Cake Decorating Part 1 & Butter Cream Icing

So I've been cooped up all winter and needed to get out and do something, so when Camille and her sister-in-law to be (also named Camille) mentioned this cake decorating class, I jumped on the bandwagon!! It's through Michaels and is four 2 hour classes. We had our first class last night and the two hours flew by. I couldn't believe it was time to go home and I had only decorated four cookies!

Things that I learned:

• How to pipe stars
• How to color icing
• Use 'Bake Easy' non-stick spray instead of Pam to make sure that your cake pops out with no crumbs. (makes a difference when icing a chocolate cake with white icing!)
• Use meringue powder in your icing so that it'll harden and be easy to touch up after it's dried.
• How thick or thin to make the icing depending on what you wanna do with it!
• Let your cake sit exactly 10 minutes before popping it out of the pan after it's baked.

I'm kinda worried that this is going to get expensive though.

Here's a list of what I've spent so far:

Class tuition 50% off plus another $5 off at the till = $18

Wilton basics starter kit (Reg price $49.99 + 50% off coupon) $24.99

Wilton 12 icing colors (Reg price $21.99 + 50% off coupon) $10.99

Small tub decorator icing (Reg price 5.99 + 25% off coupon) $4.50

Meringue Powder (Reg price $8.49 + 40% off coupon) $5.09

plus tax = $66.06

Plus I made 2 dozen cookies to decorate and ran out of sugar.

There's a lot more things that I want to buy, but I'm going to check with my FIL first to see what extra things he has, to save me a couple of bucks.

Things on my to buy list:

Cake leveler, turntable, cake boards, some good quality cake pans, piping gel, sifter, angled spatula, tool box, and I think the list will keep growing!

I have my next class tomorrow night and I have to bake a cake and whip up a batch of the butter cream icing, and make some of it thick and some of it medium consistency.

Class Butter Cream Icing (stiff consistency)

1 cup solid white vegetable shortening

1 tsp flavor (vanilla, almond, or butter) (make sure they're clear)

7-8 tsps milk or water

1 lb (4 cups) icing sugar

1 TBSP wilton meringue powder

pinch of salt (dissolve in water first before mixing )

Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Sift icing sugar. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minure or so, until creamy. Makes 2 1/2 cups.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is another recipe I got from the 'Bun in the Oven' Shower. Camille made these and they are some of the best banana muffins I've ever had! They use apple sauce instead of oil and are so light and fluffy. My FIL was helping me in the kitchen today, and for those of you who don't know, he is a baker!! He gave me lots of tips on mixing, creaming sugar and eggs, baking and some really fun ways to fill the muffin tin. I made a mess but had a ton of fun. Camille and her fiance popped in and got to witness Barry flinging the batter into the paper cups in the muffin pan and then my attempt at doing the same. I did end up getting the hang of it after a while!! His biggest tip was to not be afraid to work with my hands and get dirty!

I'm going to be taking a cake decorating course, so he also showed me how to pipe the batter into the cups, just to practice! I'll be sure to post my homework for everyone to see. The course starts this week!

I made a double batch, one batch for my girlfriends shower on the weekend and one batch for me! My freezer is full and I love it.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3 eggs

1 cup applesauce

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups mashed bananas

1/2 cup chocolate chips or however much you want! (optional)

Grease 2 muffin tins (skip this step if you're using paper liners). Beat together sugar and eggs until creamy. Mix in apple sauce. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add slowly to creamed mixture. Mix in mashed bananas and chocolate chips if you want. Pour (or fling if you're so inclined) into muffin tins or paper liners and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

To tell if they are done, gently press down on the muffin top and if it springs back up, they're ready! If they don't spring, they need more time.

I've never actually creamed the sugar and eggs for as long as I was supposed to EVER, but my FIL showed me how to tell when it's ready - you taste the mixture and if you can taste the grainy sugar, it's not ready yet. This will take less than 10 minutes. Don't over beat or else you'll break down the sugar.

