Cake

Fourteen

/ Fiddle Dee Dee / 2 Comments
Fourteen years ago today, after 23 1/2 hours of labor a beautiful, loud, non-sleeping child was born to Audley and me.  I look back on these fourteen years and realize that MacKenzie Grace is still beautiful, still loud and never sleeps, but I still adore her so much.
Birthday cake in the face, courtesy of the sisters.

 

Life with MacKenzie is anything but boring, so a spontaneous evening by the grandparents pool, grilling burgers and cooling off with a bestie and her sisters was the perfect evening for her.
This child will never be a poker player …. her face reveals all!

 

Instead of baking a cake in all of my spare time (insert sarcasm here), while we were in Birmingham over the weekend I picked up a lovely, and fabulously delicious cake from our favorite bakery: Edgar’s.  There were absolutely no complaints for this treat!
With summer here, bringing with it 100 degree temps already, I see a lot more pool parties in our future, which means wonderfully delicious food!
With these girls of mine I know it’ll be an amazing and fun summer!

Buttercream Madness

/ Fiddle Dee Dee / 4 Comments
I haven’t disappeared, I am just buried under 35 pounds of luscious, sugary, buttercream frosting, and 60 pounds of fondant.

 

It’s a big week for me as I am doing a wedding cake (a “fancy” cake as my little girls used to call it) to serve 350, the grooms cake to accompany it, and four dozen birthday cupcakes for a little boy who goes to church with us.  It has been crazy, busy around here as both the oven and I are in overtime.  After-all, being Mom comes first, and we are in the final countdown of the school year.
For you to enjoy, here is my go-to recipe for a “fancy” cake:
WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE
2 1/2 C cake flour
3/4 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
6 oz. white chocolate squares
1/2 C butter, softened
1 1/4 C sugar
4 egg whites
1 C buttermilk 
1 t vanilla
350 degrees
grease and flour two 8-in round pans.
Combine flour, salt and baking powder in medium bowl. In saucepan, melt 6 oz. white chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly.
Cream butter until smooth. Gradually add 1 C sugar and mix 2 minutes. Mix in Vanilla.  Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk and white chocolate. Beat at low speed after each addition until blended. In a clean bowl with clean beaters, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 c sugar. Fold egg whites into batter. Spread batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake 25-35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans; finish cooling on rack.

 

“Fancy” Cake for a wedding shower

With our schedule and lack of sleep I am feeling rather eccentric like the legendary Willy Wonka.

I could really use the help of Willy Wonka’s Oompa Loompa’s!
“Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.”
-Wonka
Or maybe I’m just going mad like the Hatter!

 

My kids would agree with the latter I am sure!


“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
-Willy Wonka


Have a fabulous weekend!

Throwing in this quick post for Foodie Friday.  Pop over and see what else is cooking.

I am also joining in with Sweet Tooth Friday over at Allie N Son.  Lots of delicious treats floating around the wonderful world of blogs this week!

Share Our Strength

/ Fiddle Dee Dee / 2 Comments

The 2011 Atlanta Food Bloggers Bake Sale was a tremendous success!  

What an honor to work with such an amazing group of ladies, and I appreciated so much being included in the day!  The sale raised nearly $3000 for Share our Strength charity ( No child hungry, EVER!)! As a mother I am always touched by children in need, so the concept that no child should ever be hungry is something I am more than willing to help with.  It’s unbelievably touching that so many people were willing to give.  While we were in Atlanta with our own bake sale numerous others were going on across the country.  I do know I AM Baker participated in one up in Minneapolis.

Participating in the bake sale gave me an opportunity to meet several new (to me anyhow) bloggers and catch up with the always adorable Patti from Anatomy of a Dinner Party, who was our cashier for the day.

Many area bloggers donated their time and goods for the event, as well as a few local businesses (Red Queen Tarts with her fabulous “pop tarts”) donating their goods.  There was plenty of delicious goodies to choose from.

 

 

A few of the blogs represented (and really great reads) were Running With Tweezers (Tami did a fabulous job organizing the sale),  Food Victorian, True Southern Elegance (Sheila is just so sweet and set up a beautiful display of gingersnap cookies!), Jem of the South,  Mele Cotte, Life in Recipes  (Niki made some absolutely fabulous whole wheat croissants), The Broke Socialite (Shameeka is a true inspiration that you can make your dreams come true!), and Z Tasty Life.

I know there were more so please forgive me if I left anyone out!

As for the bake sale itself, let me tempt you with some of the wonderful delights of the day!

Key Lime Cupcakes

 

Ginger Carrot Cake cupcakes

 

Gingersnaps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My always supportive hubby, Audley spent the day with us as well.  I think he became the official taste tester.  For a guy that “doesn’t eat a lot of sweets”, he sure did eat a lot of sweets!

tasting the gluten-free miniature carrot cake cupcakes.

Are you hungry yet?


I didn’t get to make all I had wanted, but a pink lemonade cake (recipe soon) and raspberry buttercream cupcakes made a colorful display.

 


 

 

Audley placing the cupcakes in boxes



And if you are in the mood to bake now, here is my scrumptious raspberry buttercream recipe for you to tempt your own family.  I made chocolate cupcakes as raspberry and chocolate are truly two flavors that were made for each other.


Raspberry Buttercream Icing
1 Stick butter, softened
1/2 cup crisco (the sticks work great for this)
1 tsp. Raspberry flavoring (you can find this at Michaels)
1/4 cup fresh raspberries, pureed
5 cups powdered sugar
whipping cream

Combine the butter and crisco well, until fluffy.  Add the raspberry flavoring, then the puree, mixing thoroughly.  Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing as you add.  If the mixture gets too thick, add a tablespoon or two of the whipping cream to help create the consistency you want for piping or spreading the icing.

Decorate your cakes as desired and serve them up!

If you would like to support Share our Strength, it is not too late.  You can donate here and help this wonderful children’s charity!

 

Atlanta Food Blogger’s Bake Sale

/ Fiddle Dee Dee / 3 Comments

Blogger has been misbehaving since late Wednesday afternoon, making it quite impossible to post, so my original plans for a post have been scrapped.  Instead, I am up to my ears in flour and sugar today as I am baking loads of scrumptious goodies to carry to the Atlanta Food Blogger’s Bake Sale tomorrow.

Chocolate cupcakes with Raspberry icing?

{Yes, I believe I will!}

I’ll let you know how they turn out……

I am also making cupcakes topped with peanut butter icing, a coconut cake,  pink lemonade cake, and a couple of other sweet delights.
Hopefully they will make someone a great dessert this weekend.

{My children are wishing it was all for them!}

The bake sale is in conjunction with the Luxury Living Show at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead, and I am quite excited to be counted as an honorary Atlanta Blogger!

 
If you are out and about in Atlanta Saturday, stop by Phipps Plaza and support a great cause!