The antics of the wrong/right chocolate cake

Yesterday I was in a Chocolate cake kinda mood.  I spent a couple minutes on Pinterest and found a couple of recipes that I wanted to try.  One was an "old school" mayonnaise cake.  The other was a chocolate layer cake.  I've been looking for a new chocolate cake recipe so I was anxious to get my bake on. :)

When I got home last night, I was rushing around and trying to make dinner while baking a cake (mistake one).  I grabbed the tablet (which is not as reliable as I would like) to find my recipe and went straight to my pins (mistake 2).  I was impatient so I went straight to find the mayonnaise cake and opened the link for the 1^st chocolate cake pin I came to.  I started rounding up my ingredients (mistake 3).  I started reading through the instructions and it said “prepare 3 pans”.  It didn’t’ surprise me that there was no order for mixing – many old recipes don’t have it.  I know that wet mixes with dry last so I started with the wet ingredients.  Buttermilk – darn – I didn’t have any (spidey senses started to tingle but I ignored them – Mistake 4).  I made buttermilk and added it to my eggs and vanilla.  Then added the brown and white sugar…then noticed I hadn’t added any oil/fat type ingredient…hmmmm I started looking through the recipe, looking for the mayonnaise…and that’s when I realized I had grabbed the wrong recipe!!  LOL  By that point I was committed.  Had I read further into the instructions, I would have noticed the part about creaming the softened butter with the white and brown sugar – bla bla – which I didn’t do (mistake 5) because I was rushing…so instead – the butter got mixed into the liquid mixture to become floaty lumps that would be incorporated into the flour mixture.  I wasn’t sure what to expect. The cake baked for nearly an hour (in a bundt pan) while I worked on the frosting of the wrong cake. Lol  It called for 12 oz of semi sweet chocolate – melted and cooled.  Well- all I had was the tail end of a bag of chocolate chips (a little over a cup’s worth) so I melted those and added some cream. 

In the end – I wound up frosting the cake when it was still a touch warm, so the butter based frosting kinda melted off.   I had to toss it in the freezer to set up a little better…it was quite an exercise in what NOT to do when baking a cake. Lol  Surprisingly, it actually turned out quite well.  It was a little fluffier than I would have liked (likely because of all the last minute beating to mix the butter lumps in) but not dry at all.  The frosting wasn’t quite as rich as it would have been if I had had the semi sweet chocolate to melt, but it was still really good. 

I’m anxious to try it again, though, and follow the actual instructions.  It’s still a cake I’d be happy to serve to anyone as is (but because I’m a cake snob – I’ll eat it myself and share the next one. J)  If you get a chance to try this recipe out - give it a whirl! :) You won't be sorry. :)  (just follow the instructions and avoid doing what I did. lol 

Thought of the day...

I feel 1000lbs lighter!!

The house is trashed.  Who am I kidding, it's always trashed.  It seems like the to-do list is a never ending game of domino's where one task has to be completed before another and so on and so on.  Recently, though, I've been hoping to get kiddo2 into the bedroom upstairs.  It's not going well...why??  Because of the domino's. 

This week, I've decided that enough is enough...I need to get her in that bedroom.  To do that - I must address the mess.  One of the main offenders in this house is "craft crap".  The huge down side to being a creative soul is the amount of junk you hang on to because you could do something cool with it later.  As a result, I have a TON of yarn, fabric, cross stitch stuff, card making stuff, cake decorating stuff...the list goes on and on and on.  Well - no more! 

Yesterday I tackled a project that wasn't technically on my to-do list.  I hit the closet at the end of the hall.  It's where my sewing stuff (some of it anyway) has been stored for ages, along with a few random toy items and my cross stitch stuff.  Well...I asked kiddo2 to empty a couple shelves in her bedroom under the stairs (she doesn't really use it anyway) and that's where I will move my sewing stuff for now.  As a result - the closet was emptied.  I painted the inside (Heaven help me if anyone ever inspects the quality of the crack filling in this closet - it's horrible!!)  But - I painted it anyway.  Then - I put the shelves back in - put pretty trim on the front of each shelf, painted the trim and used silicone to keep the shelves in place.  Then - I caulked all around them to make them pretty. :)  This morning, I went through my yarn stash - I cut it in half - easily!  The half I'm no keeping is going to a friend of mine (a fellow yarn hoarder), but I'm happy to enable such a fine addiction. :)  The other half is sorted neatly into the closet - AND - I even left some free space for "growth" or other projects that I might start...or simply a space to toss the rest of my crochet junk that I haven't found yet! lol 

