JAMSquared

Today is release day for a new scrapping digi-kit by Amy’s Designs. It is called Amy’s Kitchen. Doesn’t it look fun?

First up, I made a layout of a recent baking session with Jessica. It uses the Scrapbookbytes.com October Sketch 1. Journaling reads: “August 11, 2011 Jessica enjoyed helping bake cookies, Mint Chocolate Delights, a recipe on the bag of dark chocolate and mint baking morsels. It is definitely messier baking with a toddler, but the experience is so worth it.”

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Amy’s Kitchen
Fonts Used: Milk & Cereal

This next project is a 4×6 recipe card. It is a recipe from my Nanny’s recipe box and a great way to use up leftover egg yolks.

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Amy’s Kitchen
Fonts Used: Annie BTN

Check out what the rest of the creative team came up with here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day.

Normally, I don’t like to do more than one blog post in a day, but I had planned to get this posted yesterday, but didn’t have time and today’s the deadline for the challenge.

Today’s tag was made for my niece, Aspen. I had a lot of fun with this tag, even if I did have to stamp it three times and I still had a tad too much pressure in some spots. Oh well. I followed my friend Lori’s suggestion and waited a day before heating up the liquid applique and it did allow for a more uniform raised look. I also added some glossy accents to the ornaments for dimension. Today’s tag meets the requirements for the All That Scraps Weekly Wednesday Challenge #56 to use snowflakes.

Stamps: C.C. Designs Christmas Around the World
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Baja Breeze
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Dell printer
Embellishments: Stampin’ Up 5/8″ striped grosgrain ribbon Baja Breeze; Robin’s Nest early dawn dew drop; eyelet
Tools: Stampin’ Up markers; white gel pen; Inkssentials Glossy Accents; liquid applique

Thanks for stopping by.

My first thoughts of circus food are popcorn, pretzels and hot dogs. However, I didn’t want to deal with manning a grill for Jessica’s birthday party, so we ordered pizza from Cici’s instead. Along with the pizza, I had fresh popcorn popped in my new popcorn machine (bought partly for the party and partly for the popcorn fiend inside me), pretzels, peanut-butter filled pretzel nuggets, peanuts in the shell (that may not have even been touched), fruit salad, cherry punch, iced tea and cupcakes. I also had ice cream, but I forgot to get it out of the freezer.

Cherry Punch

This punch was super delicious and I intend to make it again sometime. I doubled the recipe for the party and served it in beverage dispenser. I would not serve this punch again in this kind of serving ware as the pineapple clogged the spigot and unclogging it made for a mess.

Source: Reiman publication insert

Ingredients:

• 1 6-oz. can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 1 6-oz. can frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
• 1 20-oz. can pineapple chunks, undrained
• 2 cups water
• 2 liters cherry soda, chilled (I used Cherry Crush)
• 2 liters ginger ale, chilled
• lemon and lime slices, optional

Directions:

In a blender, combine the lemonade and limeade concentrates and pineapple; cover and blend until smooth. Pour into a gallon-size container; stir in water. Store in the refrigerator.

To serve, pour the mixture into a punch bowl; add cherry soda and ginger ale. Garnish with lemon and lime slices if desired.

Yield: about 6 quarts

I made 3 batches of cupcakes: 1 double of the moist chocolate, 1 of the orange applesauce made using a vegan butter substitute and the frosting tinted blue, and 1 double of the orange applesauce omitting the pecans. I made these all the day/evening before the party. Our nephew Dawson helped add the sprinkles on the applesauce cupcakes. I liked both recipes. I preferred the taste of the non-lactose-free version of orange applesauce cupcakes and am extremely thankful I’m not lactose intolerant. I also think the orange applesauce tasted better the day of the party than they did a few days later.

Jessica’s cake was a 4-in. diameter two-layer affair. The bottom layer was the moist chocolate and the top layer was the orange applesauce and it was all frosted with the orange applesauce frosting and covered with colored sprinkles.

Moist Chocolate Cake

Source: The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup cold water
• confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Using a spoon, make three wells in the dry ingredients. Pour oil into one, vinegar into another and vanilla into the third. Slowly pour water over all. Beat on low speed until thoroughly combined (batter will be thin).

