My First Quiche and First Coconut Cake!

     Family get-togethers, especially at the holidays, always remind me of my Granny Rader, and family get-togethers with Granny Rader always remind me of Granny's coconut cake.

     Since we missed Thanksgiving due to the flu I've been craving coconut cake.  I would have thought Granny's recipe would have been in the FCE's "Sweet Treats"cookbook that they sold in the last year or two, but it wasn't.  

     I don't know why I didn't just call her to get it.  I guess I wanted to try one in one of my books.  So, I settled on one in a cookbook that showcases blue ribbon winning recipes at state fairs.  I would get up and look to see what the name of it is, but this guy just showed up and started cuddling against my booty.  I can't bare to make him move just yet.

     The Quiche was a spinach quiche recipe from the red and white Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  The only difference is I used canned spinach instead of fresh.  This was one of those nights where I had no meat in the house, or fresh veggies, so I had to pull something together from what was in the pantry.  

     I loved it, but I know I'm the only one. Delsin made it very clear.  Kai scarfed it down fast, so she could get to the cake.  Carolina and Enoch asked to be spoon fed, but gagged on every second bite, and Daniel just told everyone that sometimes we have to eat things we don't like. It was funny, but everyone was respectful.  I'll try a different recipe in another year. :)

     The recipe I used for the cake was The All-New Blue Ribbon Cookbook, by Catherine Hanley, page 176 "Coconut Supream Cake". The only thing I didn't have was coconut flavoring, so I added a little shredded coconut to the cake batter (about a tablespoon).  Daniel loved it!

Spiderman Birthday Cake

 

Enoch is so into Spiderman right now.

In fact, that's what he wanted for his birthday.

Spiderman everything.

So, naturally I had to attempt my hand at a Spiderman cake.

 I watched this video on youtube for help.

But I didn't paint the fondant.  I dyed it with Wilton icing dye.

This is my favorite fondant recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cake-fondant/detail.aspx

 This was the face template I used.

I cut out the eyes from this template.

http://www.hmcoloringpages.com/free-printable-coloring-pages/spider-man-face-template-cut-out/

First I cut out the black background and then layered the white on top.

I know it's total amateur night over here at the Urick household,

but I'm kinda proud of it anyway.

Enoch absolutely loved it, and that's what matters most.

Happy 3rd Birthday My Love!

End Of Year Teacher Gifts

Being the first year that I've had children in school I was excited to make end of year gifts.

I like to accumulate ideas whenever I can, and what better way to share them than on my blog page.  

First, here is a clip of ideas that I saw on the Today Show.

 

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A couple of years ago, in a mommy chat room, I saw cupcakes in a jar.

These aren't mine, but mine looked pretty good too.  I just didn't get any pictures of them.  We're all out of batteries for the camera.  (I hope Daniel picks up some on his way home today.)

These were found over on this blog page.  2cool4myMinivan.blogspot.com is a really neat blog page full of adorable ideas.  You can find the instructions to make this great gift on that link I posted.  Here it is again if you need to copy and paste it.

http://2cool4myminivan.blogspot.com/2010/05/cake-in-jar.html

My experience in making these delightful treats got rolling on Thursday night.  It was around 11PM, winding down from a Girl Scout Leader's meeting that ran over, tucking the kids into bed for the 4th or 5th time and loading the dishwasher, when all of a sudden I remembered that "Oops! I forgot to make the teacher gifts with the kids today!".  So, naturally I had to get it done myself.  

I decided to use quart size mason jars.  

I'd never made these before, only seen a picture, so I made two sheet cakes.  One chocolate and one white.

THEN I looked at the instructions.... I was supposed to make cupcakes.  "No problem," I thought.  "I'll just cut the cake into circle shapes using a glass."    I layered some cake then icing, then cake, then icing...and so on.    After alternating between chocolate and white for the first mason jar I decided that I would like the look of just white for the 2nd one. 

I topped the jars with some pink flowery prairie looking quilting cotton cut into a square with pinking shears.  Tied on a pink plastic spoon with a brown grosgrain ribbon that had little pink, green, and yellow polka dots.  It was just too darn cute.

Have any ideas to share?
What did you do for your teacher gifts this year?