Simple Horse Birthday Cake

So for my sons birthday he wanted a horse cake.  I pulled up some images on Google for him and after eliminating all the hard ones for him because I am no professional, he basically got to choose from 2 simpler cakes, a full body horse, or a horse head.  He chose the full body horse.  Since it is actually a cake pan that I don't have and didn't care to buy, I improvised.

I made two 9x13 cakes, one white and one chocolate, the night before I decorated them.

For my base/cake board, I cut some cardboard boxes up to give me two layers big and strong enough to hold the 2 cakes.

I drew a horse similar to the one from the picture seen online (and don't laugh because I am no artist!) using two plain pieces of standard size copy paper taped together. (I made sure my 'cake board' was bigger then my drawing) 

I then used handy dandy tinfoil to wrap the cardboard and fancy it up :) 

I just taped it to the back like this...nothing to fancy but also it didn't require going out and purchasing anything! 

I used wax paper as a template to transfer my drawing onto the cake (since drawing it a second time would be near impossible since you can't erase on frosting!!)

I just laid the wax paper on top then used a black marker to trace the main lines needed. 

I then laid my two cakes on the board and cut them to give some shape and then also because my drawing was just a little taller then my cake I needed to add some length by using the scraps I just cut off (like I said not professional but easy)

I then made some chocolate frosting and covered the cake.

I also used a scrap piece to create a horseshoe for a spot to put his name and age since I didn't feel like making cupcakes like the cake online had.

I overlaid my wax paper template then used a tooth pick to indent the lines (I just traced the line with the toothpick and it did the trick!)

I then created some black frosting using my extra chocolate frosting and using a size 6 circle tip outlined the horse and filled in the hooves.  I used a Wilton 21 tip to create the main and tail.  Then I made some red frosting (because my son wanted a red horse but settled for red accents!!) to give the horse a halter and then to border the cakes and write his name and age.

It was pretty easy (and has lots of imperfections just like me;)) and the best part was that he loved it and it fed all of our guests with a little to much to spare!

Cars Cupcake Birthday Cake

This year for my son's 3rd birthday he wanted a "car" birthday cake.  When I used Google Images to looks at different option with him it became quite clear he wanted a "Cars" birthday cake and anyone would do.  Knowing that I was going to use cupcakes, we settled on a dirt track with cars on it.  I think it could have been any cake with a 'Cars' character on it and he would have been happy.

I put my cupcakes as close together trying to achieve an oval shape, then used a white 1" ribbon wrapped around to hold them together.

The one that that I didn't do that I learned was a mistake, was to secure the cupcakes to the base.  They just slid as a group and I didn't realize this until it was a little to late to solve the problem.

Sorry it was late when I was trying to finish the cake and get it hidden for the next day, so the pictures are a little lacking and I had to use a really shallow focus in order to get enough light.

Anyway frost the cupcakes like they are one unit, just making sure that the frosting is think enough to hold and not just fall through the gaps between the cupcakes.  I used green since I knew that I would be piping on green grass to top it off. 

My race track was crushed up oreo's, with the 'walls' being just a part of the oreo.  Once I scrapped off the cream, I just used my frosting spatula to score a line in the cookie and then it would break right where I wanted it to.  I only used maybe the outside 1/4 of the cookie (so I got two 'walls' from each one chocolate wafer) and then just threw in inside in with the others to be crushed up for the dirt track. 

I then used a grass tip to pipe grass where the track wasn't.

I made some Checkered flags by using a black marker on white paper and then taping it onto a tooth pick.

My son had picked out some 'Cars' toys that we put on the cake. And that was pretty much it.  It was quite simple and took less time then I thought it would.

Top view 

View from the side 

I then added a candle for his age and a little cut out of the cardboard box the cars came in with his name to personalize it. 

Hope this helps you in any way :)

Home made Lunchable

Our home made lunchable

 

A while back when I asked my son what he wanted for lunch he replied "a 'Lunchable'."

'Lunchables' are not something that I would typically purchase so the request caught me off guard.

Trying to think of what I could do to create a lunchable, I remember passing over something on pinterest of serving snacks in a muffin tin, with that in mind I set out to create a healthy, home made version.

 

I cut up some lunch meat and cheese,

pulled out some fruit and a vegi,

added some crackers

and topped it off with a go-gurt 

 

It added a little fun into what we would typically have for lunch, but instead of half eaten sandwiches I had empty tins.

 

I have the large muffin tins, but the regular sized ones would work too.

This is now one of my sons favorite requests for lunch and I can feel good about giving it to him because I control what goes in and can vary it up according to what I have in my fridge/pantry.

Homemade applesauce for canning

 

This year I decided to preserve some applesauce.

There is a local farm where you can pick your own apples at $.40/lb, which compared to the $1.49/lb at the grocery store, it was a bargain and worth a try.

 

At the recommendation of the farm owner, I went with the empire apple (vs. his other options of Jonathon, golden delicious or red delicious.)

