Best Dessert Secrets

Are you curious about my most requested desserts? Well, the most popular ones are my signature vanilla cake for events and red velvet cake balls for casual occasions. But, there is one other dessert that stands above the others, especially in the summer, and that is... banana cream pie!

What makes this refreshing treat so amazing? I'm going to share the love and spill some of my secrets!

Your average banana cream pie is layered in a standard pastry pie shell. The buttery, flaky crust can be good, but I think my Nilla Wafer crumb crust elevates the banana cream pie to a new level.

It's like taking the best parts of a southern banana pudding and transforming them into a masterpiece. Don't forget the added bonus that a crumb crust is so much easier to make than a pastry crust! You never have to worry that your ingredients won't be cold enough or that you've over mixed the dough. Just mix, press, and bake.

The vanilla custard filling of a banana cream pie is pretty simple. I promise there is no need to cheat with a boxed pudding mix. Use a recipe that incorporates real ingredients like milk, sugar, and egg yolks, and you're on your way to a good pie. For that extra special touch, I use real vanilla beans scraped right out of the pod instead of vanilla extract. Speaking of vanilla beans, I buy them in bulk online and have used them to make my own vanilla extract, too. You should give it a try.

And by all means, please make your own fresh whipped cream! It really is worth the extra effort to get that light, fluffy, not too sweet topping to finish off your pie.

If you still think you're not cut out for cooking, I can always make this delicious pie for you. :)

Southwest Salad and Baked Poblano Rings

Since I knew I would have plenty more of the corn/black bean salsa from my buttermilk chicken recipe, I decided to plan that into another meal for the week. Last night, we had southwest salads, and I tried out a new baked poblano pepper ring recipe. This meal would be great for vegetarians, or you could add taco meat or chicken to the salad to bulk it up.

Southwest Salad

Ingredients:
romaine lettuce, roughly chopped

iceberg lettuce, roughly chopped

green onions, chopped

tomatoes, diced

corn/black bean salsa

low fat cheddar, shredded

tortilla chips, crushed lightly

Directions:

Just mix up your preferred amount of the ingredients. I drizzled my salad with a trio of taco sauce, low-fat three-cheese ranch dressing, and light lime vinaigrette dressing.

My apologies for the blurry photo; I took a quick one and didn't check it before the salads were already eaten. Plus, I didn't get a pic after the dressing was drizzled on, and it looked prettier then. But a blurry picture is better than none, right?

Baked Poblano Pepper Rings

I basically used this recipe for the pepper rings (except that recipe would make a huge amount - I only used 3 small peppers, and it was still far too many for the 2 of us). My crumbs were a mixture of jalapeno flavored kettle chips and a bit of the corn flake and panko crumb mix I had leftover from the buttermilk fried chicken. These were a huge mess to make, but they weren't bad. If I make them again, I will use the food processor on the crumbs instead of my ziplock/rolling pin method because finer crumbs would have made coating easier. I skipped it this time because the dishes were already piling up.  I was relieved that they didn't taste very spicy at all. We dipped our rings in salsa or queso cheese, but a lot of dipping sauces could be used.

Buttermilk Baked Crispy Chicken with Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa, and Lemon Butter

One of my favorite dishes at Bahama Breeze is the buttermilk fried chicken. I've only had it once, but it was amazing. It is not your typical fried chicken; there is so much going on in this dish. Since we hardly ever go to Bahama Breeze, I decided I really wanted to try to recreate this meal. It is a bit complicated and will give you a huge grocery list, but it's so worth it. See the bottom of this post for the inspiration photo and link to Bahama Breeze's menu. I think my version came out pretty close, even though it is baked instead of fried.

I didn't measure out everything when I was cooking, so this multi-part recipe is just to give you the basic guidelines. Please read through everything before you begin as there are so many steps, it is easy to miss something. Seriously, I completely forgot about the spinach, tomatoes, and cheese until the chicken was already cooked, but luckily that only took a couple minutes.

Hope you enjoy!

*** Basic Dinner Steps

Prepare beforehand:

• Marinate the chicken the night before or morning of.
• Prepare the salsa the night before or morning of.

