Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Cake

My little girl just turned 4.  For her 4th birthday she insisted on having a Strawberry Shortcake cake.  Over all it was a fun cake that went pretty smoothly to make.  It was really humid here the week I made it and the fondant was alot harder to work with than usual, but I was able to get past that and work through it.  At least there were no cake disasters.

We went with a WSCA cake with a strawberry cream cheese filling and frosted in vanilla buttercream, then covered in marshmellow fondant.

For your taste bud enjoyment I a sharing the Filling recipe.  I found the recipe over on cake central.  I love that site for new recipes for cakes and cupcakes.

Creamy & Firm Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 small pkgs strawberry gelatin

4 8oz pks cream cheese at room temperature

1 16oz frozen sweetened strawberries (thawed)

Instructions:

Put one cup of water into a clear glass bowl--don't substitute.  Microwave on high until it boils.  Add the two boxes of gelatin and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until you can smear the mixture against the side of the bowl without seeing any granules.  It should be clear and red.  this step will take a few minutes.  Add the strawberries and mix well.  Let this come to room temperature.  DO NOT refrigerate.  Cream the cream cheese in a stand mixer until fluffy.  Add the strawberry mixture a half cup at a time until it is well blended (it will be a little thin).  Refrigerate for an hour or more or until ready to use.  This filling is very yummy with WSCA as it is not too sweet. 

Left overs are yummy when put into a graham cracker pie crust and topped with whipped cream.

Marshmellow Fondant {tutorial}

Here is my favorite Marshmellow Fondant recipe.  I will let you know in advance that fondant is super messy to make.  You will have Powdered Sugar all over your kitchen.  If you have never used fondant before, you may want to buy a little just so you can see what the consistency should look and feel like.

What you will need:

8 cups Mini Marshmellows

3TBS of Water

1 TB of Flavor

 (I use Wilton's Clear Vanilla...I have also made pink using strawberry extract mmm)

9 Cups (ish) Powdered Sugar Sifted

2 Heaping TBS of Shortening

1.  Grease Bowl and Dough Hook of Kitchen Aid. 

2.  Sift 9 Cups of Powdered Sugar in a separate Mixing Bowl.  Sifting the Powdered Sugar is very important.  You don't want to have any lumps in your sugar or you will have lumps in your fondant.   

3.  Put marshmellows, water, flavoring, and shortening in a microwave safe bowl.  I like to use my pampered chef measuring bowl.

4.  Heat up marshmellow mixture in 30 sceond increments.  Pull out and stir in between each increments.  Keep heating until the marshmellows are almost melted, it will look soupy with some lumps.

5.  Scoop 6 cups of Powdered Sugar in Kitchen Aid.  During this time your marshmellow should be cooling down, but don't let them cool completely. Make a well in the powdered sugar with the measuring cup.

5.  Pour Marshmellow Mixture into Powdered Sugar well.  It's going to spread out. 

7. Put 1 more Cup of Powdered Sugar on top of Marshmellow Mixture. 

8. Put the kitchenaid on the first setting. (mine was on Stir) Once the Powdered Sugar is mostly incorporated put on the next setting (I used 2), let it run for a while.  You'll notice there is Powedered Sugar on the sides of the bowl, this is fine, leave it there.  Refrain from scraping it down.

9.  Do an eye and finger test. Watch for the powdered sugar to creep up on the dough hook.  Test with your finger by touching the mixture.  If it goo and sticking to yoiur finger add 1/4 cup more of powdered sugar. 

  

10.  Prepare your counter with shortening.  Bring your sifted sugar that is left and place near where you are working.  Dump the dough on the counter.  Grease your hands.

11.  Add more powdered sugar about 1/8 cup at a time until it can hold it's own weight.  Hand knead and add more powdered sugar in the bowl if you need to.  It will hold its own shape but will still fall (almost like the 10 second peak you lood for when doing cookie icing).

