This Mama Cooks! On a Diet

An eggless chocolate cake

When my friend Suzanne heard that my daughter is allergic to eggs, she sent along this recipe for an eggless chocolate cake. It's named after the mother of an old friend of hers who used to make it.

Since my daughter is also allergic to peanut butter, I'd make a traditional frosting or maybe a sugar glaze instead.

Shirley's Chocolate Cake - The best in the world!

Cake ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 9 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 cups of cold water
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Icing ingredients:

1. 3 cups confectioners sugar
2. 1/4 cup milk (approximately)
3. 3/4 cup peanut butter

Cake directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl using an electric mixer.
2. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 baking pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes.

Icing directions:

1. Mix confectioners sugar and milk - it will be thin.
2. Stir in peanut Butter, which will thicken the icing.
3. Ice your delicious cake.

Photo credit goes to Diana's Desserts who offers her own version of an Eggless Chocolate Cake.

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Amazing Christmas cupcakes

 

Can you believe these are CUPCAKES? (Click on the photo for a bigger picture so you can see all the detail.)

These were made by Susan at Cutting Edge Cake Design. If you live in the Boulder/Denver area, I highly recommend her work. I first saw some of her fabulous cupcakes at my children's school's fall festival. She had donated them for the cake walk. The event coordinator took one look at her work and said, "These are going in the silent auction!" They were one of the more popular items to bid on.

Wanting to give my business partners at BKMedia Group a special gift to thank them for all the writing work they send my way, I had Susan make two boxes of six cupcakes. They were thrilled to receive them and couldn't believe they were edible. Indeed they are! The Christmas ball part is painted fondant and royal icing with a rich, chocolate truffle interior. I tried a sample, and it was decadent.

So if you're looking for a unique client or partner gift, try your local specialty bakery. After all, most people are kids at heart and love cupcakes!

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Baking for the cupcake challenged

Earlier this year, Jamie at BlondeMomBlog was pondering her Inner Domestic Diva in Move Over Betty Crocker:

I’m entering unchartered territory as the girls get older…the obligatory birthday cupcakes. I made a batch of two dozen strawberry cupcakes with vanilla icing last week for Caitlin’s class in honor of her 4th birthday. A mixing bowl was unearthed from its dusty confines. Cupcake bling* in cheery pastel colors was purchased. And although they weren’t from scratch, it did require some egg cracking and actual mixing with my electric mixer, which has been used as about as infrequently as Jessica Simpson’s brain cells. I’ve set the bar low all these years and headed straight to the baked goods aisle at the grocery. I mean why bake when you can buy?

With the beginning of the school year, parents of young school aged children will soon have a need to supply a classroom full of hungry kids with cupcakes. Here are some great websites for the cupcake and cake decorating challenged:

• Wilton - The ultimate website for cake decoraters. Check out their Recipes & Projects section for great holiday ideas including these Greetings Earthlings cupcakes.
• Nick, Jr - Got a Blues Clues or Dora fan? The best place for how-tos on character cakes and cupcakes.
• Family Fun magazine - More birthday cake and cupcake ideas.
• Baking at About.com - cupcake hints and tips, frosting and icing recipes, and cake recipes and tips
• And for some great ideas for *cupcake bling (ha!) go to a Daily Dose of Denise for her ideas on cupcake toppers

And how do I feel about cake mixes and store bought icing? I love them. Baking an high elevation is very challenging for me, and Duncan Hines Deviled Food Mix always turns out well. While I make my own frosting based on Wilton's buttercream recipe, Duncan Hine's frosting is terrific, too. After all the bottom line is doing something special for (and hopefully with) your child, without killing yourself.

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Got ground meat? Boy do I have some ideas for you!

Want to know how to make a cake out of ground meat? Check out today's post, More fun with ground meat at A Readable Feast.

Not only will I share links to Vashti's and Martha's recipes, but give you a few recipes from the 1969 edition of Better Homes and Gardens Ground Meat Cook Book as well.

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A Daily Dose of cupcake toppers

Fellow ClubMom blogger Denise writes a series of cupcake topper posts on her A Daily Dose of Denise blog. She has some terrific ideas, so check them out!

Since I'm so hung up on piping frosting in interesting and unique ways, I never thought about searching for cute cupcake toppers. This would work for classroom parties as well as birthday parties. Heck, you could have a lot of fun with toppers at adult parties, like little foil packets of asprin or condoms for bachelor/ette parties, little memory sticks for all the geeks at the office party, or all of the above at next year's BlogHer convention.

