teacher by day - chef by night
These cupcakes go out to all the Harry Potter Fans out there! More than a decade is coming to a close. In June of 1997 the first Harry Potter book [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone] was released and a Nation (world) was hooked.. we read …
In order to celebrate Blue’s Clues I made BLUE VELVET CUPCAKES! Warning: these take a lot of food coloring and unlike Red Velvet: these are made with vanilla cake. I did cheat a little on these and used a box of Betty Crocker Mix (but I did make my own frosting since I’m not a fan of can frosting at all – that is why I thought I hated frosting growing up actually).
My baby sister turned 16!Ok – lets back this up. She isn’t the youngest of the family AND she isn’t really my sister. Many moons ago I began doing theatre in my middle school. I instantly clicked with my directors, a husband & wife team (they may be regretting this today). My first show that I did with them was “A Christmas Carroll” and for some reason they thought it would be a good idea to let this 7th grader carry their 4 month old on stage as a poor beggar woman (yes, I have known her for 16 years since she was an infant). Luckily for that little baby, she cried before the curtain went up every night and I went onstage with just a basket (and ‘threw’ the crying child at my mom who was helping backstage). The next year one of my featured roles was walking around dressed as a maid with my [5-year-old?] “brother” dressed as Sandy the dog on a collar/leash (guess he actually listened to me at that point and that is how I got that part – hey, he listened to me, imagine that).
A few years later and that boy-dog is capturing hearts on stage being adorable & the crying baby is still shy but now wearing matching outfits as me during “Music Man” I always wanted a sister and being cast as Zaneeta with J as my little sister (I think she had an official name!?) gave me the opportunity to call this girl my sister.
Fast – forward another 11 years and we reach today where this beautiful young woman introduces me to her friends as her “big sister” and I have spent many-a-holiday and random event at their house.
They taught me many things over the years, including: you’re never fully dressed without a smile, a good night’s sleep is important, Irish accents are great fun, happiness is anything that’s loved by you, and that yes – there is hope! It is said that that the family you choose is just as important as the family you are related to – well those 6 people in that family that I chose are some of the most important people in my life and I wouldn’t imagine it any other way.
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To decorate these I colored 1/2 the container of frosting bright pink and the other half a bright green (using a combo of colors from the Wilton 12 icing color pack). Then I did the same thing with the fondant (yay to playing with play-doh) and rolled it out (it should have been way thinner). Finally I just used my nice, small cookie-cutter to make a whole bunch of stars.
These may look really pretty (ok, really pretty for my first time – at least maybe give me that?) but the taste is just ‘eh’. I was not a fan of any of the “boxed” flavors and the fondant tastes like worn out bubble gum. I am usually a taste over looks kinda girl (you can’t just be a pretty face) so overall, I give these a thumb down… even though they did look nice on the dessert part of the table.
Talk about looking nice, why don’t we take a look at JoElle’s (first attempt too, might I add) fondant covered cake that she made. Somehow we created almost the same color fondant too! From now on, I am leaving major cake decorating to former classmate JoElle & I’ll stick to other things… great work lady!
p.s. bonus points if you can name the shows that I kinda-sorta-ish referred to in this post that I was in….
This is the make at home, do it yourself, whatever, whenever, whoever, version of those ‘instant’ cakes and they are just TOO GOOD! You are now just 10 minutes from warm Chocolate Cake
When life gives you ugly cake… you make cake balls! Last year Rich gave me a really cute zoo animal cake pan for my birthday, which I had still yet to use and decided that I should make cute little mini-cakes (also by using my …
Everyone LOVES brownies… seriously, what is not to love!? I have recently baked up two different brownies for people that I care a lot about.
Brownies #1 – Brownies from a box (doctored up a little) that are so totally amazing!! A few weeks ago I chaperoned my High School’s Theatre trip to NYC to see Addam’s Family, starring Nathan Lane 🙂 I ‘promised’ my director and his wife (my building’s band teacher) who both happen to be great friends (and frequent readers of my blog) that I would make brownies – so I couldn’t let them down! I got up early before heading into school and whipped up a batch of these super-easy & super-amazing brownies for good friends as well as the high schoolers who were on our bus (and a great bunch of talented, helpful, sweet kids). Due to the AM rush, there are no photos of these… but I’ll make them again!
Oh yeah – talking about those great kids… they perform Bye Bye Birdie THIS WEEKEND (March 3 – 5, 2011) & as their Properties Mistress (and a fan of the Bangor High School Theatre Department) they are great! I’m just home from Opening Night & proud of them, so hopefully you read this before the run is over and get to see the show, I’m going to miss a lot of these kids who are graduating this year and put out as much time on stage as they do for the backstage work. The BAHS Class of 2011 is leaving big shoes to fill!
Brownies #2 After making cupcakes for my Big Boulder Ski School Family last weekend, I got a request for Brownies – so immediately, my thoughts went to this “better than *bleep* brownies” recipe that I had bookmarked a while ago! I ended up spending my Saturday with my Bangor kids for Bye Bye Birdie, then woke up Sunday with a migraine – but when I finally made it up to the mountain just after lunch on Sunday my Ski School Family inhaled these!
They were pretty good – but in the words of Jolene (elementary band & production manager extrodienair) “these are good, but not sure if they are better than bleep”. My parents didn’t like the rice crispy top. I thought the flavors were good, but the textures were off – so I’ll have to work on a chocolate/peanut butter/with crunch brownie that works.
COMPARING: survey says… (keep in mind, these were made almost 2 months apart) the easier to make Chocolate Caramel Brownies are the Winner!
Brownie #1 – Chocolate Caramel Brownies (from a box – nice!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 baking dish and set aside. Combine cake mix, butter, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and vanilla. Mix well and spread ½ of the batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes.
Melt caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. OR just use about 1/2 a container of caramel ice cream topping!!! Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the partially cooked brownies. Pour the melted caramel mixture over the top and with a teaspoon, drop the remaining ½ of the batter evenly over the top. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Let cool (pop in the freezer if you just can’t wait at this point) and cut into bars.
Brownie #2 – “Better than Beep Brownies”
For the Brownie Layer:
In a large bowl, beat together all ingredients until smooth. Spread into the bottom of a lightly greased 8×8 inch baking dish. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until the brownie is cooked through. Cool completely before frosting.
For the Peanut Butter Frosting
In a large bowl, beat together peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar until softened. (I also added some milk as needed which was not called for – but I needed to soften & cream it up a bit). Press atop cooled brownie.
For the Chocolate Krispie Layer
In a medium, microwave-safe bowl, melt the milk chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream together for 45 seconds or so. Stir. Microwave an additional 30 seconds, if needed. Just enough to make the mixture melty, smooth, and creamy. Stir in Rice Krispies cereal. Immediately spread over peanut butter layer. (feel free to throw in some mini marshmallows the 2nd time you throw it in the microwave too). Allow layer to cool & set before slicing & serving. (store in the fridge)