Dalek Cupcakes – a picture-y post

Posted on July 10, 2011 by sparecake

After last week’s cake, I still had a whole bunch of marshmallow fondant left over in the fridge. On Tuesday someone in a Doctor Who LiveJournal group (shutup, LJ is still a good place to get news/downloads for shows you like!) posted pictures of some Dalek cupcakes she and a friend had made, and I thought they were super cute. So cute, in fact, I wanted to make my own!

Now, if you don’t know what Daleks are, go watch some Doctor Who! They’re one of the main bad guys. Big fans of killing any/everything that isn’t also a Dalek.

As of last year, they even come in colors!

To start off, I made a dozen cupcakes and a dozen mini-cupcakes. I cut off the rounded tops so that they’d lay flat upside-down.

Terrifying.

After using a big blob of frosting to hold the two together, I covered each one in frosting. Unfortunately, the cupcakes were super crumbly so I couldn’t get the sides very smooth, and lost some bits from the bottom of some of them.

Frosting cupcakes, rewatching Trigun... wicked cool kid. There are several pictures where I'm holding up a single one and it looks a lot like a poop=/

I left them alone for several hours to allow the frosting to dry/harden up a bit, and then started working on the various Dalek limbs.

I started off dying a bunch of fondant grey. As I mentioned in the post on working with fondant, adding dye later brings it back to a gross sticky mess. Uuuunfortunate!

I tried using mini-M&Ms to give some shape to the plunger arms, but in the end it was easier to just use another blob of fondant.

I made a ton of limbs, since you need 3 each for each cupcake, plus I expected breakage (which happily never happened).

Later remembered that the "eye" is blue and swapped out M&Ms.

Leaving the grey fondant aside, I made a few other colors, rolled it out, and covered the cupcake…piles. Partly because I was afraid of running out and rolled the fondant too thin, partly because the cupcakes were crumbly/lumpy, and partly because I just haven’t had much experience with this stuff, they were kinda wrinkly. Ah well. Went back to the grey, and rolled out the middle band that goes around Daleks.

Then I  stabbed in the pretzels in roughly the right places and attached the light antenna doo-dad M&Ms to the top with little drops of water.

The one in the middle in the back that you can sorta see is aimed way up was subsequently named Derp.

A little bit more water to attach some more M&Ms for the bumps, and they were finished. Yay!

Exterminate!

Bad news for earth!

Derp is the right-most, and my camera lense is covered in powdered sugar!

Much better than some ugly chewed-bubble-gum-looking alien inside.

Not exactly the Genesis Ark...

Fun way to kill an afternoon, and these bad guys are delicious!

Oh, towards the end, as my shirt was getting just crispy with sugar, and the floor looked like you could ski on it, I came up with a different, far too long blog name: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry, for Tomorrow We Mop!

Posted in Dessert | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Greek Orzo Salad

Posted on July 9, 2011 by sparecake

This recipe would be good to bring to a cookout. Unfortunately,I was bringing it to was work – my temp project didn’t let us work on the 4th, but wanted us to make up the hours over the rest of the week, so I needed something more substantial than usual to make it through 10 1/2 hour days. (A good rich husband is hard to find…)

I’ve beefed up the original recipe by adding chicken, which, at least to me, gives it enough variety to make it a pretty decent meal all by itself. The ingredient list may look really long, but you probably have most, if not all, of the dressing ingredients already in your cabinets.

Combine all the dressing ingredients and blend. If you don’t want to clean your blender later or don’t have one, whisking will be ok.

I do like owning an immersion blender!

Pour half the dressing into a large ziplock and add your chicken. Seal, pressing out all the air, and turn all around to make sure the chicken gets well covered. Allow to marinate in the fridge for several hours. Put the rest of the dressing aside somewhere to wait.

Once the chicken’s had time to marinate, get out your veggies and chop them into bite sized pieces. Dice the onion. The original recipe called for tomatoes, cucumber, and pepper. I’m not into peppers, so I doubled the tomatoes and added squash, but you can swap in pretty much any fresh vegetable you like if you don’t like one of those.

My mom's nauseous at the sight of so many vegetables.

Put a pot of water on the stove, and put a pan over medium-high heat. Drain any excess marinade out of the bag with the chicken, and cook the chicken until it’s no longer pink inside.

When the water reaches a boil, add the orzo and cook according to the package instructions. Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and add to the vegetables. Drain the cooked orzo, and add to the bowl. Add the feta as well, and olives if using.

