My dad and James' sister both came over to celebrate his birthday with us. We went to Homegrown Pizza, which is the best pizza place, and had a great dinner! We mostly went there for their wings - they also have the best wings! I worked all day to make my first made-from-scratch cake. It took me a lot longer than it will in the future because I wanted to make sure I made it perfect. I usually just get the cake mix in the box and the frosting in the plastic container but wanted to make his birthday special. I got the recipe from my Real Simple magazine. I love this magazine because it has tons of helpful little things in it like recipes, budget advise, neat facts, decoration advice, etc. My favorite section is the New Uses for Old Things where it will show you many different ways you can use something like aluminum foil or a q-tip to help clean the house or practical uses for it. For example, did you know you can use an antacid tablet to lift bouquet residue from the inside of a vase? or you can use it to clean your toilet? I even bought the Real Simple book called 869 New Uses for Old Things :-)
The May issue had a great section on making homemade cakes and frosting from scratch. They had all kinds of flavors of icing you could make and fillings. It also had great cake decorating advice and great cake topping ideas. James said he wanted a chocolate cake with vanilla icing. For the cocoa powder, I bought Ghirardelli cocoa. James loved my cake! My first cake ever turned out tasting so good! It didn't look the prettiest, but I am working on that! I don't have a frosting kit yet and am hoping to by the time I make my next cake. I was amazed at how easy and simple it was to make the entire cake! It is definitely not the healthiest cake, but it is the best tasting cake! And, it's ok to eat because calories don't count on people's birthdays, right? Now that I've had made-from-scratch cake, I don't know if I can go back to Betty Crocker!
Chocolate Cake
1 c. unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, spooned and leveled
2 c. all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs at room temp.
1 1/2 c. whole milk
- Heat oven to 350 degree F. Butter the pans, line the bottom with parchment, butter again, and dust with cocoa, tapping out the excess. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt; set aside.
- Using an electric ,mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high until fluffy, 2-3 mins. Beat in vanilla, then the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix just until combined.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Vanilla Icing
2 c. unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 pound confectioner's sugar sifted
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract.
Pinch kosher salt
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on high until light and fluffy, 3-5 mins. Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually add the sugar, then the vanilla and salt, and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
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| James and his sister Catherine |
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| My first cake! |
A few days later we celebrate my sister Tracey's birthday. I made her homemade lasagna and ice cream cake. The cake was so easy to make too and it was so good also! I made it when we were invited to dinner with a family from our church. Their kids liked it so much that they wanted me to make it for their birthdays :-) I used to get the Kraft Food and Family magazine until they started making you pay for a subscription. Now you can get all of their recipes online for free!
Oreo and Fudge Ice Cream Cake
1/2 C. fudge ice cream topping, warmed
1 tub cool-whip, thawed and divided
1 pkg. jell-o instant choc. pudding
8 oreo cookies
12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches
1. pour the fudge topping into a medium bowl. Stir in 1 c. of the whipped topping with a wire whisk until it's well blended. Add in the dry pudding mix; stir 2 mins. or until well blended.
2. chop the cookies into chunks. Stir into the pudding mix
3. arrange 4 of the ice cream sandwiches, side by side on a 24x10 inch piece of foil; top with half of the pudding mixture. Repeat the layers.
4. top the pudding mixture with the remaining 4 ice cream sandwiches. The layers create a neat stripped effect when sliced.
5. frost the top and sides with the remaining whipped topping. It doesn't have to look perfect. (This part was hard for me, b/c by this point, the ice cream sandwiches are starting to melt so it's a little messy!)
6. bring up the foil. Double fold top and ends to loosely seal the packet. Freeze at least 4 hours before serving. Let stand at room temperature to soften slightly before serving.
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| Tracey's birthday cake ( I didn't have a 9 candle, so there are 9 singular candles beside the 2) |
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| Tracey and Cody |
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