The Great Cake Adventure

Today was my cousin's baby shower and I offered to make the cake.  Here it is :) I was pretty happy with the end result especially since I have had a terrible ear ache for the past 3 days.  I've been in a lot of pain so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get through it all.  I figure it took a total of about 20 hours to put together, 3 9x13 sheet cakes, 12 cups of buttercream icing and 5 different colours.  

The pink coloured blocks had white cake with strawberry filling and the yellow and purple blocks have chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

All of the recipes came from with wilton website.  Except the strawberry filling was my own concoction.  I used two cups of strawberry freezer jam that I made last summer and thickened it up with some cornstarch and water slurry.  

While I'm showing off my cake making skills I'll turn back time to pretty much exactly one year ago.  My Mom married for the first time. As a gift I decided to secretly make my Mom a wedding cake.  We're talking 3 tier, double layered, red velvet with cream cheese icing.  It was quite the endeavour and I was pretty surprised in the end that I pulled it off.  This cake took me about 35-40 hours to make and transporting it from my house in the country to my Mom's house in Quebec was the most stressful drive of my life.



Mom and her husband were very surprised and loved it!  They even have a piece still sitting in their freezer so that they can have a bit this year for their anniversary. 

Both cake designs come from the Martha Stewart website. 

Thanks for reading:)

ENJOY!

Holy Enchiladas

The picture of the enchiladas is terrible, I apologize. I was really hungry and when I snapped a couple of shots while it was in the oven I thought they were good enough.  I was wrong.  But the enchiladas were so tasty that I had to post about them anyways.

 

The recipe was quick to put together and full of flavor.  It would make a great family weeknight meal.  With a few healthy substitutions like fat free cream cheese, ground chicken and low calorie flour tortillas and a side garden you can’t feel guilty eating this meal. 

I’ll keep the post short and sweet so I can get back outside and enjoy the rest of this BEAUTIFUL weather.            

Chili Cheese Black Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients

·  Cooking spray

·  1 medium onion chopped

·  1 teaspoon ground cumin

·  1 teaspoon dried oregano

·  1 teaspoon chili powder

·  2 garlic cloves, minced

·  1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

·  1 lb ground chicken

·  1 cup bottled salsa

·  ½ cup fat-free cream cheese, softened

·  1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

·  1 flour tortillas, I used weight watchers low calorie tortillas

·  1 can enchilada sauce

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 350°.

2.   Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook through, breaking up the meat as you go. Remove the meat from the pan into a small bowl

3.   Add onion and sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Stir in cumin, oregano, chili powder, garlic, beans, and cooked ground chicken, and cook 2 minutes, stirring mixture frequently.

4.   Stir in salsa, and cook 1 minute. Remove from heat, and add cream cheese and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, stirring until cheese melts.

5.   Warm tortillas wrapped in foil in preheating oven

6.   Spread 1/3 cup enchilada sauce in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

7.    Divide black bean mixture between 10 tortillas.  Spread down center of each tortilla, and roll up. Arrange enchiladas, seam sides down, crosswise in dish. Pour remaining enchilada sauce evenly over enchiladas, and sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheddar. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until thoroughly heated and cheese is nicely melted.

ENJOY!

RAISIN ROCKS

Drum roll please, the moment you’ve all been waiting for….I present to you Raisin Rocks.  I know they may not seem as exciting as you were hoping, but for me they remind me of the best woman I have ever known, my Granny. 

She made Raisin Rocks for any occasion.  If you popped in just to say hello she would say, what can I make you? How about some Raisin Rocks?  She knew you could never resist.  In no time they would be coming out of the oven steaming hot and she was always the first to dig in, no matter how hot they were. 

She passed away about 12 years ago and for a while we didn't have Raisin Rocks.  It seemed like even thinking about having a raisin rock made you sad, because it wouldn’t be one of hers.  The worst part of it was that she never wrote down the recipe so we didn’t even know how to make them if we wanted to. 

A few years back I decide to give my own version of Raisin Rocks a try.  For 4 years now I have made them for Mother`s Day for my Mom and Aunt and we sit with a cup of tea and remember a wonderful woman. 

Like I said yesterday she always used shortening so this year I made two batches, one with butter and the other with shortening.  First I ate one with butter, so good, rich and flaky.  Then I went for the one made with shortening, I could immediately tell it wasn't as rich but still so good and more the way I remember Granny`s tasting.  So it`s up to you or you can make both and be your own judge.

Raisin Rocks

Yields 10-12 depending how large you make them

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter or shortening
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon milk

Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2.Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or rubbing between your fingers until it is in pea sized lumps. Stir in the currants. Mix together 1/2 cup milk and sour cream in a measuring cup. Pour all at once into the dry ingredients, and stir gently until well blended. Overworking the dough results in terrible scones!

3.Grab handfuls of scone and shape into roughly a ball, drop onto baking sheet. Let the scones barely touch each other. Whisk together the egg and 1 tablespoon of milk. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash. Let them rest for about 10 minutes.

4.Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops are golden brown, not deep brown. Break each scone apart, or slice in half. Serve with butter or even plain.

ENJOY!

Spinach and Bacon Quiche For My Momma

Mother’s Day seemed to come earlier than usual this year.  It might just not feel like that time of year because Mother Nature seems to be in a bad mood, maybe she’ll get a great Mother’s Day gift and change her attitude! 

This year I am making my Mom a Spinach and Bacon Quiche for Mother’s Day.  I love this recipe. It’s so simple and looks really pretty.  I think it would be great served for any meal of the day, with some toast and OJ for breakfast, with a small fruit salad for lunch or with a nice spring mix salad for dinner. 

I like to make my own pie crust, feel free to make your own or pick one up in the freezer section of the grocery store.  Pie crust can be an art which I have been working on for a few years now.  I like to use half butter and half shortening.  Growing up my Grandmother only used shortening for her pie crust and it was delicious.  I figure she did that because when she grew up they were too poor to have something fancy like butter. I think half and half gives just enough richness and flakiness so that’s what I am using these days.

Make sure you come back tomorrow night for part two of my Mother’s Day gift.  You’ll also find out where the name of this blog comes from, don’t miss itJ

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs, beaten
• ¾ cup half and half
• ¾ cups heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach, packed
• 1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust, fitted to a 9-inch glass pie plate

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender.
3. Layer the spinach, bacon, and cheese in the bottom of the pie crust, then pour the egg mixture on top.
4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the egg mixture is set. Cut into 8 wedges.

ENJOY!