I had some little helpers in the kitchen the other day.
These two were very excited to make apple dumplings.
They were hard little workers.
Then it was time for a snack. Anders was being a loud and obnoxious boy so Maggie gave him a look.
Then her lipped curled a bit in the corner. This look that says, why are you doing that, is a look Maggie has often when she comes over. I just shake my head and tell her that I don't understand either.
I was so excited to get my stuff back that I signed up to bring food for fellowship hour at church. I decided to make Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes. I first saw them on Kellee's blog and have been saving the recipe for the right time. These were really pretty easy considering they are filled with chocolate chip cookie dough. They aren't Weight Watcher friendly though.
John decided he liked the tops only so he would ask for a cupcake, eat the top and hand you the rest.
I also decided to try Mousse Cupcakes with a whipped cream frosting. I'm told these also came out well. I love baking and I try not to eat what I bake only because I wouldn't be able to fit through doorways if I did. Do you know how much butter and sugar are in these tasty treats?
I received some wonderful things for Christmas that had to do with baking cakes. I was given nice spring form pans and some great cake decorating books along with some cake decorating classes, which I haven't taken yet. I've been reading through my books, watching Ace of Cakes on the Food Network and Cake Boss on TLC and just had the itch to make a cake. My problem, aside from being tired all of the time, is that once I made the cake we would have to eat it. I'm not much of a sweets person, so having cake in the house just goes to waste. I was excited when I realized that I would be meeting with a group of about 20 people this past week and thought it would be a perfect time to try out a new cake and some new decorating styles.
These are some of the books I got for Christmas. I highly recommend "Cakes to Dream on", it is a great book with wonderful instructions on how to make some pretty awesome cakes.
I didn't follow any kind of pattern when doing this cake. I just took bits and pieces from things that I read about or saw on TV. I knew I wanted to try to make a 2-tiered cake and fill it with something good.
Here is one of the layers of cake, just out of the oven. I was letting it cool on the table when John came into the dining room and said, "Mom, I'm so sorry I ate some of your cake." If you look on the left side of the cake near the bottom you will see a little discoloration. This was John's work, as he took his little fingers and helped himself. It could have been much worse.
This is the good stuff here. This is some premium dark chocolate. I used this chocolate to make some wonderful ganache.
Filling the cake with ganache just wasn't enough, so I decided to add some strawberries.
Doesn't that look good? Each cake tier had three layers of cake and two layers of ganache with strawberries.
I also decided that I would try my hand at fondant. I've always wanted to try using fondant, but it can be pretty expensive in the store. When I saw my friend Jan's blog with a post about marshmallow fondant I just had to try it out.
So, here it is. A two-tiered white cake with chocolate ganache and strawberry filling, iced with homemade buttercream icing and wrapped in marshmallow fondant. It was fun to make and I learned a lot about what to do in the future to make it look better. I didn't actually try any of the cake myself, but there were only a few slices left after people got their hands on it. I'd say it was a success.
Jan and I decided to decorate cookies with the kids again this year. The kids always have so much fun, and the moms do too. I have just a few pictures, but you can check out Jan's blog for more pictures.
John actually decorated cookies this year, instead of just eating them.
This was early on in the decorating process...you can still see the table.
What a mess!
The kids all had a great time and the moms actually got some baking done too.
John is turning 3 tomorrow and we had a party for him on Sunday since my parents were in town. Since John is obsessed with Thomas the train I decided to make his birthday cake look like Henry. For those of you who wonder why Henry and not Thomas, it is because Henry is the #3 train.
John wanted to help make the cake. He loves to help and gets really upset if you don't let him help. My sister in-law Andrina has a very creative way of letting her daughter Eva help. Andrina puts some of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and gives Eva a spoon to mix it all together. I thought that was a great idea, but when I tried that with John he just looked at me like I was stupid and asked where the eggs and milk where.
This is John's favorite part.
The 'before' pictures of the cakes. I made the white cake from scratch and the chocolate cake is just a dark chocolate mix. I will never use a mix again for cakes like these because they are very hard to cut and frost.
The first layer
This was John's way of "helping". We had to keep him from sneaking pieces of cake. I left the room for a second once to get something from the kitchen and when I came back there was a little chunk taken out of the chocolate cake.
Again, John's favorite part.
The cake is now layered and cut, all I have to do now is make it look like Henry.
I used buttercream frosting. The first cake I made I used a whipped frosting and while I like the taste of that it is really hard to frost with several different colors since it never hardens. I also liked how the buttercream produced richer colors.
It's Henry! This was not what I envisioned the cake to look like, but to be fair to myself this is only my second cake and I think I envisioned something that was more 3D covered in fondant...maybe next time.
I think this is my new hobby. I still have lots to learn, but am anxious to take a few decorating classes and learn some useful techniques. I also have to kinks to work out as far as the cake itself, what you can't tell from this picture is that poor Henry sinks a little in the middle...high altitude baking has proven to be quite a challenge for me.
John (and Hans) really wanted some cookies so I decided to be nice and make them. Hans and I are finding that we can't do anything in the kitchen without a little helper so I decided to be brave and let John help me.
He was so excited he did a little dance, it was so cute!
He loved watching it all mix together
He just asked me if we could eat it yet. I made the mistake of letting him lick the beater once and he will never forget that.
John decided that it wasn't mixing fast enough and turned it up, needless to say, flour went everywhere.
All done.
Can you tell he ate one right out of the oven? He had chocolate all over his fingers.
Three blogs in one day is more than enough for me, so this will be my last one until after Christmas.
Last week, I got together with my friends Jan and Linda and their kids and we made cookies. The kids started by decorating cookies we had made the day before. There were 13 kids in all, but only 11 that started decorating and in the end only 8 remained after the fun of licking off the frosting wore off. John didn't actually decorate, he sat at the table and as the kids finished putting on frosting and sprinkles he would take the cookie off the tray and lick off the good stuff. Then he would thoughtfully put the cookie back on the tray. I ran around throwing away cookies so no one would have to eat John's slime.
These are some of the kids eating lunch.
John eats like a dog right now...don't know how to stop that.
Here are some of the cookies.
I was horrible about taking pictures this week so I will again refer you to another blog site so you can see a little of the mess the kids made. Jan is the one who got me started with this whole blog thing so have fun checking out her site.
These last two picture were taken at our open house on Sunday. This is John's future wife Elizabeth. He already loves her!! I told Hans I didn't care how he made it happen, but I have to have the Meliuses as my son's in-laws.
Elizabeth wasn't too sure about this.
She is just the cutest little girl, but my picture does not do her justice so you will have to check out Jan's blog.
