squeals of delight

around here at birthday time, it's ALWAYS ALL ABOUT the CAKE.

i was cruisin' around facebook and saw this cute little mud pool piggy cake thingy and my daughter perked right up and said she'd been wanting to learn how to make fondant anyway. (we watch too much Cake Boss.) this seemed like a perfect opportunity.

anyway, it turned out fantastic.

i looked up some fondant and modeling clay recipes and i am never thrilled if i have to use confectioner's sugar or corn syrup.  we settled on trying a recipe for modeling chocolate substituting honey for corn syrup in the traditional recipes.

most of the "experts" also specified that if i wanted to color the chocolate, i should use paste colors which i didn't have access to.  i used the standard liquid for the pink the color of the pigs, but it was only a few drops and it didn't seem to cause a problem.

modeling chocolate recipe

4 Tbsp raw honey
1 bag (9 oz) of white chocolate chips

place the chocolate chips in a glass bowl and place on top of a sauce pot which contains some steaming (moderately boiling) water.
stir until well melted.
add food coloring and continue to stir.
remove from heat.
add honey and stir a bit more until combined.
cool a bit, so as not to heat up plastic wrap.
turn "dough" out onto plastic wrap and smash flat with plastic wrap.
wrap up and place into fridge for about 4 hours to overnight.

TADAH!

we used this recipe and found that it was a bit hard to work with, so i reheated and added another Tbsp of honey.  it blended well and it didn't curdle or separate.  we just had to put it back in the fridge for awhile.  you might have to work with the amount of honey a bit to get it the right pliability (is that even a word?), but if it gets a bit too soft, put it back in the fridge for a bit and pull it out again when it hardens.  also, you might try using a cold cutting board or cookie sheet to use as your table top so that it doesn't heat up to quickly.

for this beautiful cake, i swiped a GRAND recipe from one of the better recipe sites and i have officially claimed it as my own.  LOL  (the grandkids will never know.)

here's the link to give proper credit.
http://www.food.com/recipe/the-only-chocolate-cake-recipe-youll-ever-need-devils-food-26370

here's the recipe...in case that link ever vanishes.

cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil 
• 1 cup hot coffee
• 1 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add oil, coffee and milk and mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat 2 more minutes. Expect batter to be thin.
3. Pour into a 9" x 13" greased and floured pan or 2- 9" round pans. Bake 9 x 13 pan for about 45 minutes or 9" pans for about 30 minutes. Cool in pans for about 15 minutes and then cool completely on racks.
4. Frost as desired.

NOTE:  because olive oil is so darned expensive, i tried half olive oil (1/2 cup) and half applesauce (1/2 cup) the second or third time i made this cake and it turned out fabulous!   i even left the eggs out once by mistake and although the cake was a bit pitted in the middle, it STILL tasted fabulous.
 

for the mud, i used a simple chocolate ganache...the recipe is under my donut recipe at this link.

http://healthybratt.blogspot.com/2010/04/doughnutsdonutsoh-wow.html

we decided to really spruce it up with some canned cherry pie filling crammed between the layers.  this isn't a necessary step but it sure made it taste good.

for the barrel, we used, standard, toxic, get-em-from-walmart-for-a-dollar, wafer cookies.  we "glued" these to the cake with a bit of ganache and then tied a cord around when we were finished for extra support. once the cord comes off and you start cutting, it does get a bit flimsy, but nobody complained.

birthday cake

my gonna-be-10-years-old-tommorow daughter made and decorated her own birthday cake today. it's the bomb. thought i would show off just a bit. (i helped a little. i shaped the cake pieces and poured on the ganache.) she did the rest!


yellow cake, chocolate ganache and radioactive green decorative icing. the water is a piece of paper with wax paper backing. the rest are toys.














tater livingston, i presume. (he's the jungle explorer!) HA!

bday stands for birthdays and baptisms

i had the privilege of witnessing the baptism of my 2nd daughter and two of her cousins tonite. it was also my father's and my husband's birthday. what a delight to have so many blessings in one day. to celebrate, we did up the girlie's hair in a do that would be "dunk proof" and look nice to and we made the most wonderful 3-layer "death-by-chocolate" cake.










this style was called Elizabethan hair taping by the lady who gave the tutorial. we tried her version of the dutch crown which turned out lovely, but her hair wasn't quite thick enough at the bottom to make it look even on both sides. the taping is also much easier and there are no pesky pins to poke you in the head or fall out. my daughter has been wearing this "do" all week and has little loss of hair from the braids (a few fuzzies here and there).







