Cake #53 Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake

Today is the last day of 2011, and as I sat down to bake my cake for today, I was struck by a quite marvelous thought; as I watch the last hours of the year pass by, this will be the first complete year Evie has ever seen. 2010 was nice for her, but she missed January and February due to her March birth, so this will be the first “New Year” that is so special for her. It was a year of many firsts: first steps, first friends, first birthday, first younger sibling, first real words, first Christmas (that she was old enough to understand), and even first watched full-movie (Toy Story – watched this morning actually).  

It is so exciting to think that Evie has another full year of activities just on the horizon, and we have another bundle of joy coming in just a short six months or so! And yet, still another 12 hours or so away from 2012, and the Childs’ family Dance Card is already filling up. We will be going down to Ted’s Mom’s house for New Year’s tonight, and we will be there again tomorrow to watch the Raven’s game and celebrate Ted’s birthday a day early. Next weekend Ted is going to Atlantic City with some friends from school, the following weekend Ted and I will celebrate our 6^th anniversary and then will go to the Capitals game with Katie, Ron, and Ted’s cousins Donny and Chris (what an awesome Christmas gift from Donny and Chris by the way!), and finally we will be planning both Evie’s second birthday in March, as well as getting her new room ready (which is her birthday present – all decorated in Little Mermaid).

And yet, with all that in the future, we still have the cakes. This week’s cake was a Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake, a delicious and yet difficult cake. The cake itself was easy, calling for flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and rind of lemon. The caramel apple toping however, which went (as the title suggests), on the bottom of the pan presented a challenge, as butter, sugar, and water had to boiled in a pan to make a caramel-like substance to coat the apples on the bottom of the cake. The caramel never quite firmed the way I wanted and therefore (I felt) that the apple coating did not look as I wanted. I was however assured by Ted after he tried a piece that there was no negative impact on taste whatsoever! 

The Book's Cake:

 My Cake:

We’re off to New Years, as soon as we can get Evie away from her new art easel…. Happy 2012!

Cake #52 Christmas Mulled Sponge Loaf

'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house, "The kitchen smells like port wine and cinnamon," said my spouse." Today's cake is in preparation for Christmas tomorrow. I am bringing the cake to my sister's house for after dinner -- hopefully all will enjoy! This cake was really fun to make because I got to make my own reduction of powdered sugar, port wine, and one piece of star anise. The decorations on top of the cake were 10 fresh cranberries, 10 fresh bay leaves, 1 egg white, and superfine sugar. The rest of the cake was also different from most of the other cakes I have made, containing the traditional flour, butter, baking powder, eggs, vanilla, and light brown sugar; it also was made with apple pie spice, a grated rind of an orange, and orange juice.

The cake tastes like licorice (probably from the star anise in the reduction), wine, and cinnamon- even though there isn't any cinnamon in the cake!  I love this cake even more so because Evalyn helped with sugaring the bay leaves and the cranberries . . . now it may not look as good as the professional cake picture (see below) but this one is so much more special because Evie got to make part of it (see mine).

Book's picture: 

My cake . . .with Evalyn's sugaring technique!

The fact that Evalyn was able to help me make part of this cake, and asks me "Mom you okay?" when I cough, or "Mommy you help?" when she needs me to fix something astounds me. How can this not-even-two-year-old girl already be such a young lady? She doesn't realize what tomorrow means, but she does know how to say "ho, ho,ho" and she has gotten some presents from Ted's side of the family (which she loved) so she is getting some practicing at opening them.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas tomorrow morning, - but a not a Happy New Year yet . . . because I will have another cake to bake for that!

Cake # 51 Christmas Cupcakes

 What do you get with strep throat on a Friday? (awkward silent pause) Saturday night fever!

So, I never really was a joke teller -- but I do like to try. Anyway, strep throat took over my immune system this week as I was trying to prepare for our annual Christmas Party. By Saturday, I was doing my best to make the Joan Rivers-like rasp in my voice sound sexy-- it didn't work.

Anyway, this week I decided to pull out the fondant and the food coloring again and make some Christmas Cupcakes for a Christmas party that Ted and I had on Saturday. These cupcakes were essentially a spice cake made with flour, baking powder, cinnamon, butter, light brown sugar, eggs, almond extract, ground almonds, and a little bit of sherry to top it off for the holidays. They were extremely tasty, but i made too many of them, so for some I followed the recipe and created holly-ed fondant icing, and for others I just made a traditional butter cream.

Here is the book's picture:

 And here are my cupcakes in a festive Christmas Tree cupcake holder:

Next week I am making a Christmas Mulled Sponge Loaf -- which I believe is just a sponge cake drowned in some sort of red wine . . . I wonder being pregnant am I allowed to have a bite?

Sigh- Until then.

Cake # 50 Orange Peanut Butter Cake

In the past six years of marriage Ted and I, just like any married couple in this economy, have struggled to make ends meet with a teacher's salary. So one of the things that we do to cut back on lunches is to eat peanut butter sandwiches for anywhere to one to two weeks at a time. Now that the holidays are here and Ted and I have been spending way more money than we normal spend, with presents, trees, pictures, cards, lights, parties, etc., the budget for this week's cake was cut extremely down. We had enough for me to buy one cheap item. To give you an idea I normally by anywhere between two to three new items for my cake every single week. The only cake that we had every ingredient for except one item, was Orange Peanut Butter cake- how perfect for us!

All we had to buy was an orange. Besides and orange, the cake called for orange juice, peanut butter, vanilla, sugar, flour, eggs, butter, baking powder, and powdered sugar.

Next week when we get paid again, I will make a more holiday-like cake- but for now, The Children are very happy eating their peanut butter cake bars.

Here is the book's picture:

Here is my cake:

See you next week with even more Christmas cheer!

Cake # 49 Frosted Raspberry Almond Ring

Finally December! As a kid, my favorite holiday was always Easter. I loved everything about it. Dyeing my fingers and my clothes more than my beloved "eggies" as I called them, trying to find more eggs than my twin brother, and most importantly, eating jellybeans. Believe it or not, the regular flavored, regular sized jellybeans (preferably from Wockenfus) are still my favorite candy of all time. Yes-- that does include the black ones, and I have always wondered why licorice is given such bad cred- really what's not to like? Sweet and bitter favors all in one chewy bite-- yes please! However, now that I am getting older, and I have a child (soon to be two!) of my own, my heart has followed my husbands, (and probably most of America's) and switched to Christmas as my favorite holiday.

Wrapping my daughter's presents from "Santa" and "Rudolf" and "An Elf" is what makes this holiday so special for me. All of our family traditions, old and new, coming together with a kid who is finally old enough to get excited herself-- well you can't ask for more than that. So because it is the first weekend in December, I am beginning the first of four of my holiday cakes.

This cake, the Frosted Raspberry Almond Ring, does not only scream winter in its flavors, but also in its colors. The topping of the cake is "frosted" with homemade marshmallow, which was my first experience in making marshmallow. To make a marshmallow topping you need, 1 extra large egg white, 1 1/4 cups of confectioners' sugar, 1 tbsp of dark corn syrup, and 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar (which if you didn't know is basically a compounded acid in order to help egg whites stiffen up). Since I do not have a double broiler, I do what many a moms have done before me and heated up a pot of water and stuck a bowl on top of it. Next, you mix all of the ingredients with a hand mixer over the hot water until the mixture can stand on its own and takes a more sticky consistency. The marshmallow came out perfectly, and tasted -- well just like melted marshmallows!

The rest of the cake was fun for me to make as well, because I love raspberries and I got to mash about a cup of raspberries to put them into the cake. The cake was also made of butter, flour, sugar, eggs, almond extract, and baking powder. Then after frosting the cake with the marshmallow topping- I added more fresh raspberries and slivered almonds.

Here is the book's cake:

Here is my cake:

All that is left is to have my two most favorite people in the world, (besides Lucille Ball and Jane Austen) Ted and Evalyn to try a bite! Tune in next week for more holiday baking!

Cake # 48 Banana and Carrot Squares

The holidays are among us and our family has much to give thanks about; if you have not heard yet, I am pregnant. We officially told everyone on Thanksgiving Day and it was fantastic. In an effort to make sure the family found out in a creative way (come on… I teach Creative Writing, could you expect anything else) , I gave my Mother a bottle of Prego with a baby pacifier tied to its lid, and I wrote a creative message spilling the beans on Teds Mom’s message board in her kitchen, waiting patiently through dinner until someone actually read the message and screamed. All in all it was a memorable Thanksgiving break. Ted, Evie, and I have since spent the rest of our weekend preparing for the holidays. The stockings are hung with care around the picture of rich people dancing on the beach in our living room, Ted spent hours (no lie) on the roof making sure the lights were just perfect, and the smell of baked goods is now pervading every corner of our house.

