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.

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.

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.

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. 

Blueberry Syrup

One of my first ever posts here was about my favorite homemade pancakes, and the theme of pancakes and waffles comes up occasionally in this blog... which made the fact that I ran out of maple syrup (practically a Canadian standard) even more sad. 

The budget is tight lately and I have been heavily using web couponing, half-priced and reduced price items to fill the gap, and needless to say, with money low, maple syrup is one of the luxuries that went first. 

However, all is not lost.  I have a bounty of on sale frozen blueberries in my freezer, and since I don't want to give up my pancakes any time soon... I have patched a good blueberry syrup recipe out of two different ones I found in web searches.  It's probably healthier for me and the little guy anyways...

Blueberry Syrup

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of frozen blueberries

3 tablespoons of organic cane sugar (or honey, maple syrup, xylitol or reg. sugar)

1/2 cup of orange juice

1 tablespoon of cornstarch (can be omitted if you prefer)

 Directions:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix 1 1/2 cups blueberries, sugar and 1/4 cup orange juice. Bring to a boil while stirring and mashing in the blueberries.   
in a small bowl, mix the remaining orange juice and cornstarch, and stir that into the blueberry mixture. 
Keep stirring until thickened, and serve warm.  Store unused tightly wrapped in the fridge.  Use your own judgement, but I wouldn't keep it more than a week just to be safe.  This recipe could probably be canned to keep it longer or give as a gift to friends and family with some homemade pancake mix.


Original recipes:


Blueberry Syrup - Food Network 
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/blueberry-syrup-recipe/index.html

Blueberry Waffles with Fast Blueberry Sauce - Allrecipes
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/blueberry-waffles-with-fast-blueberry-sauce/Detail.aspx

Pineapple Sorbet

Pineapple Sorbet

Ingredients:

1 can of pineapple chunks


Directions: Pour the can of pineapple chunks, juice and all, into a shallow freezer safe container and freeze for a day or two. Alternatively, you could freeze it in ice cube trays, which would also make it easier to make small batches if you wished to.  Let the frozen pineapple sit out for about 10 minutes.  If you used a large shallow container to freeze it in, break the pineapple apart into chunks.  Use a food processor, blender, or in my case a magic bullet to process the pineapple into a smooth  consistency.  This might take a bit of work and a few minutes, you will probably need to shake a magic bullet a few times to make sure you get it all, and in a blender or processor it may take a spoon and shorter bursts to finish it off, but the outcome is still a surprisingly easy dessert.  You can try adding a splash of coconut milk for flavour, or use different fruits and experiment. 

Microwave Chocolate Cake In a Mug

I know, there are a million of these recipes floating around the internet at this very moment... but this is the one I actually use and find works for me.  It has been tweaked so much, and is a jumble of so many posts I have seen I can not give credit to any one individual.  I am sure someone out there has came to the same or similar conclusions for their recipe... but this is where I will present my 'findings'  and I apologize if it is the same as anyone else's out there. 

Chocolate Cake in a Mug

Ingredients:  

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder.  "camino" is my favorite, but any kind will do.

2-3 tablespoons of sugar.  *( I like to put in 2, then make the '3rd' tablespoon xylitol to lessen the sugar content just a little)

1 tablespoon of flour

3 tablespoons of milk

The white of one large egg (you could put the yolk in the fridge for french toast later, or freeze it for yolk including recipes in future use if you don't want to waste it... cats like 'em too)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract... or any extract you like really, you could have a chocolate mint cake, but from my experience, alcohol does not substitute for extract in this recipe... just a warning.

3 tablespoons chocolate chips.

Directions:

Blend the dry stuff together with a spoon.  Add the wet stuff.  Stir for 2 minutes quite vigorously.  Mix in half the chocolate chips, then sprinkle the rest on top.  You could just garnish with chips and ommit the ones mixed in, but I think they are like little melted gems of chocolate, why leave them out?  Microwave for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes depending on your microwave.  It should be a little lava cake like, but not liquid-y.  Enjoy while it is still hot.  Goes really nicely with whipped cream or cool whip.  Obviously serves 1

IMMD * Cosmo Cupcakes

This little 'apres new years' find was an 'it made my day' moment.

Check them out here at Bakingdom

Cookie*Love - angel wings for your coffee

I just fell mildly in love.  It happens all the time. I see something cool, wish to have it, then see something else shiny... but bask in this moment of 'Look at this cool thing' with me.

Angel Wings Cookie Cutter

Enjoy!

Orange Chocolate-swirl Cheesecake

I am finally going to post about the second birthday cake that made an appearance August 15th, my aunt's birthday cake, as she shared the same birthday as my son.  I was holding out to see if  I could find anyone who had taken a picture of my creation, but it turns out that in the haste of that week, I forgot to take a picture, and no one else snapped a shot during the party.  Oh well. 

