Brittany's 13th Birthday Bash:)

It's been a while since I last blogged and a lot has gone on in my family since then.  I'd like to tell you about my middle child's birthday party.  On June 5, 2011 she became a teenager...UGH!!  That makes 2 in our house and 1 to go...yes say your prayers for me and my husband, especially my husband because they are all girls:)  But we wouldn't trade them for anything in the world!  We hosted Brittany's 13th birthday at my husband's hunt club on May 27th.  With lots of teenagers & soon to be teenagers dancing the night away, it wasn't all bad:)  Lots of work and cleanup, yes, but it was all worth it.  Started out a little slow and the boys didn't want to dance they just wanted to go outside and play football.  But, big sister put her foot down and as the sun went down it was party central.  From DJ Mike, to the Sweet & Treat Bar and her cake/cupcake tower that she & I designed it was a very memorable evening and a great way to kick off being a teenager!

Tappahannock Farmers Market

This past Saturday I had my first ever booth at the 2nd annual Farmer's Market in the town we live.  I started last fall doing some canning.  My father-in-law had a lot of green tomatoes that would have gone bad or gotten destroyed by the upcoming frost.  He called me and asked if I would make him some green tomato preserves, reluctant at first I agreed.  I found a recipe that he described was like his mothers.  I have canned tomatoes (ripe ones) in the past but never tried my hand at preserves or jams.  The green tomato preserves were a success!  Personally I didn't care for the taste, but my father-in-law and his brother said they were very close to what they remember "Nanny" used to make.  This was the start of something!!  I enjoyed myself so much making the preserves, and he had so many more green tomatoes that I had to do something with them all.  So, I remember a recipe that a dear friend who passed away last year gave me and I started on the mission to find it and make green tomato pickle.  This is the best pickle!  The tomatoes are crisp and sweet.  I always remember having a covered dish lunches at church and knowing those pickles would be there.  After the success of both green tomato projects I set out to try my hand at making jams and preserves.  I love it almost as much as decorating cakes!  Last fall into the holiday season I made apple cinnamon jelly, apple pie jam, berry christmas jam, hot pepper jelly, and cranberry apple chutney.  I also did lots of baking and set up my booth at all of the local holiday bazaars with my husbands cousin.  So, when she suggested I rent a booth at the local farmer's market I thought it would be a good place to market my jams.  I never thought they would go over so well.  I started with 7 cases of jams and came home with 3 cases.  Some of the flavors I sold were raspberry lemon marmalade, bumbleberry jam (a mixture of blueberry, raspberry & strawberry), strawberry orange marmalade, apple pie jam, apple cinnamon jelly, hot pepper jelly, grape jelly & strawberry jam.  I have been invited to the Warsaw farmer's market the second saturday in July and I have registered for the rest of the season @ the Tappahannock market the 3rd saturday July-October.  I have plans to prepare jams and preserves with the seasonal fruit I can find such as peach preserves and peach chutney, cinnamon blueberry jam, strawberry peach, blushing peach (peach/raspb.), watermelon rind pickle and sweet pickles.  I will also have cake balls in a variety of flavors. And yes I have samples of the jams as well as the cake balls!

New Photos

The cake business has been very busy lately...when you get a chance check out my latest creations!

Spring has Sprung

Spring has Sprung and I know it has been a while since I posted my last entry but it has been nothing short of craziness in my neck of the woods:)  Spring is here and boy do we know it, all the activities are certainly keeping us hopping.  Since I last blogged, little league season has started.  Two of my Three girls are playing, Brittany is playing Major Girls Softball and Whitney is playing Minor Girls Softball.  My husband and I are Managing and Coaching the teams.  It keeps us very busy but we enjoy it.  Then, to make like more interesting we decided to take the family vacation during Spring Break this year.  Oh, boy nothing like adding gas to the fire!  I booked a bazaar to be in on opening day of Little League and we left the following day for Orlando, FL.  I did very well at my first bazaar of the year.  I made coconut pies, coconut cakes, cake balls and lots of jams and jellies to sell.  The ball games were cancelled that day because of the bad storms in the area.  So, i didn't have to be in 2 places at once and it all worked out very well.  After I finished the bazaar I went home to unpack my goods that I didn't sell only to repack the van to leave for our trip.  We all piled in our van and started on our 13 hour journey at 3 am Sunday morning.  It was a great time to be in Florida though, the weather couldn't have been more perfect!  While we were having a blast at Universal Studios and chilling at the pool, our family and friends back home were freezing during the rainy, chilly days.  We stayed 6 nights and headed home so we wouldn't miss the visit from the Easter Bunny:)  It was great to get away but always nice to come home.  And, why does it take a month to do vacation? A week and a half to get ready, a week to be gone and a week and a half to get straight and back in the swing of things when you get back.  After we returned I had to not only get things unpacked and put away but I had a retirement that I was catering and received a call to cater a funeral, all due the same day!  But, with the help of my mom and my husband and children, we pulled it off without a hitch!  Now, this week I am trying to get back into some sort of normal schedule, if there is such a thing!  It has been a beautiful week here and I think I am on the way to getting back to some type of norm.

