Sweetheart Cake

This is a cake that was done last year. I just wanted to get a better picture of it before I took it apart!

It was a fun little cake to make!

Eggless French Toast

Here's an eggless french toast recipe that I made for Carlee this morning. The schools are closed due to -20 degree below 0 temps and the snow we received over the weekend. I'm sure wanting some spring weather right now!!

Egg Replacer French Toast

3/4 cup half and half

2 tablespoons mashed banana

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 ENER-G Egg Replacer

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 pinch salt

unsalted butter

In a mixing bowl, cream the half and half, banana, and vanilla on medium speed(make sure the banana is mashed well). Set aside. In a small bowl, mix the remaining ingredients except the butter, and stir until well blended. Sprinkle over the banana mixture, and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Heat frying pan on low-medium heat. Reserve half a stick of melted butter (1/4 cup) for toast. Use remaining butter to coat pan, use only enough to fry one or two slices of toast. Each time before dipping the bread slices, stir batter slightly. Coat both sides of bread, then place slice on heated pan. Fry each side for about 2 minutes. Before turning, lightly drizzle reserve butter over the top of the bread slice to prevent it from sticking.

Note: Whole wheat or whole grain bread works best.

Bridal Show at the Shilo Inn 2009

January is bridal show month for this area. On January 9th and 10th was the Southeastern Idaho Bridal Fair.

I was taught cake decorating from Amy from the Sugar Shell. We had six different cake decorators in the Sugar Shell booth this year.

Here are the two cakes that I made for the show:

This hexagon shaped cake is covered with fondant. The fondant was then given a "stucco" finish. Fondant pink pearls surround each tier with a topper made from silk Gerber daisies. The cake board is covered with black fondant and cutout fondant daises were applied. I really loved the look of this cake! It looks even better in person.

This round shaped cake is covered with fondant with fondant borders. Gum paste Calla Lilies were placed over small drapes and also used for the topper. Butterflies were then place all around the cake. The cake board was covered with fondant and imprinted with an embossing cake tool.

Below is a slide show of the other cake decorators cakes. Our booth for the Sugar Shell had Amy, Linda, Sarah, Teya, Jennifer and me. Then my friend Desi had her own booth. So you will see all of them here together. There is also a picture of a truffle bouquet that I thought was really cute! I might have to try and make one sometime!! Have fun looking!!

There will be another bridal show at the Red Lion in Idaho Falls next Saturday!! Come by and say "hi" and see our cakes!!!

Kung Fu Panda

I was asked to make a Kung Fu Panda cake for a boy who is turning 8. I had an idea to have Po in a fighting stance on top and bamboo around the bottom. The bamboo turned out well but Po was just too big and heavy to be standing. I had to settle and have Po doing his second favorite thing - eating dumplings! The cake is chocolate with buttercream icing and marshmallow fondant decorations.

Accountability and a Recipe

This is about being accountable for my uncontrollable eating!! It has been way out of hand and I'm tired of it.

Since May of this year, my eating habits have been horrendous! I just eat whatever I get my hands on. There has been no rhyme or reason to my meal planning. I would get up, eat a bowl of oatmeal, an hour later eat whatever sugar is in the house, lunchtime was chips and salsa, and then I had no energy to fix dinner so I would just piece on anything that was easy to do...a can of soup or just a sandwich. Then I would eat a bowl of cereal before I went to bed. And during all this time, my big butt would be sitting at the computer all day!! No exercise...at all!

Then the holidays come around. Sheesh! Did any of you get any goodies from me?!! The cookies I made, the two batches of caramels!! No!! Because Joe and I ate them!! Well not all the caramels. Most of them went to Kami's when we partied. The pictures on here are me at Thanksgiving, stuffing my face with pie!! And the other one is me on Christmas morning! Look at that behind...and belly..oh those big arms!!! Oh heck!

Well...I am tired of doing this to myself!! So here is my game plan!

1. Drink my juice. I have been doing this faithfully every day. It has helped so much in the way I feel!! It has given me the energy that I need so now I feel like I can do the things I need to do!

2. Drink at least 8~10 glasses of water a day.

3. EXERCISE!!! I HAVE to move my bootie for an hour everyday!! Maybe not so much on Sundays though. hee hee!

4. I joined SparkPeople! It's free and there is so much information on there for ANY health problem and living a healthy lifestyle. Lots of good recipes too! It has so many different teams on there to join with members that are very supportive! I have joined and arthritis team, an LDS team, a 50 and older with 50 lbs. or more to lose, a New You Boot Camp (and I've done the requirements every day since it started!). Anyway, you get the idea! I put a link on the right so you can check it out! If you join, let me know! I'm cakebaker05 on there if you need to look my up!

5. Get rid of all the sugar in my house! HUH? That's a little impossible!!! I do cakes! Well...I don't eat that kind of stuff. It's the cookies and M & M's and candy of any kind! It's all gone!! Now if I do want to have anything like that, I have to work for it. I will have to exercise and work off the amount of calories that was in whatever I ate. This is above any other exercise I have planned for the day.