Mix/shake/whisk the remainder of the dressing back together, and pour over the mixture. Stir well and chill at least an hour before serving.

It's good!

This keeps well for days, and is filling. If you are keeping it around for days, it’s a decent idea to stir it up before taking out a portion a day later, as you don’t want your last bite to be just oil and vinegar!

Greek Orzo Salad

Adapted from my baking addiction.

Dressing:

  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 2 cloves fresh garlic; finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Salad:

  • 1 – 1  1/2 pounds chicken breast
  • 1 1/2 cups uncooked orzo pasta
  • 1/2 cup grape tomatoes
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1/4 red onion (hah, Giant didn’t have a single red or yellow onion that wasn’t rotting, I had to go with white…)
  • 1 yellow squash
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 5-10 green olives, drained and halved

Place all dressing ingredients in a blender and pulse until well incorporated. Pour half of the dressing into a ziplock and add the chicken. Allow to marinate for several hours.

Chop all the vegetables into bite-sized pieces (or smaller for the onion!), and place in a large bowl.

Place a pot of water on the stove to heat. Place a pan over medium-high heat, and cook chicken until browned on the outside and no longer pink inside.

As the water reaches a boil, cook the orzo according to the package directions.

Slice the cooked chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to the vegetable bowl.

Drain the cooked orzo and add to the bowl. Add the olives, if using, and feta, and stir well. Chill for at least an hour before serving.

Posted in Dinner, Picnic | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Fun with Fondant

Posted on July 7, 2011 by sparecake

Alright! As promised in the marshmallow fondant recipe, here is my wisdom from a single attempt at covering a cake with fondant. Clearly, there is a lot more to learn, but I’ve got a few tips now that I wish I knew a few days ago…

To start off, you want your cakes as even as possible. I had a spare chocolate cake in the freezer, and didn’t notice until later that I’d cooked it in a different pan than the red and blue cakes, so it was sliiiightly larger. D’oh!

Next, crumb coat your cake. Spread a thin layer of buttercream over the cake and allow it sit out for an hour or two so that that frosting dries and hardens. That layer of dried frosting keeps the crumbs in, helps keep the cake fresh, and helps the fondant stick in a fondant coated cake. You want your crumb coat to be a smooth as possible, as bumps in the frosting will create bumps in the fondant.

Not entirely like this...

Then you’re ready to coat your cake!

When working with fondant, use powdered sugar much they way you would use flour when working with dough, to prevent things from sticking when you knead and roll. In these videos, the cake decorator has a tied off bit of a pair of nylons filled with powdered sugar, which allowed him to tap the little satchel on his work surface or on the fondant and get a thin, even coating. More reasonable than my “throw a handful!” technique, but I didn’t have any tights to spare.

Roll out your fondant into roughly a circle. Keep moving it as you work, so that the bottom doesn’t attach to your counter.

Entirely not like this.

Lightly sugar the top of the fondant, and then very loosely roll half the fondant around your rolling pin. This really requires one of those massively long rolling pins. (Like my ex-roommate Alex had and I always thought was ridiculous. Who knew?!) My rolling pin was nowhere big enough to lift all that fondant, so I ended up loosely folding it, which left a seam directly across the middle of the cake.

A stumpy, ugly ghost.

You then use a smoother to rub the fondant on to the top, and then down the side. Keep a bit of tension on the fondant farther out from where you’re pressing it on to prevent wrinkles. Supposedly you can use a sugared lump of extra fondant as a smoother, but I found that that actually caused small rips, so try with caution. They make specific flat doohickies as smoothers, I had to do it hand.

When attaching other, decorative pieces of fondant, the generally accepted glue is buttercream. I found that, at least for lighter pieces, rubbing a wet finger on the back of the piece you want to attach is enough to make it stick. I think if you were sticking on a larger, heavier piece, you would attach it with a small blob of buttercream and support it overnight or so until the frosting sets.

These unicorns aren't going anywhere.

The recipe I followed for the fondant had mentioned that it was easier to color the fondant while you were making it, rather than once you are using it. I had thought that was just because it was hard to get the color even in later kneading. Wrong! Adding even the limited moisture of the food coloring turned the fondant back into a ridiculously sticky mess. It took tons more powdered sugar to get the dyed fondant to a texture I could roll out.

I mopped later that day...

If you have flower cookie cutters, you can press a toothpick in the petals to create veins and creases real petals have. I don’t have flower cookie cutters, so I made…fireworks? I guess?

Tinsey bits of water held these together like glue!

