Jello Fruit Parfaits

Category: Parfaits > Jello

If you are looking for something a little healthy for dessert, these Jello fruit parfaits are just the thing.


Pictured: Cherry Jello with Fruit Cocktail.

Recipe:

• 1 can Fruit Cocktail
  
• 1 (3 oz.) box of Jello
  

Dissolve jello in 1 cup of boiling water. Drain juice from the can of fruit cocktail into a measuring cup. Fill the rest of the measuring cup with water until the fruit cocktail juice and water measures 1 cup. Pour juice/water mixture in with the boiling water/jello mixture and stir.

In serving dishes, fill evenly with the fruit cocktail. Pour the jello over the fruit in the dishes. Allow to chill for at least 4 hours. You can garnish with whipped cream and fresh fruit if desired.

Old Fashion Fudge

Category: Candy > Chocolate > Fudge

Let's talk a little bit about the difference between chocolate, chocolate cake, brownies, and fudge.

Chocolate comes from the cocoa bean. In its pure form, it is bitter rather than sweet. It is the addition of sugars that gives chocolate the flavor that we know and love.

Chocolate cake is a cake that has had chocolate added to it.

Brownies are like a chocolate cake but lack leavening to make it rise. Hence it is more dense and chewy.

Fudge is a milk-based candy. Fudge is usually associated with chocolate but you can make fudge that doesn't have any chocolate in it. If you see a recipe for fudge and it doesn't have any milk in it (evaporated, condensed, whole) then you are not looking at a true fudge recipe.

There are two types of fudge. The first type is the old fashioned original type. It is called crystallized fudge. It is made from sugar and requires that you heat it just right or it won't set correctly.


Picture of Fudge cooking.


The second type is call "No-Fail" or "Easy" fudge. It is made from marshmallow cream and a lot easier to make than the first type because it comes out right almost every time.

Crystallized fudge tends to be a little softer and crumblier than the marshmallow cream fudge. I don't really think crystallized fudge is all that hard to make. You just need a candy thermometer to make sure the temperature is correct and a little patience so that you don't rush things too quickly.



Recipe:

• 2 cups Sugar
  
• 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
  
• 1 cup Milk
  
• 4 tbsp. Butter
  
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
  
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
  
• Little Extra Butter for Greasing the pan.
  

Grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan with butter. Set aside.

Combine sugar, cocoa and milk in a medium saucepan. Stir to blend, then bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer. Do not stir again. Place candy thermometer in pan and cook until temperature reaches 238 degrees.

Remove from heat and allow to cool to 150 degrees. Add butter and vanilla extract. Beat with a wooden spoon until the fudge loses its sheen. Do not under beat.

Pour into prepared pan. Mixture will be thick and hard. Press into edges of pan with a spatula. Let cool.

Baking Tips:

• Because you need to bake Fudge to extreme temperatures, remember to use a wooden spoon.
  

Sugar Sprinkle Cake

Category: Cake > Butter Cake > Decorated



This was the cake I decorated as my final project cake for the second Wilton's Cake Decorating class. I really hate decorating cakes in class because the work area isn't very clean and it is small. As it turns out, my hand slipped in class while trying to pick the cake up for the class picture, and it ruined some of the basket-weave. I knew I would have to fix it at home. By the time I got home, the ride and the heat had caused most of the side to start to come off. So I just scrapped it all off and redid it all. Turns out the second time I did it (at home!) it turned out a million times better looking. I didn't take a picture, so this one will have to do.

The cake is a funfetti cake with 3 layers. A layer of red frosting, a layer of blue frosting, and a layer of yellow frosting. I wanted to experiment with a rainbow - gradient top. An air brush would have worked best, but since I don't have an air brush, I used colored sugar sprinkles instead. It turned out okay and makes for an interesting looking cake.

To make the color sugar sprinkles, all I did was place some caster sugar in a ziplock bag with a few drops of food color. I shook the bag around until all the dye was incorporated. Voila! Homemade sprinkles. You don't have to buy them anymore, plus you can get the exact color you want.

