Filling a Cake: Step by step

Buy a leveler....they are cheap (!) and it will make the job sooooo much easier!

Fill a piping or ziploc bag with frosting, jam, pudding, or any other filling. Cut a wide opening in the bag.

Put a thick ring of the filling at the edge of the bottom layer.

Continue in circles, filling in the rest of the cake.

Smooth out the filling.

Add the top layer!

Quick and Easy: How to Fill a Piping Bag without making a mess

Use the tallest glass jar that you have to support the piping bag....then fill!

1st Birthday Cake for a cute birthday boy

Do you know what a smash cake is? Recently I have been to a lot of 1st birthday parties and one of the new trends is to have a special cake for the birthday boy or girl to "smash" apart and eat.

When my friend asked me to make a jungle themed birthday cake for her son's first birthday, I put together this fun cake and also made a small smash cake for the birthday boy!

The assembly of this cake was easy. The bottom layer was made by stacking two 8 inch rounds. The top layer was made by stacking two 6 inch rounds.I did use dowels in the bottom layer for some extra support since the cakes were so dense. The smash cake was a single 6 inch cake. The filling was chocolate buttercream and the frosting was regular buttercream tinted with wilton gel food coloring.

Easy Garlic Chicken (for Pressure Cooker or Crock Pot)

This might not be the prettiest recipe, but it was certainly one of the tastiest and easiest!

My mom used to make 40 cloves garlic chicken in a clay baker in the oven, it was delicious! But I don't have a clay baker and I usually don't remember to defrost the chicken far enough in advance to make this for a weeknight meal.

Well, that's the beauty of pressure cooking and cooking in my crock pot.....you can use a whole frozen chicken and it comes out great every time in about an hour from start to finish!

Here is a picture of the ingredients beforehand:

I cut up potatoes, carrots and celery (mostly because this is what I happened to have in the house). I then pealed 1 large head of garlic. All of this was thrown into the bottom of the pressure cooker. (Don't know why I only took a picture of the potatoes and not everything else, sorry!).

Over all of the veggies I poured a cup of water mixed with a tablespoon of chicken stock base and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. I also sprinkled in a teaspoon each of rosemary and thyme. Finally, I placed the frozen chicken on top (JUST MAKE SURE THAT YOU BUY A CHICKEN THAT DOES NOT HAVE THE NECK AND ORGANS IN THAT LITTLE BAG ON THE INSIDE, IF YOU THINK THAT THIS MIGHT BE THERE, YOU MUST LET THE CHICKEN DEFROST FIRST AND REMOVE THE BAG BEFORE COOKING!)

Over the top of the chicken I poured a little olive oil and then salt and peppered the bird liberally.

Now, here is the beauty of pressure cooking....I set the pressure cook at its highest setting for 1 hour and then walked away. In that short amount of time, the frozen chicken cooked away and the veggies melted into a yummy, garlicky sauce that was perfect for dipping some crusty bread into.

Like I said....not the prettiest dish ever, but it was sooo good. The chicken comes out perfect every time.

Don't have a pressure cooker. You could do this same thing using your cock pot. Just make sure that your chicken is cooked all of the way through before eating (165 degrees and the juices running clear)!

Recipe Recap:
1 chicken
3 carrots
5 stalks of celery
2 medium potatoes
1 cup water
1 Tbs Chicken Stock Base
3 Tbs Lemon Juice
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper
Crusty Bread for Dipping in the Juices

Throw it all in the pressure cooker or crock pot and cook until the chicken is no longer pink and has reached a safe internal temperature.

Memory Jar 2012

I have been meaning to work on this project for the last 2 months, ever since I saw it on pinterest. Oh well, better late than never!

I thought that this would be a great way to capture memorable events and happy memories throughout the year. The plan is to jot things down on small pieces of paper and then put them into the jar for the next 12  (ok...I know its almost March....10) months of the year. Then on New Years Eve we will open the jar and read all of the messages.

Hopefully this will be a great way to remember the happiness that we experience throughout 2012!

This jar has been sitting around my house for a long time, in fact I think that my hubby used it to collect change back in college. It has been sitting unused for awhile now. To make the sign for the front I just cut three different pieces of scrap booking paper (2 into squares and 1 into the scalloped shape) using my paper cutter and my Sizzix cutter. Then I attached the metal piece using two brads (this was a remnant from an old Stampin Up set of metal scrap booking pieces).  I used a black fine tipped marker to write the year. Finally I added the ribbon of raffia on the jar's lid.

