coconut cream pie!

ok. these SERIOUSLY don't take longer than 15 mintes. It will take longer for them to set up or prep the stuff than to actually cook it. I usually make some sort of cream pie when i have to make white cake, as the recipe i uses asks for 6 egg whites and i can use the egg yolks for either this cream pie or the chocolate cream pie (which i've posted previously on here). I ALWAYS keep individual sized premade graham cracker pie crusts at least 2 pkgs which will give you about 12 little pies. perfect portion. :D

Filling:

1 (14 oz) can coconut milk NOT cream of coconut (shaken well)

1 cup whole milk (i think i used 2%)

1/2 cup (1 1/4 oz) unsweetened shredded coconut (all i had was desicated and i think i've used sweetened as thats all i had. lol)

2/3 cup (4 2/3 oz) sugar

1/4 tsp salt

5 lrg egg yolks

1/4 cup (1 oz) cornstarch

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces.

THE best way to do this is walk through the instructions several times and have everything together by the stove. Bring coconut milk, milk, shredded coconut, 1/3 cup sugar, and the salt to a simmer in a medium sauce pan over med high heat, stirring occasionally with a wodden spoon to dissolve the sugar. when the mixture reaches a simmer, whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl with the cornstarch and other 1/3 cup of sugar until well combined and no lumps remain. gradually whisk the simmering liquid into the yolk mixture to temper it, then return the mixture to the saucepan, scraping the bowl with a a rubber spatula. bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly until 3-4 bubbles burst on the surface and the mixture is thikcened, about 30 seconds.. Take off heat, whisk in the vanilla and butter. pour the filling into little pie crusts, press a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the filling and refrigerate until the filling cold and firm, at least 3 hrs.

ok. first i dont use a whisk. lol. for the pot i'll use a wooden spoon or good rubber spatula. to 'whisk' the eggs, i use a fork. it's easier as i usually use a 2 cup measuring cup. i use a smaller hand held measuring cup to pour the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks SLOWLY. about 2-3 1/4 cups worth. my yolks were straight out the refigerator. by the time i pour it back into the saucepan i've turned it down to medium with my 3rd arm. as soon as you add the egg mixture to the hot milk it will start to thicken almost instantly stiring constantly. add the vanilla and butter and keep mixing. you dont have to strain this or worry about yolk fibers as it has the coconut to hide them. lol.

you can top this off with whipped cream either out of a can/container or homemade. the recipe calls for dark rum...if this wasnt meant for my kids...it sounds YUM. LOL.

i forget how EASY this is. i usually save the yolks and then make it later. but i decided to do it while i was waiting for my egg whites to come to room temperature. and i think from here on out i will make either the coconut cream or chocolate cream pies while waiting for my whites. lol. if you didnt have or want to make crust...you could always put it in little bowls or large bowl and serve as you needed or even put in a cake! mmmmmm.

Dia de los muertos cake...

I made this for a friend. It was her moms belated bday cake. The skulls are made from candy melts. The molds i picked up from mexicansugarskull.com YEARS ago. This is the first time i've actually used them for candy and NOT sugar skulls or plaster. lol. The flowers are made of gum drops that have been rolled out and then cut out with a large and small daisy cutter. I then cut between two petals to the center of the flower and rolled the flower on itself. I used melts as glue to stack the flowers on themselves and created a dome. I added the boarder at the last minute as it needed SOMETHING. So I made it to look like the catrinas lace along with pearls. The lace was just piping gel that I tinted purple and put sparkles in. I need to practice more. lol! I used pearls and gold dragees for the eyes and randomly in the flowers to make them 'pop'. I think overall for a cake I was asked to make the night before...I think I did ok. lol. it was just a white (almond) cake with lemon curd filling. anyhow. hope you all had a good dia de los muertos. :)

randomness

these were just run of the mill chocolate cake gems with pink flowers. these are actually cutters i bought in a japanese store that are for decorating plates with. you know...when you eat japanese food they have the little carrots and what not cut into cute flowers...well these are the cutters!