The extra fondant got turned into unicorns, obviously. It’s only patriotic!

Stuck ’em on the cake, and got ready to travel.

The most reasonable walkin' mug.

The cake make it up to the roof where we watched fireworks…

Sugar fishing!

…and was well enjoyed. Super popular cake! Everyone really liked the flavor of the fondant with the cake and frosting.

I...I don't recognize what country that's representing... ><

Another thing I learned – I took this cake out of the freezer and coated it immediately. Mistake! Apparently you should put fondant on room temperature cakes, or the difference causes condensation that melts the fondant. You also shouldn’t store a covered cake in the fridge, just in a box on the counter – the crumbcoat and fondant protect the cake well enough to keep it fresh for several days.

That is about all I can think of that I’ve learned. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to ask, but I’m definitely no expert! It was kind of a pain, but from a taste standpoint, definitely worth it. Yum!

Posted in Dessert | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Marshmallow Fondant

Posted on July 6, 2011 by sparecake

I’ve been wanting to try working with fondant for a while, and the Fourth of July seemed a good an excuse as any for some fancier cake-making. I watched some videos online about it first, but really only figured out some tips that would have been useful as I was going and/or after, as I googled problems I’d had. I’m going to post the recipe today, and a post full of tips and things I figured out as I went tomorrow.

Ok for a first try, I think?

Begin by putting your marshmallows and water in a large bowl.

Microwave for a minute, stir, and then microwave another 30 seconds and stir again until completely even. Stir in half the powdered sugar.

Now it gets gross. Grab a big blob of shortening and spread it all over your work surface and hands. Get a good thick coating, you’ll want it later. I used a silpat to work on, which was something of a pain, as it kept lifting off the counter. Spreading the shortening directly on the counter, however, seems straight up impossible to clean.

Hopefully you know bike people or car people, someone that has this orange scrubby cleany stuff, as Crisco-ed hands are no easy clean.

Pour the other half of the powdered sugar on your greased surface, and then turn out the marshmallow mixture on top.

Knead until no longer sticky. This took until about two minutes after I wanted to quit, and was messy as all heck. If I had a stand mixer with a dough hook, I’d definitely try greasing that up and letting it do the work.

Sugary mess.

Once you’ve finished kneading, coat the fondant with a thin layer of shortening.

Wrap with cling wrap and let it rest half an hour.

At this point you can use it or put it in the fridge for up to two weeks. If you refrigerate it, let it come back to room temperature before using.

The cake I coated with this was just regular boxed cake mix and buttercream, but was probably the most complemented, flavor-wise, of any cake I’ve ever made. People were really into this fondant!

Tips/thoughts/very basic how-to ideas on using fondant. Also, photographic advice on how to get a cake on your roof.

Marshmallow Fondant

From cookies and cups.

  • 8 cups mini marshmallows
  • vegetable shortening
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 lbs powdered sugar

Place marshmallows and water in a large bowl and microwave 60 seconds. Stir, and then microwave another 30 seconds. Stir, and then add in half the powdered sugar and continue stirring.

Coat your work surface and hands with shortening, and pour the other half of the powdered sugar on the counter. Turn out the marshmallow mixture onto the powdered sugar, and knead until no longer sticky.

Once done kneading, coat the fondant with a thin coating of shortening, wrap in cling wrap, and allow to rest at least half an hour before using.

Posted in Dessert, Party! | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

White Chip Meringue Bars

Posted on July 3, 2011 by sparecake

At some point last year I was helping a friend find cookout-friendly recipes, and stumbled across a whole page of cookout desserts. This was the one I was most interested in, and I made it ages ago, but always thought it would be better with more meringue. I made it again this week with double the meringue, which was possibly overkill, but this stuff is good! Also, I swapped out some nuts in favor of milk chocolate chips, but…I always do that.

This starts off with just a basic shortbread, that you make by just combining the flour, powdered sugar, and butter with a pastry blender until crumbly. Press the mixture into an ungreased 9X13″ pan and bake.

You could in theory get this flatter by pressing on it with the back of a greased spoon or spatula, but there's not really a point.

While the crust is baking, separate your eggs and beat the whites in a large bowl until frothy. Continue beating and gradually add the brown sugar. Continue beating until soft peaks form when you remove the beater from the mixture. This will probably take longer than it takes for the crust to bake.

When the crust is done, remove it from the oven, but leave the oven on. Immediately pour the white chocolate, and one cup of the milk chocolate (or nuts) over the hot crust. Then get back to beating your egg whites.

