Con-Man's Birthday Preparations

The Con-Man is turning 3 in a few weeks! We're having his party this weekend; early, just in case Tiny Falcon #2 makes an early appearance. I've been busy with preparations for his party. I thought I could whip up a few things for the party but being pregnant seems to make everything take twice as long!


I sent out the invitations a few weeks ago. I hand stenciled them with stencils from Hobby Lobby. We're doing a water party since the temps have been in the 100's here. I got the inspiration for them here- I liked that they were a "water" theme but not to literal.

The big thing I've been working on is a PVC Pipe Car Wash (Or Kid Wash I guess). I tried to finish it today but realized I bought some wrong connectors. Always shooting myself in the foot!

Lots of water balloons will be on hand.

We have a pretty big Kiddie Pool I'll fill up and stuff it with water toys. Like I've been seeing these Sponge Bombs all over Pinterest and it's about time I make some! And some water guns and anything else I can find that might be fun for the kids.

As for snacks we'll have the usual chips and such but I thought some fruit and other frozen goodies would be refreshing to have on hand.

And of course cake and ice cream. Though it's a water party I'm not doing a water themed cake. Con-Man's favorite character is Lighting McQueen. I've been looking at McQueen cakes online for ideas. I'm not an amazing cake decorator but I like to make his cakes myself so we'll see how this one turns out! Not sure which I'll go with yet~

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For Party Favors one of the things I'm giving are these Giant Gummi Bears! They have nothing to do with "water" theme but they were so cool and on sale. I couldn't pass them up.

The final countdown has begun and I have lots to do! Will share pics after the weekend.

What sorts of things have you done for your child's birthday? Do you like to do a lot of it yourself or do you like to dole out the tasks?

Mmmm!! Apple Cake

So The Con-Man has been going to Mother's Day Out two days a week for a few weeks now. It's nice because not only does it give me some free time to work on projects it's good for him to get out of the house, interact with other kids his age, have some structure in the day, ect. And you know, it's nice for me to...

(Gratuitous Picture of Cute Baby)

This past Thursday it was my turn to bring snacks for the Kiddos. I just assumed that all kids ate mountains of food like Con-Man so I bought a bag of apples, some cheese and sliced them all up. Little did I know that all kids don't inhale food in the quantities my son does so needless to say there were more than a few apple slices left for me to take home.

Hmmm, what to do with a bowl of sliced apples? Make cake! 

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I originally thought about making pie or tart but those all called for Granny Smith apples and all I had was Red Delicious. I found the recipe on Joy Of Baking. I choose it because not only did it look good,  had most of the init was easy to follow, didn't take long, and there's even a video to go along with it! It's the perfect fall dessert.

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts or Pecans

1 pound apples (about 3 large)

1-2 tblsp lemon juice

1.5 cups flour

3/4 c sugar

1.5 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

6 tblsp unsalted butter melted and cooled to room temp

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tblsp mild

1/3 cup raisins (I didn't use raisins)

Glaze (optional)

1/3 cup apricot perserve or jam

Step 1.

Preheat the oven to 350 and place the rack in the center of the oven. Butter or spray non stick cooking spray on an 8 in square baking pan and line with parchment paper or wax paper

2. Place nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 min or until lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack then coarsely chop.

3. Peel, core, and chop the apples into bite size pieces. Toss with lemon juice.

4. In a bowl use a mixer to combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Add the melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and milk and beat until fully incorporated. Fold in the chopped nuts, raisins, and apples.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake in preheated oven for about 35-45 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, Remove from oven and place on rack to cool.

6. While the cake is still warm, prepare the glaze. Place apricot jam in a small sauce pan and warm over medium heat until liquid. Remove form heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove and fruit lumps. Or heat in the microwave. Use a pastry brush to spread the preserves over the cake.

7. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. YUM!!

This cake turned out good and was pretty easy to make. Next time though I may not use as many apples as it calls for. Every bite was completely apple filled and I think I'd like less.

