Bountiful Basket #8

by penji1

Yesterday’s Bountiful Basket was a huge haul!  All this for $15!

2 cantaloupes

1 bag green grapes

6 nectarines

2 pears

9 bananas

5 ears corn on the cob

2 bags of carrots

1 bunch broccoli

3 green peppers

1 head green leaf lettuce

22 potatoes

Courtney and I love sourdough bread so Bob added these to the basket, 5 loaves for $10.

And Bob and Zach love homemade salsa which Bob has been making a lot of lately so he also added on this Mexican pack which included onions, garlic, a couple of different kinds of peppers, tomatillos, avocados, limes and cilantro all for $8.50.

Check out http://www.bountifulbaskets.org for more info.

Bountiful Basket #7

by penji1

Here is Dexter checking out last Saturday’s Bountiful Basket (again!) which contained:

1 head green leaf lettuce

4 ears corn on the cob

3 Roma tomatoes

1 bunch broccoli

1 cantaloupe

1 bag purple grapes

6 peaches

3 pears

7 bananas

13 plums

1 container of strawberries

We had the corn on the cob with Sunday dinner and we also had the lettuce and tomatoes in a salad with Sunday dinner.  Bob usually eats most of the fruit during the week.  Loving the BB!  Want more info?  Go to http://www.bountifulbasket.org and check it out!

“Licious” Chocolate Fondant Birthday Cake

by penji1

It was my friend Kristi’s birthday last week so Courtney and I put together a surprise birthday cake for her.  Courtney started calling Kristi “Kristilicious” several years ago at Girls Camp and Kristi loves the nickname so much (not!) that Cort decided to put it on her cake.  The cake is an 8″ Chocolate Sour Cream cake (from the white almond sour cream cake recipe) iced with vanilla buttercream frosting and wrapped with chocolate Pettinice fondant from Funfinity.  Cort then took over and decorated it with Duff’s purple buttercream fondant from Michaels and white Pettinice fondant from you know where.  We’ve been using corn starch to roll out the fondant (so it doesn’t stick to the mat) but with darker colored fondant it presents a problem when the corn starch gets on it, it is really hard to get off so we need to research and find a different method.  Happy Birthday Kristi!

And a note to my subscribers – you might notice a decrease in the amount of posts for the next couple months and that is because I am 2 1/2 weeks in on a 9 week film shoot so my free time for both cooking and blogging are severely limited.  I’ll post when I can but it will be slow until about mid October, however I already have a giveaway planned for when I am done with the shoot and it will be a good one so stay tuned!  🙂

Warm Toasted Marshmallow S’more Bars

by penji1

Bob had his Sunday School class over tonight for a barbecue and swim party so I made these treats for them.  I found the recipe on the back of the Betty Crocker sugar mix pouch.  They were really easy to make and really tasty to eat!

1 (17.5 oz) pouch Betty Crocker Sugar cookie mix

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup butter, melted

3 cups milk chocolate chips (I didn’t have enough milk choc chips so used semisweet instead)

4 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

1  Blend cookie mix and graham cracker crumbs then add melted butter and blend.  Press into ungreased 13 x 9″ pan.

2  Bake at 375 for 18 – 20 minutes or until set.  Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over baked layer.  Let stand 3 – 5 minutes or until chocolate begins to melt.  Spread chocolate evenly over baked layer.

3  Set oven control to broil.  Sprinkle marshmallows over melted chocolate.  Broil with top 4 – 5″ from heat 20 – 30 seconds or until marshmallows are toasted.  (Watch closely; marshmallows will brown quickly.)  Cool 10 minutes.  (Here’s my tip – spray your cutting knife with Pam before cutting the bars that way the marshmallow won’t stick to the knife and you won’t end up with a huge mess.)

Bountiful Basket #6

by penji1

That’s my cat Dexter checking out this week’s Bountiful Basket, he had a fondness for the green corn leaves!  🙂  Here’s what came in today’s basket:

2 bags clementines

5 bananas

4 mangos

1 cantaloupe

1 bag purple seedless grapes

1 container strawberries

9 Roma tomatoes

2 red peppers

7 ears of corn

1 head Romaine lettuce

Pretty good haul!  I’m making Mango Confetti Salsa again and I’m also going to make a Tres Leche Cake and top with it with the strawberries (both those recipes are already on the blog).  We’re having a barbecue tomorrow with Bob’s sister Mary and her daughter Clara so we’ll do the corn on the cob and maybe a green salad or a fruit bowl.  Gotta love the Bountiful Basket!  Need more info?  Check out http://www.bountifulbasket.org

Lavender Tangled Doll Fondant Birthday Cake

by penji1

Here is the last cake of the week!  It’s been a week full of challenging cakes.  This one was for Little Evelyn Belle who was turning 1 and my friends Pam (Evie’s grandma) and Shayla (Evie’s mom) wanted a Disney Princess cake or a Tangled cake so we decided to give the old Barbie doll cake a try with fondant.  The main body of the cake is a chocolate cake made from the “Barbie Doll cake” instructions and then I made a chocolate 8″ round which I trimmed to fit the bottom of the Pampered Chef Batter Bowl cake that the Barbie doll cake was baked in.  Some Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and then Duff’s Buttercream Fondant in purple (from Michaels) finished her off!  Courtney made the sleeves and bodice of the dress out of fondant and then she made Pascal out of Duff’s green fondant and he is adorable!  Cort always puts the finishing touches on our cakes which make them special.  We bought the Disney Tangled doll at Walmart and had to take her legs off because we couldn’t get her into the frozen cake (easier for us to frost and cover with fondant when frozen) and didn’t have the time to wait for it to thaw.  If you make a Barbie doll cake either with fondant or frosting, make sure you wrap the Barbie’s hair up so it doesn’t get stuff in it especially if it is Rapunzel!  Happy Birthday Evie!