The Sweet "16" Bash

How many people does it take to light 16 sparkler candles on a birthday cake? Two wasn't enough...LOL...they were starting to go out by the time we got the last one lit!  But it was a fabulous party none the less!  We had the best DJ around, Mike Brann, Magnificent Music, Dynamite Decorations, Fantastic Food, Fabulous Friends, and to top it all off Tiffany recieved the car she has had her eye on for quite some time....a Purple PT Cruiser!!  It was definately a night to remember.  I worked all week on the details.  From Sweet 16 lollipops and cookies, dips & brownies, to my BEST EVER cake it was all soooo worth everything!  I hope everyone had as good of a time as I did. 
The cake was an experiment.  I never really liked working with fondant, but I felt that I needed to keep up with the style.  I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant before I made Whitney's birthday cake and it turned out pretty good.  So, I decided to take the next level of difficulty with Tiffany's.  After searching for some ideas on how she wanted her cake, she decided a topsy turvy with zebra stripes using her theme colors, I could design it from there.  So I decided to make the bottom square and turn it so it looked like a diamond shape and put 2 topsy turvy cakes on top of that.  I will have to say it was a challenge but everyone loved it including the birthday girl!!  Here's to an AWESOME SWEET 16 BIRTHDAY BASH!!

Life is moving way too quickly!

Brittany, my middle daughter, had her braces removed last Wednesday.  She was so excited that she could finally eat those things she has been missing for the last 2 years.  I had to fix her corn on the cob with dinner, she said that cutting if off the cob and eating it just wasn't the same:)  She has a beautiful smile and I am so proud of her.
Whitney, my youngest daughter, is playing her first year in minor girls softball.  She started practices last week.  She has a determination and drive that the other 2 didn't have for ball at that age.  I hope it will make for a great season!
Tiffany, my oldest daughter, is having her "Sweet 16" birthday today.  My how time flies!  It just seems like yesterday that she was turning the big "1", now she is getting ready to get her driver's license.  Brings a tear to my eye how quickly they grow.  She has become a sweet, and beautiful young lady. I am so proud of her.

We are planning her BIG Birthday BASH for this coming weekend.  Stay tuned for some of the yummy treats I will be preparing for the big day.  I made "Sweet 16" molded chocolate pops to give out as party favors.  I plan on making cut out cookies and ice them to give out also.

Caramel Frosting

2 sticks butter
2 c. light brown sugar
1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 tspn. vanilla extract
4 c. powdered sugar
Melt butter, brown sugar, and evaporated milk in saucepan.  Cook 2 minutes (no longer) over medium heat.  Add vanilla and remove from heat.  Put into mixing bowl and beat in powdered sugar slowly, add more powdered sugar if needed to make consistency to your liking.  Note: This will thicken more as it cools so I wouldn't add too much more powdered sugar.  Also add some toasted pecans if you would like, it is good with or without them.

Butter Pecan Cake

1 1/4 c. butter
1 1/3 c. chopped pecans
3 c. all purpose flour
2 tspn. baking powder
1/2 tspn. salt
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 c. milk
2 tspn. vanilla extract
Grease & flour 9" pans.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt 1/4 cup butter in heavy skillet over medium heat.  Add pecans and brown, be sure to stir so they won't burn.  In mixing bowl cream remaining butter and sugar until fluffly.  Blend in eggs, one at a time.  Add dry ingredients alternating with milk and vanilla extract, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  Stir in pecans.  Pour batter into pans.  Bake for 30 - 35 min. check with cake tester to make sure it is done.  Cool completely before icing with Caramel Frosting.

