Easter Bunny Cake

My son's birthday is next weekend and the cake I am doing will be covered in Fondant.  Since I have never covered a cake in fondant I thought it would be a good idea to try it out first, and I had received this cute bunny cake pan for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.  The other thing I wanted to try was making marshmallow fondant.  I have used the store bought stuff before for embellishments, but the stuff tasted awful and was expensive.  Then I discovered marshmallow fondant.  How have I not heard of this before.  It was 3 ingredients and dead simple to make and it tastes better then the regular stuff.  Here is the recipe I used.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces miniature marshmallows (4 cups not packed, or half of a 16-ounce bag)
• 1 pound powdered sugar (4 cups), plus extra for dusting
• 2 tbsp water
• Food coloring or flavored extracts, optional

Dust your counter or a large cutting board with powdered sugar. Put the marshmallows and the water in a large microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for a minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and have expanded.

Stir marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. If some unmelted marshmallow pieces remain, return to the microwave for 30 seconds, until the marshmallow mixture is smooth and free of lumps. If you want coloured or flavoured fondant, you can add several drops of food coloring or extracts at this point and stir until incorporated. 

Add powdered sugar and begin to stir with a spatula. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes stiff.

Scrape the marshmallow-sugar mixture out onto your work surface that has been covered in powder sugar. This is going to get messy. Dust your hands with powdered sugar, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.

Continue to knead the fondant until it is no longer sticky and smooth. Once the fondant is a smooth ball, it is ready to be used. You can now roll it out and shape it. To store, wrap well in cling wrap. Well-wrapped fondant can be stored in a cool room or in the refrigerator, and needs to be kneaded until supple before later use.

I also made some cute little baby chick cupcakes.

 



Club Baked: Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

I have to admit that these were a bit of a disaster for me.  I always seem to mess up on the easier recipes.  Everything was going well, until I reached the part of adding the buttermilk.  I was distracted by a massive baby and toddler fight that was happening right my feet.  All because my little one had pulled up on the step stool my older one was standing on.  Geesh.  Anyways I ended up adding a cup of milk and not half a cup.  Of course I did not figure it out until I had put them in the oven.  They baked up alright, but had no flavor at all.  Good thing I live in a house full of boys, add some frosting and some sprinkles and they are the best tasting thing ever :)

Thank to Andrea for hosting and I look forward to reading how the other bakers  turned out.  I will try these again, and next time only add the half cup.

Club Baked: Nutella Scones

Welcome to my first blog with Club Baked.  This is another baking book (Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito) that I received this past Christmas.  So far everything I have tried from this book has been a huge hit in our house, and it looks like I joined just in time to make the one recipe my husband has had his eye on.  He LOVES Nutella.  To the point that we actually don't keep it in the house, because he will eat a full container in a day.  I even hid the container when I brought it home so I would have enough to make this recipe.

The recipe was easy enough to make.  I was able to get it done during the day while my youngest was napping.  I decided to leave out the nuts so my baby was able to have a bit as well.  I also put more Nutella then asked for in the scone.  This made for a real mess when I flattened it into a round disk, but worth it in the end.  These scones were super tasty and made me wish I had some vanilla ice cream.

Instead  of using spoons to drizzle the Nutella on as they suggested in the book, I decided to use my squeeze tube that I use for decorating sugar cookies.  This way everyone was able to put on as little Nutella or in my my family's case as much Nutella as they wanted.  This was a great recipe and we will definitely be making these again.  Thank you to Lorraine at PhDcupcaker, for hosting. Make sure to check out her site for the recipe.  Also make sure to check out Club Baked to see how all the other bakers did.

