Sorry I am MIA

This move is making me crazy. We are in the new apartment....and we are mostly unpacked. But there is stuff everywhere. I am making a big effort this weekend to make it look like a home. My goal is to hang pictures by Sunday.

I did bake once... it was a learning experience about my oven - it get HOT compared to the electric ( I now have gas.)  I will post the recipe soon I promise - Maybe even a round 2 for it this weekend/week depending.

Bear with me, and don't give up on me. I will be back soon. I have so many things I want to try, and I keep finding new blogs that have wonderful things on them. More added to my "must try" list.

Also, Aug 30 is Dear OLD Dad's 50th birthday. I have some ideas floating about for his cake and desserts for the cookout he wants to have with just a couple friends... I think we are actually listening to him. The man turns 50 and we are only having a small cookout (where I am sure he will be doing the cooking out...) O well - it is what he wants. ( I did find black candles today- and a cool 50 is nifty candle) Small cookout or not the cake has to hold 50 candles so it won't be too small.

See you soon! PROMISE!

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

Oreo Delight

[Printable Recipe]


I found this recipe on the Make Life Delicious blog. When I was going through my saved recipes I noticed that everything I saved was chocolate and peanut butter, which is one of my favorite combination but I decided to keep looking for something different. This sounded good, and I was able to adapt it so that it was better for my grandfather who has diabetes (after all this was for fathers day)

Ingredients

35 - 40 oreos

6 tbsp melted butter

8 oz cream cheese, softened ( I used reduced fat )

1/4 c. sugar

2 tbsp cold milk

12 oz cool whip. thawed ( I used sugar free)

3 1/4 c milk

2 small pkg Jello chocolate instant pudding ( I used sugar free)

Directions

process cookies in food processor until crumbs form. ( I don't have a food processor, so I used a nut chopper, it worked really well... the magic number is 6 cookies)

oreo crumbs


As Tim Gunn would say "make it work" so I did


Mix in melted butter and then press into the bottom of a 9 by 13 pan. Refrigerate

crust


Whisk cream cheese, suagr and 2 tbsp milk until blended, fold in 1 1/4 c cool whip.

cream cheese mixture


Spread over crust

Beat pudding and 3 1/4 cup milk with whisk for 2 min. pour over cream cheese layer.

( I added some left over crushed oreos on top)

pudding layer


Let stand in fridge to thicken for 5 mins

Cover with rest of the cool whip and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. ( I added more crushed oreos on top to make it look pretty)

the finished product.


the layers are pretty


My family really liked this, and I felt good eating it because it was relatively healthy. It was quoted as being "refreshing."

This is definitely a new go to for desserts. A great summer treat!

My Parents are GREAT

I have 2 recipes to post, and I promise they will make it on here soon. But I wanted to give my Mommy and Daddy a little shout out, Yesterday June 20th was their 28th wedding anniversary.  28 years, and that doesn't count the many many years they dated. I love them both very much and in a time when people don't put in the work to make marriages work, I am very proud that my parents have made it. They may not be perfect, but they are perfect for each other. (and they made me, which is pretty perfect... HA) I love you both! Here is to another 28 and more!

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