Pinterest Birthday Party, Part 2- The Food

For more ideas on this Pinterest birthday party go to part one and Heather's post.
Today I thought I would share all the Pinterest perfect food we enjoyed at this party and count it as a "New Meal Monday" post. Each guest was asked to bring a dish to share that they pinned or one they have been wanting to try (if they are not on pinterest). There was so much food, I didn't get pictures of it all. But here is some of the yumminess I did capture.

 And then there are these...

This is my first attempt at them and they may look good only because I hid the messy part of them in the cupcake liners! lol The first thing I did is search Pinterest under how to make cake pops My first tip: give yourself a couple days to make these so you don't rush any steps. My second tip: don't skip any steps. And my third tip: have at least double the melting chocolate than you think you will need. As I found out, what makes a cake pop look so good is 2 coats of chocolate, so back to the store I went!

I will admit this newbie to professional party planning may or may not have overbooked herself. I had this great opportunity the same weekend to publicly announce my new adventure at our local primary school's carnival. They let small businesses set a table to display their business for just $10. The response was awesome and I even got a special order that day. So worth my time!

So, because of the extra business activity I didn't use the made from scratch recipe that I had wanted to do. I also graciously accepted the help that was offered to bake the cakes from 3 boxed mixes for me. It saved me a step! Thank you Mr. Awesome! Once the cakes were done and my table all packed up I picked up these cakes all ready to go. We used 1 strawberry boxed cake and 1 white boxed cake and 1 lemon boxed cake colored turquoise! I don't have every step because I was new to this type of cake making and in a time crunch. So next time I will have a more step by step process for you.

The first thing I did when I got the crumbled cakes home is make up a batch of homemade cream cheese frosting. I will share in another post for you the recipe. Just mix in a little bit of frosting at a time. You want it to stick together but not be too mushy. Once you think you have it right (the only way you will know is to do this a few times). This first time I was just praying I did it right! Put them in the fridge for at least 4 hours. I needed them to turn out (no time for a back up plan) so I did overnight in the fridge.

They look so pretty and colorful! But just keep reading. lol!

The next morning is where it got interesting. And I only have the one picture because I was not enjoying this process.
Because it takes 2 coats of chocolate to make them look so nice I did all of the ones with out sticks in white chocolate to save time and money. (I originally wanted them 3 different colors). I also had to get them in the fridge as soon as the chocolate coat went on. The sticked ones I had in white chocolate for the first coat then colored for the second.
I had to do this crazy karate chopping action on my wrist to get the extra chocolate off the sticked pops. (That was one of the instructions I read up on. Tap your wrist not the stick or you will break the pop off the stick). Aside from all the steps to get them on the stick without them falling off they coated so much nicer than the ones without the sticks. I couldn't get a clean coat with the stickless ones.

Once all the pops were coated a second time, with the remaining  red and turquoise melted chocolate, I put each in a separate sandwhich bag, snipped of just a tiny corner and piped the swirls or dots on all the pops. Some I topped with sprinkles. 

 My honest feelings and thoughts during the cake pop making processes was "I don't like this, way too much work, and I am not impressed." I also may have swore off doing these ever again. Hahaha joke is on me because EVERYONE loved them including my husband, which totally surprised me. He said he loved the dense cake part. ...so I will be trying these again now that I know what to expect.

 Later this week I will share the final part of this party in some things we made for and during this event. For another perspective be sure to check out Heather's post. Thanks for stopping by!

Camo Cupcakes-homemade goodness!

These were so fun to create and they topped off my nephews' Camo Birthday Party. I will share with you here today how I made these. I was needing 2 cakes- one white and one chocolate. The chocolate one I found in my book: Taste of Home's Complete guide to Baking. It is a Chocolate Buttermilk Cake. I don't buy buttermilk, I just make my own. I needed to do that first. I poured 2 TBS of lemon juice into a 1 cup measuring cup. Then filled the rest of the way up with milk (I used 1% milk). You could also use white vinegar if you do not have lemon juice. Let is set for about 5 minutes and it will curdle. While that is going on I go ahead and get the rest of the ingredients ready.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup water

In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Beat in buttermilk and eggs. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with water, beating well after each addition. Set aside and star the next cake mix!

I was looking for a white cake mix, however most white cake mixes call for lots of egg whites. I finally settled on a yellow cake mix on Pinterest called The Best One-Bowl Yellow Cake. I was willing to try this recipe because it has charm. It came from a 100 year old cook book. Hey, with that much experience behind it, it is bound to be good. And besides it only called for 2 eggs! I followed the recipe just as it says.

