Mmmm Berry Buttercream

Just a quick post this week of a tried and true.  I am a big fan of chocolate cake.  Like, maybe the biggest.  I don't really find vanilla to be all that exciting, nor am I happily riding along on the red velvet bandwagon.  I do, however, adore a rich chocolate cake.  And that is likely why I love my Devil's Food Chocolate Cake recipe (noted in an earlier post).

Gracie and I often enjoy a play date with our new mommy friends, and we obviously have to take snacks!  So, I found myself wondering what I would take to our last outing.  Cookies?  Cupcakes?  Another sweet treat?  Why yes!  Yes, I am the person who religiously brings sweets.  So sue me.  It just so happened that I had a chocolate cake in my freezer because of an expected, and frustrating, happening as I was making Grandpa's golf cake.  Perfect!

And since I had some berries from the Farmers' Market... why not make a delicious berry buttercream?

What you need:

1 Devil's Food Cake (see recipe)

Berry Buttercream:

6 cups confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)

1 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup of berries (if using frozen berries, be sure to pour off any excess juice/water so as not to make your buttercream too runny)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

To give it a quick go... whip up your buttercream

In the bowl of your fabulous mixer (again) fitted with the flat beater, cream the butter with the vanilla and salt.  Slowly combine the confectioners' sugar and the milk.  I find repeating the cycle of adding one cup icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk achieves the best results.  Plus, you're less likely to be covered in icing sugar and have one hell of a mess to clean up later.  Beat on low speed until combined.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes, then reduce to low and slowly add the berries until combined.  Increase speed again to medium and beat for 1 minute more.  I find the measurements of this recipe spot on, but if the frosting is dry, add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it is creamy but still holds peaks.  Makes about 4 1/2 cups of buttercream: I find just enough to decorate one cake or 18 - 24 cupcakes. You can also find cake construction and decorating tips with the recipe noted above.

I did it up with a whack of buttercream roses but did not add fresh berries in the middle.  For no reason in particular other than I felt the berry buttercream drove the point home enough that the berries would be superfluous.

As you can see, it wasn't a pretty cake.

Give it a quick crumb coat and chill.

Not bad eh?  And guess what?  It was so, so, so good.  Just what a bunch of mommas needed :)

Homemade Granola

I'm a big fan of granola but not so much all of the sugar.  I've tried my hand at making my own on numerous occasions and have found all of the recipes to be quite disappointing: chocked full of sugar and lacking a whole lot of delicious.

Then, I stumbled upon these 5 ingredient wonders.  They're simple to make, delicious, and healthy.  Well, when I say healthy, what I really mean is there is no 'sugar' and you can add whatever your healthy heart delights.

What you need:

4 cups of oats
1/2 almonds (you could, of course, use peanuts or any other nut for that matter)
3/4 cup of natural peanut butter
1/2 cup honey (or cane syrup, or agave syrup, or maple syrup... you get the picture)

Then your add-ins... throw in whatever strikes your fancy.  I used:

2 handfuls (yes, I mean handfuls... I didn't use a measuring cup) of chocolate chips
2 handfuls of pecans
2 handfuls of dried cranberries
1/4 unsweetened coconut
and a couple good swigs of olive oil


Other things you could use:

seeds: pumpkin, sunflower, chia... whatever floats your boat
wheat germ
flaxseed
bran
dried fruit
nuts
etcetera.... etcetera.... etcetera :)





What you need to do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Start by mashing up the first four ingredients.  Once it's all incorporated, mix in your add-ins.  *Note/Disclaimer: I used my stand mixer for this recipe... it takes very little time to have it all come together and your mixer is really bumpin' and grindin' by the time it's all together.  You are hereby forewarned.

I liked the idea of having these as granola 'bites' instead of bars.  I used my OXO cookie scoop and they turned out to be the perfect 3 bite (or more if you're a lady) 'cookie'.  And they're really quite filling.  Of course, if you prefer them in bar form, squish the dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and cut while they're still warm from the oven.  Be sure to smoosh your bites down a bit, there is next to no spread factor in these 'cookies'.

Bake for 15-18 minutes... these will not really 'brown up' but the chocolate will get all melty and you'll know when they should come out.

