Just call me cupcake

We HAD to add some color!

Cupcake stake

It was a celebration time and we NEEDED some kind of fun, celebrating that all four girls made it down the wedding aisle - three flower girls and then there is the bride and her daddy. So how does one go about celebrating this pre-school reason;  Our solution?  make cupcakes!  There were no ordinary cupcakes... They were THEIR cupcakes.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poor Miss C couldn't decided which color to decide on

cupcake complete with SPRINKLES

icing on the cupcake, icing in the hair

Hmmm, I'm gotta lick that knife.....

Sprinkles, sprinkles, sprinkles

How many licks to the center of the cupcake?

I licked off the icing - Done!!! 

Yummo!  Starting on my second one and feel

Colorful inside

Pie-ful of memories

Apple pie

Today as I was making pies and dinner rolls, it made me remember back to my childhood.  Growing up, Thanksgiving was a HUGE deal!  All the family (aunts, uncles, cousins) traveled to Grandma and Grandpa Wilson's house.  There was always this really big turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed tators, and burned pies.  Last night I taught Only how to make pie crust using a recipe I've used for years , except we did it in the food processor (my hands hurt).  They didn't turn out bad and she did a great job. Ah, so thankful there were no burned pies and we had plenty of dough left over to use the scraps as pie crust strips (as my kids call them). I'm thinking we should have kept one of the applie pies here to eat for breakfast!

Trying to be creative, Pinterest inspired

Works for Me Wednesday

Yesterday was bread day at our house, as I was baking bread for dinner.  The first was Potato Refrigerator Bread, which my family loves.  I've used a recipe from Bread World for years now and it always seems to work great. It was easy and fairly moist. just the really soft bread that the family loves to put butter and jelly on.

The second was Italian Hearth style French bread, using a recipe from my King Arthur Flour Company 200th Anniversary Cookbook that I've had for many years.  

Because I do not have Italian bread or Baguette Pans, I found that I can substitute heavy duty foil triple layered before forming my make-shift baguette pan. A quick call to Tracy to consult with, confirmed she did the same as well.  I continued, and it worked rather well, and the bread still turned out great and the first loaf was consumed in no time!   The yellow that you see in the bottom of my foil baguette pans is actually corn meal.

So even though I don't have the fancy tools, I can still turn out delicious hearth style french bread. I must say, the recipe I use literally takes all day.  I started at  9 a.m. and it was finally ready at 6 p.m.  Please don't let this scare you away from attempting to make traditional Hearth style bread.  It is the whole process of multiple risings that give it the classic French Bread.  I was also busy yesterday teaching the kids, doing laundry, and chasing the baby, so the preparation time could have been much shorter, but it worked out well by the time Honey walked through the door. 

 

 Now, while I don't make french bread like this but every once-in-a-while, Only exclaimed that I could make it everyday and she would be happy "Amazing!" she said!  This is what Works for Me!

Cake Truffles

I heard about these fantastic little delights while visiting in Dallas last month in a newspaper article and just had to try them and share them with you. I was surprised how easy they are to make and how scrumptious they are!

Cake balls are made by combining crumbled baked cake with frosting, rolling the mixture into balls, and covering the balls with confectionery coating to give the bite-size desserts a glossy, crisp exterior. VALERIE JARVIE

If you're a coupon clipper, sometimes you can find a coupon from time to time for both the cake mix and frosting...
Ingredients:
1 box cake mix, any flavor (I used Duncan Hines French Vanilla )
1 container of ready to use frosting (16 oz.), any flavor (I used cream cheese frosting)
Chocolate for coating the truffles, any type. It's best to use almond/chocolate bark as it is made specifically for coating candy. (I used just a little more than 1 lb. of white Ghiradelli chocolate and added some shaved Gulf wax. This really helps it to set up quickly and stand up to handling)

Directions:
1. Bake cake as directed on box. Allow to cool completely. I colored mine a beautiful purple because we are making a few hundred of these for a wedding in July, and this is one of their colors.
2. Crumble cake finely, I used my hand mixer.
3. Stir in frosting, at room temperature, until well distributed through cake crumbs. Put this mixture in the fridge for 2 hours. This will help it to set up and make it easier to roll into balls.
4. Shape cake into small balls, about 1" in diameter (I made mine similar to the size of Lindt truffle balls). Place balls on a cookie sheet and chill for 6 hours in the freezer (I did mine overnight). You can free these ahead of time in an airtight container (freezer ziploc bags) until ready to use if you need to make a lot of these.

