The Road to Home

…but I thought that the cake turned out fairly well. Considering my lack of cake-baking expertise, that is.  Judging from the comments and emails, you guys thought so too!  A few folks have even emailed me directly asking how I made it.

So, here you go.  I regret that I didn’t take “step by step” photos a la PW Cooks, but I’ll know for next time.

Here’s what I did:

• Woke up to the stomp-stomp pitter-patter of Ladybug’s feet finding my sleepy body in bed.
• Allow Ladybug to watch TV in my bed while I try to coax my eyes open.
• Finally drag my lazy bones out of the bed and decide to make Dr. D a birthday cake.
• Pile into the car and go to JoAnn Craft Store to get supplies, as I don’t tend to keep fondant on hand.
• Once in JoAnn’s, decide that I need a new cake pan, icing spatula, patio dishes, and shepherd’s hooks.
• Head home with my newly acquired supplies and start baking.

Because I’m not a gourmet baker, I relied on my friend Betty to help with the recipe.  I used Ms. Crocker’s Butter Recipe Chocolate, and it was a nice cake.  I also used this fantastic spray for the first time.  It beat the pants off of Pam.  I will totally use it for all my baking from now on!

Since all the cake pans that I have are glass Pyrex dishes, I decided to get a new cake pan at JoAnn’s.  Folks let me tell you.  The cake turned out better than it ever does in my glass pans.  I had NO idea that a true “cake pan” would make that much difference, but it did.  The cake turned out to be leveler (is that a word?) than it ever has for me.  So all y’all run out right now and get you one of these.

While the cake was baking, I used that time to start working on the icing.  I learned a few very important things while working to make black icing.  DON’T start with white icing.  DO use chocolate instead.  It took an entire pot of icing gel tint to turn my white cream cheese frosting into iPhone black.  I did it in steps, thinking that it wouldn’t take as much tint as it did.  Fortunately for me, it turned into a frosty greyish color that I was able to use for the silver bits of the cake.  I just reserved a portion (less than 1/4) of the grey icing to use in the decorating phase.  Then I got back to tinting the rest of it black.   My fingers were purple by the end of the process, but I ended up with a beautiful glossy purple-ish black.  It turned even darker as it was sitting, waiting to be used!

After the cake cooled, I turned the cake out of the pan, using just a regular cookie sheet (turned upside down) as my cake base.  Since the cake rose slightly in the center, I used my serrated knife to level out the top of the cake.  Then I just brushed all the excess crumbs off that I could.  Next, I used my newly purchased angled spatula to spread a dollop of icing for the crumb coat.

Ever since I have been old enough to notice, I have always wondered what an angled spatula could do that a butter knife couldn’t.  Now I know.  I will never frost a cake with a butter knife or a regular spatula again! The smooth texture that this spatula made was just mind blowing.  I knew that the crumb coat would make a drastic difference, but I swear that this spatula was the true star.

This is what it looked like after I got the black icing smoothed out.  There were still ridges, but I was afraid to work it too much more.  I didn’t want the crumbs to start poking through.  Next, I started working on the icons.

For the icons, I used some pre-colored fondant.  I just took a little piece of fondant, flattened it with a roller, then used a square cutter to get the shape and size that I needed.  Then I used a round cutter to make the flower and sun shapes.  After I got all of the shapes rolled out, I cut a tip off of a plastic baggie so I could use it as a pastry bag.  Then I piped the reserved grey icing around the edges to create the silver border of the iPhone. I also used the same grey icing to make the silver background strip on the lower half of the screen.  Then I placed the icons where I wanted them.

After they were placed, I used an icing writer to do the fine writing work. I used it for most of the white writing on the icons, as well as writing all of the text.  Here’s the finished product:

See how much “blacker” the icing turned?  I wonder if it would have done the same thing even if I had added less black coloring.  I may never know!

We served it on our new patio dishes that I found on sale, 70% off at JoAnns.  Ice cream was optional!

Tomatoes I do despise.

Just the thought brings tears to my eyes.

I hate them on tacos,

I hate them in sauce.

I do not like them,

They make me cross!

Unless, they are in Bruschetta.  I saw some fresh Mozzarella at the market this weekend.  Then I saw the perfectly ripe grape tomatoes.  Then I spied some fantastic Basil.  I bought them all!

Toss in some balsamic, garlic and purple onion and you’ve got a tasty tasty treat.

This is the end result.  Yeah, that’s plain white bread underneath.  I forgot to get crusty bread, so I had to make this work.

Like my fancy china?  (And yes, I ate the entire plate of food.  I don’t regret it at all!)

After seeing this website the other day, I have become obsessed with cooking better for my family. I have a stinking crock pot that just sits on my counter like a lump because I have no room in my cabinets to store it. We’ve been here for 6 months and I have only used it once.

Well, make that twice. I am currently simmering a batch of soup. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Because of my idea to cook better for the family, Ladybug and I had to go grocery shopping today. Now, I love Whole Foods just as much as the next person, (perhaps not that much), but Dr. D and I discovered a new market near our house this past weekend.

At first glance, Plum Market appears to be just another yuppie organic grocery store. But it’s not. It’s small, but packed with tons of items from local companies. You can buy local produce, local milk, local beer and even local cheeses, breads and coffees. While they do cater to the “organic” crowd, they do carry more mainstream items like coke and lay’s potato chips.

Ladybug and I spent over two hours in there this afternoon. We perused all of the aisles in the middle of the store loading the cart with items to prepare our meals for the next few nights. Then, we hit the perimeter of the store.

The outskirts are where all of the fun is to be had! There are samples galore, as well as tons of educational opportunities. We took our time in the produce department, naming all of the fruits and veggies, learning new ones, finding things that looked like each other, and practicing our colors and counting. She was baffled by the bumpy heirloom tomatoes and their funky texture, but she loved looking at all the containers of the fresh cut fruit. We sampled strawberries, sniffed limes, and studied the funny looking ginger and horseradish.

The highlight of the trip was the pizza counter. They have a true pizza hearth in the store that is quite beautiful. Ladybug was fascinated with the flames that are visible from the front of the counter. Fortunately for us, the chef was preparing a pizza just in time! So she was able to watch the whole process from start to finish.

We really had a good day at the store. Though I didn’t have any coupons to use for this purchase (it was mostly produce anyway), treating the outing as entertainment certainly helped to take the sting out of paying the bill!

Now off to stir my soup.