Cake # 29 Pistachio and Lemon Ring

It is both a special and terrifying moment when you realize how you’re little baby isn’t so little anymore. Though only sixteen months old, Evie has already transitioned in many ways to a young, hellacious toddler, and as I made the cake for this week, I couldn’t help but to notice the change. The cake this week was a lemon and pistachio ring, and while the cake itself has nothing to do with Evie, as I made the cake this morning, I had the chance to observe my Evie fluttering around the kitchen, laying her head upon the dog’s stomach, and just generally being a little girl.

                Today we went to two different parties, and each one showcased Evalyn’s changing state, my sweet darling baby to no fear toddler. The first party was my father’s Birthday and with that came the swimming pool.  After dousing Evalyn in sunscreen, (little red-heads with blue eyes and pale skin burn quicker than marshmallows in a fire pit) we put Evie in her Dora the Explorer float and watched her kick in the water. Within milliseconds Evalyn juts her body to the right in order to dunk her head into the water. Ted and I were terrified, but Evalyn was exhilarated. She repeated the process to the other side of her head, and eventually thirsted herself face first into the water. My little daredevil loved the water.

                The second party was a family reunion for members of Ted’s grandfather’s family.  Here was where we brought our cake, which tasted surprisingly good, for a cake that was made with pistachios. The cake also included, butter, flour, sugar, eggs, lemon, water, baking powder, lemon extract, lemon rind, and lemon juice.  

Here is my picture:

Here is the book's:

Evalyn, like the lemon in the cake, proved to her parents that she was no longer a sweet little baby, but a toddler approaching the sour twos. Sitting on the deck steps and drinking a water bottle all by herself, Evalyn did not want or need anyone’s help to do anything. If one of us touched her water bottle, she would fling herself down to the floor and scream. She wanted to sit alone, and that was what made her perfectly content. There was a huge Golden Retriever at this party as well, and I got a whiff of déjà vu from this morning as Evie began to climb on the back of the Golden Retriever. Evie has NEVER met this dog before, yet she fearlessly ran up to it and gives it a kiss on the nose.  Although her growing temper tantrums make me bonkers, and her fearlessness makes me my heart beat so hard I feel it in my ears, I cannot help but to stare into my daughter’s eyes with awe at the brave little girl she has turned out to be.

Cake # 28 Strawberry Mousse Cake

As we get older, we do not grow out of toys and games, they grow with us. If watching Evalyn and Ted playing with jumbo Legos at Port Discovery isn't an indicator of this, than the fact that the Queen of England has a golden Wii certainly must be. That is how I feel about baking. It started with the EasyBake oven that turned brown liquid into brown mush that we called a "cake", and moved to this obsession to find new "toys" to bake with and new things to create- and sometimes they still are brown mush.

Today was a flashback of my childhood. Ted, his mom, his sister, his sister's boyfriend (who I adore), Evie and yours truly squeezed in my Hyundai Veracruz and made the trip down to the Inner Harbor to spend a day with Evie at Port Discovery. The place was amazing and I think Evie will have even more fun there when she is older. We got to play with toys, blocks, books, puzzles, puppets, and balls, and we got to make believe we were shopping  (Evie really wanted to buy the fake box of Cheez-Its). All the while, Evie flirted with Ronnie (Katie's boyfriend) and was extremely pleasant.  Our family is extremely lucky to have these people in our lives, they love our daughter to death and beg us to let them babysit just so they can spend time with Evie...how cool is that?

So I am finally home, and finally able to post the picture of the toy that grew with me from my childhood to my adulthood. My cake. A Strawberry Mousse Cake, that in every way  reminds me of childhood- first of all, it has mousse (what kid didn't eat some sort of mousse growing up?) made by whipping heavy cream, and pureed strawberries. Next, it has strawberry gelatin. And finally, besides the massive amounts of sugar, it is topped with strawberry jelly... Hello elementary school lunch! In addition to those ingredients, the cake called for butter, flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla, milk, and orange juice.

Here is the book's cake:

And here is my cake:

I just can't leave the stems on the strawberries like the picture in the book does- I don't care if it looks more artistic, it isn't practical!

Anyway, another weekend and another cake down. Hopefully next week I will have another Easybake cake.

Cake # 27 Chocolate Honeycomb Cupcakes

I'm ba-ack! Lake Tahoe, California is the most beautiful place I have ever been to, I could pick up and move there in a heart beat. A co-worker and I went for a training, and we had a blast, I couldn't have imagined anyone else to go with, she is super funny and we definitely have the same philosophy when it comes to teaching. However, I did miss my Evie. So it is officially summer break, and I cannot think of anything better than watching Baby Einstein: Shakespeare with Evie, watching Evie swim in her kiddie pool, and going to the park with Evie (noticing a trend?). About the only thing that beats all of that is watching Evie chow down on my cupcakes while she growls "MMmm". These cupcakes were no exception.