12.  Grease it up, wrap in saran wrap and then put in a plastic gallon or quart sized bag.  Let it rest for several hours (atleast 8 or more).  You will notice that it will stiffen up more as the hours go by. 

Try Freezing Your Cake

It is birthday time again at our house.  Razy will be turning 4 on Saturday!  I can't believe my youngest is going to be 4.  Well with birthdays come CAKE!  This year Razy has picked yet another girly cake.  It took me a bit to get into the cake making mood, but I am now totally on board.  I thought I would share with you some tips along the way as I make Razy's cake.  Sorry no picture for today, but it is pretty easy to see what I am talking about. 

TIP NUMBER 1

Try Freezing Your Cake!

Not only does this allow you to start baking early,

but it also makes the cake moist,

alot easier to frost, and it will hold up better.

I try to bake my cakes the week before I want to decorate them.  If I don't get around to it I will usually make them Monday or Tuesday of that week.  For Example: If we are serving the birthday cake on Saturday, I will make the cake on Monday or Tuesday.  I will take it out Thursday and begin the decorating process.  If you don't have the time, try to at least freeze it for 24 hours.  Trust me you won't be disappointed.  

To Freeze:

Bake your cake and let cool completely

Wrap in 2-3 layers of saran wrap

Wrap in 2-3 layers of aluminum foil

Place in freezer

I stack like sizes on top of eachother.  If you place smaller sizes onto larger ones you will get a dip in the middle of your larger cake.

Happy Baking!

Raspberry Cheesecake

The other day the kids and I went raspberry picking.  I didn't want to turn all the raspberries into jam because we just got done doing 18 pints of strawberry jam.  Instead I decided to make a cheesecake.  This was scary for me because I have never made cheesecake before.  I am so glad I did because it turned out beautiful.

I found the recipe from a whisk a spoon.  Can I just say that her cheesecake is gorgeous.  All credit for this recipe goes to her. 

Raspberry Cheesecake- makes a 6-inch cake

(I did make mine in a 7 inch pan because that is the closest I could find.  It turned out just fine.)

for the base:
2-3 T unsalted butter, melted
2 T sugar
1/8 t cinnamon (optional)
pinch of salt
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

for the raspberry swirl:
110 g fresh or frozen raspberries
2 T sugar
small splash of water

for the filling:
300g cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup plus 2 T sour cream
1 egg
1/2 cup superfine sugar
seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean

-for the crust: Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Combine melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, salt and crumbs in a bowl. Press into the botton of a 6-inch springform pan and bake for about 10-15 minutes. Cool crust slightly.

-for the raspberry swirl: In a small pan over medium low heat, gently cook the raspberries with the sugar and water until the berries begin to break down, the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has thickened a bit. Squish up the berries a little and push the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds. Set aside to cool.

-for the filling: Process the cream cheese in a food processor until smooth (don’t forget to scrape!). Add the sour cream, egg, sugar and vanilla bean seeds and process until smooth and fully combined.

-to assemble: Brush sides of the springform with a little softened butter. Wrap the outside of the pan with a double layer of foil. (The cake bakes in a water bath, and doing this will help keep water from seeping into the cake as it cooks.) Pour the filling over the graham cracker base. Drizzle the raspberry sauce over and swirl gently with a butter or pairing knife. Create a water bath by placing the cake tin in a slightly larger roasting pan or baking dish. Carefully pour hot water halfway up the sides of the springform. Bake at 280°F/140°C for a little over an hour, until the edges look set but the center jiggles slightly. Let cool on a rack, then cover and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Homemade Samoas Cookies {MMM Girl Scout Cookie Goodness}

Homemade Samoas Cookies

shared from the kitchen of

Once Upon a Plate

Read Before Making: These cookies do take some time and there are many steps to it. However, you will not be dissappointed. They are well worth the work.

