Captain Rex on Deck!

The cake I made for my little brother's 7 birthday was definitely a labor of love. I think the amount of time that I put into it more than makes up for the cake I didn't make for him last year.

He wanted a Captain Rex cake, and I've known for years it was only a matter of time before he asked for a Star Wars themed cake. This kid knows more about Star Wars in his 7 years of life than I do in my 19 years, 1 month, and 2 days of living. Thankfully, though, he didn't say anything about the realistic-ness of the gumpaste Lego figure on top. James, however, was not so kind. But hey, I think it looks a lot like this photo, soooo whatevs.

One big problem with the cake was the humidity. The fondant was so sticky and so hard to work with, and the gumpaste never dried properly (as you'll be able to see in the following photos). Plus, I ran out of powdered sugar half way through decorating, I didn't have a turn table or toothpicks (but I definitely bought some of those), and then there was that awful crater in the center of the top tier. You can't see it because I filled it up with another cupcake!

 I did the lettering out of a gumpaste/fondant mix. It took an hour to cut them all out, using a pattern I printed off the computer (I downloaded a free Star Wars font, and cut the letters out individually). A word to the wise, don't roll out the letters too thin or they will tear.

Do you see the trouble this cake gave me?! I didn't even notice that the "Birthday" was drooping down the side of the cake. You can't tell in this picture, but the H also cracked and tore a lot. It was a sad moment . :( I thought about re-doing it, but the cake was due in 20 minutes, and I figured no one was going to notice, except self-deprecating lil ol' me. (And now all of y'all because I pointed it out to you.)

And here we have another photo of the headless Rex Lego dude. The little black thing next to the cake is his blaster, which, if properly dried and hardened, would've been in Rex's hand, pointed down like a #7. You won't see the blaster in any other photo because Adam ate it.

 But we got a nice sparkly #7 candle at the ghetto Walmart, and the star candles, because they didn't have any birthday candles.


It was my mom's idea to prop Rex up against the cake. She's brilliant. However, she did think the pattern was margarita glasses, and not Rex's helmet, so.... yeah.

This is the other present I got Adam (the cake being the first). It's a Toy Story mixing bowl set with a spatula and cookie cutters. He can't wait to make cookies with me! :)

Despite the many, many problems this cake gave me over the last 24 hours, it was totally worth it to present it to Adam and to be able to see him (and my entire crazy, lovable family) on his birthday!

Oh, Crumbs

My first ever Harry Potter cake. (This is the second. And these are the cupcakes.) I've taken it out of the secret vault of Kelsie's Cakes of the Past to share with you all today. But after this, it's going back into the vault. Because this cake was... crumby.

I think it's also my first carved cake too. With canned icing, dyed "Golden Snitch yellow" with...liquid food coloring. I know, I know. But I've said it before (and you're probably really tired of me saying this): I've come a long way.

This box mix chocolate cake did not have the luxury of a crumb coat of decorator's buttercream, and there was no gold luster (lustre?) dust on wings. Heck, I didn't even know such a thing existed when I was 14! But if I were to make this cake today, it would probably be a three-dimensional orb with gumpaste golden wings.

Oh, that's my sister Maggie by the way. I keep talking about her because her birthday was Sunday. But this is the last Maggie-centric post for a while, because MY birthday is next week. Then you get to hear me talk about myself for a few days. Won't that be fun?! :P

Hogwarts!

Well my friends, I pulled it off! The Hogwarts cake which I've been dreaming of making for years now, and which Hillary forced me to make, is finally completed. Although now it's just half of a 10" cake and a box of castle turrets sitting in my kitchen, because that's all that's left after we ate it.

The party that we had on Saturday was a belated celebration of Wizarding Independence Day, normally celebrated on May 2nd (not to be confused with May 4th, which is Star Wars Day). As Hillary tells it,

I just successfully had a party because I wanted a pumpkin pie cake shaped like Hogwarts. And it was doubly awesome, because I got to see all of my friends.

Sounds like a good party to me!

Now, more about the cake, because I'm sure that's why y'all are here in the first place. I made two cakes, a 6" and a 10" out of two batches of Martha Stewart's pumpkin pie cupcakes recipe. If you remember, the last time I made this recipe, I used pumpkin pie filling instead of just plain ol' pumpkin puree, and it turned out to be a success. This time however, Dad bought pumpkin, and guess what? It still tasted really good!

