• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
That Recipe
  • Recipes
  • Members
  • Subscribe
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Members
  • Subscribe
  • follow the fun

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Members
    • Subscribe
  • follow the fun

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • ×

    Home » Our latest posts » Uncategorized

    Baking Bonanza!

    June 4, 2012 Filed Under: Uncategorized

    My oven has been working overtime lately with some pretty tasty treats popping out.

    First was my 4 year old's birthday cake. He asked for a chocolate Mike the Knight cake. He rarely asks for anything specific, so when he does I always try to come through. A quick trip to Hobby Lobby and we found some knight figures and a castle cake pan. I hesitated buying a pan I might only use once, but I justified it by thinking my friends with girls would LOVE to borrow it. Also, I noticed a suggestion on the front for decorating it like a sand castle, which I plan on doing later this summer.

    REAL ingredients, no substitutions!

    For the cake I wanted a slam dunk recipe, so I went with the master - Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro. I even did something completely unnatural for me: followed the recipe EXACTLY including ingredients and directions! No substitutions or skipping steps (including making sure the batter was between 70 and 73 degrees fahrenheit to prevent it from crowning)!

    QUICK SIDE STORY: When I was searching for the Cake Flour (top shelf above all of the other flours in case you were wondering), a woman was staring at the boxes of corn meal looking rather perplexed. Finally, she asked me if I had ever made cornbread. Stifling a laugh and fighting the urge to say "I am half Texan - I make cornbread at least every other month!", I showed her what to buy and told her to cook in a cast iron skillet if she wanted true Texas cornbread like my Mama taught me to make (scroll to the bottom of the link to find the recipe).

    Huzzah! Be a Knight and do it right!

    Back to the cake: I admit the final product looks like something Buddy may have created when he was 4, but Justin LOVED it and the taste more than made up for my lack of decorating skill. My mother doesn't care for chocolate cake while my mother-in-law is a fervent chocoholic. Both declared it delicious, as did the rest of us.

    One of his birthday presents was Sesame Street "B" is for Baking: 50 Yummy Dishes to Make Together by Susan McQuillan. I think this one will end up as well worn as C is for Cooking. He loves to look at the pictures and read the ingredients as well as begging me to make some of the recipes. If you have kids in the Sesame Street age that enjoy helping in the kitchen, this book is a slam dunk. If your kids are older, or you don't have any kids, but are looking for a cookbook with healthy recipes using "real" ingredients that are readily available at any grocery store, this might be one for you to check out. No, seriously. She does things like substitute olive oil for part of the butter, some of the flour with whole wheat flour and using low fat dairy products.

    Pecan Tea Cakes for the preschool teachers

    For End of the Year Thank You presents for his teachers we made Rosita's Lovely Little Almond Tea Cakes (substituting pecans) which is a Mexican Wedding Cookie/Russian Tea Cake with a little whole wheat flour and a little olive oil. They tasted pretty true to the original, but I will not use Extra Virgin Olive Oil next time, or maybe a little less with a little more other flavoring. He was so proud to hand them out on the last day of school!

    Carrot Puff - fresh from the oven on top, after sitting for 5 minutes on the bottom

    He also begged to make Pumpkin Pudding (think pumpkin pie filling without the crust), but I didn't have pumpkin and doubted he would actually eat it so I made cooked chocolate pudding instead, a first for me.  Today, we whipped up a Carrot Puff (basically a carrot souffle/pudding). It puffed up while baking and collapsed, just like it was supposed to! Too bad he wasn't impressed enough to actually try it. Sigh, baby steps.

    It's a good thing I have been eating all of those vegetables from Harvest2U to balance out some of this naughtiness! I can hardly wait to see what is in my box this week.

    With the weather getting ready to heat up I may take a break from baking for awhile. But my little baker may not agree with that idea.

    Until next time, happy eating!

    ~Audrey

    UPDATE: June 5, 2012.

