I planted 8 tomato plants this summer and tended them well. They were huge plants that simply did not produce tomatoes. I got about 4 large tomatoes and a couple of handfuls of cherry/grape tomatoes all summer. Jeff and I went to Florida and I decided to abandon them rather than have someone water them. When we got back they were FULL of tomatoes!
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| Booty from the garden! |
So determined NOT to waste the beautiful fruit I found a recipe for green salsa. I spent a day chopping, cooking and canning! It was fun and we had a ton of green salsa that we gave as Christmas presents and some to save for ourselves! Yummy!!
I was suddenly itching to make everything from scratch!
My next big adventure was my step-daughter's late birthday party. She is in band and lives 2.5 hours away so we sometimes get caught up in being late. We really want to celebrate with family here. So her September birthday was celebrated the end of October. I wanted to bake a cake from scratch.
The last time I baked a cake from scratch was when I was in Girl Scouts and there was a cake contest. Mom tried to talk me out of it...she said they never really worked out. I was determined. What I remember most is that the cake fell apart and we glued it together with icing.
Kenzie said that she wanted a "sprinkle cake." I started searching high and low and found a recipe that I wanted to try for White Velvet Cake and a recipe for Fluffy White Icing. The cake was heavy but really good and the frosting was AMAZING...it has been our favorite since!
My next big adventure was my step-daughter's late birthday party. She is in band and lives 2.5 hours away so we sometimes get caught up in being late. We really want to celebrate with family here. So her September birthday was celebrated the end of October. I wanted to bake a cake from scratch.
The last time I baked a cake from scratch was when I was in Girl Scouts and there was a cake contest. Mom tried to talk me out of it...she said they never really worked out. I was determined. What I remember most is that the cake fell apart and we glued it together with icing.
Kenzie said that she wanted a "sprinkle cake." I started searching high and low and found a recipe that I wanted to try for White Velvet Cake and a recipe for Fluffy White Icing. The cake was heavy but really good and the frosting was AMAZING...it has been our favorite since!
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| MacKenzie's 17th Birthday Cake |
What I learned is that there is a difference between 2 cups of sifted flour and 2 cups of flour sifted. I will give this cake another go sometime with that new knowledge!
Next up was Hannah's 20th birthday and she wanted cupcakes...I wanted them to be really pretty! My mom found these really neat cupcake holders and the ideas bloomed! We wound up with little rosettes using the same fluffy white icing recipe as above! I went with a different cake recipe as I had not yet learned the rules about sifting vs. sifted. These little cupcakes were very much like angel food cake! They were yummy but still not the white cake recipe that I am after.
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| Cupcake Rosettes |
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| Owen thinks this icing is the bomb! |
Next on the horizon was my baby brother's 40th birthday party. He has always loved German Chocolate Cake best and I wanted him to have one that was made from scratch and with lots of love! We were going out to dinner and going to be a very large party, so I knew that I needed a very large cake.
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| Four Layer 10 inch round German Chocolate Cake |
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| Everyone really liked it! |
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| Recipe |
I LOVE Thanksgiving! I love the turkey, mashed potatoes (I make really good ones if I do say so myself), stuffing, gravy, noodles, apples salad, five cup salad...you name it, I love it!
Next year I will do a better job with photo documentation but I will share the one good photo I have from this past year. I was taught that Thanksgiving is from scratch and I have always done it this way...
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| Two pans of noodles, home made cornbread, and french bread drying in preparation. |
My latest baking adventure was with a 50th Wedding Anniversary Cake...I LOVE the recipes for both the cake and the icing and they will be a new staple in our cake baking choices. I am looking for the best of each type of cake to put in my permanent file and this one makes it!
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| Trying to keep the mess under control! |
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| Dry and wet mixtures...love my large measuring cups! |
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| The goal is like a small wedding cake! |
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| Making the icing. |
So, what I learned...don't let this frosting sit out while you are waiting on the cakes to cool. Mine was too soft and I had some issues with the roses sliding on the cake. I will do this better next time. Overall, I think it was a winner! I hate that the gold dust on the cake doesn't show up in the pictures :-(
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