Mini Can Cakes: Funfetti Flavored

Inspired by our new little fairy door, I thought I'd try my hand at baking miniatures.
These are three of the homeliest little cakes I have ever made.

I tried my hand at tin can cakes, and was fairly successful:

I baked four, and came out with three topsy-turvy little uglies.  

Instructions:

 1. Remove paper from cans and wash thoroughly.

I ended up using four for one standard box cake mix.

The mix I used was a simple yellow cake mix, and then I threw in sprinkles to make them funfetti.  

Not bad.

2. Grease and flour the insides of the cans thoroughly.  

This is very important, because you want you little cakes to pop right out after cooling.

3.  Fill cans with batter until they are just above half way full.

WARNING: Do not be liberal with your pours.  

Better to underestimate than over.  

I was too generous with my first can and it spilled over in the oven. 

4. I baked mine for about 20 minutes on 350 degrees.  

However, I wish I'd zapped them for an extra five to ten because, thought the tops were bouncy and done, the very bottoms were mushy.

 5.  Pick a fun contrasting color for you icing and mix it while you wait!

 6.  As you can see my left one bubbled up.  

Check you mini cakes with a toothpick.

 7. Ta-Dah!  

Let them cool completely.  

Then run a knife along the edges of the cakes and upturn the cans to allow the little chubbs to fall out on a plate.  

8. Slice them in thirds or fourths.  I should have done fourths, they would have been more stable.

WARNING:  Do not mix up the pieces or you will end up with very topsy turvy cakes like mine! 

9. Ice.

10. Enjoy!  

Vanilla Cream Soda Pops

Ingredients:

20 oz cream soda

2 cups water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla (I added more, which made a nice syrupy coat on the pops)

Tools:

NOT a cupcake tin

NOT spoons

Directions:

1. Pour cream soda in bowl and whisk until no longer bubbly.  Don't play games, cream soda is especially creamy and fizzy--use the whisk.

2.  Heat water and sugar in sauce pan until the sugar is dissolved (a few minutes).

3.  Pour into NOT cupcake tins and add anything but plastic spoons.  

4. Freeze for a delicious treat.

New Year's Truffles

Ingredients:

2 bags chocolate chips 

1 cup/can sweetened condensed milk

1 tbs vanilla

Directions:

1.Mix chocolate chips and condensed milk and zap in microwave for a minute and a half, but stop and stir every 30 seconds.  

2. Add the vanilla, and let set for three-ish hours, or until firm.  

3. Scoop out the mix and roll in toppings of your choice.  

I had the most difficulty with the coconut and nuts.

The non-pareils worked alright, but sugar textured sprinkles worked best.  

What's Your Favorite Recipe?

What's your favorite recipe?

I need your help!

This requires a special font and illustration.

I am working on a collaborative project and 

need your most especially favorite recipe.  

I hate flipping through cookbooks hunting down a recipe I've never tried.  I'd much rather use your tried-and-true favorites.  

Please send me your favorite recipe!

the.pea.and.me@gmail.com

Pickling

 Munion's Sour Pickles

Ingredients

2 qts water

1/3 salt 

1 cup white vinegar

1/3-1/2 sugar (depending on how sweet/bitter your cucumbers are)

Cucumbers

Garlic

Seed Heads of Dill (or dill seed)

Glass jars

Directions

1. Boil water, salt, vinegar and sugar.

2. Let it cool.

3. Clean your jars with soapy water, bands, everything!

4. Sterilize jars (pour water into it and zap in microwave till boils, or

put in oven for bit or run through steri cycle in the dishwasher)

5. Slice cucumbers into spears.  Bigger cucumbers that have remained on the vine longer can be far more bitter than smaller ones.  Be sure to sample each to decide how much sugar should go in your mixture.

5.  Once jars have cooled, pack with cucumbers, garlic, seed heads of dill.  (We also made a special batch for my mom and added horseradish to hers) 

6. Pour cold syrup on top of contents of jar.

7. Screw lid on top, place in refrigerator for five day to achieve proper pickling. 

The pickles will keep for up to six months, but they must remain refrigerated.

