This was brilliant. BRILLIANT.
Rainbows! Look!
I didn’t think it was so brilliant at first. I so didn’t think this cake was going to be edible. I thought it was going to be such a disaster that at the last minute I made up “backup cake”. yeah. I thought it was going to be that bad. But it wasn’t. It was exactly the cake that the 10 year old wanted. Brilliant. I wish I had taken a photo of the cake before it was thrashed into. It was quite cute with it’s blue frosting and pretty fluffy white clouds:
Wanna make one? Yes you do. No really, you do.
Ingredients (this is essentially a white cake batter and you’ll need to make 2 batches of this)
1 1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk
For my cake I used Cherry, Orange, Lime, and Berry Blast. **Note: We got the idea from American Girl magazine advert - there was a note that said to not use grape. I’m not sure why, but my guess is that it would be horrible tasting in the cake.
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9×9 inch pan
2.In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.
3.Pour half the batter into a separate bowl. Add in packet of whatever jello flavoring. May need to add food color as well so that it’s bright enough. The only one in my cake that I had to color was the blue. Color each half differently or use 2 packets of the same and make one cake all one flavor.
4. Pour batter into the pans (one flavor per pan, or you could marble them, that would be different).
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until your toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
This cake has a different texture to it. Thanks to the jello and it’s mildly flavored.
Try it. It’s different. The kids and adults all really liked it.
Oh, and the frosting. I made 3 batches of regular butter cream. About 3/4 of one batch was colored yellow for in between the layers. Another 1/3 or so was left white for the clouds. The rest was blue for the sky. This cake is a behemoth measuring 9 inches in diameter and almost as tall.
Are you still reading? What are you waiting for? Go make cake.
Ice cream is a big part of our menu around here. I don’t like to eat much of the commercial stuff from the market as it usually has too much sugar and the flavor always seems a little off somehow. My own ice cream, I can make it how I want. I tried 4 new flavors of ice cream last week and I wanted to share 3 of them with you. Why not the 4th? It was a chocolate one and I have a house full of chocolate lovers who informed me that while it was good, it still wasn’t quite right. Back to the drawing board.
Cheese Cake ice cream:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1.5 cup whole milk
the juice from half a lemon
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Mix all of this in a blender. I tried to do it with a good mixer and it was still clumpy - you need it smooth.
Then stir in 1/2 cup heavy cream
Refrigerate until cold. Then plop it all into the ice cream maker and let it do it’s thing.
This stuff is so good. Ridiculously good. I think it’s especially good with fruit on it.
Mmm cherries….and a homemade warm graham cracker
Original Cream Cheese Ice Cream recipe
Coffee Gelato:
5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of super strong espresso
2 heaping teaspoons of ground espresso
Mix it up thoroughly - cool for 3-4 hours then do it up in your ice cream maker.
I ground the espresso really fine. If you wanted crunchier chunks then you would just grind it a little coarser. I loved the little specks that it made in the final ice cream. This is my favorite. It needs some kind of orgasmic OMG kind of a title. I was in love with the Cheesecake one, until I finished this one. so so so good Best coffee ice cream that I’ve ever had.
Last but not least
BlackBerry frozen Yogurt
This started with homemade yogurt that I strained so it was just a little creamier than chevre cheese. It wasn’t firm but it was definitely thick. I’m not sure it needed to be that thick but it was still really good.
3 cups - strained plain unflavored no sugar yogurt
1 tsp Raspberry flavoring (liquor or extract)
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup of Blackberries. (I had some frozen from last year, I just thawed them out before mixing in so they’d break up good)
Mix it all up and refrigerate for at least an hour (longer if all your ingredients weren’t at least a little cold - Then using your ice cream maker, do it up right. Original Frozen Yogurt Recipe
Sorry for the lack of photos folks. It didn’t dawn on me that they’d all be eaten so quickly that I wouldn’t get pictures. Luckily I had a bowl of the cheesecake one the first night I made it, otherwise I wouldn’t even have that one.
For those of you that aren’t just skimming, you really read, you might have seen that I said something about a homemade graham cracker. I’m a sucker for graham crackers but uneasy not knowing what’s in it. I decided I had to make my own.
There’s something still a tad off about these. As soon as I find the right recipe or I create it, I’ll let you know.
