Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July! I hope you and your family have a great and safe day! As we spend our days eating hot dogs and watching fireworks with friends, take time to remember those to make our freedom possible.

We are going to a cookout and then watching the Washington D.C. fireworks from on top of our friend's apartment. There is nothing better than friends, food and fireworks. I can't wait.

I made a cookie cake to take.

I totally used a coloring sheet that Make and Takes posted as my inspiration for this cake.

The border is my favorite! 

Lemon Bundt Cake

[Printable Recipe]

I love lemon cakes. A while ago when my parents came to visit I decided to try my hand at it.
The cake was good, my execution was not.
I found this recipe on tortatebukura's blog.  I followed the recipe pretty much the same. I only added a little lemon extract to the glaze. My glaze didn’t look as white as the pictures, but it was still good. I did rush the glazing process so that could be why.
Ingredients:
Cake
3 Lemons, zest and juiced
3 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c. buttermilk
3 eggs, room temp
1 egg yolk, room temp
18 tbsp butter, room temp
2 c. sugar
Glaze
2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp buttermilk
2 cup confectioners sugar
Directions:
Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray Bundt pan with baking spray and flour.
Mince lemon zest to fine paste, combine zest and lemon juice in small bowl. Set aside

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Combine lemon juice mixture, vanilla and buttermilk in a bowl.
Whisk eggs and yolk.

In a standing mixer cream butter and sugar at medium-high until pale and fluffy.
Reduce to medium and add half eggs and incorporate, then add the rest of the eggs.
Scrape down bowl, reduce to low.
Add 1/3 flour mixture, then half the buttermilk, then half of the remaining flour mixture, the rest of the buttermilk then finish with the flour mixture. Scraping the bowl a few times throughout the mixing process.
Remove from mixer and scrape into the prepared pan.
Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. About 40-50 Mins
Glaze
While cake is baking, whisk 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, buttermilk and confectioners’ sugar until smooth,(I also added 1/2 tsp lemon extract for added kick) add more lemon juice as needed until glaze is thick but still pour able ( I think I probably thinned mine too much)

Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 10 mins, then invert cake directly on to rack. ( Now, when I took the cake out my mom said to dump the cake onto the rack right away, I said no I wanted to follow directions, she was right, it stuck. I know I buttered the whole pan well, and used a lot of flour so it wouldn’t stick. I am not sure why it did, but at least it was just for the fam.)

Pour half the glaze over warm cake and let cool for 1 hour, pour remaining glaze over the cake and continue to cool until room temp.

This was so good, super lemony tasting. The cake was very refreshing in my opinion. Even though my glaze was thin it was still very flavorful but not overpowering. This was a bit of work, but totally worth it!

Austin's Marine Cake

I made a quick cake for my brother. He is going to boot camp in a couple weeks, and my WHOLE family is getting together to wish him well and send him off in style. Ok well maybe not style, but with love.

I asked him what he wanted for dessert, and he said peanut butter fudge and "those little peanut butter chocolate ball thingys" so I made those, but decided that we needed a real dessert too. So I made a yellow pudding cake with a nutella filling.

I originally made the icing to use on cookies and was going to tint it. I used butter flavored shortening (which is yellow) instead of the all white shortening that I would typically use for icing a cake. O well. I didn't have the energy to make new icing.

The logo was hand made minus using a bowl and cup to imprint a circle. It isn't my best and favorite work, but I like it. He will too.

 

  

  

Linking up with Follow Friday 

Aubrey's UF Cookie Cake

My bestest's 21st birthday was last Thursday. She lives in Florida, because I started a new job I couldn't go down for her birthday as I had planned. So I did the next best thing. I made her a birthday cake...her favorite to be exact. A cookie cake. Everyone loves a cookie cake, and it is the easiest type of cake to mail I think. (more on that later)

I started with a home made cookie cake. Then I decorated it.

Since Aub moved to FL to go to the University of Florida she has become obsessed with The Gators ( I don't blame her, I am obsessed with all things Testudo.)

So the only thing to do was to make her a gator cake. I thought I would be able to trace it with piping gel and transfer it to the cake like the soccer cake.

Well that didn't work, maybe 20% of the pattern transferred, and of course it was the outside, easy part, not the inside complicated part. So lucky for me I am a little artistic, so I hand drew the gator with icing, then filled it in.

the idea that failed


my attempt at fixing it


turned out great!!!!

finished product


After it was decorated I let the icing harden in the fridge over night. then wrapped it in plastic wrap and foil and froze it. put it in a bathroom scale box ( it was the perfect size for the cake, didn't give it much room to wiggle around.) Then I took it to the post office Saturday am and the lady put it in another box and stuffed it, marked it with fragile and perishable all over and off it went to Florida, I just had to hope that it went there quickly, and that it didn't get too hot and melted. She called me Monday and she got it! In one piece, the only thing messed up was the 21...not bad. If I can get a picture from her I will post how it looked when she got it. I am very very pleased with this cake. I am thinking that pretty cookie cakes my be my new favorite cake to make. :-D Want one?

Here is what she got... it survived pretty well! :-D

Soccer Cookie Cake

One of my favorite school age kids from the Bee was my director's daughter. She spent many afternoons in my classroom playing with the babies and hiding from her brother.

Her mom asked me to make her 12th birthday cake, and I was happy to do so. We talked about what she wanted, and Dawn told me she would want a cookie cake and she likes soccer, so a soccer cookie cake seemed perfect.

I was planning the cake this week and I discovered one thing, I still stink a geometry. I tried to hand draw it, but it just didn't work out. It looked deformed. So I found a picture on the Internet I liked, blew it up on the printer and used it a guide. I decided to try a new technique to use piping gel to transfer the lines on the cake. It worked, but I missed one step that may have made it a little easier.

