Cat Cake!

Today's post is a blast from the past.  This a straight copy from my previous blog that I wanted to share with Witchery followers. You may not have the need to make a cat shaped cake, but this post is more than that.  It shares a number of helpful cake baking and decorating tricks I learned that can applied to any cake.

This year my daughter wanted a kitty cat themed birthday party, so I decided that I would make a cat cake.  I feel that I am a pretty good cook, but only a mediocre baker.  Cakes are really not my strong point.  I decided I wanted my cake to look pretty good, so with only week to improve my cake building skills, I started my research.  My favorite bit of info came from a site called 5 min.  There were multiple videos from a master cake decorator.  So Gigi and I watched each video to pick up some important tips.  I also found a pattern for a cake cat made from two 8 inch rounds on the Betty Crocker site.

I decided a test cake using my new found knowledge would give me some practice.  I didn't want to make a cat because it would take some of the bang out the final cake.  I baked two 8 inch round cakes and quickly realized that these cakes were way too thin; they did not meet my vision of a nice thick cake.  That was fine I got to practice shaving off the uneven parts (which made it even thinner) and then put the layers together.  This cake ended up being a butterfly.

I bought two new 8 inch rounds that were much deeper than my other pans and decided to use two boxes of cake mix.  I know, all this trouble and I am making cake from the box!?  Well, I figured I had enough of a challenge on my plate without having to test cake recipes. 

The new rounds worked great although they did give me a bit a muffin top, so the top side needed to be shaved off.  Once I had my nice flat rounds, I used the pattern from Betty Crocker to cut out the tail, ears and head.  So far so good.

The next BIG thing I learned about cake decorating, is to do a crumb coat.  This is a thin layer of icing over the whole cake that seals in the crumbs.  This is the best tip ever.  Another tip I learned from some site, is to use Wilton Meringue Powder in your icing to help it harden just a bit.  I like this addition to the crumb coat icing, which was homemade, because it gave that crumb coat extra toughness.  I did have one small issue during this step.  The tip of one ear broke off.  I put some icing on it and "glued" it back on.

I put the cake in the refrigerator to set.  Once I felt it was firm, I mixed up some more Wilton Meringue Powder in some store bought chocolate frosting, and liberally frosted the whole thing.  This was going way better than I had expected.  I put it in the box and chilled it overnight.

 The next morning, I mixed up some pink icing.  Again store bought, but white.  I added some pink cake icing coloring and Wilton Meringue Powder.  I piped it on, put in some gum drops, added a bit of sugar glitter and I was finished! 

A lot of work went into the cake and I invested in some new tools, but I am glad I spent the time to study up and practice.  Now I no longer fear making a special cake.

Spicy Eggplant Tomato Sauce

This is going to a quick one, because school is back and session and somehow I find myself with even less time than I had before.  Maybe it's prepping for all the after school activities that happen to fall right during the time I would normally make dinner.  As was the case last night.

One the caveats of running short on time is that I am falling behind on using all my fabulous CSA veggies.  In fact, yesterday when I picked up my box I still had several things leftover from last week. I don't want anything to go to waste, so I looked at what I had.  Two of the items were jalapenos and a bag of fairytale eggplants, yummy stuff! I knew they had to be part of last night's dinner.

I threw together this quick and easy pasta sauce, and let it sit on the stove ready and waiting for us to return from soccer practice. It was perfect served over some nice mild cheese ravioli.

Spicy Eggplant Tomato Sauce
8 servings

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups eggplant, sliced
3 cloves garlic, pressed
2 each jalapeno peppers, sliced (discard the seeds from one, use the seeds from the other)
14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes
32 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine
kosher salt
pepper

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Add the onion and eggplant and saute until slightly tender.  Eggplant will soak up all the oil so once that happens, add a bit of water to keep the process going.

Once you see the eggplant softening, add the jalapenos and continue to saute for a minute or two then add the crushed garlic.  Saute a minute longer.

Add both cans of tomatoes, red wine and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 30 minutes then cover and let sit until ready to serve.

Serve over any type of pasta.


Nutritional Information from Mastercook:
Per Serving: 119 Calories; 7g Fat (52.3% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 12g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 159mg Sodium.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

One of the great things about summer is the bounty of fresh veggies.  One of the worst things about summer is also the bounty of fresh veggies.  I love fresh veggies and I love to cook, but sometimes I get stuck in a rut. Sometimes I am just too tired to think of something new. The problem is the veggies are still sitting there demanding to be used before they spoil.

Zucchini is one of those veggies that everyone seems to have in great abundance this time of year, and even though I am so sick of it now I know I would kill to find a decent one at the grocery store in the winter. My daughter has been pretty good at eating the zucchini that has come across her plate, but she's getting sick of it too. Thank goodness for Pinterest. I surf there when I am board.  The other day there was a fat free, gluten free chocolate zucchini bread.  It looked good, but the fat free, gluten free part didn't float my boat.  I do like calorie reduced, but I need some fat.  In fact I thought a good chocolate zucchini bread would make a great vehicle to get some more coconut oil into our diet.

Once I am inspired to make something new I search the Internet to see what others have done.  Once I see what I like, I either combine a few recipes or just modify one.  I know you're asking why don't I just follow one recipe? I don't know, I just want it my way.  The one I used had some whole wheat flour, which if you like keep it, but as much as they say we are supposed to eat it, I don't like it so, I went for regular flour. Maybe next time I'll try and use half white whole wheat flour. My daughter doesn't like nuts so those got nixed (although I would have preferred to keep them). I wanted more cocoa and some brown sugar, and of course coconut oil. The other thing was I wanted it packed full of zucchini, so I used a lot. In fact when I folded it in it looked like a little batter with a lot of shredded zucchini, and I wasn't sure it was going to work. No worries, it came out great.

I made the bread and when my daughter got home from school she was enchanted by the scent of baked chocolate in the air.  I could have neglected to tell her about the zucchini part, but I'm not that kind of mom, so I immediately told her what it was. Ugh, really? was the response. Anyway she gave it a try and had seconds.  She also had a piece after dinner for desert.  Good stuff.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
adapted from Eating Well's Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2 loaves , 8 servings each

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups zucchini – grated and packed

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray two loaf pans with cooking spray.

Combine coconut oil and unsweetened chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 15 seconds, stir, then repeat until the chocolate is melted.

In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl combine eggs, sugar, applesauce, vanilla and melted chocolate and coconut oil mixture. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in zucchini. Spoon the batter into the prepared pans, smoothing the tops.

Bake the loaves 40-45 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto rack and cool completely.

Nutritional Analysis from Mastercook

Per Serving: 190 Calories; 6g Fat (26.3% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 32g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 40mg Cholesterol; 139mg Sodium.