How to make a cake by the Little Rascals

I realize a lot of ya'll aren't as old as I am and might not remember the Little Rascals, but they are so cute.  In this video clip they are baking a cake.  I must admit I have never had a cake catastrophe this bad!  LOL



Here is a link also  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO6Ks77oYo4&sns=fb
I love the way they interpret the directions!

Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

Laundry Day

"....and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean."  Numbers 8:7b  You would not believe how many times God says this in the Bible.  Have you ever realized how important it is to God to be clean?  As women, whether we are married or not, we have laundry to do and it won't clean themeselves.  We do have stuff that makes it easier, like washing machines and dryers.

My dryer broke about two months ago.  July was just one of those months where everything was breaking.  My dryer broke, my stand mixer broke, and I even "broke" (fractured) my wrist.  My fingers still don't always work right.
My husband rigged up a clothes line for me in the backyard.  He found some tent posts, an old metal shelf, and a bird feeder hanger to make my clothesline with.

 As you can tell by my grass, we are having a drought in TX and temps reaching 110°.  I hadn't bought clothespins yet (My husband brought some home this week after I had to chase one of my slips) so I had just been laying the clothes over the line.


There are pros and cons to using a clothes line versus a dryer.
*  The electric bill has been reduced drastically!
*  I love the smell of clothes that have dried in the sun.
*  Clothes last longer
*  The dryer is not making my house hot
*  The clothes dry quickly in the TX sun.
*  etc.

The cons
*  It takes more time
*  I'm afraid that if I forget to bring them in one day, this might happen:

Last night when I told my husband at 10:30 I forgot the laundry, he said don't worry about it, but I was afraid the raccoons might get into them.  I found this( and the cat) picture on the internet, so obviously my fears had a foundation!  Not to mention our "pet" racoon that comes to visit every every evening.

Not a great picture since we took it through our screened window.
More cons:
*weather
*stiff clothes, but wait, I found a way to fix the stiff clothes!  Just put a 1/4 cup of baking soda in your wash and it softens your clothes!  Even my husband said it works!  So yeah!
We are praying about moving, so I don't see any sense in buying a dryer until after we move, but of course I'm still trying to come up with the money for a new mixer and in my opinion that comes first!  LOL

Have a great Labor Day Weekend ya'll!
Missy
P.S.  I don't know how they got those kittens in those bags, my kittens would never go for that!  Although Muffin does like the dryer!

A new book for you!

I wanted to share a book my Pastor wrote, my husband helped to put it in book format. This is a great book on the history of the King James Bible, be sure to order a copy for yourself!

"The Word, God Will Keep It: The 400 year History of the King James Bible Only Movement."
By Joey Faust

17 chapters. 335 pages.
Did you know that “King James Onlyism” has been the most popular view among Christians for the past 400 years?
This book, filled with hundreds of quotes, takes you on a detailed journey through the past four centuries to behold the vast number of Christians that believed the King James Bible is the infallible, preserved Word of God! Many of these early Christians also warned future generations of the terrible consequences that would arise as a result of forsaking this Holy Bible – consequences that our age has seen come to pass. This book also exposes a web of occultists and false teachers – outside – as well as inside, Christian churches – that have worked to overthrow the faith of multitudes in the King James Bible.

Some of the chapter titles include:
“Conditioning for a One-World Church”
“The Originals-Only Scheme”
“The Necromancy of Westcott and Hort”
“Heretics Behind the ASV”
Etc.

Order online from http://www.fundamentalbooks.com/

Or send $16.00 to:
Fundamental Books
700 Cordes Dr.
Venus, TX 76084

If you want to know the truth, then this is the book you should have!

Spaghetti Sauce

I know this has nothing to do with baking or sewing, but I have had several friends ask me for my recipe for spaghetti sauce.  Rather then write it out one by one, I figured I would put it on my blog and share it that way.  Ya'll don't mind do you?
My sauce is different every time I make it.  I don't measure anything.  The first time I made spaghetti sauce, I made baked spaghetti using Paula Deen's recipe.  I have adapted it over the years.

My pot would only hold eight cans of organic tomato sauce.  Sometimes I use puree, it doesn't really matter.  Next time I would love to use fresh organic tomatoes, but unfortunately I have a black thumb and kill everything I try to grow.  Put all the cans in your pot.

