Making it Count Tuesday, Birthday Cake!

This week, I'll share a bit about my first big birthday cake project.  My inspiration came from the cake on this blog post while I was searching for ideas for Ellie's Art Party.  I figured it would be an easy first attempt to bake a cake using fondant, but without using it to cover the entire cake.  A local friend is a very talented cake artist and let me borrow her supplies and even gave me the frozen fondant to use!

I didn't take a lot of photos, but pretty much the girls and I spent a long time just kneading the fondant and adding a bit of water, using corn starch on our hands and the countertop.  I added in the gel food coloring to our liking for each of the "ROY G. BIV" colors, and then we made the little balls and the artist palette for the middle.  For the cake, I baked two 9x13 cakes using a boxed cake and adjusting it a little (added sour cream and a bit more oil).  I made one chocolate and one vanilla, and then sliced them in half and stacked them so that half the cake was chocolate and half vanilla.  They needed to be sliced a bit to make them the same height.  I made buttercream frosting using this easy recipe.  I needed three batches to frost between the layers and also frost a light crumb layer (and then refrigerated it), before covering it all with a think layer of buttercream.

The kids all enjoyed this part, putting the balls around the bottom of the cake!

 

I'm having lighting issues while photographing with my iPhone (looks fluorescent here), but here is the finished colorful cake which I put on a piece of cardboard wrapped with the polka dot gift wrap.  I also put some cardstock paper under the cake because it was making the gift wrap soggy!

Here's the whole set-up with colorful fruits and veggies.  We love making the ranch dip using the dry ranch dip seasoning and sour cream.  It tastes great with potato chips and veggies!  Ellie also picked out cheese puffs and I made candy popcorn with sprinkles.  I also made my own punch concoction using Simply Lemonade with lime sherbet.  A pretty yummy, and sugary spread!  Just wish we would've found matching paper goods and put the fruits and veggies in rainbow order, oh the perfectionist in me!

And again, here's the very happy birthday girl!  We're still enjoying some cake treats here and there.

The cake was a lot of work and I'm not sure I'd want to do it again anytime soon, but maybe every few years we can try a fondant cake.  The girls are really becoming good helpers, so they might be taking over cake-making soon anyway!

Thanks for hosting Making it Count, Pam!  Go visit her there for more.

Making it Count Tuesday: 5 Recipes!

I'm so glad that Sarah and Pam are going to continue their Tuesday link-up to inspire us to use our Pinterest pins, or other links we've found online.

I've been using lots of recipes that I've pinned on Pinterest the past week, so I thought I'd just post them all here, so I can go back and find the links easily. 

Thanks for continuing the link-up,  Sarah and Pam! As usual, please excuse my iPhone photos.  Maybe one day I'll learn to use the camera phone a little better!

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I'll start with the Easy Garlic Chicken.  I followed the recipe except adding diced onions after seeing that suggestion in the comments.  It's a great option for a quick baked chicken dinner with a sweet taste.

I also tried to make these Ultra-Crispy Roast Potatoes with it.  As Steven said, "we're fresh out of duck fat," so I used butter instead.  And we were rushing out for our Dave Ramsey class and didn't have enough time to let the potatoes get "ultra crispy."  But they were still good!

This is Cherry Berries on a Cloud.  And it's heavenly.  It was recommended by an online friend and I made it for our friends from Houston who came over for dinner last week (Steven grilled fajitas).  It takes a bit of prep making the meringue and such, and calls for an overnight or 12-hour stay in the oven after baking.  I made the meringue that morning and left it in the oven while we were at the beach all afternoon (maybe 8 hours?).  The cream cheese topping is also supposed to sit for 12 hours in the fridge after being spread on the meringue, but I didn't have time for that so I just put it in the freezer for about half an hour and then let it sit in the fridge during dinner.  It was very, very yummy.

This was my second try at this Man-Pleasing Chicken.  The first try ended up tasting really mustard-y, so this time I used a suggestion in the comment section to cut the amount of dijon mustard in half and add BBQ sauce for the other half.  I also used cut-up boneless chicken breasts instead of thighs, since they were cheaper.  And I added fresh rosemary from the garden.  It was much better this time! We ate it with leftover mashed potatoes and salad.  Don't forget to line your glass baking dishes with foil with these recipes at 450-500 degrees or they'll be really hard to clean up!  Ask me how I know.

Finally, tonight was the Skinny Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo.   It uses Greek yogurt, milk, and chicken broth to make a great white sauce.  I cooked the chicken in the iron skillet and roasted the broccoli in the oven with garlic and olive oil.

You can see that Mary Clare couldn't wait; she enjoyed this recipe a lot, as did Ellie!  If half the kids, and Daddy, like it then I'll probably make it again.

Lots of successful recipes we'll be adding to our rotation.  It's nice to find quick and easy dinner recipes with ingredients I'm likely to have on hand.  I'm loving having the boards on Pinterest as a go-to a few nights each week to find something new to feed my family!