*note* Before any fellow "Fiber Freaks" gasp that there is a litter box in the bottom of my yarn closet - I know what you are thinking.  Let me point out, though, that all my yarn is in ziplock bags...AND...said litter box is kept ruthlessly tidy (cuz frankly - nobody can stand the Ninja-Cat when his box aint tidy). lol  Plus - it's temporary.  Once the rest of the domino's fall into place - it will be moved to a different part of the house. :)

This is where the domino's start to work in my favor.  By putting all my yarn in the closet (and getting rid of half) I've freed up the space that it was taking up in the pantry.  (Hubby tossed it there out of desperation since he didn't know where else to put it).  It also frees up a good chunk of space in the downstairs closet!  Yay!!  So - now - the rest of the craft crap that has to come out of the upstairs room has a place to go - I can organize the other closet, finish the pantry etc.  No more waiting on domino's!  I also know that the key to this working is that I have to continue to down size to at least half of everything.  I've been working away at that over time - but I'm finally able to move forward, somewhat synchronized with my dominos! 

Twin cake for twins

Recently I had the opportunity to make a cake/s for the sweetest twin girls ever!  Birthday mom gave me creative freedom to do whatever I liked - she'd give me the theme and the rest was up to me.  Things got a little nutty, though, when the girls chose their theme.  One wanted Hello Kitty...but the other wanted "Hello Kitty Princess"!  HAHA  how do you do one without doing the other?  In the interest of finding a design, I asked Birthday Mom to ask the girls to draw what they wanted for a cake.  I thought they might work together on a single picture (which would make things very easy) but they might also each do their own thing (which could make things a little more interesting) haha.  Either way - one of my favorite things is creating a cake that a kiddo has designed themselves and knew it was going to be fun.  :) 

Well - Birthday Mom came through with flying colors and sent...two separate drawings of two separate cakes!  HAHA  Ok - let the fun begin!

Not only was it 2 separate cakes, but there wasn't a single thing about either that was the same, except for Hello Kitty wearing  tiara....I thought about doing the top tier from 1 cake and the bottom of the other but only Erin's cake had 2 identical tiers. HAHA  So...I did the only thing I could do...

 

I had alot of fun with these and was really happy that I managed to duplicate their pictures with frosting. :)  But that's still not the very best part!! 

Oh - don't get me wrong - they're pretty great, but I was the most pleased with the sneaky side of these cakes. :)  And the sneaky part is...IT'S ONLY ONE CAKE!!!!! :D

 



The birthday girls got what they drew and I got to have a TON of fun with frosting!!  Happy 5th Birthday kiddo's! :)



Building my Pantry #3 (Shelving...or something close to it.)

I muddled my way through the installation of 3 shelves on Sunday and ran into a few snags. First is that the back wall is the absolute opposite of level…like – we’re talkin – Alice the Camel’s back is more level than my wall! Snag #2 is that the left wall of the pantry is full of wiring, the stack for the bathroom, and not a single stud to anchor into for support! Now that I’m typing this it occurs to me that the pantry wall used to be the opening into the kitchen…so why isn't it hollow??  I can’t imagine why there would be wiring in there?? Oh well – who knows…my friends used to call this house “Lego Land” for years! Lol The strapping for the first shelf took the longest, and the next 2 shelves went in pretty quickly. Even though I had a chop saw readily available, I opted to use the hand saw to cut it all (cuz it was quieter and less scary).

When I finally had the 3 shelves installed it became very obvious that the walls are beyond crooked. There was an obvious hump in the wall that was keeping the shelf pushed out and off of the strapping. 

