Trolls "rainbows and cupcakes"

This was my first attempt at fondant.  I made a recipe for marshmallow fondant I found on pinterest, and put it to the test. 

The vanilla cake underneath was rainbow tye-died while the cake was filled and dirty iced with vanilla swiss buttercream.

The rainbow was painted on with small amounts of over-coloured buttercream.

Two tiered paw patrol cake

I forgot to post this back in April when I made it for a friend.  It was my first attempt at a two tiered cake (at her request). 

The top layer was vertical striped roll cake with all natural blue dye made from red cabbage.  The bottom was chocolate. 
I  used cut straws to support the cake board.  The top layer has cotton candy flavouring added to it, the bottom is just cream cheese buttercream.

Sorry for a lack of detail here, but I didn't do a good job of documenting it.  The name and flowers are in royal icing and i used candy rocks from bulk barn for the border.  Unfortunately the paw patrol mini figures were placed at the party so I managed not to get a picture of that before the kids got there.

5th birthday cake

Well, it has been a while since my last post.  A really long while.  I want to say sorry, but I have times when I just stay away from the internet.  My kids like to see my face sometimes.

..okay I am on pinterest most of the time.  Happy?

My boards are awesome, but let us get back to the cake.  I made it. It has the marshmallow frosting from pinterest on it, and cream cheese frosting waterfall.  It was as good as I hoped too.

Random cake

This is just a random cake. Nothing special. I had mix in the cupboard and thought, 'I should make a cake' so I did.

I whipped the can of frosting in my mixer until it was fluffy.

I made the bee with coloured sugar and black piping gel I had in the cupboard as well. The wings are white edible glitter I got at Micheal's on clearance a few months back. I filled it with nutella just for the heck of it too. My little man has been enjoying it at least, so mission accomplished.

3rd Birthday Cake

Okay, okay, okay. So, I only seem to get to posting in this blog every once and a while. I really mean to... but it just doesn't happen. Anyways.... on to the main event; My little man's birthday cake! The first year was the beloved banana cake with mario theme, complete with chocolate mushroom.

The second year cake didn't even make it to the blog because I just made a small round cake, iced it and stuck a big Lightning McQueen candle on it. (It was a small birthday and wasn't really calling for a big cake)

This year was different. I themed the whole party around his favorite colour, yellow. (at least right now it is yellow) So much yellow I had to sneak some colour in somewhere... so why not the cake itself? That is right. I present to you: "Yellow birthday cake in the shape of a number three that is rainbow angel food cake underneath"

This is two angel food cake bunt cakes, rainbow tinted and carved together into a 3, then iced with lemon whipped icing.

Yellow sprinkles too.

The picture I really should have taken but didn't would be of the angel food cake cooling inverted on a beer bottle.
Okay, to save time (and a million eggs) I used boxed angel food cake mix. I used neon food colours and gently folded it in for the colours in the cake, layering them in the pan. The icing was all me (and my pretty mixer) but mostly me.
I kludged together different recipes, made a new addition of my own, and completely forget where I even got the original unaltered recipe for this icing, so forgive me for not linking anyone else to this post.

Lemon Fluffy Icing: (Kinda like butter-cream)

1 cup vegetable shortening (like cristco)
1/2 cup butter (if you use salted butter, omit the salt in the recipe)
2 1/2 tbs lemon extract (you could use any extract here really)
3 tbs water
1/8 tsp salt
2 pounds confectioner's sugar (icing sugar)
2 tsp meringue powder (I used the wilton's stuff that has been sitting in my cupboard forever...)

Directions:
(I only recommend this if you have a stand mixer. Sure you can try, but the end of the recipe might show you why I think that might be a bad idea.)
Cream the shortening and butter till it starts to fluff nice. Ruin said fluffing by adding the liquids and salt.
Slowly add all the sugar,possibly needing a towel over your mixer to keep the dust in the bowl and not in your lungs and on your counters.
once combined, mix on high speed for 15 minutes. (see why you won't want to hand mix?) If needed a little more water or extract can be added, and you can fluff a further 5 minutes if you please, but depending on the mixer, you may have it done sooner or later than that time.
Okay, now that I have given that recipe, I am going to suggest you use it on normal cakes and not angel food cakes. It was good, but angel food cake lends itself more to cool whip or meringue toppings than icing, and this icing when the cake was cut started to come off in whole chunks. It doesn't adhere well to that kind of cake. Good frosting though.
Okay, here are a few random pictures from the birthday party and then I promise to leave you alone.

