Shimmy Shimmy Cake!

My lady co-workers and I do a cookie exchange every year during the Holidays.  We each bake 3 dozen and then exchange them out for a variety of sugary goodness.  We tend to do this just before Christmas so that we can take them home to have on hand for visitors or last minute parties.  It's a great way to get some new recipes and show off your mad baking skills!! 

Here, enjoy some cookie porn while you think it over....

Bet you can't guess which one is mine.

XOXO,

Rachel

I am admittedly a 21 year old trapped in a mid-thirties something body.  I love jello shots!  I love making them, I love eating them, and I even don't mind the hangover from them.  Ok, the hangover sucks, but that doesn't keep me from consuming a few extra.  Ok, 10 extra.    

I hosted a small get together at my house for New Years Eve and really wanted to make a fancy jello shot.  I came up with a Pop Rocks champagne jello shot that you pick up with your hands to eat instead of those annoying plastic cups.  They turned out soooo pretty!

Then I tried them with some of my edible glitter:

Then on a stick:

Beautiful, delicious, and dangerously intoxicating! 

Champagne Jello Shots with Pop Rocks

Ingredients:

1/2 cup 7up (this  is what I had on hand, but I would use creme soda next time)

1/2 cup champagne

2 envelops of unflavored gelatin

1 cup Pinnacle Whipped Vodka (this is the absolute best vodka to use when making Jello Shots, just trust me on this one!)

Directions:

Pour the 7up and champagne into a small sauce pan.  Stir.  Pour gelatin over the mixture.  Let sit for 1 minute.  Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until the gelatin disolves (about 5 minutes).  Add vodka.  Pour into a square baking dish (I used one of my metal cake pans).  Refridgerate until set firm.  I put mine in the freezer for 30 minutes.  Cut and plate then top with Pop Rocks.  Note:  do not plate until ready to serve as the sugar melts the jello.  Also do not refreeze after plating, this makes them stick to the plate. 

I will definately be making these bad boys again!!

Happy New Year,

Rachel

I have been seriously slacking on my Bentos lately!!  This was the only themed one I made in December.

Contents:

• PB and Nutella sandwich cut into a gingerbread man.  Icing used to create the designs on top.
• Craisins
• Carrots and Ranch dressing
• Goldfish crackers
• Chocolate gold coin.

Slacker,

Rachel

Attempted my first "inside-out" cake.  Check it out:

I made my usual vanilla cake batter recipe and divided it in 2.  Then I added some black cocoa to half the batter.  Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, I alternated my batter, pouring in batches of 1/2 cup at a time.  One batch of white, then one batch of black directly on top of each other.  You can tell from the picture that it makes concentric circles as you continue to pour.  It took about 15 minutes to pour all the batter into the pans.

The inside is as cute as the outside:

Seriously minimal work for maximum effects!  I'm looking forward to trying some other "inside-out" designs soon.  

XOXO,

Rachel 

October is almost over, only two more days to do some Halloween themed bentos.  It always goes by too fast!  Here's a quick one I put together:

Contents:

• PB and Nutella sandwich.  Eyes are pre-made from Wilton and left over from our office Halloween party.  The rest of the details are piped on with Nutella.  I colored the nutella black using black cocoa powder.  It also gives it some stiffness.
• Apple alien with almond sliver teeth and a plastic ring for the eye.
• Mozzarella eye balls with cheese and more Wilton sugar eyes.  
• Caramel dipping sauce in the container.
• Rolled up piece of ham

I absolutely love anything pumpkin flavored.  If you don't then you should go ahead and admit you're a terrorist and leave the USA.  I've spent years perfecting my pumpkin bread recipe and today I'm feeling generous and wanted to share it with you.  

1 can pumpkin (or 2 cups of fresh roasted pumpkin)

4 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened

2/3 cut water

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups white sugar

3 1/2 cups AP flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

2tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Mix the pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, water, vanilla, brown and white sugar together until well combined.  In a seperate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.  Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients while mixing.  Once combined, pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans.  Bake on 350 for about an hour.  Use a toothpick to determine doneness.  

You can add walnuts, cranberries, and chocolate chips if you would like.  I typically add about a cup of walnuts to mine.  The spices can be cut back or doubled based on your desired taste.  I also like to brush some cinnamon sugar butter on the top when it first comes out of the oven.  

BOOM!

Just force feed this to suspected terrorists.  If they don't like it, shoot them on site.  You have my permission.

XOXO,

Rachel

Keepin it real, y'all!

Contents:

• Gravestone Sandwich - PB and Nutella (aka kid crack!).  Piped the RIP with Nutella (more kid crack).  Added the plastic sushi grass and a plastic ghost ring.
• Middle container has overly processed dyed tortilla chips, string cheese, and the panda container has bean dip in it.  I was thinking she could make her own nachos.  Added a plastic ring to the string cheese.
• The last container has a Boo Berry Fruit Roll-Up with a plastic ring around it.  Strawberries with picks and a package of Truvia.

Here's another Halloween Bento, this one is pumpkin themed.