    Just a few short hours after I swear off baking for awhile, a college friend shared a recipe on Facebook for No Knead Four Ingredient Overnight Bread Anyone Can Make. You KNOW I had to try that one!

    • 9:15pm - mixed all ingredients (used ½ all purpose and ½ white whole wheat flour) and went to bed
    • 6:45am - peeked in on the dough which was rising nicely, but since I was leaving in 2 hours I waited almost the full 12 hours.
    • 8:45am - punched down the dough, put it into a loaf pan and left to do my errands
    • 10:40am - came home to find the dough perfectly risen and ready for the oven. Brushed on a teaspoon of melted butter then popped it in a preheated oven.
    • No Knead 4 Ingredient Overnight Bread Anyone Can Make

      11:15am - enjoyed a wonderful slice of fresh out of the oven bread!

    I have a three (oops, FOUR) year old, so kneading bread is not a big deal for me. I just plop it on a table and let him squish and smash until it is nice and gluten-y. But, this recipe takes the guesswork out of knowing when it has been kneaded enough. You must be sure to have fresh yeast or this will not work. If your yeast has been sitting around for a few months, add the yeast to the water for about 5 minutes before mixing to see if it starts foaming, if not your dough will probably not rise. The only tough part about this recipe is the 2 hour wait for the second proof (rising). It'd be hard to time it for a work day to make in time for breakfast or dinner. But, you wouldn't have time to make a traditional loaf of bread in that time either.

    All in all, this recipe is definately a keeper and I am looking forward to browsing around Chef Tess' site for more ideas.

    More Uncategorized

    • Happiness is Homemade Features: Crunchy Buckeyes, Wassail, Eggnog Bread, Red Truck Christmas Wreath and Tomato Cage Christmas Trees
      Happiness is Homemade Buckeyes, Wassail and Eggnog Bread
    • Pumpkin Muffins and Butternut Squash Recipe on #HappinessisHomemade
    • Happiness is Homemade Orange Cranberry Rolls and Carrot Cupcakes
    • Apples, Pumpkins and More on Happiness is Homemade

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    audrey humaciu in kitchen

    Welcome

    I'm your hostess, Audrey, an avid "maker" that believes home made is better.

    Whether it's cooking, crafting, gardening, home décor, even blog design, I love getting my hands dirty and trying new things... even if I make a mess in the process.

    Discover more about me →

    Fresh Spring Tastes

    • strawberry muffins in a muffin tin with text overlay "sourdough strawberry muffins"
      Sourdough Strawberry Muffins Tangy Sweet Muffins
    • carrot muffins topped with granola on a cooling rack
      Carrot Granola Muffins with No Refined Sugar
    • lemon blueberry jelly roll on a plate
      Lemon Blueberry Jelly Roll Cake Sweet Taste of Spring
    • top down view of strawberry spinach salad with goat cheese and caramelized onions
      Strawberry Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing is a Delightful Spring Salad

    See more Spring Produce Recipes→

    tablet with ebook on display and text overlay "Seasoned with Love: 60 seasoning mix recipes from around the world"

    Tried and True Recipes

    • piece of bread dipped in cheese fondue with text overlay "alcohol free cheese fondue"
      Alcohol Free Cheese Fondue: Easy Family Dinner in 20 Minutes!
    • close up of popover in a pan with text overlay "Julia Child's Popovers"
      Julia Child's Popovers A Classic Recipe Made Easy
    • fork holidng a piece of lasagna with text overlay "no boil meat lasagna"
      The Original Barilla 4 Layer No Boil Lasagna Recipe
    • jar filled with granola
      Homemade Granola is as Easy as 1-2-3

    See our Top 10 Recipes →

    follow the fun

    • Bloglovin
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • Privacy Policy/Disclosures
    • Cookie Notice

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up! for emails and updates

    Contact

    • Contact
    • Work with me

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2023 ThatRecipe

    Manage Cookie Consent
    We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
    Functional Always active
    The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
    Preferences
    The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
    Statistics
    The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
    Marketing
    The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
    Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
    Preferences
    {title} {title} {title}