I like to use a green bell pepper and either a yellow or red bell pepper.  The green one was very big so I only used half since green has such a strong flavor.  I used about half a bulb of garlic and a little more then half of that onion.  We like lots of garlic but not very much onion.  Sometimes I will also roast a garlic while the sauce is cooking and add it also. 

Normally I would put it all in the blender with some of the sauce, but my blender is an attachment to my mixer which is at the repair shop right now.  I used my chopper instead which got it pretty fine.  My husband likes to pretend that there are not any veggies in my sauce, so no chunks allowed.

I really don't measure, but use about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning (I get mine from the bulk section at Central Market or Whole Foods), about a tablespoon of pizza seasoning (we love the all-natural Frontier brand, this was also bought at Whole Foods), depending on the size of the bay leaves 2-4.  Remember to take the bay leaves out at the end.  About 1-2 teaspoons salt.  You don't want to over salt, I did that once.  You can always add more salt at the end of your cooking time.  A tablespoon of sugar, I use palm sugar. 

I love my garlic press!  I hate chopping garlic, but my chopper would do a good job also.  I usually throw the garlic in the blender with everything else, the blender makes the process a lot faster!

Simmer on low for about three hours, stirring frequently.  I used a wooden spoon since my pot has an enamel coating.  Don't you just love the green?  After about 3 hours (the long cooking process allows all the flavors to meld and you no longer have the tomato taste).  Be sure to taste it and see if you need any more seasonings.  If you are going to be canning it, add about a tablespoon or so of lemon juice?  This was my first time and I guessed, it needs the higher acid content for water bath canning.

My stock pot was too short and small, so I could only can fit three pint size jars.  See the mess I made?  After I started the water bath canning, I added a pound of hamburger meat. 

You need a pressure canner to process meat, which I do not have.  I need to cook the meat sauce for another 30 minutes at least, but I cooked it for another hour.  I then filled two quart size jars.  After they cool down, one will go in the freezer and the other will go in the fridge.

I let them boil for 35 minutes and then pulled them out.  The lids started popping as soon as I pulled them out!  YEAH!  (Update: My husband likes for me to add a pound of hamburger meat for the last 30 min. to an hour of cooking.  When I do I have to can it in a pressure canner.)

With the sauce still left in your pot, make a batch of spaghetti for supper that night!  Don't forget to add the grated Parmesan cheese on top.  Oh, and if you try to serve this much spaghetti to your husband, expect to hear him complain for a bigger portion!

Nursing Cover

I think a nursing cover is just like an apron that is made for modesty.  These are great for mothers who are still nursing.  This is my second nursing cover I have made.  I made my first one for Skye here: http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2011/05/couple-of-things-ive-made.html and she said to make the casing for the boning smaller and use D-Rings for adjustability (probably not a word, but it fits)on the neck tie. 
Clarissa wanted to give Ashley a nursing cover for her baby shower (remember the monkey cake?)  Ashley had the material, a curtain and a pair of brown scrub pants.  Material can be cheap if you think outside of the box and re-purpose things.

I cut the pocket off of the pants and sewed it onto the cover.  I sat down and put the cover on and put my hand on my leg to decide where to put the pocket.  This way the pocket is convenient while she is nursing.
Have you ever wondered what boning is?  Well, I had no idea!  It is the thing that makes the cover stick out for the mother to see the baby while nursing.

See how it sticks out on top?  (Don't look at my fabric stash, that is what built up while my hand was healing.)  Well, boning is what you use to make a corset.  It is a piece of plastic wrapped in fabric and you cut it to size.  A package is about $5.

This is what the piece I cut off looks like.  Be sure to cut a small piece of the plastic off so you can sew up the ends of the fabric, otherwise when you put it through your casing the plastic will come out, and I didn't want to poke Ashley.
I got a new ruffler foot, I'll tell you more about it tomorrow.  It was my first project to use it on and the ruffle was longer then what I needed.  Instead of cutting it off I wound it up and over the side.  I really liked the way this looked and sewed it on.  I made the ruffle out of the scrub pants.  It took me a minute to make my ruffle!

