participated were put in a drawing for cake products. I won “Ace of Cakes” Duff Goldman’s dark chocolate fondant. I just love his show and this is the first product I own from his new line of cake supplies. I don’t know what to do with it yet. I might have to use it for my next competition in September/October.

Recovery

2010-06-24T13:23:00.002-04:00

Oh my goodness! This past month has been a doozy. My FIL passing was a shock to all of us. Who would have thought that my husband being 36yrs old would have to bury a parent? It’s not right. Johnny, my FIL, will never get to watch his grandkids grow up. He’ll never know how much his oldest son loved him. It’s just a terrible time. He ended up trying to fight off an infection that caused him to go into cardiac arrest. After shocking his heart numerous times, he passed on. The whole time visiting him in the hospital, before his death, he was always sedated because of pain. We know he heard us and saw us there from time to time but to have a conversation with him was hard.

This whole ordeal has taken a huge toll on my family and I’m trying to get out of this depressed rut I’m in. I thank everyone for their kind messages.

Johnny Be Good

2010-05-22T09:07:00.001-04:00

This morning after a short battle my father-in-law passed away. He will be missed.

The Lord is My Shepherd

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want;
he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

A Strong Man He Is

2010-05-18T10:05:00.005-04:00

I have been MIA from blogging for the past month (and a few days). It wasn’t intentional I promise. I’ve not been able to bake or make new foods for awhile. It’s quite disappointing when you can’t do what you love. I do have a reason for not being motivated and it’s a brief story that I would like to tell.

On April 9th, which was my last post, my father-in-law was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. My husband’s family lives about an hour and a half away from us so at that time it wasn’t a need to flee back home. My sister-in-law kept us updated while my husband, John, felt confident to leave for work that evening. My FIL was kept under observation and all the tests you can think of was done to figure out what was going on. Within a few hours, his health suddenly went downhill.

My FIL woke up that day to find a bruise on his left arm. It was hurting him so bad that he called his daughter. She made the right decision to call 911. Now you might look at this picture and think it doesn’t look that bad but it ended up getting worse to very severe.

This bruise ended up covering his whole arm causing it to become black and blue with huge whelps. It was getting hard for him to breath and his kidneys started to fail. The local hospital flew him to a more advanced hospital to save his life. The diagnosis given to family was necrotizing fasciitis (commonly known as flesh-eating disease or flesh-eating bacteria) and compartment syndrome (the compression of nerves and blood vessels within an enclosed space. This leads to muscle and nerve damage and problems with blood flow). This so called infection was taking his life quickly.

John ended his shift at work and rushed to the hospital to be with his Dad. He was with family when the anesthesiologist said that he wasn’t going to make it and the family should say their goodbyes. I’ve always known my FIL to be a tough man. My husband would tell me stories that his Dad would stitch his own wounds with a needle and a thread. Lord knows I don’t have the stomach for that and I’ve had stitches before. When my FIL was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago he took it with stride and took his medicine as needed. He wasn’t much of a Dr. person. He hated to see them because he feared the worst. Now he had to place his trust in them to save his life.

The arm was causing his kidneys to fail. The hand surgeon tried to save it but in the end it had to be amputated. His arm was amputated from the shoulder without a stub. A few days later another operation occurred. Through this whole ordeal his toes started to turn black. All ten toes were amputated and left with stubs to fit into a prosthesis.

He is still on dialysis and still hospitalized. He has a long road to recovery. My weekends have been visiting with my FIL at the hospital and trying to catch up with my chores at home. I hope to get back to doing what I love soon. I sure do miss blogging.

Mum's The Word

2010-05-17T19:00:00.001-04:00

These cupcakes were fun to make. I don’t make too many cupcakes and when I do I just spread some icing on top. My pantry is always stocked with marshmallows. It’s a quick snack for the kids and it’s the main ingredient used in my fondant plus you gotta have it for rice krispie treats. YUM!

I went by the recipe except I didn’t use licorice. I wasn’t trying to make a bouquet. I also used white marshmallows instead of the flavored. The cool part was dipping the marshmallow petals in the colored sugar. My kids had fun assisting with that.

Mum's the Word Cupcakes

8 vanilla cupcakes, baked in orange paper liners
1/4 cup each blue, white, light yellow, bright pink, bright yellow, orange and purple decorating sugars
1 bag (10.5 ounces) flavored mini marshmallows (assorted pastel colors)
1 bag (10.5 ounces) mini marshmallows
1 cup canned vanilla frosting
40 pastel-colored licorice pastels (Jelly Belly)
Green licorice twists (Twizzlers, Rainbow Twists)

Directions

Place each colored sugar in a separate shallow bowl. Sort out 22 like-colored marshmallows for each cupcake. Make the petals for each cupcake by cutting the 22 mini marshmallows in half on the diagonal, allowing all of the marshmallow pieces to fall into one of the colored sugars. Shake the bowl and press the cut sides of the marshmallows into the sugar to coat. Repeat with the remaining marshmallows and colored sugars.

Spread a thin layer of frosting on top of 1 cupcake. Starting along the outside edge of the cupcake, arrange like-colored marshmallow petals, sugared sides up, close together. Continue with another 2 rows of the same color marshmallows to almost completely cover the cupcake. Repeat with the remaining frosting, cupcakes, and marshmallows.

For the stamens, insert 5 like-colored licorice pastels in the center of each cupcake. Arrange the flower cupcakes on a serving platter. Trim the green licorice twists to look like stems and place on the platter.

Source: What’s New, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson

Chocolate Rose

2010-05-17T18:30:00.001-04:00

This chocolate rose was made by using a circle cutter or petal cutter and leaf cutter. Take the circle or petal and pinch the end with your fingers to form the petal. Overlap each petal over each other then place leaves on each side. You can brush the petals with luster dust of any color.

Chocolate Clay (Modeling Chocolate)

*10 ounces semisweet chocolate (coarsely chopped chunks or chips)
1/3 cup light corn syrup

Directions

Using Microwave: In a shallow bowl, melt the chocolate in microwave (be careful so that the temperature does not exceed 100 degrees F.) for 2 minutes; stir. If chocolate is not completely melted, return to microwave for 30 seconds at a time and stir until smooth.

Using a Double Boiler, Place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over hot water and stir until melted.

Add corn syrup to the chocolate and mix well (scrape all the corn syrup into the chocolate with a rubber spatula).

Using a rubber spatula, stir and fold mixture, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl well, until no shiny syrup is visible and the mixture forms a thick ball.

Pour mixture onto a waxed paper sheet and spread with the spatula until it’s about 1/2-inch thick; let it sit and stiffen, uncovered, for about 2 hours.

Use at once or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.

Your roses or bows will harden after a few days at room temperature and can be saved by storing in a cool, dry place.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER IS NOT TO TOUCH THE CLAY TOO MUCH. IT GETS VERY STICKY AND BECOMES HARD TO HANDLE!

*Note: the chocolate can be substituted with almond bark, or colored candy disks to create different colored flowers

Source: www.cakecentral.com

Cakes+Decorating=Girl Scouts

2010-04-09T09:38:00.003-04:00

Huh! You're probably wondering what I'm talking about. A few weeks ago, I was invited to help 50 Girl Scouts from different troops to learn how to decorate cakes. This event was to help them recieve their Wilton Icing Badge.

There were lots of young girls along with their moms, aunts, grandmothers, and cousins there just to learn. It's such a great feeling to see how interested they were just to learn how to ice a cake.

The whole room went silent for just a moment. They were given the recipe for Wilton's Buttercream and how to ice their cake. Then they were told how to color their icing by dipping a toothpick into your color then dipping it back into your batter. Now it was time to gather into groups to get started.

Each child was given a 4 inch single layer cake (pre-iced) to decorate. They chose a color and added it to a bowl of icing to mix. They were given a decorating bag along with tips to use for their cake. Before everyone started to decorate, they had to pratice their new skill on a practice sheet.

pic taken by Renee

They worked really hard on borders, handwriting, and leaves. They all felt like pros and didn't take very long to learn the simple techniques. Every girl had a unique way to decorate their cake. Some used cookie cutters and some did free hand designs. It would have been great to have taken a picture of all the cakes together but they were ready to go home just so they could eat them.

pic taken by Renee

This whole event reminded me of when I had a cupcake decorating party for my daughter's birthday last year. It was also my first time doing a tiered cake. I might have to look into hosting a Wilton decorating party. Wouldn't that be fun!

Cookbook Swap Partner & My New Cookbook

2010-04-05T09:33:00.006-04:00

For those that missed out, I hosted my very first cookbook swap in March. I wanted to do something special for Easter and had a few ladies (six to be exact but one I couldn't reach) that were willing to participate. Thanks to all that filled out the questionairre and sent out your cookbooks. I hope everyone got an interesting book full of recipes to try. I plan to post some recipes soon and I hope you will too.

My partner was Wendy. She is from Maryland and loves to swap. She is very creative and her blog really shows it. Her cookbook request was low carb meals. I searched for a book that I hope she and her husband will like.

My cookbook request was budget meals. This is what was chosen for me:

http://www.once-a-monthcooking.com/

I couldn't be happier. This cookbook teaches you how to prepare meals in one months time. You are given a shopping list for the month along with the dishes you'll be preparing. The hard part is getting the foods made beforehand then put away in the freezer too use. The easy part is just taking out what you made up when needed and whip up a meal in a matter of seconds. There are 130 dishes that I can't wait to try. I certainly need simple meals to make for the family since I start making dinner as soon as I get home from work.