Order of preparation for dinner:

• Start the chicken.
• Start the potatoes.
• Make the lemon butter.
• Sautee garlic for the potatoes and mash/season them.
• Prepare the spinach/tomato/cheeses for the chicken.
• When chicken is done, sandwich 2 pieces with the spinach/tomato/cheeses mixture.
• Plate the mashed potatoes, top with sandwiched chicken, heat if needed.
• Garnish with the salsa and lemon butter and eat.

Approximate recipes follow. Prepare yours according to taste, or for more exact recipes, see the inspiration recipes at the bottom of the post.

*** Recipes

Roasted Corn, Roasted Triple Pepper, and Black Bean Salsa

Note: This recipe makes a huge amount - more than enough for 4 chicken breasts and leftovers.

Ingredients:

11 ounce can corn (or frozen or fresh)

15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 jalapeno peppers, sliced in half vertically

1/2 small red bell pepper

1/2 small green bell pepper

1/4 small onion, diced

1 green onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 medium ripe tomato, diced

1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice

fresh cilantro, chopped (to taste)

dash oregano, salt, pepper, cumin

Directions:

• Spray a skillet lightly with oil and heat on medium-high.
• Cook corn in the skillet until lightly roasted (brown/black spots on parts of the corn). This will work best with fresh but can work with canned.
• Remove corn to a separate dish.
• Add a bit more oil to the skillet.
• Add the onions to the skillet and cook over medium a couple of minutes until translucent.
• Add the garlic and cook another minute.
• Add the onions and garlic to the corn and allow to cool while preparing the rest of the salsa.
• Put the bell peppers and jalapeno halves on a foiled baking sheet and broil in toaster oven or oven until skins are mostly black.
• Put peppers in a sealed ziplock to steam for 10 minutes, then peel off the skins. Chop the peppers and add to the corn mixture.
• Add the tomato, green onion, lime juice, cilantro, and seasonings as desired to the salsa and chill for a few hours so the flavors can blend.
• Pull out to warm up somewhat when you're preheating the oven for the chicken, unless you want to serve it cold or heat it up, either way works.

Buttermilk Marinated Crispy Baked Chicken

Ingredients:

low-fat buttermilk

boneless skinless chicken breasts

Corn flakes

Panko Crumbs (optional)

Parmesan Cheese (optional)

flour

egg

seasonings (salt, pepper, cayenne, thyme, onion powder, garlic powder for example)

lemon juice

Directions beforehand:

• Marinate the chicken overnight in just enough buttermilk to coat chicken (I used a ziplock bag).
• Pound the chicken the next morning, then cut each breast in half (this could be done before initial marinating).
• Add desired seasonings and sprinkle with lemon juice and massage into chicken.
• Add chicken back to the buttermilk (I added a little more fresh buttermilk to the bag) to continue marinating.

When ready to cook:

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Get out a baking sheet and a wire baking rack that will fit inside the pan.
• Spray the rack with oil (and foil the pan if you want to cut back on some of the mess).
• Crush corn flakes (I put in a ziplock and use a rolling pin).
• Mix corn flakes with some panko crumbs (I used about twice as many corn flake crumbs as panko) and throw in some more of your seasonings and parmesan cheese.
• Put crumbs in a bowl for dipping.
• Get out a second bowl for initial dipping and pour some of the buttermilk marinade in. Add a bit of egg white (probably optional) and some flour and mix well until you have a thin paste. It should be able to stick to the chicken somewhat but not be too thick. If you don't want to do this step, you can probably just put the lightly buttermilked chicken straight into the crumbs.
• Dip the chicken in the buttermilk batter, then dip it in the corn flake coating. Arrange the chicken on the wire rack.
• Bake the chicken until cooked through or 165 degrees. It took mine 30-35 minutes, but it will depend on the thickness of the chicken after you pound it.