Quit the recipe now. Just eat this!

Once you’re done beating the meringue, spread it over the chocolate chip-covered crust, and sprinkle the remaining quarter cup of chocolate chips/nuts on top. I’m embarrassed to admit, but I actually ran out of milk chocolate and had to supplement with white chocolate and butterscotch chips. I like butterscotch, so no huge loss there!

Ooooh, right. Never re-set my camera's white balance after Ted's outdoor wedding. Dang.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown and hollow sounding. You can eat it as soon as it’s cool enough to touch, or later once it’s completely cooled. If you keep it covered, it’ll keep for days.

This is a ridiculous thing.

I took mine out of the oven and left it out to cool, fell asleep, and didn’t cover it until the next morning, so it sort of collapsed, but is still delicious.

Oops...

Still good!

I would definitely bring this to a cookout, if I could figure out a good way to transport it by bike!

White Chip Meringue Bars

Adapted from Serious Eats (approximately 3/4 of the way down the page).

Crust:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

Topping:

  • 2 cups white chocolate chips
  • 1 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips(/coarsely chopped nuts/butterscotch chips), divided
  • 6 large egg whites
  • 2 cups packed brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine flour, powdered sugar and butter with pastry blender or 2 knives in medium bowl until crumbly. Press evenly onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Sprinkle white chocolate and 1 cup milk chocolate chips over hot crust.

Beat egg whites in large mixer bowl until frothy. Gradually add brown sugar. Beat until soft peaks form. Carefully spread meringue over chocolate chips. Sprinkle with remaining quarter cup of chocolate. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cool completely.

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Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Posted on June 30, 2011 by sparecake

This is my favorite granola bar recipe, and it’s also super flexible – swap out some chocolate for craisins (hah, why would you ever swap out chocolate??), use nutella instead of peanut butter… whatever you do it’s probably going to come out great.  Of course, it’s also only the second granola bar recipe I ever tried, but it was good enough to stick with!(…also, the first was GROSS.)

Using up junk in the cabinet...

Throw everything in a bowl and mix thoroughly, then transfer to a greased 9X13″ pan.

Woo new Pyrex!

Using a spatula or something else flat, press the granola down firmly to flatten/compress.

mmmm

Bake for 10 minutes, press down on the granola again, then bake another ten minutes. Press down again and cool ten minutes. I may be a bit crazy about the pressing down, I just really don’t want my granola bars falling apart all over me. After ten minutes of cooling, cut into bars, but leave in pan.

One last time press down on it, to get any bits that were pulled up while you cut, and then let cool completely, at least 90 minutes. I store them in the fridge or freezer to keep the chocolate from melting, but there’s nothing in them than I can think of that would require refrigeration.

Wrapping them up for later.

Once you’ve got all the bars out of the pan, the best thing to do is take the little bits of tasty stuff left in the bottom and sprinkle them over a bit of vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Adapted from Allrecipes.

  • 3 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 cup Rice Krispies
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 cups chocolate chips (I do one of white chocolate, one of milk, but go with what you like)

Preheat oven to 325 and lightly grease a 9X13″ pan. Stir together all ingredients and press into pan. Bake 10 minutes and then press down the granola firmly. Bake another 10, press down again, and cool 10 minutes. Cut into bars, press down firmly once more, and then cool completely.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Cake-Filled Chocolate Hearts

Posted on June 28, 2011 by sparecake

My friend Ted got married this weekend. It was super fun – great band, tons of food, and I got to see my ex-roommate/roommate for life, Alex. When Alex still lived with me, his girlfriend Lauren (who also lived with us by this time) found this random red silicone heart mold, that ended up being left with me. I used that mold to make some fancy looking chocolate hearts for Ted and his new wife, Deborah.

This doesn’t really require a recipe, but here’s how it went…

I did a trial run early in the week of Rice Krispie filled chocolate hearts, as I’ve never used silicone molds before and I wasn’t sure how they’d release. What I got out of the trial run was that you really don’t need to spray silicone molds with Pam, they release perfectly on their own. In fact, if anything the spray can mess up the surface of your chocolate by getting bubbles in it. I also tried using just chocolate for the shells in some, and chocolate with a bit of shortening to thin it in others, and didn’t notice a difference.

Frozen marshmallow - hard as a rock!

For the real deal, I started off by making a very thin cake. I made up a box of chocolate cake mix and poured a bit less than half onto a parchment lined baking sheet, and baked it for about 12 minutes, until it looked fairly cooked and sprung back when pressed lightly.