All in all I am very happy with this cake, I can't wait to see Nicki's face.

the cookie cake

The guide

piping gel untinted

tinted pink

tracing the guide

Here is where I missed the step, I think I should have used Pam on the wax paper to make the gel come off a little better, but things worked out.

ready to put on the cake

rubbing the gel on the cake

the outline in gel

filling in the pentagons

filled in and smoothed out

filled in cake

Then I put it in the fridge and let the icing harden so I could smooth it out and make it look nicer, then I re-outlined the lines, added a border and wrote on it. My writing still needs practice, but I will get there. I did the border first so it was harder to write, I know better, I am dumb.

smoothed and outlined

finished soccer cookie cake


I was surprised how quickly this cake came together, the outlining and filling in took about an hour ( I watched the Brian Williams thing on NBC of the White House) Finishing it took about 30 mins - smoothing, re-outlining, border and writing. I really like the cake. It is really cute.

I have to show you how I work. Since my kitchenaid mixer is at Matt's apartment I do all my work here. The kitchen has these spot lights that make the kitchen so HOT it makes the icing really hard to work with, so I don't work in there. The dining room table is too high to work, so I use the coffee table, it is perfect height to sit and work. I took picture of the mess I make of the living room. I can't wait til the new place :-D

taking over


I promise it is sanitary and clean


Matt played Mario Kart while I worked

Cake Truffles

The problem with making yummy treats for parties when you have a baking blog is that you have to post it right away; or you get facebook wall posts nagging for it. ;) I joke Jax! I <3 you. Thanks for giving me 4 or so hours of tiny baby time.

[Printable Recipe]

Cake Truffles


I made these reallllly yummy cake truffles. I saw the recipe at The Creapes of Wrath

I changed it a little bit, but it is the same basic idea.

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake) (I used cake tops from a couple cakes I made and half of the cake from Austin's Ice cream cake)
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup Nutella

18 oz. milk or dark chocolate (I used chocolate almond bark)

Sprinkles or whatever you want for decoration

Directions:

I paired the chocolate cake with the peanut butter and the yellow cakes with the nutella

- Put cake in bowl and crumble

Chocolate cake


Yellow Cake


- Add PB or Nutella and mix well.

mixed with peanut butter


Mixed with Nutella


- Form into balls and place on wax paper lined cookie sheet.



- Place in freezer ( I left in for about an hour or so)

- Melt chocolate and dip cake balls into the chocolate ( I used little tongs, the fork and tooth picks didn't work)



- Decorate the way you wish

- Let cool in freezer

These were so yummy. The chocolate/PB ones were very rich but very good.

My only complaint is that the yellow/nutella ones didn't hold together well and got my chocolate a little but it wasn't so bad. Maybe next time I will use more nutella.

I will be making these again. Every time I make a cake and level it I will freeze the tops and when I have enough cake I will make them again.

There you go Jax.

Ice Cream Cake

[Printable Recipe]

Birthday Boy and his cake

Saturday is my baby brother’s birthday. He will be 20. Once again our parents decide to leave us for the weekend of a birthday, a reoccurring theme lately. I think it is because they are in denial that they have 24 and 20 year old children which make them really freaking old (sorry to those who have children older, you aren’t old, it is just my parents.) I am holding down the fort, watching the dog, fending off any parties that try to pop up at the Eubanks household. All parties must be held elsewhere. Kobi doesn’t like them.

Anyway, we celebrated Austin’s birthday at Easter dinner. Like I have done with everyone else on their birthday, I ask what kind of cake they want. He answers “an ice cream cake” hmm, that’s a new one for me. But I am not scared. A little bummed because I have this cool cake pan in the shape of a guitar and I wanted to use it for his cake, but not scared.

Upon further discussion, he wants 2 layers of ice cream, 1 cake. Chocolate for the cake, vanilla for the ice cream (BORING) We decide on Oreo for the ice cream. That’s a little better.

I decided that I would still use the cake pan. Making an ice cream cake isn’t that hard, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again. But it will be a simple round or square cake, no shapes. I also will not be making it unless it is staying put. We drove it from Frederick to Wheaton. It was a nightmare.

Ingredients:

1.5 quarts Ice cream

1 cake from the box

1 pack Oreos (I used a little more)

1 tub chocolate icing

Directions:

Line pan with plastic wrap, and fill with softened ice cream. Cover and let refreeze. (I put it in around 9:00pm on Monday, and took it out 3pm on Wed)

Repeat for a 2^nd layer. The 2^nd layer I made smaller, and I used a hairdryer to melt a little of the ice cream and pressed crushed Oreos into it and then covered and froze. Once it is hardened remove from pan.

Bake cake as directed on box, I added a box of jello. Once cool, level and wrap in foil. (I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE...DUMB)

To Assemble:

Put the ice cream layer with the Oreos on the bottom. Spread a layer of chocolate icing on the ice cream and sprinkle a thin layer of Oreos. Also spread a little icing on the cake and place on the ice cream. The icing is mostly used as glue; it isn’t supposed to be pretty. On the top of the cake layer put another icing and Oreo layer then the last ice cream layer. Cover and put in freezer to refreeze.

Take out and ice, working quickly and putting back in freezer as needed.

Mom decorated the cake for me because I had dinner plans and it was taking me a lot longer than expected. I only had certain colors mixed, and a limited amount of icing to work with. Mom did a great job.

my piece :-D

The cake looked wonderful; I didn’t take a picture before I left the house. L It didn’t travel well. The sun beat on it the whole way, I had the AC blasting, and my hands were numb. At the last light before Mema’s the cake slid a little, and I put my hand in it, and the neck broke. Sigh. It still tasted good.