(not so) Random Acts of Cake Decorating

Here are a few of the cakes and cupcakes that I have decorated over the past few months…hope you like them!

 

 

New York Yankees birthday cake I made for my friend (and crazy Yankees fan) Jane.

 

Green Eggs and Ham cupcakes for Dr. Seuss' birthday at my daughter's school 3/2010.

 

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish cupcakes

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes

The "smash cake" I made for my niece's 1st birthday.

 

1st birthday princess cupcakes

 

Bingo card cupcakes for "Bingo Night" at my daughter's school.

 

Wow Wow Wubbzy cake I made for my nephew's 3rd birthday.

Hippie Cupcakes

It’s time to play catch up… I haven’t blogged anything in quite a while but I have continued to bake many wonderful things!  So I am going to attempt to get up to date and stay up to date with posts of the goodies I’ve made.

These are the cupcakes that I made for our babysitter’s 20th birthday.  She loves purple, turquoise and all things “peacy”–Beatles, the 60s, Jimi Hendrix, and on and on…  So for her birthday I wanted to make her something sute and yummy.  This is what I came up with.

Apple Cheddar Beer Bread

A while back I really wanted to make bread, but didn’t want the kind that my bread machine produced and I didn’t feel like waiting for anything to rise etc.. 

So one I adapted this recipe from one on the blog http://blog.kitchenkapers.biz/  (it’s the blog for the store where I work!)  Thanks Jackie!  I used a different beer than she did and I added some sharp cheddar cheese.  It turned out great!

Apple Cheddar Beer Bread

 

Beer  Bread
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
12 ounces beer (I used Lindeman’s Apple Lambic, but feel free to experiment!)
1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

4 tbsps butter, melted and cooled (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter an 8-inch loaf pan and set it aside. In a mixing bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cheese and give it a little bit of a mix to incorporate all your dry ingredients together. Add the beer and mix slowly until just combined. (Try not to overmix it, as this will make the bread tough.)

Transfer the mix to an 8 inch loaf pan.

Drizzle the top with the melted butter and transfer to the oven. (You might want to put a baking sheet under your loaf pan, just to make sure the butter doesn’t bubble over and make a mess while baking.)

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick insterted in the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer it to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.

Remove the bread from the pan and cool an additional 10 minutes.

This bread can be served warm or at room temperature. Makes 1 loaf.

I was really pleased with the results. The bread turned out beautifully, with a crunchy, chewy crust, and a distinctive flavor.  Try your favorite specailty beer and various mix-ins (nuts, dried fruit etc…)

Roasted Garlic and Onion Jam Pizza

One of the great things about working in a kitchen store (www.kitchenkapers.com)  is that we get to try out a lot of the products that we carry.  We carry a great variety of products by Stonewall Kitchen.  If you are not familiar with them, they are a specialty foods company that makes all sorts of jams, jellies, mustards, sauces, dressings and baking mixes.  Very often when we get their products into the store, they send us samples to use and demo in the store. 

Visit http://www.kitchenkapers.com for other goodies from Stonewall Kitchen!

This particular tastyliciousness is extremely easy to make and is great as an appetizer, but also good enough to be eaten as a meal.  To make this pizza you will need the following:

1 jar Stonewall Kitchen Roasted Garlic and Onion Jam (available at www.kitchenkapers.com)

1 pizza crust of your choice (I used Pillsbury’s pizza crust in the poppy tube)

your favorite creamy, salty cheese (I used goat cheese crumbles)

 

To assemble:

–line cookie sheet with non-stick aluminum foil.

–unroll the pizza crust (if you are using the kind from the tube…otherwise take the crust you chose, out of the packaging) and place on the foil.

–spread an even layer of the jam on the crust, leaving about a 1-inch crust.

–sprinkle with cheese.

the pizza --all assembled, before baking

–bake in a 350-degree oven until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melty and bubbly.

–allow the pizza to rest about 5 minutes before cutting.

–ENJOY!

Here’s what the finished product looks like…

Roasted Garlic and Onion Jam Pizza

Baby Shower cupcakes

These are the cupcakes that I made for my sister’s baby shower.  I was really pleased with how they turned out.  They all looked so cute  displayed on the plates on the cake stand.  Sweet little baby faces!

Dr. Seuss cupcakes

In celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America Week, I made these cupcakes for my daughter’s school.  The Seuss hats are made of chocolate.  I printed a picture from the internet and used it as a template (under a piece of wax paper) to pipe the chocolate onto.  Once the chocolate firmed up I placed them on top of the cupcakes. 

Brownie Bread Pudding

Very often when I am at work, we decide to make something in our demo kitchen to sample out to our customers.  By doing this, we can show our customers how to use certain products, and basically, fed shoppers are happy shoppers and happy shoppers tend to spend more money 🙂  On this particular Sunday, we decided to demo bakeware and sample out some of the brownie mixes that we sell.  So we made this very easy, very delicious Brownie Bread Pudding.  I have never really been a fan of bread pudding, I alwasy found it to be mushy.  But using brownies makes this ooey, gooey and chewy!

