Little Einsteins Rocket Birthday Cake

Rah-rah-rah for Rocket!

My twins are huge fans of the Little Einsteins. For their fourth birthday, my daughter requested a princess cake and my son requested a strawberry flavored rocket cake. After a little bit of investigating, I came up with a plan.

FIRST ... The best way to approach this cake is with three layers. The birthday was Sunday, I started the cake baking Friday night. Friday night I prepared a boxed french vanilla cake mix and filled 12 cupcake tins and a 1 1/2 qt pyrex bowl. Did you even know that you could cook a cake in a pyrex bowl? Works like a charm. I sprayed cooking spray in the bowl and lightly floured it. I followed the cooking instructions on the box for a bundt pan. It took about 30 minutes at 350.

SECOND ... On Saturday, I baked the second cake. Q made a special request for a strawberry cake so I made the next two layers using the strawberry cake recipe listed on the previous post. I made one 9-inch round cake pan and 1 11 x 9 x 2 in rectangular pan. Remove from the pans and let cool completely.

THIRD ...

Layer one ... rectangle. At Michael's craft store, I purchased a 4 set of food coloring that had the colors red, blue, and yellow ... I am pretty sure I bought the Nascar colors - they had the right combination and they were on clearance! I made a buttercream frosting for the bottom layer and tinted it blue.

Layer two ... 9 inch circle. Place in the middle of the rectangle. I bought a Wilton cake icing mix from Michaels and mixed up a large batch of icing. I had no idea how much icing it would make! I reserved a very small amount for the yellow headlights and tinted the rest red. It is very hard to make a decent red - you are going to need a lot of professional food color - do not try to use the stuff at the supermarket. (I should have also reserved some icing to tint blue for the windows. Instead, I tried to use the buttercream for the windows and it really was difficult and did not look quite like I was hoping.) Frost this layer red.

Layer three ... Pyrex dome. Place at the back edge of the circle. Frost mostly red. Create windows around the front in blue. Draw two yellow headlights at the front edge of the 9 inch circle.

Rocket boosters ... Take two cupcakes and 4 long wooden skewers. Paint tops of cupcakes red and then add blue on top and swirl the blue into the red to create the engine effect. Skewer the cupcakes to the side of the cake - resting the edge of the cupcakes on the bottom layer of red - we used 2 broken skewers per cupcake to secure it to the cake.

Finishing touch ... Red lollilop! Unwrap the lollilop. Dip the white stick in red frosting and stick the lollipop into the top of the rocket for the antenna.

ENJOY!!! This cake was a huge hit!

Strawberry Cake

Strawberry Cake

For his birthday, my son requested a strawberry cake with no visible strawberries. He was VERY clear - he wanted no strawberry preserves layered in between, he wanted no sliced strawberries anywhere inside or on top of the cake. He wanted a cake that tasted like strawberries. Get to it, Mom. So I enlisted the help of my friends and was presented with the following fabulously easy and delicious strawberry cake recipe. Thanks, Anne!!

1 white cake mix
1 3 ox. package of strawberry jello
1 c. canola oil
1/2 c. strawberry juice (use juice from the thawed strawberries)
4 eggs
1 to 1 1/2 c. thawed frozen strawberries (or use fresh)

Combine cake mix, jello mix, oil, and strawberry juice
Add 1 egg at a time - mix after each addition
Add strawberries (I pureed mine)

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Anne also said this recipe works well as cupcakes. Just reduce the cooking time to less than 20 minutes.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick of cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter
vanilla
box confectioner's sugar
crushed drained strawberries

Mix ingredients together! Enjoy!

My Dad's Famous Irish Soda Bread

My parents had their annual St. Patrick's Day party last night and the two loaves of this soda bread absolutely disappeared. Sadly, that means no soda bread for breakfast this morning. I promised to post the recipe first thing today ...

IRISH SODA BREAD

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
4 cup flour
1 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour two 9x5 loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter with a pastry blender or fork. Add the flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well with the blender or fork.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together egg and buttermilk.
4. Make a well in the flour-butter mixture. Pour in the egg mixture. Mix gently but thoroughly. Stir in raisins. (My dad mentioned that this was so hard to stir that he used the dough hook on the stand mixer for this part.)
5. Transfer the dough to the pans, dividing it evenly. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.
6. Bake for 40 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean.
7. Cool the loaves in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn out of the pans and leave to cool completely.

ENJOY! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Banana Pineapple Bundt Cake

Why not make a banana pineapple cake? Just for fun! The twins love to cook with me these days. This is a great recipe for kid participation. Frost it with cream cheese frosting. Delish!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, undrained
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups diced banana (about 2 medium bananas)

Into a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, sugar, and salt. Stir in the oil, pineapple, vanilla, eggs, and banana. Mix by hand until well blended. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 350° for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Busy Day Cassoulet

It is not that I haven't been cooking, I have just been too busy to post any recipes! I will try to get caught up on some of my recent favorites in the next few days or so. This recipe is fantastic. I have never made a cassoulet before, but I saw it done on the Food Network once. :)

Busy Day Cassoulet

2 T. olive oil
1 lb. boneless pork loin, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 lb. Italian sausage, cut into 1 inch slices
2 carrots, chopped
1/2 c. diced red bell pepper
1/2 c. diced green bell pepper
1 c. chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 15 oz. cans cannellini beans
1 14 1/2 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. white wine
1 T. minced parsely
season with Herbes de Provence (marjoram, basil, thyme, rosemary, fennel, oregano)

Heat oil in a large pan or dutch oven. Brown the sausage. Place in slow cooker. Add the pork in small batches. Brown. Add to slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or high for 3 to 4 hours. Enjoy!

Serving suggestion ... I made baked potatoes (pierce potatoes and cook for 1 1/2 hours at 400 degrees) and serve cassoulet over split potatoes with butter. Yum. Yum. Everyone loved it.