An Egg-free/Dairy-free Happy Birthday

When my co-worker asked me to make a smash cake for her son's first birthday, I really didn't know what I was in for.  She asked me months in advance and I started looking for ideas on what she was wanting.  Then the call came.  About 3 weeks before the party, I get a phone call.  "Hi....so...how hard would it be to make a cake that is egg-free and dairy-free...?" Um.....yeah.  Not what I was expecting, but I'm pretty good at Google-ing and pretty handy with Pinterest, so I knew how to search for a recipe.  So after a quick search, I soon discovered I had already pinned a recipe that was both egg-free and dairy-free....I must have known I was going to need it at some point.  (Oh...and this recipe is also butter-free!)

And what's a birthday without a cake...not to mention a 1st birthday?!  My co-worker's son had recently been tested for allergies and was even given an Epi-pen for the egg and dairy allergies.  So now, this cake was going to be even more special.  It was not only going to be his first cake, but the only cake he might ever be able to eat!

The cake is called Crazy/Wacky Cake or Depression Cake...what would be really depressing would be life without cake.  This cake was created back in the Great Depression when eggs, milk, and sugar were scarce or too expensive.  I tried this cake before I finished decorating it for the birthday boy and as a "I'll take extra eggs, dairy, and butter in my cake" kind of girl, I could tell there was something different about this cake.  But...if I had gone to a party and was served a slice of this cake with frosting on it, not knowing that it was missing some key cake-making ingredients, I might not have been able to tell a difference.

Birthday boy's mom reported that he loved his cake...mission accomplished!

Now...you may be asking yourself...if he is dairy-free, how did you make the buttercream icing?  Buttercream by its name is made with butter and butter is most certainly not dairy-free.  And even though you can find margarine that is dairy free or close to it - margarine doesn't work well when making buttercream.  Over the last several years, shortening has gone through a transformation in attempts to make it healthier.  Turns out when you change shortening, you now need to find another fat to make really good buttercream and really good pie crust.  An alternative was needed.  Welcome, sweetex.  A little info on sweetex can be found here.  Sweetex is what I've used to make buttercream for the last couple of wedding cakes I've made.  The icing turns out bright white, has a great consistency, and tastes great.

The site where I found this recipe also stated that other's have made this recipe with gluten-free flour mixes and it turns out great.  Sweet Little Bluebird also posted other recipes for other flavors of Crazy/Wacky Cake on her site.  Special thank you to Sweet Little Bluebird for all of these great allergy-friendly recipes.

Crazy/Wacky Cake - Chocolate
Crazy/Wacky Cake - Vanilla and Spiced
Crazy/Wacky Cake - Lemon
Crazy/Wacky Cake - Coffee & Kahlua
Crazy/Wacky Cake - In a Mug

Now those of you who have egg and dairy allergies can have your cake and eat it too!

Happy birthday and happy baking!

Balsamic...savory and sweet

Summer is in full swing and that means tomatoes and strawberries are readily available.  Another thing I found at the grocery store this week...buy one, get one bruschetta bread slices.  I haven't had bruschetta since 2007 when I took a little trip to Italy and I've never tried making it, until tonight.  I did a search for bruschetta and came across the recipe from The Pioneer Woman and I was sold.  Click here for the recipe.

A simple and delicious summer appetizer.

Now for something sweet...

I've been wanting to grill fruit for awhile now and since we already had the grill fired up for dinner, I decided to try my hand at grilled strawberries.

You'll need:

   strawberries (hulled and sliced in half)

   balsamic vinegar

   sugar

• Pour a small amount of balsamic vinegar in a bowl and add in sliced strawberries, stir to coat.
• Then roll strawberries in sugar and thread on a grilling skewer.
• Places skewers directly on grill and leave for 3-5 minutes (depending on temperature of grill).
• Turn and repeat.
• Remove from skewers and serve in anyway you like...on pound cake, ice cream, cheesecake, whipped topping, or just eat by themselves. 

Happy grilling!

Incomplete

As a student, the word "incomplete" written at the top of your assignment was something you didn't want to see.  Just a heads up...I'm going to rant about a couple of things in this post.

Those of you who are on Pinterest: I don't know your method of pinning, but here's what I do.  I'm not saying my method is the best, but I don't want to pin something and then go back later and open the pin to find it only leads to a broken link or just the homepage of the website where I then have to go searching for the exact thing I was looking for OR a completely random site.