Cookies ~ Homemade Samoas
(also known as Caramel de-Lites)
Makes about 4 to 4 1/2 dozen

Let the 4 step process begin:

1. Make the cookie Base
2. Top with Caramel-Coconut mixture
3. Dip bottom of cookies in melted chocolate
4. Drizzle tops with melted chocolate

The Cookie (base):
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
up to 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, next, the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk only as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (you may not need any at all). The dough should come together into a soft, pliable ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough seems sticky.

It's easiest to roll the dough out in 2 or 3 batches (between pieces of wax (or parchment) paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or a little thinner) using a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined (or on silicone mat) baking sheet and make a hole in the center. I used one of those big plastic straws. You know the ones that your kids blow into and they drive you crazy with that whistling sound. However, this part is really not necessary. Next time I don't think I will do it. They will give you the Girl Scout look, but the flavor is still the same. Repeat until the dough is used up (it's okay to re-roll, this dough is shortbread-like and very forgiving.)

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are very lightly golden brown around the edges. All ovens are different so I actually did mine for 9 mins. and they came out perfect.

Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, to allow them to firm up slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-ounces good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
8 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips will do, however, I found that when I made them with the chocolate chips they melt in your hands even after setting up.)

(If you prefer milk chocolate use it. I used semi-sweet and JBody wishes I would have gone with Milk. He is a huge milk chocolate guy though.)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F)

Spread coconut evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Watch carefully, especially near the end of toasting time; the coconut toasts very quickly once it begins to become golden.

My Notes: 20 minutes was too long. The coconut was already golden at 10 and I had to take it out.

Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.

Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 teaspoons per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it begins to firm up, to make it soft and spreadable once again.

While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper (I dipped them and then had them set up upside down before drizzling). Transfer all remaining chocolate into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.

Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Let me just tell you that you have to try these. And once you make them hide them from yourself. Trust me they are addicting. I have plans to make them again. I have a cute cookie container idea I found on pinterest. We are going to give them away as Christmas Presents. Let me know if you make them and what you think of them.

Recipe credit: Nicole @ Baking Bites.com

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love pinterest. I have become addicted to it. In the evening while we are watching tv I find myself looking through pins. I have found many things that I will slowly be doing myself and sharing here on the blog. Here is a recipe that I knew I wanted to try out. I had to share it with you.  I shared it on my Positively Peaches blog, but I wanted to share it with my Peach of Cake followers as well.

They were pinned and posted by i am baker.

The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

*I only used all purpose flour for my recipe.

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds chocolate chips

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.

Using a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy – about 5 minutes. Add eggs. Stir in vanilla. Reduce to low speed and add dry ingredients slowly, mixing until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 24-36 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350.Drop spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

I don't know why these turned out perfect. Whenever I make chocolate chip cookies they spread out thin. It could be because the dough is refrigerated. I don't know, but these were so yummy. Try them out and let me know what you think.

Corn on the Cob Cupcakes

A while ago I bought a book called "Hello, Cupcake". It is full cute cupcake ideas that are fun and pretty easy to do.  I hadn't made cupcakes out of it for a while so I decided to make these corn on the cob cupcakes for our family 4th of July get together.  They are cute, easy, and fun.  But I will warn you, atleast for me they were a bit pricey.  I went to wour local candy store for the jelly bellys.  My goodness jelly bellys are over priced.  However, the end result was worth it. 

I know lots of pictures.  For all the work I put into my cakes and cupcakes, I have to take lots of pictures. 

What you will need:

24 cupcakes baked in white liners. I used my favorite WASC recipe. 

Vanilla frosting tinted yellow.  I have yet to put my favorite frosting recipe up.  I will eventually.

Lots of jelly belly's in yellows, cream, and white colors (the book says 3 1/2 cups, but they don't take into consideration that some are going to be eaten.  I don't know how many pounds it was, but at the candy store I filled the whole bag to the tip top.  I was able to cover 30 cupcakes. 

Yellow laffy taffy or starbursts.  The laffy taffy looks most like butter and is easier to work with.

