Better Than Sunday School Cake

After a very long hiatus finally a new post. I HAVE to share this recipe. And the story behind it. Last year about this time I was sitting next to a friend waiting for Sunday School to start. We were talking about food of course, and cake in particular. She said she wished there was a Christmas version of Better Than Sex Cake - a pepperminty one. So I went home and invented it. Another friend renamed it for me. Rather fitting.

INGREDIENTS

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix 1/2 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 2/3 C Hershey's syrup

6 crushed candy canes 2 C white chocolate chips 1 1/2 C whipping cream 2 t peppermint extract, divided

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Bake cake according to package directions for a 9x13 inch pan; cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Poke holes across the top of the cake, making sure not to go through to the bottom.
2.	In a saucepan over low heat, combine sweetened condensed milk, 1 t peppermint extract and Hershey's syrup, stirring until smooth and blended. Slowly pour the warm topping mixture over the top of the warm cake, letting it sink into the holes. Let cake cool completely.
3.	Meanwhile, warm whipping cream to almost boiling and pour over white chocolate chips. Let sit about 2 minutes, add remaining 1 t peppermint extract and stir until all mixed in. Chill in fridge for a few hours. Then beat with a mixer until consistancy of whipped cream. Spread on cake and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Enjoy!

3 cakes, 1 week

And a bunch of wedding sheet cakes this week.....

Mad Hatter cake. From the new movie. Oreo cake. Yum!

My niece's 4th birthday cake. As requested by her. Invented Peanut Butter Ganache for the filling. Double Yum! Can I just say that Ganache is one of my favorite words to say? It sounds awesome, and always means something delicious.

My nephew's Iron Man Mask Cake.

Slacker, but only at blogging

Man, I've been slacking here lately. Blame facebook, blame life being busy, blame my new IPod, but here I am. Briefly. Just to let you know I'm alive. And well, busy! As shown by the following pictures. Enjoy!

I know, not cake. But they were so pretty.....

Ahoy Matey!

This is for a friend. My kids are getting tired of not being able to eat my cakes. Luckily I have no more cakes on my schedule. Time for a break! I need a good book to read or a sewing project. Or I could do my laundry.....hmmm. Any one wanna recommend a book?

Crazy Cake Month

I have been doing tons of cakes lately. About 1 a week for the last few weeks, with one more next week. It's fun, but occasionally stressful. The most stress comes after they are done and waiting to be delivered/picked up. With 40 little fingers in the house, one almost always finds its way to the cake. I'm getting better about time management though. I usually get a huge head start and then finish early. Now I'm better at knowing how long something will take so it's done right before it needs to be. Leaving less time for mishaps.
This is from a long time ago, I don't think I ever posted it, but maybe I did. Kiara's birthday cake. She loves the show iCarly. It was going to be a lap top, but I couldn't figure out the top so it didn't happen.

Cookie Monster!!!!

I can't see!

Phew! That's better!

Completed cake. For a 1-year-old. The present was the smash cake for him to dig into. Fun, fun!

I also did a wedding cake, but I have no photos of it. It was 3 tier square covered in chocolate fondant. That was all I did. They had ribbon they put around it. Simple and elegant. Oh, and the cupcakes for our Halloween party. No pics of those either. I just frosted them in pinkish frosting and squiggled it to make it look like a brain. Kiara said they looked like small intestines. Whatever, that works too.

Missionary Cake

I got to make this cake for a friend in our ward. Her son's birthday was the same day as his farewell, so if you look close, Happy Birthday is written on one of the stripes of the tie. This combined my clothing making skills with my cake making skills since I had to figure out how to make the collars 3D.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow!

My niece had a Wizard of Oz birthday party. So here is her cake! Complete with rainbow, ruby slippers, yellow brick road, shrivled up witches legs, poppies and lollipops. Oh, and I had a moment of genius when I was picking up the foam core board for the cake plate. What if I glued scrapbook paper on it to make it prettier? And lo and behold, they had some that was blue gingham! (The pattern on Dorothy's dress). Too perfect!

Some darling child stuck his fingers in it before I got a picture. GRRRRR!!!! Considering it takes much yelling and shooing away of my kids to keep cakes perfect before delivery, I was very frustrated when some other kid got to it. But it still looked great and tasted great, so all was well in the end.

