Birthday Party Cake

In some ways Thursday's cake for Baby's actual birthday was a trial run, it was just for family, so if it ended up looking funny or something it was not going to be a huge embarrassment! So that gave me lots of confidence to just try some things. I was really happy with the way it looked, but I thought that the icing in the lady bug did not taste great because of all the coloring paste used to get the colors that dark. It still tasted good, but I felt that I needed to work on it a little bit more, so for Saturday's party I played it safe and just used simple chocolate and cherry icing (the cherry icing is made by using the juice from a jar of maraschino cherries to flavor and color your icing). The results looked like this:



I was THRILLED with the flavor, but liked the way the other one looked better. So next time I would make a cherry icing and then tint it red, and I would make the icing very chocolaty and then tint it black.

And the cake must have been delicious because at the end of the party we had 2 pieces left!

The baker was very happy....

Cake Pan Substitutions

It is time to start auditioning cakes for Miss Pear's birthday.

My plan is to make 2 half sheet pans of cake, cut them in half, and have 4 layers.

The cake must be chocolate.

The filling must be raspberry.

The icing must be purple (her favorite color).

But I could not find a cake recipe that called for half sheet pans, so I started to think if I could make a substitution for pan size, and I can!

All the substitution wonder is found here, every cake pan substitution you could want including baking time changes!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I cannot remember where I got this recipe from, all I know is that it was my go to recipe for years, until we could not have nuts in the house. Now that tree nuts are once again aloud, my trusty recipe is back!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add milk and vanilla, blend until creamy.

Beat in egg.

Combine dry ingredients and add gradually.

Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

Bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes

Million Dollar Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is one of the recipes Miss Pear and I made on Sunday. While I got the recipe from a friend, the original comes from
(sorry, I cannot get just the text only to load).

It was a delicious recipe that is supposed to make 10 dozen cookies, and I think I actually came pretty close to that. While the cookies are a fair bit of work, they are worth it! Here is the recipe!

Million Dollar Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 10 doz.

2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
4 cups flour
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure then blend to powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 8-oz. chocolate bar, grated (I just used bakers semi sweet chocolate as it was all I had)
3 cups chopped walnuts (optional, and I skipped this one)

Cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together and then stir in salt, baking powder, baking soda and flour; add blended oats. Mix in chips, grated chocolate bar and nuts. Roll into balls (I use a medium cookie scoop) and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 375 F.

Freezer Blessings

Throughout our pregnancy and recover and adjustment the freezer has been our friend with well packed goodness to thaw and bake or thaw and eat.

Never was I so grateful though as the weekend Baby was in the hospital. We did not know that all my meals would be provided, so Mr Pear raided our freezer packing me a snack bag of muffins and granola bars. Even though I did not need them for breakfast and lunch, they were fabulous midnight snacks!

This week I need to begin replenishing the freezer baking. We are low on cookies, muffins/loaves/granola bars (for breakfasts), and hamburger buns.

We were not able to go to Church on Sunday, Baby was still needing the quiet, so after nap time Miss Pear and I played in the kitchen, something that has been much harder to do since Baby arrived.

We made two batches of cookies, one was just a large recipe that completely filled the BOSCH, and one I doubled. I will include the recipes later this week.

What I have discovered lately is that freezing the cookie dough is working much better than baking all the cookies and then freezing them. I find that once frozen the cookies bake up better, they always taste fresh (some cookies get that freezer taste very fast), and they store better.

To store the cookies I first line a sheet pan with waxed paper (parchment would work too) then use a scoop to make rounds of dough. If the batch does not all fit on one pan I will often just layer them by using another sheet of waxed paper. Then I freeze the dough. Once frozen enough to easily work with I first freeze one freezer bag of 24 dough balls - 2 cookie sheets worth - 1 cookie jar full. I then use the Food Saver to freeze the rest so that the dough will last longer.

In the freezer I stack the Food Saver cookie dough on the bottom of the pile making sure the newest is on the bottom. On top of that I stack the bags, again making sure the newest is on the bottom.

The reason I do this is that the Food Saver bags are more expensive, so if I am going to bake them in the next month or so there is no reason to use them, a freezer bag will do great!

Sunday we baked to trays of cookies, froze 2 bags of cookies and 2 Food Saver packages! Very successful afternoon, and lots of fun!

Click over to Tammy's for more Kitchen Tips!

Click over to Mrs. Dryer's for WFMW!

Queen of Multitasking

I was going to call this post "Why make one when two will do?" But that would probably be an inside joke that so many would not get, going back to my manufacturing days when engineering would drive us crazy with custom parts and we would say, "Why buy standard when custom will do?"

So, getting back on track, as I have mentioned, this is the week I am determined to get caught up, or at least be able to see the end of the to do list. While there are some projects I need help with due to pregnancy fatigue and sore muscles (like getting down that box of maternity clothes to wash, and vacuuming because of vacuum is very heavy), a lot of it is just using my energy productively.

I always have more energy in the mid morning time frame, so I have been trying to get up, get what I can started, and then be ready when that burst of energy hits. What has helped me tremendously is multitasking.

