Dr Seuss Cake :)

I had made this cake for work.  We celebrated a whole week for Dr Seuss.  On the day after his birthday I had brought this cake in for the children and Teachers to enjoy.  I have to thank my friend Jo, for mixing all the colors for me, so I can concentrate on the task in front of me. We didn't have two sizes of circle cake pans or square pans, so I thought since it is going to be a Dr Seuss cake why not use a circle and a square cake pan.  The first picture shows the first coating of the icing and the beginning of the star tip red layers.  The second pictures is of the fondant fish from The Cat in the Hat.  He will be sitting on top of the cake.  The rest of the pictures show the finished product.  I tried to get as many stories on there that I could fit on there.  The characters are also made out of fondant, and I used a edible marker to do the outline.  I used wire to show that the fish was splashing out of the top of the cake.  The cake was a little dense, I will have to work on that aspect of the cake better.

 

Oven that works!!!!!!!!!

I know that it has been since August since my last post.  Let me catch you up.  I had to get a second job, student loans were getting too high, on top of that I gave up on the oven at my house, the heating coil or something wasn't working.  Two weeks ago though I had moved up with a friend, and she has a working oven,  I am not going to make a lot of stuff right off the back, too much of moving and stuff but I do have a upcoming project.  Dr. Seuss birthday is on March 2nd.  Where  I am working now, I am making a birthday cake.  My friend who asked me to make this wanted me to do a topsy turvy cake but I have never made one, so I am not this time, I don't have enough time to make it.  But these two cakes I am inspired by so I will make one similar to these.  Keep looking for the updated cake pictures when I am done :).
These pictures you can find on google images and I DID NOT MAKE THESE:

Victoria's bday cake

I had a whole plan for this cake and once again seething went wrong and I had to think on my feet. I made red velvet and chocolate cake covered with icing and fondant. The design was supposed to include a hello kitty sugar cookie but I forgot to order it.
















-starlightgoodies

Blueberry pie

I made a simple pie crust then added blueberries, flour and sugar and made a wonderful pie.
Took it out of the pie plate too soon it was still warm that's why it looks funny but it was delish.



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Banana cream pie

For Father's Day my dad only wanted a banana cream pie (his favorite). Of course it had to be homemade and not a pudding packet. No problem. I used a very simple recipe and it didn't take long to set either.

3 cups of milk scolded was added to another pot filled with 3/4cups of sugar, 1/4cups of flour, 1/4tsp of salt. Over medium heat cook until thickened stirring constantly. Cover and stir occasionally for 2 minutes. In a small bowl have 3 egg yolks. When 2 minutes is up add very little of the milk mixture to the eggs stir then add the eggs to the milk mixture. Cook for one minute longer. Remove from heat add 2 tablespoons of butter and a teaspoon of vanilla. Let it sit til lukewarm. Have a baked pie shell ready, cut 3 bananas into slices and scatter among the bottom of the pie crust. Add pie mixture when cooled enough. Don't wait to long or te mixture would have set to much and it would be hard to add to the pie crust.

My dad loves Reese's so I placed them around the edges of the pie to have a scalloped look to it.

-starlightgoodies

Banana bread

Did you ever had bananas that looked like this or worse?



I had 2 bunches at my house that looked like this so I made banana bread, two kinds; plain and chocolate chips. It made two loaves each, I kept one of each home and brought the other ones to work. Neither lasted the day.



For recipe comment below.

Soft pretzels

I found an easy recipe for soft pretzels off of Pinterest. I don't think though that I kneeded it enough because it was too hard to roll out.




It looks more like a bagel then a pretzel. I will try again with a little more kneeding.



-starlightgoodies

Party time

I had a party this past weekend and it was so rainy I had to have the party inside. I made chocolate cupcake with spring decorations.




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Twist

Yesterday I made a cinnamon twist recipe that i found off of Pinterest. Which you can follow me at starlightgoodys. I know it is spelled differently but it wouldn't let me spell it the other way. The picture for the cinnamon twist looked like they used a refrigerated pie crust but it was a simple bread using yeast. Then the dough was rolled out and brushed with butter. A mixture of cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top. Now the fun part; roll the dough, then take a knife and cut down length wise. If I remembered I should have taken pictures step by step for this. Then with the cut side up I twisted the two sides together and pulled the ends together making a ring. I brushed some more butter a sprinkled more cinnamon sugar mix on top.




This was not as pretty as the one I found online (practice Mamie's perfect) but it tasted great.
-starlightgoodies

S'more bites

My friend found this recipe online. The recipe called for fluff and Nutella, I decided to use marshmallows and Hershey bars. My little said I was a little rebel. :) the base is a simple peanut butter cookie dough then I added one piece of a Hershey bar and half of a large marshmallow before I covered it up with a thin layer of the peanut butter cookie dough. I still say the oven is off because the recipe said 15 minutes but it was close to 25 minutes before it was done. Oh well.






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Two blondes in one kitchen!

My grandma bought a mini pie maker so I went up to her house and we started making the apple filling. The pie crust she bought was frozen and she defrosted it. Lets say that was not the best idea. The crust kept ripping and tearing. So we just put the apple pie filling we made into the pie crust hoping to make a whole pie instead. Unfortunately there was not enough filling so we folded it in half for a turnover effect but it looked like a burrito.



After we put that in the oven we had all the pie crust that fell apart when we tried to make the mini pies so she rolled it out and made cinnamon rolls. Which was a cut idea for leftover pie crust.



We put that in te oven at 400 with the pie/turnover and after about 15 minutes we took our creation out and cut it in half.




The turnover tasted great. I was worried about the taste because this recipe called for cornstarch but once I think about it cornstarch is used to help thicken stuff.
starlightgoodies

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day I redid my moms porch with flowers, she is having some medical problems and has a lot on her mind so I decided to help by at least starting the flowers so all she had to do is take care of them. For dessert it was a little harder to decide what to make. She is on weight watchers so I had to make a healthy dessert. So I made an angel food cake with fresh blackberries and yogurt covered almonds.





























-starlightgoodies

Recipes

I posted something like this awhile back I am not posting recipes anymore but I will message them to you if you ask.


-starlightgoodies

Researching

I want to write this one for you to respond. Have you ever wanted to know something about baking; like you don't have the right ingredients for a recipe, how to tell eggs are still good, or any questions about baking that you have and don't have time to look. I will research those questions for you with great depth. Please leave your questions in the comments.


-starlightgoodies

Success!!

Finally made a chocolate chip cookie that I am proud of. I got the recipe from a friend at work. The recipe is different than normal baking recipes. My mother told me while I was growing up that baking is a science follow the recipe. This one the flour portion you could put 4-5 cups. I mean I altered some recipes before but usually I needed to alter other ingredients in the recipe also. But I did 4 1/4 cup if flour and they came out beautiful. My mom her cookies that she uses all the time and I still like the one I made. :) her cookies used butter while mine used shortening, there is a definitely a taste difference but baking wise I don't know the difference have to do some research.




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Baking soda vs baking powder

I was always asked what the difference is between the two. I didn't know which I should as a baker so I did some research. Both are leaveners in batters. Baking soda needs an acidic reagent to make the bubbles rise. Baking powder already has one but needs a liquid to rise. Always to make sure that the powder or soda is in date or they won't work. Trust me it makes a difference. You can also tell when they are close to date the batter doesn't rise a lot.

Thanks for pauladeen.com/article_view/baking_soda_vs._baking_powder For the information.


-starlightgoodies

Chocolate chip disaster

So I "made" chocolate chip cookies last night. They didn't come out so well. I always had trouble with chocolate chip cookies but never really anything else. At college I found a recipe that I love. It was on the back of a cheap package of chocolate chips. Unfortunately I can't find it so I tried two different recipes and they failed.
Attempt 1:



As you can see they flattened right out and stick to the pan.

Attempt 2:



Still flattened but looked a little better and was easier to get off the pan.

So I thought why is this happening. I found a website on different reasons that it could have been. So it could have been the oven, baking soda too old, greased pan (I like using parchment paper but didn't have some at the house) or the recipe. Well I tried the two recipes at the house, then to see if it was the oven I went to work and used their ovens. They didn't flattened out completely but still not a good attempt.



I will have to find the recipe. This weekend I having a baking contest against my mother on chocolate chip cookies, three different recipes are being used. I will keep this updated on who won with pictures.


-starlightgoodies

Mini apple pies

Found this recipe off of Pinterest. It makes exactly 24 pies and my family and people at worked loved them. They are easier to eat and dish out then a typical pie.
The first picture show using a wide mouth mason jar lid to cut the circles and place them in the cupcake tin.



I used pre made dough.


Make the filling however you do for the holidays, just cut the apples into smaller chunks.


Make sure you also spray the pan just in case some apple juices doesn't leak out and make the pie stick.

One pie is a serving but no one ate just one. :)

-starlightgoodies

Busy!!!!

So sorry I haven't written in a long time but so much has happened. I had a benefit to go to two weekends ago for a friend how got into a horrific car accident so I donated cookies to that and that week before the benefit I worked overtime and was tired at the end of the week. I haven't been baking a lot I'm trying to organize my life (not really working) and find another job. But I promise some posts in the very near future. Oh and the 3-2-1 cake we tried and made pineapple upside cake and it was very good I forgot to take a picture. I will make it again and take a picture I also found a recipe for a single cookie have to try that one. I did make a Monte Cristo (my version) which is French toast with ham turkey bacon and cheese (I used provalone). If you like sweets this is the sandwich for you.


-starlightgoodies

Two cupcakes

Found a recipe for two chocolate cupcakes so I tried it for my aunts birthday. They were amazing. No big mess to clean up. In my family if I bake a lot of stuff thy ten to eat it so I can make this and only make enough for each person to eat one.




-starlightgoodies