For the love of Triangles

Happy TAKS week!

My husband LOVES math. And more than math, he LOVES triangles. His students often have to defend me when he tells them that he loves math more than he loves his wife!

I sent him to school today with two cakes for his fellow teachers, so of course they had to be triangles!
The white cake is Dorie's Perfect Party Cake prepared the same way as my earlier post.
The chocolate is Bakerella's yellow cake with peanut butter filling and chocolate buttercream.

Things I learned on this cake:
-To make a triangle cake, you can use a shallow square cake pan, cut the cake into two triangles, and then stack them to make a 2 layer cake. My plan worked perfectly!
-Red icing takes a lot of food coloring! I used wilton's "No Taste Red" which lived up to its name. Definitely use it if you need a true red icing for a CHS or a Red Raider cake!
-I made all the bold lines with the basketweave tip, which I loved! they went on very smooth and neat and I love the thick bold lines.
-If you're making an oddly shaped cake, make sure your board is big enough! I had to drag a box out of the garage to cut up and cover for the boards.

Bonus cake to anyone who solves the equation! :)

Peanut Butter Cake

Last night was my final class from Wilton Course 1. We combined the final two classes, so we did figure piping, balls, shells, drop flowers, leaves, stems, and the famous Wilton rose! I'm sorry the lighting is AWFUL in these pictures!

I have had SO much fun taking these classes. If you've got a spare evening per week, I definitely recommend taking the plunge and taking the class. It's the best $17 (plus supplies....hehe!) that I've spent in a while. It would rate very well on James's infamous "fun:money ratio". (not to be confused with the fun:work ratio, also very important when deciding how to spend your free time).

James asked what my favorite part is: making the cake, making the icing, or decorating, and I couldn't pick! I have LOVED trying out flavor combinations and deciding what kind of cake/filling/icing to do. A pretty cake is worthless if it doesn't taste good! But I've also really loved learning the techniques.

Friday I start Course 2, which is mostly royal icing flowers. I can't wait!

This week my cake is a combination I made up. It's a peanut butter cake (which I didn't realize was so uncommon until I started researching for recipes!) with peanut butter filling and Wilton's chocolate buttercream frosting. I think if I made it again, I might try leaving out some of the butter. The cake was super greasy coming out of the pan, but serving it two days later it is still moist and is very tasty - but I think it's almost TOO moist, falling apart even.

Peanut Butter Cake

Recipe from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
2/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans. (I used my one 8" deep wilton pan)

Combine 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup butter or margarine. Cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each one. Add cake mix alternately with the water. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 25 minutes or until cake tests done. Allow cakes to cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Level cakes, fill, and frost.

Easy peanut butter Filling:

This is the peanut butter filling from the Million Dollar Cookies. I just made a big bowl of it, rolled it out into a circle on parchment, and placed in the middle of my cakes.

Mix 1/2 cup peanut butter with 1/2 cup powdered sugar until well combined. That's it! :)

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

My cake class was cancelled for this week, but I had been reading reviews and blog posts all week for Dorie's Perfect Party cake (Both Totally Daring Bakers and Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge groups did it in the last year and I've always wanted to try it!) So I decided to make it anyway, and just play around with my book and the techniques I already knew to practice.
I got the base of icing SO much smoother than the first time by using the papertowel (I used parchment paper) technique! http://www.monkeysee.com/play/988-cake-decorating-a-secret-to-smoothing-icing

The cake is a white cake with a light lemon flavor, and I filled it with homemade meyer lemon curd and blueberry preserves. It is SO good. I would make it again in a heartbeat. A lot of bloggers mentioned they had trouble with Dorie's cake rising. I didn't have that problem at all, and I:

a) Used Dorie's recommended Swan's Down cake flour

b) used all room temp ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, butter)

c) I baked in one 3" deep pan instead of 2 1" pans. My cake teacher recommended this, and I've loved that all my layers on my cakes have the exact same edge because they came off of one cake. And with the wilton leveler, leveling and cutting layers is a snap!

