Charm & Whimsy

Spatula beater blade for your Kitchen Aid, fantastic.

Got this BeaterBlade the other day from my local cake shop. Was thrilled they had the right size for my Kitchen Aid and I couldn't wait to try it out. It's awesome!!

No more stopping the mixer and scraping down the bowl while mixing. The batter was silky smooth and no chunks at the bottom. Love it!

This one looks pretty snazzy too. I like the blue and the circle in the middle.

Super-duper Rainbow Cake - it was easy, tasty and glorious!

I saw the Rainbow Cake making the rounds of my favorite blogs months ago - specifically Omnomicon's version. The pictures are gorgeous and I've been wanting to try it out ever since. When my dear friend Guadalupe asked me to make the birthday cake for her 6 year old daughter's birthday, I thought, here's my chance!!

So after discussing it, Gabi and I decided on an artist's palette birthday cake since she loves art. I made the inside a rainbow cake as a surprise. It turned out really well and was quite tasty (thanks Betty). Go over to Omnomicon for the recipe and how-to. I baked the colored batter a little differently so I've included some "making-of" shots below.

 

Last weekend I did a test run of the cake to get a feel for the batter and to see how bright the colors came out. It came out good (albeit over-cooked because I started yakking away on the phone and forgot about them in the oven - oops) and was really easy. I followed Omnomicon's directions with the batter on this one. I wish I had taken a picture of the crumbs on the white plate - so beautiful!

So anyhoo - I was concerned that if I carved the sides of the cake for the palette, that I would cut off an entire color so instead I decided to "blob" the colors on Gabi's cake today so everyone would get a variety of colors.

Basics
14" pan (Magi-cake strips)
2 boxes of Betty Crocker white cake mix (egg whites, oil, water)
AmeriColor liquid gel food coloring
white and chocolate frosting
Masonite cake board  (foil)

I mixed the two boxes of cake mix and split the batter evenly into 9 bowls then tinted each bowl a different color.

Then I just took a spoon and started dropping the different colors of batter into the prepared pan (tip - always use a parchment round at the bottom of cakes 10" and bigger, I learned that one the hard way!). I filled the bottom of the pan first and then added more blobs on top in a second and third layer.

 

Give the pan a few taps to fill any gaps and release bubbles then bake. Mine took 35 minutes at 360 (my oven's a little off - thank goodness for oven thermometers).

Glorious!!

I decided not to level the top of the cake since it would only be one layer. Besides - it was pretty flat anyway because of the Magi-cake strips (best invention ever).

I placed it on the prepared masonite board (another awesome find - it's really sturdy but light, love 'em) and carved the sides, gave it a crumb coat and then frosted it with her name and some "paint" blobs.

Voila!! She liked it and that's what matters. I loved hearing her squeal when she saw the colors inside that was my reward. :)

 
I hope you'll try it and surprise someone too. Here is a link to a zebra cake that I'll try one day soon. Happy baking!

Holiday open house menu - sweets, savories and other treats.

Happy New Year!!!

My goodness, hard to believe we're almost at the decade mark. The years are flying by! Having written this blog for almost two years I'm touched by how many stop by to check out what's happening in my little slice of craftyness. Although many of you lurk and don't leave comments, I know you're there (thanks Feedburner!) and I appreciate your quiet support - sharing crafty triumphs with me as well as helping me through difficult times. I wish you all the very best for the coming year. Life is so short, if you're one to put resolutions to paper - be sure to include spending more time doing things that take you to your happy place. You're worth it!!

Alrighty then - enough of my cheesy blathering...there is a lot to share! Our party, crafty Xmas gifts, etc. etc. Hope your holidays were super! I'd love to hear about them if you are feeling inclined to leave a comment :)

So - after much planning, sleepless nights baking, cleaning, etc. our Holiday Open House was a big success! I'd like to pretend that my excessive planning yielded a stress free morning of the party but I would be lying through my teeth. However, although we were rushing around until the last minute, we were ready by 3pm when guests came, it all came together quite nicely. All told we had approximately 45 guests come by. The party was from the 3-8 and our last guests left around 11pm. Good times were had by all!

