Birthday Cake!!

Parker's birthday party was yesterday (pics can be seen on The Journey to Eden).

I decided to make his superhero cake. The cake itself is not from scratch (I know, I know....but it was for kids and they don't care. Plus the decorating was time consuming so I didn't have time to make the cake and the frosting on top of it. Sorry!) He wanted chocolate, so I did the top and bottom layer chocolate and the middle layer white. Just to spruce it up, I tie-dyed it so it would look "rainbow". They thought rainbow cake was pretty cool! I just divided the batter into 5 bowls and used food coloring to color them. Then I poured them in and ran a fork around in circles to swirl it.



I used a 10 inch squares for the bottom layers (each tier has 2 layers each), 9 inch circles for the middle layer and 6 inch circles for the top layer. I baked the cakes, let them all cool and them wrapped them in Saran wrap to put in the fridge to be iced the next day. It is a lot easier to ice a cold, firm cake than a room-temperature soft cake! I also put a cake board under each of the tiers so the cake wouldn't sink. In addition, I bought lollipop sticks (you could use toothpicks) and stuck them in each layer to keep it upright and keep it from sliding.

The next day I put a crumb coat on the cakes. A crumb coat is a very thin layer of icing to catch all the crumbs. Doing a crumb cake makes a huge difference in how the cake looks. If you don't crumb coat it, inevitably you will have some crumbs here and there in your frosting that are visible. If you are just making a cake to enjoy at home this is no biggie, but if you are making one for something like this, you want it to look as smooth as possible! Here's what a crumb coat looks like....



If you are crumb coating the same day you are frosting (which I would usually do), put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes at least so the coat will harden just the littlest bit. Then when you put your frosting on, it will look smooth!




After the frosting went on, I braved the decorating. I am NOT a cake decorator by any stretch of the imagination, but I did the best I could. After all, 4 year olds don't judge, and bats and webs are pretty easy. ;)


I had put the cake on a cake board, but wrapped it in blue wrapping paper. I put a small piece of wax paper under each side of the cake to catch the mistakes.

It was far from perfect but I had a ton of fun doing it!! Happy Birthday Parker!

Buffalo Chicken and Tomato, Onion and Spinach Orzo

So, this is another one of those "clean out the pantry" recipes. I needed a side to make with the Buffalo Chicken we were having (recipe below) and I didn't really have ANYTHING....so I made something up and it was a huge hit. Mike and the kids LOVED it!


Tomato, Onion and Spinach Orzo

1 box Orzo pasta
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 large handfuls spinach, coarsely chopped
1 can Rotel, drained
Feta Cheese
Beef Broth
Pepper

Boil Orzo in heavily salted water. (Salting the crap out of the water is what makes it so delish!) Saute onion and garlic in a small amount of olive oil until soft and fragrant. Add cooked orzo, spinach, Rotel and Feta (just as much Feta as you want). Stir and bring pasta back to heat while lettting spinach wilt a bit. Add a splash of beef broth just to moisten. Add pepper and serve.


Buffalo Chicken

1 package chicken quarters
1 jar Lawry's Buffalo Marinade

Marinate Chicken quarters in a large Ziploc bag with entire jar of Buffalo marinade for several hours (or all day, or overnight...whatever you feel like). Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place chicken quarters in 9X13 baking dish and pour remaining marinade over chicken. Cook for 30 minutes. Embarrassingly easy and DELISH!! (and cheap too!)

Heres what the jar looks like!

Chopped Salad

Ok so I LOVE the chopped salad at the Cheesecake Factory. It is on the side salad menu, but has chicken so it is just perfect for a main meal (espesh at lunch!) It has to be one of my favorite things to order at a restaurant. It isn't gargantuan like everything else at the CF seems, and it is really tasty. So, here's how I make it at home! (I really do think it is as good. Hope you agree.)


Chopped Salad

2-3 romaine hearts, chopped small
4 Roma tomatoes, diced
3 green onions, chopped
Frozen, fresh off the cobb, or canned (with no salt added) corn. About 1 C.
1-2 diced avocados (depending on the size, if they're the size of Nerf footballs you only need one)
1 granny smith apple, diced
5 pieces turkey bacon, crumbled
1/2 container crumbled blue cheese
1 handful chopped cilantro
2 C. cooked chicken, diced (I use about 1/2 rotisserie or 2 breasts)

Dressing:

1/2 C. olive oil
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
2 T. Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced

Combine all dressing ingredients in a jar and shake very well. Refrigerate for several hours before serving to allow the flavors to mix.


Place all salad ingredients in large bowl. Dress and serve.

This is a perfect side dish to bring to a party. Everyone LOVES it and it is healthy. If you are making it for your family, it makes a lot, so serve out some and then dress it, leaving the rest of the salad undressed for lunch later in the week. It is perfect! Enjoy! :)

This weeks cooking

So lets see what I have made this week worth blogging about....

Red Velvet Cake
Lemon Cake
Tomato, Onion and Spinach Orzo
Roasted Buffalo Chicken
Large Grilled Sub Sandwich (family loves this)
Chicken Chopped Salad

Now who wants what? Comment and I will do blogs on them. :)