Desserts

Fabulous Fish Party

Dear Sis,

It’s hard to believe that Evelyn is three already! She looks amazing in her Fabulous Fish Party Dress. It was nice that we had a half dozen kids to craft, snack, and play together. A proper big girl birthday party!

Crafts

Paper Plate Fish Bowl Craft

We started with teal colored paper plates. I squeezed out a bit of white school glue on the bottom of each plate and the kids arranged dry beans in it. Then we taped, pipe cleaner, seaweed down with scotch tape. Finally, the kids added foam stickers. I found these particular stickers at Michaels. 

Painted Wooden Whale

I found these wooden whale cutouts in the dollar bins at Michaels. I gave each kiddo a squirt of gray and blue acrylic paint and a sponge brush. When they were finished painting, I let them dust it with silver glitter. Here is a picture of our little artists at work:

Sand Art

I purchased kits to make this craft at our local Dollar Tree. 

Menu

Fish Sticks

Seashell Mac n Cheese (recipe below)

Cracker Barrel Carrots

Cake and Ice Cream

Cake inspired by Fish Cake Tutorial on My Cake School

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

b
Creamy dreamy homemade macaroni and cheese to bake, slow cook, or freeze for later.
Print Recipe
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Servings 8 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound medium shell pasta cooked al dente
  • 3 c medium cheddar shredded
  • 1 c gouda shredded
  • 1 (10.5 oz) can cream of chicken soup
  • 3/4 c mayonnaise
  • 3/4 c sour cream
  • 1 t onion powder
  • 1/2 t dry mustard
  • 1/2 t ground pepper

Instructions
 

  • Rinse cooked pasta in cold water. Combine all ingredients.
  • To bake: place in a large casserole dish, cover with foil, bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 30 minutes more.
  • To slow cook: place in the crock of a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 1.5-2 hours. Stirring as needed.
  • To freeze for later: portion in foil pans, cover with wax paper, wrap in foil, and seal in a ziplock bag. Thaw and bake when needed.

I got this recipe last fall from my neighbor Nina. It is now a family staple!

 

Happy Birthday to a very special niece!

Love,

b

Cake Testing – Day Three

Dear Sis,

We found another flavor for the wedding this fall! Now I’m halfway done finding the perfect recipes. Only funfetti and vanilla to go!

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

b
Fudgy Moist Cupcake that last for days.
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 30 cupcakes

Ingredients
  

  • 3 c unbleached flour
  • 1 3/4 c granulated sugar
  • 2/3 c cocoa powder
  • 2 t baking powder
  • 1 t salt
  • 1 t vanilla extract
  • 2 T white vinegar
  • 3/4 c canola oil
  • 2 c water

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Line 30 cupcake tins with parchment liners.
  • Whisk together dry ingredients.
  • Beat in wet ingredients until smooth.
  • Fill liners half-way and bake 14 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean.

Source Recipe: Amelia Bedelia’s Chocolate Sheet Cake

We tried it with both Swiss Buttercream and Swiss Meringue Cream Cheese Frosting. We preferred the cream cheese frosting. A dusting of shaved chocolate completes the look!

Love,

b

Cake Testing – Day Two

Dear Sis,

Today I needed to make birthday cake for Mama Jenn. I decided to multi-task and use the opportunity to test more recipes for the wedding.

Buttermilk Spice Cupcakes

5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 3 dozen

Ingredients
  

  • 2 1/4 c unbleached flour
  • 1 c granulated sugar
  • 1 t baking powder
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • 1 t salt
  • 3/4 t baking soda
  • 3/4 t cloves
  • 3/4 c dark brown sugar packed
  • 1/2 c unsalted butter soft
  • 1 c buttermilk
  • 3 eggs

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Line 3 dozen cupcake baking tins with parchment liners.
  • Stir together dry ingredients.
  • Stir in brown sugar and butter until crumbly. Stir in buttermilk and eggs.
  • Fill prepared cupake liners 1/2 way. Bake 14-15 minutes. Turn onto wire racks to cool.

Source Recipe: Buttermilk Spice Cake by Betty Crocker

Test Notes: I omitted the orange zest and bumped up the cinnamon. Don’t overfill cupcake tins! Perfect recipe… we have a winner:)

Swiss Meringue Cream Cheese Frosting

5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 3 egg whites
  • 3/4 c granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 c salted butter cubed and soft
  • 16 oz whipped cream cheese soft
  • 1 T vanilla bean paste

Instructions
 

  • Whisk together eggs whites and sugar in the top portion of a double boil, over simmering water. Stir as mixture heats to 160 degrees. Remove from heat.
  • Place cooked egg mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with whisk attachment on high speed until stiff peaks form.
  • Beat in butter a few cubes at a time until smooth. Fold in cream cheese and vanilla bean paste.

