Happy 3rd Birthday...plus 21 days

Taking a break from slacking, err....being otherwise busy, to finally share some pics from the Tot's 3rd birthday. Aside from him coming down with an illness about half way through the day, it was a good day. The cake baking and decorating was less stressful, the gift opening and candle blowing out was actually performed by the Tot, and the mess at the end was slightly less messy. Oh, yeah - there was the one glitch where I discovered that the reason the chocolate cake tasted just a little off was because apparently the oil that I used (at my mom's house) was oil that she had already used to make french fries. Oops. She really should keep that in a separate place - or in something other than the original bottle. While I am all for reusing, I do not recommend this particular application. Although nobody said they had an odd craving for ketchup with their cake, so it was all good.

This was the happy child during his birthday lunch of chocolate milk and toast with jelly, still wearing his jammies. If I let him, he would probably indulge in this behavior every day.




The cake - he wanted a train and rather than do any of the actual train cake designs out there, I created the scene with tracks and used a vintage wooden train candle holder that my mom pulled out of her endless supply of vintage goodies.







And, yes, he did receive a hand knit sweater which I will have to blog at a future date as he has thus far refused to model it for proper photographing.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Are we gonna die?

Wow! Just shy of having a two month lapse here on the blog. Sometimes life just gets in the way. And this is going to be photo-less (!!!).

A few weeks back, Cara shared this recipe she had come across for Brown Butter Ice Cream. She was hoping someone with an ice cream maker would make some for her. I love to make and eat ice cream and am no stranger to butter, browned or otherwise, so I jumped at the idea. Okay, I initially jumped and then after several occasions of having all the ingredients but never having the time or forethought to do the cooking part, I finally got my act together and made it last Friday. I figured I would make it first for myself to test and then again for Cara.

The results: A good custard recipe with the nutty aroma and flavor of brown butter. It turned out nice and thick. R and I each had a small bowl and after a couple spoonfuls, the words "Are we gonna die?" were uttered in all seriousness. Sadly, it was not, "Are we gonna die from eating a whole batch of butter ice cream in one sitting because it is so good?" It was, "Are we gonna die because I can already feel a 1/4" layer of butter on the roof of my mouth and can only imagine how my arteries are going to look if I take one more bite."

If you like to eat butter by the spoonful, this recipe is for you! Otherwise, I caution against getting your hopes up for this one. We just couldn't stomach the grease. Maybe I did it wrong since the author of that article seems pretty confident in it's yumminess.

Afterthoughts: I'm wondering if you could get the brown butter flavor without the greasy mouth by pouring off most of the melted butter before adding it to the mix and just using primarily the browned bits. Seems a bit wasteful, but so is contaminating an otherwise good batch of ice cream.

Also, I initially thought that the 1/2 cup of butter in the recipe was a reasonable amount, but in the end this seemed to make much less than your average homemade ice cream recipe and so turned out to be a lot of butter per serving (provided you can actually eat a normal size serving, which I doubt).

I considered using the remaining ice cream on top of waffles on Sunday morning, but we just couldn't do it. I would offer up the remaining ice cream to anyone who wants to try it, but we both dumped our half eaten bowlfuls back into the main batch. If you don't mind our saliva, come on over.

Since I'm not sure I can bring myself to make this again, I'm willing to lend you my ice cream maker, Cara. I think I'm going to keep my brown butter far away from my ice cream for now.

Mmmm....doughnuts

Okay, so I'm late. I'm asking you to just play along and pretend this was posted a month ago. For the second year in a row, Finn and I happened to be visiting Nana and PopPop in time for Fastnacht Day - aka Doughnut Day, Fat Tuesday, whatever you like to call it. We always make homemade doughnuts and lots of them.

Who doesn't love deep fried dough?



Even the little ones lent a hand or two.



A little girl after my own heart. Yes, I had an affinity for eating raw dough.



I said "had". Honest. Oh, you ask where is my kid? My kid was in the next room dumping toys on his face.



He does this all the time. Legos, puzzles, you name it. What can I say?