Buttercream Icing

2 sticks crisco (2 cups)
2 tspn. clear vanilla flavoring
2 tspn. clear butter flavoring
2 lb. powdered sugar
5 tblspn. water
Cream crisco, add vanilla and butter flavoring; Slowly add 1 lb. of the powdered sugar and 3 tblspn. of the water, blend until creamy.  Scraping all of the excess powdered sugar from around the bowl.  Once creamy finish adding the powdered sugar and water.  Cream and scrape until smooth.  You can add a touch more water if needed.  Color and ice your cake.

Marshmallow Fondant

1 16oz bag of mini marshmallows
2 tablespoons of water
2 lbs. powdered sugar and optional flavoring
Put the marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl, add the water, and put it into the microwave for 2 minutes.
Stir marshmallows making sure it’s all melted.  At this point you can add flavoring and coloring if you like (I only add the coloring if its all going to be the same color).  Add powder sugar to form a dough type consistency knead dough on a powder sugared surface and keep adding powdered sugar to make dough less sticky and more workable.  Only add a little powdered sugar at a time, adding too much will make dough too stiff.

Hershey's Chocolate Frosting

1 stick margarine 2/3 c. cocoa
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Cream butter, stir in cocoa.  Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on med. speed to spreading consistency.  Add more milk, if needed.  Stir in vanilla.

Hershey's Chocolate Cake

2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. boiling water
Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 9" round baking pans.  Combine dry ingredients in large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on med. speed 2 min. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).  Pour into pans.  Bake 30 - 35 min. or until tester comes out clean.  Cool 10 min.; remove from pans to cool completely.  Frost with Hershey's Chocolate Frosting.

Busy Busy times:)

Sorry it has been over a week since my last post but I have been busy, busy, busy.  Had a new baby start daycare last week and I haven't had any computer time at all.  He is adjusting well though.  I also have been busy trying to compile some recipes to share with you.  I think I am going to start by sharing some of my cake recipes, because not only have I been busy with daycare but I have had lots of cake orders the last couple of weekends also.  I started the month of by decorating a long time friend of the family's 18th birthday cake.  I have been experimenting with marshmallow fondant.  So, i made the fondant and cut "polka dots" to put on the cake.  She loved it! Next, I had an order for a chocolate cake with chocolate icing (my all time favorite) and a butter pecan cake (a first, but turned out delicious).  I finished the first weekend of the month by decorating a Disney Tangled cake and a baby shower cake with a train on it.  Last week I was asked to decorate a cake for the Essex County Odyssey of the Mind teams, I had fun putting there mascott (a raccoon) on the full size sheet cake.  This past weekend was no different, I started of decorating a Disney Toy Story cake and a "Funky" cake for a Fancy Nancy party.  I finished the cake orders by creating a 3 tier wedding cake.  Check out my pictures and recipes. 

I Just LOVE to COOK!!

Even when I was young I was interested in the way my family cooked.  From my grandpop's fried chicken and turnip greens with cornbread dumplings (mmmm mmmm) to my mom letting me bake Nestle chocolate chip cookies whenever I wanted to.  I guess, you can say, that's how I learned to cook.  I don't think you have to learn to cook or know how to cook.  If you can follow a recipe you can cook!  I hate to hear people say, I can't cook or I don't know how to cook.  Really?? Just say it, you DON'T cook, that's all!  I not only love to cook but I love to eat!  I guess my love for eating has made my love to cook grow.  It's nothing like trying a new recipe, or an old one that is passed down, to give you that feeling of accomplishment when it turns out delicious.  The compliments give the satisfaction of a job well done!  Whenever I invite anyone over or have a get together, the first thing I am asked is..."What's on the menu?"...  What do you mean, what's on the menu?  Is that the only reason you are coming over?...  Yeah, pretty much:)...Well, at least if not the company they like the food! Ha Ha!  All this talk about food, i'm getting hungry.  What's for dinner?  I think i'm going to peel some potatoes and we will have potato soup...yummy!