Easter or Spring Cake. Fondant rabbit and flowers.

Easter/Spring Rabbit in flower garden cake.

So I'm a little behind on some blogs here but hope to catch up soon, it has been a full few weeks for us, moving, lots of Dr. trips and some time with family.

With my love of cake decorating I thought I might share this adorable cake that I made for our Easter dinner. While I wasn't sure which kind of cake to make I was looking at pictures online and my daughter saw a rabbit on a cake on the computer and said "make rabbit momma".   So, that is what I did, and what fun it was. Especially when she saw the finished product, she still talks about it weeks later :)

Here is an awesome recipe for Marshmallow Fondant, you can use a pre-made fondant  but this fondant taste great and we all love it, so simple and cheap.

4C Powdered Sugar + extra for kneading and counter

4C mini marshmallows

2tbsp water

coloring and flavor if desired

-----In a large microwave safe bowl heat marshmallows and water for 20-30 second intervals until thoroughly melted. If you want to add flavor add at this point 1-2tsp (though in my opinion it isn't necessary), also, this is where you will add the coloring (you will need to make it darker than your intended color because adding the powdered sugar will do quite a bit of lightening to the color). Another option is making this white and breaking off pieces and adding 1 drop at a time of gel food coloring and kneading into fondant until desired color. Now, add the powdered sugar and mix until you can't stir with spoon any more then pour out onto a powdered surface with powdered. sugar and then dust the top too. Work together and kneed until it is smooth. This is going to be sticky and messy :) Roll out on powdered surface for making cuts or covering things, or break off pieces to mold into animal at this point.

NOTE: If ever the fondant becomes too sticky to handle or form then just dust with a small amount of powdered sugar.

First I made fondant flowers a couple weeks ahead of time so they would have time to dry out completely and be easy to handle. Here is a great flower mold sold by Global Sugar Art, it creates such adorable, medium sized flowers for any and all baking projects and I LOVE it. When I started with the cake I also wanted a few sizes of flowers so I purchased this plunger set, also from G.S.A. and used the largest one and the second from the smallest as cutters for the fondant. When using these plungers they also will fit into the same mold to imprint the design on all the flowers. Just cut out the flowers then press in mold (you may need to use a toothpick to get them out but I found they popped out easy on their own) lay upside down on a paper towel to harden up. Once they dry out you will need to paint them with a SMALL amount of water with a new paint brush or use one that you have from Wilton or like company. You will need to do one side, let dry wet side up then do the other side because they will be really sticky on the wet side and will get stuck to the surface you lay them on as they dry. Once both sides are painted and dry you can place in an air tight container and keep for up to 3 months. When applying to cake if you are putting it on fondant you will just need to wet it lightly to make it sticky so it will adhere to fondant, no need to do this if placing on regular icing.

 

Next, I made the rabbit and I can't tell you how much fun I had creating this little guy. I can't tell you much how I did this, I do most of my molding by looking at pictures or what not and working on it as I go. I made the body, the ears, head, legs, and tail. This is where you will need to do and impressions like in the feet or wherever because once it dries it will be much harder. These were all made out of white and the color on ears was molded separately and placed on using a little water as the glue. You will need to take a toothpick and stick it about half way in the ear in the middle pressing your fingers on each side of the ear to make sure it doesn't protrude thru. How I did it was I let all these things dry (only because I work in between my kiddos naps most times) then I made the eyes, flower (made this rolling out a small, long oval shape and rolling up and pinching bottom), and the leaves and glued all on with a small amount of water. The ears you will press the 1/2 of the toothpick not in the ear into the head of the rabbit. Paint down the rabbit once all pieces are together with a small amount of water to dissolve all powdered sugar and clean up. Let this dry on a paper towel for several days if possible (if not it should be fine to place on cake already).

 


And if you were wondering, the cake was AWESOME, what a hit! Especially the kids, they all shared the rabbit and wanted the piece with lots of flowers. Since the fondant was marshmallow fondant it taste yummy!

What's for dinner? Chili cheese pasta bake

What's for dinner? Chili cheese pasta bake

My kids love noodles... love, love, LOVE them. And honestly, so does my husband and I as well. So, we try all sorts of things with pasta, this is my latest, made it last night.

Chili cheese pasta bake:

1 lb ground beef (we used venison but I know that's not something allot of people use)

3c elbow mac noodles

14.5oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes (or fresh tom. diced and roasted)

27oz can Busch's chili beans

16 oz mild cheddar, shredded (divide into 2 8oz sections)

4oz Velveeta cubed

2 eggs

 3 tbsp chili powder

3 tsp cumin

1tbsp salt (plus extra for boiling noodles)

Saute onions and meat together with chili powder, salt and cumin until meat (if you do use venison you will need to add a tbsp or 2 of olive oil as it is more lean than beef) is browned and the onions are translucent. Add beans, tomatoes to meat mixture and simmer together on med-low heat.  Boil noodles to al-dente in salty water, drain. In large bowl mix noodles with meat/onion mixture then add 8oz of the cheese, mix well. In small bowl scramble the 2 eggs and then stir in quickly to noodle mixture. Pour into 9x13in glass pan, place Velveeta evenly around the mixture and then top with the remainder of the shredded cheddar. Bake at 375 about 25 min or until cheese starts to brown.

 

ENJOY!

(It was definitely a hit with my husband and our kids who love anything involving noodles and cheese)

What's for dinner? Pizza night!

The other night we tried something I found on Pinterest (yes, I'm addicted to pinterest). It was a great concept but for some reason the amounts did not turn out just right for us. My husband tried it and I tried it also, both came up with about the same thing but still more flour than the recipe I found had. SO, this time around I measured it out and here is our recipe we used for Pizza dough, SUPER SIMPLE 2 ingredient pizza dough that is!