Store in an air tight container and enjoy!  This makes a pretty generous batch so you could freeze half of the batch and definitely have enough to enjoy for awhile.  Of course, I suggest you share some but... that's just me :)

Grandpa's Golf Cake

I love baking birthday cakes. Last month, I made the chocolate rose cake for Tim's aunt and it was a total hit. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of baking Grandpa's 88th birthday cake. I pondered what kind cake I'd make and with what design for quite some time. Then, a stroke of Pinterest genius hit me... golf cake. Gramps loves golf. He's 88 and he stills walks the entire 18 holes. No golf cart for that ol' trooper.

It was a very simple 9x12 cake covered in grass-tip buttercream and a real golf ball plunked into a hole made by a cup.  I figured "yeah sure, that's cool. But.... I can do better".  Oh boy!  I haven't been that excited to create a cake in a long time ;)

I started with my devils food chocolate cake, thinking I'd make a double-layer round.

But something went horribly wrong and it turned into an ever-oozing lava cake in my oven and then one of the layers split apart in the cooling stage. WTF?!

So in the time crunch I was in, I reverted to the quick and easy recipe  I used for the margarita cupcakes (sans lime, of course). I made a 9x12 vanilla cake with the intentions of making the decoration the high point. And boy was it.

I started with a crumb coat and then....

I used purely buttercream for the decorations. I loathe fondant. I don't know why anyone would choose to eat it... So why bother using it? I'm of the belief that taste always trumps the look. I started with a crumb coat... And then I had at 'er!

I made a 'fairway, green, pond, and sand trap.

I used a grass tip to make the surrounding greenery, pulled up the buttercream in the pond to replicate waves, used graham crumbs for the sand trap and a skewer for the flag stick.  And I added some white flowers for good measure.  Yes, I'm well aware that golf courses aren't typically strewn with pretty white flowers, but this is a cake and, heck, I wanted them.  So there.

What sand trap doesn't have a few balls in it?

I'm particularly proud of my pond.  It's dumb, I know

In the end, the cake was yummy.  Not quite as amazing as the moist delicious devils food, but definitely good. The decorations were the real hit.  Gramps loved his cake so much that he took photos of it for show & tell with his golfing buddies.  That'swhatI'mtalkinabout!!!

Super Easy Flower Art

I wasn't entirely convinced that Pinterest was going to be all that fabulous.  I wasn't ready to jump on the bandwagon.  Then, like a reasonable person (which I totally am), I gave it a fair chance.  And I'm hooked.  It's a great place to 'pin' all of those things that catch my eye, that keep my creative juices flowing, and the things I aspire to make, create, bake.... it's slightly addictive.

I stumbled upon a fun and easy art project that I wanted to do for Grace's nursery.  It seemed simple and cute.... so I gave it a go.  And I think if you have an afternoon, a little paint, and some paper you like that you, too, can make this.  Yup.  I am thoroughly impressed with the result and it cost less than $10!

What you need: 

a canvas

acrylic paint

paper

scissors

hot glue gun

What you need to do:

Start your project by painting the canvas in any acrylic color that strikes your fancy.  I should a sky blue color for Gracie's nursery.  Then, I chose three different patterned pieces of paper and a number of coordinating solids in flat and shiny textures.  I considered using fabric but paper was cheaper and I was enamoured with a pattern so paper it was.  I cut up the paper in approximate rectangles (your size should be reflective on the size of canvas you have and how many you want to add); then trimmed them into 'leaf' shapes.  And I punched a circle out of yellow paper for the centre of the flower.

Now, it's puzzle time.  I started by placing the centre of the flower off-centre.  Then, place the paper petals of various sizes and patterns around the centre as you please.  I spent about an hour moving the petals around to get just the right shape and color variation.  You, of course, can do this in mere minutes if you aren't picky.  Or if you're particularly savvy :)  A trick that worked great for me to see the positioning and patterns was to take pictures with my iPhone of the entire canvas.  It somehow helps you gain a perspective of how it looks as a whole.  Give it a go.

The last step is to carefully lift each petal and add small dollops, or lines as I preferred, of hot glue to the backside and place them onto the canvas in its preset position.

The original tutorial suggests finishing the entire piece with Mod Podge.  I didn't not do this.  I prefer the look of something that isn't perfectly polished.

Then I hung it above Gracie's crib so she has something beautiful to gaze at.... because don't we all deserve a little beauty in our lives?