Hannah's Birthday Cake

Here is Hannah's 'self decorated' birthday "Texas Sheet" cake.

Thank you to two of my favorite New Yorker's for these recipes.  I miss you ladies!!

Hannah's favorite cake is "Mrs. Williamson's Texas Sheet Cake".  She fell in love with this cake when we had supper with the Williamson's one evening.  Well, we ALL fell in love with this cake.

Hannah has been decorating her own birthday cakes for the past few years.  This year, she drew out her birthday cake plans about one month beforehand.  I was thinking I could just color some icing and squirt all of these things on this cake.

Then, one of friends posted some pictures on Facebook of a "Veggie Tales" cake she made.  She kept talking about fondant.  I have never heard of fondant.  But, how could she make Larry out of icing?  I was VERY curious.

She send me her recipe.  I changed it just a bit (since I despise shortening...) and I wanted my fondant to taste like vanilla.

Here are the recipes (changed just a bit to omit the shortening - I LOVE butter... real butter.)  Also, any time I write 'butter' I am referring to 'salted butter'.  If I use unsalted, I will specify.

"Mrs. Williamson's Texas Sheet Cake"
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups of sugar
2 sticks of melted butter
1 cup of water
3 1/2 Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together.
Smear a little butter up on the sides of a jelly roll style pan (I used a Pampered Chef Bar Pan.)
Bake for 20 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean)

While the cake is hot... I used a kabob stick to poke holes all over the cake.  The cake rises so much and my oven is tilted slightly to the back, so my cake always turns out a tiny bit higher on the back side.  Poking the holes in the cake allow this icing to sink down in the cake some and not run off of the sides.

Make his frosting and pour over the cake while it is still hot.

Frosting:
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup of buttermilk
2 teaspoons of cocoa
1 - 1 lb. box of 10X sugar

Boil the first four ingredients in a pot on the stove top.  Remove from heat, wisk in the box of 10X sugar.  Pour over the cake.

Allow to cool.  Foil sticks to this icing.  Cover with plastic wrap and then foil or whatever works best for you.

Now... on to the FONDANT!!! 

This fondant is just like edible play-doh!!!  It makes a TON of fondant.  I used about 1/8 of the recipe.  The rest if wrapped up in four chunks in my freezer waiting to be unthawed and 'tested'.

For the fondant you will need:
2 lbs. of 10X sugar - sifted
1 stick of butter
1 - 16oz. bag of mini marshmallows
2 - 5 Tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Food Coloring (bleck....  I despise food coloring too... but, white fondant is a little BORING.)

Melt apx. 3 Tablespoons of butter, 2 Tablespoons of water and all of the marshmallows on the stove top using a double boiler.

When melted, add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Mix well.

In a HUGE bowl, add in about 3/4 of the 10X sugar to the marshmallow mixture.
Using the rest of the stick of butter, melt in your hands by rubbing them together to 'grease' them well. 
Put your hands in the bowl and mix mix mix. 
You will eventually turn out onto the counter top and knead the rest of the 10X sugar in.  You will continue to knead.  You want the results to be smooth and elastic.  If it is tearing too much, add a little water - 1/2 Tablespoon at a time.  (I ended up using the entire 5 Tablespoons of water in my recipe.)

Wrap it up in some plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge over night.  The next day, set out the fondant ball and pinch off pieces to color.  Work the food coloring in to the small pieces.

Now go get creative and make a FUN cake!


A HUGE 'THANK YOU' to Melissa Williamson and Amy Wallenwine!!!

GREEN Smoothie

HEY!  Someone stole my green smoothie!!!

This one turned out REALLY REALLY green. 

And REALLY REALLY yummy!!!

If you must... just look away while you drink it.  Cari doesn't mind.  Hannah wouldn't come near it.  You could blindfold yourself.  Whatever it takes to drink this yumminess.  This tastes like lime sherbert!  If you like lemon/lime tastes... you will LOVE this smoothie.

Ingredients:

1 cup of white grapes (or white grape juice)

3 mint leaves (fresh mint is best)

Lime zest

 (cut off the side of the lime about a half dollar coin size piece and just throw it in the blender)

1/2 banana

1/2 cup of frozen peaches

1/2 cup of frozen mango

2 cups of kale

4 pitted dates

1 cup of ice

A few helpful tips when making smoothies:

If you place these ingredients in the order listed into your blender, it will work better. 

 The more 'liquidy' things go in first. 

A 'smoothie' type blender with a tamper works best. 

You can shove the fruit and veggies down into the blade to make sure everything gets ground up good.

You can add SUPER cold water instead of ice.

You do not have to remove the seeds from your fruit.

(Seeds have vitamins too).

