Sushi and Lego

We just finished a wonderful 7th birthday celebration and like last year the birthday boy requested a sushi and lego birthday.

This year the Lego aspect was fulfilled by a trip to the Lego store.  My boy loves Lego.  He plays with it constantly and has many sets on his wish list, but in his opinion no set compares with the wall of bricks and the create a guy station.  He can spend a crazy amount of time selecting just the right pieces to fill up a huge cup and even more time creating the perfect guys.  I find Lego an absolutely fascinating toy and I love hearing all the different approaches with which it is used.  There is the buy a set, put it together and leave it together to play with approach. There is the Lego as a puzzle approach where all the pieces to a set are kept together and built over and over.  And then there is the throw all the pieces together and build new creations each time approach.  I think it would be very interesting to study how Lego is used and personality types, but that is a study for another day, for now lets just study some of the yummy birthday treats.


As I said sushi was the other aspect of the birthday celebration and this year Will decided to have lunch at Wasabi rather than a birthday party.  Yes my boy chose eating out over a party with friends and presents.  But, the restaurant he chose wasn't just a regular old sushi place.  Wasabi is in the middle of a mall and the food is served on a conveyor belt and really how can you say no to food served in this style.

This is Bolt, the mascot for Will's class, he came home for the weekend to help celebrate.  

The birthday cake was simple this year.  The girls helped me decorate the cake and while I had envisioned a simple finish  with just a few sprinkles this is what we ended up with.  I was fine with this final product as I love sprinkles and this cake reminded me of my favorite summer treat  - a soft twist sprinkles, oh how I love soft serve ice cream.  

For the school treat we continued the sushi theme with Rice Krispie sushi treats.  I love krispie treats and don't usually like messing around with their simple perfection, but the addition of a Swedish fish is pretty yummy.  The Fruit by the Foot and Gummy Worms were too much for me, but the kids loved them and that's what's important.

Nigiri Krispies
Printer Ready

¼ cup butter
32 large marshmallows (or 4 cups mini marshmallows)
6 cup crispie rice cereal
½  cup white chocolate chips
1 bag Swedish Fish

Butter 9x13 sheet pan.  

In a 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat melt butter.  Once butter has melted add marshmallows and stir until smooth.  Remove from heat, add cereal and stir until combined.  Pour mixture into prepared pan, lightly butter hands and press mixture to evenly distribute.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes.  

While treats are cooling melt chocolate.  Fill bottom half of double boiler with water, bring to a simmer.  Put chocolate in top of boiler pan and place over simmering water.  Gently stir chocolate until smooth.  

Cut the krispies into 2"x1” pieces.  Dip the top of each piece into chocolate, top with Swedish Fish  

Family Fun has a great tutorial on the rolls and the kids had a great time making these.

Strawberry Shortcake

My daughter just celebrated her 5th birthday and requested a Strawberry Shortcake themed birthday party.  She also requested to have a moonbounce, which made the party super simple, even though the weather was absolutely miserable.

I had planned on setting everything up outside, but the cold temperatures and rain made that impossible, so we move all the food inside.  I am not good at decorating so the decorations consisted of red, green and pink balloons.  I kept the table simple with a green table cloth and served everything in red bowls.  A couple of years ago I bought a red tiered server from Pottery barn, it was on clearance when I got it and it has been one of my best purchases ever.  I have decided that red is a great option for serving ware and have become a little obsessed with collecting it.  It is perfect for Christmas, 4th of July, Valentines Day and of course Strawberry Shortcake parties, plus it is a great accent piece for many other occasions.

Enough of my red obsession, back to the party.  As I said the table was simple and so was the food.  We had "Fancy" Strawberry and Cream Cheese Sandwich Pockets, pizza muffins, apples and caramel and strawberries and chocolate.  We also served Strawberry Milk and Strawberry Lemonade.  Very simple, but enjoyed by both the kids and the adults who stuck around.  I apologize that I don't have a picture of the spread, but I somehow forgot to take any pictures, but as I said it was simple and not very exciting to look at, so you aren't missing out on much.

The cake was fun to make.  Again, it was pretty simple and wasn't overly Strawberry Shortcake in appearance.  I don't like putting people or faces on cakes, it creeps me out to cut the cakes and eat them, but that is my own personal problem, so even though Maggie loved the Wilton cake, I just couldn't do it.  I found some great ideas on-line and this was the final product.

I was pretty happy with it, but by the time I went to serve it it had started to bow out.  A friend thought I had designed the cake that way on purpose to mimic the characters hat, which it kind of did.  I am not sure what caused the cake to bulge out.  The cake wasn't sliding so I am thinking that some of the icing from the top of the cake started to slide down, although the icing was still smooth on all sides.  If you have any ideas what might have happened or know what would cause this I would love to find out.

Birthday Cake

I had a last minute request for a birthday cake.  There was no design request, which is one of those things that I love and hate.  It is nice not having to live up to any preconceived idea of what the cake will look like, but it is a little stressful having to come up with something that will appeal to the recipient without any guidelines.  This is the final product

Very simple, but it gave me the opportunity to practice some basic cake making skills, like getting the icing smooth which I still struggle with.

Also in the works is a Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake for my daughter who is turning 5.  I tried to convince her to go with an owl cake.  I have been thinking about an owl cake since July when Louise posted this cake from her sons's birthday party, plus I have been seeing so many cute owl projects that I want to make, but she is standing her ground and Strawberry Shortcake it is.  Which I am happy about since I loved the Strawberry Shortcake gang as a kid and it is nice to see they are still around.