Gingerbread

Category: Breads > Quick Breads > Gingerbread

Despite its' name, Gingerbread is usually served in cookie or cake form. It goes in and out of style in grocery stores. Today, you can find gingerbread mixes all over the place. A few years ago, the only time I could find gingerbread was around the holidays.

This gingerbread, shaped and baked in a bread pan, was made from a cake mix. It is a moist, spice cake-like treat.



Recipe:

• 1 Gingerbread Mix
  

Mix and bake as instructed on the back of the mix box.

Decorated Cakes

Category: Cakes > Butter Cakes > Decorated

These are some of the first cakes I decorated. You can tell they are not very good but practice makes perfect and you get better the more you do stuff like this.



I called this my monster cake because I experimented with a bunch of different things with this cake. First, it is a yellow cake which I added 1 tbsp. raspberry extract to, to try and make it a raspberry flavored cake. I didn't think it tasted very raspberry. It had just a faint hint. Some people loved it, other didn't really taste the raspberry at all. If I was to do this again, I would add more raspberry extract to the batter.

I also added 1 tbsp. meringue powder to the batter. People claim it makes the cake fluffier and moister. I didn't notice any difference so I don't think I'll be adding any more meringue powder to my cakes.

It was layered with chocolate mousse, which I also added raspberry extract too. I love the chocolate and raspberry combination. However, I think I added too much raspberry extract to the chocolate mousse. Next time I'll only add 1/2 tsp. raspberry extract.



This cake was the tastiest of the bunch. It was a dark chocolate fudge cake with chocolate mousse layers. It was divine. I plan on making this combination again later this month. My father requested a birthday cake for one of his colleagues, who just happens to love chocolate. So this should be right up her alley.



This was the simplest cake of the bunch. It was an orange cake which I ended up giving to the neighbors. I like orange so I was excited about baking an orange flavored cake. It was good but not quite as tasty as I had hoped. I probably won't be making many more orange cakes unless requested.

Apple Crisp

Category: Pastry > Sweet > Crisp

A crisp is like a crust-less pie. Apple crisp is one of the most common types of crisps. It is good served warm or cold (and with ice cream!).

Not all apples are made equal. Some are made for eating raw and some are made for baking. When you get ready to bake apples, like for a pie or crisp, make sure you get a good baking apple. Some good apples for baking include: Cortland, Empire, Mutsu (Crispin), Golden Delicious, Granny Smiths, Jonagold.

For this apple crisp, I used 7 Jonagold apples.

• 1-1/2 cups Flour
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
  
• 3/4 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
  
• 2/3 cup Unsalted Butter, cut in pieces
  
• 8 cups Peeled Apples, sliced 1/2" thick
  
• 2 tbsp. Lemon Juice
  
• 1/4 to 1/3 cups Sugar
  
• 1 tbsp. Flour
  
• 1/4 Salt
  
• 1/8 tsp. Nutmeg
  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp. salt. With your fingers or pastry blender work in butter until mixture starts to cling together.

In a second large bowl, toss together apples in the lemon juice. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 to 1/3 cups sugar, 1 tbsp. flour, 1/4 salt, and nutmeg. If your apples are sweet you will want to use the lesser amount of sugar. Sprinkle apples with the sugar-nutmeg mixture. Place apples in a 2-quart baking dish. Cover the apples with the crumb mixture.

Cover the crisp with parchment paper and then with aluminum foil. Place covered apple crisp on a foil lined cookie sheet. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and the aluminum foil from the top of crisp and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes until top is golden and apples are tender. Let cool 15 to 30 minutes before serving.

Apple crisps go well with ice cream, custard, or whipped cream.

Garfield Cake

Category: Cake > Decorated > Garfield Cake

My dentist absolutely loves Garfield. She has Garfield everything in her office. I made this cake for her and the people at her office.



Tips:

• Frost your cake and have it ready to decorate. Print out or draw the outline or image you want on your cake. Place a piece of wax paper over the picture. Use colored piping gel to trace the image onto the wax paper. Turn the wax paper over, gel side down, onto the cake and gently trace over the gel to transfer it to the cake. Carefully lift up the wax paper. You should have the outline pressed into the cake top. You can then trace and fill in the outline with icing.