Super Mario Brothers Finished Cake

Here is my Mario cake! It's not perfect, I know. I was just so stoked to be able to make figures that halfway resemble the actual characters. I'm most proud of Yoshi... but I know the others need work. Someday I'll re-do this cake and make it glorious in it's nerdtastic form.

Super Mario Brothers Cake and Fondant

Good things come in pairs, I think.

It was like any other day, nothing to make today special. It was breezy and sun-shine-y. Little did I know the disaster that awaited me.

I baked my chocolate cake as usual. I had all the ingredients and even added a vanilla bean.

350 degrees and fifteen minutes later, I smelled burning chocolate.

I ran to the oven and sure enough, my cake was singed on the edges. It was crusty and it was nothing but crumb. It broke when it came out of the pan. I was upset. Thoroughly.

I decided that I would not let this small failure set me back from making a fantastic Super Mario Brothers Cake. I baked another chocolate cake, different recipe.

This recipe turned out much better. It didn't burn and it was just perfect.

I froze my three layers of chocolate cake and made a batch of my mom's wedding frosting *very rich!* I slapped a dab of that good ol' frosting on a cardboard circle and started layering my cakes, putting frosting in between each. I ended up making two batches of frosting to get the job done. After I smoothed it out, I let it freeze to harden.

I made a batch of fondant from corn syrup, shortening, and powdered sugar. I followed the recipe as written and came out with a hard clump of sugar. I tried to roll it out so I could cover my cake but it kept breaking and flaking off. Not again, I thought. Do I really have to make a second batch of fondant as well as chocolate cake? Of course I do.

This time I used a marshmallow fondant recipe. It took half the time and was far easier. I got amazing results.

Marshmallow Fondant

1 bag mini marshmallows

2 tbsp water

1 bag (2lbs) powdered sugar

Melt marshmallows and water in microwave. Heat for 1 minute, let rest after stirring, and then heat for another minute. Stir in powdered sugar. All of it. I would highly recommend greasing your spoon with crisco/shortening as well as heavily greasing your tabletop. No joke.

Pour/dump marshmallow-sugar mixture onto greased surface and knead until smooth and soft. You shouldn't need more sugar than 1 bag allows.

Let sit in the fridge until ready to use.

Once ready to use, set to room temperature. If the fondant is too hard, heat it in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until it is soft enough to knead and use. *should take about 20 seconds if its cold cold, if room temp, only about 10.*

If you want to add color, add it now. Knead in a bit of color. It will take a lot of kneading to get it uniform in color. If you do not knead it fully to incorporate all the color, you will have a tie dye swirl effect in the fondant--which is fine if that is what you are going for.

If you want white fondant, do not add food coloring. Grease countertop with shortening/crisco

and sprinkle just a bit of powdered sugar on the counter over the grease. Put the fondant on the table and roll it out thin, to about 1/4 in or a bit more in depth. If you get it too thin, you will see every bump in the cake below. If you get it too thick, I'd imagine it would be harder to work with. Your call!

How big you roll the fondant depends on how big your cake is. If you have a cake that is 10 inches across and 3 inches high, you'll need to make a circle with a diameter of at LEAST 16 inches across. (10 across, 3 on one side, 3 on opposite side) Remember, it's better to have too much and have to cut it off.

You are ready to put it over the cake! I found it easy to roll the fondant lightly onto the rolling

pin, set the cake on the table and unroll the fondant on top of it. I worked towards me. In other words, I put the cake down and the rolling pin was at arms length away from me. I lifted the fondant so that the edge of the fondant was a bit below the bottom of the cake. Unroll it on top of the cake. Remember-- your cake should be frosted and hard.

Once you unroll it, start at the top, moving your hand in circular motions pressing lightly down to adhere it to the cake. Move fast as to not make indents in the cake! As you are doing this, start gently pressing on the sides of the cake to set that. As you can see, there will be ruffles! To get rid of these, start at the top, rub the fondant down onto the cake and gently tug on the fondant at the bottom to stretch it out.

I found that once I reached the bottom of the cake and the sides were smoothed down, I took the cake and put it on top of a cd stack so that it would be higher up and I could cut the excess fondant off easier.

