Poker Birthday Cake

I had a lot of fun making this cake. Hopefully this is the beginning of a lot of baking and decorating!!

red & black decorations are fondant, as well as poker chips. Cards are gumpaste. Top tier is white cake, bottom tier is dark chocolate. Iced in buttercream.

Baked Tilapia

Last night I made Baked Tilapia. The name doesn't really do it justice...it should probably be Italian Baked Tilapia...but either way, it's baked!! I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and of course modified a little.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• chicken broth
  
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 (4 ounce) fillets tilapia
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat bottom of a medium baking dish with about 1/4 cup olive oil.
2. In a small bowl, blend remaining olive oil, tomato paste, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. I used the chicken broth to thin out the tomato past mixture.
   
3. Arrange tilapia fillets in the prepared baking dish, skin side up. (I sprinkled with Italian Seasoning, recipe below). With a spatula, spread the tomato paste mixture over the tilapia, heaping the majority in the centers of the fillets. Arrange onion and green pepper slices on and around the fillets.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 15 minutes, until fish is easily flaked with a fork.

For the pasta, I cooked whole wheat penne in chicken broth and doubled the tomato sauce from the tilapia and stirred it in the cooked pasta, sprinkled with Parmesan.

Italian Seasoning

3 tablespoons dried basil

3 tablespoons dried oregano

3 tablespoons dried parsley

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Mix all ingredients in a spice grinder. OR put in a small bowl and crush with the back of a spoon. Store in an airtight jar for up to 6 months.

Wilton Cake Decoration - Course 3, class 2

For class 2 we had to make a square (or rectangle!) cake to cover with fondant in class. I baked a yellow sour cream pound cake in a 9x13 and cut in half - cute gift box size! I decided to change up the filling, since I didn't want to make 2 batches of buttercream and was going to be close with 1 batch, I decided to try a raspberry filling. It turned out well and was yummy with the pound cake!!

The cake is covered with fondant and the pink bow and curly ribbon are also fondant. This was the best fondant job I've done - I didn't even add a border!!

Wilton Cake Decoration - Course 4, class 4

Final cake for course 4!! Covered in fondant and decorated with gumpaste daisies and leaves. I love making gumpaste flowers!! Can't wait to make more!!



Course 3 starts tonight!! Fondant & Tiered Cakes!!