I had to cut into the drywall and create a space to push the shelves into (more mess). Once that was done, hubby silicone all the shelves down and caulked all around the top to finish the seams and make it look "pretty".  (Trus that it looked WAY prettier once it was sealed...I'll post more pics later)



…and 2 hours later I stood staring into my pantry, even more perplexed than I was before my last post… A Pantry, by definition, is supposed to be for food storage and I get that – but – in my case, my Patry is turning into a “Kitchen storage closet”…

Time for a cake break

I really do Love to bake (which is unfortunate for my middle).  Life has been pretty nutty lately, though, so I haven't had the chance to bake as often as I would like.  Today, though, a co-worker had a birthday and since I was out sick yesterday...he didn't get his cake today. :(  (Bad cake lady!!)  Anyhoo - I decided that I'd bake a cake tonight.  The only problem is which cake to bake??  I know I want chocolate with boiled icing...but which recipe to use?  I've been using my "old faithful" recipe for a dogs age, but really want something different so tonight I picked this recipe that I found on relativetaste.com.  I've made it before and I recall that it was delicious...but I'm nearly out of sour cream. :(  When I made it tonight, I had to use half sour cream and half mayonnaise...then I added a little extra vanilla (not by choice).  It's in the oven now and has been for about 30 minutes...I reeeely hope it works out cuz I'd LOVE some alternatives to my old faithful chocolate cake. :)

Building my Pantry; #2

Yesterday the impatience kicked in and forced me to Home Hardware.  I had a brief chat with hubby before I left and was pretty much forbidden to bring anything home.  His reasoning was sound - I just didn't care. ;)  He's still not back on his feet from surgery and the table saw is buried in the shed - so - he wasn't able to rip the pine needed for the shelf brackets.  Ok - I understand - and the other pine is too expensive - bla bla bla...But...since hubby used to work at this particular Home Hardware - the guys are super helpful.  They pulled out some very clear 1x2 pine for me and cut my 8' shelving down to 6' so that it would fit in the civic.  I only picked up 3 shelves...then didn't get to do a darn thing with it last night.  this morning, though, I'm up and attem and reeeeely wanna put some shelves in there.  The trouble is...I found THIS article...and now I'm second guessing everything.  *sigh*  What to do??  I bought 3 shelves that are 12" deep...time to think some more I think...

Building my pantry

when I was a kid, I Loved my great grandmothers pantry.  Her home was older than old.  It was plain and simple with lots of character.  Her pantry was in the back corner of her kitchen and was built entirely of dark wood.  There were 2 steps to get into it and given my size at the time, couldn't have been very big at all (likely the size of a phone booth).  For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted a pantry. 

This is a very old picture of my Dining room.  The walls are now a nice vanilla cream color and we replaced the icky light fixture... but you can see where the floor is different on the left hand side.  That's' where there used to be stairs to the basement (there will be a post some day about fixing the discontinued hardwood flooring...but it has still not been fixed so that post will not happen today). 

 We decided to build the pantry in the back left side of the dining room.  We wanted it half the width of the room so that it will leave the window centered on the right.  The main entrance to the house used to be there so the wall and ceiling is pretty wonky and un-fixable.  The light is still there too - from when it was the entry ( you can see it on the ceiling )  Putting the pantry there will let me hide some of the crooked "sins"  of my home and will give me a light inside.  The final measurements of the pantry are about 5' wide and 29" on the outside (25" on the inside)

 

I've finished the rest of this post with lots and lots of pics. 

As a fun side note...Hubby decided that this stage made for a better "Smoochin Booth" than a Pantry. :) 

 

 My pantry is still in progress so check back for updates as I get closer to done. :)

The Hollee-Olive-Experiment...Take 1

It's been a while since I've posted...but so be it.  I keep apologizing for not posting very often but I've convinced myself that it's because I actually have a life...HAH!  Not really but it makes me feel better to fib to myself a little...

Ok here's the reason for this particular post...I need a new "go to" recipe...all of my recipes call for butter or vegetable oil.  I definately don't have a problem wiht butter - but...I'd really like to find a nice alternative.  lately I've been reading up on Olive oil in cakes.  It caught my interest so I thought I'd give it a try.  First - I decided to brush up on my science (Yes Mr. Patriquin - I said it...i'm voluntarily referring to science!).  I know that every ingredient in cake has a job to do and if I make any changes - I'll change the way the batter behaves.  Here's what I know...

