Better late than never.

I tend to come and go when it comes to being online. These days I don't have a whole lot of extra time on my hands and what little time I do have I spend cleaning the house, doing laundry or catching some sleep. It is not really a secret that I suffer from postpartum depression and anxiety and it makes things a lot harder for me. Sometimes I just check out and don't really feel like doing anything or being around. But I finally found a really great doctor who has been a tremendous help in getting me back to the old me. I am starting to feel a lot better these days though I still have quite the road ahead of me it seems.

Munchie has grown quite a bit and learned so many things. He constantly amazes me every day with how he looks at the world and tries to navigate all these new things he discovers. He is the best thing I never knew I needed in life. I love him so terribly much.

Just a couple of recent pictures:

The stuff that popeye ate

We used to call Munchie Popeye because he would make this face that looked kind of like Popeye.

So it is only fitting that we would feed him that power inducing green stuff Popeye chowed down on called spinach.

I recently came across this recipe thanks to a fellow bumpie for spinach muffins and thought I would give them a try. When I hear the word muffin or "minyay" as munchie calls them I do not think spinach. I think sweet delicious berries. But if it is healthy then I am willing to give it a go for the kidlet. Well apparently munch thinks these are spinach-yays because he got mad at me when I only gave him one. So I think we will be seeing a lot more of these little things in the near future.

Spinach cake muffins courtesy of weelicious


1/2 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1 Large Egg
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Fresh Spinach, packed
1/3 Cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Vegetable or Canola Oil
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place the first 6 ingredients in a food processor and puree.
Place the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and combine.
Pour the spinach puree in a large mixing bowl.
Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet until combined.
Scoop batter into a greased mini muffin tin, filling each cup 2/3 of the way.
Bake for 12 minutes.


And in case you were still on the fence about making your wee one these muffins well here is proof that they are tasty.

Rainbow cake

So what could go better with the whole gnome and toadstool Waldorf theme? A rainbow cake of course! From the very beginning I said to myself that if I was going to make the cake then I was going to make it the best darned cake I have ever made. Go big or go home right?

When I was a baby my mother made our birthday cakes. Now whether or not this was something she really enjoyed doing or a necessity because of lack of money I don't know. Perhaps it was a combination of both. The point is that woman made the first few cakes for my birthdays and I really wanted to uphold that tradition and make munchie his first cake. I made munchie's older brother the cake for his one and only big party we have had for him. So I am big on tradition you see.

In any case some time back I came across the big fad of making a rainbow cake. Unassuming on the outside but bing bang pow on the inside. Which is about the reaction I got from our guests when I cut the cake open and they saw the multitude of colors.

 

  

So there you have it a rainbow of layers kept together by some yummy butter cream frosting (which in my opinion is the only way to go).

Now if you are going to attempt a rainbow cake of your own there are a few things you should know that I learned along the way.

My cake was the same size as a regular cake, despite the many layer of colors you see. In order to get the thin layers I divided my batch of batter into six equal portions and then baked each one individually for less time than you would a normal layer. You can do it this way or you could layer the colors of batter on top of each other and bake it that way getting a more tie dyed effect but still the same size as a normal cake. Or you could the big route and make a batch of batter for each color and make a really tall cake. Whatever you like, there is no shortage of how to sites online when it comes to making a rainbow cake.

Now in order to get that vibrant color you see you need to use gel food colors. You could I suppose use the regular kind you get in the grocery store, but the colors won't be quite the same. I used the Wilton gels which you can find at any craft store like Michaels or if you are here on the east coast at an A.C. Moore. 

Now in order for your cake to remain unassuming until you cut it open to reveal what is beyond that frosting of yours, you need to crumb coat your cake. Every baker knows a crumb coat is what keeps your cake from looking like your cake tried to escape the frosting. How to crumb coat a cake can be found here : clicky

The most important thing if you go the route I did for thin layers. Buy yourself some bake easy spray and some parchment paper. Line your cake pan with parchment paper and then spray with bake easy. When you pull your cake from the oven let it cool COMPLETELY before you tip it upside down and take it out. Trust me on this. Very important!

So now I have given you my tips it is time for the recipes. Both of these were really great and easy recipes and there was no shortage of flavor here either. However I suggest you pick up a little carton of ice cream to go with this cake because let me tell you, it is pretty sweet.

