Peach Raspberry Crumble

Don't you just love it when you take the kids grocery shopping with you and they beg and plead and annoy until you buy them whatever the thing is that they just have to have or the world will come crashing down?  Well, I dealt with that a couple of weeks ago when my kids were begging and pleading for peaches.  I know...I shouldn't complain because they are asking for something healthy instead of the usual crap like candy or sugared cereal.  But this time they begged me to buy peaches, and then, because they had to help, I ended up with a large bagful of peaches instead of the 3 or 4 I would have chosen to buy.  And of course, you know the drill.  They get home, each eat one, and then never revisit the peaches and there they sit in the refrigerator, sad and neglected until they start to wrinkle and wither and now there's no way on God's green Earth either of my kids will ever touch one because now they look yucky.

Today I found 4 such peaches in my fruit drawer.  I am so frugal and I just can't stand wasting things, so I decided I had to find a way to salvage these things.  I figured the easiest thing to do would be make some sort of cobbler-y, crumbly dessert so I did a quick search and found a base recipe from which to start.  With the addition of some raspberries (which is the kids' fruit of the week this week) and a few tweaks to the crust, I whipped up individual crumble desserts for everyone in the family.  And might I say, they were divine, especially when topped with vanilla ice cream that melted from the heat of the crumbly goodness!  So what are you waiting for...go whip up a batch tonight!


Peach Raspberry Crumble
Ingredients for Filling
1 pint fresh raspberries
4 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup white sugar
1 pinch cinnamon
1 Tbsp flour

Ingredients for Topping
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pinches salt
2 pinches cinnamon

Directions
 1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
 2.  In a bowl, mix the raspberries, chopped peaches, lemon juice, white sugar, cinnamon and flour. 
 3.  In a separate bowl, mix the oats, butter, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon. 
 4.  Fill four ramekin dishes (or other small, oven-safe dishes) with equal amounts of the raspberry and peach mixture, and top with equal amounts of the oats mixture. Arrange the ramekins on a baking sheet. 
 5.  Bake 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until crisp and golden brown. 
 6.  Cool 10 minutes, then top with vanilla ice cream and serve.

4th of July Cake Pops

First off, I just have to say that the person who invented the cake ball is just pure genius.  I love that I can use all my "leftovers" to whip up such an amazing dessert in such a perfect, bit-sized package.  For this attempt, I used scraps of my red, white and blue cake mixed with strawberry and vanilla icing leftover from Maddie's birthday.  They are dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with Wilton's Patriotic Mix.

As a funny aside, I was having trouble locating a red, white and blue sprinkle mix.  I did find a red and white mixture from Wilton but what are patriotic cake balls without blue sprinkles?!  So I decided to improvise...I had a large container of mixed sprinkles and I spent the last 2 days (with a little help from the kids) sorting through it to get out all of the blue sprinkles.  This afternoon, before I assembled the cake balls, I made a quick trip to HEB to get some things I forgot on yesterday's trip, and of course this is when I found the container of patriotic sprinkles....go figure!

Anyway, I'm am slowly learning how to make the perfect cake ball, but I have to admit that dipping those darn things is a lot harder than it looks...at least if you are going for perfection.  I decided to go the cake pop route because I thought this would make them easier to dip.  My guess is it is, but I think I might have used a little too much icing, because the batter was a little on the moist side, the balls didn't firm up as much as I would have liked them to and they kept slipping off the sticks.  Still, I managed to only completely destroy four out of the entire bunch and ended up with half-way decent looking cake balls.  Maybe I just need to sign up for a cake ball class so someone can show me how simple it really is.