Here are the recipes copied and pasted for the lemon curd and cake. I used meyer lemon for both the zest in the cake and the juice & zest in the curd. Meyers are a cross between a mandarin orange and a lemon, so they're sweeter and you can actually even eat the rind!

Lemon Curd

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

DIRECTIONS
In the top of a double boiler, beat eggs and sugar. Stir in lemon juice, butter and lemon peel. Cook over simmering water for 15 minutes or until thickened.

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

(Here is the full recipe. I made the cake part in my one pan, and then used wilton icing and filled with the curd & preserves so I didn't make her buttercream. But I wanted you t have all of her instructions, she's so thorough!)

Perfect Party Cake
From Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours”
Makes 12 to 14 servings

For the Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves, stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9-x-2-inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make The Cake: Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the tough – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up. (The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.)

To Make the Buttercream: Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or other large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6 to 10 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny, smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.
To Assemble the Cake: Using a sharp, serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with the third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream left over). Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving: The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but it’s best to let it set for a couple of hours in a cool room. Serve it at room temperature with anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing: The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to 2 days.

Cake Time!

Last night was my second cake class, but the first time to really get my hands dirty!

I was so excited when I got a coupon for 30% off total purchase, so I went to Michaels and got all of my cake loot! I even got this super cute bag (that's supposed to be for scrapbooking) to keep it all in!I went over to Natalie's house (we're taking the class together!) on Sunday night and we made, thinned, and colored all of our icing and filled and iced the base of our cakes. We had a great time, but it was definitely harder than we thought!

Last night we learned stars, dots, printing, piping gel, and basic cake covering techniques.

Cake wrecks here I come!! :)

This is my first ever cake, so don't be too hard on me! I did a dot border on the bottom and the top and then printed my name with a star outline, and then did a heart (which I used a cookie cutter to imprint and then trace) and then filled it with stars.

I did a Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake with a fudge filling and it was pretty good! I just had a piece for breakfast :)

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter on Sunday!
Both sides of the family came over and we had a brunch in the afternoon. I had so much fun planning and cooking it! I really love that both of our families live close and we can have everyone come over for lunch. We missed my brother (in CO) and my sister (in Germany) so we'll have to do it again when they are in town!

Here is the table setting, pretty simple but I just loved how those cheap little grocery store daisies looked when I cut them short and put them in short water glasses.


Here is the spread! We had:

-Fresh Berries
-Veggie Tray
-Bacon Cheddar Frittatta
-Spinach Quiche
-Ham and bacon
-Roasted Asparagus
-3 crostinis: Chicken, Chicken Cordon Bleu, and Caprese
-Crescent rolls
-Baked Potato Salad
-Garden Salad
-And of course cupcake bites!

Thanks to my mom for the yummy quiche (with homemade pie crust!) and the gorgeous salad.
And thanks to my mother in law for supplying all the drinks! She even brought diet cherry seven up which is my FAVORITE! :)
Hope everyone else had a great Easter as well! The Lord has blessed us in so many ways, and I think looking at that giant table of food and then looking around and seeing how great my husband and our families are really made me feel that. Most of all, He blessed us with salvation, and that's what Easter is really all about. So Thank You Jesus, for being the Lamb, for giving more than we could ever fathom giving, so we could have everything. We aren't worthy, but you were. Amen! :)

Up next...cake-a-palooza!

Wilton Course 1, Class 1

Last night I started my first Wilton cake decorating course!

I've planned to do this forever, my mom even took these classes when we were little and she made the most amazing, beautiful birthday cakes for us. I'm taking it with my friend Natalie, and I've already learned a lot even though we didn't even touch a cake last night!

On night one we went through the basics of decorating, supplies, etc. Our teacher is this fabulously eccentric woman who has been decorating for years.

I bought the book & basic supply kit before we started the class. It includes a couple of bags, all the tips needed for the class, a spatula, brush, couplers, and a practice board.

I also bought a can of merengue powder to make icing and some colors that I used last week on my cupcake bites.

The extras that I'm going to purchase for the class (but aren't things you HAVE to purchase)

-a 3 inch deep round cake pan. I've always used 2 1nch deep pans, but our teacher recommended this one, and it's fairly inexpensive, especially with a coupon!

