Sno Balls

While I was in Albuquerque last month one of my goals was to make homemade Sno Balls for my Dad. That's what I would have made him for Father's Day if I lived in the 505. When I was little my dad would buy them once in a while - they were his sweet junk food of choice. Sno Balls kind of became a joke in the family, so I wanted to recreate a super-yummy one for my Dad. Turns out he only got to eat 1 or 2. Poor Dad.
I used the cake recipe from here. And instead of using a 7 minute frosting or Italian Meringue like all the copy cat recipes say to use, we decided to go with real marshmallow. We didn't bother with the filling because I used regular muffin tins, so there wasn't much room or need for the filling. Frosting the little buggers was a complete pain because marshmallow goo is so sticky! But... they tasted oh-so-delicious. We used the rest of our marshmallow and toasted coconut to make normal marshmallows, and they were super-delish, too.
I'm thinking of attempting this in bar form to make it so much easier, yet equally delicious. I'll let you know if I do.

Totaled my Cake

Pretty colors, huh? It's not paint. It's cake batter. I decided I was going to try a cake that my friend, Sara, made (she's famous, you know). She made cute little cupcakes that would have made Rainbow Bright pee her pants from excitement.
I have to make a cake for the kids at church tomorrow night and I thought they would enjoy a colorful cake like Sara's. So, I turned on Dancing with the Stars, colored my batter and layered the colors into my pan.
By the time I took the cake out of the oven it was after 9:00. Ben was at basketball and Lucas was still gallivanting around the house when he should have been in bed. I debated whether or not to take the cake out of the pan before we went upstairs or wait until after Lucas was in bed. I decided to do it before. BAD idea. The cake was way too warm and cracked. I made it worse by trying to fix it and eventually just called it loss and tossed it around.

I have to admit there as a little part of me that was excited because this meant I could eat the cake. But now a big part of me regrets that decision, and there are sad cake pieces waiting for Ben to take them to work in the morning. Poor cake - If only I would have waited for it to cool more... like until I got Lucas to bed.
I'll try again tomorrow. And I'll also try making Sara's frosting recipe. Wish me luck!

Gold Bars

When I was in Elementary school, there was a gem of a treat served in the Albuquerque Public Schools called a Gold Bar. It was loads of crispy peanut butter goodness topped with chocolate, and it was awesome. I remembered this tasty treat the other day and wondered if I could ever recreate them. I found this recipe online and decided to give it a try.
I made it for our preschool group today and it was a hit - especially for the moms. Ben also really enjoyed it last night, which means a lot, because he thinks it's hard to make a good peanut butter/chocolate concoction at home. I forgot to add the corn syrup, so that would have given it a little more moisture. Also, I used healthy peanut butter, but it was still just fine. I'm thinking if I would have used regular PB (with all that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup - check your labels!) as well as the remembered the light corn syrup it would have been pretty dang close to the original.

For you PB freaks, here you go:

2 cups crunchy peanut butter
2 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons melted margarine or butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 large Hershey chocolate bars*, melted

Method: Mix peanut butter, Rice Krispies, powdered sugar, melted margarine, and light corn syrup until well blended. Press mixture evenly into a 9-by-13-inch pan that has been lined with plastic wrap over light oil. Melt chocolate bars in double boiler (or microwave). Spread evenly over Rice Krispie mixture; chill until set but not hard (chocolate will begin to lose its shiny appearance). Cut into pieces of desired size. Return to refrigerator until chocolate has hardened completely. Remove from pan and store in tightly covered container in refrigerator until ready to serve.

*the original recipe calls for 11 regular Hershey bars, which seems ridiculous. I think three big bars would be perfect. I used 2 big bars and 1 regular bar.

Cheesecake Goodness

My mom and I made Barefoot Contessa's Mixed Berry Cheesecake on New Year's Eve for my sister, Carrie's, birthday. It was wonderful. We used half the lemon zest (and could have still used less). Instead of using all the berries on top, we used two packages of raspberries, mixed with the currant jelly. Then we had additional toppings available made from frozen berries. You could have your cheesecake nearly naked or fully dressed. Mmmmm.

