1 cup of Kindness every Tuesday

Not doing Tuesdays with Dorie

2009-04-27T20:18:00.005-08:00

I am no longer doing Tuesdays with Dorie so I am going to make this blog about my cake decorating. Here are all of my cakes I have done since I started. They go from bottom to top, because for some reason that is how blogger uploads them.

Floating Islands

2009-02-10T14:47:00.002-09:00

I did make this, kind of. I started to make the Creme and it curdled so I threw it out and gave up.

TWD: World peace cookies

2009-02-03T02:30:00.001-09:00

At first when I read the recipe I thought there was no way I was going to make these. That much salt in cookies? Gross, but then I thought, I could make them and serve them at my superbowl party, that way if I didn't like them I could just give them away. I mixed them all up and formed them into logs (was I the only one to be grossed out by these logs?). I threw them in the freezer and waited only about 15 minutes for them to firm up. As soon as I was ready I sliced them up and put them in the oven. I cooked them for two extra minutes, because the recipes I make from this book never seem o be long enough with the time. Once I pulled them out I tried one. WOW! was I wrong. I am glad I made these. I did end up serving them to my guests (but because I didn't want to eat them all). I probably should have found fine instead I had Sicilian sea salt.

TWD: Sugar cookies

2008-12-09T08:03:00.003-09:00

I made these last week when I made my linzer sables. I put them in the freezer in logs fter I had them all mixed up. It only took them a few minutes to get firm. Slicing them was easy and they baked quick. I had added grated unsweetened chocolate and cinnamon. These disappeared fast here. I took them to different places with me and people gobbled them up. They tasted more like snickerdoodles. I forgot to take a picture of them after they came out of the oven.

TWD: LInzer sables

2008-12-02T10:31:00.002-09:00

I really really really want to make these, however this week is extremely busy, I will probably have time tomorrow and will post then.

Okay I can post now. Yum!!!!

I finally had time today to bake. I made these and didn't have as much almonds as called for, but I think they still worked out good.

I called the kids over to help me cut the cookies (in circles) and they grabbed shapped cookie cutters and went to town.

These are really good. My daughter had three before I told her there were nuts in them.

My son kept coming back for more and tonight I will see if my husband likes them. I also am making the sugar cookies today, but I will post for these later.

TWD chocolate cupcakes

2008-10-28T12:44:00.002-08:00

I am not going to be able to make these today. I have way too much going on today. I will also be missing for the next month. I will be back at it the first week of December.

Pumpkin Muffins

2008-10-21T08:29:00.004-08:00

This weeks recipe was Pumpkin Muffins. The recipe called for nuts, raisins and sunflower seeds. I am not a fan of any of those things, so I left them all out and added chocolate chips. Bubba helped with making these. Princess was not interested at all. I had been paying attention to what everyone else had been saying about thee and how fast they cook, so I lowered the time from 25 ins to 17 minutes and they came out great. The book also said yo could use silicone baking cups, but I really don't think those things were meant for that high of temperature. I had a horrible smell coming from my oven on my second batch and ended up taking the silicone ups out and just throwing the whole thing away. Gross!
Once they came out I was anxious to try then, they smelled so good. Bubba was the first one to try them.
They are excellent. The whole family liked them (especially Princess). I however think I may be allergic to something in them. They were very moist, but I had a bit of a time trying to swallow them and they made my throat hurt. I wonder what I could be allergic to.

TWD: Lenox almond Biscotti

2008-10-14T07:45:00.003-08:00

Let me start by saying I don't like biscotti. At least the store bought biscotti. It's hard and flavorless (okay so I've only tried it once, but that was enough to turn me off of the stuff). My husband decided to help me these the other night. It was fun working in the kitchen with him. The kids decided they would rather watch a movie. So my husband read the instructions while I cooked. I was a little leery of these after all how can something with cornmeal in it be that sweet and these were supposed to be a little sweet right?
Well, now I got these all done (the first baking did take a WHOLE lot longer than I thought it would). Yes you do not see pictures of the finished product. That will teach me to taste something before I take the pictures of them. :-) I was surprised I loved these. Excellent (unfortunately I was the only one that liked them and I ended up eating all of them myself).