This week’s cake was a set of Banana and Carrot Squares. It was easy to do and delicious to eat. The recipe called for flour, baking powder, nutmeg, butter, sugar, eggs, lemon juice, banana, carrots, walnuts, and had a topping made of ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, banana chips, and rind of lemon. Though Ricotta Cheese sounds like something best served in a savory pasta dinner, it is quite tasty on deserts as well.

My Picture:

The Book's Picture:

Check in next week as the now expanding Childs’ family bakes up something special!

Cake # 47 Caramel Sponge Layer

Almost halfway there, and you would think I would be an expert by now, maybe this is the universe's nice way of saying, "Give up! You're just mediocre!" - And I just made the worst cake ever to prove it. Even worse than the Easter debacle- the cake just looks nasty. And it has been a pretty crappy week too. Car problems galore everything from slashed tired, burnt out lights, and a recall for an air bag problem that we had just shelled out 560 big ones for (at least we will get reimbursed). In addition, we are digging all in the front of my house to put a drain in because when it rains, we get lake Pequot in the front of our yard that no amount of running and leaping can surpass, and Ms. Utility marked the wires wrong (marked two wrong and completely forgot to mark the last one) so of course, we dug and we cut our neighbor's Comcast cable. To top it all off, Ted and I have to head to school tonight for play duty- now don't get me wrong, I love our school's plays and our students really do an amazing job, but Edgewood is not the place I really want to be tonight.

The cake itself took forever to make because I had to make the cake, make the frosting, and make caramel candy to go on top of it- which of course was the part that ruined my cake because the sugar was taking forever to caramelize so I decided to turn up the heat, and of course I burned the caramel candy- worse off I had no more ingredients to do it over, and since the tires are slashed in our car- no vehicle to get me to the store to get more sugar. Besides the sugar for the caramel topping, the cake included: butter, flour, baking powder, vanilla, brown sugar, eggs, and milk. The icing was a mixture of corn syrup egg yolks, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

Here is what the cake is supposed to look like:

Here is what my ugly cake looks like (however Ted said it tasted great, minus the burnt caramel)

Yuk. What else can I say?

Cake #46 Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

November has come and is rapidly going, and for this week’s cake, I chose to complete a recipe more in tune with the fast approaching holiday season; the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cupcake. Tasting equal parts Christmas cookie, candy cane, and breath mint, this recipe has been an instant success in the house, as Ted, Evie, and Shakespeare have all enjoyed the cupcakes. The recipe called for flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate, peppermint bark (for the garnish), and peppermint extract (an ingredient I feared would be devilish to find, but was in plentiful supply at our new local Wegmans). 

My Picture:

The Book's Picture:

This blog is coming to you later this week, because after completing the cupcakes, the entire family jumped in the car and made their way to the Timonium Fair Grounds for the other Childs’ November tradition, the Baltimore Irish Festival. Ted works the bars at the Festival with his bestie Ben, and I walk around with the family listening to the music, enjoying the best fries and champs imaginable (the Irish really do potatoes well), and  yelling at Ted’s Mom for spoiling Evie with constant presents. Evie was hysterical while there, dancing to the music and at one point sticking her fingers into Ted’s Jameson, licking her fingers, and then going, “mmmmmm.”

I hope in a year or two, as Evie grows more, we can look into an Irish Dancing School somewhere in the area for her to start taking lessons. With her fiery temper, red hair, and unlimited supply of energy, she should do really well.

            Until next week, Sláinte! 

Cake #45 Gingerbread Cupcakes

An earlier post than normal this week, because my husband and I are taking a vacation to Salem, to do the whole witch hunt thing, which I am so excited for, especially after being "professionally developed" today at school- we both need to wind down. Lately I have been on a Holiday spirit kick- with almost all of my Christmas shopping completed already, (I know I'm sick) I felt like it was time to bring out the ginger and the cinnamon and the brown sugar and make some Gingerbread cupcakes. I actually prefer them to Gingerbread cookies because they are less bitter- most likely due to the larger amounts of butter. These cupcakes also called for flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla, and of course candied ginger. I also made my own frosting of butter, powdered sugar and orange juice.