After you cut off the excess, smooth it down with your hand gently. If you have a fondant smoother, GREAT! I didn't and I didn't want to pay the money... I know-- I'm cheap. It still gives a great finish.

I started coloring small bits of leftover fondant and shaping them with a knife. To attach the pieces to the cake, I mixed about half a cup of hot water with 1/4 cup sugar. I brushed the back of the piece I was attaching with this sugar mixture and pressed it on lightly. Beware that you don't leave fingerprints or indents!

Excuse the crude cutting and shapes--this was my first time with fondant and the next time will be better!!

I'll finish the Mario cake today and post more pictures! I'm almost done shaping a Yoshi and have Mario yet to form!

Working with fondant isn't as bad as I thought it'd be. This marshmallow recipe tastes good compared to the first batch I made. I hope you try out fondant! If you don't want to roll individual shapes, use a cookie cutter to shape them!

Creamy Chicken Calzones

When you're broke and hungry, bread seems to fill a person up quite well.When you have bread, cream, and chicken, creamy chicken calzones fill up a person even better.

I wanted pizza, I tell you! Alas, no cheese or pepperoni in the house. Although I did have soup, I didn't want to eat it. I wanted something bread-y and delicious.

Creamy Chicken Calzones

6 chicken tenderloins

2 cups cream

a few tablespoons of flour

all the spices your heart desires (garlic, onion, chives, parsley, pepper)

Any veggies you want (onion, mushroom, spinach, artichokes, peppers)

pizza dough (recipe to follow)

Mix the flour into the cream. Cook cream in a large saucepan with all the spices. Cook on medium heat (you don't want to burn the cream!) until it is very thick. This will take quite a while...10-20 minutes. If you are brave, turn up the heat but stir often! If it gets TOO thick, thin it with a bit of milk.

Boil the chicken tenderloins until they are white all the way through (perhaps about 10 minutes. Cut one open to check it.) Cut up chicken into small chunks and add to the cream and continue to cook. Once very thick, remove from heat.

Roll out pizza dough to a 1/4 - 1/2 inch thickness. Place a spoonful of creamy chicken mixture onto the pizza dough. Cut a square around the creamy chicken mixture big enough so you can fold over the dough to the other side and make a pocket. Pinch the edges of the dough together tightly and roll up to resemble a pizza crust if you wish.

Then, I sprinkled more spices over the top of the dough. For a little extra flavor, I added a small spoonful of pizza sauce on the top, just to give it zip.

Bake for about 15-25 minutes, depending on how crusty you like your dough.

Cut and enjoy!

Be sure to taste test the cream sauce. The one thing I regretted is not being able to add cheese (didn't have any at the time) and that it wasn't heavy enough on spices. Go crazy! Add onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach! Give it more zip!

Quick Pizza Dough:

3/4 c warm water (105-115F)

4tsp sugar

1tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic

1 tsp active dry yeast (1 pkt)

2 - 2 1/4 c flour

Sprinkle yeast and sugar over warm water. Let bubble up (takes about 5 minutes)

Once bubbly, add yeast to the flour, salt, and garlic in a large mixing bowl. Use a mixer initially to mix it together. Once it starts to get thick, take out and knead by hand (fold it over itself many times, pushing out the air and making it smooth and elastic).

It should not be overly sticky or dry. If it is really sticky, add a tad more flour. If it is really dry, add a bit more water. Be warned---going overboard with adding ingredients will alter the texture/end result! You should be fine.

Once dough is smooth and soft, place in a bowl that has been smothered with the olive oil (easier to get out once it's risen). Cover and place in a warm draft free place until doubled in volume.

Once doubled, it is ready to use. Roll out to desired depth.

(for pizza-- add toppings and sauce, bake about 10-20 minutes depending on how you like your crust. more time for crusty crust, less time for soft crust.)

ENJOY!

I'm not one to like intricate recipes. I look for simple ingredients with many spices. Hope you enjoy.