I haven’t written about food here in a while. I’ve just been plodding along trying to eat write and make good food for the family. This past week I finally ordered myself a Kitchenaid mixer. Oh sure, the man wanted to get me one a ways back but in my delusion I refused til finally I felt I couldn’t live without it. First thing out of it was homemade pasta for supper. Then the first big thing out of it was Ice cream cupcakes. It’s a little easier than having to make it all by hand….well, that and now I have an ice cream maker.
I used the Black Magic recipe to make the cupcakes. I took one tin and made them fairly light, I wanted to have room for the ice cream to come. But I had batter left over so I had to make a few more and then made Peanut Butter icing to go with those.
When the cupcakes that were getting ice cream were done, I froze them. This makes them easier to work with and gives me time to make the ice cream. I made 2 flavors - Chocolate Gelato and Strawberry Gelato. I made the recipes almost exactly. I added chocolate chunks to the chocolate one and the strawberry one had less sugar and more berries. The Chocolate came out richer with a better texture. The next time I make ice cream I’m going to use something like that one but with fruit/less sugar (I’m not a huge chocolate fan and that chocolate one is too chocolatey).
Notice the new papers. The cupcakes are done, I pop them out and cut them in half so that I have a bottom and a top. I put the bottom back in the pan and then put a good dollop of ice cream in there and top it off with the cupcake top. I let them freeze up solid and then frost them.
I had a little peanut butter frosting left so two got that, the rest got a simple ganache (just chocolate and heavy cream) that I whipped when it was cooled to form a more airy fluffy frosting. I’m not great at putting the icing on. I think my next investment will be a piping bag and tips. I had them at one time and then decided to use them in the pottery studio. It was a nice set too. You wouldn’t believe how much kitchen gear ended up out there.
I haven’t given out a recipe in a while. I’ve been uninspired or eating the same old things. Yesterday the Twitter folks were killing me with the food talk and my friend Jen suggested greens to chase away the hungry monster. It worked well.
The veggies in there are Bok Choy, Chard, Napa Cabbage, Cucumbers, and some tomatoes just to lighten it up. The dressing is Stone ground mustard, a touch of honey, olive oil and cayenne pepper for heat. It was incredibly good and gave my hunger a beating.
This is for my stripey section of the Mystery Shawl:
I’d like to cast on at some point today. Mondays are that special hectic kind of day that it doesn’t always happen so it might not get cast on until tomorrow.
I finished my February Lady over the weekend
I need to block it today and then hopefully by Wednesday I’ll be wearing it.
I already have Liesl wound and waiting to go but I’d like to finish Baby Boogie’s sweater first. And of course I have the fiber dyed and waiting to be made into yarn that will get used for Whisper (IK spring 2009) and for Cece (Chicknits)
I haven’t had much for recipes for you lately. Things have been stagnant here in the new recipe department since the fruit revelation. Funny how one little thing can set a girl running back to the food she knows. So it’s been a lot of salads, green smoothies and rice dishes. Last week I made my first batch of Kombucha.
When I went in for a tattoo day 2 weeks ago, Jennifer had brought in a little SCOBY for me. I bought my jar and away I went to make my Kombucha. In case you don’t want to click the link, it’s a fermented tea drink. It tastes ciderish. We make it with less sugar than is called for and use Turbinado. In that way the Mother eats all the sugar out of it so we can still live a sugar free existence.
There is a lot of information about how to make it and Jen has some linked from her site. Here’s one site with videos The guy in that video is entertaining but boy does he use a lot of sugar. You can use a ton of sugar but you don’t have to. Though you need to use some. Mother needs the sugar to eat and live. Poor Sara was forced to drink my Kombucha that hadn’t had it’s final fermentation. It is good and ok to drink after a week without the rebottling, but it should be even better today though.
There is some knitting and spinning too. Actually I’ve been doing a ton of spinning though most of it is not recreational. This is the yarn I’ve done for the Goddess Anniversary Shawl knit along:
Because of a discussion in Ravelry….I decided I needed to start the shawl and did the first round just before the second round was posted. I think I’m just going to do chart D all the way through. Less decision making if I just follow one all the way.
That is assuming I actually keep going and aren’t halted by other work.