I figured I would let Evie tell you how they tasted:

My cupcakes:

The book's

Have a haunting good weekend!

Cake #44 Halloween Pumpkin Cake

What do you do when your almost two year old daughter gets up at 6:00 am on a Saturday? Why you wake up and bake a cake of course! And it was a good thing that I started early too, because this cake took me three hours to make. Besides being one of the more decorative cakes I have had to make so far, because it is a pumpkin cake I had to open up a pumpkin and grate its flesh. Which also meant de-seeding it and cleaning it. And because I have the Dahle blood in me, I couldn't waste the seeds I had to clean the seeds and roast them with butter just like my dad use to do for Halloween. Besides pumpkin flesh the cake called for the usual flour. butter, vanilla, baking powder, and eggs, but also used brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice. And that was only the cake. The icing I had to dye to make it orange, which I did not have any orange dye, so I had to mix red and yellow to make it orange. Then create pumpkins and bats out of the rest of the fondant (I had to dye the fondant for the bats, black), which I think they turned out really well, and my bats have way more detail than the book's bats. Considering I have never carved a bat out of fondant...or really anything before- I think they look great.


Here is my cake with the amazing bats (but the icing on the pumpkins dripped...oh well)

And the book's cake and much more lame bats:

Even though Halloween is on a Monday this year, and it is snowing, yes snowing today, I still have the spirit. I love Halloween- so much so that this weekend coming up Ted and I are going to Salem to do witch hunts and witch museums and grave sites and everything spooky.  Halloween also just happens to be when Ted first asked me out eleven years ago - so what's not to love?

Cake # 43 Vanilla Yogurt Hazelnut Cake

So, I have been doing a lot of eating lately (no I'm not pregnant...though I wish!) and baking another cake seemed like a bad idea for my...um waistline. But, if anyone knows me they know that I never give up something I have started. Which is probably why I still have Zelda for Nintendo collecting dust in my basement because I cannot beat the last level. So another week and another cake. This one is probably my favorite tasting cupcake I have made so far, and I have to wonder if that is because one of the key ingredients of baking a cake was taken out and another ingredient replaced it. Instead of butter, as the title of this cake mentioned, I mix the traditional flour, sugar, vanilla, cornstarch, baking powder, and eggs with yogurt. Stir in some crushed hazelnuts and you have the cake. I drizzled it with an icing of yogurt and powdered sugar and sprinkled with crushed hazelnuts on top.

My cake:

The book's cake:

This cake hit the spot this morning for breakfast- it was warm and sweet, but the yogurt and the nuts made the cupcake feel more hearty then the previous ones I have made. In turn, these cupcakes have sort of inspired to actually...I cannot believe I am going to say this... cook a warm hearty dinner tonight. Number two thing you know about me, if you well...know about me, is that I hate cooking. But, like I said I have been eating a lot lately, and mostly out at restaurants, I feel like it is about time to make a meal at home. And considering one of my adventures of eating was yesterday at a Tastefully Simple party, I figure even I can cook some of there products without any issues.

So I leave you with saying...happy cooking?

Cake #42 Apple Cider Cake

Fall is here! And with that comes the annual trip to Webber's Farm to get apple cider, apple butter, and pumpkins. In addition, fall means the annual camping trip for Halloween with Ted's family, hence the late posting. We got up early on Saturday to make the two hour apple cider cake and then headed to Gettysburg to do some camping. This camping entails trick or treating for kids and decorating the camp site. Evalyn was a pound puppy for trick or treating. See pictures below:

Our day ended with eating the Apple Cider Cake, warmed. The cake took two hours to make and bake and consisted of vanilla, eggs, flour, sugar, butter, apple cider, baking soda, 6 cored apples, cinnamon and raw brown sugar. You actually placed the whole apples inside of the cake and bakes them down- it tasted delicious.


My cake:

 The book's picture:

This week coming up is only a four day week, thank goodness, so I am hoping to relax and finally catch up on some house work.

Until then...

Cake # 41 Banana Pecan Cake Part 5

In the end this cake was made with my homemade dulce de leche, heavy cream, pecan halves and chopped pecans, bananas, vanilla, eggs, sugar, butter, baking powder, and flour.

Here is my cake:

Here is the book's

Because fall is here, next week I will be making an apple cider cake. So tomorrow Evalyn, Ted, and myself will take a trip to Webber's farm and get some fresh apple cider. See you next week!