i was trying to impress someone with these gems and show an array of color variations, flower decorations and gem sizes. it didnt work. lol. but oh well. next time. :)

these were them on the cookie sheet. before i packaged them up.

all packaged and purdyfullish. lol

Cupcakes i made for Cho's bday last july. lol. i used a meringue frosting. the green frosting was SUPPOSED to look like grass. yeah um. not really. the only part that became my focus was the lady bugs. which were peanut m&ms which i decorated with chocolate melts. let me just say. NOT an easy thing to decorate something that wants to roll. lol. i think i ended up placing them on a kitchen towel so they wouldnt escape. because they were melting in my hand. the flowers were just gumdrops. i wanted some added color. besides the cupcake flower papers were on sale! lol!!

anyhow. i've been meaning to post these. and just havent cause i'm lazy. :D

Wizards of Waverly Place

I made this cake several weeks ago. just hadn't gotten around to getting the pics off my phone at the time. ANYHOW. this was my first stacked cake. and it didn't fall! yay!

(from the back)

I used two 10 inch vanilla bean cakes for the bottom. i made a vanilla bean butter cream frosting to go on the inside. i used store bought frosting so that the fondant could adhere to the cake. you're going to put a FINE layer of store bought. or some other kind of frosting over the cake. like a crumb layer. before you put your fondant on. don't wear any jewelry when you're trying to smooth fondant onto your cake as you could snag it.

i made stars out of different color gum drops. again...you cover your work surface in the color sugar you want to use for then roll out until they have reached the size of your cutter or desired thickness. for the REALLY big stars, i used like 2-4 gumdrops/fruit slices.

this is what the back of the bottom layer looked like. i tried to fill in gaps of space with smaller stars to make it look fun. i tried to adhere the stars with water at first. but the sugar from the gumdrops wasn't really letting me. so i used store bought frosting. i was going to use piping gel. but i didn't have any and wasn't going to buy any. :)

this part was a 'last minute' addition. when i first 'designed' the cake in my head. :D it was just going to be stars and the wands on top. then i successfully made my own fondant out of mini marshmallows. (I'll post the recipe next time i take pictures while actually making it.) so i decided it wouldn't truly be a wizards of waverly cake without the white placard thing. which meant i needed chiclets. i cut a rectangle out. rolled it out to about the size i was looking for. curled the corners with a toothpick. i used the back of my knife to make the indentations for the 'bricks'. i placed the chiclets with a TINY bead of frosting. i piped the words on before i placed it on the cake because I'm just not talented enough to write on the side of the cake yet. the only thing holding it to the side of the cake is water. which i brushed on until it looked tacky.

this was the original idea for the top of the cake. i didn't like the idea of happy birthday being REALLY small or off kilter. so i took them off. WHICH...kinda made the top look shiny because i tried to clean the frosting off with a wet brush. oops. lol.

again. the final outcome of the cake. oh the top tier of the cake was chocolate. with chocolate frosting. it's a stacked 7 inch on a 6in cardboard. SO in order for you to have stacked cake you'll need dowels that are as evenly cut as possible. you'll want the pegs to sit just under your cake board. stacking and removing the top layer was THE scariest thing i've ever done. lol.

thankfully. everyone enjoyed the cake. i think it looked awesome for a first time stack and 2nd or 3rd? time fondant job. I've gotta get lessons for this crap at some point. who wants to pay for it?? lol.

Eye see Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooou!