On another note, I made a chocolate cake today and homemade fondant. I'm excited to see how it all comes together into a chocolate layer cake. *Mario Brothers Themed Decoration?!*

Have a grand day!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Syrup

Is it redundant to add a few tablespoons of Torani Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough syrup to a batch of homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough?

My in laws are traveling to visit us this weekend. I wanted to make something quick and easy, yet very tasty and yummy. Chocolate

Chip Cookies was my choice. A White layer cake was my second choice. For fillings between the layers, I'd flavor my light frosting with strawberry, orange, and blueberry. I don't look forward to the bleeding of the colors into the white cake....but hey. That's a small sacrifice.

I have yet to find a better recipe for chocolate chip cookies. These things rock. I made a double batch today, hoping to freeze some of the dough for a rainy (or snowy) day.

Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

1cup butter (room temperature)

1cup packed light brown sugar

3tbsp milk

2 eggs

2cups flour

1/2 tsp salt, baking powder, baking

soda (each)

3cups chocolate chips (I always use semi-sweet. Milk Chocolate seems to make for a really gooey cookie, almost runny. Semi-sweet holds together better for me)

Mix butter and sugar until well incorporated. Slowly add in eggs and milk.

Always scrape the sides of your bowl while mixing. This will prevent clumps and parts that are not mixed resulting in a more consistent batter for cookies.

At this point, I usually mix in the salt, powder and soda. You can sift those three ingredients with the flour, if you wish, and add it all together. I don't.

Finally, mix in the flour SLOWLY. (If you don't pour it slowly, the flour will poof up in the air...)

Beat until all ingredients are mixed well. Don't forget to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl!

Stop the mixer and stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Once well incorporated, set the bowl inthe fridge to cool at least a few hours (I put mine in the freezer to speed up the process!) I promise, the cookies come out WAY better if you do this step. If you go from mixing to baking immediately, the cookies will be finicky.

Bake cookies for about 8-12 minutes on a preheated stone/baking sheet.

Tips:

Sifting the salt, powder and soda with the flour gives a smoother dough. I can't tell enough of a difference to do it every time. That, and I don't own

a sifter. *GASP!*

Never use metal baking sheets unless you want a crispy flat cookie. If that is what you desire, GO FOR IT! I prefer using baking stones. I have never had an issue with my cookies, or any other baked item for that matter.

Scrape the sides of the bowl. I can't stress this enough.

Use fresh ingredients.

This go around, I decided to use Hungarian High Altitude Flour in my cookie dough. I heard it's a great flour and I needed more flour in my cupboard, so I bought some!

Whilst on the final leg of mixing my dough, I peered over at my collection of Torani syrups and saw a chocolate chip cookie dough flavored syrup. Dare I add cookie dough flavor into my cookie dough? I quickly turned away at the thought of such treachery and told the dough mixing and whirring beneath the stand that I would never betray it.

Adding flavoring to an item that the flavoring is made to taste like is quite redundant to me. It might boost the flavor a bit. I didn't want to find out with my cookie dough. Perhaps next time. Although, while I was browsing pizza dough recipes I came across a dough recipe that called for--- you guessed it---pizza dough flavoring. I just about died. Seriously?! Isn't that almost like selling ice to an eskimo or a toothbrush to a dentist? GAH!

For a catering job, I had to make two cheesecakes a couple of days ago. A Vanilla bean and a Chocolate chocolate chip. Mn.... Yum. I didn't take a picture of my Vanilla bean one...it's just a plain ol' cheesecake!

Chicken McNuggets and French Fries (Freedom Fries?)

My husband, in all his wisdom, declared that I should make homemade nuggets and fries from McDonalds.

"I declare, wife of mine, that you should make chicken mcnuggets as well as crispy salty fries based on McDonald's recipe," stated he, in a grand voice with a puffed out chest.

"Oh yes, husband, very wise thought," I humbly agreed in a hushed tone.

"When shall I expect such delicacies to arrive on my dinner platter?" huffed he.

"Very soon, my lord-- wait. Wait a minute. Dear, we're having company tomorrow night. I'll make my mock McDonalds recipe then. Cool?" I retorted, brought back to modern day marriage.

