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!!

Browns - Draft Day Cake

My husband requested a Cleveland Browns cake to take to work to eat in front of his Browns-hating co-workers on Draft Day...and this is what he got. After scraping of the first attempt at a 3D helmet, this one turned out much better. Chocolate Fudge Cake, Chocolate Buttercream - what could be bad about this one...unless you're not a Browns fan!

Good Luck Browns, please don't draft Tim Tebow.

Happy Earth Day - Next April 22nd, I'll make something Earthy!

Paula Dean's Crab Cakes

While I was in Madison this weekend, I decided to try to make crab cakes. Found a really good recipe on foodtv.com from Paula Dean. They were meaty, not a lot of filling - and everyone ate them, so they couldn't have been too bad! I overcooked a few of them, so watch the time and temp of the oil!

In case you are wondering, the shrimp on the plate were marinated in Italian dressing, garlic and a little cajun seasoning for a few hours then grilled. The pasta is Pesto sauce packet, steamed carrots & broc with whole wheat penne - both of which were my mom's creations..and very yummy creations at that!!

Crab Cakes

Ingredients

• 1 pound crabmeat, picked free of shells
• 1/3 cup crushed crackers (recommended: Ritz)
• 3 green onions (green and white parts), finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
  
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Dash cayenne pepper
• (I added about 1/2 tsp of Old Bay Seasoning, probably could have added a little more)
  
• Flour, for dusting
• 1/2 cup peanut oil (we used vegetable oil)
  
• Favorite dipping sauce, for serving (we used cocktail and horseradish sauce)
  

Directions

In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, except for the flour and peanut oil. Shape into patties and dust with flour.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, carefully place crab cakes, in batches, in pan and fry until browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully flip crab cakes and fry on other side until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Serve warm with preferred sauce.

Wilton Cake Decorating - Course 4, Class 2

Last night was the first night I used fondant on a cake. It was a lot of fun and to make it better, my instructor kept complementing it and said I was a natural...so, I guess I've set my bar high - hope I can keep it up. I guess I'll be practicing another fondant cake in the next 2 weeks before I have to bring another cake to class to decorate!!

(The cardboard cake round is covered with fondant that we colored and rolled the previous week.)

In class, we rolled out the fondant to put on our cake, made a handkerchief, a border (i did the rope border, was going to put lines in it, but Mabel said it was to good to mark up!) and used cutters to make other decorations to complete the cake.

Next week in class is gumpaste flowers! Also, I have my first "order" - husband wants a Browns themed cake for next Thursday's NFL draft to take to work to treat some of his Bengal co-workers. We'll see how an orange and brown decorated cake turns out...I'm hoping to come up with something creative!!