Lemon Butter Sauce

Ingredients:

1 whole clove garlic, peeled

1 green onion, bottom half, whole

1 tbsp white wine

1.5 tbsp fresh lemon juice

6 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp honey

Directions:

• Add the wine, lemon juice, garlic, and green onion to a small saucepan and heat over medium-high until liquid has reduced by about half.
• Discard green onion and garlic.
• Remove pan from heat and whisk in the butter until fully melted and blended.
• Taste the sauce. If it is too sour, add a little honey or more butter to mellow it out.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

Baking potatoes, peeled and diced

Butter to taste

Milk to taste

Minced Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

• Boil the potatoes until fork tender, about 15-20 minutes, then drain.
• In a skillet, add a little butter and cook the garlic for a minute on medium (if making the salsa the same day, you can do this after you cook the corn/onions for the salsa and refrigerate until ready to make the potatoes).
• Add the garlic and butter to the potatoes and mash.
• Add milk to thin mashed potatoes to desired consistency.
• Season with salt and pepper.

Garnish/Assembly for Chicken

Ingredients:

Fresh Spinach, chopped

Chopped Tomato

Shredded cheese (I used monterrey jack and medium cheddar)

Salt and Pepper

Spray Butter (optional)

Directions:

• Wilt the spinach in a bowl, heated in the microwave for about 30 seconds. You will need a lot more than you'll think you'd need because it cooks down so much.
• Add the tomatoes to the spinach.
• Season with salt and pepper and spritz a little lite butter spray on it if desired.
• When chicken is cooked, top one patty with some of the spinach/tomato mixture and add cheese, then add another patty on top.
• You can heat this up if the cheese isn't melting. I used plates that are oven safe, and went ahead and put the mashed potatoes and the stuffed chicken on it (leaving off the salsa) and heated it until the cheese was melted.
• Then add the corn/bean salsa to your plate and drizzle the lemon butter on.
• Finally, serve this amazing dish and enjoy!

*** The Inspiration Restaurant Dish

Bahama Breeze Buttermilk Fried Chicken

*** The Inspiration Recipes

These are the recipes I used as guidelines for what to do. I am sure you could do well using these recipes as is, along with any garlic mashed potato recipe.

Bonefish's Lemon Butter Sauce

Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa

A combo of:

Kellogg's Corn Flake Chicken and

Buttermilk Baked Chicken

Healthier Spiced Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Pecans

It's been a while, but since I've created the CBC Cakes website to showcase my sweet treats, I haven't felt the need to post on here as much. All of the pictures of my creations can be found in the CBC Cakes and More Photo Gallery. Still, I will try to post a few recipes here when I have time.

These pumpkin bars are very much like cake, but not as sweet or quite as fluffy. I first got the idea from Sweet Pea's Kitchen - Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting, who adapted her recipe from Paula Dean's Pumpkin Bars.

I adjusted the recipe quite a bit more, in an attempt to cut down on some of the fat and calories. My recipe replaces most of the oil with no-sugar-added applesauce, replaces eggs with egg beaters, and uses lite cream cheese and less butter in the frosting. I also added more spices and some brown sugar because some reviews of Paula Dean's recipe said hers were too bland, and I definitely think the added spice was a good idea. I also topped the bars with toasted pecan bits, which I really think takes this up to the next level. The final touch was grinding some cinnamon on top (from Mccormick's cinnamon grinder). I bet baking some chocolate chips or nuts in the bars would be great too.

The first time, I cut this recipe in half and baked it in an 8x8 pan. That provided 12 good sized bars, plenty for every day purposes, but they were a little on the thick size. With the full recipe, I split it between one 8x8 and one 9x13 pan which I think produced a better thickness of bars, since you get more frosting to bar ratio, and they are a little easier to eat when they are thinner. The full recipe made 32 bars (12 for small pan and 20 for large pan).

Healthier Spiced Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Pecans

Ingredients:

For the Pumpkin Bar:

2/3 cup egg beaters

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

8 ounces no sugar added applesauce

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

15-ounce can pumpkin

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

8-ounce package lite cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

2.5-3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Toppings (optional):

1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans (I toast these while the bars are baking for about 6 minutes)

ground cinnamon

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9-inch (and an 8x8 baking pan for thinner bars).
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the egg beaters, sugar, brown sugar, applesauce, oil, pumpkin, and vanilla and beat on medium speed until well blended.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda.
• Hand mix the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just combined. Do not overmix. Spread the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean (check the 8x8 at 20 minutes and the 9x13 at 25 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. I usually cut them after they've sat just a few minutes in the pan and then move them to a cookie sheet, as they cool faster this way.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese and butter and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar, and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again.
• Spread the frosting (or pipe it on with a star shaped tip like the bars shown below) on cooled pumpkin bars. Top with toasted pecans and add ground cinnamon if desired.