Pour into a greased 8-in. square baking dish. Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioner’s sugar. I did dust with confectioner’s sugar, but the next day for the party, the confectioner’s sugar had been absorbed by the cupcakes.

Yield: 9 servings

Orange Applesauce Cupcakes

Source: The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated orange peel
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel (I omitted since I had used all my orange peel in the cupcakes)
• 2 to 4 teaspoons orange juice

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat well. Beat in the applesauce, vanilla and orange peel. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; add to creamed mixture. Stir in pecans.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For frosting, in a small mixing bowl, beat butter and confectioner’s sugar. Add orange peel and enough orange juice to achieve spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes.

Yield: 1 dozen

Thanks for checking out all the details of Jessica’s Circus 1st Birthday. I hope you may find some of these details useful or inspiring for your next party. Previous posts: Part 1: Decorations, Part 2: The Party and Part 3: Favors and Thank Yous.

It’s been a while since I posted anything food related. That’s not saying I haven’t baked or cooked anything worth blogging about, just that other things are higher on my list of blogging priorities.

My friend Stephanie’s birthday was back in August. We went and celebrated with dinner at BJ’s. Stephanie is lactose intolerant and as such, most places don’t have dessert that is edible for her. So I made cupcakes to bring to dinner. I spent quite a while perusing recipes to find one that was just right. Did you realize that most cake mixes contain dairy? This eliminated a lot of doctored cake mix recipes. Finally, I came across one that sounded perfect. It has a jam center and Stephanie really likes linzer cookies, so how perfect is that.

I started getting out the ingredients and realized that the recipe called for milk. Oh jeez, how did I overlook that? I had hoped not to have to go to the store to make something for Stephanie, but alas that was not meant to be. I thought about looking for a different recipe, but I had my mind set on these jam-filled cupcakes. We went out for another reason and on the way home stopped at the grocery store where I ran in and picked up soy milk.

Surprise Cupcakes

Source: Quick Cooking March/April 2002

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup strawberry or grape jelly (I used strawberry)

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fill 36 greased or paper-lined muffin cups half full. Spoon 1 teaspoon jelly in the center of each.

Bake at 375°F for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 1 in. from the edge comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Yield: 3 dozen

To decorate, I whipped up my MIL’s Creamy White Icing. This stuff is to die for. I tinted it blue since Stephanie likes blue and added some sprinkles.

Creamy White Icing

Source: Olivia Moore

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
• 2-1/2 teaspoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

In a saucepan over low heat, melt shortening; add flour and salt. Slowly stir in milk. While stirring continuously, bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat; add vanilla and confectioner’s sugar. Set pan in ice water to thicken while stirring to spreading consistency.

Yield: enough for 3 dozen cupcakes

I recently organized a South Austin play group via Circle of Moms (a Facebook app). Our first play date was Wednesday and it was a lot fun. We had four mommies and six kiddos, four under 1 year of age and two 3-year-olds. I set out sandwich fixings and this fruit salad I made. You could probably make this with pretty much any fruit as long as you included the pineapple. It was delicious and I will be making it again.

Pina Colada Fruit Salad

Source: Simple & Delicious May 2010

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups green grapes (I cut the grapes in half because of the kiddos)
• 1-1/2 cups seedless red grapes (I cut the grapes in half because of the kiddos)
• 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries (I used blackberries since they’re cheaper right now)
• 1-1/2 cups halved fresh strawberries (I quartered instead of halved)
• 1 can, 8-oz., pineapple chunks, drained (I actually used a 20-oz. can)
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 can, 10-oz. frozen non-alcoholic pina colada mix, thawed
• 1/2 cup sugar (I might try this with confectioner’s sugar next time, which might make it less soupy)
• 1/2 cup pineapple-orange juice
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/8 teaspoon coconut extract (I omitted since I realized I didn’t have it on hand)

Directions:

In a serving bowl, combine the fruit. In a small bowl, whisk the pina colada mix, sugar, juice and extracts until sugar is dissolved. Pour over fruit; toss to coat. Chill until serving. I definitely recommend serving this in bowls, not plates.

Yield: 9 servings