Use Inlinkz below and post your link for others to see.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T17:49:00.005-04:00

My Easter was wonderful and I hope yours was too. The family and I enjoyed Easter service at church and a wonderful lunch at Cracker Barrel. I didn't have to prepare an Easter dinner which was nice. At least I was able to take a picture of my babies all dressed up.

Last week, I was given the opportunity to make cupcakes for my kids classes. I wanted to do an Easter theme and found these cute cupcake holders online through Oriental Trading. I made yellow cake with green buttercream icing and topped them with Jolly Rancher jelly beans to look like eggs. They looked so cute. I ordered extra holders for next year.

Buttercream Topsy Turvy Cake

2010-03-24T09:13:00.010-04:00

This March madness is driving me crazy and I’m not just talking basketball (GO UK WILDCATS!!!). I’ve had too much stuff going on for me this month. I’ve had no time to make anything spectacular except for my daughter’s birthday cake (turned 10 on 3/9) which was shared amongst us meaning no birthday party was planned. We’ve had basketball games (my daughter plays) every weekend since January plus you can’t forget practices each week. I’m so ~~glad~~ relieved it’s over. Her last game was 3/13 and they won (their very first win). We celebrated with a team bowling party which occurred this past weekend 3/20 (didn’t get to my cake slice bakers cake this month yet but will plan to do it soon).

Besides basketball, my poor son got the stomach viral bug (nausea, vomiting and diarrhea) which lasted for a few days. Thank goodness the rest of us didn’t get it although it is going around everywhere else. We had to stick to a bland diet (no fun) until his stomach settled.

So along with my son and daughter troubles, I started back to school (online). My classes are job related and it’s so hard to study during the week and take care of my other responsibilities. To be honest, I just don’t know how busy people do it but I’m trying my best even though it may not be 110%. At least I was able to host a cookbook swap that ended 3/14. I can’t wait to see what everyone got. I’ve sent mine out. I’ll talk more about my partner next month on 4/5. I hope she enjoys her new cookbook.

Alright, let’s talk cake. I wanted to do something fun so decided to do a topsy turvy cake. We learned how to construct one at our cake club meeting and it was a lot of fun. Since topsy turvy cakes are also called “Mad Hatter” cakes and “Alice in Wonderland” came out in theaters (which my daughter is dying to see), I knew this would be the cake for her birthday.

In class, we were told to use pound cake because it would be easier to shape each tier. I heard from others that pound cake uses a lot of eggs. Since I’ve never made pound cake before, I searched the internet for a recipe. Low and behold, I found one to my liking. Duncan Hines had a “"Devil's Food Pound Cake" recipe.

Devil's Food Pound Cake
Servings: Makes 12 to 16 servings.

1 pkg Duncan Hines® Moist Deluxe® Devil's Food Cake Mix
1 (3.4 oz) pkg chocolate instant pudding and pie filling
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Baking Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 10-inch Bundt pan or tube pan (I used an 8-inch and 6-inch pan). Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour into pan.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 25 minutes. Invert onto heat resistant serving plate. Cool completely.

I doubled the recipe because I needed three 8-inch cakes and three 6-inch cakes. It was more than enough. The cakes cooked very well. It took mine about 50 minutes. I allowed them to cool the time required, iced the center with buttercream, stacked them and placed in the freezer. I needed them to stiffen a bit so that I could shape them. I used Janell's instruction video to help me with the steps needed to shape the cake. My goal was to use just buttercream and not fondant only because my kids don’t like fondant a whole lot.

I wasn't pleased with the end result. I had taken lots of pictures but this one is decent compared to the rest. My husband thought it looked cute and my daughter loved it. It was hard to shape because the cake was a bit softer than original pound cake plus it was difficult to ice with buttercream. I shaped it a little bit but cake was breaking off in certain spots.

I had fun making it. My cake instructor said that some stores carry pound cake mix. I plan to try it again with the proper cake and use fondant for a much smoother look. The cake did get a thumbs up at home. It was very good and moist.

Cookbook Swap Closed

2010-03-15T16:37:00.001-04:00

Thanks to everyone that participated!

I will get your partner information out to you later today. I've been waiting on one persons email address to get to me so hopefully I'll get that soon. Please remember that your cookbook can be new or used. If giving a used cookbook it has to be in gently used condition such as: no tears, writing, stains, etc... You wouldn't want to get an old cookbook that is falling apart. Cookbooks must be mailed out by March 26th so your partner can receive by Easter April 4th. When you receive your cookbook, come back to my site on April 5th and tell us what you got. I'll have the Inlinkz button available again so that you can see what others got too. Have fun shopping and getting to know your partner.

Cookbook Swap Update/Reminder

2010-03-07T08:59:00.001-05:00

Just a reminder that the cookbook swap sign up ends in seven days. I would love to have more participants so I'm opening it up to everyone (not just those in the U.S.). I want it to be a great experience to those that sign up. So please take the time to read my last post and join in.

Cookbook Swap

2010-03-01T10:00:00.013-05:00

SWAP IS NOW CLOSED*

*Thanks to all that participated

HAPPY MARCH 1st!

There are alot of events going on this month such as Daylight Savings Time, St. Patrick’s Day, and the first day of Spring but next month on April 4th is…

EASTER

Easter has its religious meaning but it also brings families together and what happens when families are together they…

EAT

Which brings me to cookbooks

What a wonderful occasion to share with other bloggers. When I first started my cooking blog, I wanted to give away a cookbook but after participating in a swap last month I got to thinking…

Why not do a cookbook swap with other bloggers.

Do we have enough cookbooks? Why no!
The more we have the happier we are about cooking…right?

SMILE

Here are the rules:

***Before you go any further please know that once you sign up you are COMMITTING yourself to this swap. I would love for you to participate BUT if you don’t send out your item then someone else won’t be receiving theirs and that wouldn’t be fair. So you must be POSITIVELY sure before signing up***

1. You must live in the U.S. because of mailing cost (I'm so sorry to those that don't)

2. Stay awhile and become a follower or a subscriber. (I would love to follow your blog(s) in return)

3. Fill out the questionnaire by March 14th. (This helps me on who to pair you up with)

4. Use the Inlinkz button below so that others can know about you and what you like to blog about. (This is a great way to get to know other bloggers)

5. Grab the button to add to your blog. Blog about it so that your friends will know too. Spread the word. I’ll notify you by email with your partner’s information on March 15th so be sure to check your email. Feel free to get to know them and especially check out their blog.

6. Have fun shopping for your partner’s cookbook. It can be new or used. If giving a used cookbook it has to be in gently used condition such as: no tears, writing, stains, etc... You
wouldn't want to get an old cookbok that is falling apart.

7. Cookbooks must be mailed out by March 26th so your partner can receive it by Easter April 4th.

When you receive your item, blog about it on your site then come back to this blog on April 5th and tell us what you got. I’ll have the Inlinkz button available so that you can see what others got too.

If you have any questions, send me an email to michel0730 at yahoo dot com.

HAVE FUN!!!

Whipping Up Something Good Baking/Cooking Swap

2010-02-23T11:09:00.005-05:00

I'm planning to host my very first swap*. I participated in one this year and had so much fun. I know I don't have very many followers but ya never know who out there might read my blog and be interested. So I've created a poll to my right side bar. Feel free to tell other bloggers about the swap. The more the merrier. I'll be closing the poll on 2/28. More details March 1st so be sure to check back.

*Note: Swap is for those that have blogs and for U.S. residents only.

The Cake Slice: Mississippi Mud Cake & #5

2010-02-20T08:41:00.008-05:00

It's a Valentine's Day Bake Off. The place is work. The cause is to raise money for our annual telethon. There were 11 entries....

and I'm #5.

The dessert is Mississippi Mud Cake.

Judges are 5 employees. They are to choose 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. There is also a "People's Choice" in which money is placed in a jar (in front of entry) and the most amount wins. In order to try samples of the entries, people purchased a plate for $3. Everyone loved the cake and talked about how good it was. One of the campaign members had asked me for the recipe during the judging. I was so impressed. I surely thought I would win.

Mississippi Mud Cake
Makes one 13 x 9 inch sheet cake

1 cup (2sticks) butter, cut into big chunks
½ cup cocoa powder
4 eggs, beaten well
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1½ cups all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

For the Mississippi Mud Frosting

One 1 lb box of confectioners sugar or measure out 3 ¼ cups
½ cup cocoa powder
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
½ cup milk or evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups mini marshmallows or 3 cups large marshmallows quartered

Method – Cake

Heat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 13x9 inch pan. In a medium saucepan combine the butter and cocoa powder and cook over medium heat, stirring now and then, until the butter is melted and the mixture is well blended, about 3 – 4 minutes. Stir in the beaten eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour, salt and pecans and beat until the batter is well combined and the flour has disappeared.

Quickly pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cake springs back when touched gently in the centre and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.

While the cake bakes, prepare the frosting so it is ready to pour over the hot cake.

Method – Mud Frosting

In a medium bowl combine the confectioners sugar and the cocoa powder and stir to mix well. Add the melted butter, milk and vanilla and beat everything together well. Set aside until the cake is done.

To Serve

Remove the cake from the oven, scatter the marshmallows over the top and then return the cake to the hot oven for about 3 minutes to soften the marshmallows.

Place the cake, still in the pan, on a wire rack. Pour the frosting all over the marshmallow dotted cake and eat straight away or allow to cool to room temperature. Cut the cake into squares and serve.

Source: Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

The verdict was I didn't place or win "People's Choice". Although, I was given this nice card thanking me for participating.