Black and white sugar.

Let's get Baking:

1.  Bake your cupcakes

2. Prepare your frosting and tint yellow. 

3.  Frost your cupcakes and arrange jelly bellys into five rows on each cupcake.

4. Place 3 cupcakes touching in a row. 

5. Cut laffy taffy in half and mold the edges to shape into melted butter pats. 

6. Put a small amount of frosting on the bottom of your laffy taffy and place on your cupcake.

7. Sprinkle with sugars.

8. If using insert your corn holders to each end of your cupcakes.

R2D2 cake

This weekend we celebrated Lil' E's 7th Birthday.  Going along with the Star Wars themed Cupcakes we made this R2D2 cake.  This was a fun cake to make.  It is made from 3-6"rounds, and a 1/2 ball cake pan.  The cake itself was alternate layers of White Sour Cream Vanilla Cake and Chocolate Cake with Cookie n Cream filling.  This go around I even made my own marshmellow fondant.  It turned out great and was just as easy to work with.  Who would have thought.  Man I have been spending way to much on the other stuff.  It only cost me about $5 to make 6 lbs.  Wheras the other is about $4-$5 a pound.

Thanks for looking!

The arms weere made out of Rice Cereal Treats that were covered in buttercream and fondant. 

 

I can't believe Lil' E is seven years old. 

Wilton Punch. Cut. Decorate! {Giveaway}

I haven't posted a giveaway on here before, but thought I would let you know of one that is going on right now at Mom Spotted.  Look at these super cool Wilton Punch. Cut. Decorate! tools:

For those who have never piped or piping doesn't come easily these cute sugar sheets can make it easier. They have different colors, prints, solids and alphabets.

The tool that I am most excited about are the cake punches.  I do have my cricut cake, but when I don't have to pull out the cricut the better.  These look so fun to use.  Some of these even come in sets of 3 different sizes for layer.  Oh I want these too bad.



Do you want a chance to win this Wilton Punch. Cut. Decorate! set valued at $126.  If so head on over to Mom Spotted.  Good Luck, but I will be honest I am keeping my fingers crossed that this giveaway comes my way!

Have I mentioned that I really wish I knew how to become a Wilton Mom Abassador to try out the newest Wilton's tools?  If any of you know how I can do so please let me know!!

Baseball Cupcakes

T-Ball and Prep are coming to a close tomorrow and we just happen to have snack, and it is Lil' E's birthday.  Well it was planned because I am the team mom.  I thought it would be fun to make cupcakes in the colors of the boys' teams.  Lil' E is light blue.  They were the Mariners.  Doble's team is orange.  They are the Tigers. 

I used my FAVORITE cake recipe, but altered it a bit by substituting the vanilla for the almond extract.  I think most kids like vanilla better.  Then I topped it with a GENEROUS swirl of Italian Meringue Buttercream...MMMM!  The little baseballs are out of fondant with tylose and then piped with royal icing. 

sorry in advance to the parents whose children will be consuming all that frosting.

Star Wars Cupcakes

Not the best picture of these cute little cupcakes.  Lil' E is having a Star Wars themed birthday.  For his Kindergarten class today we made Star Wars light saber cupcakes.  Super cute and super easy!  He actually just wanted frosing and star sprinkles, but can you believe it NO SPRINKLES anywhere in town.  I think these turned out better and he loved them.

Can I just say that I am LOVING the frosting recipe I have been using to lately.  It is so light and creamy.  I will never go back to frosting with powdered sugar again.

Thomas Goes to the Circus

Thomas and the Chinese Dragon Birthday cake for Doble.

He wanted a Thomas Carnival cake and this is what I came up with.  For his preschool class we made cupcakes to look like boxes of popcorn.  This was alot of fun to make.  Everything is edible.  The two figures are made from gumpaste, and the circus tent is out of rice cereal treats.  He chose a vanilla cake with cookies and cream filling and a chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream and raspberry filling.