Zander's B-Day

Today is the day I catch up on blogging. So a month + ago was Zander's 2nd birthday. His favorite things at the time were trucks so that is what he got for his cake. A Truck! He was so excited for his " 'ruck cake."

A fun time was had by all.

Couple of Cakes

Urgh! Does anyone else hate how blogger puts your pictures on backwards??? Oh well.. First is the R2D2 cake I did today... Pretty cool, but compared to my inspiration done by a pro, well, not as great....

This was a super hero cake for my nephew's third birthday. I love those boys!

Both cakes featured my favorite cookies and cream buttercream frosting covered in fondant. Cute and delicious, which is my goal with every cake!

Cute Cakes

These are the cakes for my niece's birthday. They were inspired by some cup cakes I saw on Cake Central. (Love that website!) I did three mini cakes instead of cup cakes though. They were super fun to make and pretty easy too. I haven't done fondant for a while. But I found a great new recipe on Cake Central that tastes fantastic!!!! My niece wanted a strawberry cake. I obliged and did a Classic Strawberry Buttercream to go with it. I tinted half the cake batter purple, and swirled it with the pink batter. The cake was pretty inside too!

Happenings

Here is a Dora cake I got to do last week. It was fun and the little girl loved it. Payton wants a Diego cake for his "Happy Birthday Day" now. It's only 5.5 months away.....

It is Clogging Competition Season again. Kiara did very well. She got two 1st places for her team dances and five 2nd places for her solos.

This is from her Freestyle Solo. They have to dance all by themselves. Scary. But she was a pro! Just got to get her more confident so she will smile.

All around solos. They are judged individually, but 4 dance at the same time.

One of her team dances.

Zander in his new big boy bed.

Cakes

Well, its the second week of the second month and I am finally doing my first post of this year. I have good intentions of posting more often, and I have good excuses why I haven't, but I'll spare you.....soon enough my projects will be finished and I'll share, and then you'll know what I've been doing with all my time!


I have done several cakes in the last little bit. Paul and I had our annual cake night where I make us each a cake for our birthdays (they are 5 days apart) and then have a bunch of people over to eat them with us. I forgot to take pictures though. I didn't do any fancy decorating this year, just made them extra yummy and let them speak for themselves.....Paul had yellow cake with browned butter frosting filling and milk chocolate butter cream. I had a pumpkin cake with cranberry butter cream filling and cream cheese icing.....I searched every store for fresh or frozen cranberries and Paul even checked some stores in Boise, but they couldn't be found. So I used some canned cranberry sauce and it tasted just fine, but fresh would have been much better. I have to remember to buy some next Christmas season and freeze my own.

I also got to do the piano cake below. It was fun. Unfortunately Zander put his finger in the cake and broke one of the keys and Payton pulled off a black key. All of this AFTER I let them eat the extras....Sigh, caking with kids around is always an adventure... I was able to reasonably repair it though.... It has my favorite yummy milk chocolate butter cream. I have been having problems with it; if it gets even a little cold it gets too firm and not all silky like it starts out. So I've fiddled a bit with the original recipe and now it is perfect. Tastes just as great, and I didn't have the temperature problem this time.....Yay!!!

I'm in love! I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!

The object of my affection?

Yep, that's Paul in all his glory....Cute huh!?

The reason for a public announcement of my affection??????

Sew pretty!

Finally, after nearly 10 years of marriage, he got me a new sewing machine!!!! Which is also an embroidery machine! Now the story.....When Paul graduated from BSU (6-ish years ago) we got him a BBQ grill. The deal was that when he graduated from Law School, I would get the graduation present in the form of a new sewing machine. Well, that just didn't happen. We were too poor and I wanted a really good machine. And we didn't have a job yet and baby #3 was going to arrive soon. So technically I've really only been waiting 3.5 years. Paul asked me for a list of things I wanted for Christmas this year, which he never does; he is really good at figuring out great gifts without a list. So I jokingly put my dream sewing machine on the list. Never did I really think he would get it, but he did!!!! I was pretty excited to see it sitting out Christmas morning. But the first time I used it, (I know everyone is now going to know just how nerdy I am, but oh well!) I was almost in tears! I was and am so excited and it is so fun! Oh the fun I will have. Oh the things I will create! In fact I already have created! Payton has been waking up multiple times in the night because he is cold. His fleece blanket that he uses was just too small for him now. So I went and got some fleece to make him one like Kiara and Kegan's. But of course I had to embroider on it! And I figured while I was at it, Zander should get one too. I am also working on our stockings that I made last year. I am re-doing the tops of them so our names are embroidered and not just drawn with a fabric marker. I'll post pictures when I am done with them. I also have plans to do new quilts for the boys room as Zander will soon need to move from his crib. I've had those quilts designed for a while, but now I may have to add embroidery!

