From a Mother's Perspective...

(The following is a narrative composed by my mom about this past week's exciting events that started in the kitchen and culminated last night with the auction of the top five cakes from the contest)

Skippy's Goshen Country Fair Hershey's Cocoa Cake won first place on Thursday night.  She was all by herself in our kitchen and could actually focus without interruption.  The entry had to be an original cake, with recipe submitted... and it needed a name, so before she delivered it to the judges, one of the kids suggested Raspberry Patch (there were two round layers, split in half - one layer I think had raspberries and cream filling, the others were a ganache frosting)....but the top was covered with fresh raspberries, with fresh mint leaves from out front around the edge of the top.  The whole effect was really cool.

Ice Box Cake

The recipe for the Ice Box Cake is very simple, except finding the correct Chocolate wafers - by Nabisco. This is a favorite around here, and it always a hit whenever we serve it, whether at birthdays or having international students for dinner!

Ice Box Cake

I quart Heavy Whipping Cream, chilled

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

2 boxes chocolate wafers

Strawberries to garnish if desired

Whip the cream with an electric beater, and add in the sugar to sweeten. Keep whipping till soft peaks form. Should be between 5-8 minutes depending on the temperature of the cream and the speed of the beater...

Put a dollop of the cream onto the cake plate to help the 1st layer stick... place one wafer in the middle of the plate, then put 6 in a circle around it. Put 1/2 cup to 3/4 whipped cream over the wafers and spread to the sides evenly.

Repeat until you run out of whipped cream or wafers... whichever happens first! I like to try and arrange the ascending layers so that they don't match up and so it is easier to slice... the second layer should have the wafers rotated so they overlap the layer below - in other words, stagger the layers.

If you are out of the wafers and have cream left, you can "ice" the sides and make it smooth all around.

Chill at least an hour before serving. You can arrange strawberries around the base of the cake or on top of the cake...



Yes, I did get a little carried away with the strawberries! This was a cake to serve 18 at my brother's birthday in February. I apologize for the quality of the pictures... a disposable camera was the only thing on hand.

It can be messy to slice, so just have something to scrape the cake cutter on to get the blade clean...

Yum, yum!

Can Anyone Tell Me What I Did Wrong Here?

The buttercream frosting came out very stiff, with many air pockets and just wouldn't be SMOOTH!

Can anyone give me a clue as to my mistake here?

I am thinking I put in too much powdered sugar, but wasn't sure if I was on the right trail.

Pictures From My Sister's Birthday Cake

Pink icing in January.

We didn't want a red and green cake (like mine), and we had been enjoying many different rich foods, so the usual chocolate-on-chocolate birthday cake was a no-no. I didn't want to make a carrot cake, and a cheesecake would be a little heavy. We decided for something on the lighter side - not a cake with at least a dozen egg whites, but something that wouldn't hit our stomachs (or the bathroom scale) like a ton of bricks.

So I ended up modifying the yellow cake recipe that I had made for my birthday, and was going to do a frosting with coconut on top. It sounded good, and in my imaginative mind was taking on the shape of a blizzard in Florida (I was going to add lemon and orange zest to the cake batter) when I found out that the birthday girl didn't like coconut.

What would you do?

The batter had already been "enhanced" and there was no turning back. Something had to be made... I stuck with the plan to have a citrus-y flavor, but then did a simple buttercream frosting. I'll be posting my version of the recipe soon (I hope) but for now, I only have pictures.

Since I am still in school, many things are demanding my full attention. Although I'd like to wear my chef's hat more, I am sticking with my roles as a Mock Trial Attorney, musician in several orchestras, and on the side political cheerleader (Whatever happened in Massachusetts?).

That's all for now!

Enjoy!

Christmas Pictures...

For my birthday (which falls on Christmas every year), I made a simple yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.



To decorate it, I attempted to create holly leaves and berries. You can see the green and red frosting, but as for beautiful holly scattered across the cake, all there is are blobs of buttercream. I think I need some more practice!



The finished product had some semi-sweet chocolate drizzled to make "twigs" for the "holly," and was dusted with powdered sugar for a snowy effect. Yum!

Thanks, Mom, for taking the pictures!