A year ago, my friend gave birth to her son after a grueling 38-hour labor. Today, I spent my evening making Rowan’s first birthday cake.
Theresa e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago and asked if she could hire me to make his cake. I, of course, agreed without hesitation. We talked a little bit about themes, things Rowan likes, and what would work for a cake. She also expressed interest in having a small smash cake just for Rowan. One of the first things she mentioned to me was monkeys, and when I started googling for ideas, I came across a few pictures of monkey cakes with banana smash cakes. Perfect.
And so I set out designing and creating my own. Here is the finished product:
For the cake itself, I decided to try out yet another new white cake recipe. I sampled the scraps, and it was delicious! The texture was fluffy and springy, and the almond extract adds a wonderful flavor to it that’s different than your traditional white/vanilla.
Classic White Layer Cake
(Source: Cooks Illustrated, as seen on The Way the Cookie Crumbles)
Serves 12
CI note: If you have forgotten to bring the milk and egg white mixture to room temperature, set the bottom of the glass measure containing it in a sink of hot water and stir until the mixture feels cool rather than cold, around 65 degrees. Cake layers can be wrapped and stored for one day.
Ingredients:
– Nonstick cooking spray
– 2 1/4 cups cake flour (9 ounces), plus more for dusting the pans
– 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
– 6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature
– 2 teaspoons almond extract
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
– 4 teaspoons baking powder
– 1 teaspoon table salt
– 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool
Directions:
1. For the Cake: Set oven rack in middle position. (If oven is too small to cook both layers on a single rack, set racks in upper-middle and lower-middle positions.) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray the paper rounds, dust the pans with flour, and invert pans and rap sharply to remove excess flour.
2. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.
3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.
4. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1.5 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.
5. Divide batter evenly between two prepared cake pans; using rubber spatula, spread batter to pan walls and smooth tops. Arrange pans at least 3 inches from the oven walls and 3 inches apart. (If oven is small, place pans on separate racks in staggered fashion to allow for air circulation.) Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes.
6. Let cakes rest in pans for 3 minutes. Loosen from sides of pans with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto wire racks. Reinvert onto additional wire racks. Let cool completely, about 1.5 hours.
My husband has a potluck lunch at work tomorrow. I volunteered to bake a dessert for him to bring. I had grand plans to make one recipe, and well, I tried it. But the thing is–DISASTER. Fortunately, I rarely have kitchen mishaps, but when they happen, they’re always horrible. At least I didn’t set anything on fire this time. I won’t go into great detail, as I do plan to try the recipe again someday. Maybe I’ll tell the whole story then!
Anyway, I needed a Plan B, and I needed it quickly. Since I had already wasted an hour in the kitchen and had to throw away my previous “creation,” I wanted something quick and easy (foolproof, really), and I was giving bonus points to a recipe that used only ingredients that I already had in the house. I turned to the What’s Cooking board on The Nest, and as I was going through some of their suggestions, an idea was jogged in my head.
Pretzels! Peanut butter! Chocolate!
Surely there had to be some sort of blondies that combined these three fabulous ingredients? A quick Google search and I found it–at Brown Eyed Baker.
Ever had a Take 5 candy bar? They’re my favorite. And these cookie bars are definitely reminiscent of them. So why don’t you just go ahead and make them already? :) Not convinced? Take a closer look…
(Source: Brown Eyed Baker)
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12-ounce bag bittersweet (or semisweet, if you prefer) chocolate chips
1 & 1/2 cups mini pretzel twists, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chocolate chips, for drizzling (optional)
1/4 cup peanut butter, for drizzling (optional)
1/4 cup pretzels, crumbled, for topping (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Using a mixer, beat the butter and both sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and pretzel pieces.
3. Spread the batter evenly in the pan and press it down evenly with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool completely.
4. In separate sandwich size baggies, melt the chocolate chips and peanut butter. Cut off a small corner on each bag and drizzle the chocolate and peanut butter over the top of the bars. Sprinkle the extra crushed pretzels on top. Let set and then cut into squares.
“Don’t you just love… fall?
It makes me want to shop for back to school supplies.
I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils
if I knew your name and address.”
– Joe F-O-X, You’ve Got Mail
It makes me want to shop for back to school supplies.
I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils
if I knew your name and address.”
– Joe F-O-X, You’ve Got Mail
Photo Source
Summer isn’t officially gone, and fall isn’t officially here, but I can feel it in the air. The seasons are changing, and we’re in a lovely period of transition that I’m just smitten over.
Like any kid, I enjoyed my summer vacations to the fullest, but in many ways, I always loved going back to school. I loved shopping for all my new school supplies, and plus… new clothes! Having a bunch of new outfits was always fun, too.
Five years out of school, I can honestly say that I miss it. I miss the learning. It’s just not the same out here in the real world. If someone would pay me, I’d happily be a professional student for the rest of my life. It’s a shame that we’re all in such a hurry to get out of school instead of appreciating it while we can.
Next week, I’ll start to see the kids at the bus stops, and the yellow buses driving by. And I’ll think back on the days when life was much more simple.
The smell of fall takes me right back to those days.