I love the the kitty figurines that Denise's daughter picked. They're not really meant to be toppers, but worked out great since they could be used as erasers once they were washed off.

Toppers as little gift goodies - it's a good thing.

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Baby shower cake contest

The Baby Shower Guide is having another baby shower cake contest. You can read the contest rules here.

Entry is FREE and the grand prize is a $50 Visa gift card.

I entered last year's contest (Baby Shower Cupcakes and Hey Baby). I didn't win but it was as fun to write about the circumstances behind the cakes as making them.

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Reynolds fun shapes baking cups

Reynolds recently introduced fun shapes baking cups. These are a disposible, easily stored alternative to mini shape baking pans like those by Wilton. Coming 24 foil cups to a package, and retailing in the $2-3 range, they're much cheaper, too.

The Reynolds fun shapes website gives you many recipes for everything from appetizers to desserts. There are also tips on using the cups as serving dishes for dips or side salads. I'm going to use my fun shape cups this weekend for individual servings of flan (Mexican style egg custard). I think the flan will hold up better in the cups than in one big bowl when I take it to my bookclub meeting.

Here are two of my favorite recipes from the site:

Stained Glass Lollipops

• 8 Reynolds® FunShapes™ Stars Baking Cups
• 8 (6-inch) Lollipop sticks
• 40 Hard candies*

PREHEAT oven to 300°F. Place Reynolds FunShapes Stars and/or Hearts Baking Cups on a cookie sheet with sides.

MAKE a hole in one side of each of the baking cups near the bottom of the cups with a toothpick. Insert the lollipop sticks from the inside of the cup through the hole made with the toothpick and push it to the outside leaving at least 1 inch inside the cup.**

ARRANGE 5 candies in each baking cup, placing one candy over the lollipop stick. (It does not need to lay flat, it will melt around the stick.)

BAKE 5 to 6 minutes or until candy is melted. Carefully remove baking cups from cookie sheet onto a tray to cool; immediately twirl stick to completely coat with candy. Prop sticks with handle of a wooden spoon if necessary to keep the sticks straight in baking cup while lollipop cools.

REMOVE lollipops from baking cups by tearing foil and peeling away from lollipops.

*REYNOLDS KITCHENS TIP: We used Jolly Rancher® Hard Candy for our testing.

**The lollipop sticks must be inserted from the inside out to avoid getting the pierced foil edges in the melted candy.

Number of Servings:8

Monkey Boy's golf cake

Here's the final cake being enjoyed by Monkey Boy at his party. He loved it. I think the adults were more impressed than the kids however.

The cake making went very well, though my husband said I should have put the t-box a little to the left. It took about five hours to assemble and frost the cake. The baking and making the frosting was another hour. Add another two hours for ingredient shopping and cleanup, and you have a total of eight hours - or a full day - to make it. Now you know why upscale (i.e., non-grocery store) cakes are so expensive.

Click below to see how I put the cake together.

Golf cakes

Saturday we're having a party at Chuck E. Cheese for my son's sixth birthday. He's requested a golf themed cake (vanilla), so I've searched the internet for inspiration:

   Rather typical, but gets the idea across. Cute flowers. I like the grass, the use of blue piping gel for water, and the sand traps. Kind of boring, though the basic idea is there. I like the trees and sand traps on this one. I like the various levels and use of roughs and greens on this one.

I will be using the blue piping gel for the water trap and brown sugar for the sand trap. Don't have time to use fondant, only buttercream, so I'll make little golf balls with the icing. I'll be frosting the entire cake in a light green and will use darker green for the rough and grass. For the golf green I'll use a lighter green. I'll be using Wilton's Golf Candle Set and a Wilton Golf Bobble Head figurine as well.

I think I should sketch out the cake first, then start decorating. Unfortunately I bought a large square cake pan, then realized that a rectangular cake would work better since I have to transport it and don't have a square cake box. So I'll cut off the side of the cake to fit my rectangular cake board and add the cut off piece on the bottom for length.

Since I had extra cake mix, I made two 6" round cakes. I'll be cutting these up to add hill-like areas and will make the green higher than the rest of the course.

It's an ambitious project, especially considering that I have two sick kids at home today. Wish me luck! I'll post pictures of the finished product soon.

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Baby shower cake contest update

My two entries are up at The Baby Shower Guide website. You can view them by clicking on the following:

• Cupcakes
• Baby Shower Cake

You can view the other entries here. They'll be judged by Karen, a friend of Tara's, the website creator/owner and your baby shower guide.

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