Anniversary Cheesecake

For our 4th anniversary I thought I'd make a dessert Trav would appreciate even more than I would. Seems like whenever I make a dessert he always enjoys it, but we have different tastes. So I came across this recipe in this book called the Cake Mix Bible. Turns out I failed. I enjoyed it at least as much as he did...if not more. And it's one of those desserts that was even better the next day. And the next. And the next...

I Need an Excuse to Make This Again Homemade Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 1 box chocolate cake mix (I used a Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Mix)
• 1/2 cup canola oil (the recipe calls for vegetable oil, but I never buy that kind of oil)
• (3) 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
• 1 teaspoon all purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 10 inch springform pan.

Combine cake mix and oil in large bowl and mix well. Press onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 22 to 25 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven. Increase oven temp to 450°F.

Place cream cheese in large mixing bowl. Beat on low speed, adding sugar gradually. Add sour cream and vanilla extract, mixing until blended. Add eggs, mixing only until incorporated. Toss 1/2 cup chocolate chips with flour. Fold into cream cheese mixture. Pour filling into crust. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Bake at 450°F for 5 to 7 minutes. (To keep the cheesecake form cracking, place a pan of water on the bottom rack during baking.) Reduce temp to 250°F and bake for 60-65 minutes or until set. Loosen cake from side of pan with knife or metal spatula. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (I covered mine with plastic wrap and popped it into the freezer for a couple of hours, then the fridge.)

Kellog's Kocoa Krispies Mint Chocolate Pie

I love this pie! I found the recipe back when I was about 17 and looking for new holiday treats to make with my mom. One day I was reading cereal boxes and this was on the back of a Cocoa Krispies box. It's so easy and so yummy. We both love mint, so it was an instant hit in our house. I haven't made it in about 9 years now. The recipe used to be in her box, but somehow got lost and I sort of had forgotten about it until recently. Can't wait to make it again. I might tint it orange and make a jack-o-lantern face on it for Katie.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons margarine

• 1/4 cup light corn syrup

• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

• 2 cups Kellogg's® Cocoa Krispies® cereal

• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin

• 1/4 cup cold water

• 1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme

• 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoon peppermint flavoring

• 1/4 teaspoon liquid green food coloring

• 1 container (8 oz.) reduced fat frozen whipped, topping, thawed

• Chocolate curls (optional)

Directions

1. Place margarine, corn syrup and chocolate chips in 2-quart saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.

2. Add KELLOGG'S COCOA KRISPIES cereal to chocolate mixture. Stir until cereal is coated. With back of spoon, shape mixture evenly in bottom and on side of 9-inch pie pan coated with cooking spray. (If mixture is too soft, refrigerate about 5 minutes). Chill crust.

3. Combine gelatin and water in small saucepan. Let stand 1 minute. Place over low heat, stirring constantly, until gelatin has dissolved. Remove from heat.

4. In large mixing bowl, combine marshmallow creme, flavoring, color and warm gelatin, mixing until smooth. Gently fold in thawed whipped topping.

5. Spoon filling into chilled crust. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm.
Serve garnished with additional whipped topping and chocolate curls, if
desired.

Chewy Butterscotch Brownies

You gotta try these babies! I'm not the biggest fan of butterscotch, but these are divine! This is Nestle's recipe, by the way.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

• 1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

• 1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Butterscotch Flavored Morsels, divided

• 1 cup chopped nuts ( I used walnuts. Mmmm.)
  

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F.

COMBINE flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in 1 cup morsels and nuts. Spread into ungreased 13x9-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with remaining morsels.

BAKE for 30 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

*They are called "chewy" for a reason. If you are not a fan of a very moist brownie, I recommend a brownie pan for more edges and less chewiness.

Royal Icing, Three Different Recipes

I just can't seem to memorize this, so here we go. The first is the most popular recipe I've come across, the second is an eggless option, the third is less popular and (I think ?) better for candy making. At any rate, now I don't have to do a Google search every time.

Royal Icing Using Egg Whites:

2 large (60 grams) egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

Directions: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until combined. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap

when not in use.

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:

4 cups (440 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar

3 tablespoons (30 grams) meringue powder

1/2 teaspoon extract (vanilla, lemon, almond)

1/2 - 3/4 cup (120 - 180 ml) warm water

Directions: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder until combined. Add the water and beat on medium to high speed until very glossy and stiff peaks form (5 to 7 minutes). If necessary, to get the right consistency, add more powdered sugar or water. To cover or 'flood' the entire surface of the cookie with icing, the proper consistency is when you lift the beater, the ribbon of icing that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface of the icing for a few seconds before disappearing.

The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

Makes about 3 cups

Other Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites, at room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• food coloring (optional)

Preparation:

1. Make sure the egg whites are at room temperature before beginning.

2. In the clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer, place the egg whites, powdered sugar, and cream of tartar. Using the whisk attachment, beat all together on low speed until combined. You can use a hand mixer if you desire, but it will likely take longer for the icing to reach the right consistency.

3. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Restart the mixer and beat the mixture on medium speed until very thick, shiny, stiff and white. This should take about 7-10 minutes.

4. Check the texture to ensure that it is suitable for your needs. If you require a stiffer icing, add a little more powdered sugar at this point.

5. If you want to dye your icing just one color, you can add a few drops of food coloring into the bowl and mix it for a few seconds until the coloring is evenly distributed. If you want to make several different colors, divide the icing into several different bowls and stir in the food coloring by hand.

6. Royal icing dries to a very hard consistency, and it will begin setting as soon as it is made. To prevent the icing from getting hard before you use it, thoroughly wet a paper towel and place it over the top of the icing in the bowl. It is very important to keep the icing covered! Likewise, if you are using a pastry bag and piping tips with the icing, twist the back end of the bag tightly, and wrap a wet paper towel around the tip when not in use so the icing will not dry in the tip.

7. Depending on the temperature, humidity, and amount of icing used, royal icing should harden within 15-60 minutes of application. Do not refrigerate products with hardened royal icing, as the icing can become soft and sticky.

2nd Attempt at Katie's 2nd Birthday Cake

Ok. The third time better be the charm because the fondant turned out SO much better, but the cake layers gave me a bunch of trouble. The layers out of a box were no problem, but the homemade layer was a disaster to get out of the pan. Lesson learned: You cannot "glue" a cake back together with yummy frosting and expect it to look good. Hence, the giant canyon and lumps all through this cake. Oh well. The fondant turned out really well. I loved the gel food coloring! I can never go back to liquid drops. I just need to remember to let the gel icing letters dry before putting them in the cake. (And no more cakes from scratch for this project!)

The circle cookie cutter represents the "2" candle that I keep forgetting to pick up. I decided that it would look better to have the candle on fondant clouds rather than the clubhouse circular cutouts. Next time I need to dust the cloud with powdered sugar to make it look less shiny. And that darn leg is still too long. Also just noticed that the black accents on the window panes are too thick.

This time I also opted for grass accents instead of a border of grass along the bottom. I couldn't get the grass border to look right. I think this looks so much better. (Don't laugh at my canyon. Next time the cake won't break and slide off.)

I also used the smallest roller guide for thinner accents this time. Much better. Still didn't seem to need anything to help the accents adhere to the cake. Just applied them to the cake when it was right out of the fridge.

Still not sure that the doghouse is worth it. This time put black accents on the handy hot air balloon (per Travis' request) and it looks a lot better. I'm so much happier with the colors this round. Very "animated."

1st Attempt at Katie's 2nd Birthday Cake

(This post is more for me than anyone else. Want to document what I learned before I forget.)

Make 2 batches of marshmallow fondant for a 3 layer, 9 inch round cake. 1 batch to cover the cake and 1 for the accents.

1 batch of Marshmallow Fondant:
*(1 1/2) 10.5 oz bag mini marshmallows (Not Great Value, but Market Pantry is good. Jet-Puffed is best. Should probably use name brand to cover cake and store brand for accents and designs.)
*(1) 2 lb bag powdered sugar, sifted (Actually about a cup shy of the whole bag. Go by texture, not measurements.)
*2 tbsp water
*shortening

Directions: Grease microwavable bowl, mixing bowl, dough hook, and spatula with shortening. Put marshmallows and water in bowl and microwave about 60-75 seconds. Stir. It should be a gooey, lumpy, sticky heap. Put about 1/2 bag sifted powdered sugar into mixing bowl. Add marshmallows and food coloring, if desired. Mix on low until sugar and marshmallows are mixed. Keep adding sugar and mixing until it looks like dough. Grease counter top and hands. Finish kneading by hand until it's like a soft cookie dough. Refrigerate in a sealed plastic bag (not saran wrap like in the tutorial or it might dry out) for a few hours. It should be a little hard to knead so that it doesn't get to warm when you roll and cut it.

Covering cake with fondant: Tutorials said to grease counter and dust with powdered sugar. I didn't want my color to fade, so I skipped the extra sugar and it worked out fine. Not sure how much of a difference it would have made. Roll out fondant using a greased fondant roller. I like the little guides because it's so much easier to get it all an even thickness. Tutorials said to ice the cake and let it crust up before applying fondant. Then, either apply piping gel or spray with water to help the fondant stick to the cake. I sort of did that. I let it cool in the fridge and applied it without piping gel (because that's just one more thing to buy.!) or water. We'll see how that turns out. Tutorial said to make it about 1/4 inch thick to hide the bumps of the cake. Fondant needs to be rolled out to a width that is the height plus the diameter of your cake. Keep picking it up and and putting it down between rolls so it doesn't stick. When it's the right thickness and width place roller over the middle of it. Flop over one side of the fondant, hold the roller at each end, and quickly line it up and roll it onto the cake. Lift and pat the fondant until it smooths and lies flat on the cake. Tutorial said to use a fondant smoother, but I'm not sure how much of a difference it made. Cut the excess off with a pizza cutter, it's way easier than that little fondant cutter. Refrigerate immediately.

Notes for improvement:
liquid food coloring is a pain to mix into fondant by hand, will try gels
cakes from scratch don't come out of the pan as easily as boxed mixes, nor do they keep as long
icing from scratch doesn't keep as well ( at least the one I tried didn't)
it takes 2 .25- 2.5 ready-made frosting containers for a 3 layer, 9 in round cake
skim the mound in the center of bottom and middle layers before "assembling"

*Going to try a more vibrant sky blue color next time. (And not let it dry out. Arg!) Blue slide is too dark. Leg is too long. Pink stars will have the letters of her name on them. Circles on top of cake will hold "2" candle and will be pink, purple, and yellow or the same color as the blue slide will be. Next time will do accents on windows and door in black. Not sure if it's worth it to include Pluto's doghouse.