                                                

Happy First Birthday Liam

Well my baby turned ONE this past week and since he does not have a favorite anything (at the moment) I picked the theme.  I decided to go with Mickey Mouse.  I think my cake turned out pretty darn cute.  Between work and kids this cake was a two day process, but boy was it worth it.  I made the cakes (two small pans and one big pan) as well as the black icing on one day and made the peach and red icing and decorated the next day.  I thought I was going to have a hard time getting the black icing black and not purple.  However the trick of dying chocolate buttercream vs regular buttercream really did the trick.  I also made some cookies shaped as Mickey Mouse's pants as well.

I found this on the  Disney family site.  Super cute.  Just use your favorite sugar cookie recipe and some yogurt covered raisins and visit the site to get the template.  Make sure to use a lot of red food colour.  Mine were red when they went in the oven, but when they came out, the heat had turned them pink.  They still tasted and looked great, but would have been even better if they were red.

The little guy had a great time and I can't wait to make more cakes for him in the future.  My two year old has already informed me he wants a Toopy and Binoo cake.  I have two months to figure out what the heck I am going to do for that.

Cake time



One tired little boy

MSCC : Strawberry, I mean Raspberry Marble Cheesecake

This is my first recipe that I am baking with the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club.  My hubby bought me this book just a couple of months ago for Christmas and even though I am a little late joining this party, they still have plenty of recipes left to try.

This months selection was chosen by  Gem at Cupcake Crazy Gem.  I thought this was a great pick and I used this as my Valentine's day dessert.  I did make one modification, as you can see from my title.  My husband is not a raspberry fan, so I went and used strawberries instead. I found these to be very tasty and everyone went back for more.  I topped mine with some whip cream and sprinkles for the occasion.

I did have to eat these with a fork out of the wrapper.  Not because of the whip cream, but because I found them a bit tricky to get out of the wrapper.  Not sure if I was the only one that had this problem, or if this was how it was supposed to be.  I did cut this recipe in half so I may have not put in enough or to much of something.  However fork or no fork, this recipe was super tasty and I will be baking them again.   My boys were very happy with their Valentine treat.  You can find the recipe here and make sure to visit MSCC to see how the other bakers did.





Chocolate-toffe crunch layer cake with milk chocolate frosting (hubby's birthday cake)

I have had my eye on this recipe for some time now.  Originally I was going to make it for my husband's birthday last year, but being 3 weeks shy of giving birth to our second son, I was in no mood to bake.  This recipe is from The Bon Appetit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild.  There is a great cake section in the back of the book, and so far all that I have tried have been super tasty. 

My husband loves Skor bars, and this cake calls for crushed Skor bars in the middle layer of the cake.  It was a nice little crunch in an otherwise moist cake.  The cake was super yummy and we had no problems finishing this cake.  I think this cake would be even better if it was for a larger crowd because after the first day, the crunchy skor bar in the middle got a little soft.

 I did have some problems with the icing.  For some reason I could not get it to the correct thickness.  It was still a little on the runny side.  It still tasted great, so I decided to pour it on the cake and then let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up a bit.  It still tasted great even if it was not as pretty as I would have liked.  I had some left over Skor bars so I crushed them on the top instead of the chocolate curls that the recipe asked for.

Hubby loved his cake as did my oldest.  The baby so badly wanted some, but he will get to try his very own cake in three weeks.

Chocolate-toffee crunch layer cake with milk chocolate frosting

Cake

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup hot water

1 3/4 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp

1 3/4 cups sugar

3 large eggs at room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup whole milk

Frosting

1 1/4 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 pound milk chocolate (like Lindt) chopped

4  1.4 ounce chocolate-covered English toffee

(like skor)

1  7 ounce bar milk chocolate

For the cake

Pre heat oven to 350f and make sure the rack is in the centre.  Prepare two 9 inch diameter cake pans. Combine unsweetened chocolate and 1/2 cup hot water in small saucepan.  Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted and smooth.  Cool to lukewarm, stirring often. 

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and blend.  Using an electric mixer, beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy.  Gradually add the sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Add vanilla.  Beat in chocolate mixture.  Add flour mixture in three additions alternating with milk in two additions. 