I hope you try this out and enjoy it as much as I did!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Bake'n Up Some Christmas Cheer

Every year for Christmas I usually bake up a bunch of goodies to give to friends and neighbors. This year I still baked up some goods but with a different spin. 


I saw this cute project on Prudent Baby and wanted to try it out. She used Salt Dough to make ornaments, garland, and gift tags for their home. 

I thought I would try it out for small gifts this year. I have some of the highlights but for complete instructions check out Prudent Baby.

Start with your ingredients: 1/4 cup of salt

                                                1/4 cup of water

                                                1 cup of flour

Just mix, knead, roll, and use a cookie cutter to cut out your shapes.

Then bake for 5 hours (I know so long!) at 200 degrees. You want to dry out and harden the dough but not brown it. And just a side note- Be sure to warn your husband that these particular cookies are not for eating. Otherwise he'll be sure to take a bite and then ask you how you could even think of giving these to people. (True story)

Then it's time to decorate! I painted some parts then used Elmers glue and glitter to decorate the rest.

I had fun with this project, it's been a long time since I used glitter and glue. And I thought it was nice to give something to my friends that would last a long time, since the stuff I usually bake doesn't!

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

Birthday Baking

Connor's 1st Birthday is tomorrow! I can't believe my little baby is going to be 1 year old. He's so grown up. ;..)

So to celebrate all of our family is coming in town. They never get to see him since we live San Antonio and they live in Houston and Baton Rouge. So I figured I wouldn't be able to do anything to creative this weekend except make Connor's cake! I don't have a lot of practice baking but I love to cook and have lots of inspiration:

My friend Angie has her own company Callooh Callay Creations where she's always making lots of yummy stuff.
http://twitter.com/calloohcallay09

 Or all the scrumptious cupcakeries here in town offer lots of eye candy as well.

Cupcake Couture

Or Saweet! Cupcakes

Anyway, I'm making myself hungry. What kind of mom would I be if I didn't atleast attempt to make my son's first birthday cake? I decided to use a recipe my mom gave me that I've had several times. The cake is so light and fluffy and the icing is to die for. I just hope I can make it the same way she does. Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Cake Batter

Makes about 6 cups. Prep 20 min.

(Add an additional 1/4 tsp vanilla extract if you don't have almond extract.)

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened

3 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. almond extract (I'm going to add a little more of each of these so its extra flavorful)

3 cups cake flour (I'm using Swans in the red box)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Beat sugar and butter at medium speed with a heavy- duty mixer until creamy and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until yellow disappears after each addition. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; add sugar to mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at medium- low speed just until blended after each addition. (Batter will be thick.)

I'm making cupcakes so I followed these directions:

Vanilla Cupcakes
Prepare basic Vanilla Cake Batter as directed. Place paper baking cups in muffin pans and coat with vegetable spray; spoon batter into cups, filling three-fourths full. Bake at 350 for 20- 25 minutes or until a wooden pick insterted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans or on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove pans to wire rack and cool completely; about 1 hour (Seriously 1 hour!!!) Spread tops with buttercream frosting. Makes about 24 cupcakes

Phew that's a lot of words, I think I need some inspiration to keep me going.

That's better!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Makes about 2 3/4 cups; Prep 10 min

If you love frosting double the recipe

1/2 cup butter softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. salt

1 (16 oz.) package powdered sugar

3 to 5 tbsp milk

1. Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

2. Gradually add powdered sugar alternately with 3 Tbsp milk, 1 Tbsp at a time, beating at a low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. Beat in up to 2 Tbsp additional mild for desired consistency.

Hopefully Connor's cupcakes will turn out as good as those pictures. I don't want him to look back at his first birthday pics and be embarassed! Must...Channel...Cupcake...Goddesses...

I also uploaded the full article I got this recipe from. It was from Southern Living and had a lot of variations on the batter and icing. Yum!! Happy Baking!

Cake Recipe

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