.

Jeep 3D Cake

I decided to attempt making a Jeep birthday cake for my brother who is a big fan of Jeeps. After browsing a few photos of other cakes online,  I decided to just look at the actual Jeep pictures instead of modeling after an inspiration cake. It certainly wasn't perfect, but you get the idea, and I learn more every time I design a cake.

Inside of the cake - white cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate frosting.

For this cake I used 2 boxes of white cake mix to save time, but instead of following box directions, I mixed the following ingredients with each box of mix:

- 3 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 cup milk (I used 2%)

- 1/4 cup water

- about 1/3 package of white chocolate pudding mix

- 1/4 cup butter, softened

- 2 tbsp oil

I made one smaller rectangular pan (I think it is 7"x11") and 6 cupcakes with one box, and two 8"x8" cakes with the other box. I saved the cake scraps leftover from cutting the cakes to use for cake balls later.

For the filling, I used 1 container of fresh raspberries and added about 1/2 cup of water mixed with a couple of spoons of corn starch, a little more than 1/2 cup of sugar, and a dash of lemon juice, and cooked it down until the berries broke up and the sauce was thickened. Then I pushed it all through a strainer to remove the seeds. The filling ended up being exactly the right amount, and I only ended up with about a spoonful leftover.

The frosting was mostly based on Wilton's White Chocolate Buttercream recipe, which I modified slightly and cut down by 2/3, which was exactly the amount I needed for this cake.

Buttercream Frosting 

Ingredients

• 6 ounces white baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Makes: Icing serves 2 cups.

Directions:
Add the whipping cream to chopped white chocolate and microwave on 50% power until mostly melted. Stir until the chocolate is completely blended into the cream, and put it in fridge to chill while you mix other ingredients. Beat together the shortening and butter with the paddle of stand mixer.  Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly add the slightly cooled but still melted chocolate and cream mixture while beating until fully incorporated.

I softened 1/3 cup of Cool Whip in the microwave and folded it into the frosting to lighten it up, since my brother prefers whipped frosting.

Here's the cake after trimming and assembling.

The side view of the cake. I cut out the shapes for the tires, running boards, and bumpers from the larger cake. Then I figured out how much I needed to build the body. I cut down the 8x8 to fit on top of the larger sized cake, and I used some of the trimmings to make the hood taller.

The cake after frosting, squished in my fridge.

Beginnings of tires, which were cut down cupcakes, lightly frosted and covered with chocolate (dyed black) fondant.

The one major thing I missed was the side mirrors, oops! I remembered the gas cap and wipers, but did not realize the mirrors were missing until I delivered the cake. Next time, I will definitely add them.

Lemon Triple Berry Cake

This was a simple cake I made at the last minute for a friend's birthday. I asked another friend what flavors the birthday girl might like, and she said anything fruity, so I decided to go with berries and a light lemon flavor.

Cooking the berry sauce.

Straining out the berry seeds.

The finished cake, with triple berry decorations.

The recipe was very similar to this Lemon Raspberry Layer Cake except I used strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries for the sauce instead of just raspberries. If I make it again, I will leave out the strawberries from the sauce, as I didn't think they went very well with the other flavors in the cake.

I also used my standard buttercream frosting with a little lemon extract and lemon juice. At the last minute, I decided to do a light glaze over each layer, because I thought the cake looked a little dry, and it wasn't very lemony. The glaze probably made the whole cake a bit too sweet though. Oh well, I am learning!

Simple White Fondant Covered White Cake

This was the 6" trial cake I made before attempting the farm cake. It was my first time making marshmallow fondant and covering a cake with fondant. This little cake certainly wasn't perfect looking, but I am still amazed by how easy fondant is when you get the hang of it.

This cake used the same white cake recipe, frosting recipe, and fondant recipe as the farm cake.

Chanele's Birthday Cake

I'll just share photos this time, since I used about the same process as the farm cake. I combined a few inspiration pics I saw for this bright, fun cake idea. I used biscuit cutters, a canoli form, and the end of a frosting tip to cut the circles in fondant and hand drew the swirls with black dyed frosting.