Cupcakes of Magical Goodness

For Clay's birthday a few weeks ago Andrea made the awesome Oreo cake and I made the kiddie cupcakes. I wanted to make something similar to the old Hostess Cupcakes (but yummier). Plus, I had never filled a cupcake and wanted to try that, too. It was a success.
For the cake I used one of my Grandma's recipes. I filled the cupcakes with a mixture of marshmallow cream and whipped cream, and I frosted them with a chocolate ganache.
I made these last week with a cake mix and they weren't as awesome, but still good.

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350.
In a saucepan combine and heat to a low boil:
2 sticks butter
4T cocoa
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Add to:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda

Then add:
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

For the cake you bake it 25 mins at 350. I think I baked the cupcakes about 18 minutes.

Ganache (estimates):
3/4 cup cream*
8 oz chocolate (I used semisweet, but you could use milk or dark)
1 teaspoon corn syrup
1/2 - 1 Tablespoon butter

Put your chocolate, corn syrup, and butter in a bowl. Heat the cream until almost boiling and pour on chocolate. After a few minutes, stir to combine. It will be smooth and beautiful. Let it sit around for a while to thicken up. You could make this while the cupcakes are cooking and it should be good by the time you needed to frost them.
*I have used half and half, and even whole milk before... you know cream will taste better, though.

Filling:
Use about 1/2 cup of whipping cream to make 1 cup whipped cream. I didn't sweeten it at all. Add to about 1/2 a container of marshmallow cream and mix. You want about half whipped cream and half marshmallow cream. Put this mixture in a ziplock bag and cut the corner of the bag off to make a mock pastry bag.

When the cupcakes are cooled, cut little cones out of the top, much like carving a jack-o-lantern. Cut off the point of the cone, so you are left with a little cake lid. This will leave space for you to fill the cupcakes with cream. You can also dig a little more cupcake out if you want more cream. I did. Fill the cupcakes with the cream mixture and put the tops back on. Stick in the fridge for a while and it will help to cement the lid to the cream.

Ice the cupcakes with a knife. I tried dipping them and it didn't work.
If you want to make the white swirls on the top, mix 1/2 - 1 T milk with 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Get a good consistency - not too thin, and swirl away. You could use a decorators tip or just cut a tiny corner off a bag. The tip will look better, though.

If you have any left after a day you should store them in the fridge. If you're feeling a little naughty, put a cupcake in the microwave for exactly 8 seconds. The creamy center will melt a little and so will the ganache. When you bite in to the chocolaty goodness it will blow you away. You'll feel like you need to go confess you sins, but you don't. It's just a cupcake.

Cookies for Grandma

When I was little my grandma would send us a box of jack-o-lantern cookies each Halloween. It was the highlight of my October because not only were they delicious cookies, but they looked awesome. AND they came in the mail addressed to me. Each Fall I remember those cookies so I thought this year I would return the favor and send some cookies to my grandma in Florida.
I don't know that they will arrive in one piece or still be yummy, but I hope she enjoys them. They aren't her recipe and they're not as big as hers were, but they're still orange.
I wanted to send them to all my nieces and nephews, but that task seemed a little expensive and difficult for now... sorry kiddos. Ask Grandma to make you some. Happy Halloween!

Baby Shower goodies

Megan and Jeff are due with twins in November, but won't make it that long. Megan is on bed rest in the hospital for now until they come - hopefully not for several more weeks. She's handling it like a champ and is in a much better mood than I would think possible. Go Megan!
Saturday we had a baby shower at the hospital. Due to Megan's persistent asking and a few tears, she was allowed to get out of bed, put on real clothes, and be wheeled down to the dining hall for a good old fashioned baby shower. We had great food, a "guess the birth date" contest, and a really cute pregnant girl and her hubby her company.
Jeana and I made a diaper cake, which served as hospital decor, and several people made the yummy treats for the big event. I made these cookies:

My mom gave me the recipe that she found in a magazine. They are like sugar cookies, made with brown sugar, and the frosting is made with browned butter.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 t soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t powder
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening (you could use part butter, too)
2 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
2/3 cup walnuts, chopped

Combine dry ingredients.
Whip shortening and brown sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla.
Add alternately, dry ingredients & sour cream. Add walnuts.
I put mine in the refrigerator for a while to get cold.
Bake at 375 for 10 - 12 minutes.