Contents:

• PB and Nutella sandwich cut with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter.  Eyes and mouth were piped on with Nutella.
• Cutie Orange, pre-peeled.  I used a Sharpie to draw the face on it since my food writers weren't working.  I figure she doens't eat the peel anyways, so it would be safe to use the Sharpie for that. 
  
• Carrots cut into pumpkins.  Carrot scraps on bottom
  
• Cheese cut into pumpkins.  Cheese scraps and crumbles on bottom.
• Strawberry with a pumpkin pick.
• Brach's candy pumpkin
• Ranch dressing in the sauce container
• Truvia for the strawberry.

This one took me about 15 minutes to put together.  I am going to be so sad when Halloween is over!

XOXO,

Rachel

"Ewwwww, gross!" was the response Bento Princess gave me this morning when she saw her lunch.  It's not that bad is it?

Okay, maybe just a little gross.  But kids like gross, don't they?

Contents:

•  "Fingers" are hot dogs (cut slits and saute for 5 minutes) with an onion fingernail (I cooked a slice of onion with the hot dog).  The "bandage" is a tortilla rolled around the end.
• "Bones"  are tortillas cut into bone shapes using a cookie cutter.
• "Vampire Mouth" is an apple with almond slivers for "teeth"
• "Scary Eyes" are pepperoni with cheese irises and eyebrows.  
• Crackers
• Cheese crumbles
• Container with caramel dipping sauce

This past weekend I had the pleasure of creating a wedding cake with a "Vintage pearls and lace" theme.  I love how glamourous this cake turned out.  The bottom layer is Pumpkin Spice cake with stabilized cream cheese filling and the top 2 layers are Vanilla cake with stabilized cream cheese filling.  The entire cake is covered in buttercream.  The black and white pearls are made of sugar and the monogram is fondant.  The orchids, lace, ribbon, and brooch were provided by the bride and were not edible. 

The venue (Shoal Crossing Event Center) was beautiful and had a great layout for lounging, eating, drinking, and dancing.  The area where the cake was located reminded me of a swanky parlor complete with a grand piano and funky white leather chairs.  I need a room like that in my house!

I want to thank my co-worker, Rachel, for referring me to the bride.  I think the cake turned out beautiful but paled in comparison to the gorgeous bride, Joy.  Congratulations to Joy and Jed!

For more pictures of this cake, see my Wedding Cakes photo gallery. 

XOXO,

Rachel 

The groom opted for a non-traditional "cake" since he doesn't actually like cake. 

The problem:   The groom wanted Oreo cookies instead of a groom's cake.   The bride wanted something stylish. 

The solution:  Oreo cookies stacked to look like a cake.  

I have to admit I did not come up with this idea, it was actually the bride's idea.  Each tier had 7 layers of Oreo cookies. It took 4 3-pound boxes of Oreos from a wholesale warehouse to complete this "cake".  The cookies arrived late on the scene, but with 2 bridesmaids plus myself, it only took about 15 minutes to assemble.  I tried to straighten it, but if you've ever played Jenga, then you know how difficult that is to do.  The cookies were served with a glass of whole milk and I heard they made for some adorable pictures.  Such a great idea for an alternative Groom's Cake.

XOXO,

Rachel   

Working on a wedding cake for this Saturday.  My motto for the day:

XOXO,

Rachel

I finally used my Wilton comfort grip Frankenstein cutter I got last year for $0.50.  Word!

Contents:

• Frankenstein Sandwich sprayed with Wilton green food mist.  Yellow and white cheese accents and pepperoni eyeballs.  Ring picks for the bolts.
• Triscuits with pepperoni slices and a couple of cheese bats.
• Broccoli spooky forest with Wilton candy eyes
• Grapes
• Soy Sauce
• Hello Kitty candy

Halloween, Halloween, Trick or Treat.  

Our bentos can't be beat!

Contents:

• Mummy Sandwich - Bread, ham, and cheese cut with circle cutter to make the sandwich.  Pulled pieces of string cheese apart to make the "bandages".  Cut pepperoni circles for the eyes.
• Frankenstein Sandwich - Bread, ham and cheese cut with a square cutter to make the sandwich.  Sprayed the top piece of bread with green Wilton Food Mist.  Free hand cut Nori for the hair.  Used a circle cutter on yellow sliced cheese for the bolts and eyeballs.  Circle cutter for the pepperoni eyes.  Leftover string cheese slices for the mouth and eyebrows.
• Black cat under a full moon  - Fruit Leather cut with a cat shaped cutter.  Full moon cheddar cheese slices cut with circle cutters.  Sitting on top of Triscuits.
• Ghost - cucumbers cut with a ghost cutter.  Black sesame seed eyes.
• Sword of grapes
• Ranch Dressing in the sauce container

I was in Houston last weekend and I got to swing by my favorite Bento store...Fit Japan.  Check out all the cool stuff I bought to add to my ever growing collection:

Whenever I go to Houston it is usually to visit friends down in Clear Lake which is an hour car ride and an $8.00 tollway away from Fit, but I still never miss an opportunity to go.  It is considered to be a 100-Yen shop, which is the equivalent to our Dollar store.  Everything in the store is $2.00 (approximately 100 yen) unless it is marked with a seperate tag.  Everything in my picture was $2.00 except the strawberry bento box which was only $3.00.  If you've shopped around at all for Bento stuff online, you know that it costs double that price plus the shipping (usually directly from Japan)!  This place is a steal!!  