I tried to take pictures before it got too busy. That's our neighbor Tony, Sweetboy and my Mom (seated). Blue lights on the ceiling of the patio are up year round. Snow was here for the holidays :)

Savory

• Hot items in crockpots:
• Pulled pork featuring our very own St. Louis Joe's BBQ Butt Sauce (which we hope we'll have for sale online by March 09) - we ran out of it towards the end of the party, sooo tasty
• Sweet & Sour Meatballs (made by our neigbors and they were DELICIOUS!)
• Creamy Tomato Basil Soup - served in insulated paper cups so people didn't need to fiddle with bowls/spoons. Vons soup in the deli section. So wonderfully tasty - everyone wanted the recipe...I can't take credit.
• Cold/room temp items:
• Pesto Pinwheels for the soup - just lay out refrigerated crescent roll dough in rectangles, cover with pesto then roll up, slice and bake
• Cold cut and cheese tray - Thank goodness for Vons online ordering and delivery!!
• Rolls
• Crudite platter with spinach dip (I never tire of spinach dip, it's so very tasty)
• Chicken breast, apricot bruschetta (my Mom made this and they were the first thing to go, I don't know exactly what was on them becuase they were gone before I got a chance to eat one)
• Little bowls of chex mix and pringles throughout the house
• Snowman cheeseball with crackers

Sweets

• Coconut Snowballs - so easy and delicious, some plain some drizzled with semi-sweet chocolate
• Nutty Caramel Acorns - these require their own post. Good grief. They were tasty but an ordeal until I figured out a much easier way - at the very very end of course. Will share soon.
• Lime Meltaways - oh so yummy and ridiculously easy
• Gingerbread Trees - sitting in a bed of sugar in a glass loaf pan & decorated on the tall white cake stand - made from Pillsbury refrigerated Gingerbread dough (comes in the tube like sugar cookie dough). Although I like the taste I wish they were a litte more crisp - they come out kind of cakey even if you bake them longer
• Brownie Bites - these were store bought and were a bit dry - I thought I would save some time and buy them but will just make them myself next time
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies - I love this mix and use it whenever I make peanut butter cookies. In past years I had made them plain or with Hershey's kisses. This year I wanted to try them with jelly. Super tasty!
• Mint Meringue Mushrooms - Although tasty and VERY cute, I don't think I'll be making these again. From beginning to end, including cooking time, they took 4 hours. Yeah...they weren't THAT good.

Been working on this post for over a week so I'll wrap up here and write the rest later.

Happy New Year! I'm sincerely wishing you all the very best for 2009 :) 

3 days and counting!

Been planning and working towards our BIG holidayparty this weekend, we're expecting over 60 people and I'm a little freaked out (but in an excited kind of way). In fact, I'm waiting for some cookie dough to chill right now. I'll say one thing though - after doing this for several years, I have this planning thing down pat and I fully expect that instead of running around with my hair on fire Saturday I intend to have had a relaxing drink before people get here. That will be a first!!

So I will post soon. Lots of pictures to share since we refloored, painted and trimmed out the two bedrooms. The house is decked out and of course I'll need to share all the special tasties from the party.

Here is the star of last year's party (gingerbread cake with gingerbread cookies and a swiss buttercream frosting - fondant snowmen), I don't have one big cake or item planned for this year - just lots of little things.

Hope you're enjoying your holidays and taking some time out to bake some cookies and hug your family and friends :). Talk to you again soon!

I'm basking in the glow of a cake well done.

The cake for Elizabeth's baby shower turned out very well if I may say so myself. At first when my good friend Mary asked me to do the cake, I said no because my baby was due a week after Elizabeth's due date and I thought I might have difficulty making the cake. But after thinking about it and hearing Mary talk about how wonderful her sister was I figured this would be a good way to honor my baby by doing something nice for Elizabeth's baby. It did bring up some sadness and I cried here and there throughout the day but it helps to work through the grief. I locked away my emotions after our first loss and that resulted in a long depression so I'm trying to be better about confronting my feelings about the second one. I'm glad I did it, it helped me and brought Elizabeth and the party joy so it was good thing.