"Cool." said he, in a stately manner.

Double Fried French Fries (McDonald's Knockoff)

6 medium/large potatoes (cut into 1/4 by 1/4 inch long fries)

I did this by hand. If you have a fry cutter, kudos. It's not as tedious as people make it sound. Just cut even slivers.

6-7 Cups shortening (heat this to about 300F in a large saucepan) It won't take too long for the shortening to melt into liquid and get to 300F. Watch it so the oil doesn't burn!

Salt

A big bowl of water with 1/2cup sugar dissolved in it (heat water and add sugar)

Cut up the potatoes. Put fries in a big bowl full of water and about a half of a cup of sugar that has been dissolved in said water. Place whole bowl in freezer/fridge for between 30 minutes and 2 days to cool.

Take fries out of fridge when oil is hot and ready to go. Drain fries on paper towels to get the water off.

Drop a few handfuls of fries into the oil (300F), carefully! Watch out for oil splatters (AKA-- keep your face and arms away from pan!) Cook these fries until the hissing sound of the oil turns into a quiet bubbly sound (two minutes maybe? I didn't time mine. I just listened for the bubbly sound). Use a slotted spoon to transfer fries onto a paper bag (paper towels will work, but not my preferred choice). Let these cool. THEY ARE NOT READY TO SERVE!

Before supper is ready to serve, heat the oil to 350F.

RIGHT before supper, dip these suckers into that hot oil, this time, watch really carefully, as they will fry up REALLY quickly. After they are as brown or as light as you want them, take them out and sprinkle salt over the top of them. You could use a baggie or a big big bowl. Whatever it takes to evenly coat these fries! Serve immediately after seasoning! YUM!

Whatever happened to "freedom fries?" Are we not free anymore or does it take a national disaster to make us patriotic?

Chicken McNuggets are so delicious. I adore the sweet and sour sauce that goes with them.

Chicken Nuggets (McDonald's Knockoff)

4-6 Chicken Breasts, flattened with a mallet or can of soup, cut into nugget size chunks (inch to two inches?)

6-7 cups shortening, liquefied into oil for frying. I used the same oil as I used to make the french fries.

egg dipping mix

1 egg

1 cup of water

whisk together in a bowl until frothy.

flour dipping mix

2 cups flour

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp Accent/msg

1/2tsp pepper

1/4tsp garlic powder

Mix into a large bowl.

Gather a couple of slotted spoons. One for dipping and retrieving nuggets from egg mixture, another for stirring nuggets in flour mixture and transferring to bowl.

1. Dip chicken in flour mix.

2. Dip chicken in egg mix.

3. Dip chicken in flour mix.

4. Transfer to bowl with lid.

(I dipped about 5 chicken chunks at a time instead of doing it individually)

Shake flour coated nuggets in a large bowl with a lid. The original recipe speaks of shaking the nuggets in a big ziploc bag....but I prefer a bowl. Do what you wish, friend!

Place the bowl in the freezer until chilled (thirty minutes or so). Take out the bowl from the freezer and repeat the dipping process. Instead of dirtying up another bowl, I just used the lid of the bowl that was in the freezer to hold the nuggets that had been dipped twice.

Preheat oven to 350F.

When dinner time rolls around, have your oil heated to 350F-375F. Fry nuggets in oil until light brown and crispy (recipe states 10 minutes). After they are done frying, drain oil on paper bag or paper towel for a few minutes. Then place nuggets on cookie sheet and bake in oven for 5-7 minutes more.

Serve!

Sweet and Sour Sauce

YUM!

1/4 cup peach preserves

1/4 cup apricot preserves

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

5 teaspoons white vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons corn starch

1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons water

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Stir constantly. Sauce will thicken up after a few minutes. Take saucepan off heat. Ready to cool, or serve! The original recipe calls to use a food processor to smooth-ify the ingredients, but I didn't and it turned out great, still. Also, this recipe makes about 3/4cup. I doubled it and still need to make more!

It's gonna be a great dinner! Hope you enjoy!