6. Stop sitting at the computer so much!!! So if you don't see me in my usual places that much any more, you know why!!

7. Get myself and my house organized!! My mind and my house is too danged cluttered and I need to clean them both out! And try to stop the procrastination!! I just can't help it! Procrastination is my middle name! It's like I was born with it!

Some good places to find recipes is Hungry Girl and Eating Well.

I thought if I get this all off my chest and post it, it would make me more accountable for myself!

Here is a healthy recipe that I found on SparkPeople. When I first saw it, I though how weird! But it was really good and is great for a light supper! Oh and I added some chopped celery and a couple of shakes of onion and garlic powder and a dash of pepper.

Tuna Tomato Sandwich

2 medium thick slices of tomato

2 oz. tuna in water (I used albacore tuna)

1/2 tbsp. light mayo

1 teas. mustard

Mix tuna, mayo, and mustard in a small bowl. Spoon mixture onto sliced tomato and top with the other slice of tomato. Either grill with a George Forman, your outdoor grill, or spray a pan with non-stick cooking spray and grill on the stove.

Makes 1 serving.

Yummy Buttercream!

This is an easy great tasting icing recipe that I found on Fields of Cakes blog. She has a lot of recipes that sound really scrumptious and her photos are to drool over!

Here is her Vanilla Buttercream.

1/2 lb. unsalted butter (softened)

1 stick salted butter (softened

1/2 pkg. french vanilla instant pudding mix

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar ( or more to suit your taste)

In mixer set on medium speed, beat the butter until smooth and silky. Turn speed to low and add the pudding mix. when it is all incorporated, slowly add the cream, a little at a time. When fully incorporated bring speed up to high and beat for 5-7 minutes. Turn speed back down to low and add powdered sugar by tablespoons, tasting along the way. When it is sweet to your taste, beat again at high speed for a good 5 minutes to really break down any graininess that you might get from the powdered sugar. Bring back down to low speed and beat for a while to get rid of air bubbles.

Enjoy!

Christmas Day 2008

After the Christmas Eve party, I usually stay at Kami's house so that I can be there when the kids get up. I think I have more fun watching them wake up and get excited about Santa coming!!

That morning we woke up to a lot of snow! Joe had to go out to work and he really shouldn't have. He even was stuck at work until the next day because the buses couldn't run and the roads were closed!

The kids started with their stockings until grandma and grandpa Jensen could get there. Then we opened presents and snacked around on all the leftovers from the night before. Later that night we watched Mamma Mia and played Guitar Hero: World Tour. Kami got that for Christmas!! It's a lot of fun!

I love all the pictures and I always add way too many in my blogs so I'll just add a slide show this time.

Homemade Caramels

My homemade caramels are getting fairly popular around here!! I have been making these at Christmas time for the last 5 years. This year I even made two batches and it all disappeared! I never had a chance to send my Mom any this time!!

I'll still send you some Mom!!!

This is the easiest caramels to make and the best tasting!!!

Here's what you need:

2 lbs. brown sugar

2 cups corn syrup

2 cups butter

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

2 dashes salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large metal pot over medium heat, add corn syrup and brown sugar and stir until brown sugar is melted. Add butter and melt. Add sweetened condensed milk and salt. Cook and stir constantly until a candy thermometer reaches 245 to 250 degrees F. (I have to stop at 230 because of our altitude of 6000 ft.) You can also do the cold water check making sure it is just a little about the soft ball stage. Remove from heat and add the vanilla. Pour into a 9"x13" pan that has been sprayed with butter Pam.

Let cool completely before removing from the pan

Cut into small squares and wrap in wax paper or decorative foils that you can buy at a cake or candy shop


Be sure to only make these for giving out and keep a little for yourself!!! I swear they will be in your mouth whenever you walk by them!!!!


Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!!! Let me know if you make them!!

It's About Time!! Christmas Eve 2008

I'm finally blogging Christmas!!!

Although this is just Christmas Eve!

We always do the holidays with my daughter and Eric's side of the family. On Thanksgiving day, we all drew names for Christmas gifts. They included us this time!! Yea!! We always have a lot of fun!! We start out by eating a huge meal, open gifts and then play games.

The gift opening started with Carlee. She was so cute with this puppy that she received from Dee.

Just look at that cute face!!!

This is Kaitlyn opening up her gift from Kami. She got monkey pj's and a stuffed monkey and something else that I already forgot what it was!!


Kami opening up her gift from ? It's scrapbook stuff!!!

Tina with her gift from ? I know...I have a bad memory!! She got lots of bath stuff!

Collin opening up his gift from Uncle Kevin. "What?!!! Just paper?!!"

"Oh...the paper goes with this!!" Fun!!!

Grandma Brewer with her gift of shelves that hold paper.

Joe opening up his gift of books from Mandy! Books are always good for Joe!!

Eric's little bro Justin opening Eric's gift.

Grandma Steward joined us this year!! We were all happy to have her with us!!

Eric with his gift from Justin. He got a hunting license.

Fuzzy Mark opening his gift from Kami. Some of his favorite candy and a gift card.

That's all for now!! I'll try and blog Christmas day later or tomorrow!!