B’s 5th Birthday Cake

For her 5th birthday, B requested a rainbow cake with flowers. So, I did some searching and found this amazing rainbow cake and figured hey, why not? So I bought the gel food coloring and the two boxes of simple white cake mix (5 year olds don’t care how this stuff tastes!!), mixed up the lemony Swiss meringue buttercream and we ended up with this:

I then put a plate on top as a template and trimmed the edges so that we would have nice straight lines to work with.

Then I frosted the whole thing with more lemony Swiss meringue buttercream. One note that was not in the original recipe (as I recall) was that you really need to use unsalted butter. I used salted (which I generally do unless instructed otherwise) and it was a bit strong. A few weeks later I made another buttercream that called for unsalted and it was so much better and more delicately flavored.

Then came the flowers part. I found this great tutorial on how to make gum paste flowers and gave it a go.

I made big ones and little ones, pastel ones and brighter ones. It took a while, so I watched episodes of Cake Boss (for inspiration, of course) on Netflix instant streaming while I worked.

Then it was time to figure out how to arrange the flowers on the cake. I searched lots of images of wedding cakes and tried to adjust some designs to fit on a single tier cake rather than a 3 or 4 tier one. I gave it a practice run on a sheet of paper so that I wouldn’t make the cake look all goofy by moving flowers all over the place.

And then I put together the final product! I added some sugar pearls to give it just a little more fun detail.

I was very pleased with the final product, as was the Guest of Honor (disguised here as Snow White).

The really fun part was not telling people that it was a rainbow cake though, and then when we cut it open…

…everyone was surprised!

Meet Jude

Jude Bennett was born at 1:44am.  He is 8lbs 11oz, 21″ long

Mother and son are both doing very well.

peanut butter cups

I know this is a bit late for Valentine’s Day, but if you have to celebrate late this year like we do, then it’s just in time! I took an old standby of a recipe and put it in those fantastic silicone baking molds to make heart shaped peanut butter cups. I lost the “family” recipe, but I’m pretty sure it was almost identical to this one. Here’s how they looked….festive, huh?

Valentines Day Dinner

On the menu is a simple meal of linguine with marinated salmon, and a greek sort of salad of my own invention.

Linguine

• 1 pound of linguine
• 1/2 c. cottage cheese
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. asparagus, chopped into 2″ pieces
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 lemon, zested
• parsley
• sea salt, fresh ground pepper

Salmon

• 1/2lb salmon skinned and deboned
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar

Salad:

• romaine lettuce
• red & orange sweet pepper
• feta cheese

Croutons:

• day old bread cubed
• garlic salt
• olive oil

Dressing:

• Olive oil
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Sea Salt and fresh ground pepper

Day Before Prep:

Croutons – Cube bread slices and leave out to dry for several hours. Before going to bed, drizzle generously with olive oil and season heavily with garlic salt. refrigerate overnight.

Marinade – thinly slice 5 cloves of garlic and spread onto a shallow dish. Place fresh or frozen salmon filets on top. Sprinkle  with brown sugar and drizzle olive oil over the top. Cover, refrigerate, turning every several hours.

Day of Directions:

Croutons – Preheat oven to 325′, bake croutons until slightly browned, turning once or twice.

Salmon – Bake in the oven or fry in a frying pan, with juices. Be sure to use a small frying pan or a small baking dish to keep the moisture inside the fish. You can tell salmon is done cooking when it starts to fall apart on you.

Linguine – bring a large pot of salted water or stock to boil over high heat. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta. Mix cottage cheese and pasta together in a large bowl. Fry asparagus in olive oil, salt, pepper and juice squeezed from the zested lemon. When asparagus turns vibrant green, it is time to add in the pasta mixture. Fry for a couple minutes more, stirring constantly. Transfer the whole shebang to a serving dish and mix in lemon zest and parsley.

Salad is easily assembled and self seasoned with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar.

I’m thinking a very dry white wine would be perfect for this one.

(Note: Watch your olive oil when it’s heating in a frying pan. When it beings to subtly ripple, it’s ready.)

Happy Independence Day!

Just dropping in to say that we hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July! My husband is starting the day off with a rifle competition, then it will probably be an early afternoon nap, then we’re headed over to my parents’ house along with Andrew’s family for some barbecued ribs, potato salad, fruit salad, chocolate mousse, strawberry rhubarb pie, peach-riesling sangria, and much more. We’ll follow that up with a few little fireworks for the kids and then, as this is Andrew’s last night in town before he leaves for school in Seattle for 6 weeks, my parents are keeping B for the night and we’re taking Eva along with us on a little date. We hope you have a fun and happy 4th! Here’s last year’s pictures, again:

Happy Easter!!

Reminder

valentine’s “breakfast”

I surprised my husband with a valentine’s “breakfast” at the end of last week in place of the dinner of left-overs that I had promised him. (I tried to post this before Saturday morning but wordpress wasn’t letting me upload my photos…).


We had scrambled eggs, maple bacon, and heart shaped biscuits with jam. It was a big hit, and it’s always nice when B can finish her dinner in the same time it takes us (there was a night last week where it took her more than two hours to finish her dinner)! I even went so far as to light a few candles and set the table nicely with B’s “Love You Papa” valentine from last year.

thanksgiving!

As I mentioned earlier, I was only responsible for the desserts this year. We had a lovely dinner at my parents’ house, and then we all headed out to Andrew’s aunt and uncle’s for dessert and to watch the Gonzaga basketball game (ever since my brother started there last year, my family has been avid fans and they know all the players by name). It was a delicious dinner and everyone ate their fill of turkey (artfully carved by my husband), stuffing, cranberry jello salad, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting.

For dessert we had chocolate pumpkin pie…

and chocolate pecan pie (my personal favorite)…

and deep dish apple pie with a sharp cheddar crust (I was thinking of Pushing Daisies as I made this)…

and of course the baklava, which was everyone else’s favorite. A fantastic time, and I highly recommend the division of dinner and dessert between two different homes. It gives the stomach time to settle so that you have much more room for desserts. 😉

pure chocolate disguised as a cake

For his birthday (which was Saturday, Happy Birthday Babe!), my husband requested a fudgy chocolate cake with confetti icing. I told him that that would not taste good, so we decided to do two separate cakes – one very easy Duncan Hines yellow cake with confetti/cream cheese frosting (we mixed two cans of frosting together to get that combo), and then I had to find a recipe for a really really chocolaty fudgy cake. I found this recipe on epicurious, and I will copy it below for you…

For cake layers
3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

For ganache frosting
1 pound fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

Make cake layers:
Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

Make frosting:
Finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (depending on chocolate used, it may be necessary to chill frosting to spreadable consistency).

Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides. Cake keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days. Bring cake to room temperature before serving.

I used the bulk chocolate bricks from WinCo and the bulk cocoa powder and it turned out just fine! It was really quite spectacular, and the sort of cake that somehow tastes better slightly chilled. I of course forgot to take a picture, but there’s a good one on the website with the original recipe and the cake does turn out looking like that. There is so much chocolate in this, and it is so dark in color, that I am convinced that it’s just pure dark chocolate disguised as cake.