Have your cake, and eat it too!

I have waited a long time to post this blog!

Yesterday was my brother's surprise 30th birthday party, which we've been planning for over a month now. And I have to say, it was a raving success! We totally surprised him. It was great.
What was also great, if I may say so, was the cake I made.
Chocolate Guinness cake with cream cheese filling and a cocoa Krispie treat "pint of beer".

Now, although this took me a really long time to make (mostly because I am not known for my baking skills), I don;t have a lot to say about it.
Duncan Hines did most of the work- I just put it together.
Here goes:
Cake mix, frosting, Guinness, etc...

The cake mix calls for 1 cup of water, so what I did was replace the water with Guinness to change the flavor of the cake a little bit

Ok, let's skip over all the boring baking details and get right to the decorating, shall we?

First, the "pint of beer". I decided to make this out of cocoa krispie treats, since it was waaaaayyyy easier than trying to carve a cake into the shape of a beer glass.

All I did was make the treats, put them in a pint glass (that I sprayed with cooking spray first to prevent sticking), then I popped them out. Voila! a krispie treat pint glass.

   

And, thanks to some help from the good people at Wilton, all I had to do was roll it out...

Then I sliced the back off the "krispie glass" so it would lay flat on the cake, frosted it, and covered it in fondant

Ok, onto the label. I printed it out, traced it, then piped the lettering onto it. And thanks to my awesome sister who loaned me her piping set, this job was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

After the label was done, I put it on the "pint glass" then added a little more frosting to that to make it look  little more like a real glass of stout.

   

OK, onto the cake!

2 layer chocolate Guinness cake, with chocolate frosting in between, and cream cheese frosting on top.

 

   

Then we decorate! 

   

That's it! Cake!

Packaged in a great box I got at the party store.

And then we ate it!

 Happy 30th bro <3





Dinner time!

So, today was a lazy, rainy Sunday, and I stayed in all day and watched movies. But at about 3:00 I decided I should go get some groceries so that I could have some dinner, and have food for the week.
Having no recipe, and no idea what I wanted to make, I set off. And after wandering around the grocery store for a while, I finally ended up deciding to make crab cakes with asparagus risotto, and arugula salad.

Here goes...
Risotto first. Always start what takes the longest to cook first.
Ingredients: white onion, asparagus, Arborio rice, butter and chicken broth.
Start by sweating the onions in the butter, then add the asparagus

   

Cook those together for a minute, add one cup of rice, then cook for another minute or two. Once everything is well mixed and heated up, add one cup of broth. Cook (I simmer this entire dis on medium-high) until absorbed, add another cup of broth, and cook until that is absorbed.

   

Once the rice was done, I just added some fresh grated Parmesan cheese, and mixed it in.

While the rice cooked down, I prepared the Crab cakes: 1 large can of crab meat, one egg (even though 2 are pictured), mayo, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and bread crumbs. I also like to add a little fresh lemon juice and some Old Bay seasoning, but I forgot to get them today. You can also add hot sauce, pepper, Cajun seasoning- whatever you want.

   

   

And, the salad. This is super easy- just put it all in a bowl! Arugula, strawberries, goat cheese and candied pecans. This is one of my favorite salads!
I also made a mustard vinaigrette: Dijon mustard, salt, sugar, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. You can play with the ingredients until it suits your taste.

   

That's it!

Random, yes, but totally delicious!

Easter

We celebrated Easter a few days ago, and my mom did such an amazing job that I just had to snap some pics and share them. Had I not annoyed everyone with the camera, I may have gotten some more, but these will have to do.
We had brunch in the morning: broccoli & cheese and mushroom quiche, home fries, fruit salad, pastry... it was amazing!

Oh, and the Bunny pitcher was there too. He never misses an Easter (or an opportunity to freak my brother out, hahaha)

Then, after a few hours of chatting, and watching golf, it was time for dinner.

Ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, carrots (which I don't eat), rolls, salads (that were amazing) and some desserts.

 Mmmm... desserts!



OK, see you soon for some more food that I will actually cook myself ;)