Chicken and Broccoli Divan

A couple of my girlfriends hosted a 'Bun in the Oven' Shower for me before my son was born. It was fantastic as they had organized for everyone to bring a dish to pop in the freezer and include the recipe. It was the absolute BEST thing, as after Gray was born the last thing I had time/wanted to do was prepare meals. One of my favorites was Daryl's contribution of Chicken and Broccoli Divan. I made this the other day and it was so easy and delicious. Since I made it, both my mom and my MIL have made it, with rave reviews.

I doubled the recipe as I always feel the need to cook as if a football team is coming over for supper. I used one can of cream of chicken and one can of cream of broccoli and it was delicious. My mom used two cream of mushroom and said it was too strong of a mushroom flavor. You can really put whichever soup you want, depending on your taste and what you have on hand. Also, I added WAY more breadcrumbs, and next time I'd add even more as the soup soaked up a lot of it.

You can find the recipe for Chicken and Broccoli Divan here, which is on the Campbell's website.

BBQ Pork Tenderloin and Greek Pork Loin Ribs

Wow. I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted. I've been cooking a lot, and taking pictures of some things, but just haven't got them on here! Anyways, I came across a huge deal on pork tenderloin and pork loin ribs at Sobey's a couple weeks ago and ended up buying a couple of each. Like seriously, it was $1.99/lb. Can't beat that price! I made the pork tenderloin a couple weeks ago and it was so good I made the exact same recipe this past weekend too for the in-laws. I use Mike's favorite BBQ sauce so of course HE loves it! And it was actually pretty quick to cook too. I served it with quinoa (loaded up on quinoa at costco!) and a salad with fresh pineapple.

BBQ Pork Tenderloin

*On most of the websites, it said to tie the pork tenderloin together for even cooking. But I didn't and it turned out fine.

2-3lbs pork tenderloin

salt and pepper

Your favorite BBQ sauce recipe or store bought sauce. I used President's Choice Smokin' Stampede Beer & Chipotle BBQ sauce

Season the tenderloin with the salt and pepper and sear all sides in a hot pan with a little bit of oil. Spray a roaster with pam and then put a generous amount of bbq sauce on the bottom, add a little bit of water to thin if desired. Place the seared pork directly on top of the sauce and then cover with a bunch more bbq sauce. Cook at 450 degrees for 45 minutes, basting every 15 minutes. If sauce is getting too thick, thin with a bit of water. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Greek Pork Loin Ribs

Boil 2 racks pork loin ribs (or whatever other ribs you have) in large pot on stove for 45 min- 1 hour or until meat is super tender and starts falling off the bone. Put in large roaster and season with generous amounts of oregano, lemon juice, and garlic powder (or greek seasoning if you have it). Broil in oven until you're too hungry to wait any longer, or about 25 minutes, flipping half way through. (be sure to season both sides). Mike said they were even better the next day!

Toasted Quinoa with Okra, Tomato, & Shrimp

My friend Holly introduced me to quinoa last winter, however, I never made it until the other night. Fate, more than anything, brought me to this recipe. I saw quinoa on sale at coop the other week when I was there, and decided to pick some up not knowing when/if I'd actually get around to making it. I had bought some okra quite a few months ago, canned of course, as it reminded me of my trip to Louisiana in Jan/09 and figured I needed to diversify my veggie intake. And I usually have a large supply of canned tomatoes of varying preparations but my stock has run exceedingly dry lately, so I picked up a couple cans at Walmart last week.

So as the story goes, our roomate Trevor (friend of Mike's who's in taking a welding course) bought this HUGE bag of shrimp a few weeks ago at Costco. Now, I've cooked shrimp like four times in my life... not a huge shrimp fan and don't really know what to do with it other than a quick white wine shrimp pasta (ooh , I should post the recipe for this) or just plain old fried garlicky lemon shrimp.