The inside of the cake was supposed to be pink and white checkerboard, but I've learned now not to use this recipe for any kind of double color pattern. The batter is just too thin, and it runs everywhere until it mixes almost completely. I'll try that pan set again sometime with the recipe on the box and see if it holds up. Also, I am not sure if it was the pans, baking time, or I messed up the recipe, but the texture did not come out so well this time. I may be searching for a new white cake recipe.

Farm Animal First Birthday Cake

My second three tiered cake and first time really working with fondant other than one small practice cake was a success! I made the cake for my friend's daughter's first birthday party, which was farm animal themed, so it was a lot of fun. She showed me some example cakes and explained what she wanted, so all I had to do was execute her vision. I think it came out much cuter than the inspiration cakes, if I do say so myself! :)

The finished cake, at my house before transporting.

The Process

Fondant

This is all the finished fondant after coloring.. it doesn't look like much, but this is really a lot of fondant and took at least 4 batches to make spread over 2 days because of all the work.

Marshmallow Fondant (Basically used this recipe)

Ingredients:

15 oz. mini marshmallows

2 Tblsp water

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp lemon juice and/or a little lemon extract (optional)

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

2 tsp light corn syrup (helps w/ pliability)

2 lbs (approx 7 C) confectioner's sugar

1/2 C Crisco or vegetable shortening

Get a very large bowl ready and grease it lightly with crisco. Pour in some of the powdered sugar to cover the bottom of the bowl.

Double boiler method (can also microwave instead): Spray a large pan (that can sit on top of another pan) with pam. Sit the pan on top of another pan filled halfway with water and heat on high. Add the water and marshmallows to the top pan.

Grease a wooden or heat proof spoon. Stir the marshmallows occasionally, and heat until the marshmallows are melted. Mixture should be soupy.

Add the corn syrup, salt, and any flavorings and stir well.

Dump the melted mixture in the bowl on top of the powdered sugar, then add more powdered sugar.

Grease your hands well with Crisco and knead the mixture in the bowl (be careful of the heat).

Add more of the sugar and continue to knead until it all comes together and is a bit less sticky.
It takes quite a while to work all of the sugar into the marshmallows.

Shape the fondant into a mound and put a light coating of crisco on the outside of the ball.

Wrap the fondant ball in plastic wrap, and store it in a ziplock bag. Press the air out of bag and seal it.

Allow fondant to rest overnight if possible, but it can be used after sitting for a few hours.

I put mine in the refrigerator, but do not refrigerate or put plastic wrap on it after the fondant is on the cake, because it will sweat.

For some batches, I didn't use any lemon, and I couldn't really notice a difference, but it is supposed to cut down on the sweetness.

I'm still not really sure how much of this covers which size cake, because I made so much and ended up with so much leftover.

For the black fondant, I added a lot of cocoa powder before adding the black food coloring. The chocolate also cut the sweetness, and I thought that color tasted really great.

Marshmallow fondant is amazing stuff; it cost about $10 to make all of the huge amounts I made (more than needed for this cake), and a small block of the store bought fondant is that much at Michael's. The best part is that it does not taste like the fondant that the stores sell. I don't even like marshmallows, but I think this stuff tastes pretty good. The texture is still a little weird to eat on cake, and it is very sweet, so often I still pull it off, but I don't mind eating it.

The work and mess required to make it was worth it in the end. I will be doing this again any time I want to use fondant.

Frosting

Next up was making the frosting.

Frosting (originally from Buttercream 1)

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature

2 cups Crisco shortening

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon butter flavoring (Wilton’s)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (if using clear, I still add another 1/2 tsp real)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 pounds powdered (confectioners') cane sugar, divided*

1 tablespoon meringue powder (optional but the texture will be smoother)**

milk as necessary for consistency

For frosting, I think I started with 2 batches which I split in 3 groups to have some pink, green, and white frosting.

Then I made another 1/4 batch because I turned too much of it pink and needed more to make green for the grass detail. I ended up with extra of all the colors, but not too much.

Cake Baking

All the ingredients required, in my tiny kitchen. Yes, this is basically all the counter space I have.

Milk, egg, extracts, and coloring waiting to go in the batter.