Tender white cake courtesy of King Arthur Flour

• 2 3/4 cups King Arthur unbleached cake flour
  
• 1 2/3 cups sugar; super fine is best
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 large eggs whites plus 1 whole large egg
• 1 cup full-fat vanilla yogurt or 1 cup whole milk (I used milk but I suggest using the yogurt if you are doing the thin layers-this will make it much more moist)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare two 8" x 2" or 9" x 2" round pans; a 9" x 13" pan; or 2 standard cupcake pans (20 to 24 cupcakes) by greasing and flouring; or lining with parchment, then greasing the parchment. Note: Make sure your 8" round pans are at least 2" deep; if they're not, use one of the other pan options.

2) Mix all of the dry ingredients on slow speed to blend. Add the soft butter and mix until evenly crumbly, like fine damp sand. It may form a paste, depending on the temperature of the butter, how much it's mixed, and granulation of the sugar used.

3) Add the egg whites one at a time, then the whole egg, beating well after each addition to begin building the structure of the cake. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition.

4) In a small bowl, whisk the yogurt (or milk) with the vanilla and almond extracts. Add this mixture, 1/3 at a time, to the batter. Beat 1 to 2 minutes after each addition, until fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

5) (* See notes following for how I did this)Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes for 8" or 9" rounds; 36 to 42 minutes for a 9" x 13" x 2" sheet cake; or 18 to 20 minutes for cupcakes. A toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center will come out clean when done. Remove from the oven, remove from the pan, if desired (not advisable for a 9" x 13" sheet cake), cool on a rack, and frost.

Yield: Two 8" or 9" round layers; one 9"x 13" x 2" sheet cake, or 20 to 24 cupcakes.  *When your batter is done, separate your batter into 6 even portions and put in individual bowls (glass or metal would be best unless you have something you don't care if it gets stained). For me I was able to get 6 cups out of this batter, so it was relatively easy to divide.  Once divided take a toothpick to get your gel color into the batter. I think I used about two pea sized chunks but remember that the color you see in the bowl is going to be the exact color your cake will be once cooked. When you have completed this step go ahead and add the batter to the cake pans. I used two 8 inch pans and baked the cake for 12 minutes each time, letting them cool way down (about 10 minutes) before transferring them to a wire rack to remain cooling. Continue this until you have each one finished.   Buttercream Icing courtesy of Wilton    1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.) 2 tablespoons milk Directions: In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. *For my cake I needed two batches of this recipe. One for the crumb coat and one for the top layer of frosting. Add water a teaspoon at a time just until it is a little more smooth and easier to spread. Not too much, you don't want it runny! You still need it to hold up the cake!  Once you are finished crumb coating make sure to put your cake in the fridge for about 1 hour to harden up and allow you the ability to begin the final icing stage. I made my cake the night before and it was still  moist the very next day. This is part of the beauty of crumb coating. It makes your cake look pretty and holds all of that moisture in.

Gnomes and toadstools

For munchie's birthday I really wanted to make some sugar cookie cutouts. I found a set of cookie cutters on ebay in the shape of gnomes and toadstools and thought it would be perfect to go along with our theme. In case you don't already know, I kind of have this thing about metal cookie cutters. I really and I do mean really love them. Sure the plastic ones are fine with the kiddos but honestly, I think no baker's pantry is complete without a good bunch of metal ones.

So here they are the finished products: 

 Here is a close up of my gnomes just after I finished flooding them:

I don't think they turned out too terribly bad seeing as I have never decorated a sugar cookie like this ever. I have only decorated them with a big slab of frosting, sprinkled some colored sugar on them and ate them up. I did learn a few things though and I will add my tips so that you can keep from making the same mistakes that I did.

I found my recipe for the sugar cookies on another blog that I follow as I didn't have a good one for cutouts of my own. These were really tasty and I don't think I will look any further for another cutout recipe.You can also find a really nice tutorial on how to decorate your cookies here: clicky

Ella’s White Sugar Cookies adapted from Annie's Eats
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla (I added 2 tsp as I am more a fan of the vanilla taste than the almond)
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour
Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~40 cookies.

Royal Icing courtesy of Wilton

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 cups (about 1 lb) confectioner's sugar
6 tablespoons warm water

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

Makes about 3 cups of icing.