DIY Spring Wreath

About a month ago, I put together my first DIY wreath for Valentines Day (see that story here). Well, when I was putting away my V-Day decorations this week I decided to try putting together a spring wreath and this is what I ended up with. I bought all of the materials at my local crafting store for about $20 and assembled the whole thing in less than an hour. I ended up deciding to not use the C monogram in the final wreath even though you see it in the first picture. Hope you enjoy!

Since the flowers are just clipped on, I will be able to easily modify this wreath for Easter or other spring holidays in the future!

Chocolate and Raspberry Goodness

This past weekend I made this yummy and delicious treat (cake?? torte??) to bring with to dinner at our friends home. This deliciousness was inspired by the cover photo on The Best of America's Test Kitchen magazine last month. When I saw it, I knew I had to give it a try!

I'm not much of a baker, I really prefer making savory dishes where I don't have to be as exact with my measurements, but it just looked so darn good that I had to give this a try (adding in a few changes to make it my own!). I think that everyone agreed that it tasted pretty good (in fact both of the guys had seconds!).  I think that this is the perfect dessert for a dinner with friends or celebrating Valentines Day!

Here is how I tackled the recipe.....

First I gathered all of my ingredients:

Those are toasted sliced almonds (just put them in a dry pan for a few minutes to toast them up).

Then I melted the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (just a glass bowl set over a pot of boiling water). I did this step first because the chocolate had to cool off before being mixed with the eggs and other ingredients. Also, if you attempt this recipe make sure to use your largest glass bowl for this step, because you will mix the rest of your ingredients into this bowl towards the end of the recipe. When the mixture was melted, it was smooth and glossy.

While this mixture was cooling off I cut parchment paper for the bottom of my cake pans:

Do you know the little trick that you can use to make perfect rounds? Just fold the paper in half and then in half again (it should be a square). Then fold the two loose edges of the square together to make a triangle and fold a second time to make a smaller triangle. Then trim the end of the triangle until you have the right size circles for your pan.

After setting aside some of the almonds for decorating the cake, I put the rest of the almonds into the food processor and ground them into a fine powder.

I then mixed in the rest of the dry ingredients (flour and salt) in a small bowl. I took a picture of the unprocessed almonds next to the almond-flour mixture so that you could see the difference in consistency.

Next, I whipped the eggs in the same food processor bowl (don't worry about cleaning it out, if a few bits of almond get left behind in the bowl, it won't matter!). To the egg mixture I added in the sugar until the two were mixed together well. 

Around this time, the chocolate mixture was cool (it had been off the heat about 25 minutes), and I added in a small amount of espresso powder and some vanilla. Then I mixed in the egg mixture and finally, I mixed in the almond mixture. The resulting batter was pretty thin and had a course texture from the ground almonds.

I split the batter between the two cake pans and baked them for 15 minutes at 325.

When the cakes came out of the oven, they looked dry and a toothpick came out cleanly. I let the cakes cool for about 90 minutes and then removed them from the pan.  

 

When the cakes were cooled, I made a filling by mixing some raspberry jam and fresh berries. I also melted some additional chocolate, cream and sugar in the double boiler to make a coating for the top of the cake.

I finished off by filling the cake, pouring the glaze on top and decorating with the extra almonds and some berries.

Ymm......let me just take a moment here......

........

As I said, I don't typically make a lot of desserts, and this was a big undertaking, but well worth the time that it took!

Recipe Recap:

Batter

8 oz bakers chocolate

12 Tbs butter

3/4 cup toasted almonds processed fine

1/4 cup flour

pinch salt

5 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp espresso powder (if you don't want to purchase this item since you only need a little bit, you can skip it, but chocolate desserts usually taste more chocolaty when you add some coffee flavor in the background)

Filling:

1/2 cup jam

1 cup berries

Decorations

1 cup toasted almonds

Whole Berries

Glaze

5 oz bakers chocolate

1/2 heavy cream

2 tsp sugar

Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler. Process the almonds into a fine powder, mixing in the flour and salt. Whip the eggs in the food processor and then add in the sugar. Mix the cooled chocolate mixture with the vanilla and espresso powder. Then mix in the egg and almond mixtures. Divide the batter into two 8 inch bake pans and bake for 15 minutes at 325 degrees Fill the cake with the jam and berry mixture. Melt the glaze ingredients in the double boiler and pour over the cake. Decorate!