I had a lot of fun doing this for a cause. Congrats to those that won. First place was a chocolate wafer cake, second place was a dessert pizza, and third place was peanut butter cups (?). The "People's Choice" was the dessert pizza. I guess they were craving fruit that day :o)

Kentucky Cake Society 1st Cake Show & Free Cakes For Kids

2010-02-19T11:38:00.003-05:00

Kentucky Cake Society in Georgetown, Ky is having their 1st Annual Cake Show June 5th at the Harmony Christian Church in Georgetown, Ky at 12:00. There will be divisions for everyone. There will also be trophies awarded in each division and door prizes. As we grow in the future we hope to add other divisions, classes, and demos. Feel free to browse the website . Hope to see you there. I'm a proud member and will be participating. This would be my first cake competition. It sure would be great to see follow bloggers from the surrounding area/state attend.

Our club also participates in "Free Cakes For Kids" . This organization was started by Toni Poulos in Georgia and has grown throughout the United States. By volunteering, you can make a young child's birthday special by providing a cake. Their mission statement is:

Free Cakes For Kids is dedicated to providing birthday cakes for children in need.
Our belief is simple.
Every child is special.
Every child needs us.
One child's story taught us so much.

Our club has provided two cakes to help celebrate a little one's birthday. If you have the time and love to bake you might want to check out their site.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T23:57:00.001-05:00

This Valentine's Day was spent at home with a sick child. Yesterday, we went out to eat at our favorite place and spent time as a family. The hubby and I don't get to have nice outings without the kids. They are with us for every occasion. That's not a bad thing except for when you'd like to spend some time alone with the one you love and adore. The kids made homemade cards for us which was sweet but the best gift of all was given to me by Megan.

Katie from "Loves of Life" hosted a Simply-Love Swap in January for fellow bloggers that wanted to just send a blogging friend something nice for Valentine's. Megan was my swap partner from Minnesota. She has a wonderful family and a great blog. I was so excited when I received my package from her. She was very sweet to give as much as she did. It really made my Valentine's. Thank you soooo much.

Barbara Jean's Burger Soup

2010-02-07T17:41:00.003-05:00

These cold winter months have been brutal. It's sad to know that the groundhog saw its shadow and now we have to endure 6 more weeks of winter. A bowl of homemade soup ought to lift those spirits and warm the body too.

The soup was very easy to make. The recipe came from my "Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly" cookbook. It's full of low-fat slow cooker recipes. Since my husband and I are counting our calories this was perfect to make. It serves 8 and per serving it's 290 calories. The only adjustment made was I added more salt for taste.

Barbara Jean's Burger Soup

(Ideal slow cooker size 4 or 5 quart)

2 lbs. extra-lean ground beef

5 cups water

1 medium-sized onion, chopped

14 1/2oz. can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup celery, chopped

3 Yukon gold potatoes, cubed

1/2 cup carrots, chopped

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

Directions:

Brown beef in nonstick skillet. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker, exept peas. Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours. One-half hour before serving, stir in peas. Note: If your diet permits, you may want to increase the salt to 1 tsp.

Source: Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly

The Cake Slice: Red Velvet

2010-01-24T22:50:00.002-05:00

SOMEBODY CALL 911!!! My heart is damaged...so damaged. I thought that I should let you know. It's late to announce but this month's cake was Red Velvet with flour frosting.

The whole experience was so terrible. I'm not gonna lie. Even though I'm too embarrassed to tell my story, I've got to let the cat out of the bag. It's been a few months since I've been able to participate and was excited to make a red velvet cake for the first time. I've never even made a box mix so I didn't know what it would taste like. I broke out my 10 inch heart pan, made my batter, and baked till it was done. The hubby and I are dieting so a single layer cake was gonna have to do plus I needed to omit the coconut from the frosting because the kids and hubby don't like it.

Oh, let’s talk about that flour frosting. Now I'm up for learning new stuff and never made flour frosting before. I read about it online first and for some it got good reviews. I was hoping that it would be an alternate frosting compared to the Wilton Buttercream that I was taught in class. To think, a frosting without shortening will turn out to be good. It sucked. I have no idea what went wrong. The whole thing turned out to be a sugary, buttery, no consistency mess.

The cake tasted o.k. but since I didn't have time to make another frosting (or buy one) I tossed it. I guess this one wasn't meant to be. That doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a try. What may not work for me might work for you.

Red Velvet Cake

2½ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk* (see note below)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp red food colouring
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cider vinegar or white vinegar

Coconut Pecan Icing

1 cup milk
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Method – Red Velvet Cake

To make the cake, heat the oven to 350F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line them with waxed paper to kitchen parchment. Grease the paper and flour the pans.

Prepare three separate mixtures for the batter. Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl and use a fork to mix them together well. Combine the cocoa powder and the red food colouring in a small bowl, mashing and stirring them together to make a thick smooth paste.

In a large bowl, beat the butter with a mixer at low speed for 1 minute until creamy and soft. Add the sugar and vanilla then beat well for 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl now and then. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one until the mixture is creamy, fluffy and smooth. Scrape the cocoa-food colouring paste into the batter and beat to mix it in evenly.

Add a third of the flour mixture and then about half the milk, beating the batter with a mixer at low speed. Mix only enough to make the flour or liquid disappear into the batter. Mix in another third of the flour, the rest of the milk and then the last of the flour in the same way.

In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and vinegar and stir well. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to quickly mix this last mixture into the red batter, folding it in gently by hand. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes until the layers are spring back when touched lightly in the centre and are just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pans.

Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for 15 minutes. Then turn them out onto the racks, remove the paper and turn top side up again to cool completely.

Method – Coconut Pecan Icing

Combine the milk and flour in a small or medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking or stirring often until the mixture thickens almost to a paste, around 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and scrape it into a small bowl to cool completely.

Meanwhile, beat the butter with a mixture at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the sugar in thirds, beating well each time until the mixture is creamy and fairly smooth. Add the cooled milk and flour mixture and beat for 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides now and then to combine everything well. Using a large spoon or spatula, stir in the vanilla, coconut and pecans, mixing to combine everything well into a thick, fluffy, nubbly icing.

To Assemble

Place one cake layer top side down on a cake stand or serving plate. Spread a third of the icing on top. Place the second layer, top side up, on top. Frost the sides and then the top of the cake with the remaining icing. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to help the icing set.

*NOTE: If you can’t find buttermilk, stir 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar into 1 cup of milk and leave to stand for 10 minutes before using.

Source: Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

New Toaster Oven and Rotisserie Chicken

2010-01-12T19:24:00.003-05:00

The GE Convection Toaster Oven with Rotisserie is a new appliance for my kitchen. I got it while shopping for Christmas. Walmart, apparently, is the only store that carries them and for $49 I couldn’t resist. Also, if it malfunctions at any time you can return it to Walmart with your paid receipt.

I’ve never owned a toaster oven before nor have I used a rotisserie. It toasts bread just as good as a regular toaster. My husband makes pizzadias (I’ll have to remember to blog about) and is ecstatic that our pizza pan fits perfectly in it. I’ve not made any bake goods yet but this past weekend I made my first rotisserie chicken.

When it comes to chicken, I’m not a bone-in, dark meat, with skin type person. I’ve not touched a whole chicken since I lived at home with my parents. When I got married, I would only purchase chicken breast which is too bad for my husband. He loves him some hot wings. Not me. I’m all about the white meat…no wings, legs, or thighs. Although, I do love some batter fried gizzards from Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken.

Alright…Back to the rotisserie. I’ve got my kitchen twine, McCormick’s Rotisserie Perfect Blend Seasoning, oil, skewers, and whole chicken. Before I started, I preheated the toaster oven at 450 degrees (bake) for 15 minutes. Now it’s time to tackle the bird.

I had a little bit of trouble tying the legs and wings so they don’t flop in the oven. After numerous attempts, the end result kept the legs and wings to its body. The rod and skewer was very easy to push in the chicken and placing it in the toaster oven wasn’t hard at all.

After placing the chicken on the rotisserie, I then changed the cooking dial to rotisserie so it can turn, lowered the temp to 350 degrees and cooked for 30mins per lb. The rotisserie holds up to a 5lb chicken and mine was just that so cooking time was 2 ½ hours.

It turned out very juicy. It was so easy to cut and break apart. The McCormick’s seasoning was just perfect. Maybe next time I should marinate it for a stronger flavor.

Simple Love Swap

2010-01-11T13:34:00.002-05:00

Christmas is over and Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Wouldn't it be nice to get a gift on Valentine's from a fellow blogger? I know this doesn't relate to cooking but I love to bake and I love my sweets so this would be a great opportunity to be able to give and recieve on this very special holiday. Check out the site by clicking on the pic above and see if you would like to enter. Pass the word on to your fellow blogging buddies. I hope you sign up. I just did.

Junk Drawer to Spice Drawer

2010-01-10T22:11:00.003-05:00

We have this cabinet that's kind of small with three shelves near our kitchen sink. You can't put cups, plates, or store kitchen applicances in it because it's not that wide so we just store our medicine bottles and cooking spices. It got to the point where there were lots of medicine bottles and not enough room for my spices. Not that we are druggies but we tend to keep medicine on hand for almost every ailment.

My husband begged me to figure out another way to store my spices. The cabinet needed to be just for medicine. I was given just one shelf to use for my salt, baking powder/baking soda and liquid spices but I needed another place in my kitchen to store my container spices. In the past, I've had a countertop spice rack but it took up space that I truely needed so I took a chance and turned my junk drawer into a spice drawer.

Now I bet everyone has that junk drawer in their kitchen that tends to have all sorts of stuff crammed in it. About once a year, around spring time, I would organize the drawer and find all sorts of stuff such as box tops for my kids' school, expired coupons, keys that I don't remember what they open, and other miscellaneous stuff. Enough is enough with the so called junk drawer.