1c plain greek yogurt

2c self rising flour (a little extra for dusting your hands and surface also)

Yep, that is all!

(roll out to about 1/4 inch)

Now you can top it with whatever you like, it being our daughters favorite we used mushrooms and pepperoni and cheese!

 

And as it goes most times when we are cooking, here is our little helper who found her way to the counter!

 

 

Brush on some garlic butter at the end and you are done!

 

ENJOY! 

Loaded Chocolate Cookies

Loaded Chocolate Cookies

3/4c white sugar

3/4c dark brown sugar

2 sticks butter (softened)

1/4c cocoa

1tbsp vanilla

2 eggs

2c Self rising flour

1c mini marshmallows

1 1/2c semi sweet chocolate chips

(ok so everything is pictured, BUT apparently I forgot to add the vanilla into the picture so lets just ignore that mistake lol)

My daughter, Annabelle is just over 2 years old and aside from being miss chatty, she LOVES to help me with anything, cleaning, taking care of her little brother, any chores but most of all she loves to cook or bake so every now and then we forget the things that need to be done and simply enjoy things together. Today, Cayden (little brother) was happy playing with his toys and she wanted to bake so instead of our usual chores this morning we made some cookies together. This, well this is one of my all time favorite parts of being a stay at home mom! Yes, I take care of the house, the kids, the meals and all that BUT, the little moments that we can laugh and play doing things together and making memories with one another... That is the BEST part.

Here is miss Annabelle (her messy hair and all) using the mixer all by herself...

So, on to the cookies...

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and both sugars together. Add vanilla and cocoa and mix again. Add flour and mix well on slow speed, then add eggs and continue to mix on low speed until well blended.

Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon cookies onto greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart then place 2 or 3 marshmallows on each cookie. Bake at 350 for approx 7-8 minutes. Let stand on pan for about 3 minutes to firm up some and then transfer to baking rack to finish cooling.

 

(Annabelle Rose... so proud of her baking skills :)

YUMMMMMM... 

And most of all, they are kid approved... Little brother likes when we bake.

This is a recipe we threw together today, but I wrote it all down as I went so I'd be able to remember it all and they turned out great! Extra chocolate and yummy bites! Maybe this recipe will make it into your kitchen making memories with your family!

ENJOY!

Whats for dinner?... Stuffed portobello, Easy glazed carrots & rice with gravy!

So, what's for dinner? Last night we had one of my husbands (and my daughters) favorites, stuffed portobello mushrooms! Now keep in mind, this is one of my own recipe/creation so there is no exact science to my cooking. I don't generally measure things but I am going to put down what is in it and the amount I try to stay around I trust you can use your judgement if it needs a little more or less. I LOVE to cook, and so these post's will be ideas and things we came up with or recipes we use to create the meals we enjoy. If you have any questions on anything you can surely ask!

Teriyaki Stuffed Portobello

4 large portobello mushrooms

1lb hamburger

1bag mozzarella shredded cheese

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt

Garlic salt

1 medium onion

1/2c teriyaki (see bellow for brand but any will probably do)

1/4 c soy sauce

4tbsp minced garlic

1tomato diced

First off, I washed the mushroom and pulled the stems out (save them for the gavy) then in an 11x13 pan I drizzled some olive oil and used a pastry brush to coat the bottom of the pan. Put the mushrooms in the pan stem side up.

 

Next, in a large sauce pan, saute 1 onion and the 1lb hamburger meat together with 2 tbsp minced garlic and 1 tbsp garlic salt. (Portobello mushrooms are great as the "meat" of a meal, but, husband is quite the fan of meat so most meals will include necessary or not lol... oh, and we are ALL lovers of garlic so you can expect to see that in most every meal)

Once the meat is browned and the onions translucent add in approx. 1/8c Soy and 1/4c Teriyaki sauce (this kind pictured has a GREAT flavor and we use it quite often but if you have one you like I'm sure it'll do the trick). Then let simmer for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add salt to taste.

 

While the meat, onion mixture simmer top all of the mushrooms with about 1/8c chz per mushroom

Once the meat mixture is thru simmering spoon mixture onto mushrooms. (it's ok if a little of the mixture is left in the pan, you'll use the same pan to make your gravy)

Let the mushrooms sit aside for a few minutes. In the same pan as the meat mixture add approx. 4c water and 2 bullion cubes.

Cut up the stems that were pulled from the mushrooms and add them to the pan as well. Add approx 1tbsp salt, 2tsp garlic salt and 2 tbsp minced garlic. Once the bullion is dissolved good add 1/4c teriyaki sauce and 1/8c soy sauce then mix 1c cold water with 2tbsp corn starch and add to the mixture, bring to boil and cook until thicken slightly. Add more to your preference of "thickness" for gravy.

Once the gravy is to your preference (you may need to add a little salt, I tend to under-guess my salt allot due to I need more salt then most people so I dont want to tell you too much and it be too salty). At this point, spoon a small amount of gravy on each mushroom and top again with cheese.

Top the mushrooms and cheese with the diced tomato.

Bake at 350 for approx 15minutes or until you can see the mushroom side soften and start to fall a little.

We served with rice and extra gravy and some easy glazed carrots.

2 cans sliced carrots (mostly drained)

1/8c brown sugar

1/4 c teriyaki sauce

Cook the carrots approx 5 min and then add teriyaki and brown sugar, cook an additional 5 minutes. Voila!

 

ENJOY!