Make Your Own Cake Boards!

Materials: Heavy Duty cardboard box, single sheet of foam core board (Wal-Mart), cake board (the size you need), exacto knife, glue gun, ribbon, scissors and tape.

 

Use cake board as your pattern, trace over foam core board.

 

 

        

Carefully cut out, don't try and go all the way through the first time just get it going and then go over the cut again to complete.

 

 

        

 

Use the foam core board you just cut and trace over the cardboard box. This can be double or single layered. Here I cut through two layers of cardboard because I'll need four since it's a heavy cake. This will hold one, 6, 8 and 10 inch fondant covered cake.

 

I placed the two cardboards in between, foam core on the bottom and cake board on top. The foam core board supports REALLY well.

 

 

 

 

Cover with cake foil.

 

 

 Then use glue gun to adorn with ribbon color of your choice.

 

 

The Artists

I wasn't given an particular design for this cake. All I knew was that she loved art so I just went for it :-). Decorations are all edible.

 

 

 

We Love Our Teachers!

Made these rainbow cakes to say thank you to all the wonderful educators at my daughters middle school. She's headed to High School! I can't believe it!

We are still blessed with some of the greatest and most caring Teachers in the world....they're still out there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My daughter flipped when she saw these! Doesn't take much to amuse a kid I guess :-).

Happy "Hamster Home"?....YES!

 

I decided that I was done with fish, they never lived long so I guess we just didn't know what we were doing. My daughter wanted another Hamster, I thought, ok...haven't had one of those in years but I did not want to spend a fortune setting it up.

 

Then it hit me! I had a Hamster home...in my fish tank! It made sense to me! And that's what I did. I actually saved money because a hamster home with all the trimmings was about 40 bucks. That included a little food, a little bedding and I would have had to go out and buy those again in a few days (this one REALLY stuffs his cheeks!).

So I spent $58 bucks and that included bedding for months and food. I taped the water bottle to the side for now until I buy some Velcro and I'm good! He seems happy.....

 

The Chihuahua? Mmm,...not so much, he whined the entire time I was setting it up, poor baby was accustomed to being the "only pet" :-)))).

 

Homemade Dulce de leche

I love dulce de leche but not all the fat, so I decided to change up this recipe just a bit to add more flavor, cut out some of the fat ( and my guilt :-).

Ingredients:

2 Cups Vanilla Sugar (this is just regular sugar with vanilla beans inside to absorb the flavor)

1 Cup Whole Milk

1 Cup Soy Milk

1 Vanilla Bean

1 Tbls Good Vanilla

1 Tsp Baking Soda

In a large sauce pan on medium heat add milk, let boil, then adding vanilla and soda, stir until sugar dissolves. This should only take a little over an hour but mine cooked longer as the soy has less fat (about an hour and 40 min.).

The first 15 minutes on medium heat.

 

At about 40 minutes of boiling time, it's getting darker. The baking soda causes it to froth. You will also need a small strainer, bowl of warm water and pastry brush for brushing down the sides of your pan every 10 minutes after removing froth.

An hour into boiling, almost ready. At this point I just used a large spoon to skim the froth from the top since it was easier.

An hour and 40 minutes on medium heat, if it coats the back of your spoon it's ready!

For smoother caramel pour through a sieve before serving.

ENJOY!
 

 If you want NO dairy, use coconut milk but be warned it's still FULL OF FAT! Even light is 157 cal/13g fat, Original Soy contains 132 cal/4 g fat. But pure coconut milk?... 467 cal/50g fat!....so you choose.

 

 

"The Count"

My husbands birthday cake. When he was a kid his favorite character was The Count from "Sesame Street" so I thought this would make a cute B-Day cake.

 

 

 

Flavor: Low sugar dark chocolate cake with a whipped hershey's chocolate filling.

 

 

 

 

Happy 40th Crystal!

 

 

 

This cake was made for a woman who loves anything Disney, I had fun making both the shoe and the royal Icing Tiara as I've never made either before (and I love a challenge). It was kind of sentimental making this one because the first and last pillow cake I made was for my Mom. She couldn't wear her high heel shoes anymore and so I put one on her cake and she LOVED it,...she would REALLY love this one :-).

 

Cake: Double dark chocolate ganache, covered in homemade marshallow fondant, topped with sugar shoe and royal icing Tiara. One thing I've learned about a sugar shoe and that is...it's NOT easy to photograph!

 

Summer Squash Risotto...yummy!!

This was delicious! Get the original recipe from "Vegenista's Blog" Yummy!

http://vegenista.com/post/6391381821/summer-squash-risotto-with-fresh-garlic-petite-peas

“Summer Squash Risotto with Fresh Garlic, Petite Peas & Basil”

·         ¼ Cup Olive oil

·         1/2 Onion, chopped 3 tbls chopped green onions

·         3 garlic cloves, finely minced

·         1/4 cup white wine (cooking Wine)

·         4-5 cups organic vegetable broth (keep extra broth handy, rice absorbs quickly)

·         1 ½ cup Arborio rice

·         2 medium yellow squash

·         1 small fresh Zuccinni

·         1/2 cup frozen, thawed petite peas

·         1/4 cup fresh basil, julienned (I used a tsp of dried)

·         3 Tbsp. vegan margarine

·         1 small can mushrooms

·         Freshly ground pepper (optional)

1.    Wash squash & cut into 1/2 moons about a 1/2 inch thick. Set aside.

2.    In a large, heavy saucepan (I used a dutch oven, the sauce pan would not hold it all) or dutch oven, heat olive oil, & add onions & garlic. Saute for 3-5 minutes over medium heat.

3.    Stir in the rice, & cook 2 minutes until opaque. Add wine & stir until absorbed.

4.    Ladle broth into rice, one ladleful at a time, stirring frequently over medium heat, after each addition. Wait until broth is almost completely absorbed before adding more.

5.    After about 15 minutes, add squash & peas. Continue stirring & adding broth until the vegetables are tender & the rice is al dente but looks creamy, about 5 minutes.

6.    Remove from heat, add fresh basil, margarine & stir. Season with fresh black pepper & garnish with more fresh basil. For a little extra brightness, top each dish with fresh lemon zest. (I used fresh parmigian cheese)

 

Here are the main ingredients I used, got them from a local grocery store. Used dried basil because I didn't have any fresh.

I love mushrooms in my risotto!

 

I had to switch from a skilled to dutch oven, my additional 1/2 cup rice and zuccini was a bit of an overload. I added additional broth as this rice absorbs moisture quickly.

Sweet Fellowship

Had a blast with a group of ladies I attend Church with, we made scarves out of old T-Shirts? Would have never guessed that one, but it was fun and the scarves turned out really cute. We even thought about all showing up at Church in the morning wearing them...now THAT would be a fashion statement.

"The instigator" Ms Mattie :-).

"The serious Crafters"

"The Hostess"

The nut mix "experiment" was enjoyed as well :-). Get the "revised" recipe here on my blog. That picture doesn't look forced....or does it :-)))).

Our t-shirt scarves turned out so cute!