Basket weave cake

Here is a cake I made for my class that I had to have 8 different flowers on it and 5 of each. So here are all my flowers I made. From top to bottom they are:Top: Chrysanthemum, wild rose, violet, apple blossom. Bottom: Daisey, daffodil, primrose, pansy. All of the flowers are made with royal icing, it was fun but a lot of work.

Then down here we have our color flow items. With this you make an outline of your desired shape with royal icing and then you use color flow to fill it in which makes it smooth and glossy. Then when they're dry you add the eyes to the birds and glue the butterfly wings together with more royal icing and add some antennas.

Now for the cake. I forgot to take more photos of in between the stages so I'll just tell you. We had to make our cake a basket weave so what I did was went around the whole cake first and made all the down strokes. Then I went back and put in the weave. Also you have to add a rope boarder to tie it all together.

Then you add on the flowers and color flow pieces and VOILA!

We used it for Brian's birthday on June 25th. We used trick candles so it took a while to extinguish them. I wanted to put 23 candles on the cake but it was too many so we only did 5
(2 & 3 = 23 :)

Benny Bread Stick

This post goes out to my nephew Grant who loves bread sticks. Also to my sister-in-law who I thought might want a recipe to feed that growing boy. So here is a quick easy recipe I like a lot, and it doesn't even take any yeast. I actually got it from one of my roommates and there are a lot of variations you can do with it.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
In a mixing bowl combine:
1 1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk

Knead it all together and roll out on a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick in a rectangular shape. You don't want them too thin or you'll end up with crunchy bread sticks (unless that's what you like.)
Then take a knife or pizza cutter and cut the dough into strips to what ever length and width you desire.
Put them on a pan with non stick spray or parchment paper. Place them close together unless you want more crush surface, I like it when you have to pull them apart when they're done baking. Brush on butter, water, or milk which ever you prefer, all should produce a golden crust.
Bake for 5-10min checking them at 5 and in between till them are golden. Don't let them get over done.

Variations:
I love to put Italian Seasoning in the flour mixture before I add the milk.
I've also put in garlic and onion power.
I haven't tried it but for a sweet bread stick it would be fun to put in a high ratio sugar and cinnamon mixture and then coat in butter and sprinkle with more cinnamon and sugar when they are warm out of the oven.
You can put in just about anything you want to flavor your bread sticks.

Have fun and enjoy!

Pasta Salad

Here is a recipe I've had for a while but kept forgetting to put it up. It's an old Kiffe tradition when I was growing up but I've modified it. It is the oh so famous Pasta Salad, it's fast easy and quite delectable.

All you need is:

1 bag of Rotini preferably the colored noodles, it makes it more fun.

1 can of shredded chicken.

1 packed of Italian seasoning dressing.

1 cucumber - pealed or not which ever you prefer, (you'll probably only use about half)

2-3 stalks of green onion, thinly sliced into circles

1 can of olives (not pictured above)

Directions:

Make the Italian dressing and put in fridge to cool. Then boil your noodles till soft, when done rinse in cold water and then place in fridge to cool.

Cut your cucumber into 4ths length wise and thinly slice into pieces (or thick which ever you prefer, I was just trying to use mine sparingly.) Then thinly slice your green onions all the way

down the stalk.

Drain your can of chicken and olives. Slice up the olives how ever you prefer (you may end up using only 3/4 of the can.)

Then get out your bowl of cooled pasta and toss in the cucumber, onions, chicken and olives until throughly mixed. Then pour the Italian dressing on top, (you will not use the whole thing) save some for those who want extra dressing on their portions.

*Tip* for left over olives stick them on carrot sticks for kids or grown ups to eat, they're super yummy and fun!

Flowers

In my cake decorating class we're learning how to make full blown roses out of frosting. It's lots of fun to see how you cane make frosting look like a flower. I'm getting better at it and my hand is getting stronger; it takes a lot of hand muscle to squeeze stiff frosting out of a pastry bag.
We also learned how to do rose buds. They're one of my favorites to do cause they're easy and are super cute! I did these on some cupcakes just for fun and we took them to our ward basket ball game to give them away cause like I said in the last post, we're sick of cake. :)
A neat trick I learned in my class if that you can make these flowers with a Hershey Kiss as a base. That way your rose is a little better tasting if you really wanted to eat it, other wise it would be a mouth full of frosting, yuck!

Caking or Camping?