****i wrote this AGES ago. shoot we were still in El Paso. and we've been here at ft. sill for a year now. oops. but i couldn't find the pictures. i knew i had them some where but didn't know where. i have a serious love hate relationship with the digital age****

these were my Halloween to the kids. the school district HIGHLY discourages Halloween parties and dressing up for the holiday....YET they themselves (administration) has one of the BIGGEST costume contests/parties in the district. ANYHOW! my little vent. :D

so i made these for the kids to take to soccer as it was the last game of the season. i made goody bags and EYE ball cupcakes. i rock! ;)

i lightly frosted the cupcakes that i tinted red. i just used canned frosting. i had rolled and cut different color gumdrops for the 'iris' of the eyes. black Halloween m&ms for the pupil. white fondant which i rolled thick, cut out then rolled out again to fit the tops of the cupcakes. and royal icing tinted red in a sandwich baggie to get the m&ms to stick as well as the 'veins' on the eyes.

the irises and piping gel, i used the piping gel to stick the iris to the cupcake

they were honestly REALLY easy as you can cut the gumdrops prior. you could use regular ol white frosting for the tops of the cupcakes instead of fondant. you can heat canned frosting 10-15 seconds at a time, stirring in between until it's a nice ribbon consistancy. but i need more practice with fondant, so i used it instead. lol.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!!

my apologies for not posting sooner. :D

bday cupcakes

I'm going to put two cupcakes together. again i found these pictures which i swore I'd lost forever and ever. only to have mike find them. lol.

these first ones were for a friends little girls birthday party. she was really into elephants. but we didn't want to do anything too circus. cause you know the circus can be creepy. ESPECIALLY clowns. lol! so we decided elephants and candy mounds. i made the ears with gum paste. i had to put toothpicks half way into the trunks so that they would stick out and look right. i was trying to use those edible ink pens on the eyes. looking at them now...i'd have re thunk that and just used melts or something. cause it looks funny. lol.

These were easy peasy. these were just some bratz ones for Mia. i just put rings in them. but thought to add some other outline elements to make them look special. and because you only get 12 or so rings i figured I'd monogram the other cupcakes. i rolled the edges in the same colored sugar to add a little sparkle. she LOVED them and now looking at the pic, i LOVE the colors. lol.

gears of war cake

this is the gears of war image

so i made this cake for Anthony several years ago for his birthday. being that mike just found these pics and I'd been looking for AGES but not in the right spot i guess. whatever. anyhow. Anthony LOVES his video games and most of his cakes are inspired by his video games. i guess it's a good thing because it forces me go outside my cake box. ;)

anyhow. this was just a 10 inch single layer. my FIRST cut out cake and my FIRST time with fondant. so i didn't know what the front door i was doing. :D lol. but like always figured it 'can't be THAT hard'. lol.

i used cardboard to cut stencils for the cog and the skull. so i wasn't cutting out cake where i shouldn't have. i think it worked out good.

then i had to detail the skull face. i wanted it to look creepy but still knew i had to put fondant on it. this was a box cake. so it was REALLY soft. i was afraid i wasn't going to have any cake left. so i tried not to cut out too much. the spoons really helped dig out the cake cleanly.

apparently this is the last picture i have of this cake. i KNOW there's a cd out there with the rest of the pictures from the party. I've seen them. just don't know where they are. lol. so you wont see this cake covered in fondant. I'll try and describe as best that i can. i used a black fondant which was DARK gray. lol. for the cog. then a red fondant for the face. let me just say this wasn't the easiest thing to do when i didn't know what i was doing with fondant. i ended up having to cut in between the cogs to make the fondant sit right. then the skull face itself was red. with the grey/black fondant around it and for the facial details. around the skull i had cut a different piece. i don't think I'd do that again. just maybe cut a place for the skull itself and then push the fondant up the sides of the skull face...iunno.

i wanted to show this cake. cause there just AREN'T very many current video game cakes out there and maybe this will give someone else a better idea. lol. anyhow. hope you all enjoyed. i remember this cake making my head hurt. mike LOVED this cake and thought it was the BEST FONDANT EVER. you know what was really cool. i didn't know you weren't supposed to put the covered fondant cake in the fridge. so when we cut the cake...it was SO creepy cause the fondant had like melted into the cake. too cool anyhow. hopefully Anthony will ask for a cake like this when i have better cake skillz. lol!