Divide batter equally between the two pans.  Bake cakes fro 35 minutes or until tester inserted into middle of the cake comes out clean.  Cool cakes in pans on rack for 5 minutes and then turn cakes out onto racks to cool completely.

For Frosting

Combine cream, corn syrup and butter in large saucepan.  Whisk over medium heat until mixture begins to simmer.  Add the chopped milk chocolate.  reduce heat to low and whisk until the mixture is smooth.  Transfer to a bowl.

Fill another large bowl with ice.  Set the bowl with chocolate mixture on top of bowl with ice.  Whisk until cool and starts to thicken (about 8 minutes).  Remove bowl from ice.  Use an electric mixture and beat until colour lightens and the frosting is thick enough to make peaks.

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up on a cardboard round.  Top layer with 1 1/2 cup frosting and spread to edge.  Sprinkle evenly with diced toffee.  Top with second layer of cake.  Spread thin layer of frosting to seal the crumbs.  Then working quickly spread remaining frosting on the cake.

Decorate with chocolate curls or in my case crumbled up skor bars.

Enjoy.

                                             

                                               

                                                     

Monkey-Bubble Bread

This Christmas I received four brand new brand new baking books.  Martha Stewart Cupcakes, Back to Baking by Anna Olson, Cake Pops (Bakerella) and Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. 

The last book "Baked Explorations" I have wanted for a while.  It was actually a Christmas present to myself.  There are so many tasty looking recipes, I did not know where to start.  So why not the first page.  This recipe suggests that this bread should be made for a large crowd or you will be eating it all to yourself.  So I took their advise and made it for a post Christmas get together at my in laws.  The second suggestion is to serve warm.  I was not sure if I was going to be able to pull that one off.  I did not have instant yeast only bread machine yeast so it took two hours to rise versus the one it says in the book. However my baby overslept his nap by an hour so the bread was finnished on time and still warm when I got to my in laws.  The smell nearly drove my husband and I crazy.  The whole car smelled like a Cinnabon.

They were a hit, not to much was left at the end of the day.  Mostly because of my husbands two teenage cousins.  They were more then happy to take the handful that were left home in a Ziploc bag.

I will definitely be making these again, very easy to make, and turns out just like the picture (love when that happens).


MONKEY-BUBBLE BREAD

For the Bread
1 1/4 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
4 cups all purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

For the cinnamon sugar coating
1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled


Spray the inside of a 10-inch Bundt pan with cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, warm the milk to a little over room temperature and remove from heat.  Add the yeast and whisk to dissolve.

In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar and salt until combined.

In a small bowl beat the egg with a fork and add to dry ingredients.  Mix on low speed until combined.

Keeping the mixer on low, slowly add the milk until combined.  Add the melted butter and mix until the dough comes together.  Replace the paddle attachmentt with the dough hook.  Continue to mix on medium for 8 to 10 minutes or until silky.  The dough should mound together.  If to wet add flour, if to dry add water.

Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough in the bowl.  Make sure to roll the dough around the bowl so all sides are covered in oil.  Cover with a dish towel and let it rest somewhere warm for an hour (or more, in my case)

Put some parchment paper on a sheet pan.

Use cleans hands to push down the dough.  Pat it into a rough circle.  Use a serrated knife to cut dough into 1 to 1 1/2 inc pieces.  Roll into balls.  Lay them on the sheet pan and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

In a small bowl mix sugar and cinnamon.  Have the melted butter in a separate bowl.

Remove plastic wrap and dip the balls in the melted butter.  Then roll them in the sugar and place in the Bundt pan.  Repeat.  Wrap the Bundt pan tightly in plastic wrap and let rest for an hour in a warm place.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Remove plastic and bake for 30 minutes or until it is a deep brown and the caramel coating is bubbly at the edges.

Cool bread for 5 minutes and turn on to a platter.  YUMMY.