4 Temmuz 2012 Çarşamba

It's FRIDAY!

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Welcome back to FFA!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and especially a fantastic summer! We are having SO much fun! If I was a better mom, I would have my camera strapped to my hip. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't taken even one picture. Better luck next week! ;)
I decided to switch up the buttons a bit. Feel free to grab a new Sassy BUTTON!
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Just in case you've missed any of our summer party posts...
*2,000 Summer Activities
*An Organized Summer
*Recipes for GOO, gak and slime
*Camping in your own backyard
*Summer Printables*Things that POP!___________________...and now my favorites from last week!
Balancing Home
bedroom makeover
Striped girls room w/DIY projects
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Ginger Snap Crafts
DIY cupcake stand
cupcake stand #WalmartPlaid
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Reposhture
porch makeover

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Freaking Craft
tissue paper table

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The Money Pit
powder room makeover

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Second Chance to Dream
porch swing

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Knot All That I Seam
numbered nesting tables

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Nifty Thrifty Things
DIY fabric garland

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Joyful Homemaking
covered patio makeover

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I am LOVING the summer porches!!
Let's see what you've been up to this week!
{anything goes}
Have a GREAT Friday!

It's FRIDAY!

To contact us Click HERE
Welcome back to another week of Free For All Friday. This is the party where you can link up anything you want! We want to see everything that you've baked, created, glued, painted... well, you get the idea! ;) I want to apologize for my lack of posting. We've been sharing the summer flu bug around our neighborhood. It makes for long days and loooong nights. I can't wait to start fresh this next week and share tons of summer and MORE 4th of July ideas with you. But first, in case you missed it, here are TONS of yummy ideas to make the 4th of July SWEETER!Pin It
...coming up this week, I will share some adorable CRAFT ideas for the fourth! Now, here are some of my favorite 4th of July linkups from last week...

The Diary of Dave's Wifemason jar drinks____________________Lily Bloom StudioJuly 4th shirt_________________________________A Rosie Sweet Homeruffled felt wreath_____________________________The Money Pitpatriotic burlap banner____________________________Love an Laundryflag shirt tutepatriotic tshirt makeover___________________________Burton Avenuepatriotic blocks________________________Homespun With Lovebottle rockets___________________________The Happy Scraps4x4 firecrackers___________________________Nifty Thrifty Things4th of July pinwheel printableshow FUN is that!_____________________Now it's time to link up what you've been up to this week!Grab a button and have a VERY Happy 4th of July!

27 Haziran 2012 Çarşamba

hello kitty tiramisu cake

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While we were on vacation in Hawaii last month, I found this awesome tool!  And I had to buy it!  It's meant for making pan sushi, which is basically made of ingredients that you would normally roll up in sushi, but spread out in layers inside a pan instead (and usually made with a layer of furikake instead of nori/seaweed  paper), and then cut in squares to serve.


So what was the first thing I made with this tool?  I made a Hello Kitty tiramisu cake!  We were going to celebrate my mom's birthday a few weeks early since my brother was going to be in town, and since her favorite dessert is tiramisu I had been planning to make her tiramisu cake.  And while I was unpacking all the goodies I had bought on vacation, I suddenly realized that I could use the pan sushi mold make the tiramisu instead!



So I found a tiramisu cake recipe in my copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From My Home to Yours".  The cake layer was a sponge cake, which I baked in two 9-inch pans.  While the cakes were in the oven, I used the mold to trace and cut out Hello Kitty on a cake board, which I then covered in foil.


Then once the cakes were baked and cooled, I again used the mold to cut Hello Kitty out of the cake.  I ended up using only one of the cakes, cut in half horizontally to make two layers, since both of the cakes together plus the filling would be taller than the mold itself.

Next, I prepared all the components I would need to assemble my tiramisu cake - I made espresso extract, espresso kahlua syrup (which uses the espresso extract), and freshly whipped cream to lighten a mascarpone filling (which also uses the espresso extract, as well as a bit of kahlua for extra flavor).  Once all of the components were ready, I placed my prepared cake board inside the Hello Kitty mold, followed by the first layer of cake.


Next, I the brushed the cake with some of the espresso syrup.


Then came a layer of the mascarpone filling, and then a dusting of cocoa powder (or you can use chopped chocolate).

Next came the second layer of cake, brushed with more of the espresso syrup (on both sides).  And then another layer of the mascarpone filling.  This would be the top of the cake, so I made sure to smooth it out evenly with an offset spatula.

And then the final touch - one last dusting of cocoa powder, using a Hello Kitty stencil, in order to bring Hello Kitty to life!


The cake turned out light and moist, and full of tiramisu flavor. 


I think the kids liked the cake even more than my mom!  Happy birthday, Mom!



The cake was pretty simple to make, and we liked it so much that I made it again the following weekend for my friend Diana's belated birthday (since we were on vacation during her actual birthday!).


I hope she liked it as well!  Happy birthday, Diana!

golf ball cake - chocolate cake with cherries jubilee filling

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My friend Bonnie recently asked me to make a cake for her husband's 40th birthday dinner, and I was excited because I hadn't seen her in years!  Among the things that she mentioned about her husband included his love for golf, as well as cherries jubilee ice cream.  So I decided to make a chocolate cake filled with cherries jubilee whipped cream filling.

As for the golf theme, I was a little undecided on what I wanted to do with this.  Initially we thought that I could pipe the Pebble Beach logo on top of the cake.  Or, I could decorate it with white chocolate golf balls, which would look similar to the golf ball cake pops that I had made a while back.  And then, I stumbled accross this cake at love & olive oil via foodgawker - it was such a cute and clean design (and not overly cheesy considering it was a golf ball cake)!  I immediately wanted to make it!


Bonnie only needed enough cake for 10 adults, so I made it a 6-inch cake.  For the chocolate cake layer, I used my favorite Ina Garten chocolate cake recipe.  While that was baking, I started on my filling. I found this recipe at Epicurious for cherries jubilee, and proceeded the make the cherry sauce.  (The only thing that I changed was to add a little bit of corn starch slurry at the end to thicken the sauce.)


I had never had cherries jubilee before so I had no idea what it was supposed to taste like; it ended up tasting like caramelized cherries, but not with an overwhelming cherry taste.  So I pureed the sauce, and then mixed a portion of it with cream cheese, to give the filling a bit more tartness.  Then I made a batch of whipped cream, which I then folded into the cherry cream cheese mixture.


Once the cake was cooled, I put the first cake layer on an 8-inch cake round, and then piped on a layer of the filling.  Then, to add extra cherries jubilee flavor, I brushed on some of the sauce onto the top of the second cake layer, which I then inverted onto the filling layer.


For the frosting, I made a batch of buttercream, and then added a stick of cream cheese to it at the end (as I find regular buttercream too sweet, and I love the tang of cream cheese in a frosting).  I added just enough green coloring to suggest the color of grass, and then use an offset spatula to apply the first "crumb coat" layer of frosting.


After letting that set in the fridge for a half hour or so, I applied the final "smooth" layer of frosting.  I didn't worry too much about making the top super smooth, as that would end up covered with piped grass.


Then came the fun part.  Using a special tip that has multiple holes, I covered the top of the cake by piping on "grass".  And then I piped on a "grass" border on the bottom of the cake as well.


For the golf ball decoration I used white chocolate and this golf ball candy mold, and I made a few just in case there was any breakage.  The first step was to cover the insides of a few of the golf balls of the mold with melted white chocolate, and then placed it in the fridge for them to harden.  This would be one half of each golf ball.  Once they were set, I popped them out of the mold, and then repeated the step to cover mold in chocolate.


Then, before the chocolate hardened, I topped each one with the other half of the golf ball from step one.  This way, the new chocolate would harden with the other half attached to it, to form a complete golf ball.  I chose the best looking golf ball out of the ones I had made, and placed it on top of the cake.



The final touch was a little birthday banner that I made out of craft paper, thread, and bamboo skewers - similar to the ones I had made for the Superman cake and the Thanksgiving birthday cake.  I tried to stick with "manly golf colors" that would go with the color of the cake, but I guess you can only get so manly when it comes to a festive birthday banner!


It was so great to see Bonnie again after so many years, even if it was only for a few minutes when I went to drop off the cake.  Happy Birthday to her hubby Dave!  Hope everyone enjoyed the cake!


*** Update: Made a second golf ball cake here!  Except this time it was an 8-inch cake and filled with chocolate mousse!