Cake # 41 Banana Pecan Cake Part 4

Evie and...Shakespeare?! Eating the cake!

Cake # 41 Banana Pecan Cake Part 3

The finished product.

Cake # 41 Banana Pecan Cake Part 2

Dulce de leche part 2

Cake # 41 Banana Pecan Cake

You know what I like most about baking? No one judges you except yourself- and even if you fail at making a masterpiece, you learned something in the process and you had fun. That is not something that I can say about many things. Today's cake blog is a little different because the cake I made required me to do something a little different. I had to make dulce de leche (aka caramel sauce) from scratch (Safeway didn't have any in stock). So because this was something I had only read about but never had done, I decided to record the process. Therefore this blog will take place in a couple of posts. Enjoy.

Making dulce de leche:

Cake # 40 Marzipan Chunk Cupcakes

So, Marzipan again. With the disaster that was the Easter Cake of 2011, I was more than a little hesitant to tempt another cake with Marzipan, especially since it is such an expensive ingredient (an one that even Wegman's does not carry). However, this recipe was the easiest cake recipe that I have completed yet, and the Marzipan tasted great - turns out Marzipan that isn't past its expiration date isn't so bad, go figure. These cupcakes basically taste like the inside of an almond joy- besides the almond paste, or Marzipan, they called for flour, cornstarch, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, and almond extract, which I think smells wonderful.

They only took 20 minutes to make, which is about all that I have to give to baking today. We had our school's pep rally and homecoming day yesterday, our Junior Class car wash this morning at Pat's (which was freezing) and our homecoming dance tonight, which yours truly and her hubby are making a repeat of 2002 only this time as monitors of the punch bowl.

Here is what the book's picture looked like:

And are my much more fuller cupcakes:

PS- Fundraising is my least favorite thing in the world- but I really do have some amazing kids this year, so I wouldn't want to do it with any other class.

Cake # 39 Gooey Orange Chocolate Chip Cake

What a fantastic day to make a warm gooey cake. With all of this rain we have been getting lately, a cake that is served warm, with melted chocolate on top is not a bad way to begin your day. And, to top it all off, I got to bake this cake with my friend, Marcy. We started off the day having lunch at Chili's had a margarita and then came home to commence the baking. Did you know that Chili's gives you a free bag of chips when you leave? It is awesome! Speaking of awesome, after we made the cake Ted and myself went to his family reunion where some distant relation of a distant relation had named their child "Awesome". And that's all I have to say about that (as Forrest would say). Anyway, this was an incredibly easy cake to make, but grating the orange rind was time consuming and left Marcy grossed out feeling the sponginess of a orange without its rind. The rest of the cake called for butter, flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, chocolate chips, and orange juice. Marcy said the cake tasted like a creamsicle with chocolate sauce, Ted said "hhmrrm hmrmm." The only real thing I would change is that I would not have followed directions and mixed the chocolate chips in the batter instead of putting them on top- that way they would have infused better into the whole cake. Nonetheless, I was told the cake was again "awesome".

Take a look at the book's cake:

And my cake:

By the way- later Ted and I went and got our first tattoos. So today was certainly memorable! Can you figure out whose is whose?

Until next time.

Cake # 38 Lemon Surprise Cake

I have to do what???? And put the mixture where???? These were the first thoughts that popped into my head as I read this week’s recipe. The Lemon Surprise Cakes that I am making this week asked me to first whip egg whites into a frothy mixture, fold into the cake batter, pour into ramekins, and then place the individual ramekins into a roasting pan with water in the bottom.  This is not exactly standard operating procedure for the cake of the week blog and it definitely had me quite nervous for the outcome of this week’s creation. Luckily, despite a minor mishap involving Ted overfilling the roasting pan and flooding two of the ramekins (which required some quick baster-work on my part to drop the water level), everything has turned out okay. More importantly, I got the opportunity to go out and buy some really rad purple ramekins, which is always a good thing!

The Lemon Surprise Cakes called for flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, lemon rind, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and milk, as well as the aforementioned ramekins and roasting pan.

Here is our picture:

  

And here is the real picture from the book:

Feel free to stop by and try one of the cakes, as my husband will not be home…. AAAAGGGGAAAIINN!!! He is going out with boys as opposed to staying in with his lovely wife, and will consequently miss out on the yummy lemon cakes. Oh well! Check in next week to see what’s up in my kitchen.

