Cakes!!!

Ok here is my blog about the Birthday cakes I made for my friend's daughter and my stepdaughter on the weekend.

Normally I would make the cakes from scratch, but my fav cake mixes were half price in Woolies last week so I cheated :)

I used a Devils Food cake mix to make the cakes, however for my stepdaughter's cake I also used a layer of chocolate brownie which I made from scratch. The recipe is relatively simple: for the size cake I needed I doubled the mixture, but standard is 150g Butter at room temp, 1 Cup firmly packed brown sugar (push it into the cup as you fill it), 2 eggs,1/2 Cup Plain Flour, 1/2 Cup Cocoa. You cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time and mix through thoroughly, then add the flour and cocoa. Put it into a lined and greased pan, then into the oven at 160 degrees for 25-35 mins (til a skewer comes out clean). Nice rich brownies!

So, I put the small cake together with 2 layers of Devils food cake, with a layer of chocolate buttercream in the middle (normal buttercream with a small amount of cocoa (taste for flavouring) then covered the cake in the rest of the choc buttercream. This is how it looked: 

I then continued onto the other cake, putting a layer of Devils food on the bottom, then a layer of chocolate ganache, the brownie layer, another layer of ganache, then the top layer of Devils food on top. I then needed to trim the sides as the brownie layer (even though it was cooked in the same pan as the other cakes) seems to have expanded as it cooled. So I evened it all out, then covered in plain buttercream (I figured there was already enough chocolate in this one lol). This is how it looked:

I put them both in the fridge overnight, then got them out in the morning once I had prepared my fondant ready to roll out. This allows the buttercream to soften again and stick to the fondant. 

So I first covered the big cake with white fondant. I then pained this with watered down brown gel colouring (basically i put a tiny amount of colouring on the brush, then dipped in water to thin it a bit) covering the entire cake. I was after a rough effect as it is for Team Jacob, Jacob is a Warewolf with brown fur. I was going to go back and attempt a fur-like effect by dabbing with the round brush, but it looked good and I was running out of time. I then printed out a Wolf paw-print then used it to cut out black fondant. To apply to the cake I brushed the underside of the paw print with water as i was putting it on the cake. Repeating this with each of the pads, and using the template I printed making sure I lined them up correctly (before the water has dried you can still move the fondant pieces around). I then used some leftover white fondant, and a cheap set of alphabet cutters I bought from the cake decorating shop, and cut the letters out for Team Jacob, placing them across the paw-print. This is how it looked:




I finished it off by using the alphabet cutters to cut out "Happy 13th Mikhala" with black fondant, and placing them across the front of the cake, and on the board. I also used an apple shaped cutter and cut a red apple, which represents the Twilight books/movies. This is the final product:



Next was the little cake, I started the night before by making a little girl to sit on top. There are tutorials on youtube for how to make them, and they are relatively easy! I'm not a real arty/crafty person, and the little people are very simple to make. This is how she turned out:



I rolled out some black fondant (something different for a 1 year old's birthday cake lol) and smoothed it onto the cake. I then rolled out some purple fondant and cut the letter for her name, and a number 1. I worked out how I was going to put them on the cake, then used some water and attached the letters and the little girl to the top (yes, dried fondant can still be attached with water). I then cut out a flower and a heart and put them either side of her name. Here is the final result:







I did it on the angle for something different. There really are no rules when it comes to decorating cakes, your imagination is your only limit! I am quite proud of the cakes I have made, and looking forward to doing the next one. I am making my Mother in Law's 60th Birthday cake in a few weeks. I can't say what its going to be as I want to surprise her, and I know she reads my blog lol, I'll just say its going to be relatively easy, but will look fantastic! 

I hope you have enjoyed my blog up to now, I will be back in a couple of days with more recipes!

Enjoy!

Linda 

Looooooong Weekend!

Hi guys! Sorry its been a few days, we have had a very busy long weekend here. Starting with the 2 birthday cakes I baked and decorated myself. I have pics of everything from start to finish with them so will upload them shortly.

Today though I am making a nice little recipe I found for Chicken Leek & Mushroom Casserole http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/17827/chicken+leek+mushroom+casserole  which instead of doing in the oven, I have put it in the slow cooker as per one of the comments underneath the recipe.