They are basically cupcake batter mixed with candy and then sprinkled with candy on top- who could resist that? Not Evie. In fact, Evie has been a little spoiled with the sweets lately. We got ice-cream two days in a row and now cupcakes! I wish I could blame her, but really it was my hankering for some cold, chocolatey, goodness (well mine, and Ted sister Katie's) that led us to Blooms Broom on Thursday and Yogi Castle on Friday. Friday, we were over my in-laws and my sister-in-law asked us if we have ever eaten at Yogi Castle. We had not. So, of course we had to try this ice-cream place. It is a self-serve frozen yogurt shop, with about twenty different flavors of yogurt and forty different kinds of toppings. Because I am obnoxious, and I wanted to try things I never tried before, my ice-cream consisted of: chocolate, strawberry, cookies and cream, peanut butter, Irish mint, and banana. I was shocked and excited when I finally got to the toppings...fruity pebbles? What? Now I believe that cereal should be a food group all of its own, but I never liked fruity pebbles as a kid, so I was hesitant, but of course not too hesitant to give it a go. So my toppings were: bananas, M&Ms, gummy bears, fruity pebbles, nerds, chocolate covered raspberries, and chocolate sauce. Sound disgusting? You bet. Taste disgusting? Definitely some bites. But it was worth it.  

So when I got to the cake this morning, I thought we would go for a more simper cake. Besides chocolate covered honeycomb candy, the ingredients were flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, powdered sugar, cocoa, and water. I use silicone cupcake liners, and I really enjoy using them because they are re-usable, but be careful, if you wash them and use them right after they have been washed, while they are still hot, the cupcake will not come out of the liner.

Here is the book's picture:

Here are my - well Evie's cupcakes:

Next week another cake and another day of no work- already loving it!

Cake #26: Maple Almond Cupcakes

Whew! So Busy!

For those of you who didn't read this last week, Laura is currently on a southwest Jet headed for the beautiful locale of Lake Tahoe, California. She will be attending an four day conference on teaching IB English. While this is awesome for her, that meant I was left to bake the cake this week: a set of Maple Almond Cupcakes.

I intentionally chose this recipe for the ease it would afford me in an otherwise busy weekend, becuase if you have not done it yourself, watching a toddler  is rough work. The fussing, the temper tantrums, the hissy fits when things don't go as planned... and that's just me! All kidding aside, Evie is a lively child and I wouldn't want it any other way, but it does make things interesting.

The cupcakes this week called for flour, baking powder, butter, light brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, chopped almonds, and Elf's favorite food.... maple sugar. After the batter was mixed and poured, and topping of flour, melted butter, light brown sugar, and chopped almonds were then put on top. The cupcakes proved to be a smashing success (as decided my myself and Evie!) This is normally the part where Laura shows a picture from the book and a picture of her creation, but our camera is currently in her carry-on bag somewhere over Utah, so you will just have to use your imagination.

I haven't a clue what is on the docket for next week, as we have been baking out of order for some weeks now! Guess you will just have to read up next week to find out. Have a great week!

Cake # 25 Meringue-Topped Coffee Liqueur Cake

          Finally! I have completed the dreaded Meringue Coffee Liqueur Cake and I have also completed 1/4 of of the cakes in this book - six months in, a year and six months left to go. It is no surprise that one of harder cakes in the book would happen at this time, because it is in waning days of the school year that we find ourselves the busiest. Yesterday was the last day of school for students, I gave out my last final, and at 2pm was ready to go... but not before finding out if I made department head or not. For those who did not know, the old department head at my school resigned a few weeks ago, and I applied and interviewed in order to see if I could get the job. When my principal walked into my room today, I knew she had made her decision; I did not get the job. Now, I will not pretend like that did not deflate me a bit, as I really wanted the job and feel that I could bring valuable skills and energy to the department, but overall our new department head already has experience doing the job elsewhere, is a really wonderful person, and will be a fantastic leader for us in the future, so in the end I am happy.
        After school, Ted and I picked up the baby and went to an end-of-the-year party for Ted's Social Studies department. It was fun, but having Evie made conversation and eating difficult and after an hour we decided to take her home. Evie and I played for a bit and right at bed-time she barfed everything that she ate at the Social Studies party in my face and down my shirt. Awesomesauce. Ted however decided to return to the party in order to be with his friends, returning later in the night (two hours after he promised to return and with a few more beers than necessary). I quickly pointed out that considering my day, this was not the wisest course of action for a husband, and after a considerable amount of talking, Ted quickly admitted that he was an idiotic husband, and the rest of the evening passed in a depressed hush.
       It was with this background that this morning I awoke to start the cake. The cake itself called for flour, baking powder, butter, brown sugar, eggs, coffee extract, milk, an coffee liqueur. We didn't have any real coffee liqueur so instead we substituted Van Gogh Espresso Vodka. The meringue topping was the harder part of the recipe, calling for 3 egg whites, sugar, and coffee extract, and requiring the gentlest touch in order to get the meringue fluffly without falling.

