Wednesday, January 20, 2010

My son's 12th Birthday Cake!!

This is my son's birthday cake that my hubby and I made together!! Its not a recipe or a tutorial, I just wanted to show you what we did!! Because, I'm pretty proud of it!! This was a orange and vanilla 12 inch square 2 layer cake that I torted, and the top was coffee flavored 8 inch rounds that I torted. This took about a 6 days start to finish, I baked the cakes on Sunday and froze them, then I made the fondant on Tuesday. frosted, stacked, and covered in fondant on Wednesday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we decorated..(party was on saturday)..whoo...A LOT of work!! My hubby who is very artistic did most of the detail work and I think it turned out awesome!! My son was very happy and now my daughter is trying to figure out what she wants for her Birthday in July...uh oh...I think we started something!!!!

I promise that as soon as I figure out the photography issues I'm having I will start posting more!! please be patient!!!!



All edible except the toothpicks holding the towers on, Oreo cookies and ice cream cones for the towers.

Does he look happy?? I think so!!!!!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Banana Spice Muffins

I love my house to smell like something freshly baked!! Because for 1. I have animals and they stink!!hehe...so I need to smell something besides that!! Plus, we love baked goodies...well at least my kids do!! I'm wanting to step out of my comfort zone pretty soon and start trying things that I have never tried before like pastrys and tarts but I'm on the lookout for some tart pans and when I do I'll try one!! But I love simple sweet breads and I LOVE to make muffins and cupcakes!! Besides there easy to throw together and soo yummy and comforting, I hope you try these and enjoy!!


These are not the best pictures obviously!! But,its all I've got!!! These are a recipe I changed up a bit by adding some spices...so I call them banana spice muffins!! I bought some jumbo muffin pans and it made enough for 6 muffins...there so cool looking!! Just like the ones at the grocery stores!!! I always have to ripe bananas laying around too...so its a easy thing to throw together for breakfast once in awhile!!!


-1 1/2 C. flour
-1/2 C. sugar
-1/2 C. Brown sugar
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1 tsp nutmeg
-1 tsp vanilla
-3 large very ripe bananas pureed(I just smashed them with a fork to keep them a little chunky)
-1 egg
-1/3 C. oil


Crumb topping
-1/3 C. brown sugar
-1 T. flour
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp nutmeg
-1 T. butter

For topping just mix in small bowl and crumb together with fork until crumbly set aside.


Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the middle. Prepare muffin pans.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the oil and banana puree. Add the sugars and whisk to combine. Add the egg followed by the vanilla extract and water.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Divide among muffin pans if using regular size should make about 12, if using jumbo makes about 6 very large muffins.

Sprinkle the tops with topping and bake about 20 minutes or until toothpick comes clean. Don't get to carried away with the topping because mine sank of a little in the middle because I did!!!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

caramel and ganache cupcakes



HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! So far my year has been pretty good except for...............

Having camera difficulties so the posts on here might be few and far between for a while, I have 1 more recipe ready to post but until I get a new camera it may be a while..:( also I wasn't really planning on posting this one so my pictures aren't very good..but these were really cute and yummy!!! They do not need the little gingerbread man but when I was making these I had these little guys sitting around and I thought they would be so cute sitting on top of my yummy cupcakes..and well they were!!! This is a cake mix recipe but its very doctored up..I kind of think that by the time I'm done doctoring a mix up its probably better than anything completely scratch.

I filled these with chocolate ganache, I filled a pastry bag with the ganache and a big star tip, insert it into cupcake and squeeze filling until it kinda slides back up to the top..does that make sense?? if not let me know and I'll try to help you figure it out!! the frosting was also using a large star tip. 1A I believe.



caramel cupcake
-1 box white cake mix
-1 c flour
-1 pkg butterscotch pudding
-1 c loosely packed light brown sugar
-1/2 c caramel sauce(like the ice cream topping kind)
-1 c water
-1 c sour cream
-3 eggs
-2 tbsp oil
mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until combined fill cupcakes about 2/3 full bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes

chocolate ganache
-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
-1 cup heavy cream
-1 T sugar
microwave until melted and creamy about 1 minute at a time, let cool until thick enough to frost a cake without running all over...put it in the fridge for awhile or it will take forever at room temp..

butter creme frosting...
-1 cup shortening
-2 sticks softened real butter
-1 T. vanilla
-1 tsp butter flavoring(optional)
-2 lbs powdered sugar
-6-8 T. milk
-caramel syrup to taste

beat in mixer or with handheld until light and fluffy..this makes a TON of frosting.. I took about half of the frosting and put in separate bowl and added the caramel till I thought it tasted good, then I put the rest of the frosting in the fridge. It should last quite a long while. With the remaining frosting just bring it back to room temperature before you use it and whip it again to make it light and fluffy.

after I put the cupcakes together I drizzled the frosting with a little more of the caramel sauce, just for presentation, they really don't need it!!!! yummy!!!!