A note on my decorating of this cheesecake:  My aunt loves the Tigger, you know, Winnie the Pooh's Tigger, and so that was the theme of this cake.  I added extra orange (red and yellow actually, in my case) food colouring to the batter to make it more 'Tigger coloured', then used a similar method to make Tigger stripes  as I did to make the 1 up mushroom for my son's cake.  I used dark chocolate piped onto parchment paper, and this time I coated the chocolate stripes with chocolate cookie crumbs to make them more black.

Orange Chocolate-swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients:

4 ounces semisweet or dark chocolate, chopped

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar (I used organic cane sugar, I buy it at Bulk Barn ;)

5 eggs

2 tablespoons orange juice (or you can sub. orange liqueur if you like)

zest of 1-2 oranges ( a teaspoon or more for the crust, and a tablespoon or so, maybe more for the batter)

1 package of chocolate cookie crumbs, and any ingredients (like butter) the package says it needs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Prepare a chocolate crust as directed on the package of chocolate cookie crumbs, with the addition of about a teaspoon of orange zest from your collection of zest for the cheesecake. Press into the bottom and 1 1/2 inches up the side of a 9 inch springform pan.

In a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt chocolate, stirring occasionally until smooth. Set aside to cool, but do not allow to harden.

In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar until smooth. I buzzed a cup of organic cane sugar in the magic bullet to make it a bit finer, but that is only optional. Mix in the eggs, one at a time on a low speed, or by hand. Gradually stir in the orange juice, and orange zest. Reserve 1 cup of the batter. 

Pour the remaining batter over the baked crust. Stir the melted chocolate into the reserved batter. Drop the chocolate batter by large spoonfuls onto the white batter. Use a knife to cut through the batter, and leave a swirling design.

Bake for 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the center is almost set. Run a spatula or thin knife around the edge of the pan while it is still warm, so the cake will not crack. Allow cake to cool completely before removing the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. 

To help prevent cracking, use a water bath or steam method, as this cake doesn't have a starch to it.

To water bath, put a large piece of foil over the bottom of the spring form pan before closing the ring around it, and fold the sides up, then put 2 more layers of foil around the outside, to try and seal out water.  Put the spring form into a pan with sides and put about an inch of boiling water in the pan, around the spring form but don't get water on the cheesecake.  

To  steam bath, you can either wrap your spring form as mentioned above and set on a muffin tin filled with boiling water, or you can set a pan of water in the bottom rack of the oven when preheating and add some ice to the water when putting the cheesecake in, to make it a bit more steamy.

 

Either way, you need to cool the cheesecake gradually, and it needs to be cool before sticking it in the fridge or freezer, to prevent cracking.

Original recipe was found here:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Orange-Chocolate-Swirl-Cheesecake/Detail.aspx
but, was of course tweaked by me to suit my personal desires... mmmm cheesecake.

Banana Cake with Caramel Buttercream Frosting

Okay, so I am playing a bit of catch up since my son's 1st birthday (on August 15th)  which was also my aunt's birthday as well.  As such, I spent that whole week before baking two cakes, my son's cake, pictured above, is the one I will post now, and I will post about my aunt's cake later.  By the way, this tasted amazing, and they all were amazed I baked and decorated it myself.  

...And I will add if you do not know what the theme of this cake is... it's the '1 up' mushroom from Super Mario, complete with coins around the sides.  I figured this fit, what with him being 1 up and all ;)

The Banana Cake:

I made three batches of this cake in a square silicone cake pan, I think it is about 8 x 8, but I am not going to go measure it, I am sure it would turn out in any pan.  Each layer turned out only to be about an inch or two high, and the cake was more impressive with three layers, however if you do not want that much cake then just prepare the amount of cake you want.  

This cake freezes well, and I froze each layer after removing the edges and skimming the bottoms off the cakes, to remove that harder, flour-y layer.  I wrapped each (cooled) cake layer in plastic wrap, then put in large freezer bags and sucked the air out with a straw, like a vaccum seal, sort of (thanks to Kendra at New Life On A Homestead for the straw tip!)  The cake is easier to ice and decorate when frozen too, as a bonus.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of unsalted butter

3/4 cup of brown sugar

2 lage eggs

3  tbsp yoghurt

3 large banana, mashed

1 cup self raising flour, sifted  (after doing the recipe, I recommend the tip below instead of self raising flour)
If you are using plain flour, use 8 oz plain/cake flour with 1tsp baking powder and 1tsp baking soda


Directions:

1, Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius (the original says 180, but you have to watch because my first layer got a bit dark, and the first baby cupcake was burnt crispy)
2. Cream butter & sugar till light and fluffy
3. Add eggs, one at a time and beat well
4. Add yoghurt and banana mix till well blend
5. Fold in flour to mixture and pour into a greased baking pan
6. Bake at 160C for 40 min - 1 hr or till golden brown and skewer comes out clean

Original of this recipe comes from here:
Quick and Easy Treats From Zu's Kitchen



Caramel Buttercream Frosting

For the three layers of cake I had, a double batch of this was just about perfect.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup caramel topping (look for ice cream sundae topping stuff)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 (16 oz.) package of powdered sugar (2 cups, and sifting is a good idea for the best frosting)

1 - 3 Tbsp. milk  (2 was perfect for me)

Beat the first four ingredients together at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar alternately with 1 tbsp milk, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition.  Beat in extra milk if needed to achieve the right consistency.

