Cake Boss

My kids have been watching a reality T.V. show called Cake Boss. It's basically about this Italian bakery owner who makes incredibly fancy cakes with the help of his extended family. They also fight with each other a lot.

Needless to say, my kids have been inspired (to make cakes; no inspiration is needed to fight).

One of the main ingredients on cake boss is fondant - it's a smooth malleable icing that is used for decorating cakes, cupcakes and candies.

We decided to make an "easy" version of fondant this past week made out of marshmallow creme and powdered sugar. (I put the recipe below) The thing that's not so easy about this is that it's sticky and makes a huge mess.  Gavriel started the project with the kids on Wednesday night and I had to finish it with them on Thursday. So, if you choose to do this, do it at a time when you have a lot of patience and nothing else to do.

I'm not sure if I've ever had real fondant, but I've heard from a few people that it's not that tasty.  Our fondant was yummy in that sickly sweet kind of way. I couldn't bring myself to go all the way and add food coloring to it - we try to avoid putting toxic things into our food as much as possible.  I am on the lookout for kosher and natural food coloring and would be happy for any info on that.

The cake was a chocolate cake made from the recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa box, substituting Pamela's Artisan Flour Blend (gluten free, dairy free) for the wheat flour. The frosting was made from earth balance, powdered sugar and instant coffee.

In any case, the end product came out looking like a kid who went to disney world, ate too much sugar, went on too many rides and then died on top of Mickey Mouse (the picture is below - judge for yourself).  Oh, and it was crazy good and devoured by our Shabbat guests.

Here's the cake:


Aderet and Avigayil - the cake decorators:



Adin decided to make his own cake: It was a coffee flavored cake with glaze, fondant and crushed chocolate chips.  (Yes, those are tater tots in the background. No, they did not go on the cake.)

Marshmallow Creme Fondant (from thefarmgirlrecipes.blogspot.com) 

1 16oz container marshmallow fluff

6-8 c. powdered sugar

2 t. flavoring (I usually use vanilla)

Colors (paste colors from Wilton work the best)

1.  Put marshmallow fluff in large bowl and stir in flavorings.  Add 2 c. powdered sugar and mix well.  Place mixture on greased countertop and knead in powdered sugar until fondant is pliable and not sticky.  This part takes me about 20-25 minutes. (I found that it helped to add a little oil to the mixture as well as to your hands and all surfaces coming into contact with the mixture.)

2.  If you need other colors separate out the amount you will need.  Add a small amount of color to each portion and knead until color is uniform throughout.  Roll out on greased area and layer on cake or cut out in desired shapes.  To store, cover in plastic wrap and then in Ziploc bag and keep in the fridge.  It will keep for several weeks refrigerated.  Enjoy!

Warm Cobbler on a Cold Day

It's been a bit of a disorienting day for me; with Gavriel back home, it being a holiday (but not our holiday) and a few other things that are cycling through my head and aching in my heart. With that said, there was also so much good that happened today so I wanted to share it here. 

Even though it was coldy cold outside today I managed to get outside for a walk. I have a goal of doing 60 days of 60 minutes of self care. I know that I'm a much happier and healthier person when I walk, mediate and do a little yoga - yet somehow those things always find a way to the back burner. My goal is to walk for 30 minutes, sit for 15 minutes and stretch for 15 minutes. Really, I hope to go beyond 60 days but thought that was a realistic amount of time to commit to. ***A week later I'm noticing that It's not realistic for me to do all 3 of those things every day but I have managed to walk and/or sit every day***

We had a bunch of apples that were past their prime, so I made a yummy apple blueberry cobbler with a topping of almond flour, gluten free oats, brown sugar and earth balance and ate that for dinner (everyone else had mac and cheese). 

Here it is:

 I also started making a winter hat for Avigayil from this rainbow yarn she picked out last week:

The funnest part of the day was watching Avigayil bang away on her newly put together drum set. She and her friend Gabrielle had great fun starting their band. This is actually the first time she's ever used a drum set - I'm excited to see what she'll do after some lessons.


Another good thing is that that it's starting to snow, and even for this non-celebrating Jewish girl there is something special about a White Christmas.

Making G.F. Cinnamon Rolls with Avigayil

Avigayil and I made G.F. Cinnamon Rolls today from the recipe on the package of the Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix. 

YUM!!!!