Soooo...now you want to see pictures of the finished product. Ha, are you nuts?! I like to take photos, but I like engorging myself on fresh from the grease doughnuts even more, so the camera had to be put down. Turns out Finn's alright after all. He made an eager appearance in the kitchen in time to chow on doughnuts just like the rest of us.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today my baby turns one. A year ago I had this prescious little bundle...



...and now I have a curious, brown-eyed, trouble-making, armful of cuteness.


We had a birthday party for him over the weekend at my parents' house. It was a bird theme - I made a birdhouse cake and little bird's nest cupcakes.





The cake was...well, troublesome. In hindsight, I should have ditched the cream cheese frosting (it was a carrot cake) for something more solid, and I should have chosen a light color for the birdhouse. It was supposed to be burgundy and after many rounds of adding coloring, I finally gave in to what was a pinkish house because it was taking waaaay too long. (Enter guilt for making my son's first birthday cake pink.) I think the bird's nests, however, were absolutely adorable. The whole thing probably would have been a failure if it weren't for the help of my sister who has been doing her kids' birthday cakes for 13 years now.

Finn absolutely enjoyed his cupcake, including the little nest bits.


He ate every bit that wasn't lost in his highchair.


I also got these warbling bird whistles as favors for the kids at the party. I just loved these when I was little.



And here is the birthday garlard that I made:


A crappy picture...I know. If I get a chance I'll do some more in a follow-up. Anyway, this is something I will use over and over again. I can't take credit for the idea - I saw it here at Mahar Drygoods some time ago and have been planning to make one ever since. I just added the birds to the ends for this year. I think the supplies cost me less than $6, so definitely worth it and fun to make.

zesty cake

In the kitchen this week, I baked up an Orange Zest Cake, as recently blogged about by the angry chicken. (Sad, but I'm not positive I know how to make a nice link and am too lazy to mess around with it right now so you'll have to go look for her May birthday post if you want the recipe.)

I made it with red raspberry jam in the center rather than lemon curd. Tasty but a bit on the sweet side. If you're not so into the sweet, it would be tasty with no filling at all. I may have to mess around with other fillings in the future - it sure was simple to make.

Mixing it up

I must admit I'm a minor snob when it comes to baking, because I almost always pass on any recipe that calls for a mix, let alone make something that is straight from a box. The most I've used cake or brownie mixes has been in an Easy Bake Oven. Don't get me wrong, if somebody else makes something from a mix, that's fine and I'll gladly partake. I guess I just like the baking process and have an appreciation for home-baked goodness. However, a little while back I came across this recipe that I thought sounded interesting so I finally gave it a try yesterday.

These are Cookie Dough Cupcakes and amongst the ingredients are cake mix, pudding mix, and prepared cookie dough. That's a whole bunch of pre-prep. Surprisingly, it did not call for ready made icing. I will admit, that it was an easy bake and considering I got them made while crankypants (the baby who decided that a day of half-hour naps was a good idea) sat in his highchair, I appreciated the simplicity. The result is pretty typical yellow cake mix cupcakes, with cookie in the center. Yummy, but not earth shattering. More exciting is the fact that, despite eating three cupcakes in the last...12 hours..., this morning my scale finally registered my pre-pregnancy weight. Just shy of the six month mark. At long last.

For the non-snobby, here's the recipe which was a blog find but comes from Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
makes 24 cupcakes

1 package plain yellow cake mix
1 package vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup whole milk
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 package frozen cookie dough ( I used dough from the dairy section then threw them in the freezer)

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare the cupcake tins with paper liners. Dump the cake mix, pudding mix, whole milk, veggie oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat a few minutes until well blended. Scoop batter into cupcake tins ( I used an ice cream scoop) to about 2/3 full. Cut the frozen cookie dough to make 24 pieces. Place a piece on top of each cupcake. Place pans in oven.

