Monkey Party!

Keeping the writing short and sweet, I'm back at work and exhausted... actually wondering how I can form a coherent sentence :)

So it is my beautiful niece turned one today! My sister in law decided she wanted a monkey theme. I immediately thought of one of my BFFs over at Just me prints who whipped up the oh so cute invitations and these Oh so Very VERY cute decorations. I made the cake. When everything was combined, can I tell you it was such a great party.

So first let's start with the monkey cake, then I'll show you everything put together.

First comes the head and body

 And the little mouth part

 Smile nose and mouth (this is the point where I thought, wow this will actually look like a monkey!)

 Add some ears, legs and a belly.

 Throw on some arms.

Don't forget the bow!

At this point I'll take a small pause to tell you that I dropped my monkey... her mind and body survived, but her arms and legs died a horrible death. She was fixed, better I think, you'll see it on the finished cake. 

Now here is some of the decorations done by Just me prints. 

 How cute!

 Candy bar for the take home treats.

 Take out boxes that we got to fill... Only my kids ended up somehow with 3 boxes each.. hmmm

And here we go, the final cake

I have to say I was so happy with how it, and the whole party came out. 

Wanna know the best part of the whole party.... This:

Bisou! Bisou! 

Rainbow Cake

So the trial was done, you can check it out here. I made a traditional 6 layer all the colour of the rainbow cake. I found it WAY too sweet. Anyways, so here is the modified version. Four layers, more girlie-ish colours.

So here is a quick run threw of the cake.

I started with a bunch of colour fondant.

Rolled it all out, and cut an obscene amount of flowers, varying sizes and colours.

I coloured the 4 layers, pink, purple, turquoise, and green. Use the gel colours, they will be much brighter.
Layered it with some yummy butter cream.

Cover the whole cake with butter cream.

Rolled on some white fondant, then started putting on the flowers. (In the order of the rainbow of course... Thank you cat in the hat for the song that is drilled in my brain!

Here is the birthday girl and her cake!

And my daughter waiting to tear into that cake!

And a couple of shots of inside.

 I used this *white cake* recipe, and a regular butter cream recipe.

Butter Cream:
1 cup butter
4 cups sifted icing sugar
big splash of vanilla
pinch of salt
3-4 tbsp heavy cream

Cream butter and sugar, splash of vanilla and pinch of salt. Add heavy cream slowly tablespoon by tablespoon until you get the consistency you're looking for.

Enjoy!

Rainbow cake trial run

One of our good friends daughter is turning 6 in a couple of weeks, and I volunteered to make the cake. I love to bake, but actually never take the time to actually decorate much. Plus I REALLY wanted to make this rainbow cake that I saw here. So I won't post the recipe you can check out the link for that. The cake is good, but a bit sweet. And I got lazy so I just used 2 cans of good old Betty Crocker. (that wasn't enough to cover the 6 layers, plus coat it) So that icing made the cake WAY too sweet.

So here we go... this is what my afternoon looked like.

 Made the batter and separated it in 6 bowls (or Tupperware as my dishwasher was full of my bowls.:( )Got my monkeys to help mix the colours. 

Dye them with Gel food colouring. It turns out really good. 

Bake them off in batches (since I only had 2 pans this took a little longer.)

Stack them all up layered with vanilla icing, cover and voila! Now this is with 2 cans of Betty Crocker, and clearly it wasn't enough. So keep that in mind. Plus it was so sweet, so if you are using the store stuff, I say maybe don't do 6 layers. 


OHHH you want to see what it looked like inside??? Ok so this is a rough draft, but here you go:

I'll post the final product some time in the next couple of weeks. 

Thai Potato Salad

I love carbs. Love is sort of an understatement. I have never met a bread I didn't like, same goes for potatoes. Scalloped, mashed, baked, I love you all.

Give this whirl for your next barbecue. Thai potato salad. You won't be disappointed.

Combine 1/4cup mayo, 1/3 cup coconut milk, 1 tbsp each green curry paste, lime juice, and salt.

Toss with about 2 lbs of mini potatoes cut in 4, your choice of crunchy veggies (I used chopped baby carrots), 4 green onions sliced, some coriander and basil, thinly chopped.

Let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Oh so yummy.

Pizza Pizza

You know those nights when you just want your kids to eat. Like not an ounce of you feels like fighting or repeating "eat your food or get off of my table!" So on those nights I usually make one of two things, Pasta with a 3 (or more) cheese white sauce, or Pizza.

The best part of making pizza is that I use my home made spaghetti sauce, and I LOAD that up with veggies, so I don't even feel guilty when I just pile on olives and cheese on my pizza and call it supper.

So here we go break out the bread machine because it's that simple.

In your bread machine add in:

1 1/3 c of water
1/4 c of olive oil
3 1/2 c flour (white or whole wheat, or a blend)
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast.
(you can always add a bit of Oregano or Italian Seasoning)
 Set it on the dough setting and come back in 1 1/2 hrs.

This makes 2 large pizzas. When I was at work I would set this in the morning and make it when I came home. Still turns out pretty good, even after sitting all day.


Bake it at 400 for 18 minutes.

So here's our creations (actually they are pretty standard in our house) Olive and All Beef Salami for the kids.

Pesto, Olive and Sun dried Tomato for us.

Enjoy!

Mix & Match Bread

Before I start, let's give credit where credit is due. This recipe is adapted from a Foodnetwork magazine I got a couple of years ago. I can't take credit. Although I have changed it just a little and the changes are what I post.  Enough of that let's start.

Ok oh so yummy, you mix and match to make the perfect quick bread or muffin that you are craving. It takes 3 steps. The base, the fruit, the add ins.

The Base:

Combine the dry ingredients

1 1/4 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp each baking powder, salt, and cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda.
Now whisk the wet

2 eggs
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 c yogurt or sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
Combine

The Fruit:
1 c of your chosen fruit. (pears, apples, or zucchini shredded and squeezed dry, banana mashed)

The Add Ins

Once all that is combined, it's time for the good stuff, the add ins. Mix in up to 1 1/2 cups of add ins, try nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, shredded coconut. You get the idea.

So the oven has to be at 350, if you are doing a loaf it takes about 55 minutes -1hr, mini loafs about 35-45 minutes, and muffins take about 30 minutes.

So I did a Banana loaf with chocolate chips, cranberries and walnuts.

Then I did some banana muffins, I switched out the vegetable oil for apple sauce, and did about 1/3 cup each of chocolate chips, coconut, and score bits, and about 1/2 cup of dried cranberries.

Give it a whirl, let me know what great combos you come up with. 

Chocolate Macaroons

I got this recipe years ago. I mean years ago, I still use it when I need a quick, simple treat that is sure to please anyone. You don't need a stove, no oven either. Just a microwave.

Get ready, it's complicated ;)

Combine 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup each butter and milk in a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave on high for 3 minutes.

Stir.

Microwave on high for another 3 minutes.

Stir.

Last time, Microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Stir.

Add to 2 cups each shredded coconut and oats, 5 tbsp of coco powder, pinch of salt.

Mix it all together.

Drop tablespoons of the mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and chill for a couple of hours until firm.

That's it. Really that's it.

Enjoy!