The shower was at a great Greek restaurant in Pt. Loma called the Country Kabob. The food was excellent and Mary and her sisters did an incredible job with the shower. It was really very lovely. I used her super cute baby jungle / safari bedding as a guide when I came up with the design.

 

  

 

   

I made a french vanilla cake (I thought the flavor was almost too delicate will try a different one next time), filled it with custard  and fresh blueberries and raspberries. The icing is buttercream and the animals are made of fondant. The little yellow bird is plastic. I wasn't sure how to perch a fondant bird on skinny legs - I thought of using fondant covered toothpicks or paperclips but ultimately decided it wouldn't be stable so when I saw this cute bird at my favorite cake shop in town, I grabbed it.

For the animals' & baby's eyes and lion's whiskers I used chocolate jimmies and just poked them in. The eyebrow indentations on the elephant were initially by accident - my nail went in when I was poking in the jimmie, but it turned out cute anyway. The animals were all fondant except for the yellow scales on the alligator and tusks on the elephant, those were piped icing. The cake stand is one of my all-time favorites by Mosser Glass, you can get it here, I believe the one I used was the 12". This cake would have looked great on an orange stand too, don't you think?

All in all, it was beautiful, delicious and a huge hit at the shower. Considering this is only my third tiered cake, I think it came out nicely. Still getting the hang of timing and transporting but I took a lot of notes this time. This cake took approximately 8-9 hours from baking to completion.

I was really flattered to get a request to do another one (a guest had a pregnant sister who had chosen the same bedding) but turned it down. I'm not in the cake business and with our big annual holiday party coming up in December, I'm going to have my hands full making all the wonderful little goodies I have planned for that. Sweetboy is going to brew an amber ale and smoke some BBQ, we'll all get to enjoy our new landscaping - it will be good times but will require a lot of planning and even more doing...  so no time for cakes!

Well then, I leave you with the last bite of cake... enjoy!

I miss you my blogging friends!

Haven't been inspired to post lately since my camera died :(

However, I am working on a bunch of projects right now, including a baby shower cake that I need to deliver in a few hours...why am I on the computer??? Clearly I have a procrastination problem.

Will post pictures from someone else's camera later!

Little owl cupcakes and a clean garage, life couldn't be better!

I was a machine last weekend and I got an incredible amount of stuff done.

• Finished a child's hat that I started at least a year ago (I needed my #4 needles for another project). Unfortunately, it isn't actually finished...I just ran out of yarn. Which stinks because I had bought it on sale and don't have anymore. So - will need to figure out what else to do with it or unravel and make something else.
• Crocheted a swatch for a coat I'm planning to make. I probably won't end up using this yarn because it became too fuzzy and pilly in the washer (washed and dried it 3 times). Although it was wonderfully soft after washing. I have two other yarns I'll try for this project. I'm typically not a big swatch-maker (I like to dive right in) however, this will be a large project and I don't want to spend all the time making it and then not be able to wash it because the yarn doesn't hold up well.

            

• Baked and decorated little owl cupcakes for Austin's 1st birthday (cute little guy that belongs to our lovely neighbors). The cupcakes on the right were the first ones and you can see the "hair" is distinct. The cupcakes on the left were the last ones and the frosting in the piping bag was so warm from my hands and the heat that day that it was melting as I was piping it. No discernable "hair" on those unfortunately. I'll post a tutorial later. These came from the super-fantastic book Hello, Cupcake! . You need to go buy it if you haven't already.

            

• I wanted to try a soft boiled egg. Mostly because I wanted to finally use one of these cute egg cups I bought ages ago (originally purchased to make pincushions out of them). First one was WAY too runny. It grossed me out (3 minute egg).
  
   
  

• Next one was a little over cooked (7 minute egg) but that was better than undercooked in my opinion. Still a tasty breakfast complete with tomatoes from our neighbor's garden. Delicious! 

   

• Cleaned out the garage (who knows why I had to do this on one of the hottest, muggiest days of the year). It's so lovely in there now. I'm such a freak I even dusted and cleaned all of the shelves and items on them. 5 hours later - it looked like this:

             

• You may wonder where the clean garage is as this pictures looks like we have a really cluttered garage. However, it is all very ordered and organized by category, paints on the lower right shelf, crafty supplies on the middle right shelving system, wrapping and ribbon station in the back left corner, etc. The back door couldn't be reached due to a mountain of stuff and now it's clear. The front of the washer/dryer was a disaster and now it's clutter free. We park our car in here every night. Our house is only 700 square feet and this is our only storage (no attic). Ok and we have a lot of stuff.