Original recipe for frosting found here:  My Recipes

*** If you are not freezing your layers of cake, or are afraid of that crumby crust, take a small amount of your finished frosting and 'water' it down a bit with milk, and use to do a crumb coat before frosting outer cake.  Let your crumb coat set, or better yet, give it 10 - 15 min in the freezer before applying your outer layer of frosting.
Use a hot, but dry spatula or cake knife to smooth icing.  Heat it by sticking it in a glass or pot of hot to boiling water, then wipe dry with a cloth or paper towel, being careful not to leave 'fuzzies'. 
To make the mushroom or something similar for the top of your cake, draw or print a template picture and outline with heavy black marker.  Lay out a piece of parchment paper on top of your template, then use slightly cooled chocolate melts in a piping bag, or a sandwich bag with a tiny hole cut in the bottom corner to trace and fill your design, allowing time for each colour to cool between.  Be cautious using the fridge for the chocolate, as it is temperamental and can discolour.  Chocolate melts help, not being real chocolate, but the darker colours may still change if cooled wrong.  Be very careful in removing your image, and avoid picking delicate designs, or else you will want to switch to royal icing, and I am not an expert at that.

Orange Creamsicles... drinkables

 Lately I have been thinking about foods and drinks that use flavors from other foods and drinks, and somehow this led to a small creamsicle smoothie obsession.  Here are my smooth results.

Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup of orange juice

4 scoops of vanilla frozen yogurt or vanilla ice cream 

(may I suggest natural vanilla bean ice cream)

Instructions:

Combine the orange juice and frozen yogurt or ice cream in a blender, magic bullet or food processor. 

Blend until creamy.  

Breakfast-worthy Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

Ingredients: 

1 11 oz. can mandarin oranges in juice 

1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks 

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1 Tbsp. honey

1 cup vanilla soy milk

1/2 cup ice

 

Instructions:

 Open can of oranges and drain. Place in a zip-top plastic bag and freeze the night before.  Place the frozen oranges and pineapple chunks in the bottom of a blender, magic bullet, or food processor.  Puree until the mixture reaches the texture of a milkshake. Add more ice, if desired.

Easy Boozed-up Creamsicle

Ingredients:

2 oz Smirnoff® Vanilla Twist vodka

8 oz orange crush

Instructions:

Pour the vanilla vodka into a collins glass with ice. Add orange crush til it tastes good. Serve.

 

 

 

'The Best' Creamsicle Recipe (boozed-up)

Ingredients:

 

tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur

   tablespoons Galliano liqueur

   1/2 cups partially frozen diced oranges

   1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

 

Instructions:

Place all the ingredients in a blender and pulse until the ingredients are mostly blended. Continue mixing until the mixture is smooth.

Recipes and ideas for recipes came from these links:
http://kidscooking.about.com/od/beverages/r/orangedreamsmo.htm
http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink12155.html
http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/smoothies/Creamsicle.html

Cinnamon coffee scones

 Baking with coffee.

At Folgers.ca they are offering free recipes that include their coffee, but I am sure any strong-brewed coffee would work for the recipes they offer.  ... also offering free recipes is not exactly a 'new' thing, but I did like the idea of this recipe... with the exception of raisins, I don't like raisins in my food.  To each their own I suppose. 

Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes Makes: Two dozen scones (depending on their size) 2 cups self-rising flour 2 teaspoons cinnamon 6 tablespoons sugar 1-1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter 2 eggs 1/4 cup strong brewed Folgers coffee 1/4 cup milk 1/2 cup golden raisins (or chopped dried apricots) 1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts) Extra milk and sugar for toppings

Stir together the flour, cinnamon, and sugar. Cut the butter into tablespoon pieces and blend with the pastry blender or two knives into the dry mixture. (Butter pieces should be the size of small peas.) Mix together the eggs, coffee, and milk. Stir into the dry mixture to form a soft dough. Stir in the fruit and nuts. Turn out onto a floured board and gently pat into a circle of dough about 1/2" thick. Cut out rounds with floured biscuit cutter and place them on a greased baking sheet. Gently brush tops with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a preheated 400° F oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden-brown.