Made Smart (http://www.madesmart.com/) has inexpensive items to help you organize your kitchen. I had my heart set on getting the spice drawer organizer but my spices tend to be different sizes and I didn't know if it would work. So, I purchased individual bins. It worked perfectly. Now I have easy access to my spices because the drawer is right beside my stove. I'm very happy with the results. It also feels good to not have a junk drawer anymore. I hope this idea might work for you.

Beginning of a New Year

2010-01-04T12:24:00.001-05:00

To all my readers, I'm so glad to be back. I deleted my cooking and baking blogs a few weeks ago because I was going through some tough times and just couldn't keep up. I later started going through denial because I wanted to still blog and was sad I let it go. I love reading and learning from others but I also like to talk about my outcomes and shortcomings. I'm giving it another try by combining my blogs together. I hope this new path I'm taking has me cooking and baking a lot this new year. Here's to 2010!!!

Happy Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T21:56:00.001-04:00

Last weekend was trick or trunk at my church so I volunteered to bring a dessert. I made my husband's favorite orange cake and decorated it with a pumpkin on top. On Wednesday, I'll be doing a birthday cake for a fellow employee in my department. She is turning 50 and I want it to be a really cool cake. I plan to decorate with fondant and have an idea of what design I want to do. I'm a bit nervous on how it'll turn out but you've got to see my post next week. Happy Halloween!

The Cake Slice: Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake

2009-10-20T21:13:00.004-04:00

This would be my first baking experience with "The Cake Slice Bakers" club. The new cookbook chosen is “Southern Cakes” by Nancie McDermott. Cinnamon Pecan Coffee cake is the dessert for this month.

I’ve only had coffee cake a few times in my life. I think I’ve made it once or twice. I always felt that it should be eaten with a nice brewed pot of coffee therefore; I don’t drink coffee a lot so I’ve never thought to make it often. I took the chance and made a batch for work. We ladies could use something sweet to eat every now and then. I wanted it to be nice and warm so I started this morning. Basically, I was multi-tasking to try and get it done. I was sending my son off to school today after recovering from Tonsil and Adenoid surgery ( I hope he’s o.k.), plus working on my daughter’s hair (she is 9), making lunches to bring and trying to get the batter together to put in the oven before taking the kids to school. Whew, that’s a lot to do in the morning. I set the timer for 50 mins and off I went. When I came back home, I had thoughts about taking it out around 45 mins or at least checking it before then but was too busy getting myself ready for work. It smelled so good throughout the house. I’m surprised my husband didn’t wake up hungry. When it came time to pull it out, I noticed the raisins on top and around the corners burned a little bit. I think I overcooked it and should have pulled it out around 45 mins. I had no time to change my mind about bringing it to work so I brought it anyway.

Overall, the cake was moist and the filling between the two layers was very good (best when warm). I like raisins and had no problem using them but I was a bit disappointed on how they turned out on top. I’m not sure what everyone else here at work thinks about it but if I make it again I’ll omit the raisins and cook a lesser time.

Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake
Makes a 13 x 9 inch sheet cake
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

Cinnamon Raisin Filling
1½ cups light brown sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp cinnamon
1½ cups raisins
1½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted
DirectionsHeat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 inch pan.

To make the filling, combine the light brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and stir with a fork to mix everything well. Combine the raisins and pecans in another bowl and toss to mix them. Place the cinnamon mixture, nut mixture and melted butter by the baking pan to use later.

To make the cake batter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir the vanilla into the milk. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with a mixer on high speed until pale yellow and evenly mixed, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl to ensure a good mix. Add the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then, until the mixture is smooth and light.

Use a large spoon or spatula to add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir only until the flour disappears. Add a third of the milk and mix in. Repeat twice more until all the flour and milk mixtures have been incorporated. Stir just enough to keep the batter smooth.

Spread half the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture over the batter followed by half the melted butter. Scatter half the raisins and nuts over the top. Spread the remaining batter carefully over the filling, using a spatula to smooth the batter all the way to the edges of the pan. Top with the leftover cinnamon, butter and nut mixture, covering the cake evenly.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, fragrant and beginning to pull away from the edges of the pan. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before serving in squares right from the pan. The cake is delicious hot, warm or at room temperature.

Source: Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

New Commitments

2009-09-23T09:33:00.001-04:00

In January, I made a commitment to take cake decorating classes at Michael’s because I was given Wilton supplies for Christmas to get me started. I hung in there and completed all four courses. I’m still working on my confidence to make more cakes and use my learned knowledge to make them look beautiful. I proved to myself this past weekend that I can do anything if I set my mind to it. I’ve never made five cakes in one day. It was the greatest experience ever. I made my first wedding cake. I feel like “Yes! I can cross that off my list.”

Oh, but the list goes on and on. I’ve made two more commitments that I’m proud to announce. I will be joining a cake club next month that is close to home. It is held at a public library once a month and it’s hosted by my Wilton instructor, Renee. She is so great to work with. It’s so much fun because she is learning new things along with us. Next month we are learning how to do fondant ghosts and tombstones. Check out the website http://www.kycakesociety.webs.com/ if you want to keep up with what we are doing or if you’re close to join. We would love to have new members. Our next meeting is Oct the 26th.

Also, I have been accepted to be a “Cake Slice Member". This is an online club where you make cakes from a book that is chosen for the year. I’m so excited. This gives me the push I need to bake more each month. The new book chosen is “Southern Cakes” by Nancie McDermott. Members are allowed to vote on a cake for that month and blog about it on the 20th. If you would like to become a member you can email Katie appleandspice@hotmail.co.uk with "Cake Slice Member" as the subject. Feel free to check back each month. I would love to hear from you.

Amelia and Mark's Wedding 9/19/2009

2009-09-21T10:18:00.000-04:00

Congratulations Amelia and Mark and thank you for allowing me to do your wedding cake. I worked very hard and I’m pleased with the outcome. At the last minute, I decided not to use the cake stand. I, along with some help, created a way to display them. We used metal pans from the kitchen and laid them on the table to create different heights. It was really neat that we used pans to decorate the table. It goes to show that at the last minute two minds work better than one.

The design of the cake was supposed to resemble the one on the cover of “Wedding Cakes You Can Make”. I went by the book and purchased an Ateco #895 tip to pipe the ribbon border around and top of the cake. It worked out nicely. I hope to use the tip for other cakes. It’s the only Ateco tip I own. All of my others are Wilton. I might have to purchase more in the future since theirs are a bit larger than Wilton.

The wedding cake was pumpkin cake with buttercream icing. The cake sizes were 6”, three 10”, and a 14”. They all baked perfectly and were moist not dry. The cakes were baked and iced on Friday and transported to the wedding site Saturday morning. I then piped the ribbon border at the reception hall. I was afraid if I did it on Friday the ribbon border will get touched or hit and cause an imprint that would be hard to fix. Since the wedding wasn’t until 5 in the evening I had plenty of time to finish them there.

The Grooms cake was made by a friend of the family’s. Since Mark is a “Gamer” it was made to set him straight because he was getting married. I thought it was very creative and wanted to post it on my blog for others to see. The keyboard was chocolate cake covered in fondant and the monitor was Styrofoam with a printed picture.

I hope to do more wedding cakes in the future. I received so many compliments. Here is one from the bride herself:

Thank you!!! I wanted to thank you again for the great job you did on the cake. Everyone was telling me how beautiful it looked and how great it tasted. Everyone loved it!!!! I can not thank you enough!!!!! ~ Amelia

Happy 6th Birthday Logan

2009-09-14T14:17:00.000-04:00

Wow, It’s been awhile since my last posting. I’ve had a lot of stuff going on these past few months. This past weekend my son had his 6th birthday party at BounceU. It was a UK (University of Kentucky) themed party. This was his first birthday party outside of the house so we invited his whole Kindergarten class. There were 23 invitations sent out with my cell number to RSVP. I learned the hard way that nobody RSVPs anymore. I had gotten 4 calls from families that were coming and 1 call from a family that wasn’t able to make it. Since I wasn’t sure how many was coming I went ahead and made a half sheet cake. The end result was only 4 kids showed up. Everyone had a fun time. It was worth every penny spent even if it was way too much. You only have a birthday once a year and this one broke the bank. LOL

You've got to love that smile on his face :)

Amelia’s Wedding Cake Testing

2009-08-02T16:53:00.001-04:00

Three cakes were presented for Millie and her fiancé to try. The flavors were marbled, strawberry, and pumpkin.

1. The marbled cake was her daughter’s birthday cake with buttercream icing.
2. A strawberry cake was covered with marshmallow fondant
3. A pumpkin cake basket weaved with buttercream icing and artificial flowers on top

The winner was pumpkin cake with buttercream icing. She chose traditional round pans and a very elegant striped pattern for around the cake. Artificial fall flowers will be used to decorate each tier. Wedding date is 9/19/09. I plan to practice the design on a smaller cake. It’s an easy pattern but I want to get familiar with it first. Oh boy, I’ve got lots to do.

Lexy’s Luau Birthday

2009-08-02T16:29:00.000-04:00

I took the opportunity to make this cake just to practice my decorating skills. The mom allowed me to do whatever I wanted. I researched on Flickr and surfed the web to find ideas. There were so many great ones. I found many pictures of flip flop cakes and for a 9 year old, with it being summertime, they love flip flops.

It seemed pretty simple. I had purchased a sea shell mold to decorate with chocolate around the flip flops. I’ve never melted chocolate at all, especially into molds, so this was a first for me. They turned out great. I never got to try them but the kids said they were good.

The cake was homemade marbled cake. I used the recipe from my new wedding cake book. I made a batch of yellow cake and divided it so one half could be mixed with chocolate. The amount of chocolate in the recipe didn’t seem like it was enough but I didn’t add more. It just seemed as if the batter needed to be darker instead of a really light milk chocolate look. I was in a bit of a hurry so I left it like it was.