TWD: Peanut Carmel Cake

2008-10-07T18:31:00.002-08:00

Sigh, I forgot it was Tuesday. I had such a busy day with NANO coming up it just slipped my mind. I got home from my busy afternoon and looked at me sister's blog and realized I hadn't started anything yet. So just before hubby got home, i started my cake.
Of course with Mike taking pictures I got distracted and put the dry ingredients in before I put in the chocolate mixture. This was just a recipe for disaster.
The kids LOVED licking the spatulas. I just pulled it out of the oven a little bit ago. I will be making the caramel sauce after dinner tonight, so I have no idea how this will be liked by the family, but it smells rich and yummy, so sigh it's been one of those days.

{TWD} Creme Brulee

2008-09-30T15:37:00.004-08:00

Okay so when I first heard about this recipe I was so excited and then I got my torch and started reading the instruction, I was terrified. I started frantically looking for a different recipe this morning. Only to realize I didn't have any ingredients except for the creme brulee. So before the kids got up (I was not going to do this one with them) I began. I boiled the milk and cream and mixed my other things. I was actually really surprided how easy this really was. I only had 4 dishes, so we had to waste a bit of the mix.

It took a bit longer than the called for 60 minutes. I just kept looking in the oven and checking it every 10 minutes. Eventually it was done. Before I headed off to do some errands I had these in the fridge to chill.
Just a few minutes ago I began torching it, but then relized, duh, I don't have any sugar on it. I sprinkled white sugar on and torched it. Tasting it I relized I had never had creme brulee and I like it. The kids and husband have not tried it yet. I am waiting to torch the other three when he gets home to try it. Does anyone know, should I store a torch with Butane still in it? Is it safe?

{TWD} Dimply Plum Cake

2008-09-23T09:56:00.003-08:00

This weeks TWD was brought to us by Michelle from Bake-en. My family does not like plums so we decided to use Peaches instead. I used the basil that was called for, but left out the zest as I did not have any. This is definitely an interesting combination. Princess was hungry for something different this morning so we decided to make this first thing this morning. She was very hungry by the time this was done. I didn't read the recipe until we started and then saw that it took 40 minutes.

This does give a very pretty presentation. I think if I made this again, I would slice the peaches. A whole peach is just way too much in something like this. I really liked the cake under the peaches. It has a lovely texture, but the rest of the cake seemed a little dry.
Princess liked it at first, but after a few bites she said she didn't like it anymore and had a granola bar instead. Bubba refused to try it. I'll have to see what Mike has to say about it at lunch time :-)

{TWD} Chocolate Chunkers

2008-09-16T20:09:00.003-08:00

Wow, These cookies are so rich. This weeks selection was by claudia of Fool for Food. They call for a LOT of chocolate. After they were made I had one with a full glass of milk. Yum. Bubba asked for a taste of the unsweetened Cocoa. The picture bellow shows a lot happier child than after trying the cocoa. He ran to the bathroom to get the taste out of his mouth.
Some of the other people have referred to these as turd cookies. I quite have to agree with them.

Mike does seem to like these much better than the last ones. Bubba doesn't like them (too rich). Princess seems to really like them. I like them, but can only eat one at a time. They make you really thirsty. So I guess for our house it's 1 and a half spatula up. :-)

TWD: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

2008-09-09T08:11:00.003-08:00

This weeks recipe was chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart . This is our second recipe with TWD. There are some interesting combinations in this book. We decided to make these on Saturday. (Are we allowed to do that?) The kids were fascinated with how some of the ingredients looked. I don't like to sift all my dry ingredients together so I just dump them in. As I was dumping in the flour and the malt and cocoa, Bubba mentioned that it looked like a beach and mountains.
Chopping the whoppers Bubba was shoveling them in as fast as I could chop them ,so I think we probably had half as much in the recipe as was suppose to go in there.
These cookies were more cake like than I like. The whoppers did caramelize quite a bit. I think this will probably the only time we make this recipe. My family didn't like them too much.
I am working on my presentation. I'm looking forward to the next few recipes. They look so good. I am also looking forward to trying the creme brulee. I have never done something like that before.

Chipsters with TWD

2008-09-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

This was my first week doing this. I borrowed the recipe while I wait for my book to get here. I homeschool my two kids and have decided to make this my Home economics program. At first the kids were not that into it until I started letting them taste the ingredients. My butter was frozen, but I learned from pamper chef years ago that you can grate frozen butter and make it the consistency of softened butter. Once the cookies came out the kids tried them. My daughter loved them. My son turned his nose up at them and my husband said "It combines all my favorite cookies" We give this recipe two spatulas up :-)