1. The minute the dry ingredients hit the wet, the clock starts to tick.  If I whip the dickens out of it until the batter is smooth - or wait too long to put it in the oven, I'll have a very fluffy - airy cake that won't hold together.  Kinda like a cake from a box mix.  Not awesome and completely un-decorateable.
2. Cake gets the structure from the flour and eggs.
3. Cake gets the moisture from sugar and fat
4. Room temprature eggs mix more evenly and hold air better = less dense cake.
5. Olive oil does not hold air.

In theory - if I let my eggs warm up and whip the crap out of the batter, theorhetically, I should have a reasonably fluffy cake that is moist and full of flavour - but stable enough to hold together nicely and be decorated.  Ok - I'm sold! 

 I referred to this recipe from Duo dishes it went together very easily - My spidey senses were tingling like crazy when it came time to add the lemon, though.  I'm not a fan of lemon and neither are most of the kids who eat my cake...I reached for the vanilla instead...then put it back and stuck to the recipe.  I can't fix/fiddle if I dont' know exactly what to fix/fiddle with.  Overall - at that point, I was pleased to say the least.  I was able to mix it more than I normally would - it doesn't make a huge batch - doesn't have a ton of sugar and has nothing that I can't pronounce - it's just good old fashioned cake. :)  In the oven it went and the house smells amazing!!!  It cooks quite quickly and stayed fluffy - and puffs up evenly.  All good signs.  I took it out of the oven to cool and it's really fluffy.  The recipe says to let it cool for 30 minutes before removing it from the pan...but it also says to line the pan with parchment (I skipped that step).  So - I took it out of the pan and it's maybe a little too fluffy...but i think if I let it cool a little, it would be fine.  Because I'm impatient, I sliced the ant hill dome off the center of it to taste it and BAM! Lemon!!  Then I asked kiddo to give it a try.  She is my cake berometer - the instrument by which I determine the success of a cake.  She's brutally honest and never lies to spare my feelings.  Love the kid for that.  Her verdict??  1st...she screwed up her face...then she stuck out her tongue and made a chewing attempt that looked like a donkey eating peanut butter.  Then she asked "did you put that lemon stuff back in it"??  Yup - it's a different recipe...her response??  "I don't like it".  I must take out the Lemon...

I did try another piece with some buttercream on it - but the flavour in the cake didn't blend well with the frosting, sooooo...baaaaaack to the kitchen I go.  First, I'll do my dishes from the 1st go-round, and then I'll give it a trey without the lemon.  I will not refer to science this time, though.  Sorry Mr. P. :)

My new Fave cake!

I Love creating cakes - I really do!  Every one is a new challenge and I learn someting from each and every one.  Some cakes "click" I get crazy inspired and can't stop once I get started, while others just sortof come together as planned.

A few weeks ago, I started planning a Monster cake for a little guys 2nd birthday.  His Mom is one of my fave cake customers ever!  Between the two of us (me mostly) we decided on a monster theme - she gave me the color choices and my frosting-Ninja brain started spinning...and spinning...and spinning!!!

Lately, I've been trying to be a little more "grown up' about my cakes.  I tend to have a hard time restraining myself once I get going on a cake and need to be better at planning and stopping when it's time to stop.  So - for this big guy, I started with a sketch. 

I wasn't entirely sure how I would do the arms, but I knew he needed to be tubby and low and squatty with 3 horns and hairy shoulders, wings and a tail.

When I stacked the cake for him, he was super tall and I knew he needed support so I pushed in 3 solid dowels to help hold him up and keep bad things from happening...and then it was time to to turn him into a Monster. :)

 

 

I made his tail out of rice krispies adn marshmallow...but he still didn't look like a Monster.

Then I gave him a bottom lip and a belly and a tooth.  A little more like a Monster, but still...not a Monster.

When I added his horn, teeth and fur and was getting more  and more excited about him.  When I added the eyes, though, I seriously laughed out loud!  I was completely in Love with him and knew I was exactly on track. :)

Spikes on his tail, ears, horns and teh rest of his fur.  A few more details and then...he was done! :)

I couldn't stop smiling!  Seriously - How stinkin cute is he?!!! :)

I Love his little wings!!