Pistachio pudding cupcakes

The night before father's day I made these wonderful little guys to have with all the father's day indulgence.  After successfully making candied bacon for my husband, and ending up making my famous pancakes (due to not finding an economical waffle iron in time for father's day) at the end of the day these were a great sweet treat to end with.

So what I did was look up different recipes for cupcakes containing my husband's beloved pistachio pudding, which I actually don't like but this is his day after all.  After finding them all too complicated I decided to wing it, and it turned out to be moist, tasty cupcakes that even a pistachio hater like myself could thoroughly enjoy.

Pistachio Pudding Cupcakes

(or cake if you want...)

Ingredients:

1 white cake mix, I used the package of Added Touch white cake

1 package of Jello instant pistachio pudding (would probably work with lemon, banana or any pudding)

1/4 teaspoon of almond extract (pure is best)

green food colouring.  ( i used the directions for neon green on my neon food colour box)

eggs, water and oil as the recipe for the cake calls for. 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees or the temperature specified by the cake mix.  Mix the cake mix in a bowl with the pistachio pudding powder.  Add your almond extract and food colouring to the oil and mix all your ingredients together with a hand mixer (or whatever mixing tool you may use)  *Note:  it will be thicker to beat then normal cake mix because of the pudding, just ignore that part.  Pour into lined cupcake pans, or pans that have been greased and dusted with flour and bake as directed to a golden brown colour.

  Cool completely, on wire racks if you can.  Remember the rack in your toaster oven?  It doubles perfectly as a free substitute for a wire cooling rack.  Don't sweat it if you don't have a rack, it just takes a little longer and your bottoms may be a little ... softer, but no harm done.  

 

I frosted with that amazing buttercream frosting recipe I found, and just coloured it green instead. 

I will say that they were some of the most moist cupcakes I have ever had.  I would make them again, and they were easy, I like easy. 

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

 Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

 I tried this as my last Christmas cheesecake (the year before that was eggnog cheesecake, yum) and I fell in love with the pumpkin cheesecake.  I already could eat pumpkin pie every month of the year, and now if I wasn't so lazy I know I would be gorging on this beauty more often. 

Ingredients:

For filling:

• 3 (250 g) packages PHILADELPHIA Brick Cream Cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 dash ground cloves

For crust:

• 1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• about 1 teaspoon or so of pumpkin pie spice
• a dash or two of cinnamon and nutmeg if you fancy

Directions

1. Combine cookie crumbs,spice and butter. Press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling, or bake at 375 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack before filling. 
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. 
4. Remove 1 cup plain batter; place in small bowl. 
5. Stir remaining 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter. Spoon pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of reserved plain batter. Cut through batters with knife several times for marble effect. 
6. Bake 45 minutes or until centre is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Cut into 12 slices. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

Original recipe found at: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/philadelphia-pumpkin-swirl-cheesecake/Detail.aspx

Cheesecake tips can be found at this link (there are a lot and it does help to read them)
http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Perfect-Cheesecakes/Detail.aspx 
water baths and pre-whipping already room temperature cheese can save your cheesecake :)

Amazing buttercream frosting

My first attempt ever at making buttercream frosting.  For many years I had avoided making icing, as it always ended up being that weird sloppy thin stuff made of pretty much just icing sugar and milk.  I had recently had a cupcake from my beloved Starbucks with buttercream frosting on it, and decided that would be worth a try myself.  Warily I attempted this recipe, but one taste told me this may be one of the best things I have ever made, and I make a mean cheesecake, so that is saying a lot. 

I don't have a piping set yet, so I just used a freezer bag with a hole cut in the corner to pipe the icing thickly onto some cupcakes... I would recomend doubling the recipe though, for a generous and sensual cupcake.  I sacrificed a two or three cupcakes for the sake of this, which is okay, because although my husband loved the cupcakes too (and perhaps a little bit sneaked into my infants mouth as well...)  he enjoyed having a few that were not as super-sweet to snack on. 

I topped each cupcake with yellow white chocolate swirls I made by placing out parchment paper on the table, melting some yellow bakers chip-thingys in a bowl and scooping the contents into a sandwich bag.  I cut a tiny hole in the corner (no piping set yet as I said) and created rough swirls, kind of like how a child draws the sun.  I made many because they don't all turn out beautiful from a hot-to-hold plastic bag, but when cooled they are nice decorations to top your cupcakes. 

Here is the recipe for those who are curious:

Ingredients


1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (I used organic, because I had it on hand for the baby)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract  (real if you can)
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons milk
food coloring as needed (optional)

Directions:

Cream room temperature butter with a hand mixer, the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, or a wooden spoon until smooth and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla extract.

Pour in milk and beat for an additional 3-4 minutes. Add food coloring, if using, and beat for thirty seconds until smooth or until desired color is reached.
 
 
I got the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quick-and-Almost-Professional-Buttercream-Icing/Detail.aspx