So easy to make now that I know what I'm doing!
Happy sewing!
Missy

Monkey Cake

My friend was having a baby shower and I offered to make the cake.  I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, thinking flavor wise, and she told me she wanted monkeys and did not care what the flavor was.  So of course I had to make a banana cake (recipe here: http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2011/03/delicious-banana-layer-cake.html )  I doubled the recipe which called for 3 total cups of sugar, but I only had 2 cups of palm sugar left.  With the sweet icing it tasted just fine though.  Banana cake was firm enough to hold up in a 3-D pan.  I also made peanut butter cream cheese frosting (you can find the recipe here:  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2011/08/peanut-butter-icing.html )  It really needed more powdered sugar, but I had also run out of thot not sugar.  This is why I need plenty of warning when people ask me to bake cakes.  My husband and I only have one car and he works 30 minutes away.  We have to go to either Ft Worth or Arlington to get palm sugar and my husband hates driving that far after working all day.

I used my Stand up Wilton bear pan.  Isn't he cute?  You can find the baking and decorating directions at Wilton.com .  I cut off his ears and trimmed his legs.  Then I covered the 8 inch leftover cake with frosting.

I did not have any sugar left to make white buttercream so I was not able to make any extra decorations.  I would have loved for the monkey to be holding a baby bottle or something, oh well!
I did put some frosting inside the bear before I put the middle of the cake from the heating element back inside to give the monkey more frosting.

I made a tail, ears, and legs from rice krispie treats.  The tail did fall down, but still looked okay. 

I started off with one toothpick, but next ended up adding more toothpicks later when they started to fall.  So I would put 1 toothpick on each end, and then after sticking them in the cake, add a toothpick from the front and one from the back where they "crisscross", this will help them to stay put.  I knew I was cutting the cake and could pull out all the toothpicks.  These are the ears!  Be sure to put the ears on the side of his face to look like a monkey.

I then added the legs.  I used a tip 16 and made stars all over the monkey.  When I made the belly, inside the ears, and face the frosting did not firm up enough for me to smooth over with my finger like buttercream does.  I had used a tip 12 to put the "light colored" frosting on.  Oh well, I ended up using my tiny spatula to smooth it the best I could.

Here is his backside, I was told the tail looked like a turkey neck when I pulled it off!  LOL

The funniest part of the cake was when I started cutting it.  I had put a dowel rod down the middle of the cake and another smaller one in his belly to keep him upright and from sliding.  I first cut off his head to lay on the side and start cutting.  Of course all the little girls were standing around me, watching.  When I did this the dowel rod was sticking out of his neck and one of the little girls from my Sunday School class said "His skeleton is sticking out!"  So I looked at her and said "of course he has a skeleton, he would fall over if he didn't have something holding him up just like you do!"  :)
The frosting was soft and held up pretty good in the 110° weather we have been having, but his hip fell off so I grabbed a couple of bananas and put them on the sides to hide it.  I later stuck a strawberry in front of his foot where it started to fall.  Everyone thought it was just part of his decorations!  LOL
Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

Peanut butter Icing

I made some peanu butter cream cheese icing, it was delicious!

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat on medium high speed until creamy:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening

Add and beat until creamy:
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup smooth peanut butter (I had used almond butter and it had tiny pieces of nuts that kept getting stuck in my tips, very annoying!)

Add all at once and beat at low speed until smooth:
4 cups sifted powdered thot not sugar (you can get the recipe here: http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2011/02/powdered-sugar-made-from-palm-sugar.html )

Continue to beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
If it is too thick add a tablespoon of milk until you get the right consistency, if it is not thick enough for decorating, just keep adding powdered sugar until it is thick enough.

I ran out of palm sugar and did not have anymore to add, I wish I had of.

Enjoy,
Missy

Healthy Twinkies

I made healthy "Twinkies" last week.  My husband had bought me a canoe pan a while ago.

You can buy one here:  http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-3964-Cream-Canoe-Decorating/dp/B0009R59QY

As you can see, this is where I got the shape for the Twinkies.  I also made some in regular cupcake pans.  I made a healthy version using  hard white wheat flour.  I found another recipe here that I might try next time. http://www.simplemathbakery.com/blog/2010/02/05/homemade-twinkies

Healthy Twinkies

Preheat the oven to 350°

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat at high speed until fluffy:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups palm sugar

Add slowly and beat on medium speed until fluffy:

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a bowl, sift together:

2 1/2 cups hard wheat white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

At low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture alternately with:

3/4 cup milk  (do not ever use low fat milk to bake with, the fat makes the baked goods taste better)

Fill each mold or liner three-quarters full.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden.  The tops should spring back when lightly pressed.  Cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before removing the cupcakes from their pans or before turning the cakes out of their pans.