I am the most behind in my baking. At the beginning of this week there was not a cookie, loaf of bread, muffin, or loaf in the freezer. I had actually resorted to buying bread. I know, shocking!

So twice this week I have got up, got the bread machine going to make dough for cinnamon buns and got the Bosch going with either bread or muffins. It works out to keep me moving at a steady pace that Miss Pear can keep up with me and I can have my helper.

But the trick is to fill the appliances as full as possible.

The bread machine can only make one loaf or one batch of cinnamon buns. So helpful, but not as efficient as I would like.

The Kitchenaid can do 2 loaves of bread, 1 batch of muffins, 1 batch of cookies, or 1 batch of cinnamon buns. (but requires more attention than the bread machine and Bosch)

The Bosch can handle 4 loaves of bread, 24 rolls, or double batches of cookies, muffins, or cinnamon buns.

So by maximizing 2 appliances, by nap time I had 24 muffins and 12 cinnamon buns made, plus the kitchen was mostly clean (just those last minute things need to be cleaned once they cool.)

Miss Pear had fun stealing my raisins, and I feel accomplished.

So often we have all these wonderful appliances but we still stick to uni-tasking. So while things are easier we are not giving ourselves every chance to be as on top of things as we could be, of keeping our kitchen time as short as possible so that we can be doing other things that matter (like discussing with toddlers if we should play outside after nap or go have tea with the neighbors, or reading books, or just playing together - you know, the pressing things!)

While I am not an expert in this by any stretch of the imagination, I am making a concerted effort to figure out how to make everything in the kitchen work hardest for me so that I don't have to work hardest in the kitchen!

I even had a few minutes of spare time in the kitchen to get a few things on the go for supper!

So now after nap time I have to finish cleaning the kitchen, but in a pinch everything left could go into the dishwasher, finish supper, and sort coupons. All things my daughter can again help me with, or at least keep me company with!

It is always surprising how far a little bit of planning and multitasking can take you!

What are your favorite multitasking tricks in the kitchen?

For more kitchen tips head on over to Tammy's for Kitchen Tip Tuesday!

Picture from Art.com

Cinnamon Flop

I made this cinnamon flop on Sunday for a sweet ending to supper with friends, naturally I topped it with vanilla bean ice cream!

I must say, it was not a flop at all, everyone wanted seconds!

(Oh, and I have not forgotten the two recipes I promised to post, but it has been a very weird week, I will get to it, I promise!)

Project Friday

I have a new thing that helps me out in the kitchen so much I just have to tell you! A friend of mine and I get together on Friday's for Project Friday. Now I would be lying if I said we managed this every week, it is more like every second week...almost.

But on Project Friday we get together to do a project or to finish a project, usually baking. So one Friday we made pie crusts, and took them home in disks ready for use. Last Friday we made gingerbread man dough. We have made bread, hot chocolate for gifts, and a ton of other stuff. As a rule, unless absolutely necessary, we don't do the actual baking, just the preparation of the dough and clean-up.

And with two sets of hands and eyes is makes light work and the children are all playing together where we can see them! (Or helping us).

As for sharing supplies and keeping it "even", we take turns at each other's houses, with the one hosting being responsible for suppling the ingredients, but if all of a sudden I am short molasses, my friend will share hers. In the end it all works out!

This has been a tremendous help to me, so I would encourage you to find a friend you can do this with too! It is also helpful for crafting activities too! And if you are wondering how to get your Christmas baking done, now you know what works for me!

Christmas Baking Lists

Two years ago I sat down and wrote down all the Christmas baking I do each year. This kept me from having to sit down each year and try to remember all the baking I do. So now, each year I just pull out the list and get started! It saves me SO much time!

On my list is:

Christmas Cake
Shortbread Cookies
Gingerbread Cookies
Cookie Square
Pink Icing Cake
Vinatarta
Mars Bar Square

Each year I also bake Cinnamon Buns ahead of time and pop them in the freezer, then Christmas Eve after supper I pull them out, let them thaw over night, and then warm them up in the morning for breakfast (with fruit and stuff, to tide us over to a big brunch).

If I make changes, or add stuff, I just update the list for next year!

And of course, I store it all in the freezer, and then use my special snowman plate and pull it out a plate at time so we always have variety!

This year I am going to also plan out my menus and then type them up so that I have a list because every year it is the same thing of asking myself what we do again!

My plan is by this time next year to have menu lists for all the special occasions in our lives! Of course, birthdays will still be a case of "What special thing can I make you?"

So that is it, it is a kitchen tip that works for me!

Yummy!

Our house smells so yummy today. I say this every year on Christmas Cake baking day!

I am using a family recipe, and I am the third generation to bake it. It is my husband's family's recipe, passed down through his dad, and it is so delicious. Keeping in mind that I loath fruit cake, it is surprising that I love this one! But we call it Christmas Cake because it is not the traditional fruit cake. It is not soaked in liquor so you can actually taste all the delicious fruits and spices.

This was the first year that a forth generation baked this recipe. Miss Pear was old enough to help stir the fruit, and then help stir the fruit into the batter. Of course I helped a lot, and was the one to pour the batter into the pans.

