My Fancy Cake

Here is another cake that I decorated for my cake decorating class. I spent alot of time working with this cake and practicing my techniques. This cake is anything but perfect (I see all of my mistakes when I look at this picture and remember the cake) but I still am very proud of myself for creating it! It was a lot of work but it was worth it! I made everything for the cake except for the cake board and pillars. The flowers are made with royal icing. I left the aluminum foil on the flowers for the color effect that the silver gave the cake.

Vegetable Salad

1 head cauliflower, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup onion or green onion, chopped

1-2 bunches of broccoli, chopped

carrots, chopped

tomatoes, chopped

cheese cubes (optional, actually everything is optional - just put in whatever vegetables you like)

Dressing:

1/2 cup olive oil

3 Tblsp. red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. sugar

3 Tblsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. salt

Mix dressing together and stir into salad. I've also put red and green peppers and black olives in this before. It's a great, healthy summer salad.

Gift Wrapped Present Cake

I was excited to learn how to decorate cakes with fondant. A word to the wise--Don't ever buy the pre-made Wilton fondant. It might be easy to work with but it tastes AWFUL! Use this recipe to make marshmallow fondant (MMF). This recipe actually tastes pretty good. When you work with fondant you will definitely make a huge mess of your kitchen and you will get your hands dirty. The secret to working with MMF is using enough crisco and rolling your MMF pretty thin. I had fun making this "present" cake. My bow's not perfect but the overall cake is pretty cute. Definitely worth another try!

Clown Cake

I finally was able to do something that I have dreamed of doing for a long time--take a cake decorating class. It was a lot of work but I loved every minute of it! I enjoyed learning the different techniques and practicing them. Boy, do I have a lot of practicing to do! My hand hurt from just piping on the shell border. I thought that I had pretty good strength in my hands but this cake class showed me otherwise. My right hand hurt after each class. I can see why people stop decorating cakes when they get older...Ouch! I made this clown cake for my brother's birthday and I thought I would showcase my creations from time-to-time (in case anyone else has a burning desire to recreate any of these designs or are like me always looking for ideas). This cake is my first attempt at making these clowns. I think that they are pretty cute.

Chicken and Rice Hotdish (or casserole if you don't live around here) :)

I came up with this recipe a couple of years ago, when I was searching for something to make for some unexpected company. Looking back, it was probably not the smartest thing to try a new recipe (much less one I came up with myself) on company, but it was delicious! When I don't have Uncle Ben's on hand I sometimes substitute plain rice with some chicken bouillon granules and about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. each of sage and thyme.

1 box Uncle Ben's Chicken and Wild Rice with seasoning packet
chopped celery
mushrooms (optional)
1 can cream of celery soup
1 and 1/3 cups water
2 large chicken breasts, cooked and diced

Mix everything together, pour into 2 qt. baking dish, cover and bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees. (I usually take the cover off for about the last 15 minutes of baking)

Streusel Rhubarb Bread

1 and 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil (or whatever kind of oil you like to use)
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk or 1 cup milk with 1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 cups rhubarb

Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tblsp. cold butter or margarine

Combine brown sugar and oil, add egg; mix well. Beat in buttermilk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into brown sugar mixture just until combined. Fold in the rhubarb. Pour into two greased loaf pans.

For topping, combine sugar, cinnamon, and butter until crumbly, sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans.

Soft Sandwich Buns

Success! After trying a recipe that totally flopped the other day, I made the BEST buns today. They are the lightest buns I've ever had. I have a really good recipe for buns, but they honestly take all day to make. So I only ever make them for special occasions. I wanted a quick recipe I could make quite often, and I finally found it. It made a pretty big batch, so I was able to freeze quite a few. I'm still on a mission to find a recipe for the perfect loaf of bread.

1 and 1/4 cups ginger ale (I had diet 7 up on hand, so that's what I used) heated to 120 degrees

1 egg (room temperature), beaten

2 Tblsp. butter or margarine, softened

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

3 and 3/4 cups bread flour

1 and 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

1 Tblsp. butter or margarine, melted

In bread machine pan, place the first seven ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer (mine says to put liquids in first, then dry ingredients, with yeast on the very top). Select dough setting. When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and punch down. Divide dough in half. Roll each portion to 3/4 inch thickness; cut with biscuit cutter ( I used two sizes so I could make larger hamburger buns, and smaller dinner type rolls). Place on lightly greased baking sheets. Brush tops with melted butter. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours usually. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.