I printed off these templates I found. Orange and pink were the chosen colors. As I started icing the cake, I wished I used fondant instead of buttercream. I couldn’t see the true shape of the flip flop. My project wasn’t looking like the pictures I had seen and I was getting pretty disappointed. After icing, I then decorated. I could have used twizzlers or fruit roll ups to make the strap but instead I used a straight tip with buttercream. For the center of the strap, I could have made a flower but instead I used my star tip and just went with something simple. For around the flip flop, I could have used candy to decorate but I went with little flowers all around. A styrofoam food tray was used to place the cake on so the crushed graham crackers and chocolate sea shells wouldn’t fall off.

I was in such a hurry to make this cake. I wish I had more time. Since it was a rush job I don’t feel like the cake looked its best. The girl’s at the party loved it. I learned a lot this time and if I ever do another one I hope it’s ten times better.

They've arrived!!

2009-07-14T08:10:00.000-04:00

Sorry, it has been a while since I've posted. I've got lots going on. This Saturday I have a friend's daughter who is turning 9 and I'll be doing her birthday cake. I can't say what it is because it's a surprise but the theme is a luau party. Also, I'll be doing the cake tasting for the wedding in September. In order to prepare I purchased some books. I found the best prices at overstock.com plus they have shipping just for $2.95 on your entire order. Can't beat that unless it's free shipping which is hard to come by. I was told about this book from a fellow blogger Cakes by Dai...

I was looking for a marble cake recipe and she mentioned using this book for some of her cakes. I was able to view some pages on Amazon and was intrigued to purchase it. I love instructional books. Toba uses Wilton products and teaches you things like blown sugar balls, borders, styles of writing and flowers. The book also has cake recipes for large volume baking.

During my search of books, I found this one...

How perfect is that! I wanted a book to help me with wedding cakes and I found a great one. This book had such good reviews. Dede's motto is "Make the cake? Yes, you can." Just reading that made me feel like I could do anything LOL. She uses a homemade butter cake recipe and has a specific way of doing her buttercream frosting. I like how she is very detailed (step by step) and tells you what to do ahead of time.

I hope to read both books cover to cover. I'll have plenty of time while my hubby recovers from back surgery and I'll be working part time to care for him and the kids. Don't forget to check back this weekend. I'll have some cakes to post.

Puffy Oven Pancake with Apples

2009-07-01T19:05:00.001-04:00

I had some apples and was craving pancakes so low and behold in my Betty Crocker cookbook there was a recipe for Puffy Oven Pancakes. It only took a few ingredients and was very easy to make.

It's noted in the cookbook that this pancake is German in orgin. When you bake in the oven it puffs.

Puffy Oven Pancake

2 tablespoons stick margarine or butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup of thinly sliced peeled baking apple (1 medium)

Directions

Heat oven to 400. Melt margarine in pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 inches, in oven; brush margarine on side of pie plate*

*I took the cold 2 tablespoons of butter and rubbed it all around the pie plate. I didn't want the brown sugar to melt too quickly plus I didn't want the apple to brown too fast while I sliced them.

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon evenly over melted margarine in pie plate. Arrange 1 cup thinly sliced apple over sugar.

Beat eggs slightly in medium bowl with wire whisk or hand beater. Beat in remaining ingredients except lemon juice just until mixed (do not overbeat). Pour over apples in pie plate.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until puffy and deep golden brown. Immediately loosen edge of pancake and turn upside down onto serving plate. Serve with powdered sugar.

Source: Betty Crocker's New Cookbook

It was delicious. I baked for 35 but should have went for 30. The brown sugar caramelized and darkened a little bit but it still tasted good. It satisfied both of my cravings.

Hummus

2009-07-01T18:42:00.000-04:00

I've never tried hummus in my life. I've heard about it and have seen it in stores but it's not something I would buy. I've always wondered what hummus was made of and was shocked to know it's chick peas. I love chick peas. I've had it many times in Spanish dishes. So off to the store I went to purchase a small container to try. The better the brand the more expensive it is so I got the cheapest one and crossed my fingers that it would taste good. I chose the flavor garlic and chive plus purchased some sesame round crackers. Oh my goodness, I was in heaven. It tasted so good. Now I'm determined to make my own but I've got to buy some Tahini. Who would have thought that hummus tasted this good and it's healthy too. I'm totally behind on the times.

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

2009-06-22T15:37:00.000-04:00

Last week, I made a 3 layer strawberry cake with cream cheese icing and decorated with sliced strawberries. I had never made a strawberry cake with fresh strawberries and found this recipe by A Dash Of Sass.

There were a few items I had to purchase along with the strawberries. I needed food coloring and a mesh strainer. The food coloring was optional but I wanted to have it on hand just in case. In the recipe, she added 5 drops just to give it some more color. I ended up doing 6 but felt like I could have given a few drops more. It had a pretty pink color. I guess too much would make it red and that might not be the color you want to go for.

Straining the strawberries was a bit time consuming. I pureed them in my blender then poured them into the strainer. I honestly thought it would strain really quick. I was totally wrong. I was coaxing the mix with a rubber spatula by presses up against the sides so that it can strain faster.

The cream cheese icing was very creamy. While I was waiting for the cake to cool, I put the icing in the fridge so that the cold would thicken it up. After icing the cake, I wanted to decorate. It was late in the evening and the cake was for work the next day. I wasn’t sure if I would have enough time to arrange the strawberries on the cake in the morning so I decorated before I went to bed and put the cake in the fridge. I should have waited to put them on in the morning because the strawberries leaked everywhere. At first, I was embarrassed to bring the cake to work but I couldn’t throw it away after all the hard work I put into it. As soon as I got to work I started cutting the cake into slices to serve. I received complements from everyone. I hope they were being honest but they all said it tasted really good.

I’ve learned that this recipe took a bit more time than expected plus when decorating with strawberries I need to wait till the last minute. If I needed to make a large portion of batter for like a wedding cake I would need a lot of strawberries. I don’t think I’ll have enough patience to strain that many. I’ll be on the search for another strawberry cake recipe maybe one that uses Jell-O.

Hersey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

2009-06-22T11:04:00.001-04:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father’s Day. I didn’t get to spend time with my father because of differences we have but I did celebrate with the father of my children, my darling husband. His love is chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I had plans to make, for the very first time, a homemade chocolate cake.

Last week, I watched Serious Cakes show how easy it was to make a perfectly chocolate cake using Hersey’s recipe on the back of its cocoa container. So I went and purchased Hersey’s cocoa to make this perfect cake. I also purchased some Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate icing in the container because my husband was getting tired of having buttercream all the time. I was totally disappointed doing container icing because I wanted to make chocolate buttercream. I’ve never made it before. You’ve probably noticed that I tend to have a lot of 1st going on in this post but that is how you learn.

Alright, I’ve got my battered prepared and ready to put in the pans. The recipe calls for 2 – 9 inch pans. Serious Cakes had used 3 – 8 inch pans. I went ahead with the 9 inch pans and had a problem in the end. I later started to smell something burning. It turned out that the cake rose off the sides of the pan causing drippings in the bottom of the oven. I didn’t want to interrupt the baking so I waited until the cakes were done. Smoke everywhere…I needed to open some windows. Thank goodness for self cleaning ovens. Next time I make this I’ll have to use 3 – 8 inch pans.

In the end, the cake was delicious and moist. It was so much better than box mix. I was able to decorate using the container icing. I didn’t have much to use so I just did a star border.

Wedding Countdown

2009-06-10T11:26:00.000-04:00

I'm preparing myself for this wedding that I'll be doing in September. This is my first wedding cake so it's got to be perfect. I've gotten some information from the bride pertaining to wedding details. So far there will be 150 guests, the wedding will be outdoors but the reception will be inside, and she has chosen black and white with fall colors. I hope to be getting pictures of the flowers soon.

I received the cake stand last weekend. It belongs to the bride's sister. It's a three tier floating cake stand. I'm not sure about the dimensions yet. I wanna say 8", 10", and 14". I need to measure to be for sure.

The plan is to make three 6 inch cakes for a tasting. She has chosen three flavors to try: strawberry cake, pumpkin or spice cake, and marble cake. My goal is to make them homemade. I've got a strawberry recipe that uses fresh strawberries (no gelatin). I've done a pumpkin cake before but never a homemade marble cake. I'm having some trouble finding a recipe for that one. Any ideas would be helpful.

The Grand Finale...No, It Can't Be Over...

2009-06-01T19:04:00.000-04:00

I'm sad to say that my Wilton courses are all completed. I'm happy to say that I'm Wilton certified and have all four certificates to prove it. It was so much fun learning the techniques. I worked with a great group of ladies. I plan to join a cake club which starts this month but won't be able to attend my first meeting until next month due to participating in VBS at church. I'm also working on a tasting for the wedding I'm doing in September. I've asked the bride to tell me three flavors of cake she would like to try and she'll tell me which one tastes the best. I'm not going to chicken out and do box cake mix it's all going to be homemade. So far I've experimented with yellow cake and recently white cake. Both were great and will be considered as my favorites for right now until I find another recipe to out shine them.

My grand finale cake was a 8x2 layered white cake. It was iced with buttercream and covered with homemade marshmallow fondant. Everything was done in white because to me it looked elegant that way. Fondant balls was used to decorate around the cake and a fantasty flower was placed on top. It was very simple to do and I think it's the prettiest fondant cake I've done so far.