When I am scrolling through all the greatness of Pinterest and I come across a pin I'm interested in, I click on it and make sure that it leads me to where I ultimately want to go.
 - If it's a broken link, I don't pin that one - I then go and search for that item in the Pinterest search bar and open the pins until I find a link that works and is correct.
 - If I click on the pin and it takes me to the homepage of the website - I find the search bar on that page and search for the item I was looking for (this mostly happens with food blogs) and then I create the pin myself using the correct page and photo of the item.
 - If I click on the pin and it leads me to that random site that has nothing to do with the cupcake recipe I was looking for....I go back to the Pinterest search bar and try to find another pin that has the correct link.  Sometimes this doesn't even work BECAUSE...there are a lot of people not checking the pins before they pin them!

If it's something I really want to save for future use, I use Google to find what I'm looking for and create my own pin for the item.  And there are those times when you go to look at the recipe from the pin and you click on the picture and all it does is open another browser window and show you an enlarge version of the picture you already clicked with no other information...please tell me this happens to other people?!  (This is really the most frustrating with DIY projects and recipes.)  SO...as a plea to all my fellow pinners - please check your pins!

Ok, first rant down.  Second rant begins now:  to those of you out there that are posting recipes online - be sure you include all of the directions/ingredients!  Yes, mistakes happen and things get over looked, but go back in a couple of days and re-read your recipe to make sure you haven't forgotten anything.

My example of this: Bo-Berry Biscuits

I found and saved this recipe awhile back and then was reminded of it this week when my best friend from high school pinned it and it showed up in my Pinterest feed.  I love blueberries and especially in breakfast treats and wanted to treat myself a little on my day off, so I picked up some fresh blueberries on my way home last night.  I didn't want to use dried like the recipe also suggests because I wanted the juicy berries to be throughout these biscuits.  If you love blueberry muffins you know what I mean...that bite when you are reminded of blueberry greatness.  So fresh berries and they a little pricey, so I was hoping even more that this recipe turned out amazing to know that money was well spent on these berries.

I read through the recipe before I started and guess what - it was incomplete!  No where in the recipe did it say where I needed to add the berries.  Now, I've been doing things in the kitchen since I little, just sitting on the counter watching, so I could felt confident that I could solve this dilemma.  (On a side note - the person who copied this recipe for posting did include the link to the site where they found the recipe.  This wasn't something I noticed on my phone when using it to pull up the recipe.)

Well after adding the berries at the end and trying to make it work as best as I could, I ended up not actually making them into biscuits.  I was so frustrated that the recipe left out when to add them!  Yes, I realize that it is something so minor to get upset about, but tell me you haven't started a recipe and then realized it wasn't complete.

Anyway, instead of trying to roll out the mess of ball of dough I had created (my fresh berries were being destroyed trying to incorporate them in the dough), I put it in an 8x8 glass baking dish and baked it that way.  I'm not sure how long it was in the oven, but I checked on it a couple of times and then checked it with a toothpick.  It was probably in there 15-20 minutes (it was much thicker in the baking dish than the intended biscuits would have been).

Rant #2 complete.

Even with an incomplete recipe to work with, the end result is pretty amazing.  And yes, I did enjoy some of it for my breakfast this morning.

Click here for the correct link to the recipe for these Bo-Berry Biscuits.

Happy baking!

Oh my....

I really never meant to go this long with out a post on my blog....but things got crazy!  Like took on a part-time job on top of a full-time job crazy....

Paul and I took on a part-time ministry position together...children./youth ministers for our church.  We are really excited about the opportunity and have enjoyed our time in service so far.

Due to this and all the craziness of just work and sickness that's gone around, I am happy that spring and warm weather are finally here.  And with that has come a new attitude for food.  I am trying to be more conscious of what we eat and cooking more meals at home.  I have created a new menu that's posted on our fridge and so far I have done most of the grocery shopping and actually accomplished cooking one of the meals last week.

I had a recipe saved on my Pinterest board for quite some time and came across it again when I was looking for some healthy meal ideas to add to the menu.  Here's the link for the Brown Sugar Pork Chops....I like to read the reviews of the recipes before using them and took some advice from a couple of the reviews before making these chops.  I paired the Brown Sugar Pork Chops with green beans and a mushroom risotto.  And....it all turned out amazing!  (I didn't grill mine, but will be doing that next time.  I also used bone in pork chops and baked them according to the review by MOMCOOL, 350 for 20 minutes.)

I hope you enjoy this recipe!
Happy cooking!