So Mike and I are browsing through my pantry, trying to come up with some other pairing for shrimp other than pasta. He finds my box of quinoa! On to the world wide web I go to find a recipe for quinoa and shrimp. After maybe browsing four recipes, I come to the most perfect recipe in the world ---- (perfect = I have all the ingredients!!!). So Mike and I set out to make this, and we had a blast! My mom was enjoying entertaining Gray, while mommy and daddy were busy in the kitchen and we all had fun.

The recipe for this is: Toasted Quinoa with Okra, Tomato, & Shrimp

The only substitution I used was hot pepper sauce instead of dicing up hot peppers... oh and I don't have a fine enough strainer so I kinda just added some water to the quinoa to rinse it in a bowl. It took a bit more time to toast, but still turned out fine. I also used 1/3 cup more chicken stock as I didn't want 1/3 cup sitting in my fridge!

I really truly enjoyed this dish and it's much different than the casseroles that I usually make. I'd highly recommend trying it as it uses ingredients that aren't common staples in Saskatchewan! If you do try it, let me know what you think!

Amanda's Spaghetti Pie

I got this recipe from my friend Amanda in November of 2009 and somehow it got lost in my facebook inbox and I didn't stumble across it until over a year later! It was absolutely delicious and super easy, especially since I had cooked extra spaghetti the night before! I also used pasta sauce instead of making my own, which was super convenient. I really look forward to making this again!! A side ceasar salad really complimented it well, and as an afterthought, garlic toast would have been delish!

Amanda's Spaghetti Pie

Crust:
1 300g box of spaghetti
3L boiling water
2 eggs
1/3 c Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp oil
2 tsp. salt
2Tbsp butter

Filling:
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup cottage cheese
1 Tbsp oil
1lb beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
5 1/2 oz can tomato paste
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tasp garlic powder

Crust:
Cook spaghetti in boiling water with oil and salt until tender but firm (~11-13min). Drain. Add eggs, cheese, butter and mix well. Shape into crust in greased pie plates

Filling:
spread cottage cheese over bottom of crust. Fry hamburger, onion and green pepper. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, sugar, oregano, salt and garlic powder (boil off excess water, if any). Mix together and pour over cottage cheese. Bake uncovered @ 350 F for 30 mins. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella and bake for another 5 mins more. Freeze or serve and enjoy!!

Pumpkin Dessert Squares

This is a recipe from Mike's Aunt Pearl's cookbook. Lots of yummy recipes in here and this pumpkin dessert is one of our favorite! We get a kick out of some of Aunt Pearls recipes as they are enough to feed a football team! Her monster cookie recipe has 18 cups of rolled oats and 3lbs of peanut butter in it!!! But when you have a big family, you want a recipe that yields 5 ice cream pails full!! I love any cookie that has a pound of M&Ms in it! This recipe for pumpkin squares is so easy and it makes a 9x13 pan so no fear, you won't have to add 12 eggs or a pound of margarine or anything crazy like that! I buy canned pumpkin after Thanksgiving once it goes on sale! I made this for the superbowl party yesterday, along with my favorite Chili Dip (see previous posts).

Aunt Pearls Pumpkin Dessert

4 cups pumpkin

1 can canned milk (Alpha 2%)

4 eggs

2 tsp ginger (or less)

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups white sugar (I usually use 1 1/2 cups)

Beat eggs well. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat all together well. Pour into a 9x13 pan (not glass). Sprinkle 1 box of dry butter pecan cake mix all over the pumpkin mixture. Then cut very thinly 3/4 cup of hard margarine. Lay all over the cake mix. (I melted this and spread it on). Optional: Sprinkle one cup of chopped pecans or walnuts. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream or cool whip.

I had to add an extra 15 minutes in my oven till the toothpick came out clean! I also only had 3 eggs and crossed my fingers and it turned out fine. The filling was just a little less firm.