These are plastic and silicone dividers. In Bento language they are called "Baran". They are used to separate your food so that it doesn't get soggy.

These are the picks and sauce containers I found:

Here are the cutters:

You're probably wondering how I store all this crap.  It's not easy, but I've found a pretty useful product to help me with that.  It's made by Plano and can be found at JoAnns or Hobby Lobby. 

What I love about the storage box is the adjustable compartments that allow me to keep everything separated.  It also connects to a twin so that you can double your storage.  It's been great at keeping me organized!  Check it out....

Notice how there is no space left for any of my new tools?  Um ya, I have obsessive compulsive bento buying issues!!  Good thing I don't plan on going back to Houston anytime soon.

XOXO,

Rachel

It's finally October, my favorite month!  Here is our first Halloween Bento of the season:

Contents:

• Stuffed sandwich topped with cheese cut with pumpkin cutters and bologna faces
• Cheese crumbles on the sides of the sandwich
• Pepperoni
• Grapes
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Ranch Dressing

Between my husband and I, we have 3 girls.  All I know is girly stuff.  Like princesses, fashion, jewelry, make-up, glitter, rainbows and unicorns.  I know nothing about boy stuff like pirates, reptiles, and whatever else boys like (see, I can't even list anything).  When my Bento Princess wanted a Pirate themed bento, I kinda freaked out.  Um, we don't have any pirate themed stuff because our house is full of pink fluff and rainbow glitter.  We ended up compromising with a Hello Kitty Pirate themed Bento which is as far as I go on the dark side.  

(Sorry about the picture quality, I can't find my camera and had to use my cell phone. )

Contents:

•  Sandwich - used a Hello Kitty shaped cookie cutter to cut the bread.  The bow, eyes, nose, whiskers, and patch are all cut from fruit leather.  I used a dog bone shaped fondant cutter to cut the bow. Also added the bone shaped picks to the corners
• Pirate Chest - We had this in our toy box and I think it came from an old Cinderella Polly Pockets toy set.  Filled it with Goldfish.
• Skulls - used a fondant skull shaped cutter on the carrots, Nori face punch for the eyes and black sesame seed for the nostrils.
• Rings - Grape tomatos on ring shaped picks

I can no longer look at or talk about Panda Bears without calling them Kung Fu Pandas.  I really like that restaurant Kung Fu Panda... I mean Panda Express.  Which leads to the singing of Everyone was Kung Fu Fighting.  Those cats were fast as lightning.  In fact it was a little bit frightning.  But they fought with expert timing.    It's a vicious cycle.  So here is our Kung Fu Panda Bento

Contents:

• Peanut butter and honey sandwiches cut using a bear rice mold.  The eyes, ears, nose and mouth are Nori I cut out using some punches and some I cut by hand.
• Carrots with a Panda baran.
• Zucchini half circles (these are new for Bento Princess today, I am hoping she will like them dipped in Ranch).
• Sauce container of Ranch dressing
  
• Panda container with a diced strawberry
• 4 turkey slices cut into flowers and a Panda pick
  
• Salt and cracked pepper crackers with a Panda baran

Everyone was Kung fu fighting, had to be fast as lightning....

XOXO,

Rachel

The problem with getting new Bento supplies from Japan is that the instructions are in Japanese.  It takes a lot of trial and error before I figure out how to use that stuff.  Case in point... these cute little sandwich cutters:

Looks simple, right?  WRONG!  I guess I thought I was suppose to put the filling in between the bread and then seal it with the face stamper.  That tecnique resulted in a bear bleeding peanut butter and a bunny crying tears of Nutella.  To make these cute sandwiches, you will need to cut THREE of each shape.  The top two will make the cute face and the bottom one is for your sandwich filling.  They are so cute in the picture but waste a lot of bread and don't hold much filling and don't turn out anything like the picture.  They took forever to make and I was so unhappy with them when I was done that I didn't even feel like making anything else for the Bento.  So here it is....the last Bento I will be making with these damn sandwich cutters... 

Contents:

• PB and Nutella sandwiches
• Strawberries
• Goldfish
• Applesauce

My sandwiches are ugly and it took me 30 minutes to assemble this.  Going back to bed now....

Not feeling the love today,

Rachel 

My girl is learning all about the oceans at school and we've been watching lots of Discovery shows on the Great Barrier Reef.  Today's bento is all about the ocean.

Contents:

• Colby Jack cheese sprayed with Blue Food Mist (beneath the sandwiches)
  
• Peanut Butter Dolphin Sandwiches
• Goldfish Crackers
• Crabby hot dog with nori eyes
• Strawberry with a seal pick
• "Sand dollars" are cucumbers and carrots

Happy Thursday!

XOXO,

Rachel