Here is a cake I made and it was super fun! I made it the same week Brian went on his IBC camping trip so I told him it was his cake, but that he didn't have to eat it all. We took it over to Liah and Rod's and shared it with them and I ended up taking the rest of it to my job Saturday morning. Brian and I are kind of getting sick of cake. :P

The tree is made out of an upside down ice cream cone that I put royal frosting on with a leaf tip. Also in class we did those tress with a star tip so it looked for like an evergreen tree but I liked the look of the leaf tip better. I also put roots on the side of the cake, I thought it would be fun.The rocks over the river are Take 5's that I got in one of my classes. The river is made out of piping gel that our teacher colored blue. I also put some white frosting streaks in the river so it looked like a current. Our teacher brought in some plastic animals we could choose from to stick on the cake as well.It was a lot of fun I had a blast making this cake!

Dogs and the Mailman

Today on my walk to campus I saw a big shaggy dog sitting on the grass in front of a house. As I walked I watched the dog and was just thinking to myself how that dog will need a hair cut with the warm weather coming on. Then all of a sudden the dog gets up and starts running. He runs into the street towards oncoming traffic and I'm thinking, "do you have a death wish? what are you doing dog?" And then... I see the mail truck. The dogs nearly jumps in front of the truck barking at it and running. After the truck passed the dog went back to his yard and laid back down.
I had never seen a first hand account of how much dogs hate the mailman. Someone said that dogs hate the mailman because they invade their territory and I had never thought about it that way before. I just thought it was the funniest thing so I wanted to share my experience. :)

Chicken Pot Pie Please!

I made chicken pot pie without a recipe the other night! It turned out super delicious and I was very proud of myself. I'll even share my recipe with you so you too can have a fast and yummy dinner some night.

Pie Dough (you can use your own recipe but if you don't have one this is the one I use):
#1 - Cut in 2/3 c. shortening (make sure it's cold and stiff) into 2 c. flour & 1 tsp. salt with a pastry blender or fork until you have pieces of shortening the size of peas or hazelnuts. (leaving bigger pieces will make it flaky).
#2 - Blend in a small bowl 1 egg, 1/4 cup of cold water and 1 tsp. vinegar. Poor into the flour mixture and mix until all the flour is moistened. (Do not over mix or knead your pie dough).
#3 - Place in fridge for 30min to cool and harden you can put it in the freezer to hurry this process and you don't have to have in the full time length. This is just to get the dough stiff so it's not soft and sticks to everything when you try to roll it out. (Make your filling while you wait.)
#4 - Divide your dough in half and roll out onto a floured pastry cloth or counter top.
*To get your dough off the counter without tarring roll it up onto your rolling pin and then unroll into the pie dish.*
#5 - When you go to slash the top crust, slash it while it's still on the table then roll it onto your pin and place it on the pie.

Filling:
1-In a sauce pan put 3 T. of butter and melt.
2-Add 4 T. flour mix with whisk
3-Stir in a 14.5 oz can of chicken broth and let warm on medium to low heat.
4-Season with onion powder, salt, and pepper to taste (or in my case to what ever looks good).
5-Then add 2 cans of chicken and almost half of a 16oz bag of mixed frozen vegetables.
6-Take off the heat and let cool while you roll out your pie dough (If your filling is too hot when you put it in the pie shell the bottom of your shell will be soggy and won't cook.)
7-Once your pie shell is done pour in the filling, it'll be a tight squeeze so go slowly.
8-Place your top crust on and pinch the sides.
9- Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30min depending on how long you can wait for it to be done.

ENJOY!

'C' is for Cookies!

These wonderful little goodies are called fancy icebox cookies and they are super delicious and fun to make! They are similar to sugar cookies. Also you can switch up the colors depending on the time of year and make them white and red, chocolate and orange and any thing else you want. So here is the recipe so you can enjoy!

Fancy Icebox Cookies
Vanilla Dough -
8oz of butter or half butter half shortening
4 oz granulated sugar
0.15 oz salt or a little over 1/2 tsp.
Cream the above ingredients
Add one at a time mixing in completely
2 oz eggs (probably a small egg)
0.15 oz vanilla extract or a little over 1/2 tsp.
Then add in 12 oz of pastry flour (regular flour works just fine).

Chocolate Dough -
8 oz butter or half butter half shortening
4oz granulated sugar
0.15 oz salt or a little over 1/2 tsp.
Cream the above ingredients and while the beater is going pour in
4 oz melted semisweet, dark, or milk chocolate what ever you prefer
Add one at a time mixing completely
2 oz eggs (probably a small egg)
0.15 oz vanilla extract or a little over 1/2 tsp.
Then add in 12 oz of pastry flour or regular flour.