Key Limes on a Dime

I tend to shy away from lemons and limes in baking. "Why ever would you do such a thing, Jenna?" you might ask. To be fair and honest, loyal reader, each time I work with lemons or limes my confection comes out to be a monster. Not a good monster, might I add. The flavor is usually too acidic or metallic. This is why I find it frustrating to try to make a lemon meringue pie. *sigh*

Either way--- I made a chocolate chocolate chip cheesecake as well as a vanilla bean cheesecake today. I thought I could give a key lime sauce the ol' college try. I bought lovely little key limes in a sack and purchased a citrus press (one of those handheld ones).

Ten minutes and a sack of key limes later...

I prefer getting fresh ingredients and juices. I don't enjoy buying that bottled lemon juice. Although more convenient and cheaper, I still boycott it. Why add in preservatives one can't even pronounce? Therefore, I suck it up and juice my own. I used to do it by hand. MAN I would get so upset when one of those little suckers flew out of my hands and into my juicing bowl. I'd have to re-juice it and my hand would hurt!

Do I like squeezing twenty key limes for half a cup of juice? Of course I do. *insert sarcastic smile here*

It's all worth it...or at least I tell myself. I turn towards my kitchen and see that juice still sitting on the counter. I'm afraid to use it! Sure, I only used one of the two bags of key limes I bought...but I don't want my recipe to suck. *sigh* Maybe tomorrow morning I'll actually make the sauce.

Turn your attention to strawberries! You know, a ripe and sweet strawberry is a wonderful thing. I am let down, sadly, when I cut into it and see white in the center. That horrid bitter white center. I usually cut it out when I have to use such strawberries.

Today I made a strawberry sauce to go over my vanilla bean cheesecake. I hate using cornstarch in sauces. Sure, it thickens them up real quick-like, but it also leaves a bad flavor.

I threw a package of fresh strawberries (icky white centers cut out) into a saucepan and added about half a cup of my special organic/vanilla sugar. I covered it and cooked it on low for about ten minutes until it started to bubble up. I stirred it every now and then. After the strawberries broke down and started to create a thick sauce, I added juice from one mandarin orange and a fourth of a cup of peach preserves. Man, that sauce tastes great! It's not too sweet, but has an interesting complexity about it.

I feel like sweets should be sweetened naturally with ingredients within them. I have yet to create a mean sour cherry sauce, but I'm super excited to...that is, when cherries come in season and aren't $7.00 a pound...

Each day, I wish I could bake something amazing. I try to not bake everyday for financial reasons, but I truly enjoy it. I might add, that now that I have a job doing just that (baking every day) I am nervous. I'm nervous that my cakes won't be good enough. That they won't be good enough looking, tasting, or priced. For instance, I made that chocolate chip cheesecake today and the vanilla bean cheesecake. The chocolate chip one came out great but the vanilla bean cracked in the center in two places. Worst part is that both cakes will be heading out my door and right into the office of a corporate meeting luncheon. I felt like I failed...a cheesecake that split. Seriously, Jenna? You've been making cakes for how long now? I debated covering up my mistake with a sweet vanilla mousse. Or...not. I'll learn from this mistake and take better care in prepping and proper cooling (although I did what I usually do and let it sit in the oven after baking to finish cooking). If I can't even make a good looking cheesecake now in my own home with no pressure, what makes me think I can do it in a restaurant where people will buy such cakes?

We will be able to get into the restaurant on Feb. 1st. Soon. We'll take inventory and get procedures in order. As I stated...I'm nervous. My carrot cake that I made a few days ago was overdone on the outer ring and undone in the center. I just can't believe I still make such mistakes. I know even the professionals have a bad day. I suppose I just need to keep on tweaking and paying more attention to my baking...making sure I have fresh ingredients and prep as usual.

Maybe tomorrow I'll make chocolate chip cookies.

Food Failures

I'm not one to take failure lightly. I'll usually get back up and try again. Sometimes I still fail after I try again. It's not good for morale!

My husband was deployed for six months last year and in that time I developed a delicious carrot cake recipe. I had not made him carrot cake in the past, so I decided to whip out my grater, bag 'o' carrots, and my mixer and begin the long and tedious process.