And his littel face!  Hello! :)

 Overall, I think he's close enough to the sketch that I can say I followed it. :)  I'm super crazy excited about him (and the "peace sign" is actuall a "2", cuz the Birthday Boy is 2! :) )

Cake Decorating with grade 5

I've been promising kiddo for a couple of years now, that I'd do a cake decorating workshop with her class.  Somehow, I managed to work everything out this year and we are set up for Friday! :)  I've been planning like crazy to get ready for it all...and tonight I managed to bake 100 cupcakes tonight in preparation.  We have 22 students, and they'll each decorate 4.  To help with creativity, I've decorated 8 examples.   With the frosting tips we'll be using, and the frosting patterns we'll be demostrating, they'll be able to make any one of them. :)  I'm hoping that I have over prepared enough that it will all go well and everyone will have a great time. :) 



 Here are all 8 together...

 

This one is a "dirt cupcake".  A Swirl of chocolate frosting, topped with crushed chocolate wafer and topped with a fondant leaf.

This one is "Mystery fruit".  I swirl of multi-colored frosting, topped with a modeled tootsie roll piece for a stem and a green frosting leaf.

 This little Alien guy was just fun - a giant glob of green frosting - white for the eye and a mini chocolate chip for the pupil.  His mouth is a tiny piece of licorice string. :)

 This little guy is supposed to be a frog...I just think he's cute. :)

 Mr. Owl is piped stars in blue, with chocolate frosting for wings and ears.  His pupils are chocolate chips. His eyes are lifesaver gummies. :)  Oh - he's holding on to a pretzel stick...just cuz I thought it was cute. :)

 This one was super simple.  Blue swirls for sky, white squiggles for clouds and a piece of sour rainbow gummy for the rainbow. :)

 Sunflower - oreo cookie in the center and a leaf tip for the yellow petals and green leaves.

This one might be one of my faves.  A simple swirl of chocolate frosting, 3 giant globs of blue, 3 green leaves and chococlate sprinkles for the eyes. :)

So now...my kitchen is trashed and I'm beat!  but I took a few minutes to make a tea and have a seat and eat the one cupcake I made for myself to use up the frosting remnants. :) 

 

 

Isn't he fun??! :)  (He was delicious!)

DIY Garden Bucket (Part 1)

I have a plan!!  That plan is the creation of a super cute and very functional garden bucket of my very own!!  I have about a million-ish garden doo-dads that will fit beautifully in it - plus, I just kinda like them so dag nabbit - I'm gonna make one!! :) 

I saw these super cute buckets at the dollar store today for $3. (insert squeal of delight here!!) :)  I also have a mountain of fabric hidden away in my closet that has been screaming "sew something" at me for ages!!  (ummm....sorry roman shades...you don't inspire me at the moment. lol)  So - here's the beginning of it all...so far, I've made it as far as cutting out the pattern for the inside piece that will "line" the inside of my super cute bucet.  OH!  Rewind!!  I got the clever idea by browsing pinterest.  Specifically  this little gem!! :) It's the creative works from Hoosier Homemade! Lots of great stuff on her site!!

   So - fast forward to tonight...  I have an old roll of news print that I bought from the local newspaper back when they used to print locally.  Sadly - you can't get them anymore since they moved the printing to another site - but...i still have a partial roll and will enjoy every last bit of it. :)










 So - the first thing I did was tear off a hunk of paper big enough to wrap around my bucket.  I figured if I crumpled the bucket around the edges of the bucket it would give me the lines to cut it. 

Once I had my lines all crumpled, I unrolled the paper (see all those nice little wrinkles that form the outline of where I'll cut out the shape of my bucket?? )  **thinking voice sez this is going too easy...I wonder what will go wrong??** 

I traced a pencil line around the arc that would would be teh bottom of my bucket and cut it out.  (notice the arc cut out??  That's the bottom of the buckt. )  Once I had teh bottom cut, I wrapped the paper around my bucket again, and folded back each side so that it would only be as big around as the bucket, plus enough extra to be a seam allowance.  **Note - see the folds on the left and right??  Thats' where I'll cut it out so that it's only big enough to go around my bucket.**

Next step was to cut off at teh fold line to make sure that it was only as big as the bucket. (This will all make sense in a couple more pictures I promise!)

 So now my pattern is big enough to go around my bucket - but it's not the right height.  So - I wrapped it around the bucket again and folded the excess paper down into the bucket to make a crease at the bucket height only.  (Sorry - my genius is showing. :D) 


Once that part was done, I unwrapped the paper to reveal the beautiful crease for the top of my bucket...