Woodruff Family Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-06-01T13:58:00.000-04:00

Who can resist chocolate chip cookies? Not me. Let’s say I’m on a mission for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever. I’ve made many different kinds in the past and I’ve also burnt some too LOL. Since I love sweets I just had to share this recipe I found. They were so good and even better when eaten warm. Heck, even the batter was good but I needed to have some cookies to bake :o) Enjoy!

Source: Woodruff Family Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole

2009-06-01T13:23:00.002-04:00

I had some company over this past weekend and decided to cook a country type meal. The meal consisted of fried breaded pork chops with white country gravy, green beans, and cheesy hash brown casserole. I wanted to post about the pork chops but forgot to take a picture of them because everyone was so hungry. I’ll be making them again soon so you’ll have to keep checking my blog for that one. It was so good. I’ve never made hash brown casserole before and was so impressed by how it tasted plus it was very easy to make. I’ve only had hash brown casserole at work/church functions which would have sour cream in it plus I’ve eaten Cracker Barrel’s which this recipe is pretty exact to theirs. Enjoy!

Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole

2lbs frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed

½ cup margarine or butter, melted

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

½ cup onion, chopped

2 cups of cheddar cheese, grated or shredded

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

Directions

Combine soup, onion, melted butter, and seasonings, stir well. Stir in cheese and thawed hash browns. Place in a 9x13 dish and bake at 350 for thirty minutes, or until bubbly.

*Note: I allowed mine to bake for a bit longer. It was probably 10 minutes longer to let the cheese melt because I added extra.

Source: Southern Plate

Click here to print.

Pancakes

2009-05-26T19:51:00.001-04:00

This recipe is straight from my Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary cookbook. Breakfast foods is a fav in our house. We can eat breakfast anytime of the day. I've made many different pancake recipes in the past. There is one with sour cream I have on my list to try but not today. I had everything in the pantry to whip these up. We had it on Memorial Day and would have grilled out for lunch in which I had a hamburger recipe to try but it rained most of the day.

Pancakes

Whisk together in a large bowl:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 3/4 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Combine in another bowl:

1 1/2 cups milk

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix the liquid ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients. Use 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface then lift the edge to flip the pancake. Cook until evenly golden brown on each side. Servings: Sixteen 4 inch pancakes.

Source: Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary cookbook

After entering the recipe I realized I didn't add the right amount of baking powder to my batter. I was in a hurry and instead of doing 1 3/4 tablespoons of baking powder I put 1 3/4 teaspoons. I'm very disappointed because it would have been fluffier but they were still good to eat. Next time I'll do right. Can't be perfect all the time ;o)

Click here to print

Chicken Bites

2009-05-18T22:06:00.000-04:00

I decided to cook a meal that my husband loves and that is fried chicken...aka chicken bites. It's pretty simple and I'm sure those of you have made fried chicken before. Everyone probably has their unique way of doing the batter and mine is pretty basic except I use Goya Adobo Seasoning with pepper. You might be thinking what the heck is Goya Adobo. Being Hispanic, my family uses Goya products to season their foods. This particular seasoning can be used for beef, chicken, and fish. It gives your meat a wonderful taste. It contains salt, garlic, oregano, black pepper, and turmeric. I usually pour 1-2 cups of flour in a bowl depending on how much chicken I'll use and season my flour with Adobo. You'll want to pour a reasonable amount into your flour but not too much. I always taste the flour mixture before using just to get the right amount of seasoning. You should be able to tell if you need more or not. In another bowl, pour about 1 1/2 cups of milk and beat two eggs to make your wet batter.

The box to the left is Goya Salad and Vegetable seasoning. I love this stuff. I use it to season my green beans, tuna fish salad, and also use to make just a basic salad dressing with oil. Our vegetable tonight was green beans. Take a can of green beans (we like cut beans) and pour in a pot...juice and all. Tear open one packet of Salad and Vegetable seasoning and cook on low to med until the seasoning has dissolved. Then you're done.

I call this recipe chicken bites because I cut my chicken breast into bite size pieces. Take your pieces and dip into wet mixture, then flour, then wet, then flour, then fry. We like ours extra crispy. They don't take very long to cook. Continue turning them over until cooked all around then drain on a paper towel. Serve with your green beans and mashed potatoes on the side. I hope you like it.

The Union

2009-05-18T20:49:00.002-04:00

Yesterday evening, I presented an 8x3 inch cake on a fondant board for class. We combined fondant and gum paste to use for decorating our cake. The gum paste was very hard to work into the fondant. I had problems of it clumping and not breaking up very well. After kneading continuously, I finally got it to mix well enough to decorate my cake. An hour before class we made a mixture of gum paste and water to make glue. It is edible and used to hold the fondant pieces onto your cake. It dries really fast and does a great job. It's better than using vanilla.

We learned to drape a blanket onto the cake, made a handkerchief and used our decorative punch set, used our fondant cutter to do our ribbon border, and started the first part of our carnation with the ball and veiner tool. My cake is just an example of the things we learned except for the carnation which we'll complete next week. I think it's going to be a beautiful flower because of the ruffles but it does look a bit difficult to make.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T21:55:00.001-04:00

I know this is a late post but I still would like to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day. I've had quite a day today. I started course 4 (Fondant & Gumpaste) this evening and made a Mother's Day cake for myself...and the family too. This is my first time using this particular cake pan. It's a Wilton flower pot pan and there are different ways you can do the cake. I started one way and ended up doing it differently. I sort of like the outcome but will defintely do it different next time. My hands were getting to tired using the star tip so much.

Not much was learned in class today but next week I'll be bringing a cake with fondant and we'll learn how to drape a blanket. Oh, I almost forgot...I made homemade marshmallow fondant today and it turned out great. It's so much better than the Wilton fondant and cheaper to make. I plan to be making homemade from here on out.

Roar!!! Dinosaurs!!!

2009-05-08T09:54:00.000-04:00

I found this old picture of my son's birthday when he turned 4. His request was chocolate cupcakes and a dinosaur theme. I went to Walmart to look for party stuff and ended up finding in the toy department an assortment of dinosaurs with trees, rocks...etc. I then got an idea to do a scene and this is what I came up with. Looking at it now I feel that I could have done better but he seemed to like it :o)

Waffle House Waffles

2009-05-02T11:12:00.001-04:00

Who loves Waffle House waffles? We all do at the house. This is a copycat recipe I found on the internet in 2007. Everybody loved it. It tasted just like their waffles. I thought there would be seconds all around but just one made us full. When I started adding the ingredients, the first thought was it has a lot of milk but it's what made the batter taste so good. You can't pass this up if you like homemade waffles especially Waffle House.

Waffle House Waffles - Copycat Recipe

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 tablespoons butter, softened
4 tablespoons shortening or vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
1 cup half and half
1 cup milk
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl and stir. Lightly beat the egg in another medium bowl and combine with sugar, butter, and shortening or oil. Mix well until smooth. Add the half and half, milk, buttermilk and vanilla and mix well. Add the dry flour mixture to the wet mixture while beating and mix until smooth. If you can, cover and chill overnight. The batter can still be used right away if needed. Preheat your waffle iron and coat with cooking spray. If you left the batter in the refrigerator, leave it out to warm up a bit before using. Spoon batter into the waffle iron and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the waffles are light brown. Serves: 12

Source: Recipezaar

Click here to print

Simply Lasagna

2009-04-25T21:16:00.001-04:00

I love pasta but my norm is just making spaghetti. I've always wanted to make homemade lasagna but I would cop out by getting the frozen ones...They are just as good ya know. I've had this recipe since 2005 so I felt it was time to make it. It was very easy to make and we loved it so much that I'll have to make it again sometime.

Simply Lasagna

1 container (15 oz) part skim ricotta cheese
2 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1/2 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 lb. ground beef, browned, drained
1 cup water
12 lasagna noodles, uncooked

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Mix ricotta cheese, 1 1/4 cups of the mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, parsley and egg until well blended; set aside. Pour spaghetti sauce into meat in skillet. Pour water into empty sauce jar; cover and shake well. Pour into skillet; stir until well mixed. (This will yield about 5 cups of sauce.) Place 1 cup of meat sauce on bottom of 13x9 inch baking dish. (This way the noodles won't stick to the pan.) Layer 3 lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup meat sauce. Repeat layers 2 more times. Top with remaining 3 noodles and sauce. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/4 cups of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Cover tightly with aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 45 min. or until cooked through. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 min. or until bubbling. Let stand 15 min. before cutting for easier serving. Prep:20mins. Total: 1hr 35 mins. Servings: 12

Source: Kraft Food & Family Winter 2005 magazine

Click here to print recipe

Swiss Steak

2009-04-19T13:53:00.001-04:00

I love steak but I rarely make it at home. I'm not use to what grade/cut to get plus the better the meat the more it cost...hint too expensive for my pocket. I picked this recipe because it was simple and I could use my crockpot. I basically had all I needed except for the meat. You might notice two cans of whole tomatoes. You really need the big can that is around 28 ounces. The recipe had you cooking on low but didn't give the time of how long. I was in a hurry and cooked it on high for about 3 hrs. If you have the time then cooking on low should be around 5-6 hrs. The meat was very tender and easy to cut. Overall, it tasted good and it smelled wonderful.

Swiss Steak

1-28oz. can whole tomatoes
1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped
Salt & Pepper

2lbs. Round Steak

Directions

Mash tomatoes; add peppers, onion, salt, and pepper. Pour over round steak that has been placed in crockpot. Cook on low until steak is tender.

Serves 3-6.

Source: Cooking with Cultures Across Kentucky

*Note: I hope to get better with food photography. It takes alot of practice :o)

Click here to print recipe

Decisions

2009-04-06T12:22:00.001-04:00

I have been thinking about participating in Rachel's April challenge. I wanted to do last month's but had so much going on. While I'm still thinking, head on over to her site and check it out. There are no prizes. It's just for fun.