Someone's going to have a spare cake when all of this is over!

Once the cake had cooled, I put it in the freezer, and left it overnight.

To make the shell, I just melted up a bunch (at least 2 cups by the end, although I worked in smaller batches) of milk chocolate and a little bit of shortening, and painted it into the mold.

I painted on another two layers, freezing for 20 minutes or so between each one. After the first layer, you don’t want the chocolate you’re painting on to be super warm, or it will melt off the layers you’ve already got. Melt it to a useable consistency, and then let it cool back to almost room temperature before putting on the second and third coatings.

Getting chunky in there.

At this point I put the mold back in the freezer to wait with the cake, and made a half-batch of Martha Stewart’s Peanut Butter Buttercream. (It was delicious. Thumbs up.) I then took out the mold and put in a layer of frosting.

I broke chunks of cake as close to heart shaped as I could, put them in the mold, and then did second layers of frosting and cake.

My breaking-cake-into-heart-shaped-chunks skills may need a bit of work?

‘Painted’ them closed with more chocolate…

Getting messy...

And put them back in the freezer for a while. Half an hour later or so, the molds worked their magic.

So flexy!

I cut off the excess chocolate around the bases, and then put them back in the freezer while I melted (and then partially cooled) some white chocolate.

Then I just doodled away!

Couldn’t give them away without quality control…

Yay for layers! Also, yum!

Boxed them up…

And gave them to Ted.

This is Ted's happy face.

You can change these to fit your own tastes – dark chocolate, white chocolate, other flavors of cakes and frosting. This combo was a really tasty one, though! Oh, and if you need a silicone mold of your own, this one was from Wilton, and they seem to have ones appropriate for a few different holidays. Also stars. Stars are always appropriate.

So…congrats to Ted, and boy I can’t wait until he gets back to DC with all his new kitchen stuff for me to invite myself over to use!

❤

Posted in Dessert | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Sausage Balls

Posted on June 26, 2011 by sparecake

I’m currently full up with cake, chocolate, and frosting (from Ted’s chocolate wedding hearts, which I’ll post ASAP) to the point where just thinking about eating these sausage balls makes me tired, but at the time, they were exactly what I was hoping they would be. They’re super simple and come together really fast – I was afraid that rolling the mixture into balls would end up taking ages, but this went from supermarket to dinner in minutes.

The recipe calls for sausage, as opposed to sausages, but if you live in DC and only shop at horrible supermarkets never fear – you can just buy sausages and peel off the skin. I just bought some random sausages that said ‘mild’ on them. You want sausage(s) that have some flavor to them, some herbs or spices, some sorta green things.

You start off by processing cheese, sausage, and bisquick powder in a food processor.

Mmm, lots of ...bits!

Add pepper and cayenne and stir it up. You might as well do that with your hands, as you’re about to get wrist-deep anyway. Divide the mixture and roll into 1″ balls.

Bake 12-15, until golden brown. When you pull them out of the oven, it’s ok if they’re bubbling a bit – don’t think you need to bake them until they’re dry or anything. The moisture (lets be honest, the grease) dries or is absorbed or something quickly after they’re removed from the heat.

They’re then ready for you and your roommates to stand around the kitchen and eat like gross college kids.

Oh wait, Kyle actually is still a college kid. I guess he gets a pass.

While we were standing around stuffing our faces, we talked about how one would serve it in polite company. I liked Alex’s suggestion of making them more into disks, and serving with a slice of tomato on top to make it feel lighter/healthy-ish. However you serve them, it’s sausage and cheese, it’s going to be a hit!

Sausage Balls

Adapted from Ezra Pound Cake.

  • 1 pound ground sausage (mild or hot, preferably with sage)
  • 1/2 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, grated, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups Bisquick
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet.

In a large bowl, using a fork or your fingers, mix the room temperature cheese, sausage and Bisquick until just combined. Place the mixture into a food processor and pulse a few times, until the mixture completely comes together. Then, transfer the mixture back into the original bowl, add the black pepper and cayenne, and mix one final time with your fingers.

Divide the mixture into 1-inch balls (using a small ice cream scoop or your hands), rolling the mixture between the palms of your hands. Place the balls on your greased sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Haha I just noticed that the original recipe said it makes 40-50. My “inches” must be huge – I got 22!

Posted in Dinner | Tagged | 4 Comments

Rewarmening Wrap Up – Some Fat Kid Food Ideas

Posted on June 22, 2011 by sparecake

The rest of the things that we made for our house rewarming party were all REALLY good, but not really things that require precise recipes. I figure I’ll throw out some pictures and descriptions, and you if you’re interested you can try ’em. We hadn’t made any of these things before, and were just winging it ourselves.