So far it smells good, I did halve the stock and the white wine, however if needed I will put a bit more in later.

I will be back in a little while to post up some pics and blog about the cakes!

Ok I'm Back!

Tonight's dinner was yummy! I think this is one of the top runners for my fav so far now :) Here are some pics:









The kids loved it too, as you can see! Tomorrow night is Beef Strog again, so I wont be blogging that one, as I already have lol


Enjoy!


Linda

Day 5 - Chicken Quesadillas

Tonight was using leftovers, I bought a bbq chicken to have on sandwiches for lunch yesterday, and had heaps left, so I thought I would use the leftovers, with some leftover tortillas I had in the fridge, added some grated cheese and some gucamole I had left from Monday night (we had crispy chicken wraps), spread some guacamole on the bottom, covered in grated cheese, broke up some chicken over that, put another tortilla on top, chucked them under the grill (turning them once browned on top) and viola! Chicken Quesadillas!

Here are a couple of pics:

Thats all for tonight, tomorrow I am starting on the cakes! I will start blogging around lunch time once I have baked the cakes I am using. 

See you then! xoxo


Linda

Day 4 - Texas BBQ Chicken & Poddies!

Ok, I know I'm a bit late today for my first part of my blog, I've had a pretty busy day. However, I did have 5 mins to throw some chicken legs in my slow cooker, sprinkle with some Paprika, and cover with a bottle of Smokey BBQ sauce. I then turned the slow cooker on low, and left the house for a few hours. This is what I returned to:

Mmmmm how good does that look? Im thinking we will have it served up with a bit of salad, a nice simple healthy meal for the whole family.

Moving on to Poddies, I have tweaked the original recipe that was given to me (which was simply Gingernut biscuits, a tin of top n fill caramel, and a pack of milk choc melts) due to hubby complaining about too much ginger, I have instead used Choc Ripple biscuits, and found myself a nice patty cake tin in woolies today today which makes the perfect shape for the base of the poddies, a nice cup shape to fill with caramel and top with melted chocolate. Here are some pics of the process:





Ill be back later with more pics and to let you know how everything goes down with the family :)

I'm back! Another success! I think I'm on a roll here lol.

Well here is my plated up simple yet very yummy dinner:



And I know this is the fav part for some of you, my little joys enjoying their dinner:








Some would assume my children are starving! Never mind they ate an entire loaf of bread today while I was out, good thing I bought 2 or I wouldn't have had any lunch!

Anyway, I doubt I will get pics of them enjoying the poddies, but I know they will go down a treat, the kids just wont take long enough to eat them to stay still for pictures lol

Not sure what's on the menu for tomorrow night yet, possibly chicken quesadillas with leftover bbq chook we had for lunch. However I will be starting my blog about Mikhala's birthday cake tomorrow as I will be starting the baking then :)

Until tomorrow! xoxo

Linda

Stepping back a little - Logan's Naming Day Cake

Ok, time to take a step back while I have a million and 1 things going through my mind, and go back to the process I took in making my first ever fondant decorated cake.

I decided, for some silly reason lol (possibly too many episodes of Ace of Cakes, I love Duff!!!) that I would give cake decorating a go, and make a very important cake for my youngest child's naming day.

I started out by having a little test run, after consulting some other mums in a wonderful group called Mamabake (see link on the right) I decided to make my cake from scratch, something I havent done since I was in about year 7 home economics. I gained the knowledge (and recipe) of a wonderful friend (who shall remain forever known as HRHM - Her Royal Highness Mamabaker) and gave it a shot. My practise attempt was a quick little single tier cake simply decorated that I decided to share with the mums at playgroup. I used the basic vanilla sponge recipe HRHM gave me, and added food colouring to make one layer Purple, and the other layer Blue. I then coloured my white fondant in green and blue to cover and decorate it.

Here are some pics of the process:

The cakes put together with choc chip buttercream

Covered in fondant

Decorated

Now, the one big mistake i did make, well 2 i think, was firstly not putting aside some of the buttercream before i put choc chips in it, which made the crumb coating (buttercream layer on the outside) lumpy and chunky. Secondly I think i rolled the fondant a little bit thin. Together these left big holes in the fondant, and big lumps in the finish, instead of it being smooth. All in all though not a bad first attempt!

Now on to the big occasion!

