Food Family Finds | Illinois Mom Blogger and Foodie
Recipes | Parenting | Reviews
When we do birthdays in our house we like to do them BIG! It's a celebration of life, of family and most notably, the growth and accomplishments of our children. It's such a bittersweet time, watching our babies become little people and someday .. adults. While I can't shower my kids with expensive, extravagant gifts, I can mark the occasion with something tasty and baked with lots of love. Yes, I know, calling up your local Walmart for a $20 … [Read more...]
Some of the simplest yet most surprising sweets are the ones where you take an everyday store bought cake mix and add a little flavor of your own. And that’s what we’ll be doing here. Ever wondered how the filling gets in the Twinkie? Me too, but I can’t help you. Not completely off subject though, we CAN put a twist on a basic cake mix and create your own little cupcake creation by adding a filling to the … [Read more...]
With the 4th of July just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to make a practice cake with my new Wilton Checkerboard Cake Pan Set. While it's meant to be used with two cake colors I decided to press my luck and go with three. After all, it just wouldn't be very patriotic of me not to include red, white and blue! Let me tell you though, red cake batter is not easy to make. I ended up using almost an entire container of concentrated gel … [Read more...]
For my last cake in my Ultragold Bakeware series, I wanted to try something completely new to me. Sponge Cake! It goes perfectly with all of those big, juicy strawberries I just picked and I just happened to have all of the ingredients hanging around in my cupboards. What I didn't realize was the degree of difficulty in making one. Or maybe it's not difficult and I just need more practice. I started by setting up my ingredients. I always … [Read more...]
This is my baking crew and with their help, we pulled together all of the ingredients needed to make The Pioneer Woman's "Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever!" Only, we didn't make a sheet cake but rather turned this awesomely rich chocolate cake into the ultimate layered Smores Cake! This time I pulled out the very handy and deep 12x18x2 Wilton Ultragold Sheet Cake pan which was actually the inspiration for this week's cake. I loved the idea of a … [Read more...]
This Mother's Day I was inspired to create a cake that was as beautiful as the dozen roses I wish my husband could have afforded to give me. Rather than tossing money into a vase full of flowers that would wilt in a few days, I got a mini shopping spree to the craft store where I picked up some new cake decorating supplies to go with the new set of Ultragold Bakeware I received from Wilton. Of course, as part of my new cake adventure, I ran … [Read more...]
Whenever possible I try to avoid self humiliation but this is one of those times that it was just too funny not to share. It also helps that I made a horrible mess into a beautiful dish with quick thinking. So if you happen to make a cake roll disaster, here's a great solution. So here I am in the kitchen, video camera ready, going through all of the steps and demonstrating how to make this beautiful black forest cake roll. I try something new … [Read more...]
When I see the grocery store produce section start to fill up with strawberries, I know summer isn't far away. It's most definitely that time and I'm ready to kick off strawberry season with my favorite strawberry dessert with a twist. The only sad part of making this dessert was I didn't get to pick the strawberries myself, but that will happen soon enough. This is a rather easy dessert to whip up and all starts with a greased 8 inch … [Read more...]
This past week I've been doing a lot of tweeting and facebook questioning, trying to find the perfect cheesecake recipe. With the help of a lot of experienced bakers (like Lori at My Wooden Spoon) and friends, I got plenty of helpful opinions and even more recipe variations. In the end, I just decided to wing it. LOL I know, that sounds strange, especially when it comes to baking, everything is about exact measurements and here I am just tossing … [Read more...]
Typically when I'm baking a cake I go straight for Betty Crocker cake mixes but this time, I wanted something with some extra vanilla kick to it. Duncan Hines just happens to make a French Vanilla cake mix that was exactly what I was looking for. I like to bake the cakes first and let them cool off while I'm whipping up the buttercream. As an alternative to using whole vanilla beans which can be very expensive ($10 for 2 beans) you … [Read more...]
