Hello Kitty Cake

Who doesn't love Hello Kitty? Seriously. She is so cute and those two beady eyes and nose... Whats not to love?

    For this Hello Kitty cake I layered vanilla cake and homemade strawberry frosting to build up the height and her shape. When it was the shape of an circle with ears I started shaving down the sides with a serrated knife. Then I frosted it with my homemade butter cream (recipe here) frosting and made it as smooth as possible. I then put the cake in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden it up a bit. 

   

     I frosted it a second time, rolled out a piece of fondant (large enough to cover the entire cake and about 1/4'' thick) and placed it over the top. I smoothed it out with my hands as needed and trimmed away the excess with a paring knife. I added gel food coloring to a small portion of fondant for the pink hibiscus flower and yellow for the center and added them. A small amount of black was made for her eyes and whiskers.
  
           She turned out so cute it was hard to cut and serve!

Caramel Corn

      This is seriously amazing, its sweet and best of all it stays soft! One of the secrets is using butter flavored microwave popcorn, it just gives it that much more flavor. You could use air popped if you prefer, it would just be less buttery. Also, another MUST for good caramel corn is to make sure you get all of the uncooked seeds out. I do this by putting the popped corn into a large bowl and shaking the seeds down to the bottom. I then grab handfuls off the top and put them onto large sheet pans, continually shaking the seeds down every so often.

For this recipe you will need:

3 bags of popped butter flavored microwave popcorn

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup corn syrup

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 tbs vanilla

1/2 tbs baking soda

    Melt the butter and brown sugar together (try NOT to stir too much as you don't want the sugar to crystalize.) While this is happening prepare the popcorn on to sheet pans making sure to remove seeds. Once it's melted down, add the corn syrup and stir until its smooth and no granules of sugar remain. Add the sweetened condensed milk, stir until fully incorporated. Remove from heat and add vanilla then baking soda. PLEASE NOTE: you may want to transfer the caramel sauce to a large bowl as the baking soda will make the sauce nearly double in size.

     Stir the baking soda in until it stops expanding. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, grab a spoon full and pour it over the top of the popcorn in rows trying to cover as much as desired. Allow it a few minutes to cool and enjoy!

How to Enjoy a Chocolate Orange

10 Minute Recipe: Golden Graham Treats

         
    This recipe is a new take on an old campfire favorite: S'mores. Its easy to make, great for kids and best of all Scrumptious!               




Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 bag jet puffed marshmallows
3/4 box Golden Grahams cereal
Hersey's chocolate chips

Melt butter on medium heat. Once completely melted add marshmallows and stir together until no lumps remain. Add Golden Grahams and fold until fully coated in marshmallow cream. Put into a pan ( or individual serving trifle dishes.) Top with chocolate chips to your hearts desire.

REMEMBER: This can get pretty sticky, so I will sometimes lightly wet my hands with water and pack in the cereal treats so it doesn't stick.

Cinnamon Roll Buddies

Cinnamon Roll Muddy Buddies!!!   

 Super easy and delicious.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup coconut oil

2 cups chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

2 boxes cinnamon Chex cereal

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup yellow cake mix

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tbs cinnamon

In a double boiler melt butter, coconut oil and chocolate. Stir often until completely melted. 

Remove from heat and add vanilla. 

In a large bowl, add one box of cereal and half of the chocolate mixture. Toss gently. Repeat this step with the remaining chocolate and cereal. 

                                 

                                          

Divide between two sheet pans (I use this kind for EVERYTHING) and freeze for  about ten minutes.

In a large ziplock bag combine powdered sugar, cake mix, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside half of the sugar mixture. Add one sheet pan to the bag and gently toss. 

Add the second sheet pan to the bag and the rest of the sugar mixture. Toss until combined.

Serve immediately, ENJOY!

Citrus Fruit Tart Crust

Citrus Fruit Tart Crust

My family food traditions include pies, pies and more pies. I am not the biggest fan of pie crust but I LOVE fruit tarts and pate sucree (Pronounced pot sue-cray) crust! So here is the crust recipe to my FABULOUS fruit tart.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cold
• 1 egg, lightly beaten plus ice water to equal 1/4 cup
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/2 tablespoon orange zest

Directions

Combine the flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process a few seconds to mix. Quarter the stick butter lengthwise and cut into 8 or 9 pieces. Scatter the cubes of butter evenly over the flour. Add the lemon and orange zest.Pulse the machine until the butter pieces are about the size of peas.

Place the lightly beaten egg in a 1/4 cup measure and fill to the top with ice water. Put half the liquid in the bottom of a bowl. Turn the flour/butter mixture onto it and pour the remaining liquid evenly over the top. Using a large rubber spatula, fold the mixture until it's evenly moistened. Squeeze it; it should hold together. If not, sprinkle in a little more water ( 1 teaspoon at a time) and gently mix.

Turn the mixture out on the table and quickly knead: (Using the palm of your hand, push sections of the dough away from you against the table. Form the mass into whatever shape you will be rolling out (i.e., disk for round, cylinder for rectangle), and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days. Dough can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Line a tart pan with the rolled out dough and lift and tuck until it fills the pan. Cut off remaining edges with a sharp knife and set aside for another tart. Line the dough with foil and fill with dried beans or pie weights to prevent the crust from bubbling. Bake at 375 until golden brown 10-15 min. Remove the pie weights and cool completely before removing it from the pan.

Here is where I got the recipe for the crust. PLEASE NOTE: Changes have been make to the original recipe

Easter Treat!

PEEP LOVERS READ!
In 1953, it took 27 hours to create one Marshmallow Peep. Today, it takes six minutes.

The first Peeps were squeezed one at a time out of a pastry tube and the eyes were painted on by hand. Now, machines create 3,500 Peeps' eyes per minute.

Americans will eat more than 600 million Marshmallow Peeps and Bunnies this Easter.

Popular ways to eat Peeps: stale, microwaved, frozen, roasted, or served as toppings on pizza.

Until 1995, when lavender was added, Peeps only came in three colors: yellow, pink and white. Blue Peeps were hatched for Easter in 1998.

Each Peep has 32 calories (160 calories per five-chick serving) and 0 fat grams.

Yellow Peeps are the most popular, followed by pink, lavender, blue, then white.

During Easter, Peeps outsell jelly beans.