And finally I did get a cake in! My cousin adopted his wife's oldest girl and they were sealed last week. Well, it was also the younger sister's birthday that day, so they asked me to make her a cake. So of course I did! The only guidance I had was she wanted chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, so that's what she got! She was pretty excited, I was glad to help make that day special for her too!

Halloween and Kegan's B-day!

So I finally have the pictures from our Halloween Party and Kegan's birthday downloaded and have a few minutes so here they are, just a little late....

Okay, the story with Kegan's cake. Sigh. I had the best of intentions....He has been saying for months that he wants a Wall-E cake. So the week before his birthday I asked him at dinner what kind of cake he wanted. He hemmed and hawwed. So Paul decided to help out. If you read the following conversation you will see the power Paul has over him...

Paul: Hey, how about a cheesecake.
Kegan: Yeah! I love cheesecake.
Paul seeing me cringe: Or what about those lava cakes mom made once. Those would be super yummy.
Kegan: Oh, yeah, that's what I want for my birthday. Wait, what are those again?
Paul: Little chocolate cakes that when you cut them chocolate lava oozes out.
Kegan: Oh, those were so cool. Mom lets do that.
Me aside to Paul: I don't want to make cheesecake or lava cake. He wants a Wall-E cake and I don't think I can do that on a cheesecake and definately not on lava cakes.
Paul: Hey, didn't you want a Wall-E cake? Mom can't do Wall-E on lava cakes.
Kegan: Oh, yes, I want Wall-E. So lets do a Wall-E cake.
Paul: See, you just have to guide him a little.

Conversation dropped. I still didn't know what flavor of cake to make, but at least Paul had managed to change his mind over and over....Then I remembered that I had been reading about Frozen Buttercream Transfers on Cake Central. I thought that if I made a cheesecake I could do one of those with Wall-E in cream cheese icing, and everyone would be happy. So that's what I did. The basic explination of Buttercream transfers are you get a picture and flip it so it is backwards. You put some wax paper over it and trace it and fill it in. Then you freeze the icing picture and flip it over onto the cake, peel off the wax paper, and presto! You have a very detailed picture that is perfectly smooth. Well, apparently this does NOT work with cream cheese icing. I froze it for several hours and it was still gooey. I called Paul and had him buy some dry ice thinking that I could get it to freeze that way. Well, it kind of worked, but I still was unable to peel off the wax paper. So the above pictures still have the paper on them. Its what his cake would have looked like....Instead I took it all off and drizzled it with caramel sauce. Very yummy. Just not Wall-E.

These are the Superman cookies Kegan took for his birthday treats at school. The cutter came from a Valentine's set and is supposed to be a diamond. The kind that goes in a ring. Well one day the kids were playing play dough and were making Superman things with it, and it has NEVER been used as a diamond since. I cut out Marshmallow fondant with the same cutter to go on the cookies and then used cream cheese icing for the red border and S. They were quite yummy, if I do say so myself.

Here is our family as M&M's. We were the hit of the party. Of course Paul was only there for about the last 30 minutes. He was working in Boise that day. So I had all four kids at the ward party by myself. It wasn't too terrible, I just let Kiara and Kegan fend for themselves and I held a very cranky Zander and followed Payton around playing the games. I found out about 20 minutes before Paul got there why Zander was cranky. He had a massive diaper explosion. Diarhea that would not be contained. And of course I didn't bring the diaper bag. So thankfully I had Paul stop at home and grab a diaper so we could change him before the trick or treating. Well, I forgot to request new pants as well, so he has bare legs in this picture. But all's well that ends well!