Once again I had to cover Doble's name.  The red little plaque thing on the bottom layer has been colored in to hide his name.

I used nut and party cups instead of cupcake liners. Every other crease was colored using a sharpie.  The popcorn look was created using marshmellows that had x's cut into the top of them and then painted using yellow food coloring.  We had butter and extra butter!

Strawberry Banana Muffins

About a month ago a friend on my facebook posted a link to this recipe. I knew I wanted to try it. However, strawberries and bananas don't last too long in our house. The kids devour them quicker than I can muster up the motivation to bake. A couple days ago we went to costco and bought fruit and lots of it; apples, oranges, grapefruit, grapes, bananas, and strawberries. With so much fruit in the house I was actually able to try out this new recipe!

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 medium, ripe bananas
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix the bananas, eggs, brown sugar and butter until blended. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Stir in vanilla and strawberries by hand so as not to mush the berries. Spoon into well greased muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
Makes 12-18 muffins.

The Verdict: The house smelt delish! I love the smell of baked goods and banana bread is one of my absolute favorites. The muffins were also very tasty. The banana and strawberry flavors as always compliment eachother. I will admit strawberries are not my favorite mushy foods. I like them fresh. I hate them in strawberry yogurt. I don't like chunks of mushy strawberries so it did take me a bit or two to get past the warm mush of strawberries. I may have to try one later when they aren't warm to see if it helps. If you can get past the mushy strawberries you are sure to love these. I have a feeling they won't last long in the house.

For more yummy recipes visit Nanzinas-Recipe-Swap.

Banana Crumb Muffin Recipe

Tonight while JBody was at Priesthood session for General Conference, I decided to let the kids watch Tangled. We just received it from Netflix. With a movie, often times comes snacks. As I looked around for something for the kids to snack on I found some ripe bananas. I remembered Razy talking about making cupcakes and decided to go muffins. I quickly surfed the web for a test worthy muffin recipe. I found a yummy sounding Banana Crumb Muffin recipe with great reviews.

So what was our verdict?

DELICIOUS, yummy, ScRUMPtious,mmmmmMMMMM! The list could go on.

Here is the original version of the muffins (found on allrecipes.com).  I actually made some additions.  You can find those and some tips at the end of the recipe.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted



1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

2.In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

3.In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

4.Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

So I added 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. of cinnamon to the muffin mix

The topping is seems to cook into the muffin if you add it before putting it in the oven.  I actually did a batch by putting the topping mix on 5 minutes before baking time ended.

In my oven I baked the mini muffins for 7 mins then added topping and baked another 5 mins.

I baked the larger muffins for 17 mins adding the topping at the begining.  Next time I would bake for 12 mins and then add topping and bake another 5 mins. 

Let me know if you tried these out and what you thought.

Wanna share a muffin recipe?  Post one on your blog and send me the link, send me an email (djpeachparty5 at gmail dot com) or post in my comment section.  I love new recipes! 

Winnie the Pooh and Friends Baby Shower Cake

Winnie the Pooh Baby Shower Cake for Baby Drevin.  The Client asked for an elegant Winnie the Pooh cake with bows and characters.  The orginal plan was to sculpt just the Winnie the Pooh and put images of the characters on the side.  After sculpting the Winnie the Pooh I decided to go ahead and do the other characters. The client was so appreciative that I wanted to go over the top with it.  It pays to be thankful :) I love the way it turned out. 

New technique I tried.  I have a little work on it, but I think it brings in that simple elegance to the cake.

I would like to eventually own a fondant diamond impression plate.

Fondant T-I-double G-ER

Doble asked why Eeyore was smiling.  "He is supposed to be sad", he said.

Cute little piglet

Sleepy Pooh

Top Layer: Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Bottom Layer: White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream and Fresh cut Strawberries.

All the Winnie the Pooh characters are sculpted from fondant mixed with tylose to make a gumpaste