HAPPY VD (or "Friendship Day" to the kids)

So I had this bizarre urge to decorate something, and decided to take it out on the children :)

Armed with the class lists for my son and my friends daughter (same grade, same school, different classrooms), I set out to create the cutest cupcakes ever... at least that's what I set out to do. 

One of the kids is allergic to eggs, and of course nuts are a no-no in every classroom nowadays (don't even get me started on that)... 

Did you know you can substitute applesauce (mixed with baking soda) for eggs in boxed cake recipes? Well that's what they say... although "They" don't tell you that eggs are what hold the cupcakes together. I'm telling you now- eggs are what hold the cupcakes together!. Consider yourself warned. 

These are some seriously crumbly cupcakes.

But they're pretty cool.

And the kids thought it was particularly cool to have their OWN names on the cupcakes :)

Ta 'Za! With a VIDEO! OOH!

So I had major guilt and shame about not taking pictures of the big Pizza Bake a couple weeks ago. Really, I really did!

So today we're going back to 1:1 and making a batch of dough. What I'd like to show you is 1 pizza and a  batch of pizza pops.

You will need(yes, I'll go over it again)
Large bowl, measuring cup (big 4 cup pyrex, and a 1 cup measure), measuring spoon(s), big spoon, assorted pans.
Flour, yeast, salt, olive oil, water.

In 1 1/2 cups of warm water (not hot, not cool, warm) stir 1 tbsp dry yeast* and let sit until it starts to get foamy- about 5-10 minutes.
Into large bowl, measure 3 1/cups flour and 1 tsp salt. wait for yeast.

And here's the video!

Turn, Fold, Push, Repeat

Pour yeast mixture all at once  into flour (yeah, make one of those "well" thingys in the flour) add 1 tbsp olive oil and start stirring. When it's all mixed into a big mess, sprinkle some flour onto the counter top and turn the whole bit out of the bowl and start kneading. You will have to knead it for at least 5 minutes until you have a nice smooth ball. If it's getting too sticky, sprinkle some more flour on the counter and keep going.

Coat the dough ball with a bit of olive oil and put it back in the bowl to rise (about an hour ish) to double.
While you're waiting, you can prepare your toppings- grate cheese and stuff, and clean up your counter.

Get bored and eat leftover blueberry pancakes :)

For the pizza pops, stretch dough out into palm sized rounds, add a heaping tablespoon(ish) of mixed sauce, cheese and meat, and pinch closed. Pop into greased muffin tins and bake for about 17 minutes. 

Divide dough into half or thirds and stretch/toss/roll the dough onto greased pans.

Add the sauce and the toppings (but not the cheese yet) and bake in a 500 degree oven for 15 minutes, THEN add the cheese and bake for about another 10 minutes until the cheese is all melted and bubbleh... mmm bubbleh cheeese.

Remove from oven and RESIST the urge to tear into it for at least 5 minutes, pizza burns SUCK!

Enjoy!

* the yeast thing- Ok so once in awhile, I can't get the yeast to "proof"- put your oven on "warm" and add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to the water and stir in with the yeast. It will feed the yeast and get things moving. If this happens more than once, it's time for a new jar of yeast!

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! 

There's a First Time for Everything.

Oh, the mess. The horrible, unbelievable, unholy bloody MESS.
I made Marshmallow Fondant today. It turned out...okay. But now I understand why most people just go out and buy the icky tasting Wilton stuff!

It seemed simple enough to make- first coat every last square inch of surface in your kitchen with a generous layer of vegetable shortening. Every. last. square. inch. Then you melt the marshmallows in a greased bowl in the microwave, and transfer using a greased spoon to your pre-greased mixer bowl with the pre-greased dough hook, and add icing sugar. . . and DO NOT TOUCH THE MARSHMALLOW STUFF! Oh, oh, ohhh.... whatever you do, don't touch the marshmallow stuff. sigh.

Then you mix it until it starts to do this-

No, I'm not showing you what's in the bowl. You don't want to see that.

Next time I do this, (like, when I forget what this time was like to clean up) I will not add all of the sugar at once. I measured everything out by weight, but there was clearly too much sugar. It all crumbled up except for the giant angry glob of Marshmallow Demon that had chemically bonded itself to the dough hook and was refusing to let go. Not enough shortening apparently!

Eventually, after I stopped panicking and running around the kitchen quacking like a rabid duck, I got something that looked like this.

And a whole bunch of crap that looked like this.

I messed around for awhile kneading in more shortening, and warming it in the microwave until it was at least sort of manageable... then threw it back in my poor mixer to add color. Next time (haha), I will add the color to the marshmallow demon before I add it to the sugar.

and then... after some more epic struggle against the beast... we have this. 

Ok, so definitely not Cake Boss material, but for Cake Sass- and a first try- It's bloody magnificent. 

Now. About the Cricut...

After about 2 hours of jacking around and swearing and smoking and experimenting, Tara, Sue and I successfully managed our first USABLE cut. It seems the secret to clean cuts on this beast, is roll it THIN, then FREEZE it solid, then start the cut AWAY from the edge with MEDIUM pressure on SLOW speed. I can understand how so many people got frustrated and returned these things, but I happened to have done enough homework about the CC, to know that only the patient survive. We survived :)

As far as first times go, I think it's great. And I'm sure it will be more fun next time now we have a bloody clue what we're working with!

Happy New Year from Hillbilly Grill and the Cake Sass crew :)