This is a test

Testing Testing

Magical Birthday Cake

This is the birthday cake I made for my little brother for his 14th birthday. He is into magic, can you tell? Everything is edible except the rabbit, which was made by my sister's boyfriend, thanks Zeke!

Steven's Wedding Cake

This is the cake I made for my cousin Steven's wedding, Congrats on getting married Steven!
Three tiered, chocolate, white, and one artificial tier.
Alex was the best man.
The filling for the cakes were chocolate mousse and buttercream icing.
The couple's wedding color's were navy blue, silver, and black. They wanted the cake to be white with silver decorations.

The Ghost of Muffins Past

It's pumpkin season, it's pumpkin season! Near where I live, there is a Kneaders. Throughout the month of September, they had a countdown posted on their Marquee of how many days until Pumpkin Bread was available, on October 1st. Being cheap, on October 1st I made some pumpkin bread, but I posted that last year, so I decided not to repeat. I also made some pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes in honor of General Conference this weekend. And then I had leftover pumpkin in the fridge, so I made these delectable Pumpkin Muffins. I love October.

.

Maple Pumpkin Muffins

From Tasteofhome.com

.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup, divided
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
.

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Whisk the eggs, pumpkin, milk, oil and 1 tablespoon syrup; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in pecans.
In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, remaining brown sugar and syrup until smooth. Gently stir into batter until mixture appears swirled.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups about three-fourths full. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Yield: 1 dozen.

Sukiyaki

This Friday I was introduced to a Japanese way of eating that I had never heard of before - Sukiyaki. My father-in-law served an LDS mission in Japan, and after we treated them to fondue last week, they thought it would be appropriate that they return the favor and make us Sukiyaki.

Basically what it was was a variety of foods - crab, water chestnuts, tofu, green onion, steak, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, peas, bean sprouts, and some lettuce-y looking stuff - which you throw in a wok that has some sort of sweet and sour beef broth in it. They you cover it, let it cook, and then put your choice of toppings over a bowl of rice.

My father-in-law tells me that in traditional Japanese eating, to finish off the rice you add a raw egg to the rice and it slides down real nice.

Wedding Cheesecake

Inspired by a cheesecake she saw in the May/June issue of Bride Magazine, my BFF decided that for her wedding she wanted a cheesecake instead of a traditional cake, makes sense if you don't like cake all that well. We won't go into details about making this cheesecake, just know that a lot of love and effort was put into it and that I am happy she was happy with the final product!

For some reason blogger isn't letting me paste in the recipe I want, so here is a link to Dorie Greenspan's cheesecake recipe. This isn't the recipe I used, but I can't find the recipe I used and this one was a close runner up.

A Great Big Kiss!

The theme of the potluck: Survival. I thought to myself, how is that a theme for food? Luckily, one of my coworkers mentioned that the birthday girl loved Hershey Kisses, so after a quick Google search I am across an article talking about making a 3-D Hershey Kiss cake, and with a little carving help from EC (ok, actually, he carved the whole thing, I never touched the knife) - Voile! Hershey Kiss cake was born!
I used a sour cream frosting, something I have never done and I am not sure what I thought of it...sour cream and chocolate and not two things I am used to putting together. I am going to have to give this one some thought.