Karenphernalia

Buttery Apple Cake

Posted on November 14th, 2009 by Karen.
Categories: Cakes, Food.

I made this cake for a baby shower. It was easy and delicious.

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart. Thanks, Martha!

0 comments.

Isänpäivä 2009

Posted on November 8th, 2009 by Karen.
Categories: Cakes, Food.

Today is Father’s Day in Finland. Reino suggested a chocolate cake for Jouni. I wanted something a little different and found a recipe for Chocolate Mousse Cake Roll in a Hershey’s cookbook that my sister sent me.

Rolled up and cooling.

Filled, rolled, chilled and ready to serve.

A perfect slice, ready to be eaten by the päivänsankari (day’s hero).

0 comments.

Snickerdoodles!

Posted on November 13th, 2008 by Karen.
Categories: Cookies, Food.

I just made my first ever Snickerdoodles. I’m a chocolate lover myself, but Reino had these when we were visiting a friend and he really liked them. I thought I’d give them a try and see if he likes mine. I had one and it was really good. Jouni approves, too.

Now I just have to make sure they survive until he gets home from school.

0 comments.

Jarred

Posted on September 18th, 2008 by Karen.
Categories: Food.

The plum butter and plum jam are finally in jars. I’m really pleased with both. Have a look.

The plum and vanilla jam recipe was found here.

The plum butter was an adaptation of a recipe I have for making apple butter in the crockpot. I had forgotten that the crockpot method hasn’t worked for me and I had to transfer the operation to the oven. It still turned out fantastic.

The jars are from Sandy. She sent some delicious peaches a few years ago and I’ve beeh hanging on to the jars. Thanks, Sandy!

1 comment.

Plum crazy!

Posted on September 18th, 2008 by Karen.
Categories: Food.

This is our ninth September in this house and it’s the first time that our plum tree has produced so many plums. We picked them last night and I’ve been doing as much plum work as I can in between the other stuff. Not all of them are ripe, but will be by the weekend. My sink was full!

As soon as Jouni came in with the last of them, he asked where his pie was. I hadn’t even started on it yet, but hurried up with it. I made a tart rather than a pie. If you’re thinking that it looks incredible, you’re right!

I knew I wanted to make plum butter, so that was next. I boiled some plums to soften them then strained out the seeds and skin to get the smooth pulp. I put it in my crockpot with sugar and cinnamon then left it to cook all night. In the morning I took the lid off and am letting it continue to cook and thicken.

I found a recipe for plum and vanilla jam. I happen to have some vanilla beans, so I thought I’d give it a try.

I have canned the jam and heard the first lid pop already. It didn’t make much, but if it turns out as delicious as I think it will, I’ll make more of the jam.

4 comments.

Indiana Jones cake

Posted on August 23rd, 2008 by Karen.
Categories: Cakes, Food, Reino.

We had Reino’s 7th birthday party today. Of course it was all about Indiana Jones and we had to deliver a cake that fit the theme. After searching the web, I decided the easiest thing to do was try to duplicate the scene on the Motorcycle Chase (#7620) box. I made a rectangle cake and a round cake. My husband is very creative so of course I consulted with him on the best way to cut and shape the pieces. He had some specific ideas, so I let him do the shaping then I applied the frosting and handed it back to him for decorating.

Here it is, all cut and I’ve started applying the road.

I crushed some packaged oatmeal cookies in the little food processor and used them for dirt on the road. The tree is under some of the cake, so I had to frost around it.

At this point I handed it over to Jouni to finish. He had a vision and I didn’t want to interfere.

The kids loved the cake and thought it looked great. We had the party outside and when I brought the cake out, Jouni played the Indiana Jones theme music.

3 comments.

Happy Birthday, Jouni!

Posted on August 3rd, 2008 by Karen.
Categories: Cakes, Food.

Today is my husband’s birthday and I made him a Black Forest Cake. My own version, of course. It was delicious!

The top.

And from the side. It was tall!

And a delectable slice.

Thanks for looking!

2 comments.

Elephant Cake

Posted on July 28th, 2008 by Karen.
Categories: Cakes, Food.

I volunteered to make the cake for my friend’s son’s 2nd birthday. He wanted an elephant cake. I think it turned out really cute. Click on the images for a larger version.

Thanks for looking! Continue reading if you want the details on making an elephant cake.
(more…)

2 comments.

Lychees!

Posted on May 1st, 2008 by Karen.
Categories: Food.

On Saturday we went to the Asian and Indian markets in Helsinki. I’m allergic to most fresh fruits, but cooked and canned are okay. I saw a can of lychees and decided to try it. It was good, but there was a lot in the can. I looked for recipes and found an entire website devoted to lychees! Leecheysonline.com has a lot of very interesting recipes. I found a recipe for Sticky Lychee Muffins but decided to try it as an upside-down cake. I only had half a cup of chopped lychees left so I halved the recipe. The ingredient list has 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar, but also calls for 12 teaspoons, separated, later in the recipe. The 12 teaspoons are not on the ingredient list.

Since I halved the recipe, I baked it in a loaf pan. The cake smelled delicious when it was cooking. The cinnamon was very fragrant.

Fresh from the oven. Looks and smells yummy.

From the side. Look at those luscious layers.

Lychee Upside-Down Cake

We would definitely make this again. Since I used the canned lychees, it’s something that would be easy to make at the last minute or when unexpected guests stop by. Thanks for looking.

4 comments.

Hello, Kitty!

Posted on April 9th, 2008 by Karen.
Categories: Food, sewing.

I made a cake and a blanket for Nadia Laukkanen’s baby shower. First the cake! There wasn’t really a theme for the shower, but she is having a girl. I was looking for an idea and thought about some kind of princess cake. While looking at pictures and thinking about what I was going to give her as a gift, I thought of some Hello Kitty fabric I have. I searched for Hello Kitty cake pictures and found a great site with a template. DLTK has lots of great things and I’ve printed a lot of pages from the site in the past. The HK template is here. I made my favorite chocolate cake the night before the shower and let it sit all night. Tip: covering the bottom of the cake pan with some parchment cut to fit will keep the cake from sticking. Yes, I did that. The chocolate cake I make is very dense and was easy to cut. If you are using a cake mix or some other recipe that has a lot of crumb, you should freeze the cake before cutting it. Here is the template on top of the cake and I pulled the excess cake (Is there such a thing?) away as I cut it. I pulled gently to be sure that I had cut all the way through.

After cutting the head shape out, I transferred it to the decorative base. Isn’t it cute already?

I forgot to take a picture of this part, but it’s a very important step when dealing with a cake shape that has been cut out. Spread a very thin layer of frosting all over the cake to seal in the crumbs. It will keep you from spreading the crumbs into your decorations.

After the crumb coat, I spread a thicker layer of frosting over the cake. I used a 7-minute frosting recipe from Food Network. I wanted a WHITE frosting and my usual favorite is a little yellow. The decorations are cut out from foam.

For her gift, I made a no-sew fleece blanket. This was super easy and took about two hours. It’s just two pieces of fleece fabric knotted together.

I also made a little card but forgot to get a picture of that. Thanks for looking!

7 comments.

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