Look Who's Two!

So my darling niece turned 2 today! "More cake peeese?", doesn't offer up a great deal in terms of inspiration, but it's usually a safe bet to go with pink. Lots and lots of pink. My Cricut monster has become much easier to use with experience, and now that storebought fondant is more available (and affordable), I'm digging in to the experience. This time I opted to cover the whole cake in buttercream and then add the fondant decorations.

My photography skills seem to actually have regressed. 

She had had enough of sharing her cake apparently :)

I think she liked it!

Tricky Business

The Ugliest Rabbit Ella's Magical Bunny Cake

So, Fondant has proven to be a major challenge to my skills and patience. I still had fun with this one, and learned a thing or two, and it at least mostly cooperated with my "vision" of what I wanted to make. One of the things I discovered, was that I either need to make a "denser" cake and/or to go a little heavier on the frosting coating before covering it with fondant. I noticed that in spite of my efforts this time, that the cake looked kind of "lumpy", and that's not what I want. 

Now that I have some experience with the Cricut though, the stars I cut out were super easy and turned out great. I'm so glad I had help with the last cake, I would have DIED of frustration!

Anyway, Ella loved her cake, everyone else thought it was super cute, and of course, it tasted awesome :)

Cook Along!

Join me this Sunday (from wherever you are) for Family Pizza Night! I'll share the recipe(s), you do the shopping and assemble the hungry mouths, and starting at 2pm Mountain Time on Sunday January 9, we'll all make some delicious homemade pizza!

The recipe for the dough is really really simple. I got it from this site here and had absolutely no trouble making it. This weekend I plan to double the recipe, but just as it is, it will make 3 medium pizzas! More than enough for 4 people.

You will need;

• 1 or more pizza pans
• large bowl
• flour
• active dry yeast 
• salt
• pizza sauce (I used 4 cheese pasta sauce of all things and it was delicious!)
• assorted fresh toppings
• lots and lots of cheese

Start your dough at least 2 hours before you want to eat- it takes about a half hour total to prepare, then about an hour and a half to rise. Each pizza will take approximately 25 minutes to cook, and you can do 2 at a time. 

I followed the suggestion at the recipe site, to partially cook the crust with the sauce and toppings before adding the cheese, and WOW that made a huge difference over my usual homemade pizza, even though I usually wimp out and buy the crust premade (ick). I'll never buy premade crusts again though, this recipe really inspired me.

So please, join me for Family Pizza Night, take pictures and let me know how it turned out!

Celebrating the English Muffin

What I had for lunch

I love English Muffins. Love, love, LOOOVE. I love them toasted with butter or honey or jam, or with back bacon, poached egg and hollandaise. I love them with egg salad, tuna, or even cheese whiz. I've used them for mini pizzas too!

Today though, I was feeling inspired. I found the creamy Havarti I had stashed in the back of the cheese drawer, then I noticed the avocado, and finally, I thought of the crispy romaine in the other drawer- I needed something without fat! 

So I toasted my lovely little muffin, added just a scrape of butter, and a teensy bit of mayo, then sliced the perfectly ripe avocado and layered that on, then the lettuce, then the Havarti. 

Ohh, I'm typing one handed and munching right now- let me tell you, it is DELICIOUS! I might not have the self control to go make 2 more, then 2 more...

** on the side... If I had the jalapeno Havarti, that would have been totally awesome on there, also, if I liked tomatos- I would definitely had tomatos on there too!