This was our load of apples (15 pounds worth)

 

I had my little helpers putting the apples in the bags after I picked them and it was quite the surprise to find out that one of my helpers was taste testing each apple to make sure it tasted good! 

 

I found a recipe for applesauce in my pressure cooker manual, it was pretty easy and the sauce turned out smooth, nicely colored, and sweet without adding any sugar. 

 

If you don't have a recipe, this is the one I used and a few tips (*) I learned along the way:

 

Applesauce

Wash, peel (I used a potato peeler), core and slice apples. I cut into quarters using a corer/slicer, but if you don't have on I don't think is matters to much how you cut them. 

I put the apple slices into ascorbic acid solution (*gallon of water with 1 Tbsp 'Fruit Fresh') to prevent browning until I got them all cut up.

Drain well.

Place slices in pan (*I would use a stock pot or something with high sides, mostly for the re-boil part because it 'spits' once it is all blended up) with 1/2 cup water

(*I had 42 medium sized apples and still only used the 1/2 C, so my thoughts are that it is to keep the apples from burning until they soften up and start releasing their own liquid.)

Cook until tender (*the apples change color, they seem more transparent if that makes sense, and they start to break up pretty easy).

The recipe says to press through a sieve or food mill, but I just put them in a blender.

Sweeten to taste (I didn't add any sugar)

Reheat sauce to boiling.

Pack into clean, hot Mason jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

Adjust jar lids. (I like to wipe the rim just to ensure a proper seal)

 

Process:

Pressure canner: Process at 5 pounds pressure, pints 8 minutes and quarts 10 minutes

Boiling water canning: Process pints 15 minutes (now I did quarts and it was not in the recipe so I just did 20 minutes because that is what they recommended for apples)

 

My 42 medium apples yielded 3 quarts.

 

 

 

Canning Salsa

Today I managed to can some salsa.

Our little garden has been producing a good amount of tomatoes and peppers, which is good since that is pretty much all we planted.

Last year it seemed like canning salsa took me most the day and was a tedious task with chopping everything.

Well this year I decided to enlist some help.

I had around 3 options of food choppers and decided on the Ninja

I liked that it had a few different options and was willing to give it a try.

The verdict is...I love it! 

It saved me lots of time (like half of what it took me last year) and although it wouldn't work for chunky salsa, it could handle a whole bell pepper, cut into strips, with no problem.

So my salsa recipe has been a work in progress for the last 3 or so years.

I kind of wanted a recipe that was basic, easy, slightly sweet, not spicy (but I do have a spicy one for my husband), and could mostly come from my garden.

We don't typically grow any onion or garlic, so I plan to purchase those and I will buy a yellow and orange bell pepper to add some color (and because I like the sweetness of them more than green but it seems like they don't want to grow in my garden.)

Anyway...

My recipe is:

10 Cups Chopped tomatoes

3 medium to large Chopped Green Bell peppers (BP)

1 Yellow BP, chopped

1 orange BP, chopped

1 red BP, chopped

1 & 1/2 medium to large Onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced (finely chopped)

1/4 C Sugar

3/4 C Apple Cider Vinegar

3 Tbsp Canning salt

Combine all into a pot, bring to a rolling boil for 20 minutes

Jar

Hot water bath process 15 minutes

Yield: 8 Pint Jars

Done!

Here are a few pictures from my process:

So here is my salsa just getting warmed and ready to boil 

I also fill my hot water caner and get that water going since it takes a while to heat up. 

When the salsa has about 10 minutes left to boil, I put my lids in a sauce pan of hot water. 

With 1 minute left in the boiling process, I pull my jars out of the sink in which they are sitting in hot water (having been recently washed) and line them up near my salsa.

Using my handy jar funnel and ladle I fill the jars. 

I wipe off the jar rims, put on the lids and rings, then...

Once my hot water caner starts to boil, I put the jars on the rack (make sure you have something between the jars and the bottom of the pot) 

and drop the jars in and make sure they are fully submersed, then process.

Resulting in some yummy salsa.

One more batch and I will have almost a years worth.

Hope my garden keeps producing and I will even make a spicy batch for my husband!

No Bake Garlic Bread

Tonight we had spaghetti for dinner and I had purchased a loaf of wheat french bread yesterday with intent to make garlic bread.

However, the idea of turning on the oven when it was over 100 degrees today was not something I wanted.

So I decided to be creative and see if just putting it outside in the sun would do the trick. (Thanks PBS and Curious George for the idea of using solar energy)

I made my garlic butter, cut the loaf in half, smeared on the butter, put the two halves back together, then wrapped it in tinfoil, placed it on the hood of the car (which was in the sun) and...

20 minutes later we had warm, buttery garlic bread. 

It was not quite crisp on the outside like the oven would have done, but it was warm and the butter had melted into the bread quite nicely.

So if you have a hankering for garlic bread but don't want to turn on the oven, use the SUN!