Star Wars Birthday Party

Three of my grandchildren have their birthdays in the first week of March.  This is the year for all the new Star Wars stuff coming out.  I tried to avoid making one of these cakes but in the end I relented.  I chose to do an Ewok tree.  As usual the grand-kids loved it!  

I found boxed chocolate cake and white cake for sale at a great price and couldn't turn that down so I made chocolate sheet cakes for the bottom layer and covered them with chocolate butter cream frosting.  That is also between the layers.

The top is made out of white cake with butter cream filling.  I used a wedding cake column and covered it with fondant to make the tree.  Don helped me put a flat surface on the top and screw both top and bottom into place.  It was really stable.  We had to take it in the car to the party location and it traveled well.

I used a small mixing bowl to form the hut roof with fondant, scored it with a blade, and painted it with petal dust.  I carved the top of the cake round so the roof fit nice and wouldn't slip off.

Wilton has some pretty cool grass sprinkles in two different colors.  I used that to make the cake look like a forrest floor.

Princess Leia and Yoda are made from fondant.  I made Luke Sky Walker holding a light saber but he fell of the cake and got ruined.  Need to watch my structure when placing figures on a cake!

Olaf Birthday for Teacher Casey

My daughter, Casey, loves the song "In Summer" from the Disney movie Frozen.  She is also a school teacher for K through 2. This year I asked her if she would like an Olaf cake and she about jumped for joy.

I made a coconut cake for the top layer and chocolate cake for the bottom layer with chocolate butter cream frosting. It was pretty tasty.  Just click on the links for the recipes

I made Olaf out of fondant.  I was going to buy a toy topper but they were all too big.  I think he turned out really cute.









What I really like is that Wilton has put out some cool party cake decorations that worked perfectly for the bottom layer.  I put enough on because I knew all her students would want some. I used coconut flakes for snow.

 Casey invited all her nieces and nephews to the party along with some of her students and little church friends. Instead of singing Happy Birthday they sang "In Summer"!  It was loads of fun and the kids including Casey really enjoyed the party.

Custard Base Vanilla Ice Cream

Homemade ice cream is the best.  I have an electric ice cream maker that sits on my counter top.  It came with recipes that I have tried and are good.  The one I make most doesn't use eggs.  However, I kept hearing about eggs making the ice cream much smoother and, of course, richer.

I wanted to try a custard base ice cream recipe.  I found one on line from a site that I found my butter cream and fondant recipes. What'sCookingAmerica.net. If you click on the custard base link it will take you there.

This turned out very good.  It was smooth and rich and good flavor.  I used home made chocolate sauce and home made caramel sauce and sprinkled with chopped walnuts.  Oh boy howdy - out of this world. The recipe makes a small amount so double or triple it depending on the size of your ice cream maker.

Kaiser Rolls - Awesome for burgers!

I've been a a roll lately, pun intended.   I love Kaiser Rolls for burgers.  Since I can make my own wheat bread I thought I would give these a try, I mean, how hard could it be?

It wasn't hard at all.  They turned out fluffy inside and crusty outside.  You can use any kind of burger you want but I made a lentil burger which was "dyno-mite" according to my hubby.

I recommend toasting the buns lightly on a grill before filling with burger and veggies.  It is super tasty and helps keep the bread from getting soggy.

For the Kaiser Roll recipe just click on the link.  I found it on Taste of Home which has many yummy recipes that I have used in the past.

I'll try to get the lentil burger recipe up soon.  That is if I can remember it.

Challah - Bread With Meaning

 

 

 

 

This is my first attempt at Challah, a bread the Jewish families make on Friday to welcome in the Sabbath with their meal.  They light candles, pray the Sabbath prayer with special blessings and enjoy a tasty meal together. Being Seventh-day Adventist I have kept the Sabbath all my life. My daughter, Casey, and I wanted to do something fun from another culture that would highlight the beginning of the Sabbath and so we did the Friday night Shabbat meal.