Cake # 37 Strawberry Sponge Layer Cake

MASCARPONE! That is what I thought when I was buying the ingredients to make this cake. Since I am not a huge cake fan, but I am a huge cheese fan, I was super excited for this cake. Was being the key word. Turns out Mascarpone is disgusting! It is an Italian sweet cream cheese, except it isn't sweet at all and certainly did not taste like any other type of cheese I have had. But, add some strawberries and powdered sugar and mix it all together - the bitter aftertaste is somewhat hidden. Ted, Shakespeare, and Evie on the other hand liked the taste of the cheese- so clearly there must be something wrong with me.

Hating things seem to be my biggest problem right now. I hate all of the cracks, holes, scratches, dents, and chips that invade every item in every corner of my house.


I hate that I feel like my life will never progress- that there is no forward movement in being a teacher both monetarily and in position.


Most of all I hate that I am cleaning out my daughter's clothes again, and getting rid all of the 12-18month clothing, shoes, socks, hats, hair bands, and moving on to the 24month-2T clothing. I mean she is only 18 months this Monday! When did she stop becoming a baby?


Here is another hate- I hate reading blogs in which all they do is wine- so enough already.


So instead, while Ted and Evie are eating the strawberry sponge cake after lunch today (and Shakespeare if Ted is generous)

Here is my cake:

Here is the book's:

I will be cleaning out Evalyn's clothes and be thinking of all of the wonderful things that are to come- what she will be when she grows up, the first time she can read a book on her own, the first time she eats a crab, and what this little angel is going to look like and become.


Until next week.

Cake # 36 Jelly Cupcakes

If I had to choose one word that best describes a baked good that I detest (which is quite difficult considering my love of anything sweet), that word would have to be Jelly. Jelly Roll, Jelly Donut, Jelly Turnover: It all sounds gross to me. In the world of Laura Childs, Jelly deserves only to be sandwiched between two pieces of bread with a thick smattering of chunky peanut butter.  So when I read this week’s cake-a-week recipe, I was horrified to see that I would be making Jelly Cupcakes. My dear readers, I can assure you that I have not been this distressed since the Milli Vanilli debacle of ’92 and I had no intention of enjoying this week’s creation.

But then I tried one of my Jelly Cupcakes and it turns out that they are quite good – not earth shattering good like Wockenfuss jelly beans or dark chocolate peanut chews, but you know tasty. It does help my jelly-loathing conscience that the cupcakes are not jelly filled, but instead topped with just a small dab of strawberry jelly, but nonetheless, I liked a jelly baked-good. Between this, the earthquake, the hurricane, and the Orioles slight winning streak, we may all need to start listening for Gabriel’s trumpet because I do believe that the apocalypse just might be occurring.

This week’s recipe called for flour, baking powder, cornstarch, vanilla, eggs, sugar, butter, and jelly, and then asked for a light dusting of powdered sugar when the cupcakes were complete. 

Here is my creation:

 And the book's picture:

Check in next week to see what awesome cake is in the works. Have a safe labor day!

Cake # 35 The Polka-Dot Birthday Cake

I think Mother Nature is trying to tell me (and the rest of the East Coast) that August 31st is just too soon to go back to school. Maryland had her first ever large scale earthquake that I can now officially say that I have lived through one, and we are expecting Hurricane Irene to hit Maryland tonight. I have been through my share of Hurricanes, but the not state of emergency, power outages, buy all the bread and batteries you can kind. So, I'd like to think that it is some higher being warning us feeble people that school should not start in the month of August or the world will come to an end. Speaking of coming to an end, another year as gone by for my sister and her birthday is today. Normally, her birthday is another sign of school beginning, so that uneasy feeling creeps upon me, but not this year. Even with the hurricane looming I am more excited for her birthday than ever because I got to make my first ever cake with fondant icing. Talk about pressure.

I was very worried that the icing would not turn out polished or would taste gross, but I am happy to say that neither of these things happened. The cake is a small cutesy little thing, which basically describes my sister perfectly. Besides my first time with the ingredient fondant, the cake also called for milk, butter, eggs, four, baking powder, sugar, vanilla, and some sugar-coated chocolate candies.