The batter after adding butter and oil, but before the really wet stuff.

I looked at so many white cake recipes, I can't seem to find the link to the one that is closest to what I ended up doing. It was on a blog where the blogger tested 2 white cake recipes and then made a third that was a combo of the 2. I ended up doing the combo, except I used 2 eggs and 2 egg whites rather than all egg white.

White Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c. cake flour

1 c. + 2 tbsp whole milk, room temp

2 eggs and 2 egg whites, room temp

1/2 tsp almond extract

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1½ c + 2tbsp granulated sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/4 c canola oil

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 9-inch cake pans (I line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper).

-In a medium bowl, combine milk, eggs and extracts. Stir, and set aside.

-In the bowl of stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, and stir.

-With mixer on slow speed, add pieces of butter and then slowly add oil,

beating just until mixture resembles moist crumbs.

-Add a little over half of the milk mixture and beat to combine.

-Turn mixer speed to high and beat for one full minute.

-Slow the mixer down, add remaining milk mixture and beat on high for an additional 30 seconds.

-Pour the batter into cake pans and bake 20-25 minutes

I used 1/2 a recipe split between the two 6" layers (baked for 22 minutes, but these pans were heavier weight than the others), the whole recipe split between two 9" layers (baked for 22 minutes), and the whole recipe for each 12" layer (baked for 29 minutes). It turned out that the 6" layer was a bit taller than the others, so a little less than half a recipe would be better for uniformity.

Also, for the 9" tier, I added more vanilla extract instead of adding any almond extract, and I scooped out a cup of batter and winged it on making it dark brown for a "marble that wasn't supposed to really marble" layer. I added cocoa powder, black food coloring, powdered sugar, and then some more milk, flour, and baking powder I didn't measure, because I was afraid the cocoa was throwing things off, plus I wanted the layers to be as full as possible (and they definitely were for my pans!). I tried dropping the chocolate batter into large blobs, so it would not be "marbly" but more like cow spots, but it blended way too much and mostly ended up looking like a chocolate cake. I should have used less chocolate batter. But I thought this tier tasted really good and was super moist.

To make the pink cake, I added 20 drops of neon pink liquid food coloring, and for the green, each batch had 25 drops of regular green and 20 drops of neon green.

I also used wet cake wraps for all the cakes to help them cook evenly. All my cakes were very level except for the marble, because the consistency of the 2 types of batter was different, but it came out ok after the frosting (I didn't level them because this tier was already the shortest one).

Green cake after it's baked (before taking off parchment paper).

Cake Decorating

Each cake after frosting.

Minor disaster I noticed right as I was putting on the fondant on the bottom layer.. .my brand new Wilton cake plate had cracked in 2 spots from just the weight of this one cake. I hadn't even picked it up!! I could not believe that, but we managed to support it with another plate that my mom went out to buy.

Cakes after fondant.

Decorated pig!

Cow spotted layer.

The bottom was my favorite, because it was fun making the fence. For the heck of it, I cut out the happy birthday letters by hand from all the excess pink fondant. This kind of worked out because I was a little off when I flipped the green cake onto the plate, and it was offset to one side. More room for letters! LOL.

Closeup! I wasn't sure what to do for trim on the top 2 layers, and I started with just white dots on the cow before I thought of alternating with black. I think that turned out really cute! I went with all pink on the pig, so it didn't distract from the face.

The cake at the party, with random farm animals I made out of fondant at the last minute, and the 1 cake topper.

Aftermath and inside the cake!

Cost

This cake cost about $30 to make. It was hard to know exactly because some of the ingredients like extracts and food coloring I already had and/or only used part of, etc. If you had to buy everything required, the starting cost would be a lot more, but you would also have a lot of things leftover for future use.

But the breakdown was roughly even with frosting, fondant, and cake all about $10 each. I did price check between Publix, Walmart, and Target and found the best prices for the big ingredients, and I used store brand for sugar, powdered sugar, butter, oil, eggs, and milk.

Things learned from making a 3 tiered fondant covered cake

- It's definitely worth it to make your own marshmallow fondant instead of store bought, but give yourself another hour per batch to make it, kneed it, and clean up the mess.

- I discovered my oven is about 20 degrees hotter than it says and that lowering the rack a level helped things out.