This weekend I plan to make a cake for church on Sunday. I'm leaning towards a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I have two carrot cake recipes that I've done in the past. One of the recipes I shredded carrots and the other called for carrot baby food. Both were great but I would like to try a new one. It has to be easy. If anyone has a great recipe that they would like to share please let me know. You can email me: michel0730@yahoo.com.

I'm also undecided about taking my Wilton Course 4 Fondant and Gum paste at Michaels next month. I'm kind of back and forth on what I should do. I loved taking 1,2, and 3 but I feel like I've learned enough. I still would like to purchase more fondant tools and learn how to use gum paste. I would like to teach myself how to do it. Oh well, I still have time to decide...decisions...decisions

For Better or For Worse

2009-03-29T18:24:00.000-04:00

Tonight, I've completed Course 3. I present to you my first wedding cake. I love how it turned out. My cake looks like one you would get at Walmart or Kroger (not to put myself on a high pedestal or anything). I'm just really proud of myself. Fondant wasn't used for my final cake. Buttercream is preferred in my home.

My cake consisted of a 6"x4" top and 10"x4" bottom of Pillsbury Devils Food Cake. White Buttercream Icing was used to frost the cake. The bottom border was shell with ruffle and top border was reverse shell. I wanted to use my Wilton Designer Pattern Press Set for around the cake. I choose the scroll pattern and used royal blue icing to decorate. I couldn't decide what flowers to use so at the last minute I decorated the centers with royal blue drop flowers along with leaves.

I hope to make many more wedding cakes in the future. I have my first wedding in September. As always, I've learned alot from this class and will be taking Course 4 Fondant and Gum Paste in May. I hope to make a cake for my church and for ourselves in April since it'll be Easter soon.

Umm.....You might see some mistakes in the pictures but practice makes perfect. :o)

Blog Party 2009

2009-03-23T19:54:00.001-04:00

I ran across this site last week and I would like to spread the word. You've got to check out "5 Minutes for Mom". They created this blog party that started 3/20-3/27. This is a great way to communicate with other bloggers that are moms plus bloggers that just blog about anything. Go to their site, post your link, leave a comment, grab a button code then blog about it on your site so that others will know. The best thing is prizes are being given away. I would love to win the Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred DVD and Biggest Loser Family Cookbook but any prize would do because they are all great. Good Luck, Have Fun, and Party!

My Gift To You

2009-03-22T18:54:00.000-04:00

Tah dah! Here is my first fondant cake with a bow. Not so bad for my first time. I watched Lorraine McKay covering a square cake with fondant. It was very simple and fun to do. The Wilton fondant didn't taste very good to eat so it was peeled off and thrown away. All that hard work for nothing. Oh well, you've got to learn one way or another. Next weekend is the final cake. We can stack or use pillars to make a 2 tiered cake. Since I've already stacked a cake, I'll be using pillars instead. Course 4 ,which is fondant and gumpaste, will not start until May. That gives me a month to recover. I'm really excited to learn more things about fondant and gumpaste. I just wish fondant tasted better.

Gotta Lot Of Catching Up To Do

2009-03-16T08:57:00.001-04:00

Oh my goodness, I'm so behind on everything. I've not posted anything about my Course 3 class. It started March 1st. On that day we learned ruffle border and string garland plus we started the base for our fondant rose. The following week, I missed class because I was so exhausted. I put so much effort into my daughter's party I just couldn't get myself to go. I'm so disappointed because we were placing fondant onto a square cake, learned how to make a bow and completed the steps for the fondant rose. Yesterday, my instructor wasn't available to teach because of National Guard so that leaves me with this weekend to make a Hello Kitty cake for my niece, a square cake with fondant and bow (to show instructor I can do it) and be prepared for the next lesson on March 22nd. My head is just spinning.

Come Back Warm Weather

2009-03-11T09:55:00.001-04:00

I am so ready for spring. I've been trying hard to keep my New Year's resolution to lose some weight with the hubby. He is planning to have back surgery in June and I was suppose to support him by losing weight together. While he is counting calories and working out I'm baking cakes. I hate to work out when it's cold. Isn't that when we are suppose to hibernate....like bears do? When it starts to get pretty, YMCA here I come. I want to do a spinning class. I use to love to ride my bike when I was young. I hope my knees and legs can handle it.

Happy 9th Birthday Ariel (Update)

2009-03-10T18:54:00.000-04:00

My daughter's actual birthday was yesterday and her party was this past weekend on Saturday. My plan was to work on her cake Friday so I wouldn't have a lot to do on Saturday except for get ready for the party at 12:00. Well........I wasn't able to start on the cake until 9:30 Friday evening.

The recipe used was Buttermilk Cake. I doubled the batch so I could have enough. I wanted to make a two tiered cake and had never stacked before. The chosen pans were a 6"x3" and 10"x3" contour cake pan.

I had searched the internet in hopes of finding out how many cups of batter was needed to fill both pans. I wanted to be exact so the cake wouldn't overflow. I had a tough time finding a site for 3 inch deep pans. All I could find were for 2 inch deep. In the end, I just judge a certain amount and crossed my fingers. That works right?

I've only used 8" and 9" pans but never a 10". It took longer to bake because the center wasn't quite done. It looks like I'll need to invest in a heating core for all my future cakes especially since I've got my first 3 tier wedding cake to do this September. The cakes came out of the pans with no problem. After they cooled, I did a crumb coat icing then finish icing it Saturday morning.

The theme of the party was Disney Fairies and Tinkerbell adorned the top of the cake. The party was a cake decorating party in which the girls got to decorate their own miniature cake with icing and violet flowers. I made 300...YES I said 300 royal icing violet flowers. There were 100 pink, 100 purple, and 100 turquoise. Remember when I said I started at 9:30pm well I didn't go to bed until 3:30 in the morning and woke up at 7:00am to decorated the cake. That's 3 1/2 hours of sleep and still lots to do. I'll never do that again. Trust me.

The party was a hit. The girls loved decorating their cakes and some brought them home in cupcake boxes for their parents to see. I was thrilled with how the tiered cake turned out. I was almost in tears with how it looked. I was so exhausted but it was worth it. My next project is a Hello Kitty cake for my niece in two weeks.

Butterflies were purchased from Baker's Nook and Tinkerbell candle from Party City.

Tag...I'm It!

2009-03-03T11:09:00.002-05:00

I was tagged by Monica so let's see how well this goes. I've been given my first award "Honest Scrap". I'm just tickled pink about it.

The rules of the award:
Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

1. I hate to iron clothes. I own an iron but rarely use it. Isn't that what the dryer is for?

2. I'm a huge procrastinator. I can't help it. It drives my husband crazy when I put things off and try to do a bunch of tasks all at once.

3. I tend to be "OCD" sometimes. Everything has it's place and has to be done a certain way. That's why I don't allow my husband to help with laundry, some cleaning and cooking but he's a great dish washer.

4. My favorite TV channels are TLC, HGTV, Food Network and Discovery Health. If only I had Tivo or DVR.

5. I'm very conservative. I try not to buy things unless I truely need it. I very rarely get things on impulse.

6. In bed, I like to sleep on the side closest to the door. I've always been that way. Isn't that weird?

7. I'm on the computer too much. It's like an addiction. Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, Yahoo etc..

8. I have a mental list of things I would like to do and see before I die.

9. I love to eat Italian and Mexican food.

10. I have a love for cookbooks. I really want some cake decorating ones. Anyone out there hear my cry?

I will now pass this graceous award to blogs that I enjoy reading. Here is to those hard working women.

Sandee My Cake Thoughts, Rhonda Obessesed With Cupcakes, Julie The Frosted Cake N Cookie, Michelle Brown Eyed Baker, Grace Graces Cakes, Celeste Cakes by Celeste, Keri Forever Folding Laundry

A Tisket..A Tasket...Here is my Basket

2009-02-23T19:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday evening was the end of course 2. I brought an oval shaped iced cake to class to learn basket weave and rope border. I didn't have time to make dry flowers for the top of the cake. Yeah, I know that it was needed to complete the whole look but I really didn't have the time to do a whole bunch of flowers. I feel guilty although learning basket weave was so much fun to learn. It's like I want to basket weave anything. If I could basket weave butter onto toast that would be so cool (just kidding). It did take a lot of work to do and strength. My poor wrists and hands had to take a break half way through. I can't wait to do it again.

Isn't She Lovely...Isn't She Wonderful

2009-02-23T19:09:00.001-05:00

I'm so in love. I used it for the first time yesterday to get everything ready for class. It was so great to have free hands. All my life I've owned a hand beater and it's just a blessing to have a machine to do it for me. I can only hope that it will last for many years. The best feature is the automatic timer with shut off mode. Who can ask for more!

Daughter's Birthday

2009-02-23T14:22:00.000-05:00

My daughter has a birthday party coming up next Saturday. This is the time for me to utilize my skills and make her a fantastic cake. I've learned a lot in my classes so I can pull this off or can I? The theme is Disney Fairies and I'll be making a two tiered buttermilk cake. The cake will have white buttercream icing adorned with butterflies and a few flowers (not sure what kind yet). The birthday topper is Tinkerbell in a lantern. I've got the idea in my head and hope it turns out o.k. in the end. It will be my first time stacking. I've seen so many videos I should be a pro LOL. I've got more to talk about later so come back.

