Elishas birthday and more recipes....=)

First off I'm going to ask if I am boring you with all these recipes? Am I???

I will never know unless you tell me(whoever you readers are).

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Anyways last night we had a little party get together for Elisha, he requested butterscotch cake with caramel on top(which is one of the recipes I will be posting if you're interested) and I have never even heard of a butterscotch cake, so I was like 'yay another recipe to post!' lol.

Ok well lets get started!

Here is the recipe for the butterscotch cake.

                                         Here is the cake finished, its kinda not this color though...

Its kinda in the middle of these colors...sorry I couldn't get the light right.

2 cups cake flour(I have never used cake flour before, I used regular flour to make this)
1/2 cup butter or margarine(softened)

1-1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup milk

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

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• In mixing bowl put dry ingredients and mix.

• Add brown sugar, butter, 2/3c milk and vanilla, mix.
• Add egg yolk and rest of milk, mix again.
• Pour the mixture into greased cake pan.
• Bake the cake at 350F for about 20-25 minutes.

Well, what I did for the caramel icing was boil two cans of sweetened condensed milk(should of been one),

a couple tablespoons brown sugar,

a dash of salt and a tablespoon or so of butter.

Well everybody agreed that it was a very sticky cake, more like candy! lol.

So next time I make that cake, I will use less caramel icing, you should of seen the younger kids eating it,

their mouths were all stuck together from the icing and all, haha.

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We also had chocolate cupcakes with blue cream cheese frosting(Elisha's favorite color).

They were really good too,

I use my Great-grandmothers recipe for chocolate cake and a new recipe for creamcheese frosting that I've never used before, it was the best frosting I made before though, so I will be making it alot.

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Later on that day, well evening, friends came over for a small celebration of Elisha turning 12!

I have 0 pictures of Elisha to show you because they were too silly and blurry, of course!

I don't really have alot of any pictures to show you, Hannah would be embarrassed to see the pictures I have of her put on here, I didn't really have my camera during the whole night, too much fun.

 Hannah, Elise and I were having fun with the cameras at first...

                                                       Trying to get the contraption to work!

                    'What do ya got in the fridge?' lol jk I think he was getting something for one of the ladies.

                                                                   Is he cute or what?
                                            

Here is the last picture I have to offer, but of course you want to see it, right?

She is soo CUTE!

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Happy birthday to Elisha!

Sometimes you can be annoying and silly, but that is what I love about you,

I see how God works in you and are blessed to be able to call you my brother.

I hope the Lord works in you more and more this year that you are TWELVE!!!

-Love Carol-Anne...

Fun Fun...And Cheesecake Making...

Ok so I told you in my last post that the next baking project was going to be fondant and cheesecake, Hannah has the fondant pictures so I will post about the cheesecake and maybe get the pictures from Hannah later.

I'm also posting a couple pictures of that night when the Kenny's and Grays came over to celebrate my Moms birthday.

This is a sneak peek on mine and Hannahs first fondant project...

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I made a chocolate cheesecake for my Mommy's birthday.

I don't know where we got the recipe for the cheesecake, but its called 'Fudge Truffle Cheesecake' and trust me, it tastes as good as it sounds!

 Recipe for cheesecake filling

3 8oz packs of cream cheese (it makes it alot easier if you soften it first)

1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated)

1 12oz package of chocolate chips, melted

4 Eggs

1/4 cup coffee flavored liqueur(this ingredient is optional, I've never made it with it before, but I thought I would try it)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 

Recipe for cheesecake crust

1 1/2 cups vanilla wafers, About 45 wafers

6 tablespoons powdered sugar

1/3 cup unsweet cocoa

1/3 cup margerine or butter, melted

 

Prepare cheesecake filling

In large mixing bowl, beat cheese until fluffy.

Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth.

Add remaining ingredients which include eggs,

Vanilla,

Melted chocolate,



and coffee flavored liqueur.
Mix well.

Now the batter should be looking like this!

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Now for the crust.

In medium mixing bowl(I use a blender), mix vanilla wafers,

Powdered sugar,

Cocoa powder and

melted butter or margarine.

Press firmly on bottom and 1/2 inch up side of 9-inch springform pan

Fill prepared pan with cheesecake batter, bake 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Now if you followed all the steps correctly your cheesecake should look like this!

Yes, it does taste better than it looks, lol.


There you go, now you know how to make Fudge Truffle Cheesecake!

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Here are a couple pictures of the night of my Mothers birthday...

Here we have the parents chit-chatting,

Mr Gray brought pizza for dinner...

All the little kids went to my room to play puzzles,
I could not get a decent picture of the little munchkins

Goodbye all you peoples, have a nice rest of your day.

~~Carol-Anne~~


Oh and be sure to check out our Art page, it has alot of cool pictures that Hannah and I took.
We update it alot too.

Berry pie and a resolution...

  As 1 of my resolutions this year,  I've decided to bake ALOT more
                    AND post about all my cooking adventures.

                              I started with a blueberry pie...



The crust was and is always the hard thing.
I have never made a pie-crust before,
just like I have never made a fruit pie before.

I knew I wanted to do a two crust pie, and I was thinking about doing it in this style...

As you see that didn't quite work out! lol..
I put the filling in, and then tried to make the top crust look pretty,
But I had to settle with no pretty designs on the top crust.
I forked the edges of the pie.


Ok, so I got the pie in the oven finally, and at this point I was like
'I hope it just tastes good!'.

Now...

It was time to clean up the MESS!
I must admit that I am not the cleanest cooker around.

Tada! This is the kitchen clean!

Soon the oven told me the pie was done...

So flaky and delicious, too bad it is all gone now...

Ok, so the things I messed up on was that I overly processed the pie crust, so it wasn't that flaky, and then I made the top crust too thick, it was hard to cut through.

The things that were good about it was that it was a pretty good pie in all, it tasted, looked and smelled delicious. =)

~Recipes~

Crust~
(I made a two crust pie, so this is the recipe for a two crust pie)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
5 to 6 tablespoons cold water

In bowl mix flour and salt.
With pastry blender or two knives used scissor fashion,
cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs
(This is the part you really have to work, I wish I had a pastry blender).

Sprinkle cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time,into mixture, mixing lightly with a fork after each addition until pastry is just moist enough to hold together(no more no less).

After preparing pastry,  divide pastry into 2 balls, one slightly smaller for the top crust, to line pie plate, roll larger ball into round 2 inches larger than pie plate.
Transfer round to pie plate and ease into plate.
Fill pie.
For top crust all I did was roll it out like the bottom crust, I just made it smaller, which is why it was really thick, but I didn't notice at the time.

Filling~

In large bowl with rubber spatula, toss 2 pints blueberries
(about 5 cups) with 3/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel, and 1/8 teaspoon salt.

Next on the list is a chocolate cheesecake for Momma for her birthday, and a pound cake with fondant!


And that is all.
I hope you do have a blessed day all you readers out there!
Whoever you are! Lol.

        C-A   ^_^