- Working with fondant is much easier if you have super short finger nails because nail marks do not come out of fondant unless you re-kneed the whole mess.

- Trying to use fondant smashed on your fingertips, inside some gloves will help for a minute, but then it will become a watery, melted mess.

- There's no need to go to the gym that week, because your forearms will get an amazing workout from all the fondant kneeding and rolling, as well as carrying the super heavy cake.

- Not as much fondant will be needed as you'd think.

- Smoothing fondant over a 12 inch cake is really not difficult; I was intimidated about it for nothing.

- A pizza cutter works great for trimming excess fondant after covering cake, but make sure you don't cut too much. I ended up a little short on some spots.

- If you're making a cake topper, buy Gum-Tex to add to the fondant, and make it more than 2 days ahead of time and/or use a fan to help dry it.

- Watch out with chocolate fondant, as it leaves more residue on your hands, so if you are putting it on a white base, be careful not to touch the white after the black, or you will leave smudges.

- When making small fondant animals, use one piece to mold all parts if they are the same color, and try to avoid sticking on ears/tails because they will come off, even when you try to use frosting to hold them on.

- Cake Boss is a liar - rice krispy treats will not solve your problems.

- Do not trust a Wilton 16" separator plate to hold even one tier of cake without cracking.

- Use a (gripping) shelf liner under the cake plate, then put the cake plate in a box, and use more liner under the box for car travel to save your sanity.

I guess that's about it!

Labor Day weekend means lots of baking!

So, I haven't posted in a while, but mostly because I haven't made anything interesting. I am working on it though! I have a big weekend ahead of lots of baking... cake, pies, cookies, who knows what else? I'm a little stressed, at least about one of the new things I'm going to attempt, but I am ready to tackle things, and I think it should be fun. Hopefully I'll have a few posts lined up soon!

Frito Pie

I'm taking a break from the sweets, so this one's a dinner post. Nothing too creative or anything, but it was new to me.

While on vacation last weekend, husband randomly mentions we should make a frito pie. I don't recall ever having one before. We decided to make it, and I wanted to try it from scratch. I'd never made chili before, so this was new too, but I thought it came out pretty well, and I preferred it to the canned stuff.

I started with this recipe as a base for the meat seasonings: Easy Taco Salad Frito Pie

I also looked at a few other chili recipes and decided to add cayenne pepper, paprika, basil, and a little sugar. This is about what I ended up with, but again, I didn't quite measure everything. I may have ended up with a bit more of some spices, but just taste as you go along and add more as needed.

Frito Pie

Ingredients:

1 can dark red kidney beans, drained

1 can spicy chili beans, drained

1 lb ground beef (my pack was 1.18 lbs)

1 tablespoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon basil

1/4 teaspoon paprika

cayenne pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

8 oz can tomato sauce

8 oz can tomato paste with a few spoons of water

1 can chili style diced tomatoes, drained

1 regular size bag original Fritos

1-2 cups shredded cheddar

green onions or onions for topping pie

jalapeño slices (fresh or jarred) - optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Brown your meat in a skillet, breaking it up into fine chunks as you go. When completely cooked, drain off grease. Add in all the other ingredients except Fritos, cheese, and toppings.

Stir it all up and let it simmer about 10 minutes to blend flavors, or cook longer if you have time. Add your fritos to the bottom of a large glass baking dish. Top fritos with your chili mixture, then add desired toppings like onions and cheese.

Bake just until cheese is melted to desired rate, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately, before your fritos get too soggy.

We served this meal with a salad, which I forgot to take a picture of. These pics are also pretty lame since I just grabbed my small camera for a quick shot instead of dragging out the Rebel. I never manage to make casseroles look pretty in pictures anyways.

I pretty much liked the recipe as is (with green onions instead of regular and no jalapeños), but husband thought the amount of beans could be lowered some (and of course, he added more cayenne and habanero pepper flakes to his side in addition to the onions and jalapeños). Also, we would make a smaller amount next time or just reserve some of the chips and chili separately, since this was a huge amount for 2 people and this is not a great meal for leftovers.