Bake 23-27 minutes, or unti lthe cupcakes spring back when lightly prodded. Cool in pans on racks for 5 minutes then remove from the pans and continue to cool for about 15 minutes before frosting.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (or not)
3-5 tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend butter and cocoa powder in a large bowl using an electric mixer on low. When the mixture is combined, add the powdered sugar, about 3 tablespooons milk, and the vanilla. Blend on low for about a minute then increase the speed and beat until light and fluffy.

Cake Follow-up

Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cake
Topping: 10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 c. chopped walnuts
2/3 c. sugar

Cake: 3/4 c. butter or margarine, softened
1 1/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sour cream
2 t. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 10-inch tube pan.

In small bowl, combine topping ingredients: set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, sour cream and vanilla until well mixed. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl. On low speed, add flour mixture to batter, beating until smooth. Spoon 1/3 (about 2 cups) of the batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the topping (scant 1 cup). Repeat layering 2 more times.
Bake 55 to 65 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove from pan. Makes 12 servings.
It is also recommended to have all ingredients at room temperature.

Now, for the Funny Cake. This is one of the much-loved treats from my Pennsylvania Dutch background. It is similar in form to Shoo-Fly pie, which is probably much better known (I think, although I don't think R really knew about shoo-fly pie until he had my mom's, so maybe not). Funny cake is actually a pie crust containing a layer of gooey chocolate beneath a dense, moist cake. It's Funny because it is traditionally made by pouring the chocolate over top of the cake filling, but in baking, the chocolate settles to the bottom. Perhaps I will have to make it soon and share the goodness with my lucky readers. Perhaps I'll have to feature shoo-fly pie as well. Mmmmm....good things to come!

Sleep, Cake, Insects, and Babies

Last night, we started sleep training for Finn. It's not that he is a terrible sleeper, but he was continuing to wake up multiple times a night to eat and he just doesn't need that any longer. I realize this is as much my fault as it is his 'cause, let's be honest here...if he woke up and my choices were to be up with a crying baby or feed him and go back to sleep, I was going with the latter option. Hopefully this training will also help him stick to more of a schedule, at least for night time. Sooooo last night... to bed at 7:30, 11:00 dream feeding, woke at 2:00am to eat. I didn't feed him and instead just comforted him... for an hour and 45 minutes until he went back to sleep. Then he woke at 6:45, nursed, back to sleep without much fuss and woke at 8. Despite the nearly two hour awake time in there, I think it went really well. He wasn't crying that whole time, and I wasn't holding him, so I wouldn't call it difficult. We're following the Sleep Lady's methods which require that I stay in the same position (in a chair by his crib for the first three nights) until he is asleep. What I learned that wasn't in her book is that I need to have a glass of water and some tissues nearby. I was looking for something to throw at R, asleep in the next room, so that he could get me what I needed. The reward came in the morning when I fed Finn and he looked up at me with the most wonderful look on his face...like I am the absolute love of his life, which I guess I pretty much am at this point. He wasn't even all that interested in eating, but was just completely obsessed with me. I guess that shows that he didn't really need to eat at night but just liked to use me as his security blanket. His new security item is that little stuffed elephant from his cousin, Laura (one of many elephant lovers I know). Yes, I am a jerk who busted in on his nap today to take that photo and, No, I did not pose the elephant - either he got up on his own, or Finn stood him up like that. Seriously. He was lying down when I put him in there.

In the kitchen this week, I baked up some delicious Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cake. It had been on my to bake list for a while, just a simple recipe from the back of the Domino sugar bag. I made two large loaves instead of using a single tube pan, used dark rather than semi-sweet chocolate, and omitted the nuts. It reminds me a bit of Funny Cake (I'd be surprised if any of my readers knows what that is).


Earlier this month it was a bird's nest on the back porch. This week, it is a hornet's nest on the front porch. This is what spring is bringing me. Again, we were lucky to find it early and it has already been sprayed and will likely be removed tonight.
However, it also seems like 'tis the season for babies. This month I learned that two friends are each expecting their first baby and I am so excited. Ever since I had Finn, I've been wanting someone I know to go through it. I mean, I was happy for other women before I was a mother, but now there's just an extra element there that makes me even happier. Also, I want to make baby things for them, but that's nothing new.