In order to be ready for the Sabbath all work is completed beforehand. Cleaning, cooking, shopping, business, etc. That makes it easier to sit and really enjoy without pressures to get things done. The TV is off to keep us from distractions. We set the table with candles, silver, and special plate settings.  I bought flowers to adorn the table. All this was done and ready before sunset.

I made the bread around early afternoon.  I discovered you can make the first part and then freeze it.  You need to let it thaw for 5 hours before baking. This is a very rich eggy bread.  I found the recipe posted by Joan Nathan, "My Favorite Challah". It yields 2 loaves. (This represents the two portions of manna that fell on Friday.)

I found on line a video that would show me how to braid the bread.  Just click on the link to watch.(The strands that are rolled to braid represent, arms intertwined, symbolize love, truth, peace, creation, freedom, harmony, family connection, unity and justice.)

Our menu was potato soup, salad plate, cheese, and of course Challah.

I did some reading about the Challah and discovered it is full of symbolism and meaning.  Certain forms of Challah are used for different occasions and holidays.  It is a "sacred" bread. The Jewish Faith doesn't much care for those who mess with this bread in other ways than originally intended.  It's main symbol was to represent the manna God gave to Israel during their years of wondering in the wilderness.  We talked about this at the meal. My grandsons were very interested in what manna was and how it was used.  It was great to find wonderful things to discuss at the table.

Don read from Isaiah 58:13, 14.  It is a perfect text for this type of meal.  He had a prayer and blessed our family and meal.  My oldest grandson also had a prayer and it was the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard him pray. 

I'm so glad we did this fun activity and I think we just may make it a tradition!  Shabbat Shalom!

Camping Cake

 

 

A friend of mine is going to be quite surprised to get this cake tonight at her birthday party.  A group of girls are getting together to help her celebrate at the local Bistro in town.  When I first thought about this cake I was going to do Tulips or flowers for a woman.  But that didn't seem to sit well and I couldn't come up with a design.

 
 

One thing I have learned about cake making is that the cake is most appreciated when it reflects something about the person.  They appreciate it so much more and it suddenly becomes a memorable and special cake. This is a homemade chocolate cake that you can find the recipe by clicking on the link. The chocolate buttercream frosting recipe is below.

 

My friend loves the out of doors and camps a lot when the weather permits.  She also takes her beagle with her.  I tried my hand at making a dog and realized it was a terrible failure.  I went on line and found a tutorial on making gum paste dogs.  I watched it once at night when I was in bed and I could hardly wait to get up and make the dog.  This dog was hard because of the size.  He is very small and he doesn't look much like a beagle, however he is cute and makes the statement about my friend.

 

I like to have my cakes look good from all sides and I need to show this picture and her ponytail so you would know this is a girl!!!

 

I love the fire pit.  I used some gold sprinkles for "coals" and fondant for flame.  The marshmallows are fondant on match sticks.

Chocolate Frosting

1 stick butter (1/2 cup) melted

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)

1/2 cup half and half

1 teaspoon good vanilla

Melt butter.  Stir in cocoa.  Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency.  Add more half and half if needed.  Stir in vanilla.  Makes about 2 cups.

I let the beater really work on it for at least five minutes.  Makes it really glossy and spreads well.



Gold Rush Cake

 

 

I made this Gold Rush cake for Sebby's 9th birthday.  We watch this program together and he loves it. We bought the rock truck, loader, and diggers from the dollar store.  I made the workmen, rocks, and trees out of gum paste and fondant mixed together 1 to 1. I used butter cream frosting.  There was a huge sale on boxed caked mix so to save time I just used that.  Preferably I like to make cake from scratch. This was a fun cake to make and I took direction from Sebby how to put it together

 

I found the cool "grass" sprinkles at Walmart. The bear doesn't look too scary!

 

For the dirt I put chocolate Graham crackers in the food processor until it looked like fine dirt.

 

Since Gold Rush is filmed in Alaska I had to do a bald eagle!