I started baking on the thursday, for a cake which needed to be ready for Saturday. I researched this as I was short on time due to having to arrange everything else for the day, and found that if i were to cover the cakes once they had completely cooled with plastic wrap they would be fine and wouldnt go stale before i got to serve it all up on the day. 

So on the thursday afternoon I began baking, 2 layers of Oreo cake (Vanilla sponge recipe with crushed oreos added to the mix) 2 layers Choc sponge (Vanilla recipe again with cocoa added) and a layer of chocolate brownie. I did all of the cakes ready to be put together on the friday, covered them in plastic wrap (double wrapped them) then put them in a cool place, which was my pantry. On Friday afternoon I started crumb coating them. 

Oreo cake


Brownie


Choc cake

First i put the top 2 tiers together, i cut the tops off the cakes to level them, placed one on the thin cake board i purchased which was the right size for the cake (purchased from cake decorating shop) then i put a layer of buttercream in the middle, placed the other cake top-down over the other one to have a flat finish on the top. I then used more buttercream to put a thin layer (enough so you cant see the cake underneath) around the whole cake, top and sides. I placed this in the fridge to be used on saturday. 

I then repeated this process with the bottom tier, placing it on the oversized wooden cake board (purchased from cake decorating shop already covered in silver) then layering with chocolate ganache, the layer of brownie, more ganache, then the top layer of the cake, top side down as I did with the first tier. I then covered this whole cake in buttercream (as I learned from a friend who used to do all my cake decorating that fondant doesnt like to stick to ganache) then also placed this in the fridge for saturday.

Saturday morning, with only hours til the naming ceremony was to start, i got up and started decorating. Rolling out the fondant and covering each layer. Then I cut some thick skewers (also purchased from the cake decorating shop) to the right height and placed where the corners of the top tier would sit, through the bottom tier. This gives enough support that the top tier will not sink into the bottom. You dont realise how heavy these cakes are til you pick them up! I placed the top tier on top of the skewers, on the bottom tier, then sat back and decided how best to proceed with decorating.



I decided to cut animals from different colours of fondant that i had rolled in the days previously (you are able to play with and colour fondant in advance of its use, as long as you keep it air tight between uses, which I did by wrapping the coloured fondant in plastic wrap) I did this using the red and orange colours I had aside and used some clean play-doh cutters loaned to me by a friend. I then used a cup with just tap water in it, and my pastry brush, brushed some water on the back of each animal as I placed them around the bottom tier of the cake. I then rolled some balls of yellow fondant and placed around the bottom of the cake, which hides the seams for the fondant. I then did the same with white fondant for between the top and bottom tiers. I followed this by cutting out clouds from the white fondant, using a flower shaped cutter, but using just one edge of it, and hand cut the letters for my son's name in white. 



I then stepped back to admire my work, however I wasnt completely satisfied with it. I had attempted on the Thurs to make a little Logan figure for the top of the cake, however Logan liked his little person so much, he decided to eat himself while I wasnt looking! So I decided to try again. I followed the tips of a tutorial i found on youtube a few days earlier, and did it once more, this time it was more of a success, and looked so cute! It really was quite easy to do. But it still wasnt 100% finished! So I asked my sister in law to have a look for me and tell me what was missing. As I did this Logan came wandering past us, dragging his big blue blankie behind him! My SIL thought this was perfect, and I should put one across him on the cake. So I rolled a nice thin piece of a slightly darker blue fondant than i used to cover the top tier, then placed it over the arms and legs of "Logan" and arranged it so it looked like a blankie. I then gently lifted it from each spot it was to contact and brushed some water, which after drying had it stuck firmly in place!




FINISHED! I stepped back again and felt so much pride I was nearly in tears, I did it! I successfully decorated my first cake! The kids then came in to check it outand were all rapt with it, including the special little man himself!



Once our guests arrived they all came to check it out, knowing I had been planning it and working hard for weeks on how to do it, and pleased to see how it turned out. It gave me a lot of pride in myself cos "look what I did!".

Anyway, here are some more pics of it. My pride and joy that I worked so hard on, and was slightly disappointed to "ruin" it by cutting it open, but was even more proud when everyone devoured the first tier and asked to take some home!

See you tomorrow!

