Strawberry Shortcake Cake

My daughter just turned three and this was the cake I made for her. I have to admit. I really love this cake.. I think the more I make and work with fondant the more fun I have.

This time half of the cake is made with the Marshmellow fondant I made. I usually just by fondant, mainly because it is easier and the only time I tried to make it , it was a huge mess in my kitchen. So I decided to do it a little diffenently this time (in my mixer) and it worked out well. Tatses so much better.

What will I do next. ??

Fit for a princess!

My daughter Eva had her first princess party this week. She turned 4. So I decided to try my hand at a castle cake.

I started out by making the flowers in advance. Love this method.. They are made out of royal icing. They dry hard in about 8 hours. I sprinkled them with pixie dust. You can tell but they are very sparkly.

The towers were a little more of a challenge. I used white fondant wrapped around cardboard (from a wrapping paper center) Let it dry over night and it was ready to work with. I cut out circles for the tower tops, "glued" them on with corn syrup. Then used powdered shimmer dust with vodka mixed together to form a paint, to paint the tops. I also dusted them with the pixie dust to give them extra glitter.

Then it was time to put everything together. this part was the fun part. Making vines where ever you want and sticking the flowers on the vines also can cover up any fondant wrinkles!! I left the towers off till right before the party.. Note to self.. Put wood dowls in the middle of the towers so they don't lean or fall off when transporting it to the table for candle time!! LOL thank god I had already gotten a few pictures of it.

All in all.. I LOVE this cake.. I was sad to have to cut into it. And very sad to toss the towers after the party. I did save the bottom of the towers though.. I have another cake to make on tues. for my first daughters birthday and I am going to reuse them for a purple castle cake. this time no fondant though.. I am going to try it out with just frosting.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Well I search on line to figure out how to dip strawberries in choc. Thought it would be simple.. just dip them in melted chocolate.. Nope nothing is ever easy if you want them to be just right.. You have to wash them, then dry them 100%.. no water anywhere can be on the berries.. This will cause the chocolate to seize.. And they must be room temp. I used just regular milk chocolate and tempered it. Then it was ready to dip. Then to get the berries to not have that flat part... yup.. you have to stick them onto toothpicks and then stick the toothpick into styrofoam board. And a side note.. put them in the fridge only to set the chocolate.. do not let them sit over night!! My mistake.. they will start to form condensation on the berries and chocolate.. :( next time I will know better!

But they looked just fine once on my cake stands.

Baily's Irish Cream Pie

I make this every year for St. Patty's day. But this week I whipped out two of them. One as a thank you.. And one for the hubby.. He is very tired of me making desserts and giving them away. This recipe is very easy.. Again.. One I can make in my sleep.
1. envelope of unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
2-8oz packages of cream cheese, softened
8 ounce whipped topping, thawed
1/4 plus 2 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
Garnish, whatever you would like.
Place water in pan. Sprinkle gelatin over the top and let stand for 1 minute. Cook on low for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Mix cream cheese and sugar in mixer. blend well. Should be nice and creamy as seen below.

Gradually add gelatin mixture and the Baily's. Gently fold in the whipped topping. Put into pie crust.. (graham cracker crust tastes best)

Then garnish it with whatever fruit you would like.. or maybe drizzle chocolate over the entire thing.. I thought about that, but did not have any chocolate on hand today! That would taste really good with the baily's!!

I was not happy with just one strawberry. So on the one I gave away, I put strawberries all over!! Much prettier I should say.

This pie is very very rich.. refrigerate for about 2 hours to let set up really well.. Then scrap the bowl you just used and eat that while you wait!! It is sooooo goooood!!

St. Patty's Day treats

I decided to head off to the Decorette shop for some advice.. I have not been able to melt my chocolate very well for some reason.. Well come to find out.. You can not put color in white chocolate unless you use Flo-Coat.. Becuase the color is water base.. it will seize your choc. or make it really thick and not very managable. So I went home to try out the new Guittard Chocolates.. Which are easy to melt.. No more microwave. Just boil some water.. take it off the stove and put the chocolates in a bowl on top of the steaming water.. It takes a while longer but the chocolates are easier to work with.

This is a really cute way to make your own "pot of gold". 6X6 inch square.. crease every two inches.. fold and cut.. then staple. I added the pipe cleaner for the gold part and put goodies in it for the teachers at Eva's school.

for the kids at her school.. They all got Cake pops. Eva and Kia painted the Shamrocks and then I paper punch holes in the pot of gold and shamrock to slide the cake pop in. To make these yummy cake pops you can go check out Bakerella.blogspot.com. She has some great stuff on her site.. I love it.

