Attempted cake decorating

I was asked to make a cake for a friend at work who is having a baby.  Let me just start by saying.... I am no cake decorator. My mom is amazing when it comes to cake decorating. She does masterpieces! 

I can bake, fill, and frost a cake.  I can slather a whole lot of frosting on top and make it taste pretty good.  I have no creativity or talent when it comes to decorating them.  So, I was a bit nervous when I was asked to make one for this friend at work.  Did I mention I found out about it the day before?  Did I mention that I didn't even have the right cake pans?  Did I mention I didn't have any of the ingredients?

So, after getting off of work in the morning, I went shopping.  I came home and baked 2 cakes.  While they cooled, I took a nap.  I don't do as well as I used to on absolutely no sleep, and that's what I was running on.  That night, after the kids were in bed, I went to cake decorating.  After I filled it, and started to frost it, my husband says, "That's beautiful!  Did you take a picture?"  Um, no.  It didn't look very beautiful to me, and I was in a bit of a hurry to get this cake done so I could get to bed.  He insisted I take a picture, so I did.  Here you go...  

Next came the frosting and decorating.  The only problem... I put so much filling on the inside, that I didn't leave enough for the outside, and I didn't have time to make more.  So, I did my best with what I had.

I decided to do polka dots, but instead of spending hours making them with frosting, I used candy melts.  When they were all on, the top still looked a bit plain.  I went through all of the silk flowers I had to make clips for the girls' hair, and found some flowers.  They matched perfectly.  Thank you, Lord!

And this is the finished product.  

I was fairly happy with the result, but let me just say.... I think I'll leave the real fancy decorating to my mom and the other experts. While I did have fun, I did not get her creativity!

Marionberry Cobbler

My mom went berry picking, and brought me blueberries, marionberries, and blackberries.  I really like my blueberry crisp recipe, so I made a couple of minor changes, and made this marionberry cobbler.  It turned out really good, so I thought I'd share the recipe changes as well as a few pictures.  I prefer the other recipe for blueberries, but this recipe would work great with any other kind of berries.  

Marionberry cobbler:

Lightly grease all sides of your baking dish, and spread the berries out to cover the bottom of the dish. If you are using frozen berries, thaw them in cold water and drain them before placing them in the dish.  (9x9" is the best, but you can use any size.  A 9x13" seems to be just a bit too big for my liking, but will still work).

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, water, and lemon juice. Cook and stir it constantly, over medium heat, until it is thick and clear (it will start to bubble).  Turn off the stove, and stir in the vanilla.

Pour the hot syrup over the berries.

Stir to them together.  The berries won't be covered completely, but make sure the sauce is evenly distributed throughout the pan.  

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

Add the melted butter to the bowl of dry ingredients.

Mix it until it's nice and crumbly.

Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the top of the berries.  
Do not stir it!  It will settle and mix well when it's baking!
Sorry to shout.  

Bake it immediately, so the syrup doesn't soak into the crumble.  At 350*, 32-35 minutes should do it.

Enjoy the fragrance.  I could bake this everyday just to have the aroma fill my kitchen. 

I was an airhead, and forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so this is a picture of the blueberry one.  I just wanted you to see what it looks like when it's baked.  It's best if you let it set for at least 30 minutes to let the sauce thicken.  If you absolutely can not wait that long, you can eat it sooner.  We won't tell.  It's fabulous with some vanilla ice cream on top.  

Enjoy!!!  

  

Marionberry Cobbler

5 cups fresh or frozen berries

1 cup sugar

2 Tbl. corn starch

1 cup + 2 Tbl. water

1 Tbl. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

3/4 cups rolled oats

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, melted (no substitutes!)

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350*

2.  Lightly grease 9x9" baking dish, and spread the berries in the bottom of the dish.

3.  In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, water, and lemon juice.  Cook and stir constantly, over medium heat, until thick and clear (it will start to bubble).  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

4.  Pour the hot syrup over the berries, and stir to cover evenly.

5.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

6.  Add the melted butter to the bowl of dry ingredients, and mix until crumbly.

7.  Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the top of the berries.  (Do not stir!  It will settle and mix well when baking.)

8.  Bake for 32-35 minutes, or until the berry mixture bubbles through the topping, and the topping is golden brown.

9.  Let stand for at least 30 minutes before serving. 

10.  Top with vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!

Pancakes

More blueberries!  This morning for breakfast I made a blueberry compote...

I made some blueberry pancakes...

... and they disappeared!  The kids were so excited that we were having breakfast with the berries they helped pick!

If you're interested, here's the recipe for the compote (I used the recipe I had for the cobbler and made some changes.)

Blueberry Compote

2 cups fresh blueberries

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tbl + 1 tsp corn starch

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 Tbl. lemon juice

2 tsp. brown sugar

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp. vanilla

*Mix sugar, corn starch, water, lemon juice, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a sauce pan with a wire whisk.  Cook and stir constantly over medium heat until thick and starts to bubble.  Add vanilla and blueberries.  Return to stove, and cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, until it cooks into a thick sauce (about 10 min).



Blueberries

We picked blueberries from our orchard yesterday.  The kids had so much fun helping!  We would have had a few more, but they kinda got the munchies!

So last night, Anthony searched online for a recipe, and found a really good one for blueberry crisp. We had it with vanilla ice cream. I'm not much of a blueberry fan usually, but this was really yummy!

Here's the recipe:

Blueberry Crisp

1 quart (4 cups) fresh blueberries

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tbl. corn starch

1 cup water

2 Tbl. + 1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup regular oats

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, melted (no substitutes!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*

2. Lightly grease 11x7" baking dish, and spread the blueberries in the bottom of the dish.

3. In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, water, and lemon juice; cook and stir constantly, over medium heat, until thick and clear (it will start to bubble), then stir in the vanilla.

4. Pour over, then gently stir in the cooked mixture with the blueberries.

5. In a bowl combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

6. Add the melted butter, and mix until crumbly. (I start mixing with a spoon, then finish mixing with my hands)

7. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the blueberries. (It will seem like a lot of crumble, but it will settle and mix well when baking)

8. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the blueberry mixture bubbles and the topping is brown.

9. Serve with vanilla ice cream.... Enjoy!!!

(**Posted on Food.com by Kittencalskitchen)

Just a note:  Next time I make this, I will probably add 1/2 to 1 more cup of blueberries.

Mmmm... Lemon Bundt Cake!

I've been experimenting a little with cake recipes, and came up with a really yummy Lemon Bundt Cake. Along with all of the other ingredients, you add a box of pudding to the lemon cake mix, and about 1/3 cup of sour cream. Then you mix it in an electric mixer for about 5 minutes on high. It is so moist and so good (just don't over bake it)! Anthony is the one that suggested adding the pudding to the mix with chocolate cakes.
A cream cheese icing is the perfect finishing touch!

Scones and Sun Tea

I've been on a scone baking kick for a couple of days now. On Sunday, Anthony found a scone recipe he wanted me to try. They were basic vanilla scones with buttermilk. They were super easy and turned out pretty good. Next, we looked online for a good pumpkin scone recipe (Mmmm, my favorite!). We found two recipes and didn't know which one to try, so I combined them, and used some of the tips I learned when I made the vanilla scones. They turned out SO good! I had to make another batch when I got up this afternoon. Bring out the coffee!

Another thing I've been making a lot of... sun tea! I've found a way to flavor it and cut out a lot of the sugar. You'd be amazed how much Lipton tea we go through!