A Little Bit of Heaven

After Maddie's cupcake bar at her birthday party, I was left with a bag of toffee bits covered in chocolate.  I knew I needed to find a use for them quick or I would just eat my way through the bag.  Surprisingly, there were not a ton of great recipes on the Hershey's website so I was ready to try my hand at an original recipe when this was posted on one of the blogs I follow:  Coconut Toffee Temptations.  First off, it has the word "temptation" in the title...how can you go wrong with a sinful word like that?  Plus I actually had every single ingredient on hand.  A perfect fit.  Today I took the time to whip up a batch.  I had to keep beating the kids back from the bowl and oven because the smell was just that amazing.  But what came out was even better...a gooey mess that is almost identical to Chili's Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie.  With a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, the kids and I enjoyed a little piece of heaven this afternoon!

When Life Gives You Bad Cupcakes...

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to make some cupcakes from scratch.  While I'm all for making my own cakes here at the house instead of buying them from a store, I do still surrender to using boxed cake mixes.  But I was in need of cupcakes to decorate and had no boxed-mix on hand, so I did an online search for a cake recipe that doesn't call for butter (because I didn't have that on hand either).  The recipe I came upon had a high rating and I actually had all of the ingredients here in the house, so I went for it.  That night after dinner, I gave each of the kids a cupcake as a treat.  They didn't go over very well.  The kids ate, at most, two bites and then walked away telling me they didn't like the muffins.  Hello!  They were cupcakes...how can you not like a cupcake.  And then I took a bite.  They were the densest, nastiest cupcakes I had ever tasted.  Great.  I had about 16 of them left.  So I decided to whip up a batch of butter cream frosting to put on them....try to mask the nastiness of the cupcakes.  Taste test 2 was a failure.  So now I had about 14 iced, nasty cupcakes left.  They sat there for about 2 days, cluttering the counter.  Finally, my husband asked me what I was going to do with them.  I was having trouble just throwing them away because it was good food going to waste.  His comment: "Too bad you can't reconstitute cupcakes."  And that's when it hit me...you can.....you can make cakeballs!  The next day Lizzie and hit the store for some canned chocolate frosting.  We mixed it together with the nasty, iced cupcakes and dipped them in white chocolate...and behold, the goodness of cake balls came into our house.

Our first attempt at them was not very attractive, but they tasted fantastic.  You wouldn't have had a clue that they were made with nasty "muffin" cupcakes if I hadn't told you.

Teacher Appreciation Week allowed for attempt 2 and these turned out much nicer.  We went with a vanilla cake/strawberry icing combo covered with chocolate.  They tasted just like chocolate covered strawberries!

Attempt 3 is waiting patiently in the freezer for a reason to make them...well that and I need to buy a set of dipping tools to see if this will help in making the coating look a little more uniform.

I Have a New Love

Who would have ever thought that taking a cake decorating class could end up turning me into a cookie addict, but that's just what happened.  As soon as I figured out that royal icing is what professionals use to make those cute, decorated cookies you see in bakeries, I just knew I had to try my hand at it, so I used some of my leftover icing from one of my classes to make these Easter cookies.

They weren't bad for my first attempt, especially considering that I had not done too much research on all the techniques out there that go along with cookie decorating.  I immediately did an online search for cookie blogs and was amazed at what I found.  The things some people out there can do with icing and a cookie is beyond incredible.  I figured with some more practice, I could pretend to be as good as them.  Up first: Teacher Appreciation Week and cookie bouquets.  I'm slowly understanding the importance icing consistency and dry time.

Next came the end of Lizzie's soccer season and of course, I just had to make soccer cookies for the coaches and her teammates.

Right after that, Lizzie graduated from Preschool so I made graduation cap cookies for everyone in her class.  I was happy with how these cookies turned out.

And then we arrive to Maddie's 7th birthday.  Here theme this year was cupcakes...the first theme in 7 years that didn't actually have me making a themed cake or cupcakes because we set up a do-it-yourself cupcake bar.  But you know me...I couldn't just not do anything, so I made cupcake cookies to put in the goodie bags.  The boys all got cookies like the ones below....the cookies for the girls were pink instead of blue.