After the doughs are mixed let them sit in the freezer for 20min
Then on a lightly dusted counter top shape the dough into a rectangle with your hands. Then roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle try to make them both the same size.
To make Pinwheel cookies (A.): Roll your rectangles to about 1/8 of an inch thick. Egg wash the top of one of the rectangles and then place the other rectangle on top. Start to roll the two together and when the diameter of your log gets to 1 inch think cut the dough and set that log aside continue until the rest of the dough is gone. Place in the freezer for 20-30 minutes to harden. Once hardened, take a sharp knife and cut evenly sized slices, place on baking sheet and cook at 375 for 10-12 minutes. Watch closely, if sides start to brown they are over done.

To make checkerboard cookies (B,C,D): (Save behind enough for a thin 1/8 of an inch rectangle)Roll your rectangles to about 1/4 of an inch thick. Cut both rectangles down the middle to make 4 squares. Lay the squares on top of each other alternating vanilla dough and chocolate dough making sure to egg wash in between the layers. Place this in the freezer for 10-20 minutes so it will harden. Once hardened cut strips from your "log" of dough. Roll out your saved dough to an 1/8 of an inch rectangle and egg wash it. Place one strip of dough at a time on the short side of the rectangle alternating colors. Place a strip with a vanilla side up then place a strip with a chocolate side up. Do this until you have 4 strips side by side. Roll this "log" up so the thin rectangle you placed it on encompasses the strips. Cut it free once all sides are covered, and place in freezer for 20minutes. Continue this same pattern until all the dough is gone. Once the "logs" are hardened cut into evenly sized slices, place on a baking sheet and cook at 375 for 10-12 minutes. Watch closely, if sides start to brown they are over done.

Quilt

Here is the gorgeous quilt my aunt Maya made for Brian and I for our wedding. The pattern is a basket pattern and she used fabric with cherries on it so it is a basket of cherries. It matches our green sheets very well and adds a lot of color to our room. My aunt said she thought I was always cheery and red like a cherry so that's why she choose cherries for the quilt. It's very beautiful and we love it!

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time in a kitchen not too far away was a girl named Erin learning to decorate cakes. She learned a cool trick to make the frosting smooth and uniform.

She learned how to do shells which look like white puffy clouds. She also learned to make pretty pink flowers and a basket weave that she made into a tall castle.

And inside the castle she placed a princess with long golden hair awaiting her rescue. I hope it tastes good.

I can not wait for my cake decorating class next semester it's going to be sweet!

PIE!

This my friends is chocolate chiffon pie. It is super yummy! I made it Friday 26th in my baking class. I wanted to make something I've never done before and be exotic so I decided to make chiffon pie. Once I actually got in the kitchen I felt like I was in over my head because I had to boil chocolate and water, add it to an egg yoke and sugar mixer that I had to beat till foamy. Then I had to add gelatin to it let it cool and then make a meringue and fold it into the mixture. It wasn't too bad once I got started and it was fun to do something different. You'll all have to try some chocolate chiffon pie one day. :)

Christmas with the newly weds

Christmas is coming... Christmas came... Christmas went and I'm finally make a post about it.

Brian and I had our own little Christmas before we left to go to Utah. It was nice to have a little one by ourselves just to have a stab at starting our own traditions with our new family unit.

Brian bought me a huge box of chocolates because that's what I asked for. It was hard to keep him from eating them all when we first opened them though. He also bought me some earrings. He worked really hard at finding ones I'd like but there isn't a lot of diversity in Rexburg. They weren't exactly my type but I love him all the more for trying! :)
I bought Brian a fun nice brown tie that came with a handkerchief too. The IBC class on campus had set up a booth selling ties and they were on sale. I also got a new battery for his watch so he didn't have to wear an old plastic one or none at all. The tie matches his brown suit really well and I learned how to fold the handkerchief to put in the pocket.

Thanksgiving

Bring on the Bird!!

For Thanksgiving Brian and I went to Henderson to spend the holiday with my family.
My brother Braxton and his wife love to cook. They catered the family dinner for our wedding. We had ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, cornbread, homemade mac and cheese, it was awesome!
So for Thanksgiving we deep fried the TURKEY!




It was a lot of fun. Brian, Rod, Audrey, Braxton and I did end up getting sick... but it was still fun!

I think we made Dad and Levi dance to girls just want to have fun. :)Liah and Rod are pretty much pros at Just Dance.