I haven't made a tiered cake in quite some time so I offered to make one for my mother-in-law's 70th birthday. It's not as daunting as many may think.
I break up the whole process into manageable chunks. I make the cakes, slice them into layers and then wrap them up to put into the freezer. This can be done well in advance of the event. Same goes the fondant. It can also be frozen and then thawed when the cakes are ready for covering.
I tripled up a pound cake recipe and used homemade Evan's cherry jam (sour cherry, adds a nice tang!) to use between the layers. My go-to recipe for
Marshmallow Fondant easily covered the cakes. It was my first time covering square cakes, which can be harder to cover with fondant, but it worked well.
I forgoed making my own icing flowers for fake ones. It was a time saver & I found large, pretty flowers and ribbon at the dollar store that really made the cake pop.
I always get a little nervous when making these types of cakes since I don't do it often. Thus, I'm always so happy and relieved when it turns out. It's like "icing on a cake" but when it's well received & seeing happy faces is the "cherry on top"!
My lemon tree has a wee lemon growing!
Have you been attending any celebrations for Canada's 150th Birthday? I have! See below!
But first, I thought I'd get in the mood and make some maple leaf ice cream sandwiches!
Maple Leaf Ice Cream Sandwiches
makes about 44 cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
0.5 tsp red gel dye, optional
2 tsp baking powder
2.5-3 cups flour
Vanilla or other favorite ice cream
Cream butter & sugar together. Add egg, vanilla and red dye. Slowly add mixture of baking powder & flour until dough gets stiff. Roll out floured surface & cut out maple leafs! Bake for 7-8 minutes, or until lightly browned, at 400F. Cool on racks and then place your fave ice cream in between 2 cookies and enjoy!
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I attended Ultimate Canadian Patio Party at Joey Bell Tower! Joey Restaurant Group and Steam Whistle Brewing teamed up to offer a unique taste of Canada to commemorate and celebrate our nation’s 150th. The JOEY + Steam Whistle collaboration kicks off with a series of patio parties across Canada.
I had a great time catching up with fellow blogger Courtenay of Messy Little Cook! We had a hoot trying out all the different bites and sips!
I won a gift certificate ( I can't believe it!!!) but Adam took home the coveted big win! Boo ;P
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I took in the ATB Symphony in the City, another event celebrating Canada's 150th, on the Alberta Legislature Ground. It was a gorgeous day for the event!
We will also be back to "The Leg" for annual Pancake breakfast tomorrow.
Can't wait to see the spectacular fireworks the City of Edmonton will showcase later!
Happy Canada Day to everyone!
I'm having a horrible day. Several weeks back I turned on the Auto Uploader setting in my Flickr account so the photos from my phone would just automatically upload to my account. However, I realized that it didn't auto sync, thus if I deleted it from my phone, it wouldn't delete from my Flickr albums. I found this somewhat annoying to have to delete from my phone and then from my Flickr album thus I decided to stop auto uploading the photos.
I then decided I wanted to just remove the Auto Uploader album from my Flickr account and just leave it for photos that I purposely upload to Flickr. I google searched how to delete albums from Flickr, since it isn't intuitive from their interface. This is where things went very, very badly. I was sure I chose the auto uploader album and hit yes to delete all. Unfortunately, it deleted ALL MY PHOTOS. My entire photostream! I'm not sure how I chose Photostream Album instead of Auto Uploader Album but I must have. Now my blog has no pictures since the photos where grabbed from my Flickr photostream. I am in tears. I sent an email to Flickr, begging them to restore my photostream. I'm not sure if they can even do that but it is worth asking since I am beside myself. I feel like a giant idiot.
So in light of my chaos this morning I thought I'd post about the Cream Cheese Icing I made for my hubby's birthday cake last month. Because you know, cake and icing are comfort foods, there to assist your soul when things go bad.
Oh, how I wish there was a big cake full of frosting in front of me right now.
***insert sobbing sounds here***
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My husband's favorite cake is probably cheesecake but I already had prepared chocolate layer cakes in the freezer so I decided to make cream cheese icing instead. I had this vision of making a multi-layer chocolate cake with thick cream cheese layers as I have seen before in magazines and online. I decided to wing it, because that is what I do sometimes. I was already super busy prepping for guests arriving I'm not sure what I was thinking because I could have google searched recipes but I often just go for it and have my friends/family be my guinea pigs. Most of the time it works out for me, sometimes not. This time it actually did! This cake has 1 KILOGRAM of cream cheese! Sometimes you really do need to go big or go home! Though I admit, the whole time I was stressing out thinking that the cake would deflate or the icing would just run down the side with every passing hour it sat waiting to be served. I prepped it in the morning and walked away until I served it in the evening. Here it is, in all it's glory, 1 KILOGRAM of CREAM CHEESE!!!
My mother in law told me about
Dr. Oetker. Whip It the week before, that she uses it to stabilize her whipping cream, so this is where my idea of my stabilized cream cheese came to mind . I figured I could use it to stabilize my cream cheese. I used spreadable cream cheese, I'm sure you can use regular cream cheese but you might need to change ratios.
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I often tell people that
Loblaws should hire me cuz I'm their biggest fan. People look at me strange but I'm serious. Don't talk bad about my Superstore. As an avid home cook,
Me love you long time!
I loved them back when they were an ugly-painted warehouse box store, loading up my discount no name products in my gigantic shopping carts. I have not had a product I disliked from their President's Choice line. Black label, oh yeah! Healthy Blue Menu- in my cart! Not to mention their in-store Guiding Stars marketing, love it! I have always loved the "spend $250 and get a $25 gift card" coupon because those years when I had babies, BOTH in diapers, that came in real handy. Every time I use my PC Plus card and it's time to redeem, I thank Galen Weston Jr. for saving me buckeroos. It's like getting free Joe Fresh clothes! Seriously Galen, you need to hire me!
I remember being so jealous of the
Presidents Choice Pop Up last year, wishing we had some of that awesome here in Edmonton. So when I heard that tomorrow is the grand opening of the Loblaws CityMarket store in the Brewery District, I had to drive by on the way home just to have a sneak peek. I wasn't expecting the doors to be open but YES, YES, YES!
It's sooooo beautiful! The refrigerated wall of CHEESE! The Deli is HUGE with so much variety! When I hit the Patisserie, I thought I'd died and went to heaven. Died. Heaven. I may never bake again.
Galen! I like it!
I like it a lot! No, I LOVE IT. My love affair continues. See you in the aisles!