Choo Choo Train Fondant Birthday Cake

by penji1

My friend LaRobyn’s little boy Alex turned 3 and she had a birthday party for him on Friday morning.  Alex is obsessed with trains, he loves them so she had a pirate choo choo train party for him.  Courtney and I found a 3D train pan at Michaels and were so excited to use if for Alex’s cake.  The baking of the train cake in the 3D pan was a bit of a process but in the end it came out pretty good.  I baked the candy train car cake in a loaf pan, not filling it up quite as far as normal so that it would not be too tall.  Both cakes are Chocolate Sour Cream Cakes (based on the “White Almond Sour Cream Cake” recipe) then of course my Vanilla Buttercream Icing and after that the Chocolate Fondant from Funfinity which was also a bit of process to get on the train cake).  Courtney used a cookie cutter for the 3 on top of the cake and she sculpted the little Alex riding the train out of fondant (see pic below for a closer look).  We filled the train car with candy and also used various candies to decorate the train with.  Overall, it came out pretty good and was good practice for us on another 3D cake which present their own challenges.  Happy Birthday Alex!

Orange VW Bus Fondant Birthday Cake/Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe

by penji1

Today is my husband Bob’s birthday and so Courtney and I decided to be daring and attempt a 3D cake of his 1974 VW Bus which Courtney and her friends call “The Twinkie”.  I’m not gonna lie, it was a little tricky but it came out ok, not perfect but not a total loss either.  I baked 2 chocolate pound cakes (see below for recipe) in 2 loaf pans to get a shape similar to the bus; we were going to carve them to be more round but decided to just go with them as is and go for a more cartoon like look.  I frosted them with my stand by Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and then used Duff’s Buttercream Fondant in Orange for the bottom (available at Michaels, tastes great!) and the white buttercream fondant from Funfinity for the top.  Courtney took over from there and made tires, license plates (so cute!), windows, wipers and lights.  It was good practice on a 3D cake for us.  Happy Birthday Sweetie!  Here’s the Chocolate Pound Cake recipe which is from the Hershey cookbook, “Chocolate for Every Season”:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/4 cups flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1  Let butter, eggs and sour cream stand at room temperature 30 minutes.  Heat oven to 325.  Grease and flour (I used the Baking Pam instead) 9 x 5 x 3″ loaf pan.

2  Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda.  Beat butter on medium 30 seconds.  Gradually add sugar, beating about 10 minutes or until very light and fluffy.  Beat in vanilla.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating 1 minute after each.  Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately to beaten mixture, beating after each addition just until combined.  Pour into prepared pan.

3  Bake 60 – 70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove from pan to cool completely.

Fall Themed Chocolate Fondant Wedding Cake with Coral Flowers

by penji1

Our first wedding cake for our friend Katie and her new husband Camron (they were married yesterday).  Katie’s colors were fall colors (reds, oranges and yellows) so she decided to go with a chocolate covered fondant cake and the brown fondant looked so great with her colors.  This is a 12″, 10″, 8″ and 6″ square cake with the top and 3rd layers being White Sour Cream flavor and the 2nd and bottom layers being Chocolate Sour Cream (both flavors based on the White Almond Sour Cream cake recipe) then covered in Vanilla Buttercream Icing and then Chocolate Fondant (from Funfinity).  Here is the official name of the fondant “Pettinice Chocolate Rolled Fondant Icing” and it says it is made in New Zealand (first time I’ve noticed that!).  There is a website also on the label which is http://www.bakels.com which I am going to check out after I finish this post.  Katie bought the ribbons and the flowers and berries (which are fake) and the cute little twirly things on the top which I think made the cake.  We were having trouble finding a cute tray to display the cake on but then Katie got creative and bought a picture frame which was genius!  So our first wedding cake was a success which is comforting because we have 2 more to make this summer!  Congrats to Katie and Camron, thanks for letting us be a part of your big day!

Gram’s Best Brown Sugar Cake

by penji1

This is not my gram’s cake recipe, I think this is a Kraft recipe but I can’t remember where I got it from so I’m not sure.  It is so delicious!  Try it, try it right now!  🙂

1 (2 layer size) package yellow cake mix

1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla flavor instant pudding

4 eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup oil

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans (I didn’t have any pecans so left them out)

2 teaspoons powdered sugar (I used my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting instead of sprinkling with the powdered sugar but the cake is so delicious that it really doesn’t need frosting)

1  Heat oven to 350.

2  Beat first 6 ingredients 3 minutes or until well blended.  Add brown sugar and nuts and mix well.

3  Pour into 12 cup fluted tube pan or 10″ tube pan sprayed with cooking spray.  (I baked in two 8″ round pans.)

4  Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan 15 minutes.  Loosen cake from sides of pan and cool completely.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.

Special Extra:  Sprinkle pan with combined 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon after spraying with cooking spray.