Cheesecake

Ok, I really need to start blogging a little more on this site.. I have taken a ton of pics of things but have not made it to the actual blogging part.. This was a thank you for a church staff member.. He set up the gym for us for the tea.. And did more than we asked him to do..

This is a no bake cheesecake I can make in my sleep.. I have made this forever.. This is one of those I really do not measure to much.. But you can easily make it!! Cream 1 Cream cheese box, with sugar.. 1/2 to 3/4 cup.. taste to make sure it is sweet enough for you.. cream long enough to make sure the sugar is mixed and not gritty. slap in a few tablespoons of sour cream.. or you can also leave this out.. if you add the sour cream make sure you add the 3/4 cup sugar.. this really just makes it creamier!! it really all depends on if I happen to have sour cream in the fridge.. cream all together with a little splash of vanilla.. then hand fold in the whipped topping.. 1 8oz tub. The crust in not homemade.. I had three of these to make that day.. so it was from the store! Put in fridge for awhile and then serve.. Put any kind of fruit on top for decoration. There you go!! simple and takes only about 15 minutes to whip together!!

St. Patty's Day sugar cookies

Ok. So I saw this done on Martha stewart. I have tried it once and wanted to try it one more time before I decided if I liked it or not. I would have to say if you want really pretty cookies.. do not use the squeeze bottle. Use the bag and tip. Maybe with some more practic I will like it better. I would let my kids decorate this way though. Much easier for them. And less mess for you.

In the end, you just cant get much details using the squeeze bottle. I think it is due to the tip. It is just to big. And does not lay the icing very smooth.

But hey, My girls love them.. So that is all that matters.

Valentine Petite Fours

I decided to make Petite Fours for my MOPS meeting this Friday. They are easy and pretty fast to make.

Bake any cake on a cookie sheet. I used a pampered chef one.. I like using the cookie sheet stone when doing this cake. Bake at 325 or 350 for only 15 or so minutes.. just watch it carfully.

Let it cool. Then frost it.. Use buttercream frosting though.. this batch I used canned frosting and it just starts to melt way to fast compared to the buttercream from scratch. Put wax paper over the top of the frosting to smooth out frosting. Wrap in plastic wrap, then freeze over night.

The paper will come right off.

Cut the sides to even make everything straight.

Then take a good knife and heat under water for a few seconds, wipe clean, then start cutting. I have to clean my knife and re-heat it every few cuts.

I used wilton melts for the coating. Just microwave at 50% till melted. Be carefull not to seize the chocolate. Heat it only for 1 minute at a time.

I use my cooling rack to place the petit fours on to dry. I switched to wax paper after my cakes started to stick to the rack. Not sure what was going on. I have never had this problem..

The let your daughter eat the left over chocolate.. She loved this!!And then wrap in pretty papers and give away as gifts!!

Chocolate sugar cookies

Ok.. So I wanted to try out some chocolate sugar cookies for Valentines day. I love how they look. Not sure on the recipe. I think I need to try a few more before I decide on one. The colors just pop on these dark cookies though!

Valentine cookies

I decided to start practicing for Valentines day. Also I am hosting a MOPS moms night out and this is what I am teaching the moms to do. Decorate cookies. Since it is in Feb. I thought Hearts would be perfect.

I tried a new technique with the making the heart in the actual dredging part of the cookie. It was really easy!! Love this effect.

Bread or Cookies??

So I was in the baking mood today. Made some sugar cookies, then looked at the banana's I had in the fruit basket.. They looked pretty sad. So I decided to make banana bread.. then I thought.. oooohhh I have some chocolate chips. I should add those to the loaf.. Then I took it a step further and decided to see if they would hold up in cookie form. And what do you know?? They did!

I only made 6 at first on the silpat.. Then I let Eva try one!! LOL I too tried one.. I was pretty impressed that they tasted really good. And they were done all the way through.

I used a Med. pampered chef scoop to scoop them out onto the silpat. That way they are all the same size.

I had to keep checking on them. Not knowing how long to cook them.. I started at 10 minutes.. Then kept having to come back to them every 2 minutes.. They finally looked done at 19 minutes.. So I would say the time is between 18 to 20 minutes..