*Okay...so it's not that crazy of a recipe. I just hate spending fifteen minutes grating carrots. I bring it on myself, though. I am too cheap to buy a food processor...*

I mixed all my ingredients and was about to pour the batter into the pans when I realized I was missing an ingredient. CARROTS. I felt so silly making a carrot cake yet forgetting to put in the carrots. Silly Jenna.

I am stringent about checking my sweets I bake in the oven. I pricked the cakes a couple of times while baking and I came to the sad conclusion this go round: These carrot cakes were going to turn out just like the ones in the past. The center is jiggly and not quite done yet the outside is a sturdy shade of brown, leaning on the point of crisping/burning. I exaggerate when I say burning. Still, the center is not done when the outside CLEARLY is. Frustrated, I took the cakes out of the oven and let them cool.

I went about my chores. I did laundry and scowled at my cakes when I passed through the kitchen. While wiping the counters and putting away dishes, I grumbled to them.

After a few hours of huffing and puffing, I returned to my cakes to see the damage. The center was done but the outside was a bit crispy and dry. UGH! NOT AGAIN. Another failure. I suppose I should blame the recipe and not user error? Even when I was in Kansas out of the high altitude of Colorado I still had this problem. I use a 350 degree oven. I could lower the temperature I suppose. I just hate to bake cakes for a long long time, as I like my cakes moist and not dried out.

I made enough cream cheese frosting to make up for the dry crusty edges. HA! Take that, over baked carrot cake.

It took me years to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I found that if I pay more attention to the prep and mixing steps, my cookie will turn out exceedingly better than if I just throw everything together last minute. I always let my butter sit at room temperature. I don't microwave it anymore. Doing so alters the texture and the way the cookie comes together. I despise flat crunchy cookies. I must have soft and chewy cookies.

I find that if I pay more attention while baking instead of just eyeballing ingredients or skimping on one thing and compensating with another, my treats come out better. Of course, this is common sense. All the same it was something I had to learn from experience.

I've had my fair share of failed cheesecakes as well. I admit that I overbaked my cheesecakes for two and a half years before realizing that I didn't have to bake my cakes for a full hour and then take them out of the oven. I find that if I let my cakes cook for forty minutes and then if I leave them in the heat of the oven (which is turned off at that point) to completely cool, the consistency is far better than if I take it out after an hour of baking. These little things help tremendously. I also never use a water bath. Never have. If I feel bored, I'll fill a pan of water and put it on the rack below the cheesecake to add a bit of moisture to the oven.

Speaking of the oven--- I must buy cleaner. When I bake cheesecakes, butter seems to leak out of the bottom. I place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the springform pan and clasp the ring around it. I do not cut a piece to fit, I just put the whole rectangle on there. Still. Butter leaks out but I will not compromise my crust for that small failure. I usually bake my cakes on one of my baking stones to distribute heat and catch that wily leaky butter.

I hope to try some new recipes in the next few months with the restaurant:

doughnuts

pies

eclairs

spun sugar

roasted almonds

I'd love to master doughnuts as well as pies. It seems like when I make pies something goes wrong, whether the crust is not done all the way to the center or the pie is too wet and liquidly. I tire of failing at pies. I usually have to bake bread or a cheesecake at this point to bring up my self baking esteem.

Something that cheers me up is the Martha Stewart Cupcake book. Oh man, do I love to read that book. Actually, I just got to the point where I read it instead of just looking at the pictures and dissecting how she created the cupcake. I favor ones that are whimsical (ones shaped like a monkey or a honeybee) yet have an appreciation for unique blends of flavors and ideas, such as sweet potato cakes or mint filled brownie cakes.

So many wonderful recipes in that book! I have so many cook books yet don't use them. I don't keep many ingredients in my house but a few specific spices (garlic, onion, paprika, chives, cinnamon, vanilla beans). I hate to have to go buy fifteen ingredients that I will only use once in this specific dish. Perhaps someone should create a spice sharing forum.

Through baking failures, I get up and try my hand at baking again. I suppose this is how the pro's do it?!