Take The Cake

This is my 6 year old son, Carson who was in his school's Take The Cake decorating competition yesterday. He took 2nd place in the Kindergarten competition out of 7. He came up with the design mostly by himself. It was actually his dad who intervened to try and make it a little better. It's a Black Widow Spider.

They had one hour to decorate. He finished just under 4 minutes. We had 56 minutes left plus 30 minutes of judging so we went and grabbed dinner while we were waiting. We are so proud of him and it was so much fun!

The wedding of Q and U was also yesterday. The kids did such a good job and it was so cute.

The cake did not turn out great. It was ok, especially for a kindergarten class but I wasn't happy with it. It has been very hot here in AZ lately and the fondant was hard to work with. Oh well! I've decided that cupcakes are probably more my thing. It did taste great, though! 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:
Pizza Crust - homemade or store bought. Mine was store bought
1 or 2 Roasted Chicken Breasts, shredded
Mozzarella Cheese
BBQ Sauce


Directions:
After I roasted the chicken breasts in some olive oil, I shredded it and mixed the mozzarella in with the chicken. Then I added a little BBQ Sauce. Before adding the toppings, I baked the pizza crust as directed for about 6 minutes or until lightly browned. Then I brushed BBQ Sauce on and added the chicken and cheese mixture and spread evenly. I dotted the top with a little more cheese. Then baked for another 6 minutes or until golden brown.

Blueberry Muffins

I got this recipe from the Essential Mormon Celebrations Cookbook by Julie Badger Jensen. And it rocks.


Muffins 
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 cup Butter, melted
1/2 cup Milk
1 tsp. Lemon Zest
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 recipe Muffin Topping (see below)
1 recipe Muffin Glaze (see below)

In a large bowl (not a mixer), combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir until well blended. Make a well in center of mixture. Place egg, butter, and milk in center and stir just until blended. Carefully stir in lemon zest and blueberries. Fill 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle with Muffin Topping. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and drizzle with Muffin Glaze (not pictured above)


Muffin Topping 
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (not pictured above)
 1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Lemon Zest
2 Tbsp. Butter, melted

 In a bowl, combine above ingredients and sprinkle over muffins.


Muffin Glaze 
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
1 Tbsp. fresh Lemon Juice

In a bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice together. Drizzle over muffins after baking.

Q & U Wedding Cake

You are going to get a kick out of this.  This is not a real wedding cake.  It's actually a practice wedding cake for the wedding of the letters Q and U for my son's kindergarten class in a couple of weeks.  After school the other day, his teacher and some of the parents were talking about the upcoming nuptials, and his teacher asked who would like to make a wedding cake.  Stupidly, I answered, "I Do!" (No pun intended.)  Have I ever made a wedding cake?  No.  Have I ever made anything that would remotely come close to one?  No.  But I thought it would be fun.  I decided that I wanted to practice first.  So I did.  

Mistake #1. I made the bottom layer out of Rice Krispie Treats, and it's not thick enough.  It's also a different color than the other two layers even though they're all covered in white frosting underneath the fondant.  

Mistake #2. I got impatient towards the end and messed up.  Most of that is either covered up by flowers or in the back.  

Mistake #3. I didn't level the cakes so the top is kind of lop-sided.  

Click here for the cake recipe.