Source Recipe: Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream by Food Snob

Test Notes: I opted for whipped cream cheese, so I could skip that step. Also, since this is going on a spice cake, I wanted the richness and look of vanilla bean paste instead of extract. Perfect!

It feels really good to have one of the four flavors for the wedding nailed down!

Love,

b

Cake Testing – Day One

Dear Sis,

I’m so excited to be baking for your brother-in-law and your future sister-in-law’s wedding. To make sure everything turns out just right for the big day, I am testing recipes.

Confetti Cupcakes

b
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 3 dozen

Ingredients
  

  • 1 c unsalted butter soft
  • 1/3 c canola oil
  • 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 3 c flour
  • 2 t baking powder
  • 1 t salt
  • 1 c buttermilk
  • 1/4 c rainbow sprinkles

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Line 3 dozen cupcake cups with parchment.
  • Cream butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
  • Whisk together dry ingredients. Add alternaturely to creamed mixture, with buttermilk. Fold in sprinkles.
  • Bake approximately 15 minutes. Turn out of baking pans and cool or wire racks.

Source Recipe: Confetti Birthday Cake by Courtney Rich

Taste of Home June/July 2020

Test Notes: Dry!!! Could use additional sweetness. Above recipe includes an additional 1/4 c of sugar, 5 eggs, instead of 3 whites and 3 eggs, and replaces cake flour with regular all-purpose flour. The fine crumb, seemed to exaggerate the dryness further. Additionally, baking temperature was raised 25 degrees so that baking duration can be shortened.

William photo bomb! He has frosting on his lips and everything… lol.

Vanilla Bean Cake

5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 12 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 c sour cream
  • 1 T vanilla bean paste
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 4 c cake flour
  • 2 1/2 c granulated sugar
  • 4 1/2 t baking powder
  • 2 t salt
  • 1 c unsalted butter soft
  • 1/4 c canola oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 6 egg whites

Instructions
 

  • Stir vanilla bean paste and extract into sour cream, set aside.
  • Preheat oven to 350. Line the bottom of 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with parchement.
  • Whisk together dry ingredients. Mix in butter and oil until crumbly. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat in sour cream mixture.
  • Pour batter equally between prepared pans. Bake less than the suggested 30 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans a few minutes before turning out on wire racks to cool completely.

Source Recipe: Best Vanilla Cake and Buttercream by Maggie Knoebel

Taste of Home April/May 2020

Test Notes: Baking time resulted in very overdone cake! I found the cake too dense and the frosting too sweet. 

Back to the drawling board for a good vanilla cake recipe!!!

Vanilla Bean Buttercream

5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • 1 c white baking chips
  • 1/4 c heavy cream
  • 1 T vanilla bean paste
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 6 egg whites
  • 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
  • 1/2 t cream of tartar
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 2 c unsalted butter cubed

Instructions
 

  • Melt together baking chips and heavy cream in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds. Stir in vanilla bean paste and extract. Set aside to cool.
  • In the top of a double boiler over simmering water, whisk together eggs, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt until it reaches 160 degrees. Remove from heat.
  • Whisk cooked mixture in a stand mixer, on high speed until cooled to the touch. It will look like thick marshmallow cream. Reduce to medium speed, gradually beat in butter, a few tablespoons at a time, until smooth. Beat in cooked white chocolate mixture.

I saved this recipe because I really would love to try it again with semi-sweet chocolate chips!

Love,

b

Earth Day Book Club

Dear Sis,

Book

Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years by Stacy McAnulty

Craft

We began with a small ball of red Play Doh, which represents earth’s inner core. Layer two, earth’s outer core, was a slightly larger portion of orange Play Doh rolled into a ball, flattened, and wrapped around the red, inner core layer. The third layer, earth’s mantel, was created with yellow Play Doh and the same: ball, flatten, wrap process. The forth layer, earth’s crust is made with tan Play Doh. The fifth layer, is a surface view of the crust using blue Play Doh to depict water and green Play Doh to depict water. Upon completion, we used sting to create a cross section of our model earth, but wrapping string around the ball and pulling each end to slice through the dough without distorting it’s roundness.