-a cake leveler. Less than $5, and I'm OVER using a serrated knife

-cardboard cake circles to transport my cakes

-a cake carrier. I have to bring my cakes to work with me, and I think this is a worthwhile investment!

-extra bags and couplers. The kit comes with 2 of each, but since I want like 4 colors of icing for my first cake, I'm going to grab a few more.

Next week, I vow to post pictures of my cake no matter how terrible it looks!

I love that I have an excuse to make an entire cake, so I'm thinking of exciting cake+filling combos.

I'm thinking either lemon cake w/fruit filling or chocolate cake with a mocha filling.

Cupcake Bites

(I apologize in advance for the photos. I didn't have my camera so I took these with my phone!)

I've wanted to make these for a while, but until I saw them in person I didn't know I would absolute die and go to cute heaven. Even James (who rolls his eyes at my ooohing and ahhing over tiny little things!) thought they were pretty much the cutest thing ever! And they taste GREAT! I used white cake, white cream cheese frosting, and white chocolate bark w/gel food coloring.

I've read about cake balls and cake pops a la bakerella for a while, and then Pioneer Woman laid out some great instructions. I tried both methods, but the mold method by far worked better, and looked so darn cute with the perfectly molded little ridges.

One tip - use the candy bark or candy melts. I used semi sweet chocolate chips for part of it and it was super soft. Even in the molds, when I had to hold the chocolate bottom to dip the top it started to smear in my hands.

I'm not even going to post a recipe, but here are links:

The FABULOUS Bakerella

The FABULOUS Pioneer Woman

Fresh Corn Risotto

Hello strangers!
I am SO ready for summer food. Tomatos with fresh basil, strawberries, summer corn on the grill, yum!
I broke down and bought some fresh corn this past week even though I could tell by the color of the stalks that it's not REALLY summer yet. I was looking for something a little different to serve with braised bbq ribs, and this was really good! The creamy texture of the corn is a stark contrast the pop of the corn kernels as you eat it. And, let's face it, I've never met a risotto I didn't like!

By the way, if you're not into corn, stop where I added it and you have a basic risotto recipe below that you can add anything to!





Summer Corn Risotto
Recipe by me!

-1 cup arborio rice (short, fat rice. I can usually find it at nicer grocery stores in the bulk section. It's getting easier to find as risotto gets more popular)
-1/2 cup white wine, warmed up in the microwave or saucepan (if you want to leave this out just use an extra 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Risotto is 3:1 liquid:rice ratio)
-2 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth
-1 cup corn kernels cut from fresh corn ears (or canned if you must!)
-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
-1 clove garlic, minced

1. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a deep, heavy pot. Add garlic and rice and stir to coat. Cook over medium heat until garlic is fragrant and rice kernels start to appear transparent.
2. Pour chicken stock into a separate saucepan and heat until simmering. You'll want to keep it at a simmer during this whole process.
3. When rice is transparent, add warmed wine and stir until simmering. Simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed. To test, pull your spoon through the center of the rice, if a lot of liquid floods into the valley you made, keep stirring. If you're still seeing the bottom of the pot because the liquid and rice are sticking where they were pushed, it's time to add more liquid.
4. Add 1/2 cup of simmering broth to the simmering rice. Stir and heat until the liquid starts to look absorbed. (and no- you don't have to "Stir constantly" like people who want you to be afraid of cooking risotto will tell you. Stir it pretty frequently, but if you take your spoon out and go check on something else it's not going to fall apart!)
5. Do the pull test again, and when most of the liquid is absorbed, add another 1/2 cup of chicken stock. You're going to repeat this process until rice is cooked to al dente. When you think you're adding your final 1/2 cup of chicken stock, add the corn with it to heat it through.
6. To know when it's done, taste a little. It should be soft, but not mushy. I usually don't use all 3 cups of liquid, but it can depend on the weather, the rice, the heat level, a million things!
7. When rice is finished, add cheese, taste and add salt and pepper as desired.

This makes a lot. If I'm making it for the two of us as a side dish, I cut this recipe in half.