Browned Butter Frosting:
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter
1 t vanilla

Melt butter, stir with a wooden spoon. Once it browns a little, add to powdered sugar. Add vanilla. I used an electric mixer and had to add some milk to get the right consistency. I might have let my butter cook too long.
You could make another half of the recipe so each cookie gets a good amount of frosting.

Product Review - Special K Bars

I bought these Special K bars the other day to have around the house for snacks. I let Lucas gnaw on one during church on Sunday and I could smell it from a couple feet away... smelled like some sort of sweet candy/poison. But he chewed on it for a while.
Today I actually took a bite of one that was left out on the counter (I assumed from one I gave Lucas yesterday). You wouldn't believe it, but these peach and berry bars actually don't taste a thing like peaches or berries, but they do taste remarkably like poison.
Poor Lucas was probably confused that I kept giving him poison for snack because he's usually not allowed to play in the poison cupboard.
It turns out the one I took a bite of today was one that Ben tried this morning and couldn't stomach. We decided that the nasty flavor is probably from aspartame, which is basically like poison. Great. Now we're all going to get brain tumors.
If you want to try an absolutely fantastic granola bar, try Kashi's Cherry Dark Chocolate bars. I love them AND they're good for you - no poison .

Hippo Cake

So, here are the details for Lucas's hippo cake. It was supposed to look like the hippo from Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
I wanted to copy the idea from this other cake, where the lady made a giraffe out of royal icing. Instead of real royal icing (with egg whites), I used another recipe just using powdered sugar, corn syrup, and milk. It was way easy and tastes good, too.
I put a picture of the hippo on a cookie sheet with wax paper over that so I could trace the hippo. It worked out really well. I liked this idea because I knew I could make as many hippos as I needed instead of just one if I did it right on the cake.
My first hippo was too big, but looked pretty good. I originally considered him a practice hippo. When I decided to make a round cake instead of a 9x13 cake, I knew I had to try again. My second hippo was even better, but this was the day before the party, so I knew I was risking it not drying enough. FYI - to get the colors looking so varied, I actually mixed blue food coloring with some almond extract (mostly alcohol) and "painted" chunks of blue with my fingers.

I went on my merry little way and made my marshmallow fondant and my coconut cake. When I finally decided to transfer the hippo, it broke and broke and broke. Finally I decided to keep it on the wax paper and tear the paper around the edges. This worked, but I still had to basically do the hippo all over on top of the cute hippo. Luckily I had saved all my icing from the night before.
It didn't turn out as cute as the other hippos, but it still looked good.
I added color to some of my white fondant and made a little fondant braid to go around the bottom of the cake. It looked really cute and I was pleased.
Most importantly, Lucas loved the cake. Friday afternoon I had to keep him from trying to play with the cake or stick a spoon in it. He actually got a spoon out of the drawer and brought it over - hence the dent in the fondant.
Here are some pictures of the process:

First rolling out the fondant.

Then draping the fondant over the cake and trimming it around the edges.

And finally the finished product vs. the original:

chocolate takes the cake!

My mom and I made two really good cakes last week. I'll look extra shapely in my swimsuit next weekend because of them...

The first was a chocolate cake with mint filling and ganache frosting. I wanted to make it for my nephew, Aaron, who thought my chocolate mint brownies were the "best he's ever had!" He said this cake could be his birthday cake this year.

We wanted to play around with the ganache again, so for our next cake we got a bit fancier. We were going to just do chocolate cake, raspberry jam filling, and ganache frosting.

Instead, for the filling I put layers of rasberry jam, ganache, whipped cream, then whole raspberries.

The outside of the cake was inspired by Jenna Bush's wedding cake. I put a thin layer of ganache on, then stripes of thicker ganache. For the top we poured the ganache over the cake so it would drip over the stripes.

It was wonderful and tasted like something from a bakery. It was an expensive cake, but a keeper for sure!

You aren't really supposed to refrigerate ganache - it doesn't look as pretty and it gets harder, but this cake had to stay in the refrigerator due to the whipped cream. I think next time we would wait to pour the top ganache on until about 30 minutes before serving, then it would stay shiney and gooey.

Mmmm... Brownies

Brownies, anyone? I tested out a couple brownie recipes for a baby shower I'm having next week. I made mint-chocolate brownies Friday night and then Sunday night I made peanut butter brownies for a BBQ we went to.
The mint brownies are from Cooking Light and they were a hit, as were the less "healthy" peanut butter version.

