Dinosaur Birthday Cake

For his birthday, my son wanted a cake that was a dinosaur.  I had seen cakes that were dino themed, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to recreate it.  It was much easier than I expected!  Here's how I did it.

Bake your cake in a bowl.  I used a Pyrex bowl because it is oven safe.  The cake recipe I used made more cake than I wanted in the bowl, so I cooked the extra in a bread pan.

Put a little blob of frosting on your plate where you want the cake to go.  This will act as a glue to help keep your cake in place.  Then do a thin coat of frosting to keep the crumbs from spreading.  After doing this, put the cake in the fridge for an hour.  You want the frosting to NOT come off on your finger when you touch it.

While the cake was hardening up in the fridge, I took some of the extra cake and crumbled it up, mixed it with some frosting (this is how you make cake balls, by the way), and shaped it to be my head, feet and tail, and then frosted them with a crumb coat as well.

Although I used butter-cream frosting for the majority of the cake, I did do the accents with fondant.  I cut out circles for the spots, squares for the plates along his back (we were making a stegosaurus), and I rolled little snakes and cut off the ends for the claws and spikes.

After everything was hardened enough, I pulled out all the pieces and put them together with pieces of popsicle sticks.  Then I did a thick coat of frosting over everything to make it look like one solid piece.

Add the decorations, and voila!  you have a dinosaur cake!

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a recipe of one of my old roommates from college, and it is SO GOOD!  Super gooey, super chocolaty, and super yummy!  Not only that, but they are naturally egg free, so I didn't even have to alter the recipe (which I like since altered recipes sometimes work and sometimes don't).







Combine:
1 1/2 c. flour
2/3 c. baking cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

In a separate bowl beat together:
12 Tbsp. softened butter
2/3 c. sugar
2/3 c. brown sugar

Add in:
4 Tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat in flour mixture and 1 cup chocolate chips. Bake in 350 degree oven for 12 - 14 minutes.

Chocolate Caramel Doughnut Holes

I saw this recipe here, and I had to try them!  They were surprisingly easy.  The kids were even able to help me make them (they rolled most of the balls).  So, not only was it a tasty treat, but it was a fun family activity, too.  These worked really well with egg replacer, so J could eat them, too.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour,plus more for work surface
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 1 cup sugar, plus more for coating
• 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter,melted
• 2 large eggs (or fake egg equivalent)
• 28-30 store bought soft caramel squares, unwrapped
• 5 to 6 cups vegetable oil, for frying

 Directions:

1. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together sugar, buttermilk, butter and eggs (or fake eggs) until thoroughly combined. Stir buttermilk mixture into flour mixture just until smooth dough forms. 
2. On a lightly floured work surface, pat dough flat and lightly flour. Roll out dough to a 1/3-inch thickness. Cut into rounds with a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter (or appropriately sized cup, since I don't have round cookie cutters). Reroll and cut scraps. 
3. Place a caramel in the center of each round, pinch dough closed around it and gently roll into a smooth ball.
4. Line baking sheet with paper towels. Fill wide, shallow bowl with 1 inch of sugar. In a large, heavy pot, heat 4 inches of oil until it registers 350 on a candy thermometer. In batches, fry doughnuts for 3-4 minutes, turning once with a slotted spoon and adjusting heat as needed. Transfer doughnuts to prepared sheet; let rest for 4 minutes. Roll in sugar to coat. Serve immediately. (they really were better fresh, but if you have leftovers heat them in the microwave for 10 seconds to re-melt the caramel)

Hazelnut Cupcakes

I knew that I wanted to make some kind of cupcake with the hazelnut butter I had made, but I couldn't find any kind of recipies for what I wanted.  So I started looking for recipeies with peanut butter that I could repalce with the hazelnut butter.  This is a Paula Deen recipe from Food Network for a Peanut Butter Cake that I altered to make into what I wanted.  They were delicious!!!

Though I usually go eggless, I didn't worry about it with these.  The main reason being that J is now allergic to tree nuts as well, so he wouldn't be able to eat them anyway.  I got him a candy bar to eat while we ate these.


Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I crushed mine in the food processor until they were as fine as flour - it took about 18 graham crackers)
3/4 cup Hazelnut butter
1/2 cup butter
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Add graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter, shortening, milk, and vanilla. Beat mixture with electric mixer on low until moistened, and then beat on medium for 2 minutes. Add eggs and beat for 1 minute. 
3. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.  Fill each cup approximately 2/3 of the way up.  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
4. I frosted them with a chocolate butter cream frosting and they were delicious!

Hazelnut Butter

So I was at Trader Joe's the other day, and I saw the bag of hazelnuts and had to buy them.  I knew I wanted to make something really yummy, but I didn't know what.  I decided to start with this.  So simple, yet so good!  Upcoming, the cupcakes I'm going to make with the hazelnut butter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread hazelnuts onto cookie sheet and toast in oven for about 15 minutes.  When you can start to smell them, they are getting close to being done.  Let them start to get brown, but don't let them burn!  (the dark skins may scorch a little, and that is okay)

Stick the hazelnuts in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds, then turn it on high and let it go for a few minutes.  At first it will just look crumbly, but after you've let it go for a while, the oils form the hazelnuts will start coming out and it will look wet.

You can add sweetener or salt if you like, but this part you really should just do to taste.  I added a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of honey and it is delicious!

Upcoming - the hazelnut cupcakes I'm going to make with this!

Cookie Press Cookies

Yet another holiday cookie complements of my Mom.  This time of year is always reminiscent of baking for me, and I have tried to carry the tradition on with my kids.  I always thought that cookie press cookies were so cool!  If you don't have a cookie press, you can roll this dough out and cut it with cutters.

Ingredients

1 lb butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten (or egg replacer equivalent)
5 cups flour
food coloring (for Christmas I make green wreaths and trees)

Directions

1. Mix ingredients together and use cookie press to form cookies.
2. If you want to embellish with candies, do it now (I used red hots on the wreaths)
3. Bake at 350 degrees F until done (about 10 minutes).

Ring-a-ling

This is another recipe that I got from my Mom.  I was looking through recipes last Christmas and I picked this one to try because it didn't have eggs in it and I had recently found out about J's egg allergy.  Too bad he's also allergic to pecans now!  Oh well. I still really like them!

Ingredients

1 cup flour
dash salt
1/2 cup butter at room temp
3 Tbsp confectioner's sugar
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla
your favorite jam or jelly (I used cherry jam, but I also like raspberry and apricot)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
2. Sift flour and salt.  Cream butter and sugar.  
3. Combine parts and add pecans and vanilla.
4. Chill several hours.  Roll into balls and press hallow with thumb.  Fill with jam.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Cool then enjoy!