WW Applesauce Pancakes

 

 There is my little guy trying to cut his own pancakes.  They grow so fast. At least no one grows out of pancakes... unlike monster pajamas. 

Whole Wheat Applesauce Pancakes With Caramel Sauce

Yeah, I went there, and I added blue stripes.  For the pancake recipe I used the one in the Nick Jr. recipe page.  For that recipe go here: Whole Wheat Applesauce Pancakes

The next step I took was to separate a small amount of pancake batter, dye it blue with food colouring, and stick it in a squeeze bottle. (A small bag with the corner snipped would work too)

I add 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of frozen chopped apples to the batter for added fruit.  Blueberries and chocolate chips always work too, or anything really goes.  In fact, I do not have apple pie spice, so I used pumpkin pie spice instead.  I am a rebel like that.

Put the batter on the hot, buttery frying pan (butter or margarine always make better pancakes then oil. Use lots and have a crispy outer crust with fluffy insides), then squeeze out your coloured lines on the pancake before it cooks. (you can try patterns if you are brave, but my flowers didn't turn out, so I suggest zig-zags just for the colour splash)

Top the pancakes with caramel sauce.  I just used the smucker's caramel sauce I had in the fridge from when I made that caramel buttercream icing for my son's banana birthday cake.

Enjoy!

(I am pretty sure he did)

Homemade.

Food Joke of the moment:

Jane had a system for labeling homemade freezer meals. She would carefully note in large clear letters, "Meatloaf" or "Pot Roast" or "Steak and Vegetables" or "Chicken and Dumplings" or "Beef Pot Pie."

Everyday when she asked her husband what he wanted for dinner, he never asked for any of those meals. She decided to stock the freezer with his various requests. What he really likes.

In Jane's freezer you'll see a whole new set of labels. You'll find dinners with neat little tags that say: "Whatever," "Anything," "I Don't Know," "I Don't Care," "Something Good," or "Food."

No more frustration for Jane because no matter what her husband replies when she asks him what he wants for dinner, it's there waiting.

(found at :  http://www.food-jokes.co.uk/misc-food-2.html)

Star-filled Egg in a Basket lunch

My little dude loves stars.  So one lunch I raced over and made him this lunch, and it didn't even take that long.  I took my star cookie cutters out, then took the larger one and cut a hole in the bread.

 The little guy ate the bread star while I cooked.  Then I sprayed the pan with some cooking spray, preheated it, placed the bread on the pan, and cracked an egg in the middle.  I sprinkled some roasted red pepper spice on it because my guy likes spiced up food, but it would look better plain.

Cook until star looks opaque and flip if desired (I did to make sure the egg was cooked through, no runny egg stains in my kid's clothes) or cook sunny side up, but keep an eye on the bread if you do so it doesn't burn.  

Et voila! I cut another bread star for the plate, along with some small stars out of cheese slices, and placed the cheese on a dollop of marinara sauce I had left over from a pizza dipping sauce.

Spooky lunch... i.e what we ate for Halloween

Macaroni and Ghosts

I made some of that Amy's white cheddar and shells pasta, then took a hard boiled egg that had been peeled and nicked the bottom off with a knife.  Next I put the egg in the pasta cut side down, and used a toothpick to paint on a ghost face with some black food colouring gel (I used Wilton's)   I have seen various colouring on food with toothpicks in the past, and this seemed like a good way to add something special to Halloween lunch.  As a plus, the black gel started to leak a little green colour around the edges and looked extra cool.  

In case you are wondering, the black flecks are pepper... I got enthused and almost ate my portion of lunch before taking the picture.  As a side note, you may want to give the egg a minute to dry before handing it to a starving toddler who thinks it is also cute, as my son had 'eye' prints on his fingers, haha.

Kraft Dinner of the week: Mac and Cheese Pizza

Macaroni & Cheese Pizza

Yes, you did read that right, now take a deep breath and release, then look at the picture from 1 Fine Cookie showing her take on this odd combination food.

Tell me you do not want to eat that.  I feel my waist expand just looking at it.  It is almost at 'deep-fried mars bar' level... which means it is probably delicious too.  Obviously you should check out the link and see how she adds truffle oil to the pizza and is claiming to have one of the best pizza dough recipes. This pizza could be a creativity gold mine if you are willing to experiment with toppings.

Glow*in*the*dark Drinks

I couldn't resist the simplicity, yet over-all effect of this idea, so I hope you enjoy this too.  This may make our Halloween zombies even more awesome than before.  (Zombies the alcoholic drink, if you were wondering how drinking cups went with that...)  Also great for the kids, with non-alcoholic beverages... I wonder how many people will be clicking this just wondering how it could be tagged as both boozed up and kiddie stuff...

Gummie Bear Ghosts

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday of all, and that is why even though I have been too busy to update here as often as I would like to, I could not resist posting a link to this cute little recipe item for your enjoyment.

Not only are they chocolate covered gummie bears, but they can also be on a stick :) I love food on a stick.  I actually have the cookbook entitled 'on a stick', ... well enough about me, if I can not manage to post something before Monday then I wish you a happy Halloween.

Organizing Measuring Cups and Spoons

Organizing Measuring Cups and Spoons

I loved this idea over at  infarrantlycreative.com to organize all your baking measuring devices in a space saving (and time saving) way.  The better part of this project is that she does this with free paint sticks from Home Depot and cheap hardware, so it is very easy to accomplish with a bit of time and planning.  Now, if only I had time to spare...

IMMD : Sky Parfaits

Sky Parfaits

This completely made my day... I mean night.... I mean really early in the morning when it is still dark outside and I am still up for some reason on the computer... but you understand what I mean.  This recipe is really simple:  blue jello plus whipped cream.
Here is the original post:
http://pinterest.com/pin/128251097/
You will find that the post says pretty much the same thing, but with an awesome idea like this, words are really over-rated.  I can't wait to make this for my little man.

Halloween Ideas : Pumpkin Party Cooler

: Pumpkin Party Cooler :

Isn't that a great idea for storing your Halloween drinks?  I love Halloween.  It is my absolute favorite holiday.  I think this could also be awesome if you paint the pumpkin black or lightly carve the pumpkin (not all the way through)  Anyways, for the details of this project you will have to go here:

http://www.marthastewart.com/268772/pumpkin-party-cooler?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/pumpkins#slide_19

...yes... that does say Martha Stewart.  Problem?? You have to give her credit, she does seem to have an idea for everything.   Somewhere on that site I am sure I have seen something on making your own halloween labels for things like bottles that could go well here too... The sky is really the limit.  Oh, and there is a tutorial on making a pumpkin into the candy bowl too.

I know this is not a recipe, but hey, everyone can use a good idea to display the wonderful baked goods you bring into the world, so why not save money buying expensive cake and cupcake stands when display ideas are all around you.  Here is a post at www.howdoesshe.com that gives great ideas on making your own easy to assemble and disassemble cupcake stand, which also looks impressive.  Once you get the idea, you will see displays all around you, I know I did...

Tiered Cupcake Platter

Spice age chart

I believe this image came from the McCormick website, it has been a while, but it seems like a good thing to remember. There are tips on using spices at the website too.  

http://www.mccormick.com/

vodka-soaked gummie candies

I think I just fell in love.  I just found a website that has an article on making vodka-soaked gummie candies.  I think this may be my next move to try instead of an other batch of jello shooters, although they will always have a place in my heart.  Find out how to do this for yourself right here :

Vodka-Soaked Gummie Candies

 

The website is That's so Michelle so that you can check out all her other great stuff... including awesome jello shot recipes too!

Amazing jello shot tips

I found the most amazing website ever for helping create amazing jello shots! 

They have sections on everything from recipes to presentation, and even floating things like gummie bears in them... although that may be a choke hazard for already inebriated people... but it looks neat.  If you have party plans in your future this seems like a good place to start.

Coca Cola Cupcakes

I found this little gem of a recipe quite a while ago, but thought it seemed like a good time to post a link to it. 

Coca-Cola Cupcakes.  Yeah, I may not drink that much pop anymore, but my loyalty has always remained with coke.  The recipe for these cupcakes is found here at 52 Cupcakes and Layla

Be sure to check out the rest of the site as well, there is nothing like a good cupcake after all.