Elizabethan hair taping video:


Dutch crown videos:





now, this lucious piece of art came from a recipe i found online at a site called Mom's Who Think
the frosting recipe is actually the ganache recipe that i used for my donut birthday cake.




Triple Layer Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups boiling water
1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
2 3/4 cups all purpose (unbleached) flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. preheat oven to 350°F. grease and flour three 9-inch cake pans.

2. in a medium bowl, stir the boiling water into the cocoa until smooth, and set aside.

3. in a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and set aside.

4. at medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar for 4 to 5 minutes.

5. add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

6. turn mixer down to low speed. add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

7. stir in the vanilla, and do not over-beat.

8. pour an equal amount of batter into each of the three prepared pans.

9. bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

10. cool in pans set on racks for 10 minutes. invert pans on racks, remove pans, and allow layers to cool completely before frosting.

NOTE: if your cakes are not flat (level) then i would recommend frosting one layer and putting it into the fridge to chill for a bit to prevent the layers from slipping off. i used toothpicks, but this probably isn't preferable for public presentation.

more birthday fun

lookie, in preparation for the festivities, dd made her own party hats (i made one for me too, as per her instructions. it's the one that says "cakemaker") and here's a pic of the dress i made her.

whole wheat birthday

it's time for another of my children's birthdays and we are almost 100% whole wheat around here these days, but alas dear daughter said she wanted PINK cake ...

soooo, we did some experimenting pre-birthday. These did NOT turn out pink as we had hoped, but they were so good, dd said she didn't care.



cake

2 1/2 cups hard red wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup lard
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 cup cherry Juicy Juice