1. Candy Sushi

SO PRETTY! I highly recommend making this! We used Fruit Roll-Ups for the seaweed, Rice Krispie treats for the rice, and Swedish Fish and colored Twizzlers for the filling. The Fruit Roll-Ups were actually kind of a pain to work with and stuck to themselves something fierce, but freezing them for a minute or two helped a bit. My roommate Alex turns out to be a sushi rolling champ!

The colors!

2. Hot Dog Cheeser Pizza

My previous roommate Alex (yeah, Alexes everywhere) introduced our friend group to Hot Dog Cheesers – a hot dog, sliced in half, with a slice of cheese and a slice of pickle in the middle, then wrapped back together with bacon, grilled, and basted in bbq sauce.

The originals, ready to grill.

Everyone’s in love with that now, but it seemed somewhat sacrilegious to make without Alex, so (of course?) we adapted it to a pizza. The Hot Dog Cheeser Pizza has regular pizza sauce, cheddar cheese, bacon, hot dog chunks, and pickles. Once it comes out of the oven, you brush it with bbq sauce and sprinkle on a bit more bacon. It may not surprise you to learn that the Hot Dog Cheeser was once known as the Cardiologist’s Nightmare.

3. Kit Kat Fries

You can fry most anything with Bisquick, as it turns out. Follow the recipe for pancake batter, but add an extra cup of the powder, and that thicker batter is great for frying. 375 degree oil and you’re ready to go! For things like candy bars, you’ll want to have frozen them for a few hours beforehand so they don’t melt away while they’re frying. If you have extra batter, just dump it in the oil for some fine fried dough.

That's a buttercream 'ketchup' going on there.

And that was about it. Except, of course, what party is complete without some tiny backyard bike polo? Not this one, that’s for sure.

This is reasonable.

Posted in Dessert, Party! | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Lemonade Cake

Posted on June 19, 2011 by sparecake

Another lemony recipe from the Rewarmening, this one cakey.

To begin with, you just use boxed lemon cake mix with some extra eggs and lemonade concentrate. Bake the cakes according to the box’s instructions, and then cool for an hour. Level the cooled cakes if necessary. I actually own cake strips, which help your cakes bake evenly (and work well!), but I forgot to use them. Daaangit! For the un-cut parts of the top of the cake, poke with a fork to make holes that glaze can run into. Don’t go crazy and tear the cake up, just make little punctures.

Whisk together your glaze ingredients and pour it over the cake. Cover, and let sit in the refrigerator at least an hour, but ideally overnight.

To make the frosting, first beat your butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the vanilla and lemonade and beat in on low, and then slowly beat in the powdered sugar until smooth. At this point I decided it was boring and, as it was lemony, needed some yellow food coloring. Definitely the right move.

Get your cakes out of the fridge and frost as desired! I had been thinking of some orange accents, but ended up using up my red dye half an hour earlier on something else I’ll post soon. That left a cake that is a not too excitingly decorated, but makes up for it in deliciousness.

People were really into the texture the cake had after spending the night absorbing the glaze.

Lemonade Cake

Adapted from cookies and cups.

 Cake:
  • 1 lemon boxed cake mix
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons lemonade from concentrate
Glaze: 
  • 2 tablespoons lemonade from concentrate
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon water
Frosting:
  • 8 oz block 1/3 less fat cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup room temp butter (1 stick)
  • 3 tablespoons lemonade from concentrate
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • yellow food coloring

Preheat oven to 350° and grease two 8″ cake pans.

Beat together all cake ingredients until well mixed. Keep the remaining lemonade concentrate in the freezer for the future steps. Bake the cakes according to the box directions, which should take roughly 30 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pan until room temp, about an hour.

If necessary, level your cakes. If you have to take them out of the pans to do this, put them back in after! Poke holes in any uncut cake surface using a fork. Whisk together glaze ingredients until smooth, and pour evenly over the cakes. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour, but ideally overnight.

Make the frosting by beating cream cheese and butter together. Add the vanilla and lemonade and beat, then slowly add the powdered sugar, beating until smooth. Add yellow food coloring until you reach a cheery color.

Remove cakes from the fridge and from their pans. Frost cake as desired. Go to town! This tastes pretty good with raspberry sauce, too!

Posted in Dessert, Party! | Tagged , | 1 Comment