Christi's Coconut Macaroons

I don't make coconut macaroons very often, but when I do, I pretty much go crazy over them. I really really like them. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I made them, I misplaced the recipe I had come up with, so I sort of winged it this time, although I think I remembered it for the most part. I didn't measure everything, so these are estimates.. mostly I think coconut macaroons are so good, they are hard to mess up! There are simpler recipes out there, but as usual, I started out combining some and then made my own changes.

I made 3 varieties this time. Plain, with chocolate chips and slivered almonds, and with chocolate chips and caramel bits. All 3 were yummy!

Christi's Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients

1 bag sweetened shredded coconut (14oz)

4 egg whites

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (about 7 oz)

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp sugar free coconut syrup (optional)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup coconut cake mix

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

If you only have one mixing bowl for your mixer, use another large bowl to mix together all of the ingredients except for egg whites and salt.

Once that is thoroughly mixed, put the egg whites and salt in another bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Then fold egg white mixture gently into the coconut mixture.

Once everything is held together fairly well, scoop out small spoons of batter and drop an inch apart onto cookie sheet. If you like, add nuts, chocolate chips, caramel bits, or other ingredients to the batter.

Bake for about 15-18 minutes until coconut is lightly toasted on top.

It's a cowboy cookie.. no it's a spice cake.. it's a cowboy cake?

Ahh, more cakes! Yes, lately I'll take any opportunity to bake. My brother-in-law's birthday was earlier this month, but as he's been working a project job out of the state for the past 2 months, we will be celebrating it late, tomorrow. He's a tough one, because he says he's "not a cake person".. so it's hard to know what to do with that. My husband reminded me that he ate up all of my cowboy cookies I made for Christmas, so I went on the search for creating a similar flavor in a cake. I found something really close, and just added coconut, pecans, and chocolate to it, and I think it came out pretty well, but next time I would add more sugar, as it really wasn't sweet enough for me, especially without any frosting. It would be great to eat for breakfast as is though.

Brother in law is really into fishing, boats, and even fish painting (where you use an actual fish dipped in paint..), so I went with that theme. It was a lot of fun, and I think it came out really cute, although certainly not as realistic as some I found online. But hey, it didn't take long at all, and I think he will like it. I also bought a cutting board for a serving plate, an idea I borrowed from someone else.

To decorate this cake, I frosted it and let it sit up in the fridge until it was slightly stiff to the touch. Then I just used a toothpick for the fins, and the small end of a frosting coupler to make the scales, since it was on hand. It worked out pretty well. Oh, and I tried out Betty Crocker's Decorating Spray which is how I got the 2 colors (all the frosting was the light green color). Never used this before, but got some for Christmas that was sitting around, and I thought it was pretty cool.

The basic recipe was Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Topping, but here is my version, as I made it.

Cowboy Cookie Inspired Cake

Ingredients

1½ cups water

1 cup quick cooking oats (uncooked)

1½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 stick butter — softened

½ cup granulated sugar (I would suggest increasing by 1/4 cup)

½ cup packed light brown sugar (I would suggest increasing by 1/4 cup)

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup coconut (I used 2 tbsp unsweetened fine coconut, and 2 tbsp sweetened shredded)

2 tbsp pecan flour (finely ground pecans)

2 tsbp chopped pecans

3 oz chopped dark chocolate (or semisweet chips)

Buttercream Icing I

Directions

Bring water to a boil in a lidded saucepan. Remove from heat, stir in the oats, cover and let sit for 20 minutes. Remove cover and let sit for another 10.

Meanwhile, stir flour, pecan flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars for about 2 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each egg. Beat in the vanilla and oatmeal. By hand, stir in the flour mixture, then stir in the coconut, pecans, and the chocolate.

Pour mixture into a greased cake pan (I used a 7x11 pan and 2 small heart shaped pans) and bake on center rack at 350 F for about 20-25 minutes (my small hearts took 18 minutes, the larger pan took about 25).

I used my new standby buttercream recipe, but I think this cake probably would go better with some other flavor added to the frosting.. just not sure what. Maybe coconut, or cream cheese frosting. Brother in law hates cream cheese though, so I didn't go that route. It still went ok with this frosting, and definitely needed the sweetness.

This is just a scrap piece I had cut off to shape the fish, but I figured I'd post a pic of it anyway so you can get some idea what it looks like inside.