Chocolate Mint-Bars:
Bottom Layer:
1 cup flour
1/2 t salt
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 T water
1 t vanilla
1 16 oz can chocolate syrup
Mint Layer:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 T milk
1/2 t peppermint extract
2 drops green food coloring
Glaze:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 T butter

Just make like normal brownies, cook at 350 for 23 minutes (it took me a lot longer - like 35), until wooden pick comes out almost clean. Cool completely. Frost with mint layer. To prepare glaze, melt chocolate chips and butter in microwave 1 minute at a time, stirring after 30 seconds. Let cool two minutes and then frost over mint layer. Keep in fridge until ready to serve.
Now, the peanut butter brownies are a recipe of my Grandma Cutchen. They won first place at the National Peanut Festival in Dothan, Alabama, The Peanut Capital of the World!


Here's the recipe:
1 cup butter
1/3 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 t salt
4 eggs
1 t vanilla

Combine butter and cocoa in saucepan over low heat to form chocolate mixture. Cook until butter melts, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, cool slightly.
Combine sugar and dry ingredients in mixing bowl, add chocolate mixture and beat at medium speed until blended. Add eggs and vanilla. Spread into well-greased 9x13. Bake at 350 25 - 30 minutes, or until wooden pick comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Frosting:
1 16 oz jar chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1/3 cup milk
10 large marshmallows
1 lb package powdered sugar, sifted

Remove lid from PB jar and microwave at medium for 2 mins or until PB melts, stirring after a minute. Spread over warm brownies. Chill about 30 mins or until set. Combine butter, cocoa, milk, marshmallows in saucepan over medium heat. Add powdered sugar, stirring until smooth. Spread over PB, chill until set. Store in fridge.

When I made the PB brownie, I used to Cooking Light brownie recipe so it wasn't quite so fattening, but I'm sure it's yummy. Both recipes were good. Ben preferred the mint recipe, but he says it's pretty hard to do PB and chocolate from home. I guess I should just buy him some Reeses cups. I thought they were both delicious... just depends on if you're in a mint mood or a PB mood.

Raisins

Gross. I'm sitting here procrastinating the preparation of my lesson for tomorrow and I'm eating raisins.
I got home from the CROP Walk to find Ben and Lucas asleep on the couch - SO CUTE. We always talk about how we want Lucas to fall asleep on us and today Ben lucked out.
Anyhow, I'm starving, but can't make any noise downstairs. The pantry door creeks, so I couldn't get in there. So, my only source of nutritional sustenance was from Lucas's diaper bag. First I ate the shredded wheat, then the fruity Cheerios, and now I'm moving on to raisins. I'm really not a fan of raisins. I think they're quite gross.
I have to be pretty desperate to sit down and just eat a bunch of raisins. Lucas, on the other hand, pays homage to the raisin gods on a daily basis. He could eat raisins nonstop if we would let him. Once we timed how long it took him to shove 10 raisins in his mouth and he did it in less than 10 seconds, still picking them up one at a time. I bet he'd be even faster now.
If I didn't know any better, I would just send raisins to Iraq in hope of ending the war.

Curd!

Tonight we had a little birthday celebration at the Baldwin's for Jamie and Megan. My sole responsibility was making the cake. That has kind of become my job in our party network... not that everyone forces me to make cakes, but it's really all I can do. I'm not so good with real food, just desserts.
For tonight's party I wanted to make something fun out of a boring white cake. I decided on a raspberry curd for the filling. I didn't know what the heck raspberry curd was either - don't worry.
It was pretty easy. First you mix 6 oz of raspberries with 3/4 cup sugar, 2 T lemon juice, 2 T butter, and 2 eggs. You cook it on medium heat until it thickens and bubbles. Then you strain it to get the chunks and seeds out. Let it cool in the fridge. When it is cool, fold in a 1 1/2 cups of whipped cream (unsweetened). This made enough filling for me to fill a 4 layer cake.
For the frosting I used a white chocolate whipped cream. To make that, you just fold a couple ounces of melted white chocolate into the sweetened whipped cream. It was pretty good for a first try experiment.
By the way, this picture of the cake is the one I brought home to Ben, hence the beautiful tupperware. He was working... until 4am. He's such a hard working stud.