I do remove pits.... they tend to be very hard and tough on your blender blades.

Hannah

She's 9.

Happy Birthday Bobo.

Dear Hannah,

You are beautiful, inside and out. 

Now, be a good little girl and obey mommy....

STOP growing up so fast!!!

Love,

Mom

Hannah response when she read this:
"haha... I can't.  God makes me like that."
Another reason why I love her so.

Green Smoothie Challenge

Day #1

Today starts my Green Smoothie Challenge for the month of February.  This shouldn't be so tough for me since I LOVE raw foods and I LOVE smoothies. 

The Challenge:  Replace my normal breakfast with a green smoothie every day. (Apx. 16oz.)

The only day that will be tough for me is Sunday.  My mom cooks breakfast for us on Sunday before church.  It will be extremely difficult to watch everyone else eat bacon and eggs and my homemade biscuits as I sip on a my green smoothie.  I LOVE biscuits too.

Well... here it goes.

Today's recipe: 

1 cup of red grapes

2 small oranges

1 lemon

1/2 granny smith apple

1 banana

1/2 of a thick slice of pineapple

8 frozen strawberries

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries

A BUNCH OF SPINACH (apx. 2 cups)

2 cups of ice

Liquify.

Pour into cups.

This one did not turn out 'green'.
The blueberries help to mask the green color.

I must share.  My girls LOVE green smoothies - especially this recipe.

The one in the jar is saved in the fridge.  It will be just as yummy tomorrow, but will probably won't last that long.

Drink while you check your email... or facebook... or blog.

Who's going to join me?

Tips

I thought I would share some of my tips on shopping / eating healthier / making foods from scratch / using the internet / budgeting... and things like that.

At random...

• The most important thing I do before I head to the grocery store is to check my cabinets.  See what you have and what you do not have (even down to the spices) for a recipe.  Write a list of the things you need.  Only buy those things.
• Make a menu for the week (or month).  Write down all the things you need to make your favorite recipes and keep them on a main shopping list.  Before you head to the grocery store, check your cabinets and cross off things you already have.
• Make foods that don't require weird ingredients you will only use for that one recipe.
• Write a list of your family's favorites.  Make sure those things are on the menu.
• Make food that only use five to six ingredients.  This will radically cut the cost of meals.
• FREEZE FREEZE FREEZE leftovers!!!  Michael and I love meatloaf (our girls do not).  We cannot eat a whole meatloaf at one meal.  We sometimes like to have leftovers the next day.  If we do not eat it the next day, I wrap it up and stick it in the freezer.  The next time 'meatloaf' is on the menu, I do not have to buy or cook anything.  I just thaw the already prepared meatloaf and heat it up in a cast iron skillet in the oven.
• Buy real food.  By this, I mean, fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, cheese.  Stay away from pre-packaged food as much as possible.
• I search the internet to find made from scratch recipes for my favorite things.  I have already replaced my 'Hidden Valley Ranch' packets (used for making dip and salad dressing).  I can make it myself.  I have found a recipe to make my favorite french vanilla creamer for my coffee.  I am planning to try that soon.
• In the recipe I found to make the french vanilla creamer.  The recipe only calls for three ingredients.  Read the label on your coffee creamer.  Are there more than three ingredients?  Okay, Okay, I'm cheating a little.  The recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk.  I'm going to make that too.  But with honey instead of sugar.  All together, I will use, honey, water, powdered milk, milk and vanilla extract.
• Buy frozen foods instead of canned.  Canned food is usually LOADED with salt.  Frozen foods are usually fresh frozen.  That means it is freshly picked and flash frozen quickly to maintain as much nutrients as possible.
• Keep extra staple ingredients on hand.  You may run out of biscuits and NEED some more.
• Start serving meat in half the portion you normally eat.  I know in my own family, meat is served at almost every single meal of the day.  Meat is expensive.
• Eat your fruit first.  Fruit digests quickly.  Eat it on an empty stomach.  Eat if before your meal not after.
• Serve a side salad at home.  This will help to fill you up some before cutting into that steak.  Why is it when you go to a restaurant, you almost always get a tiny side salad before your meal is served?  The raw vegetables are easily digested on an empty stomach. 
• Have a fruit smoothie for breakfast (with some added spinach or kale) instead of your Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit.
• Add some oats to your diet.  Cheap and easy to prepare.
• Add some dry beans to your diet.  Oh, you like canned better because they are quicker?  Why not make a HUGE pot full and ladle them into containers and freeze them.  You can thaw them in a pot on the stove in about 20 minutes.  (About the same amount of time it will take you to prepare the other food that is being served with the beans.)

Hope this helps a little. 

If you have any questions or tips to share with all of us, please leave it in the comments section or feel free to email me.