Cream flour, salt, sugar and lard with fork or pastry cutter. Add yogurt and juice. Mix gently until all flour is wet. Soak for one hour. Add vanilla, baking powder and eggs. Beat with mixer for a couple of minutes until smooth. Spoon into cupcakes 1/2 full. Bake @ 375^o for 18 minutes.

~~~~~~o~~~~~~

frosting

stole this from Nourishing Traditions and added the fruit for color & flavor

2 cups cream cheese softened
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2-3/4 cup raw honey
1/2 cup frozen raspberries

throw it all in the food processor and blend until smooth. with the berries, it's a bit on the runny side when at room temp. it tends to set up a bit after a few hours. i put it all in a sandwich baggie and cut out the corner to make an icing squirter (very technical term, huh?). works like a charm.

more birthday - yay!

friends stopped by and got me something belated and very cool. i'm making out like a bandit this year. this thing is waaaay too cool.

sunbeam 18-pc kitchen assistant.

magic bullet, eat your heart out.

birthday baby

got a late birthday gift today from my sis-in-law. got a 15.5 quart enamel ware over steel stockpot. comes with a steamer and i have no idea how to use it (the steamer) hahaha. the biggest pot i had before today was 3 quarts. talk about doing the happy dance. love love love her (and my new pot). sis is so generous and thoughtful.

enjoying my birthday

just listening to some music and was reminded of how much i've always loved this song.

there were several copies of this, but this one caught my eye, because of the dress. i was a child of the 80s and what better way to express that then a video of elton john dressed like michael jackson. LOL

birthday greetings

birthday greetings from friends

homemade rattle for baby birthday

I made a homemade rattle for my daughter years ago but had forgotten about it. I was recently invited to a birthday party for a one-year old and am a little strapped for cash. Hubby finally suggested that I make another rattle like I had made for our kids. I thought it was a great idea and then decided to share.



First thing to do is find a clear jar that is not too flimsy. The very first one I made, I used a personal sized Minute Maid jar from a convenience store. This time it was a parsley jar from Walmart.

To remove the label, soak in hot water and peel. If you have a stubborn piece that won't come off, I recommend Skin-so-Soft by Avon or another thin oil and a paper towel. You may have to wash the oil off once you are finished.

Then you take some ordinary rice and some food coloring. Put a couple of spoonfuls in a small bowl and a few drops of food coloring (about 6-10 drops). Stir until all rice is coated and then lay out on a papertowel or paper plate until the color is all dry.

Once the rice and the jar are clean. Put the rice in the jar and glue the lid on. Use something like epoxy or JB Weld or Monkey Glue. Super Glue most likely won't hold. Elmer's Glue All might work, but will most likely eventually break under the forceful hands of a determined toddler.

Your finished product will look something like this.



Enjoy!

Blessings

sinus infection for my birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. It wasn't the best birthday I ever had because I'm fighting a sinus infection, but on the good side, all this new healthy learning stuff I'm doing has paid off. This is probably the least debilitating sinus infection I've had in a good long while. Been eating lots of raw garlic, much to my husbands discomfort *snicker*. I smell like a walking garlic bulb, but in spite of this hubby gave me a hands massage for my birthday. I looove that. It's so relaxing. He also let me sleep in - yeah!

Anyway, it's cold and flu season yet again and I thought I would let everyone know where I've learned and shared everything about staying healthy and avoiding illness. Come visit us at welltellme.com. When I joined the forum we had 34 members. Today, we have 1090 members. The benefits of such a large community sharing everything they know about health and natural living all at your fingertips. Hope to see you there.

Be blessed.

worlds of fun

Went to Kansas City over the weekend to see my dad and to attend World's of Fun! What an exhausting couple of days that was!

Dad gave me a digi camera, but I left the USB cable at his house. When he sends it in the mail, maybe I can post a picture of something (not me). Like - oh, my cats or my kitchen or something. Maybe I'll take a picture of my house. Those of you who followed my move, might be interested to see the haunted looking 3 story house!

Take care!

Everyone have a blessed day.

need to pray

Need to count my blessings. Feeling a little bored and restless. Same old routine. I'm thankful for the routine and I'm thankful to have my children at home with me, but unfortunately the flesh beckons. I need to refresh my outlook. I guess I need some extra time on my knees.

Just finished burning some CD's for my dad's upcoming birthday. My dad's, husband's and my own birthday are all within a week of each other. Birthday's get pretty close together this time of year in our family. I don't really want my hubby to spend alot of money on me, but I'm hoping he'll remember my birthday with something extra special this year. I try not to make a big deal out of my birthday, because my husband just doesn't have the knack for it, but *sigh*, I still wish for it occaisionally. (I lost my engagement ring a few years ago while dieting and haven't let him buy me another because of the extra expense and the fear of losing it again, but now I'm thinking maybe....)

Maybe I've just got the birthday blues. Hahahahaha. (I'm going to be 35 this year.) Sometimes I feel really good about my age (old enough to know a thing or two and still young enough to do something about it) and other times, I think back on all the things that have happened in my life and boy do I feel OLD!

Anyway, time to wrap up.

Everyone have a blessed tomorrow!

an old college paper revisited

I had nothing inspirational to share today, so I was digging through my archives again and came across one of the papers I wrote in college. I got an "A". Hope you enjoy it.

(You are allowed to laugh. I wrote it with this intention in mind :)

YOU MUST PAY!