(I didn't take a picture of the pattern when i cut the top off - but you can see my scrap under the bucket. :)  So - now my pattern for the inside piece of my bucket is all cut out - I slid it inside the bucket to make sure it's the right size and shape and...it's perfect!!!  See how it wraps around the insde with just enough overlap to be a perfect seam allowance?? :)  (Again - sorry...my genius is sticking out. :) )



And - see how it's just a hair taller than the bucket??  That's the top seam allowance!!  :)  My plan is that I'll sew the skirt around it...but I'll need something to anchor it to - so...I'll need a seam allowance. :)


So - that's all for the first part of my "plan"...I have the pattern made for the inside of my bucket.  Tomorrow (or maybe later tonight) I'll make up the rest of it and maybe even cut out my fabric??  Oooo - the possabilities!! :) 

Jeff Gordon / Nascar Cake

Most of my cakes start out with an idea or a sketch.  Many times - it stays in my head and grows as I work on the cake.  The cakes that I have the most fun with tend to become more elaborate than the originaly "plan", while others are sketched out to keep me on track.  For this weekends cake, I started with a sketch.  Ok - not true - I started by surfing the internet for ideas, since this is my first Nascar cake and I really know nothing about Nascar.  I found a few things that stood out - a round blue base, flames, checkered flags etc.  Then - I moved on to my sketch.

Here it is...

 

 

I also took some inspiration from other cakes that I have done - flames from my hunger games cake, the studded collar for my skeleton smash cake and the bull dogs cake, and the number from the hockey cakes.  Overall - I think it will come together nicely.  The base is currently frosted and in the freezer setting up so that I can base coat it in blue and start to work on the flames. :)

 

Fast Forward and here is the finished product...I had originally wanted to do the yellow background of the flames in fondant...but my fondant wasn't cooperating (although it may have been a user problem he-he) so I opted for frosting instead. 

Here's the top view of the cake.  The 24 is sortof a creatie freehand.  I started by drawing a square the same size as the flag.  Inside that, I sketched out the outline of my 2 & 4 and cut them out.  Then - I laid each of the numbers down on the flag and outlined it in black frosting.  I carefully lifted the paper number off - cleaned up the outline where I needed to and piped in the yellow.  Eezy Peezy! 

 I really like the black belt around the base, but it needed a little extra something.  Wanna know how I made them look like little hub caps??  Ok - I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to hold it against. me. :)  I started but cutting out little tiny circles with my smallest circle cutter.  They were too blah - they needed soem detail so...I searched and dug through all of my drawers and finally found...a whiteboard marker!!!  LOL  True story!  I cleaned off the top of the cap and voila!  Instant hub cap!  I pressed it into each circle, brushed on some shimmer dust and ther you have it - teeny tiny hub caps to jazz up the belt! :) 

 

Overall - I think it turned out pretty much how I had planned and they were happy with the finished product, so - I'll chalk it up as another success. :)   If you have a chance, check out my other cakes on my HolleeCakes Facebook page. :)  Recentlly, I seem to be updating that with greater discipline that my blog. :S  Sorry bout that.

A Fairy cake

What a fun cake to work on!! :)  I did it again, though...I let my creative brain take over, so after about 8 hours of decorating time - I had to simply walk away.  I resigned myself to the fact that that fairies (who are supposed to be Tinkerbell & Periwinkle) look nothing at all like either.  I was ok with that, though, since the rest of the cake turned out pretty freakin great! :)  Before I pass judgement on my work, though, I should really refer to my in house critic - a.k.a. Soapy.  God bless the excitement of the 10 year old girl.  I only wish I could see my work through her eyes. :) she walked into the room and said "Oh!  You made it a Tinkerbell cake!:)"  and then went on to add "And you added her sister too!"  YAY!  Ok - cool...she then went on to explain that the hair I gave her was more like wolverine than Periwinkle, so I had to scrape her head off and start over - but my re-work was given 2 thumbs up and a HUGE grin - so - success!!  I just delivered it so I'm free to post pics now.  :)  I'm so excited about this one - I really wish I could move in to it! :)