Here is the book's cake:

And here is mine:

To brown the topping, I broiled it in the oven, but a blowtorch would have been so much more fun ...hmm Christmas present in the future?

Next week, I will be in on the sunny shores of Lake Tahoe attending an IB conference, so Ted will be making the cake (Maple Pecan Cupcakes to be exact) and writing the blog, and for that, you should be excited; Ted's sense of humor will be a nice change of pace to my more matter-of-fact tone.  So until two weeks from now, goodbye!

Cake # 24 Raspberry Ripple Cupcakes

         Summer is almost here and at the Casa de la Children, that can mean only one thing: the annual break-down of at least one major appliance. In earlier posts this year, I probably mentioned that our washing machine was on the fritz; however, after getting Ted's cousin Bart to help, we temporarily fixed it. It was rickety and only loosely held together by two additional sheet metal screws, but it worked. Until this morning when the marzipan hit the fan! While doing a load of laundry late last night, the machine finally agitated its last load, as well as me, by crumpling into a hot mess of wet, useless metal and electronics. The drum snapped off of one of its suspension rods, the entire bucket flew off its axis banging loudly onto the motor, and the emptying hose pulled loose from the pump, sending water across the floor. The clean-up wasn't too bad, but Ted took one look at it this morning, crunched some numbers, made some calls, and decided that the price to fix the machine (and fix would probably be a gross overstatement anyway) would greatly exceed the amount of a new one. If the machine had been a lame horse and our house the wild west, then Cowboy Ted put the poor creature out of its misery.
        This being said, today's cake was made as Ted and Evie went to Sears to buy a new washer. Once again I put off the Meringue-Topped Coffee Liqueur Cake, because when things break, I get frazzled- so I go to what any baker can do with their eyes shut- cupcakes.  The Raspberry Ripple Cupcakes were quite easy to make, calling for flour, baking powder, cornstarch, butter, sugar, eggs, almond extract, and fresh raspberries. The only problem came in emptying the cupcakes from my awesome silicone, reusable, cup cake liners. For some reason some of them stuck to the supposedly stick-free liners, meaning some of the cupcakes came out looking quite mangled; not to worry though, those cupcakes not pretty enough for pictures were still deliciously devoured by the returning Ted and Evie for breakfast.

My cupcakes:

The book's cakes:

        We look forward to taking these cupcakes down today to the other great summer event, the annual crab feast at the Chateau Bentley. A good time was had by all last year, and with thirty of our closest work friends and assorted others there again, it should be a great afternoon! Next week I will be making a Meringue-Topped Coffee Liqueur Cake for another party- see you then!

Cake # 23 Fairy Flyaway Cupcakes

So the Meringue-Topped Coffee Liqueur Cake will have to wait until next weekend. With a particularly tough week, filled with disappointments, I wanted easy, and so I had the urge to make cupcakes instead of a traditional cake. Therefore, my twenty-third cake is called Fairy Flyaway Cupcakes. They are perhaps the simplest cake recipe I have had so far. The cake is just flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and milk. The butter cream icing is powder sugar, vanilla, and of course butter.The cakes themselves only took 15 minutes to bake- and they came out perfectly golden brown on the top and fluffy in the center.

The cute thing about these cupcakes is that by cutting off a round section from the top of the cake, filling the hole with the icing, and then cutting the top in half and placing them back on the cup-cake, facing upwards, you have just created butterfly or fairy wings on the cupcake. Add some sprinkles, and my childhood fantasies of tea time and cupcakes reappear.

And that is a good thing, as I watch Evie discover her feet one day, her ears the next, and tomorrow ice-cream sandwiches, I can't help but to long for my childhood, when everything was easier. Friendships were made of snowballs and summers, where broken heart necklaces of "best" and "friend" encircled our necks, and sleep-overs consisted of painting our nails with glitter and listening to Debbie Gibson. But, as I look down at my blistered knuckled, I am reminded that growing up is as painful as burning your finger in an oven, or as Debbie changing her name to "Deborah". In time my blister will heal, and I will get burned again and again, and though some scars will never go away, they like my childhood memories will fade.

But for now, it is fun to play make-believe with cupcakes, and I can't think of a better occasion to make them for, then for "wine party" with a group of great girls, which really is our adult version of a "tea-party".

Here are my "Fairy Flyaways":

Here is the book's:

Next time FINALLY on to the Meringue-Topped Coffee Liqueur Cake- will you be joining me?