On a side note has anybody tried any of the new products from Wilton?  When I went to Michael's to pick up some supplies I was amazed by all the products.  Sheets of fondant/gumpaste, tons of different cutters and molds.  Has anybody found anything that is really great?

Cookies or Cake

This month was the last month the Cake Slice bakers were baking with Lauren Chattman's book "Cake Keeper Cakes."  We didn't vote on a cake this month as in previous months, instead we could choose any cake in the book.  There were a couple of cakes I had been eyeing and looking forward to making,  unfortunately I didn't get around to making one of her cakes.

My husband's birthday was earlier this week.  Mike isn't a cake guy, he is a cookie, pie, tart kind of guy, so this year I told him I wasn't making a cake.  He could choose anything else, but I wasn't doing a cake.  He chose Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and I was all set to make them.  But then I turned on him, the idea of not having a cake for his birthday just didn't seem right.  I think everyone should have a cake on their birthday, so he got an Oatmeal Raisin Cake for his birthday.

When thinking of this type of cake it didn't sound right to me.  I don't know why, but it sounded like it would have an odd mouth feel. I was completely wrong and this was a delicious cake.  My son kept on insisting it was a carrot cake, as the flavors are very similar.  I topped the cake with a browned butter icing which was a nice accompaniment.  This is a great cake for the fall and  is also great for a birthday celebration that you don't need a cake for, but want to make one anyway.

Oatmeal Raisin Cake
Printer Ready

1 cup Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 cup Golden Raisins
1 ½  cups boiling Water
2 Tbs. Rum
1 ½  cups sifted Flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Cinnamon
½  tsp. Nutmeg
¼  tsp. Cloves
½ cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
½ cup Brown Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Butter and flour an 8x12 inch baking pan.
Combine oats and raisins, add boiling water and stir until combined.  Allow to cool to room temperature.  
Sift the flour with the baking soda and spices, set aside.  In large mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until until well mixed.
Add sifted flour mixture alternating with the cooled oatmeal, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.  Mix until combined.
Pour into prepared pan.  
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
Cool completely and top with Brown Butter Icing.  

Brown Butter Icing
Printer Ready

4 tablespoons Unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Cream Cheese
1 ½  cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and pour butter into a bowl of electric mixer, leaving any burned sediment behind.   Add ½ cup sugar and mix until combined.  Add cream cheese and mix until smooth.  Continue adding sugar mixing until smooth.  Add vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk.  Add remaining tablespoon a little at a time until consistency is spreadable.  

Chocolate Cake

My husband put in his yearly request for a super chocolate birthday cake for his coworker who loves chocolate.  I was looking for something different from my usual chocolate cake so I decided to check out Monica's recipes over at Lick the Bowl Good.  She has lots of wonderful recipes and her pictures are beautiful, I always want to run to the kitchen and start cooking after visiting her site.

I opted for her Triple Chocolate Cake and definitely made a good choice.  The cake was a mayonnaise cake and was wonderfully moist, the filling was a creamy white chocolate mousse and it was topped with a silky sour cream chocolate icing.  The icing is very soft and I followed Monica's suggestion and thickened it slightly with some confectioners sugar, I also let it rest for a while before spreading.  It was very nice to work with, I didn't try piping with it, but it was great to spread and firmed up on the cake very nicely.  The individual components were delicious and from what I heard they combined to make a very flavorful and yummy cake.  Mike commented that the cake wasn't too sweet, but was a little too chocolaty for his taste - I think when you have a cake named Triple Chocolate it is bound to be super chocolaty.  

 Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake

Recipe from Sky High Irresistible Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne via Monica at Lick the Bowl Good

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ¼ tsp baking soda

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

2 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 cup milk

1 ¼ cups hot, strongly brewed coffee

2 eggs

1 cup mayonnaise (not low fat or fat free)

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 9 inch round cake pans. Line the base of each pan with parchment.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

Put the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the milk to a simmer. Pour the hot coffee and milk over the chocolate. Let stand for a minute, then whisk until smooth. Let the mocha liquid cool slightly.

In a mixer bowl, beat together the eggs, mayonnaise and vanilla until well blended. Gradually beat in the sugar. Add the dry ingredients and mocha liquid alternately in 2 or 3 additions, beating until smooth and well blended. Divide the batter among the 3 prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out almost clean. Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10-15 minutes before un-molding onto a wire rack and carefully peeling off the paper. Leave to cool completely.

White Chocolate Mousse

4 ounces white chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

1 egg white

1 tbsp sugar

Melt the white chocolate with ¼ cup cream in a double boiler. Whisk until smooth. Remove from the heat and let the white chocolate cream cool to room temperature.

When it has cooled, beat the remaining ¾ cup cream until soft peaks form. In a clean bowl whip the egg white with the sugar until fairly stiff peaks form.

Fold the beaten egg white into the white chocolate cream, then fold in the whipped cream until blended. Be sure not to over mix.

Sour Cream Chocolate Icing

12 ounces bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate, chopped

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

2 tbsp light corn syrup

¼ cup half-and-half at room temperature

½ cup sour cream, at room temperature

Melt the chocolate with the butter and corn syrup in a double boiler over barly simmering water. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth.

Whisk in the half-and-half and sour cream. Use while still soft.

To Assemble

Place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or serving plate. Cover the top evenly with half the white chocolate mousse, leaving a ¼ inch margin around the edge. Repeat with the second layer and the remaining mousse. Set the third layer on top and pour half the sour cream chocolate icing over the filled cake. Spread all over the sides and top. Don’t worry if some of the cake shows through. This first frosting is to seal in the crumbs, and is known as a crumb coat. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes.