Recent Baking

So...I stopped keeping up my other blog where I recorded recipes and pictures of those recipes.  I'm kind of bummed that I stopped doing this - it was a really, really handy recipe file for me.  It was a great way to keep track of the things that we've made and enjoyed: complete with pictures to jog my memory of the specific dishes (cookbooks with pictures are always the best - this is sorta like that).  BUT...it takes a lot of time to take the pictures, upload the pictures, write the post, etc.  I'd kinda been slacking off, but about the time I got pregnant with Willa my energy for it really dropped.  While it doesn't even begin to compare to some of my friends early pregnancy experiences (which consisted of major sickness), I didn't feel well for the whole first trimester.  Everything made me feel nauseous, I was incredibly tired all the time, and my general disposition was down in the dumps.  All of that passed, but I never picked up that blog again and now...running after these three little ones, teaching a new AP class, etc - I can hardly keep up with this one.  And it kinda makes me sad.

The girls and I have spent some time in the kitchen lately, though, and I do want those projects recorded.

Here's a cake that I made for some good friends' son's 2nd birthday.  (The design didn't come out of my head - I saw it on...wait for it...Pinterest, but it was just a picture with no website, so I don't know where to attribute the design.)

 

 

It is a yellow cake (from the red & white plaid Better Homes & Gardens cookbook) with jello frosting, only I added a couple tablespoons of meringue powder to help it stablize.  I used a grass decorators tip (Wilton #234) for Cookie's "fur," and the eyes are Ritz crakers dipped in almond bark (the center of the eyes are just some melted chocolate chips).  The chocolate chip cookies are homemade, too...although they are a frequent dessert at my house, apparently they never made it on the blog so I don't have a link there.

C & E are acquiring my love for baking (yea!).  And for Valentine's Day we made some mini-cupcakes:

I love mini-cupcakes, because you can eat two without feeling guilty and they have a much better frosting-to-cake ratio. I just used the chocolate cake recipe from the BH&G cookbook and filled mini-muffin tins.  I used my standard cookie scoop to fill the muffin tins, and they came out the perfect size (once scoop per cupcake). 

The frosting here is pretty unique - its a fantastic substitute for standard buttercreme, or whipped creme frosting.  It's a cross between the two actually.  It has the texture of a whipped creme frosting, but is more like buttercreme, but not as sweet.  I think it pairs perfectly with the rich chocolate cake.  (However, my mom thought it wasn't sweet enough.)  This is the same frosting that I use for Oatmeal Creme Pies.  The girls did the sprinkle-decorating.