For this fantastic dessert you will need:

one 13 x 9 extra deep baking pan (I baked my brownies in this pan, popped them out and used the same pan to make the bread pudding.)

2 packages of your favorite brownie mix baked according to package directions–cooled completely (I have used Betty Crocker brownie mix–and also the Barefoot Contessa’s Brownie Mix–available at www.kitchenkapers.com )

2 cups of sugar

5 eggs, beaten until lemony yellow

2 cups of milk

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups mini marshmallows

1 cup peanuts (optional)

Remove the cooled brownies from the pan, cut up into 1 inch cubes.  Set brownies aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with wire whisk, to that add sugar, milk and vanilla.  Stir until combined.

Make a layer of some of the brownie cubes in the bottom of the baking dish.  Sprinkle that layer with half of the mini marshmallows and half of the peanuts.

Repeat the payers until you have used up all of the brownie cubes, mini marshmallows, and peanuts.

Pour egg mixture over brownie cubes and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Top with additional mini marshmallows, if desired, the top marshmallows they will get all nice and toasted in the oven.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until set.  Serve warm.  ENJOY!!

**You can use all sorts of different mix-ins…peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, fruit, coconut, cut up candy bars…experiment!**

Fast, easy and delicious Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

Here’s a really simple and delicious breakfast (or brunch, lunch or dinner!)  I used sharp cheddar cheese because it’s what I had in my fridge.  This is very tasty and you can play around with the veggies that you put in it (it would be very good if you added thinly shredded carrots).

Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

 

1 1/2 cups half and half

1/2 cup cooked & drained broccoli

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1/8 tsp pepper

3 eggs, beaten until lemon yellow

1 9-inch pie shell

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Prick the bottom of the pie shell and blind bake for approximately 10 minutes.  Remove from oven.

In the pie shell, layer cheddar cheese and broccoil, ending with cheese.  Sprinkle with pepper.  Combine eggs and half & half and pour over cheese and broccoli.  Bake until golden brown, set and until a knife,  inserted 1 inch from the edge of the crust, comes out clean.

Whoopie Pies!

I am originally from PA, not too far from Lancaster County and Amish Country.  So, growing up I was fortunate to be able to eat all of the great food that comes from that area.  Now that I live in NJ I do not have regular access to those great foods.  So I either have to drive a goodly distance or find a recipe and make it myself.  I found this recipe for Whoopie Pies online and decided to give it a try, because Whoopie Pies are so yummy!  They were very easy to make and delicious!  For those of you who have never had or heard of a Whoopie Pie, think Oreo Cakester or Devil Dog, only BETTER!  Here’s a pic and the recipe:  YUMMY!!

Whoopie Pies!

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 oz.) package Devil’s Food cake mix

5 tbsp.  AP flour

1 cup milk

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1)  To make the cakes:  Prepare cake mix as directed on package, EXCEPT using only 3/4 cup water.

      Drop batter onto parchment lined cookie sheets, in 2 1/2 to 3 inch circles.  Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool completely.

2)  To make the filling:  In a saucepan, combine milk and flour and cook stirring constantly until it forms into a thick paste.  Let cool.

3)  In a medium bowl, beast sugar and shortening until fluffy.  Add vanilla.  Add cooled flour mixture and beat until double in volume.

4)  Turn the little cakes over on their backs.  Spoon or pipe using a pastry bag and large filling tip**, put a dollup of filling onto one little cake.  Place another little cake on top of filling to form a sandwich.

5) To prevent Whoopie Pies from sticking together, individually wrap pies in plastic wrap.

**I used Ateco Extra Wide Pastry Decorating Tip set of 3. 

     You can purchase it at www.kitchenkapers.com

      It’s $9.99 and great for filling cannoli, manicotti and a lot more!

Contest Cupakes

I just recently subscribed to Family Fun Magazine (a GREAT source for fun/easy things to do with your kids!) While I was flipping through the pages of the February issue, I happened to see the section dedicated to the online features that aren’t in the magazine. Disney’s Family.com was running a “Valentine’s Cupcake and Sweet Treats contest”. So I thought about what I could do that would be cute and creative. This is what I came up with…

I adore you! (eye a door ewe)

The contest was held on the Family Fun website, with two prizes up for grabs…a $100 Williams-Sonoma Gift Card for the entry that received the most viewer votes and a $500 Williams-Sonoma Gift Card for the one that the Editors thought was the best.
I sent the link to all my email contacts and to all my friends on my Facebook list encouraging them to vote for
my cupcakes, hoping to have a chance at the viewer’s choice prize.
Well, thank you to all of my friends that voted, but I didn’t win the viewer’s choice prize…
I WON THE EDITOR’S CHOICE!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!
I was TOTALLY surprised when I received the email! It’s VERY exciting! I may have to enter more contests!