These are from Halloween night. The wig didn't last, he only wanted it because Paul and Kiara were each wearing one. We didn't get pictures of Kiara and Kegan for some reason, but they were wearing their old costumes, because the M&M's were "too embarassing"-Kiara, and "I look dumb in it" - Kegan. Man they grow up and turn opinionated so quickly!

Cupcakes and Stubborn Ear Infection

Here are the cupcakes I made for our ward Harvest Party Cakewalk. I got the idea from Foodnetwork.com. The frosting is a super yummy peanut butter cream cheese. Pretty good for a powdered sugar icing!


Well, Zander is on his third round of antibiotics for one ear infection. He wasn't even sick or pulling on his ears that I noticed. The only thing was he didn't have a large appetite. So at his 15 month check up they discovered his ear drums were red and not moving at all (they are supposed to flutter like leaves in the wind). So he got a prescription and we went back three weeks later and there was no change. He got a different antibiotic and we went back today (another three weeks later). Well, they are still red and they are moving, but not much. So we have one more try with antibiotics and a decongestant to get them cleared up, otherwise he is going to need tubes to get them drained. If we don't get him better it could lead to permanent hearing loss, and we all know we can't have that! Little toddlers don't listen at all and if he couldn't hear; well, that would be disastrous! But we also really don't want to do tubes, so pray the antibiotic works this time!

Auction Cake

You know, it rare when a cake actually turns out the way I picture it in my brain. But it has happened. This cake is for a friends church that is having a dessert auction. As soon as she asked me to donate a cake, this is what instantly popped into my head. My friend Amelia (Cake Expectation on my blog list) had reminded me of my oreo version of Italian Meringue, so I knew I wanted to do that again. And she did a gorgeous polka dot chocolate wrap on one of her cakes that I wanted to try. I also wanted a taller cake piled with striped chocolate curls. Mission accomplished! The chocolate wrap is not perfect. It wasn't quite hard enough when I pulled off the clear vinyl (I am sooo impatient!) so its not as smooth as it should be, but otherwise it is what I saw in my brain!
I am excited to see how much it goes for. I've been told the desserts go for $30 to $800. I just hope it isn't the lowest one! I'll update when I find out.

Two Cakes

Well, here is the wedding cake to go with the roses...... It is white chocolate cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. The frosting was sooooo good! It tastes like cheese cake! I have made it a few times before, but have never added the optional lemon oil. Well I did this time, and wow, it made a great frosting spectacular! This cake has about 70 roses....I don't really like making roses, but it was fun doing a two tone rose and they turned out pretty good.
This next cake was for a good friend's 30th birthday. She is our choir director and we always have treats after choir, so I took this to surprise her. She and I are the same age, I turn the big 3-0 in January. She has been saying we should throw a party...but I don't really like parties in my honor.... So I thought it would be more fun to let everyone in choir know her age...ha ha!
Any way, it was chocolate cake with peanut butter Italian meringue filling and milk chocolate butter cream frosting. I must say that the milk chocolate frosting is pure heaven! Or pure evil, however you look at it.... It is so soft and silky and the fragrance.....oh man, it makes the whole house smell like chocolate....Only make this if you are planning on sharing, it is way to much temptation to have laying around the house!

I am going to share the recipe...It is found in Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible.....

16 oz milk chocolate, broken in small pieces
8 oz dark chocolate, broken in small pieces (I actually use chips of both chocolates, easier that way)
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

Melt chocolate in a double boiler, or very slowly in the microwave. Let cool until about room temperature. (I had to get a new microwave because a certain toddler cooked a piece of bread in mine...for 15 or so minutes....nice fire; it was rather exciting.... but anyway, it has a melt button and a soften button, it melts chocolate perfectly and even softens butter and cream cheese beautifully. Which is great since I am horrible at planning ahead and taking butter out of the fridge....) Beat the butter until creamy in mixer. Slowly add the melted chocolate until incorporated. Best if used immediately. You don't really want to refrigerate this one, it is kind of temperature sensitive......it hardens quickly in the fridge and then takes forever to soften again. Also, don't leave it the hot sun, it will melt!

Pretty roses

Here is a preview of the wedding cake I'm working on. Well, of the roses that are going on it anyway.