Soccer Bday Cake

For 4th of July weekend, I had a lot of baking on my hands. First, I made star sugar cookies to use for Ice cream Sandwiches-- *Strawberry Ice cream filled*..

Then, I made this soccer cake for a friend's bday (that weekend as well).

The interesting part-- is I actually baked the ball shape in my kitchen aid mixing bowl. It's stainless steel and once it had baked long enough, I tilted it on its side to make sure it cooked all the way through.
Fun times on First Ave!

Summa Time Bakin'

LEMON CREME PIE

BEGIN RAISIN BRAN MUFFINS

Aaron Makes Pad Kee Mao

I love Pad Kee Mao *Otherwise known as drunken Noodles*. I want to eat it every day. That could get kind of expensive.

Aaron loves me sooooooooooooooo much (conceited often?), that he ventured down to Chinatown and explored the markets and noodle shops until he found all the required ingredients to make this splendid dish. It was a.m.a.z.i.n.g.l.y accurate.

I want to eat it all day, every day.

Here are the pictures; I'll let Aaron add the recipe he used.

Beef Stew & Cheddar Biscuits-- Not for the lazy

Beef Stew is time consuming. This took me literally 4.5 hours.

I do believe it was worth it.

You can find the recipe in Martha Stewarts Real Simple Magazine-- or here:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/classic-beef-stew-10000001122826/index.html

I like to show my messes-- it's satisfying.

I did get a little panicked when I poured an entire bottle of red wine in. Made me nervous, but my faith in Real Simple pulled me through.

After the stew was in the oven.. I started my famous- Red lobster- knock off cheddar biscuits. I made these once (a from scratch version) for the 4-H fair and won a blue ribbon! These things are awesome. If you haven't made them, you have to. They are so easy.. and I found a really easy recipe online that I used last night:

Cheddar Biscuits-Red Lobster Knock Off

The gist is:

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups Bisquick baking mix

¾ cup cold half and half

4 tablespoons cold butter (1/2 stick)

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1 heaping cup grated cheddar cheese

Brush on--- after baking.

3 tablespoons butter, melted

¼ teaspoon dried parsley flakes

½ teaspoon garlic powder

400 degrees.

Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. Don't mix too thoroughly. Leave small chunks of butter that are size of peas. Add cheese, milk, and ¼ teaspoon garlic. Mix by hand until combined, don't over mix. Drop ¼-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

Use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Use up all of the butter. Makes one dozen biscuits.

They are just sooo pretty!
It was a hit with my food critic team.

Aaron makes delicious Hummus.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-roasted-red-pepper-hummus/detail.aspx

that's where you can find the recipe.

Here is where you can find the pictures.

He hopes he isn't forgetting anything..

Pumpkin Pie & Cinnamon Rolls

Since I'm nice... (And better than Megan Fox), I decided to make cinnamon rolls & pumpkin pie for Aaron and I's respective offices in celebration of Thanksgiving.

For the pie recipe I used a Pumpkin Streusel recipe which I will list later on...

and for the Cinnamon Rolls I used my Grandma Lucreta's recipe (they are the bomb).

For now I will just do photos of the process. I began at 7pm and finished at 11:45p.

Good times.

EDIT***
here is the recipe:
* 1 pie crust, unbaked
* 1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin, or 2 cups puree
* 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* .
* Streusel Topping
* 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
* 1/2 cup flour
* 1/4 cup firm butter
* 1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional) I DID NOT USE.

Preparation:
Heat oven to 400°, or 375 for glass pie pan

In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices, and salt; blend well.

Streusel topping: Combine brown sugar and flour; cut in the butter until crumbly. Set aside.

Pour pumpkin mixture into the unbaked pastry shell. Bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°. Bake for 25 minutes longer. Sprinkle streusel topping over pie. Continue baking at 350° for about 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until golden brown and the filling is set.

I'm going in reverse. These are the cinnamon rolls.
drizzling the icing.
cinnamon rolls are so pretty!

Aaron is always eating.
Buttering the dough.. heh.
Finished Pumpkin Streusel..


my kitchen cart in it's glory.

strawberry cream filled birthday cake.

This is my first time making gumpaste flowers for a cake. quite fun really. Next I'm moving on to Orchids.

Here are pureed strawberries, for the strawberry cream filling

Icing colors: I would have liked the red to be a bit deeper, and the aqua a bit more aqua, less teal.. But life goes on.

I can't say I'm proud about the shape of this bottom layer. Something's gotta give with my cake pans. Or, my cake leveling abilities.
Here I added some of the gumpaste daisies.

Basically, you roll out the gumpaste, and use the little cut outs to make the shape and then shape it with thin foam pieces and wooden shaping tools. I could do this all day. It's a blast.
I really like the color scheme, the ease of the gumpaste daisies. Lopsided-ness aside, It was a nice cake.