baking | The Angel Forever

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Bakerella style cake balls for kindergarten

Posted on June 16, 2009 12:58 pm by TheAngelForever

Tomorrow the kids in kindergarten are having an end of year celebration. They have ponies and other animals coming to visit for rides thanks to the school PTA. This will be also be to culminate their transportation unit. Parents have all been invited to come for the fun. After the rides there will be a pizza lunch. We were asked to sign up if we are coming and also let them know what we could bring. I told NHL’s teachers to let me know what they needed the days before.

Yesterday when I picked NHL up from school I was told that they had plenty of paper products and drinks. She asked me to bring in a dessert item. Immediately I started to think about things. Cupcake cones would be fabulous, but it may be for both classes and all of the extra adults. That would be too hard to bring. Then I thought about making bonbon cookies like my friend J’s mother used to always make. These are easy to make, but very time consuming and not inexpensive thanks to the Hershey kiss filling. Of course I asked my Twitter followers for suggestions. Lots of great ideas came in. Then I had an idea. What about making something from Bakerella?

After looking at all of the options, I thought the Bakerella cake pops or cake balls would be a great idea. Today JSL and I went out to the store to get items to bake them. Here is what we bought:

Some of these items were already on hand at home. I wanted to have the lollipop sticks just in case I try to make those. I think they may be a little more work than I have time for (especially on my first attempt). There is also the worry about how to take them to school if I have them in pop form. In addition to this, I have since changed my mind on the frosting that I am going to mix with the cake. I had planned on using the cream cheese kind seen above, but now I think I am going to use the Rainbow Chip by Betty Crocker. I think that will be more fun for the kids. On the outside I have the yellow melting chocolate and a variety of sprinkles. I had thought about the blue ones to make it the school colors, but will see what NHL thinks when he helps me contruct them later on.

On that note I am off to check the two cakes. Both of them are now baked and cooling. Will update later with more photos of my experiment a la Bakerella. Oh, if you have time check out Bakerella’s fabulous collection of special cake pops. – amazing!

Categories:
baking decisions food glorious food photos shopping yummy

Happy Chanukah 2008

Posted on December 22, 2008 11:06 am by TheAngelForever

Chanukah officially started last night . At sundown, we lit our menorah and watched the candles burn. The boys each received a small present and later we had cookies that were baked while snowed in. It was a very quiet day thanks to the excitement from the previous night. Thankfully the little guy is recovering well. We head to the doctor tomorrow afternoon for a concussion follow up to see if there is anything that he wants done.

Today we will hang out in the house, probably a pajama day. The boys already have a favorite activity that they can enjoy together. Check them out with one of their new Chanukah presents.

Of course maybe we will try to play a little game of dreidel. Just in time for the season, JSL had a new word. Here he is saying it in a very short video.

To all of those celebrating Chanukah, may you have a wonderful Festival of Lights. Here is a little something that I found thanks to Twitter that you may also enjoy: The Differences Between Christmas and Chanukah. This may be from 2005, but it is still fabulous and I had to share.

Categories:
baking brothers holidays jsl nhl winter

Cakes or cupcakes…that is the question

Posted on December 5, 2008 8:56 am by TheAngelForever

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating. Th

Aloha #25

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My question for this week:

Do you prefer making cakes or cupcakes? Why do you like one over the other and what is your favorite cake/cupcake to make?

For the last year or so I have been VERY into baking and decorating cupcakes. Of course, it is not limited to traditional cupcakes. Since we bought silicone cupcake holders we have been using them to make muffins, mini cakes, and more! Here are some that I made for the Election Day bake sale at NHL’s school:

For Thanksgiving I experimented with a favorite recipe. I took the fruit swirl cake that I love and made mini ones again. Here they are below with hubby’s peanut butter cookies.

Just a reminder to think outside of the box for your holiday baking!

Categories:
Aloha Friday baking food glorious food photos yummy

Thanksgiving 2008 – Part Deux

Posted on December 2, 2008 10:26 am by TheAngelForever

Thanks to family time together, Thanksgiving was fabulous. The boys had a wonderful time playing. Did I mention that NHL loved JSL’s new music set?

Thank you Aunt A, the boys absolutely love everything! They actually have little squabbles over the drum sticks. We have had to go over that they are to only be used on the drum, not each other or the walls or various other objects within the house.

After resting for a little while, cleaning up and playing it was time to eat some yummy goodies. JL and I baked in the morning. I made mini fruit swirl cakes (thanks to my old neighbor Mrs. D for that amazing recipe) and JL made peanut butter cookies. JL also prepared two pomegranates as well. The pies were delicious and everyone felt the need to be healthy and have at least some fruit. The little guy enjoyed the fruit the most.

After eating JSL snuggled up with Mimi for some hugs and time on the steps. He did the same thing earlier in the evening with Aunt T.

Soon after this Cousin A brought down his new dog to meet the boys. JSL was curious and fine with her until she licked his face a little too much.

Once the dog was safely back upstairs the boys decided to do their own Thanksgiving Day Parade. For quite some time the two of them paraded around in circles after each other. They were so happy just chasing each other, singing and laughing.

After the boys were tired from running around it was time to pack them up and head home. JL had work the next day and the boys were fading quickly.

Thank you again to Aunt S and Uncle M for inviting us to their wonderful Thanksgiving feast. Being with family means so much.

Categories:
baking family food glorious food fun holidays jsl nhl photos play time yummy

New baking toy (Aloha 19)

Posted on October 24, 2008 7:36 am by TheAngelForever

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

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My question for this week is inspired by something new we bought for baking:

Do you have a new "toy" that you like to use to cook or bake with? What is it that you like about this item?

May I present you with our new favorite baking item:

Since the boys are really into muffins we thought it was finally time to try the silicone baking cups. I was hesitant for the longest time, but thanks to a 50% off coupon at Michaels I figured it was well worth the experiment.

We opted to fill the cups, use cooking spray to help things slide after baking, and put them into a traditional muffin tray to steady them. I was too afraid to put them on a cookie sheet in case they were bumped. I could just see muffin batter all over the kitchen floor.

Check out how easy it was to get them out of the muffin cup:

And when they were all finished there was not a lot of mess to clean up. The little cups are dishwasher safe or I just cleaned them in soapy water and they were all set.

We have used the silicone muffin cups at least 3-4 times now and love them. The 24 that we now have were well worth the money and we will only use the paper liners for special occasions when we want to decorate.

Categories:
Aloha Friday baking photos yummy

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