Counting the Days Update from 1/13 Post

2009-02-17T09:00:00.001-05:00

I still haven't purchased a mixer yet. I seriously need one because my hand beater is about to die on me. You know that death is coming when the motor lets out this horrible smell but yet you continue using it. My hubby said I can purchase one for Valentine's Day but we are waiting for our income tax money to come in. It'll be a late gift but well deserved. I changed my mind on getting a Kitchenaid mixer. After reading a lot of reviews (good and bad) on Kitchenaid my choice is now Cuisinart. These are my reasons:

Has more wattage
Has more speeds
Holds more cups of flour
Comes with different attachments
3 year warranty on parts and 5 year warranty on motor
Reasonably priced
Plus, If you purchase by June you get a free 3 cup food processor attachment

I feel I made the right choice. I can't wait to bring it home. It'll be like my fifth baby besides my husband, daughter, son and dog. There is a place for it on my counter. I can't wait. If there is anyone that has a Cuisinart or have used one in the past please tell me your experience. I would love to know.
"Show me the money!!!!" Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire.

Do you love them or do you love them not?

2009-02-16T17:49:00.000-05:00

Looky, Looky here. It's more flowers. No, not the ones you get for Valentine's Day but ones you can eat LOL. Daisies were the easiest and had very little detail. You can make the petals any color but white seemed more traditional. Daffodils were a bit difficult but the cornstarch trick formed the petal tips to look more realistic. I loved doing the center. It makes the flower pop. My primrose didn't look like the book. I guess you can say I created my own flower. I know what I did wrong although I had no time to correct it. The petals are suppose to be more of a heart shape. I plan to get working on this one because I love how it looks. The pansies were really fun and very easy. I love the color and how it's two toned. Next week is more flowers along with our oval cake to learn basket weave. I've already purchased my kit to do course 3 with Michaels 50% off coupon (expires today). Thank goodness for coupons. Course 3 will probably be my last class for now. I'm glad we'll be learning fondant and tiered cakes.

Love and Hate Relationship

2009-02-08T20:22:00.000-05:00

I love royal icing and totally hate color flow. I made up batches of both today for class. We learned (with royal icing) the violet leaf, violet flower and apple blossom. Love it, love it, love it. I now know how to dry out flowers and it's so cool to do. Color flow and I just don't work well together. It's like a love/hate relationship. My birds looked crappy and I just wasn't feeling anything good out of using it. Two more weeks till the grand finale. We're learning more flowers next week then the basket weave. Totally looking forward to that. I did take pics in class today of the flowers and brought them home for the kids to eat. Yum!

Snow please go away and come back NEVER!

2009-02-04T12:13:00.001-05:00

I started Course 2 this past Sunday evening and learned a few flowers plus another border. I really don't care much about the rosebud. It wasn't turning out right for me. I was hoping to take pics but I couldn't stop long enough to take any. We discussed in class the royal icing and color flow recipes needed for next time. I just don't know about this color flow stuff. I hope I don't have problems with it. My goal is to work on some flowers at home and dry some out just to see how they hold up. If it wasn't so freezing cold w/ snow outside I would be movitated to purchase the stuff I need to get started. Why does there have to be a "Groundhog Day" to tell us 6 more weeks of winter huh?

Yah Hoo!

2009-01-31T22:44:00.000-05:00

I've completed Course 1. I was totally nervous to master the rose and still need practice but I like how they turned out. My husband wanted an orange cake so I found a recipe on Cake Central. I had to bake it an extra 10 minutes because it wasn't quite done in 30. I also used the cream cheese frosting below the cake recipe. It turned out very creamy and easy to spread. I didn't have enough to make a border but used what I had for dots. I also experimented with my Wilton triangle for the lines around the cake. I learned so much in this course that I've signed up for the 2nd and it starts tomorrow evening. Thank goodness we only have one cake to complete and that's for our final. Bring on the Flower Power Mode because we'll be learning a whole lot of them.

Mmm Mmm Good!

An Off Day

2009-01-25T14:31:00.000-05:00

I found a recipe for yellow cake and Buttercream Icing. I'm so excited to try out both even though I'm suppose to use the Wilton Buttercream Icing for class. My goal was to make the Buttercream Icing by Serious_Cakes and do another batch that was Wilton Icing to practice my clowns in class. It turned out great except for me thinning it out to much but next time I know what not to do. Then I used Serious_Cakes yellow cake recipe which turned out fantastic except for having trouble trimming the top part but otherwise fantastic. In the end the cake wasn't suitable for class but it sure was delicious. I learned how to make my clowns last night but practiced at home to take this picture. I think it turned out good although I'm not sure if I'll ever do them again.

Thanks for everything Rhiannon

2009-01-17T18:37:00.000-05:00

I dedicate this post to my sister-in-law. Today was my first decorated cake for my Wilton class. I had a few difficulties but you learn from trial and error. 1. I had trouble getting my cake out of the pan. I never had that problem before. A thin layer about 3 inches long came off around the sides. Thank goodness I was able to hide it with frosting and you could'nt tell it had lost some cake in that area. 2. My coupler busted out while I was using it for my stars. I was done with the color so no trouble there. 3. I ended up late to class thinking I had to have my cake finished when actually we were going to do it in class. I felt so bad like I over achieved but it looked really great in the end. We all can't wait to dig in. Next week I'll have my prepared "iced" cake so that we can do clowns. They look freakish but I can't wait.

This is just the beginning at least before the Viva paper towel smoothing.

The end result. I really like the smoothing technique.

Again the smoothing technique plus my star border.

Counting the Days

2009-01-13T08:54:00.001-05:00

This weekend I plan to purchase a KitchenAid mixer at Bed Bath and Beyond. I have looked around for better prices and decided to go with BBB. The good thing is I'll be using a 20% coupon that I received in the mail. Thanks Rachel for commenting and advising me to shop there. This Saturday I'll be presenting my first decorated cake to class. For those who haven't taken the Wilton course your first cake is a character cake or a rainbow cake. I'm not sure which I'll do but I have decided I want to make my cake from scratch. I found a great yellow cake recipe thanks to Serious_Cakes on You Tube. I can't wait to try it. Thanks to her I'll be looking for a Beater Blade for my mixer. Continue to follow me in my journey because I'll have lots to say and do.

I think I got it!

2009-01-09T12:13:00.001-05:00

Alright, I've picked out a background and added some extra stuff. I'm on a roll. I can't wait till I start posting pictures of my projects. I'm in the process of purchasing a KitchenAid mixer. Whew, I'm so excited that I got the approval from the hubby. Currently, I'm looking for the best price. Those suckers are expensive. I hope to use the heck out of it though. Things will start picking up here soon so stay tuned.

Welcome to Whipping Up Something Good

2009-01-08T15:38:00.002-05:00

Hello bloggers and readers all alike. Welcome to my blog. Blogging is a new thing for me but I love to talk so it can't be too hard (LOL). I'll tell my story but I'll make it short. I love to bake and cook. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Since having kids I enjoy planning their birthday parties and baking them a cake that they'll remember. I love to bake from scratch but I'm an amateur when it comes to decorating. Thanks to my sister-in-law for Christmas I was given a Wilton Tool Caddy full of items to get me started. Michael's here I come. I've started the Wilton Course 1 class and will continue until I've completed all 4 courses. Check my blog out and feel free to comment. I'll be posting pics as time goes by. Welcome to my journey.

Whipping Up Something Good

Happy 6th Birthday Brooklyn

Quitter or Fighter?

Happy "Belated" New Year

Best-Ever Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

Incredible Food Show 2010

The Cake Slice: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

I'm a {dot} com!

Welcome Baby Braxton

Newest Cake Club Member

Happy 3rd Birthday Willow

Let's SK8

Kentucky Cake Society's 1st Annual Cake Show *Outcome*

Recovery

Johnny Be Good

A Strong Man He Is

Mum's The Word

Chocolate Rose

Cakes+Decorating=Girl Scouts

Cookbook Swap Partner & My New Cookbook

Happy Easter!

Buttercream Topsy Turvy Cake

Cookbook Swap Closed

Cookbook Swap Update/Reminder

Cookbook Swap

Whipping Up Something Good Baking/Cooking Swap

The Cake Slice: Mississippi Mud Cake & #5

Kentucky Cake Society 1st Cake Show & Free Cakes For Kids

Happy Valentine's Day

Barbara Jean's Burger Soup

The Cake Slice: Red Velvet

New Toaster Oven and Rotisserie Chicken

*Simple Love Swap*

Junk Drawer to Spice Drawer

Beginning of a New Year

Happy Halloween 2009

The Cake Slice: Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake

New Commitments

Amelia and Mark's Wedding 9/19/2009

Happy 6th Birthday Logan

Amelia’s Wedding Cake Testing

Lexy’s Luau Birthday

They've arrived!!

Puffy Oven Pancake with Apples

Hummus

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Hersey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Wedding Countdown

The Grand Finale...No, It Can't Be Over...

Woodruff Family Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole

Pancakes

Chicken Bites

The Union

Happy Mother's Day

Roar!!! Dinosaurs!!!

Waffle House Waffles

Simply Lasagna

Swiss Steak

Decisions

For Better or For Worse

Blog Party 2009

My Gift To You

Gotta Lot Of Catching Up To Do

Come Back Warm Weather

Happy 9th Birthday Ariel (Update)

Tag...I'm It!

A Tisket..A Tasket...Here is my Basket

Isn't She Lovely...Isn't She Wonderful

Daughter's Birthday

Counting the Days Update from 1/13 Post

Do you love them or do you love them not?

Love and Hate Relationship

Snow please go away and come back NEVER!

Yah Hoo!

An Off Day

Thanks for everything Rhiannon

Counting the Days

I think I got it!

Welcome to Whipping Up Something Good

Kentucky Cake Society's 1st Annual Cake Show Outcome

Simple Love Swap