5. Melt chocolate in the microwave a couple of ounces at a time. I highly suggest using good quality chocolate, and if you can find it, use chocolate bark, which is best for candy coating. The most important thing about melting the chocolate is not to burn it.Make sure your bowls and spoons are dry. Use 50% power in your microwave, and do about 15 seconds at a time, microwaving about 2 ounces at a time in a heat-proof bowl. ** Note that since the cake balls were frozen, they will be very cold and will cause the chocolate to harden very fast. So work quickly as you are dipping and rotating the balls, otherwise the chocolate on your spoons will start to get stiff. I I used a cake tester, but have found that by using 5" long Doll Needles to finely pierce one ball at a time, dip the frozen cake balls into the chocolate to coat, and gently place them on the wax paper to allow to set.  I try to keep a cup of very warm water close by to put the needles in while not using them or in between truffle dipping.  the warmth helps the truffle to slide off more easily.


You'll need to put a dot of coating that you use on the spot where you pierced the truffle ball or the mixture will seep out and look yuck! Try to do this immediately after you dip each ball and the coating is still wet. You have to do this quickly.

If you want to put a design on the top, place some of the coating, in a coordinating color, in a ziploc freezer bag or a icing bag, made specifically for use with icing. You'll need to keep it warm to keep it from getting hard. I left this for last so I could do as many as possible at a time.
6.You can store your Cake Ball Pops in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Keep in mind if you store them in the fridge, you may have condensation issues when you remove them. Trust me....they will stay fresh for up to about 7 days if you hide them in a nice cool corner of your kitchen.

• Can be kept for up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator

Variety is as large as your imagination, almost any cake and frosting will work. The real thrill is in combining flavors and colors for distinctive results. Jill at Simple Daily Recipes

WHEN IT COMES TO COLORING CHOCOLATE, USE AN OIL BASED FOOD COLORING.
That little 4 pack of food coloring you find in the spice section of your grocer is water based and WILL cause chocolate to seize up. That's not good.
You can easily find oil based food coloring on the baking aisle of major craft stores, online, or specialty food shops. But don't misunderstand me, it's not a "specialty" item. Everybody knows the name Wilton for decorative baking tools, Wilton makes oil based food coloring.

Just so it's very clear, I did not create this recipe. I heard about it while visiting in Dallas, lived through it, photographed it and now, I'm passing it to you. The suggested list of flavors are from the paper, not me.

Devil's food cake with fudge icing and dark chocolate coating.

Yellow Cake with buttercream frosting and orange-colored vanilla coating with green and black accents.

White cake with white frosting mixed with orange and yellow sprinkles and chocolate coating.

German chocolate cake with coconut-pecan icing and milk chocolate or light cocoa flavored coating.

Spice or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and vanilla coating.

Lemon cake with lemon frosting and vanilla frosting.

Chocolate Cake with vanilla frosting and mint-flavored coating with tinted green.

Lucy from Edible Memories made these fantastically beautiful truffles

Black Friday?

Warning: This will not be the most cheerful entry I've written, so if you want to click off this page, feel free to do so! I really have reservations about even posting this, but here it goes... Okay, I've got to admit I've had a hard time really getting into the Spirit of things this year, while all around me I see friends preparing and decorating. We finally got our tree up this last Monday and it has ornaments on it with our Nativity below. I do love the pretty glow of the tree, the smells of gingerbread, the old familiar songs (and a few new ones the kids have discovered), baking cookies, and the memories of why we got each ornament, but this year... I'm not sure if it's the struggling economy, the unknown of what this next year will hold, or the mound of medical bills I wracked up this last year. I'm not a fan of the winter. The cold, stark, dry, dreary landscape, the grey sky I'm surrounded by (sounds like I'm in the Artic huh?) just does nothing for me! I struggle to stay warm, don't like the bulky layers clothes, the snow & ice... The pressure to find something for everyone, we have birthday's all over December and Jan., Honey wants to have a Christmas celebration with friends at our place (I know I'll have a good time when it gets here - it's all the preparations that stress me) ... I hate with a passion White Elephant gift parties (sorry friends, it's no fun for me). I'm just struggling this year. I'm a Spring Fan simply stated. I love the colors, the birds, the blue sky, spring rains, flowers, smell of spring and freshly mowed grass... Okay, aside from my love of Spring, we have done a few things this year besides the tree and the evergreen wreaths hanging on my house outside. We love the Christmas music (Jars of Clay: Little DrummerBoy Grinch mix is our favorite), but something a friend and I did this last Wednesday was host a children's Christmas celebration, while the parents were off celebrating at another home. We played hide the Candy Cane, Spoons (card game with candy canes instead of spoons), read a few stories (Wombat Devine is a favorite), watched a short annimated The Nativity (Hanna-Barbera's The Greatest Adventure Stories From The Bible) movie, made gingerbread lanterns (the star represents the star the Wisemen and shepards followed) with a small tea light candle inside to illuminate it, and talked to the kids about the meaning behind the 12 Days of Christmas song. Now, while it is disputed that this is the real reason behind the song, it certainly fit in for our evening, so we used it. The kids were very enthusiastic (do you hear what I'm really saying here - they were wound up), the project went great (here is a link to this), the kids consumed 120 Pizza Rolls and other goodies (queso, carrots and dip, puppy chow (not dog food), left happy, and their parents had a great time. Me, I consumed 2 Motrins and slunk off to bed when they all left. I think I'm Maxine this year... Please don't leave a message and tell me I need therapy, I can't stand all the chocolate (too sweet for me, but I love chocolate cake and a chocolate malt), I don't drink coffee (too bitter), Retail therapy? I don't like to go shopping (you could ask my children about the 4 days it took me to spend a Dillards Gift card). I really just wanted to be honest and I just can't find a way to be funny about it today, but hey, it's Friday and Christmas is just around the corner. ps. Yes, honey, I took my hormone therapy medicine today. Maybe I should just get out of bed and start the day! ºÜº

"Morning After" Chocolate Cake

I was sent this recipe a few years ago, but finally tried it Wednesday when I needed a quick dessert. Claire and I made this together and it turned out pretty good! Not much was left when everyone was done with it. Mine didn't look near as fluffy as the original picture, but that didn't seem to matter in the end. After-Party Chocolate Cake

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter 6 eggs, separated 1/2 c. sugar confectioners sugar

1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. 2. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line the side wall with a strip of parchment paper. 3. In the bowl of a double-boiler, combine butter and chopped chocolate. Add water to bottom of pan and place bowl over pan. Melt chocolate over medium heat until smooth. Remove bowl from pan and cool slightly. (I cheated and did mine in the microwave - I don't have a double-boiler.) 4. Beat egg whites with an electric mixture until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar and beat until glossy and stiff. 5. Whisk egg yolks into chocolate mixture. Whisk in a dollop of egg whites to lighten. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites with a rubber spatula. 6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until cake is set (center may be jiggly), about 40-45 minutes. 7. Cool cake for 20 minutes and remove sides of pan. Continue to cool. Dust with confectioners sugar. This taste great with a little dollop of ice cream or cool whip as well!

This flourless cake has a light, mousse-like texture. Best served warm.

Baking with Bunnie

We love getting together with friends. Sharing a meal, listening, and laughing. Last night, our friends Max and Bunnie joined us for dinner and baking. We started out the late afternoon baking muffins together, Ms. Bunnie and I. Ms. Bunnie put on the guest apron from Australia and got right in there. What fun we had! I so much enjoyed talking with them that I got distracted talking and quickly realized - I'd NEVER make it on Food Network! I so much appreciate how Caleb and Claire got right in there, reading the recipe over my shoulder, getting out the needed ingredients so we would have them ready at our fingertips! Thanks Kids!


After making two kinds of muffins (Morning Glory and chocolate chip), we started work on assembling our dinner - pizza! We're so thankful for the time Max and Bunnie took to join us for a quiet evening and giving us a gentle reminder that we should not be timid in having people over. We learned things about each other, chatted about infamous people in our families, and enjoyed having the chance to visit. What a blessing they were to our family and we look forward to doing this again soon!

** Just a sad note, that 6 months after we had the Max and Bunnie over for dinner, Max died of a massive heart attack and he has been terribly missed.

Flour on my Face

Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousand of miles

and all the years you have lived. Helen Keller

When I was growing up, I used to watch my grandmother make homemade chicken and noodles, bread, and other goodies. My earliest memory was when I could barely see over the table. Sometimes when she wasn't looking I would snatch a small piece of egg noodle from the mass as they were drying on the table. I remember when I was in Jr. High I asked her for her dinner roll recipe. She just looked at me like I'd just asked to her fly to the moon. "Child, I don't have it written down. I just take a handful or two of flour, a pinch of salt, some ..." I watched in wonder. She wrote it down approximately what she thought. I've never had the nerve to use her recipe yet. Both of my grandmothers were excellent cooks. My grandmother Wilson would get distracted and forget to take the pie out until it was almost burnt. "Lauwdy! My pie's a burnin! Run and open the doors!" she would say. I can relate to that! My most precious memories of them took place in the kitchen. If you were to visit my kitchen today, you would see the apron she wore most sitting on a shelf and some of her tools (egg beater, grater, meat tenderizer, etc.) scattered around. I guess something I aspired to do when I was younger, was to be a good cook. I've come a long way from when we were first married, but I'm always on the prowl for something new or maybe improved on what recipe I have. My poor husband just moans: "Can't you just fix it like you did last time? Can't you just write it down or use the recipe written?" I love to cook and more importantly I want my children to know how to cook and bake. I love to "wow" my kids and encourage my kids to try cooking. I've had all my kids in the kitchen with me at different time helping me cook and the older two can successfully prepare meal by themselves. The youngest love to help me make hamburger buns or pizza dough. I must say I love cooking and baking. I used to have a bread machine - back in the 90's (the late 1990s not the 1890s!), but found I loved getting my hands in the dough, feeling the texture change and the smoothness evolve as I knead the dough. I love the smell of the bread or dish as it permeates through the house and sometimes you can even smell it outside if the windows are open. A few months ago, a friend from church gave me her bread machine to use and I used it once before giving it back. I missed the feel of the bread while I kneaded. I felt cheated by letting the machine do it for me. A few months ago I had to laugh when I made chicken tortellini dish and bought the tortellini instead of making it from scratch. My youngest decided (before he tried it) that he didn't like it because it wasn't from scratch! O Bother! Next time I'll just throw flour on my face and hide the package! Maybe I should have scattered a few chicken feathers around the kitchen and let them think I killed the chicken as well! I remember when we were first married I would call my mom in Kansas or Dave's mom for a recipe and just hope that I could make it taste somewhere close to theirs. I remember spending an hour or so copying their recipes when we would visit. I don't use their recipes much now, but have filed them for safe keeping. Something that I started doing for my children a few years ago was to record my children and family's favorite recipes in a Word document on my computer. It has grown steadily through the years and from time to time the kids will ask: "Mom, this is great! Are you going to put it in our Recipe Book?" Someday, in the not so distant future, I'll have to print that book and give it to them as they leave the house. Who then will I cook for? Who then will I "wow" and experiment on? Not my meat and potato hubby! No, I guess we'll have to start inviting people over for dinner. Okay, now before you think I'm a Martha Stewart or Betty Homemaker, I don't cook full course meals everyday, nor do I know how to decorate. My home will never grace any part of a decorating magazine nor will my cooking secure a spot on Food Network. If you come to my house be prepared for a not so spotless floor, dust on the shelf, and flour on my face.

If you come to see us, come any time, if you come to see my house, please make an appointment! When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste. ~Laiko Bahrs