Arrival Dinner

Salmon

Sauce:

1/3 part honey

1/3 part dijon mustard

1/3 part cooking sherry

White Rice

Butter

Cilantro

Salt

Lemon Zest

Gourmalmost Cookies n' Cream

The eve before we set out for Pennsylvania, I was cleaning out our fridge of it's remaining perishables.  I wanted something chocolaty-sweet but couldn't look at the Milky Way bar in the pantry.  Candy Bars gross me out a little...snack size I can handle, but I never feel good after a "real" Twix or 100 Grand.

Solution: Cookies n' Cream Pudding!  (I feel like saying cream, and then pudding, is redundant.  Am I alone on that one?)  I wanted to make a portion of the jell-o package we had in the pantry, but milk was one of the said perishables that my little brothers took care of at breakfast.  But Mom had 100 calorie vanilla pudding cups in the fridge that she'd lost interest in!  I can understand.  Vanilla pudding is a little...vanilla.  Boring.  

We also had knock-off mini oreos in the pantry which had been lonely for weeks and needed a home in my tummy.  So there you have it: my Gourmalmost creation.  

Magic Wands for the Premier!

Magic Wands for the premier!

Tips:

1. Melt chocolate in a clear container so that you can check the bottom for burning.

2. Heat in thirty second bursts (assuming you are using a microwave).

3. Stir after every burst.  

4. Once the chocolate glistens in the slightest, you can stir it until it liquifies.  Your chocolate will still look solid when it is ready to be stirred and taken out of the heat.  If you wait for the microwave to do the work, you will have burnt chocolate.  

5. When dunking, leave a gap in the chocolate to grip.

6. Do everything on parchment paper!

7. Do not immediately coat rods in toppings.  They will slide off.  Let first coat harden and then drizzle with chocolate and sprinkle with toppings. 

8. Don't dispose of broken pretzel rods, dunk them as well for a bite-size treat.

Cake Pop, why do you hate me?

Today I had over some of the Ace Gang for a Cake Pop Party.  I had baked a funfetti cake the day before, and the four of us poured over Cake Pops by Bakerella and in a daring move decided to try out a more advanced recipe: Cake Pop Owls.  Note that the book strongly advises you to start off nice and easy with cake balls and then work your way up.  However, ABC was showing a Harry Potter marathon and we were going to make Hedwigs.  Our resident culinary genius was out of the state, and looking back on it, it was a little unwise to attempt such an undertaking without Amy.   

Words of advice for those of you who would like to try making cake pops yourselves:

1.  

DO NOT CAKE POP SOLO.  You need more than two hands for this job, especially if you want to decorate them.   

2.  

Leave space in your refrigerator.  Unless you are planning on eating them all in one sitting (don't do it, one is filling enough, those things sit like sweet sinful bricks in your belly), leave space for your pops.

3.  

If you don't have a "foam block" on hand, turn a cardboard box upside down and poke holes in it for the pops to stand in.  

4.  

Embrace the mess.  Things are going to drip, crumble and spill.  Just leave it and move on before you drop your Cake Pop.

5.  

Freeze the suckers.  Zap 'em for a good 45 minutes.  The book reccommends a 15 minute chill in the freezer before you stick and dunk them.  Don't kid yourself, they will FALL APART, leaving you a whimpering, sticky mess.

6.  

Do them in small batches, maybe four or five at a time.  Let the others chill in the freezer/fridge, so that they don't go soft.

7. 

Coconut and sprinkles cover a multitude of sins.  Cake Pop look ugly?  Roll it in something yummy and suddenly you look like a pastry pro.  

8. Give them away!  Cake Pops are too cute not to share!  For easy transport, wrap them in pretty cellophane tied with a bow and balance them in a cup.  

Despite our melodrama, we had a TON of fun, and we're all very proud of the results.  Those Cake Pops whipped us at first, but we ended up beating them in the end.