Back to School

I love the creativity in designing and making cakes/cupcakes for my kids birthdays, but I didn't really have the know-how to create the visions I come up with in my head.  So back in March 2009 I signed up for my first Wilton cake decorating class.  While I loved learning all of the decorating techniques, I quickly began to realize that beginning cake decorating and perfectionism do not go hand in hand.  I don't think I was ever more frustrated in my life.  Every new technique I tried never came out looking like the picture in the booklet.  But with a little bit a lot of patience and practice, I was able to create this for my  final cake project.

It took me 2 years to go back and take the remaining Wilton courses.  I'm not really sure why I waited so long...in fact I really wish I would have taken the classes sooner.  I learned SO much from them.  And just to think of the cool cakes I could have created if I had just known the techniques....

These were my first attempt at gum paste pansies.

My final project for the Flowers and Cake Design class.  They are jumbo cupcakes decorated to look like flower baskets.  I'm not overly happy with them, but that's partly because I had to create them in what I consider a backwards order.  I think they would have looked better had I been able to do the basket weave on the bottom first and then finished doing the tops.

This was my final cake for the Gum Paste and Fondant class.  I wanted to put cut out stars shooting out of the bow as well as a couple around the sides, but I ran out of colored fondant and couldn't justify the cost.

In the Beginning...

I'm not completely new to baking.  I'm one of those people who refuses to buy a cake from the store because, I'm sorry...you can make it at home for a lot cheaper.  And by no means am I saying my cakes are better....I fully admit that store bought cakes are way better looking than mine, but like I said, the cheap me always wins out.

My first true cake attempt was for Maddie's first birthday.  The theme was bees so I tried to make 2 beehive cakes with bumblebee cupcakes.

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We're just going to skip over Maddie's second birthday.  The cupcakes were nothing special and the tooth mishap at the park made it so the display was never put together. Really, you aren't missing anything.  

For Lizzie's first birthday, I stuck with the bug theme...this time ladybugs.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of the display.  This is the best picture I could come up with....I know, not too great, but the ladybug cupcakes were really cute...you just have to take my word for it. :)

For Maddie's 3rd birthday, it was all about Dora.  My cake decorating skills really hadn't progressed much so I made a cupcake scene and slapped some Dora figures on it.  Voila!

I was rushed to make the cupcakes for Lizzie's second birthday.  With not a lot of time to get them done, this was the best I could do for a Mickey Mouse birthday party....and of course, I spiced it up with some Mickey and Minnie figures.

To celebrate her 4th birthday, Maddie insisted on The Backyardigans, but it had to be the volcano sisters Backyardigans episode.  Thus, the volcano cake surrounded by flower cupcakes....oh, and must not forget the figures!

Mickey was still Lizzie's number one guy as we approached birthday 3.  Again, I was pressed for time to make the cupcakes and I was having to come up with something different for the same theme used the year before, hence Mickey and Minnie cupcakes with mini Oreos for the ears.

I figured it was time to step up my cake decorating skills, so I took a Wilton cake decorating class.  While my first cake isn't the most elaborate, it shows a move in the right direction toward a store-bought-cake look.  This is the resulting High School Musical megaphone with musical note cupcakes.

I can finally say I was not pressed for baking time when Lizzie's 4th birthday rolled around.  The theme:  Grease.  The cake: a record with star cupcakes for accent.  While it was nothing elaborate, it was my first attempt at using fondant for decorating and making homemade chocolate butter cream icing.

Phineas and Ferb was all the rage in the house as Maddie turned six so it only made sense that this would be the theme.  Since I am a huge fan of cupcakes at kids' parties, I made some beach themed cupcakes with fondant surf boards to go along the Backyard Beach we were creating.  Still, we couldn't have a Phineas and Ferb party without a Doofenshmirtz cake, so I recreated the pink, triple-tiered cake.

And finally we reach Lizzie's 5th birthday, which I have to say was my best cupcake attempt yet.  The original theme was supposed to be unicorns but I was having one heck of a time coming up with cool ideas for a birthday party, so I convinced her to change to Scooby Doo.  I found the design for these cupcakes online and was actually able to replicate them without too many problems.