• After cleaning the garage, I was so jazzed about seeing the front of our washer/dryer that I did 6 loads of laundry (??!?!??!).

I'm tired just writing all of this down...

Now this is a proper dinner.

Who needs protein and vegetables when you have chocolate and milk?

This is the next chocolate cake recipe I'm going to try - Loobylu's Mum's Supereasy Chocolate Cake - yummy!

"No Nightmare" Beef Wellington and Dark Chocolate Cake.

I don't fancy myself a cook. I like to bake but cooking is a different story. The chopping, the stirring, the dirtying every dish in the kitchen - it's not my thing. However, today was Sweetboy's birthday and there is no secret the man likes to eat. A lot. Preferably meat. He also likes fancy food. He could trounce anyone on the food channel with his souffles, they're amazing. Luckily he does all the cooking for us. Unlucky for me I can put it all down like a champ.

So what possessed me to make a complete meal from scratch? I was blinded by love. I saw this recipe in Bon Apetit and thought hmmm... meat, pate, and fancy? He'll love it. I will round it all out with his favorite Dark Chocolate Cake from scratch (it's the recipe from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box - I used dark chocolate cocoa for the cake and half dark/half regular for the frosting).

Thank goodness we were home - licking your plate isn't good etiquette in public is it? From start to finish the Beef Wellington took an hour to make. The mashed potatoes are actually "faux-tay-toes". Just take a head of cauliflower, steam until very soft. Drain excess liquid and puree in a food processor with some cream cheese, a touch of butter and a little milk. Delicious!! The cake was sooo wonderful. Please make it - you won't regret the extra 3 minutes you spend measuring ingredients vs. opening a box. Yes -I'm definitely moving away from processed foods these days.

We'll definitely make it all again. Well - he'll probably make it next time.  :)

I am obsessed with food that looks like something else.

As evidenced by my previous posts about hamburger cakes, meatloaf cupcakes, the toadstool cake, the Tiffany box cake, etc. Here is my first adventure from the SUPER-DUPER book Hello, Cupcake (featured on the right).

It was ridiculously easy and it looked sooo good! I made it for my nieces and nephews during our recent family reunion/vacation. At first they were a little freaked out and didn't want to touch them but I think Jakey (4 yo) was the first to go for it. He ended up eating the "spaghetti" off of 2 or 3 of them, leaving the cake. LOL!

So - here's how to do it (this is not a substitute for you getting the book - because there are so many other awesome and easy ideas in there!):

• You'll need:
  •  Vanilla cupcakes in white liners
  • Tub vanilla frosting
  • Yellow food coloring
  • Ziploc bag
  • Ferrero Rocher chocolates
  • Strawberry jelly (reduced sugar has a great color and consistency)
• Place a bunch of vanilla cupcakes together on a platter (touching on all sides).
• Tint the frosting a light yellow to mimick pasta. Just a couple of drops should be enough (all the cupcakes in the book are made with tub frosting from the supermarket and let's not kid ourselves - that's what makes these so quick and easy).
• Place the frosting in a plastic ziplock bag, cut off a small bit of the corner and zig zag your way across the cupcakes. Hold it about 4-5 inches from the tops so it falls on them. Also make your way to the edge so it has the rounded pasta look on the edges.
• In a small bowl, spoon some of the jelly and stir it with a spoon to make it smooth.
• Unwrap the chocolates - eat a couple to make sure they're not poisoned or spoiled - then place one in the bowl of jelly, cover it on all sides and place on top of a cupcake.
• Do this for each cupcake, put a "meatball with sauce" on the plate for good effect.
• Voila! Spaghetti and meatballs for dessert!! You'll be the favorite aunt, Mom, Grandma, friend, etc.
• Now bask in the glory.

Please tell me about your "food that looks like something else" adventures. I'm always looking for new ideas!