Game

I found an inflatable globe at Dollar Tree and came up with a simple game to play with the kiddos. Begin with all players standing up, shout out the name of a landform or body of water, and passes the ball to another player.  Anyone who repeats a term that was already used, or can’t think of a word on their turn, sits down. The final person standing wins.  

Songs

FREE Earth Day Songs Lyric Sheet by Tag Sis, You’re It!

Snack

We used Wilton food color paste to dye the our Sugar Cookie dough and roughly kneaded the two colors together a bit before using a cookie dough scoop to portion the dough before hand rolling it to assure that each cookie would be a perfect circle.

Happy Earth Day!

Love,

b

Matzah Toffee

Dear Sis,

We are having our Passover seder tonight! We tried something new this year. Matzah Toffee! It’s delicious and will definitely be an annual addition to our celebration. 

Matzah Toffee

b
Print Recipe
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 4 matzah crackers
  • 1/2 c salted butter
  • 1 c dark brown sugar
  • 1 (11.5 oz) pkg. milk chocolate chips

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 250. Line a jellyroll pan with foil and arrange matzah in a single layer, breaking as needed.
  • Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in sugar. Cook stirring until bubbly and dissolved.
  • Pour and spread toffee mixture over matzah. Bake 25-30 minutes.
  • Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Return to oven 3-4 minutes more to melt chocolate.
  • Spread chocolate and chill 2 hours, or until set.
  • Break into pieces and serve.

Happy Passover!

Love,

b

Classroom Easter Gifts

Dear Sis,

William and I made treats for his preschool classmates and teachers today! He is very excited to eat some “bunny tails!”

Bunny Tail, Printable Bag Toppers by Tag Sis, You’re It!

You Will Need

  • Bunny Tail, Bag Toppers, printed on card stock
  • snack size, zip top bags
  • powdered sugar doughnut holes (we got about 8 bags per box)
  • stapler and scissors

Assembly

  1. Fill snack bags with 4 doughnut holes and press to seal, extracting as much air as possible.
  2. Cut out bag toppers, fold on fold-line, slide to cover as much bag as possible, and stable in place.

Easter Egg Hunt Cookie Mix, Instruction Printable by Tag Sis, You’re It!

Easter Egg Hunt Cookie Mix

b
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 40 cookies

Ingredients
  

  • 1 quart canning jar, ring, and band
  • 3/4 c dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 c granulated sugar
  • 1 (3.4) oz box instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 2 1/4 c unbleached flour
  • 1 pint canning jar, ring, and band
  • 1 c milk chocolate chips
  • 1 c milk chocolate M&Ms, pastel colors

Instructions
 

  • Wash and dry jars, rings, and bands.
  • Place dry ingredients in quart jar, in the order they appear, tapping to level the jar between each addition.
  • Place candy in pint jar, in the order they appear, tapping to level the jar between additions.
  • Print instructions and secure to quart jar, decorate as desired, and gift.
Keyword cookie mix, cookies, easter

Happy Gifting!

Love,

b

Purim 2021

Dear Sis,

We started our celebration yesterday. William took fruit filled pastries to school to share with his classmates and Carter’s family came over to have a festive dinner with us. 

I made five-bean soup, toss salad, warmed a loaf of challah I bought from a local international foods market, and roasted a chicken. Mama Jenn brought mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, corn, and green beans. William made a simple and delicious Chocolate Cream Cheese Pie for dessert. 

Chocolate Cream Cheese Pie

b
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pre-made graham cracker crust
  • 4 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 2 T powdered sugar
  • 4 oz whipped topping, thawed
  • 1 (3.9) oz. pkg chocolate pudding mix
  • 1 3/4 c whole milk

Instructions
 

  • Cream together cream cheese and sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread into prepared crust.
  • Whisk together pudding mix and milk until smooth and thick. Spread over cream cheese layer. Chill a few hours to set.
  • Garnish with additional whipped topping and milk chocolate chips.

Our Purim Checklist

  • Read the story of Esther twice, The Queen Who Saved Her People by Tilda Baldly with noise makers.
  • Share a festive meal with friends and dress up.
  • Bake Hamantaschen and share them with Jewish friends.
  • Call and chat with Jewish friends. (Replaces going to temple during a pandemic)
  • Donate food to those in need. 

William got a new, larger rolling pin for Purim.

He also got a piggy bank and some change to put in it!

Charlotte, who is pig crazed, got a stuffed pig and a book:

Little Pig by L. Rigo

A Visitor

Our festive weekend happened to line up with William’s weekend with the class pet. A stuffed hedgehog, Quilly, was part of all our holiday happenings.

Love,

b