The cake is now in the oven for the last hour if its three hours of baking. The whole house smells so good!

We are expecting company this morning, so before we made the Christmas cake I made up Devil's Food Cake with Fudge Icing - although I have not iced it yet, it is still cooling!

But our house is all ready for guests, so now I am going to get myself ready, and finish my BSF for tomorrow morning!

Cookie Help?

I was looking at my list of freezer goods, and my worst fears were confirmed. I have no cookies or muffins in the freezer! Time to stock up! If you have looked at my menu plan this week you will see that I have lots of ideas for muffins! I looked in the old cookbook my denomination did when I was just learning to cook and found some that sound great!

However, I am still trying to adjust to no nuts or peanut butter in my cookie recipes, and creativity is escaping me this morning (I was taking care of two patients yesterday who are still not feeling that great.)

I guess I am just tired of my cookie recipes and on the hunt for something new, but all the new ones that catch my attention have nuts or peanut butter in them, which Miss Pear is SEVERELY allergic to (to quote the lab results).

So, please share your nut free cookie recipes with me!

The Joy of Baking

I am one happy baker lately. Before anyone thinks that I am this wonder cook, I do love to bake, but I have been doing all our own baking out of a need to manage Miss Pear's allergies, and having some rude surprises, not because I am superwoman. We have a very hard time even finding bread that we can buy and not worry without paying $4 a loaf, and even then we have had surprise allergic reactions!

With baking all our own bread, rolls, hamburger buns, sub buns etc. we started eyeing up this little gem:

Without the blender, just the Bosch Universal Mixer. With just our Kitchenaid mixer I was often making bread twice a week or more, and while it is great for a lot of things, bread is not its strength. This combined with the fact that an old injury has left me with what acts like arthritis in my left wrist and hand meant that we needed help.

We waited until we moved and were certain that we had room for this little gem, and then ordered it with the money we had slowly been saving.

I have to say, it was worth every penny. I am such a happy baker it is not even funny! Actually, it is probably very funny as I am downright giddy about baking bread.

I am such a happy baker.

In case you were wondering, this is the special package I was anticipating very much!

And here is what one morning of baking looks like...er...there were two dozen cinnamon buns to start with...


Baking image courtesy of allposters.com

Our Morning

Our morning has been very busy. We had upstairs day, where the bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the loft/Mr.Pear's office/sewing room/library are. Completed the following tasks:

1. Vacuumed (Miss Pear hid in our bed, she does not like the vacuum, but begrudgingly lets me do it without too much fuss).
   
2. Dusted (Miss Pear loves this step, I give her a duster of her own)
3. Changed the beds. (We finally have two sets of sheets for each bed and it makes this so much better.)
4. Changed the change pad cover
5. Changed the towels
6. Cleaned the bathrooms
7. Straightened all the rooms, except the guest room that really needs its "moving in" organization. (My MIL unpacked in there, and while it is organized, it needs a couple touches to be organized for us).
   
8. Washed the first load of towels
9. Washed both loads of sheets
10. Folded and put away laundry
    
11. Second load of towels is in the wash.

We also had to bake cookies as the freezer is empty (of cookies at least!), and we cannot buy cookies because of Miss Pear's nut allergy - we also prefer home baked! So I tried a recipe that I have converted to be nut free, and I now call it Triple Chocolate Cookies. We made a double batch, and the last tray is in the oven - we will have two cookies shy of 10 dozen when we are done.

So now we all need a nap!

Cake Decoration

I have always wanted to be able to decorate beautiful cakes.

I have the fancy pastry bag, but am not really sure how to use it, so I stumble along, and use it mostly to decorate gingerbread cookies.

For Miss Pear's actual birthday on Thursday I am making a Winnie the Pooh cake as I was able to get the pan on sale. I should be able to decorate it as it is just little star drops of icing and some straight lines - I can do that!

However, I am on the hunt for a good book on cake decorating! Any ideas or suggestions???

WFMW - Forcing Bread to Rise

I love to bake bread - if you have read much of my postings you will see we do it a lot!

But sometimes I don't have the time or the patience to wait for the bread to rise!

You see, I use active yeast the most because I get great deals on it at Costco, and the recipes generally yield two or more loaves, rather that the breadmachine yeast which generally has recipes that only yield one loaf and is generally much more expensive (and not just because you need more - one tbsp of bread machine yeast generally yields one loaf while 1 tbsp of active yeast will generally yield two loaves.)

So what is a girl to do?

Cheat of course!

I turn my oven on to warm or 200F, and let it run one cycle then turn it off while I am mixing my dough. Then I place my dough in a glass bowl and cover it, and pop it in the oven. Yes, some heat does escape at this point, but that is okay, the point is that the oven is warm, not hot.

Updated to add: A sweet commenter just pointed out that Alton Brown says to include a pan of water at the bottom of your oven when you do this, and we always agree with Alton Brown in kitchen stuff, it is the rule around here!

I find that this cuts the rise time in half, and uses very little extra gas.

This tip also works great in getting your bread to rise when you are running the air conditioning or your house is just a bit on the cool side.

Cheating at bread making...works for me!