Since the canoe pan only makes 8 at a time, I made some of them in the cupcake pan.

You can't have Twinkies without filling!  You can fill them with anything, but I filled them with whipped cream.  I was out of palm sugar so I sweetened the whipped cream with agave nectar.  I usually use Knox gelatin to stabilize it, but I was out so I used guar gum and it worked great!  You can use a bag, but I used the plastic thing that came with my pan, the whipping cream doesn't melt in my hands this way.

You have to have three spots of whipped cream for the classic look!  As you can tell, I made a mess!  I like to put a towel down when I decorate cakes, it makes clean up a lot easier!

I took them to church and the snack size baggies were the perfect fit for the Twinkies!  I hope you enjoy!
Missy

Cheesecake Twinkie Bars

I forgot to take a picture before I tried it, but they were delicious.  I made some gluten free "Twinkie" cupcakes, but they looked funny even though they tasted delicious.  I needed a dessert for church on Sunday but I did not want to spend a lot of time on it since I had been baking Twinkies all day.  So I grabbed 2-3 tablespoons of butter and threw it into a glass pan and threw that into an oven preheated to 350°.  I let the butter melt in the pan this way.

After the butter was melted I crumbled several of the cupcakes into the bottom of the pan.  You can use any kind of cake or cookie for this.  If you want a thin crust, just cover the bottom of the pan, if want a thicker portion of cake, then add more.  I'll share my healthy Twinkies recipe next week.

Cheesecake Bars
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup palm sugar (you can substitute any kind of sugar)
6 egg yolks (I had some left over, feel free to use 3 eggs instead)
1 tsp pure vanilla

Beat cream cheese and sugar together in a bowl until smooth; add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Pour over crust.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Cool completely.  Cut into squares before serving.  Feel free to add berries over the top.

This is how it looks before baking.  It makes a firm cheesecake, which is perfect for picking up and eating with your fingers.
Enjoy,
Missy

Kitchen-aid Artisan Mixer

I borrowed Susan's Kitchen Aid this past weekend.  She has an Artisan series.  My two favorite things about this mixer is my color choice, I would definitely get a yellow one, and I love the splash guard.  It works better then the one on my Cuisinart.  I really didn't see anything spectacular about it to be honest.  I only made Twinkies in it.  It is only 325 watts which is not very strong.  I do like the handle on the side of the bowl.  I'll be testing out another kitchen aid this weekend, I have a baby shower cake to make, so we'll see how it does on peanut butter buttercream.

It comes with a nylon coated flat beater and a nylon coated dough hook.  Both of the hooks had the nylon coating chipping off.  I don't know about you, but I would not want that stuff in my food.  Chris saw the hook and was like "you aren't cooking with that are you?".  The mixer I borrowed does not have the nylon coating, but they do look very "oxidized" I guess is the word for it.  I took some pictures of the kitchen aid artisan (small silver), kitchen aid professional hd (white), my my Cuisinart (silver), to show you the size differences.  The hd is on the left, Cuisinart in the middle and the artisan on the right.

My bowl is the biggest and so are my beaters.  The professional has the arms to hold the bowl, which is irritating when taking out the bowl.  Neither one has the timer which is one of my favorite features on my Cuisinart.

I'm not sure how old the other mixers are, but I have had mine for 4 1/2 years and have used it a LOT, and mine look a lot better then the kitchen aids'.  I do put them in the dishwasher.  You can tell the difference in the sizes also, mine is a lot bigger which is great for when I do two to three batches at a time.  I'll give you more information about the professional after I test it out this weekend.
To sum up, the kitchen aid artisan is great for a home baker, but if you need something big with a lot of horse power, this is not it.  When baking cakes and making buttercream for church, I usually either double or triple my recipes, and this Kitchen-Aide would not be able to keep up.

I definitely need a bigger kitchen, due to lack of space my waffle maker and popcorn popper sit out on my counter with my mixer.  There was no room to work with 3 mixers sitting on it this weekend!  LOL
I am open to any comments anyone might have about their mixer.  Remember, I am in the market for a new one!  I wish I could test out a Kenmore, they are sold at Sears.  Since I do not have any information on them, it is highly doubtful I would buy one.
In my opinion,
Missy