Here is the book's picture:

 Here is my cake:

Pretty close- though unfortunately pastel colored M&Ms were all the way in White Marsh, and while I love my sister dearly, I wasn't trucking out there in pre-Hurricane weather. Anyway, tomorrow we are supposed to have crabs up her house, if Irene gives us a break, which is my favorite food- so what is there to not be happy about? Pretty cake, pretty sister, yummy food- yeah school is around the corner, but if you know me at all you know that I am prepared.

Until next week!

Cake # 34 Butterscotch Cupcakes

I went out to eat with a friend this week and while we were driving to Subway we saw the Halloween Store back in our local shopping center. Then, yesterday at my mom's there was a Halloween costume magazine on her coffee table. These signs, among others, give me a nauseous feeling of what is to come. School. Please do not misinterpret. I love teaching and I love my students. Nor is this foreboding feeling have anything to do with the fact that I will have to go back to "work". Most people who talk to me about teaching assume we have off all summer with pay. Wrong Answer. I have worked all summer except for two weeks. I have just felt this way about going back to school since I was a child. I am a naturally nervous person, so the night before school I can't sleep and the weekend before school I try to occupy my mind and body with as many activities as possible. But undoubtedly the morning of my face is burning and something inside of me is jittering right at the top of my left ribcage.

Making the cake this week, knowing it was the last cake before school, did not help this nervousness. However, the good thing that came from making these Butterscotch Cupcakes (besides the end result of gluttony) was that I learned how to make my own butterscotch - and so easy too! Just take two tablespoons of corn syrup, butter, and dark brown sugar and melt them down in a pan, bring to a boil, drizzle over desired consumption item, let it set, and serve! What I am really looking forward to is when Christmas comes, I make homemade peppermint ice cream with candy canes, and now I will have a home made butterscotch topping to go with it!

The actual cake was also an incredibly simple recipe, flour, light brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and butter. 

Here is what my cake and the book's cake look like:

Next weekend it is my big sister's birthday- so I think I will make the "Polka Dot Birthday Cake" next week for her.

Until then, if you could read this blog- thank a teacher.

Cake # 33 White Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Trying to type without the full use of both hands is so tedious that I don't understand why people never learned how to type correctly, or why my students use the two finger hunt and peck. However, here I am typing away without full use of my fingers because I am me. Let me explain if you haven't surmised the facts yourself from previous posts. One, I am the clumsiest person I know. Two, if there is a chance or calamity to happen, it will. Three, Ted refuses to let me use a knife unless he is in the same room. As I was finishing up my cake of the week, and getting ready to decorate the top of the cupcakes with melted white chocolate and then sprinkling them with chocolate sprinkles, I burnt one of my fingers severely and two others badly. Fact, melted chocolate burns like a bitch (sorry for the language mom). I had to melt a decorating pouch of white chocolate in the microwave in 15 second intervals, taking it out each time and kneading the chocolate pouch. By the third interval I was howling in pain and dancing around the kitchen in a mess of chocolate sprinkles that I had knocked on the floor in my mad dash around the kitchen. Betty Crocker should warn you that it is a possibility for the pouches of smoldering chocolate to leak flaming holes of chocolate. Of course, I should also probably learn to look at something before I grab it.

Here is the damage after it has been taken care of by yours truly. 

The burns on my fingers were so bad that my husband advocated for a trip to Patient First, but he also was supposed to be at a friend's house to watch a soccer game, so feeling bad I declined. Instead, I had him check online for what to do and to run to CVS to buy burn cream. Before he left, he told me I had to stick my hand in cool water for 15 minutes. As I was sitting there in the kitchen with my hand submerged in a bowl of cool water waiting for the 15 minute mark to come and pass, I began to wonder who decided that 15 minutes was the perfect time to stop the pains from a burn? I mean, did someone actually stand there and time a person with his or her burned hand in water? "Okay, five minutes have past, take your hand out of the water...does it still burn?" Then screaming ensued and they tried again in another minute? But after the ten minute mark hit, and I took my hand out of the water, and I still wanted to scream out in pain, I thought that either this wasn't going to work, or there was some truth to the "wait for 15 minutes" rule.

Needless to say, I had to improvise for the last step of the cupcakes. White chocolate icing was used instead of melted white chocolate and rainbow sprinkles instead of chocolate sprinkles. The rest of the cake called for the usual, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, backing soda, and white chocolate chips.

Here is what the cupcakes should have looked like:

 Here is what my modified cupcakes look like:

Anyway, next week, if I survive until then, I will be making butterscotch cupcakes.

Be safe!