Linda

Day 3 - Beef Pot Roast

Today is a very simple one, Beef Pot Roast. Easy as! Peel and cut into reasonable pieces 4 large potatoes (I had 8 small), 2 good size carrots and 2 onions (i used red cos i like them as explained yesterday). Place them in the bottom of your slow cooker. Place a good size piece of Beef Blade Roast on top of the veges, mix 1 cube (or sachet) of beef stock in 125ml boiling water, pour over and around, put lid on, walk away for 10-12 hours if you are cooking on low, or 5-6 on high (perfect if you have to go to work, you can leave it on all day while you are at work, come home and dinner is ready!). I made my life easier by peeling and chopping the veges last night and put them in a bowl of water in the fridge (stops them going brown) which gave me the added advantage of a little vege stock to put in, substituting part of the boiling water the recipe asked for with the stock.

This is how it looks at the start:

Ill be back later with more pics and to tell you how yummy it turns out :)

Well, it was another roaring success!!! Yummiest, most moist beef roast I have ever had! All I did was in the last couple of hours i stirred through another sachet of beef stock, and enough gravy powder to thicken up the juices, then once it was all cooked and gravy thickened i pulled out the meat, sliced it up and put it back in to soak up the gravy a bit. Left it on warm for a couple of hours while we went to footy training, then served up once we got back. YUMMO!!! I have never been able to do a beef casserole before, I think this is gonna be the way i do it though :)

Anyway, here are some pics of my piglets nomnomnoming on our yummy Pot Roast:

Omnomnom










Hubby and I had seconds, and Mikhala just finished what the boys left lol

Tomorrow: Texas BBQ Chicken, and a special blog on thurs/fri when I will be making and decorating Mikhalas 13th Birthday cake! My 2nd actual decorated cake I will be doing myself :)

Enjoy!

Linda

Day 2 - Slow Cooked Beef Strog

Well ladies (and gents if any are reading) I am up bright and early on this lovely day to bring to you a recipe and blog about Slow Cooked Beef Strog!

So when I was doing my menu for the week I looked up some recipes (after the kids telling me they wanted certain things) and came across this one http://www.slowcookerrecipes.net.au/slowcooker-recipes.asp?id=24 for Strog. I thought yay! no hassle, i can chuck it all in the slow cooker and go out for the day! So thats exactly what I am doing today.

The most time consuming part of it all has been coating the meat, due to the fact i have no plastic bags (no idea where they have gone, one of those mysteries that happens in a house full of children) i mixed the dry ingredients together in a bowl (flour, salt, pepper, paprika) then coated each piece and threw them in the slow cooker. Once that was done it was a matter of quickly chopping an onion up (i sliced up a spanish/red onion, just for something different) then throw in the tin of tomatoes, beef stock, tomato sauce and I skipped on the Sherry cos i didnt have any. I also skipped Mushrooms cos i forgot to buy some, and my family dont eat them anyway, they get picked out and put in my bowl lol. I then added a tiny dash of extra paprika, just cos i can! Dont you love how I stick to a recipe hehehe. The lid went on, i turned it on to low, and now I will shower and dress and go to visit my Sister-in-law for the day! Husband is on strict instructions not to touch anything, however I will call him later (around 4pm) to throw some sour cream in and stir it through, then he can put the lid back on and leave it til I get home.

Will be serving this up tonight with some spiral pasta, so will finish my post once it has been served and consumed by my family :)

In the mean time here's a pic of the beginning of the cooking process:





I'll be back later, til then, enjoy!

Here is a pic of it all yummy and cooked:



Waiting for potatoes to cook, hubby requested mash with his strog tonight instead of pasta, typical male to change my plans! So an early dinner for me and the kids, hubby gets his later when he gets home.

More pics when i serve up :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All done! The kids enjoyed it (as the pics show) and my biggest critic Mikhala (my darling step daughter who loves Beef Strog!) polished off every little bit that was leftover, lucky for hubby I put his aside for when he gets home lol or she would have eaten that too! I think night 2 has been a big success as well!

Here are the pics:















Give it a go yourself, so easy, cheap and very yummy!

Tomorrow night, Beef Pot Roast. Already have the veges peeled and chopped ready to go in, just have to put it all in my slow cooker in the morning and turn it on :)

See you tomorrow!

Linda