Once the yellow cake mix was ready I divided it in half and colored 1 olive green and the other I added just enough brown to make it tan. Then I was ready to fill the cupcake pan. I used small scoops and alternated the chocolate, green, and tan cake mixes. (Sorry forgot to take a picture of this step). I baked at 350 degrees for around 20 minutes or so. This is how lovely I mean how manly they looked coming out of the oven!

While the cupcakes cooled I got to work on the frosting. In my same book: Taste of Home's Complete guide to Baking, they have this one to go with the Buttermilk Chocolate. I ended up doubling because I had almost 40 cupcakes. But for the regular recipe it calls for:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups confectioners sugar
4 to 5 tsp milk

Cream butter, shortening and vanilla in a large bowl. Gradually beat in confectioners sugar and enough milk to achieve a spreading consistency. Once I had the frosting complete, I separated it into 3 bowls and colored one olive green, one tan, and the last brown. I used a large star tip and coupler set to get the swirl effect I was looking for.

 They were yummy and just about gone before the days end!

Print Recipes

Banana bread, you smell good!

Few things in this world smell better to me than these: the scent of lavendar lotion on my newborn baby,
Dear Hubby in his Old Spice, the sweet smell in the air just after a rain on a warm day and bread baking in the oven. This banana bread in particular does not disappoint in smell yumminess! It also happens to be tasty and easy to make.

 The first thing I always do is pull out bananas from the freezer. I will always use frozen bananas because once they have thawed a little, they are so easy to incorporate into the mix. I have tried over ripe non frozen before and it just seemed like more work to mash them down.  

Freezing bananas are easy, just toss over ripe ones in the freezer as is. No need to package them. The will stay for at least a month in the freezer just as they are. When you want to make some bread just grab 3 from your stash. A tip though: defrost on a plate not the counter. As they thaw out the peels turn black and I have actually stained my counter top. Whoopsie! Once the bananas have thawed, I break off the bottom end and squeeze the banana out into a bowl.

The original recipe I used came from here . I have made this so many times now that I have adapted it to our tastes. One of the things I added was cinnamon. In my opinion most any bread other than bread for lunch/dinner should have some cinnamon in it. I also use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour. I also have included some oatmeal once, but Dear Hubby didn't care for it that way.

Ingredients:
3 frozen bananas thawed 
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
healthy dash of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread coconut oil (or lard) into the baking pans set aside. Empty bananas into bowl and mix with the melted butter. Batter will be lumpy. Add in sugar, egg, and vanilla and mix some more. Sprinkle in the baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix in to the batter. Add the flour last and mix just until evenly blended. Pour mixture into two 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 

Enjoy!

print recipe 

New Meal Mondays

We have arranged Monday evenings to have my mom over to enjoy dinner and game night with our family. I am not usually very creative when it comes to everyday cooking and have treated it over the years as a chore. But I have been convicted about what and how I am feeding my family. I have been challenged to get out of my comfort zone, to do better for them. So, over the last year I have been learning more and have been trying new recipes out and since we have been having a little success lately I have declared to the family that Mondays would be "New Recipe Night". My goal is to share with you starting next Monday what we cooked up.

For the record I am no cook. In fact I used to say that I hate to cook. I grew up the oldest in a house of six kids with a mom that cooked most everything from scratch. And even though I had to help a lot in the kitchen, I never enjoyed it. As hard as my mom tried, it didn't stick. It did however burn. Every time my dad would see me in the kitchen he would say, "Oh, looks like local burn and serve is at it again!" It was all in fun, but he was right... I burned a lot. My worst fiasco in the kitchen was the time I forgot a pan of eggs that I put on to boil for hard boiled eggs. They were on the stove for so long that the shells turned black. Seriously!
Thankfully I never caught the house on fire.

But I have grown since then. I did a Bible study on the Proverbs 31 woman over a year ago that changed my mind on cooking and feeding my family. I found it here where they talk about feeding my family is a basic need that my family has. I can choose to bless them by providing the best I can to nourish their bodies and souls. A way to show them I love them. So it is for them that I am willing to learn, to try, to do better. So tune in next week when I post on what we will try this week. And a big thanks to my mom, she was ever so patient with me in the kitchen. Now she gets to enjoy my cooking!

The crazy part of my story-- I have always loved baking... more on that another time.