The cake is covered in marshmallow fondant, which is not vegetarian friendly, if you did not know. Also, if you didn't know, working with marshmallow fondant gets easier every time. And I realized that heating it up in the microwave for a few seconds before rolling it out makes it waaaay easier to cover the cake.

I got the cobblestone texture by rolling it out on an impression mat that I bought at Bliss and then painstakingly painted with icing paste color and lemon extract (vodka works too, but I don't know where my parents keep that). Just make sure you don't get it on the floor:

The towers were also covered in fondant and painted, and the door is fondant too. The cake took a whole two days to work on, and only a few minutes to demolish-- I mean eat. :) But it was sooo tasty and definitely worth all the work. The cake didn't exactly survive the trip to Hillary's house, and when I got there, I had to "glue" the top three towers back on with white candy melts. Still worth it!

Long live the Boy Who Lived!

Dinner and a DVD (WCC)- "How do you like your grits?"

When I saw that Paige over at Chef-girl was hosting WCC and her theme was Dinner and a DVD, I knew right away what movie I wanted to feature. It is one of my family's favorite movies, one that you can see over and over again, and still it makes you laugh - My Cousin Vinny. While it does have some raw language, my kids understand that there is "movie language" and "our language", and if you are really concerned, a family friendly version can be caught on TBS or ABC Family from time to time. And this movie is a classic comedy based on the cultural differences that can occur right here in our own country, classic fish out of water comedy.

There are so many hilarious moments in this movie - the famous interaction between the Judge (The Munsters' Fred Gwynne) and Vinny (Joe Pesci) when Vinny asks about the "two yutes" seen leaving the scene of the crime, to Marisa Tomei's insistence on finding good Chinese food in backwoods Alabama, to to comedy of misunderstandings that occur when Attorney Vinny first meets Billy Gambini's friend Stan Rothenstein in their jail cell. It is easy to see how Marisa Tomei won an Oscar for her performance in this movie, since she is touching and hilarious all at the same time!

But what does this movie have to do with food? Well, one of my favorite scenes is when Vinny and girlfriend Lisa go to a local diner for breakfast. They look at the menu only to find the choices are Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Then there is their culture shock when they try to find out what the white substance on their plate is (grits). That scene is the inspiration for my entry- I made Breakfast a la Vinny Gambini by way of Ala- f-ing- bama (Vinny' words, not mine).

I pulled a recipe for grits from my Entertaining on the Run cookbook by Marlene Sorosky, a really great go-to cookbook with ideas for events for everything from kids' birthday parties to Sunday football suppers to elegant company meals. I have made many dishes from this cookbook, and they have all been big hits. I did tweak the recipe a bit adding some chopped sauteed onions and bacon bits and some prepared con queso sauce.

If you are a Northerner, or otherwise not knowledgeable about grits, you can either watch the diner cook explain to Vinny what they are or check out the Wikipedia entry on grits. Suffice it to say they are very similar to polenta, and are versatile as a side dish.

Breakfast consisted of cheese grits, eggs over easy, and bacon, much like what Vinny and Lisa ate in the Beechum County diner. However, in deference to Vinny's concern in the movie of the "ongoing cholesterol problem in our country" (when he sees the diner cook putting a fist-sized blob of lard onto the griddle), I used turkey bacon.

My Cousin Vinny's Cheesy Breakfast Grits

1/2 medium onion chopped

2 cups chicken boullion
1 cup quick grits (not instant)

2 tablespoons Goya Cilantro Sauce (My husband bought this without knowing what to do with it, but we love ethnic ingredients and it added a great taste to the grits)

2 tablespoons Con queso sauce (I know, its a cop-out but delicious and easy!)

2 slices bacon, crumbled

2 tablespoons butter

Two tablespoons flaxseed meal (optional)- Note: we are adding this as much as possible to boost fiber and raise the "good" cholesterol- and it adds a nice texture without masking the existing flavors of a dish- great to add to cereal, pancake batter, etc.

Put butter in pan, add onions and cilantro sauce, stir until onions are soft and then add chicken boullion. Bring mixture to boil and stir in grits, lower heat and cook about 5 minutes. Stir in con queso sauce and bacon bits until smooth and cheesy. Serve with breakfast meat and eggs for a real southern meal.

Note: Grits are very versatile, you could also serve these with shrimp for dinner or with barbecue or roasted chicken. Also you could mix in a couple of eggs, put in a greased casserole, top with cheese and bake for a side dish casserole or a delicious breakfast casserole.