Sunday, October 7, 2012

Homemade grapefruit juice

We received lots of grapefruits from a friend of ours
so it was only natural that all my kids wanted to do was 
fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.

Here is a simple recipe to make it nice and sweet.


Squeeze the juice out or use a juicer


combine:
sugar
raw honey
vanilla extract
(everything to your taste)


mix in a blender


ad some mint leaves on top and enjoy!!!
It's that simple.


Original idea from my sis-in-law Chasing Butterflies.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Writing and painting with a feather

Recently my kids were very fascinated by a book where pictured 
was a boy writing a letter with a feather.
So naturally they wanted to try.

First collect feathers, (my cousin does "pigeon keeping" so we had lots of those) 


Then, simply give them some paint to dip it in and


magic is made.


As you can see they were super excited.


It was a bit of a challenge because they had to dip the feather in paint lots of times
in order to accomplish what they needed,


therefore, towards the end they just flipped the feather around 


and used it as a paintbrush.


And the beautiful art was created

This is "Swirls"
by: my younger awesome dude


and
"I love U"
by: my older awesome dude



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

McQueen Cake for my kids Birthday

I know, I know, I am crazy for making a cake like this, but my kids really wanted
a 3-D McQueen Cake for their B-day Party and since they had the party together, it was either $150 at a bakery or about $30-$40 in baking good plus my time of course.

So here it goes:

Oh and there was a request for a specific cake.
The request was chocolate cake with cherries.
So here is the first cake that I made
(then I realized I need two to make the cake look like the car)
Its a recipe for a Devils Food Cake


I used a 9x11 pan


the the 3rd smaller cake I made was on a 11x17 pan this was made for the road of the car 


Since the Devils Food Cake is a bit on a fluffier side 
I stuck it in the freezer for a few hours so it can be easier to cut into the shapes of the car.


Here are the cakes, one chocolate cherry and the other chocolate with chocolate chips


Cut 1/3 of the cakes longer side on both cakes


Make your Butter Cream Icing Mix 


spread the icing and place the two bigger pieces one on top of the other
the icing acts as a glue and makes things stick


then use the one of the 1/3 parts of the cake that you cut before, 
(the other piece you will use for wheels)
cut it in half and place on top top of the cake like so:


Here is the part where you have to shape the car,
cut the back end on an angle, this will give you two triangular looking shapes


and place them in the back as the spoiler


then trim the front of the top again on an angle
to make the lights and place them on the hood of the car


this is how it should look before you cover it with icing
(I got the shape cutting directions from a YouTube Video)


as you see, cover the whole car with icing so the Fondant will stick to the cake


Next are the wheels, I used yogurt cups to cut out the circles for wheels


then you have to take out some cake for the wheels, so make some nice holes


now its time for your fondant, as you see I already purchased mine in red


roll it out nicely so it can cover the whole cake


then gently place in on top of the car and shape it with your hands so all the shapes show up


Next, again using that same yogurt cup, cut out the circles for the wheels


and cover them in fondant.


This is the shaped car with the access fondant cut of
and placed on the road that looked like cracked ground


and the wheels that go in


this time I used black colored icing to decorate the wheels


and some white for the inside


For the decorations on the car I used Candy Decorating Pens
this seemed like a better option 
then buying all the different color fondants to make all the designs.
The Candy pens were sold in one pack with 
blue, red, yellow and white so that worked out better.


Not only did they have thin ends 
it was easier to write and make small designs like the eyes or lights


and here is the finished product. 
The kids loved it and it tasted really good, I was truly amazed that I made it.



Oh and one more thing make sure you keep it in a cool dry place, 
cake like this does not need to be and should not be refrigerated, 
that's why all the ingredients were not made with any milk.

Enjoy!!!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Rolled Up Sandwiches

These are very common at parties 
but you can make them as snacks or appetizers for your family.

You will need:

French Bread (the softer kind)
Cream Cheese (softened)
Deli meat (I choose turkey)
Dill Pickles (I used Polish pickles)



This is what you need to do.
Cut the french bread in half first so you wont have to work with a big long wrap.
Then cut it lengthwise but not all the way, open it nicely and flatten out.
This is the part where you have to pick most of the soft bread from the french bread so just pinch away.


Apply lots and lots of cream cheese so its nice and thick


take your dill pickles and wrap them in the deli meat, use as much as you like, 
I wish I did more then on the pic.
Place the rolled up pickle on the edge of the french bread all along one side.


Then make a nice tight roll.


Wrap all the finished wraps in plastic saran wrap and store in the fridge for 24 hrs or over night.
(its good to have it in the fridge so it wont fall apart when you cut it)


Next day, take them out of the saran wrap and cut on a small angle and enjoy. 
These were a hit and gone super fast at our kids B-Day Party.


Friday, June 22, 2012

Crepes for KIDS (OK for adults too)


I am not super creative with my crepes like some people who can make amazing statues or 3D art with their crepes but I thing that this satisfies my kids enough, that as long as they think its super cool, its cool with me.

This is the most basic recipe that I used:

3 eggs
1 1/2 cup of flour
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. skim milk
that gave us about 8 crepes that were all about 5-6 inch 

Here is one of the creations that I came up with while making them
I realized that I should take a picture before its too late and all gone, 
all the others were already made and stacked.

This is a bear!!!!
we also had a kitty cat, a heart, sunflower, sun, and a doggy, 
(and of course mommy got the regular round crepe, LOL)



My awesome dude on the left with his cousin on the right,
looks like it was delicious....