----
Here are a few things I will do differently next time:

--I won't add too much water. I added too much to the icing I was going to use to flood the cookies and it came out a lot thinner than I would have liked once it was on the cookies. So you can see it is very flat and shiny.
--I won't use Wilton colors for red or black. I really like the Wilton gel food coloring but I needed an entire container of color and still couldn't get the right shade of red or black. It was very matte and almost pastel like in nature. It just did not have that pop of bright that I was looking for. Upon further research I have learned that for red and black you should use Americolor gels in super red and super black. Now I know and I will be adding these to my list of things to get before my next cookie baking session.
--These were pretty time consuming so I would say if you are doing really big batches, carve yourself out an entire day to make these. I made the cookies a couple of days ahead, stored them in an airtight container and then decorated the night prior to the party. If done differently, I would have decorated a day earlier and given myself more time to let everything dry before flooding. I gave myself an hour, but definitely could have used several more between piping and flooding details.

In all these turned out really good, had a nice flavor and stored very nicely. I can't wait to hone my skills a little more and try these two recipes with my next batch of cutout cookies.

A winter gnomeland birthday

Munchies birthday party was a success. Everything turned out nicely and though I didn't put up all of the decorations I had planned for originally, it ended up looking pretty good.

Here are some photos from the big day:

 Gnome and toadstool cookies

 The cake

 Sandwich and veggie trays

 Arctic punch

Gnome favor bags

The birthday boy behind his balloons

Decorated high chair

Inside of cake

Cake smash

I do this every time. I promise to update and then I don't for a long, long time. Well I am busy and my life for the most part is boring and not entirely blog worthy. I am not just a mother but a wife and I watch other people's kids besides my own. I just don't always have the time to get on here and quite frankly it is always the most mundane of things that fill my day. I suppose I could carve out a chunk of time, but who am I kidding, I love my sleep, so I choose it instead. Plus, I am pretty sure you don't want to hear about every. single. thing. I. do. Legit, I don't want to share it with you either. Just take my word for it that it is boring.

I am going to sum up what we have been doing and then I will proceed over the course of the next few days to post about certain things that come with great recipes, some pictures and whatever else you may or may not even care to be interested in.

So to start with my son is a year old. I don't even know where to begin to start with that one. But I will do my best. We had a wonderful birthday party for him this past weekend. Despite many cancellations, we did enjoy ourselves immensely and my hard work did not go unnoticed. I also learned a great many things that day. Next time, I probably won't try so hard. Lies. I will probably try harder and hope for more people!

Secondly, my parents are coming to visit all the way from the West coast. I cannot wait. I am so excited to see them as I have not seen them in several months. I cannot wait for them to see munchie either, he is so much bigger and more on the go than he was the last time they saw him. He is also way more fun now. I am planning for this to be the best Christmas ever and that is saying a lot since last year was pretty much the best Christmas ever because I had a brand new baby in my arms. Also saying a lot because it was the redeeming moment for the prior Christmas which sucked so much ass I almost banished Christmas from my entire existence. I know what you are thinking...ME become a Grinch? Oh yeah, it almost happened. But that is a story to be burned to ashes and never really spoken of again.

Moving along.

So this is how I felt the day of my son's birthday party: 

I slaved away for two days prior trying to get all of the cookies and the cake done and then no one was able to make it to his big day. I was understandably pretty bummed out. Meaning, I almost cried in front of our only guest and her husband and kids. But I managed to suck it up until the end of the day when the baby was well fed, pooped out, and snuggled in bed. Then I let it loose. I cried for at least a good few hours. I was so sad for so many reasons.

A lot of it was because I really miss my family and I really wished that they could have been there to celebrate such a tremendous event in my little boy's life. I know it means so much more to me than to anyone else, but I guess I had an idea of what it would be like in my mind and I was surprised to have been let down so badly by its differences. I didn't expect myself to have such overwhelming feelings of disappointment and sadness on a day that was supposed to be full of jubilee. In all, it was a great day and everything turned out pretty well.

My son in the hospital:

My son today:

Happy Birthday my darling little boy. You are the most precious thing in my life. <3

Ghosts and goblins, oh my!

I have always found the holidays to be important. Not just for the chance to gather with family but for the chance to create traditions. I grew up in a family that made a big deal out of all of the holidays. We had an Easter bunny, a Santa Claus, and hundreds of potlucks to celebrate every little moment. So it is no surprise that I like to do something even though we live about 3500 miles away from all those people, potlucks, picnics and traditions. My husband and I are forging our own traditions here on the opposite side of the map. Halloween is no exception.

Despite our snowpocalypse the weather warmed up a tad and the snow disappeared just enough to venture out and do a little trick or treating. It was cold but munchie really enjoyed seeing things go into his little pumpkin bucket. The look on his face was joyous for me and made that bitter sting of cold on our cheeks worth every second.

A little photo recap of Halloween: