Birthday Cake

So over the weekend it was our sons 6th birthday and I promised I would make him a guitar cake and I did what I said I was going to do.......

I used your basic Box Cake and Milk Chocolate Frosting in between the layers and on the cake...

After baking the cake in a 9" x 13" pan I used a stencil to cut out the cake. Once that was complete it was time for the fondant, my first couple of attempts at using fondant was ok but I would always have the fondant too thick. I highly recommend you have the right tools for rolling fondant out, it does make a difference. I was able to roll it out to a good thickness and this is the finished product:

I had so much left over cake pieces I decided to make the kids cake pops,

I crumbled the left over cake then used the rest of the frosting and mixed it until all of the cake and frosting is mixed together. I put them in the freezer for about two hours, melted chocolate then dipped the frozen cake pops into the chocolate.....

The kids love them, and it was an easy goody for them out of leftover cake and frosting.

Yummy Apple Crisp

Have you ever went to the restaurant and had that yummy Apple Crisp with a little a la mode?

Well I have and I did not want to have to go to a restaurant and pay to have someone make it for me so I searched high and low and found this recipe about two years ago on www.allrecipes.com and I have made it every year since then of course over the last couple of years I have made my own little tweaks to it.

This is the basic recipe make your own little tweaks:

Ingredients

• 10 cups all-purpose apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ( i added a little more)
• 1/2 cup water
•  
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degree C).
2. Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all.
3. Combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes.

This is a great recipe, try it for thanksgiving and Christmas....

Chocolate chip cookies

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I am trying some last minute recipes. This Chocolate chip recipe I found on the internet. I had my two biggest critics try them and they liked them. There may be a few tweaks I will make.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 (8-ounce) block dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Make sure the Butter is at room temp, it will be tough to mix if it is still cold, I also used a mixture if bitter sweet and milk chocolate chips instead of the block of chocolate. Also I will be adding some baking cocoa to make it a double chocolate chip cookie.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream together on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla and eggs. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and continue to mix until a smooth batter forms. Turn off the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks using the spatula.

To form the cookies, scoop about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into your hands and roll it around into a ball; place them about 3-inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets; you should get about 4 cookies on each pan. Press down the tops of the dough slightly and bake until the cookies are light brown, 12 minutes for chewy cookies, or about 15 minutes for crispy cookies.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough/cookie sheets.

 I made them a regular size.

Coming soon

Over the weekend I am planning on making some homemade chocolate chip cookies and homemade apple crisp. Stay tuned you will not be disappointed.

Also if you have some tasty recipes you would like to share please send them to me, I would love to try them and post them, of course giving credit to the the person.

Mint Chocolate Cake

This is a cake I made for my mom for her birthday.

You will use 1 box of regular chocolate cake mix, follow directions on the box and let it cool. You may even want to put it in the refrigerator to cool quicker.

Here comes the fun part, there is a frosting and a topping.

 Frosting:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened (not melted)

2 cups of confectioners' sugar

1 tbsp water

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

3 drops of food coloring 

In a large bowl combine the frosting ingredients If the frosting is too thin just add some all-purpose flour until it is as thick as you would like and spread over cooled cake, place in refrigerator to let frosting harden.

Topping:

2 cups of milk chocolate chips ( you can also use a little bit of the andes chocolates)

Melt the chocolate, use a double boiler. Make sure it is on med heat, no higher. stir to make sure you do not scorch the chocolate as it will get grainy. 

Spread melted chocolate over the frosting and let cool in refrigerator.

You can leave the cake like that or make it for a birthday cake, I used fondant to make this birthday cake. The hardest thing about fondant is rolling it out. 

However the best thing about fondant is you can pretty much do anything with it.

Spooky Cupcakes

My baby girls birthday is right around the corner and I have been trying to practice my frosting technique.

I got the idea of the chocolates on top of the cupcakes from a friend of mine, Kim a fellow blogger of Cre8tive Heart. 

The cupcakes are just a devils food-cake cake mix (cheated on this one). Once I find a good cupcake recipe and I try it out, then share it with all of you :) The frosting is a buttercream Icing (homemade) and chocolate halloween decorations.

Obviously,  I cooked the cupcakes first and let them cool, you want them cool enough so they do not melt you buttercream icing or chocolates.

Buttercream Icing:

1 cup butter softened (let it get to room temp, DO NOT put in microwave)

1 tsp Vanilla extract

4 cups of convectioners sugar

3 tbsp milk

I first recommend using a standing mixer

In a large bowl mix together the butter and vanilla extract once mixed well add confectioners sugar then add milk one tbsp at a time. you can add more or less of the milk depending on the consistency you are looking for.

• You can add your coloring with regular food coloring

Grab you decorating bag and tip and go to town. I am not sure about all of you but I still need a little practice. 

The Halloween Chocolates

At first I was basically looking for a regular halloween chocolate molds, i was having no luck finding. So Kim showed me a picture of some chocolates her sister made and an idea grew in my head,  I went online and found some free clip art to use as a base. 

I printed them out, put a sheet of parchment paper on top of the print out, put my melted chocolate in a squeeze bottle and used them as a stencil. This was a last minute project, and it was fun.

The kids loved them, especially the chocolate, and they loved them at work too.

Try it!

Chocolate and peanut butter brownies

So if you have a taste for some sweetness and you love the three ingredients, Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Brownies then I have the perfect Recipe for you:

FOR THE BROWNIES:

1 2/3 Cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup of butter or margarine (1 1/2 sticks) melted
2 large eggs
2 tbsp water
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a 13" x 9" pan, of course depending on what you are doing use what ever pan you want.

Combine the sugar, melted butter and water in a large bowl. once mixed well stir in the eggs and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Make sure this is mixed well, I recommend just using your hands (clean). It is much easier and you get a better mixture.

Stir into sugar mixture.

Bake for 18 to 25 Min. stick a toothpick in the center and if it comes out clean they are done.

Let them cool for a while.

of course you could just use the box stuff too, but where would the fun be in that? These come out very nice and chewy.

For the Chocolate and Peanut Butter:


Unless you have the time and money to make your chocolate this is what I recommend.

1 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips
1 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips

You can change the amount depending on how much peanut butter and chocolate you want.

I do recommend have a double boiler, I have personally tried a few different ways to melt chocolate and peanut butter and a good ole double boiler has proven to be the best option. (bed, bath and beyond $19.99)

Fill the bottom pan about a 1/4 of the way up with water, turn heat on stove to about med heat NOT HIGH HEAT.

Place both top and bottom pan on burner and be patient. Make sure you are stirring so you do not scorch the chocolate or peanut butter.

You will melt the peanut butter and the chocolate the same way, make sure neither of them come in contact with the steam or water or they will seize up and will be no good to use (trust me).

Once it has melted pour the peanut butter then chocolate on top of brownies. Let cool in refrigerator until chocolate is hard. Do not stick in freezer.

Try it out My kids and husband love them.