If I had to pick a favorite season, I would definitely say summer. Sunshine, warm weather, t-shirts, flip flops, BBQs, s’mores–what’s not to love? But although summer flies by way too quickly, I always welcome autumn with open arms.
We have such gorgeous fall seasons up here in good ol’ New York. Warm, soft sunshine, colorful leaves and crispy air… *happy sigh* And seriously, how could you not celebrate the return of apples and pumpkin?
The 7-day forecast in these parts calls for gorgeousness. I mean, absolutely perfect weather. Upper 70s and sunny. My exact definition of perfection. And you better believe that apple picking is on our holiday weekend agenda! I can’t wait.
And while I’m not ready to give up my flip flops just yet, I also long for the first days of sneakers, jeans, and hoodies. I won’t have to wait long…
Before this last weekend, we seriously hadn’t enjoyed a home cooked meal in more than two weeks! It was crazy. So when we had the weekend and approaching and virtually nothing going on, we decided we were going to make up for it with some delicious meals.
Friday, we had our homemade basil pesto. Yum.
Yesterday, we made chicken and summer vegetable tostadas. That was actually a big milestone, as it was the first time I had worked up the courage to make them since almost burning our house down.
Sandwiched in between those oldies but goodies, we decided to try something new. Last week, I was watching an episode of Good Eats on the Food Network. I watch often, but have never actually seen something on that show that I had to make. But for whatever reason, on this night, Alton Brown was making potstickers, and I thought to myself, I want to try those. And so the next day, I looked up the recipe and picked up the ingredients.
The rest is history.
These potstickers are completely and totally (and I mean 100%) unauthentic, but they are SO GOOD that it doesn’t matter. They are full of awesome flavor. Although time consuming, the recipe made more than enough for the two of us, so we had enough leftover to freeze for another meal.
Perfect Potstickers
(Source: Alton Brown of Good Eats, Food Network)
Ingredients:
– 1/2 pound ground pork (You can use pretty much any protein you want. We used ground beef, but I saw in the recipe reviews that people also had success with ground turkey and ground chicken)
– 1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
– 2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper
– 1 egg, lightly beaten
– 2 teaspoons ketchup
– 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
– 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
– 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
– 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
– 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
– 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
– 35 to 40 small wonton wrappers (Can’t find them? Look in the produce section!)
– Water, for sealing wontons
– 3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying
– 1 1/3 cups chicken stock, divided
Directions:
1. Combine the first 11 ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl (pork through cayenne). Set aside.
2. To form the dumplings, remove 1 wonton wrapper from the package, covering the others with a damp cloth. Brush 2 of the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place 1/2 rounded teaspoon of the pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold over, seal edges, and shape as desired. Set on a sheet pan and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat procedure until all of the filling is gone.
3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
4. Heat a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat. Brush with vegetable oil once hot. Add 8 to 10 potstickers at a time to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, without touching. Once the 2 minutes are up, gently add 1/3 cup chicken stock to the pan, turn the heat down to low, cover, and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Remove wontons to a heatproof platter and place in the warm oven. Clean the pan in between batches by pouring in water and allowing the pan to deglaze. Repeat until all the wontons are cooked. Serve immediately.
We paired our potstickers with a simple vegetable fried rice. We used a recipe for shrimp fried rice from Cooking Light, but omitted the shrimp (I’ve omitted it from the recipe below. Click through to Cooking Light’s web site if you want the original, unaltered recipe). This was really good as well. The sesame oil and rice vinegar give it some nice flavor, and it went well with the potstickers.
Fried Rice
(Source: Adapted from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
– 6 cups rice, cooked
– 1 (10-ounce) package frozen green peas
– 1 cup sliced/chopped carrots
– Cooking spray
– 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
– 1 tablespoon canola oil
– 1 cup chopped green onions
– 1 tablespoon bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World)
– 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
– 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
– 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
– 1/4 teaspoon salt
– Dash of crushed red pepper
Directions:
Remember to start by cooking your rice according to package directions!
1. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add eggs to pan; cook 1 minute or until set. Remove eggs from pan; coarsely chop.
2. Return pan to heat; add canola oil to pan. Add onions and ginger to pan; sauté 1 minute. Add carrots and peas to pan. Cook until vegetables are tender.
3. Add cooked rice into the pan; stir well.
4. Combine vinegar and the remaining ingredients, stirring well. Drizzle vinegar mixture over rice mixture; stir well.
Yesterday, I did a photo shoot with my baby nephew. We have plans to do a “formal” session every three months in his first year. (Obviously, I take snapshots of him way more often than that!) Can you believe he’s three months old already?
I was really excited (as were his parents!) to get him in front of my camera lens again. Things didn’t go as well as I had hoped–the weather threw serious wrenches in my lighting situations, and made some of my set ups difficult. Also, being cute is hard work, so Hunter had to stop to eat and nap a couple of times. ;) But the little man was a trooper and did well with everything I put him through. In the end, I think we got a nice variety of photos, and many, many cute captures.
I feel like I’m really starting to get into a groove with this photography thing. It hasn’t come easily, that’s for certain. I can’t even count the number of hours I’ve dedicated to this hobby. And I still have a long way to go. It can be daunting at times, but I’m chugging along.
OK, enough talk. It’s time to go crazy over his chunky cheeks and his big blue eyes. Shall we?
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
