CAKE DECORATING!!! Part 1

This is Ema Bug everyone.

So, last week, we did cake decorating at our house. We had to make our own cakes and at my house we were out of boxes of cake mixes, so I had to make mine by scratch. I got the recipe of our friends blog, Chef Tess. We haven't eaten the cake quite yet but it looks really good. Here's the recipe:

My Chef Tess Cake mix
dry ingredients:

The dry ingrediants

4 1/2 cups all purpose white flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 cup sugar
2T baking powder
1T salt
1 cup shortening (or butter )
1T double strength vanilla
Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt through a flour sifter at least once to remove extra lumps. Combine shortening (or butter) with dry ingredients and vanilla in a Kitchen Aid type mixer with paddle attachment. Mix until well combined.

The dry ingredients mixed together

If you don't have a mixer, it also works to cut the shortening into the flour as you would for pie crust and then run the mix through a hand held flour sifter to make the mixture more smooth. The metal flour sifters are available to purchase at most grocery stores and baking sections of Wal-mart or Target.


Yields 9 cups cake mix. If you use butter, please keep your mix in the fridge!

4 1/2 cups mix equal to one boxed cake mix:

The wet ingredients

Combine with 3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 1/3 cup water
200 strokes by hand or 3 minutes medium speed.

Bake time 350 degrees:
Pan size: 2 8 inch 33-35 minutes

The wet ingredients mixed together

2 9 inch 28-31 minutes
13 by 9 inch 32-35 minutes
bundt 38-43 minutes
24 cupcakes 18-21 minutes
High altitude: stir 1/4 cup all purpose flour into mix. Mix as directed.


More cake mixes to follow as experimentation continues.

My next post I'll post what I did with the cakes.
SMILE people!!!

Whole Grain Kids Can Make Crumb Cake or Waffles

This recipe is a good one for kids who want to make waffles or crumb cake. We bake it in a solar oven, especially during the summer. It just gets so hot here in Arizona. We make the big batch of mix and it lasts a few weeks. If you make it, be sure to use the whole wheat cake flour (or you can use all purpose flour instead of the whole wheat). If you don't know where to get whole wheat cake flour, you can also make that by just using eight cups of regular whole wheat flour and one cup of cornstarch in place of the nine cups of whole wheat cake flour.
A while ago when we shared the recipe for Whole Grain Waffle Mix we started goofing around with it in other things. In the course of the last few weeks we've added a little more spice to it:

Fluffy Fat Free Whole Grain Waffle Mix
9 cups whole wheat cake flour
1 cup sugar or crystal fructose
1/3 cup baking powder
1 T LorAnn Buttery Sweet Dough emulsion ( it's vanilla, butter, cherry, orange and hints of spice)
4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground clove
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 tsp fresh ground cardamom
2 tsp ground cinnamon


Combine all ingredients well, slowly drizzling the flavor emulsion into the mix and whisking well. Store in an airtight container.

We're happy to report that it makes a really mean Buttermilk crumb cake.

Bakeresse Buttermilk Crumb Cake

crumb topping:
2/3 cup sugar or granulated fructose (or Splenda)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter (or you can use extra virgin coconut oil)
1 3/4 cup Whole Grain Waffle Mix

Cake:
1 1/4 cup whole grain waffle mix
1/2 cup sugar or granulated fructose
1 large egg
3/4 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup any flavor yogurt...Homemade yogurt works great!)

confectioners sugar for dusting if desired (that's the fancy name for powdered sugar)

Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees ( solar baking works great!). In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the crumb topping until a nice crumble mass.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the cake ingredients, mixing just until moist. Do not over mix. Spread the cake batter into a greased 9 inch by 11 inch cake pan. You may dot the cake batter with fresh berries or a thin layer of jam if desired. Top with entire amount of crumb topping spread over the cake. Bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cover with foil. This will help the cake to hold together and remain moist. Cool completely. Cut with a sharp knife. Dust with powdered sugar or cinnamon if desired.



There you go.

Snackin' Dino Carrot Cake

Mom look here: Snackin'-Dino'-Carrot-Cake
This summer includes the kids and getting them in the kitchen. We want to learn kitchen math and how to measure. So...meet the carrot cake of love. I'm Face. I was in charge. This carrot cake is one that we have really enjoyed for years. It's simple enough that the kiddos can make it, and good enough to eat that adults won't mind it. It uses whole wheat flour and a lot of carrots, so it really is a notch healthier than regular carrot cake. Our dad Ace, who is not a big cake eater, had 4 or 5 pieces. We count that as a good baking day if he will go nuts like that.

First gather your ingredients. In this case, the kids gathered the ingredients and measure them. This way we can really see it first hand. Mom adapted a recipe that she got out of a church cookbook and had around since she was a teenager. It's really old.

You will need:

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil (use 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup apple sauce if you want it lower fat)

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour (cake or pastry flour)

1T cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt3 cups grated carrots

1 cup nuts or raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees or open your Solar Oven and get it heating up. This step is important. It makes it so the cake cooks right. Make sure you do it before you start mixing your cake.

In a large mixing bowl (we have one we use for 2 bags of microwave popcorn that is big enough for this). Crack the eggs into the bowl. Put in the sugar, vanilla and oil. Combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil with a wire whisk until light lemon color. Whisk it a lot. Add flour, cinnamon, soda, and salt. Mix just until combined. That means just until the flour is wet and not to mix much more. Just until everything is mixed.
Add the carrots. If you use nuts or raisins...add them here too.

Grease a pan. It helps to measure the pan just so you are sure it is the right size for the baking time. If the pan is bigger it will cook faster. If the pan is smaller, it may not be big enough to hold the cooked cake and the batter will probably overflow in the hot oven. I know you want to eat the cake, not scrape it off the bottom of the oven. Right? So, once you measure your pan it needs to be a 9 inch wide by 13 inched long and at least 2 1/2 inches deep. Rectangle is what we used, but if you use a round pan, you can cook 2 8 inch rounds. or 1 10 inch that is 3 inches deep or more. I use either pan spray or shortening and cover all the inside of the pan with it. Make sure you don't miss any spots. Sometimes I sprinkle a small amount of flour (like a tsp) into the bottom of the pan a then shake the pan to spread out the flour.
Once mixed, pour it into a greased 9 inch by 13 inch cake pan. Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Solar oven took about one hour.We waited about 30 minutes and then frosted with a light cream cheese frosting. You can use the tub bought from the store or make your own. That recipe will be on here soon. We wanted to make it look like a dinosaur...so we gave it an almond spine. If you want a lower fat experience, try it unfrosted. It is still really good.
Make sure you have a couple gallons of milk around.There you go.