Sometime in May of 1991, the stick turned blue. The realization of becoming a mother was a mixture of amazement and dread. I really wanted a new baby, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience all the nasty things I had heard about from other mothers.

As the days and weeks passed, my appetite increased, as did I. My waistline disappeared. My belly stuck out so far in front of me I would have thought my toes had gone too, if my feet hadn’t hurt so much from swelling. My hormones caused turmoil with my emotions. I laughed about things that were not funny and I cried because I dropped my dinner on the floor.

Two weeks after my predicted due date, I checked into the hospital. Anticipation was high. “Today is the day, “ I said out loud to no one in particular. On December 30, 1991 at 9am, a nurse led me to a room where I was to be poked and prodded and starved half to death for the next several hours. I was made to dress in a drape which barely covered my oversized pregnant behind and forced to wear a small plastic cup over my nose. This mask smelled of some chemical which made my stomach turn, and it was so tight to my face it actually made it more difficult to breath in spite of the extra oxygen it was feeding me.

Soon my room became a pit stop for, it seemed, every nurse in the hospital. The only nurse I saw more than once was my labor coach, a short stocky woman who might have been a prison guard rather than a nurse. Every nurse that came in either examined my insides with her fist or injected me with needles. After being punctured at lest a dozen times, a nurse was able to place an I.V. in the back of my hand and take one measly blood sample. I’m no doctor, but that ratio seemed a little unbalanced to me.

Sometime during all of this I heard, “I’m sorry, but I am having trouble finding your veins.” This seemed little compensation for being turned into a human pincushion. At this time, I think all the nurses got together and decided that I wasn’t experiencing enough pain. One nurse repeatedly bumped into the machine which was hooked to the needle in my hand. This caused shooting pains to go all the way up my arm to my head. Then someone squirted some harmless looking liquid into the tube in my arm.

“You may feel some discomfort, but it will pass.”

My suspicion was that she had never experienced the procedure herself or that she was secretly trying to torture me. I felt like I had been skinned and dipped in pool of alcohol and set on fire in an oxygen tent.

Several more hours passed, and I was hungry and almost too exhausted to feel any more pain. At 6pm the doctor decided it might be prudent to make an appearance. He stayed long enough to pull out another hypodermic and rejuice my I.V. tube with some stuff called Pitossin. This drug was deceptively harmless, for several minutes later I began to feel weak spasms in my belly, which quickly escalated to gut-wrenching contractions. All of the muscles in my body began to tighten and casue my arms and legs to flail uncontrollably and my face contort into frightening expressions. By this time I was trying to recall the license number of the truck that had surely hit me and choke the driver for leaving me like this. I was ready to do battle with anyone or anything that crossed my path. To add disgrace to discomfort, I was not allowed to use the bathroom but was forced to use a small steel contraption, called a bedpan. But this was surely not embarrassing enough, as I was forced to use it lying down. This is evidently an acquired talent, as I was unable to use it correctly. As a result, my sheets and my legs were now wet and quite auromatic. When I tried to get out of bed in rebellion to this event, my labor nurse literally hurled me back into bed informing me that it was time for another ”exam”.

“Good news, honey! Your cervix has dilated to one centimeter.”

“News? I’ve been dilated to a one since two months ago, you stupid *****!” She was obviously taunting me as it only added to my misery as you may know, one must be dilated to ten centimeters before a natural birth can actually occur.

After examining me, and the fetal monitors, my doctor finally realized what I had known for hours—this wasn’t working. The Pitossin was discontinued and, I was prepared instead for surgery. I was given an anesthetic and strapped to a table. Although the lack of Pitossin lessened the frequency of my contractions, they did not stop entirely, and I was now unable to move or breath through them easily as they had put an even smaller cup over my nose and mouth. I was not even able to explain this to the attendent, because being strapped to the table, I was also unable to remove this suffocating device from my face. The doctors and nurses were running around the table and chattering as if I was not actually there or as if I couldn’t understand English. I was very frightened. I had never had surgery before. Much to my relief, I drifted off in the middle of a lingering contraction. I woke up December 31, at about 11am. My labor coach was sitting next to my bed writing something on my chart. “Is it a girl?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s a girl.”

“Hot ****! It’s a girl.” She took me to see my newly born daughter. My new baby looked up at me with her radiant blue eyes and cooed. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I’ll never forget what she means to me and I’ll never forget what I had to go through to get her. The good things in this life don’t come easy. You must pay for them and the most precious things can prove to be very expensive, but always worth it.

korean birthday wishes

And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
~Genesis 26:30

Update on the party: It was a hit. My daughter had a blast with her cousins and her little friends. We had strawberry cake with purple icing and rainbow sprinkles. My daughter decorated the cake herself and all of the sprinkles were in one spot. I just love my mother-in-law.

She brought kimchi chicken

turnip kimchi

and bulgogi .

I made shrimp

and hot pork

and rice .

We had hot Korean food coming out our ears and mom let us keep all the leftovers (even the extra pot of rice she brought—just in case). We'll be eatin' Korean for days and I won't even have to cook. Hooray!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and lovely comments. I appreciate them all.

May God be blessed and praised! I love my family and friends!...and I'm so thankful for my dishwasher!