Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Easy Minecraft Cake

Hi Foxy Friends! It's Thursday, my "Friday" and I'm so happy about it. I swear Tuesday was Thursday...this week has been DRAGGING! I thought today I would share with you how I made Baby Fox's Birthday cake. I was originally going to make him a rainbow birthday cake, but then realized I could just as easily turn it into a Minecraft cake so that's exactly what I did!



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It's fairly simple, you get a big bang for you buck and most people think you spent WAY more time on it than you really did! Win for you. Okay let's get started:

What You'll Need:

5-6 cake pans (I use these, will make a small tall cake, if using the ones I use, then you'll have to cook 5 and then cook the last one after the others cook, as it only comes with 5 pans)

Homemade Cake Recipe (the boxed is too soft, don't use it, you won't be able to make the layers)

Food Coloring (I use these)

Circle Cookie Cutters in various sizes (I use these)

Frosting (I use a homemade one from Wilton)

Directions:

Step 1 - Make batter according to recipe (I use the something similar to this cake recipe, ignore the filling and frosting part of the recipe)

Step 2 - Divide batter into bowls, use one bowl for each color you are going to use, I did 5 colors. I would have done 6 but we started making this cake at 10pm, no one's got time to wait for cake to cook twice, else I would have done 6)

Step 3 - Add food coloring. For the Minecraft part, I knew I wanted variations of green and brown. The brown was a little harder, so for the darker one, I added a LOT of the brown color, and for the other one I added a little bit of the brown color, and realized that it was too similar to the dark brown, so I added a little yellow to change the tone, worked perfectly.

For the greens, I did the dark one, then added less green for the middle green, and for the other green I used a neon green.



Step 4 - Prep your pan how you normally would and pour batter into pans.


Step 5 - Cook, you will need less cooking time than what the recipe calls for because they are so thing and small, I start with 15 minutes, and then go from there.

Colors turned out perfect, exactly what I wanted them to look like!


Completely cool cakes before going onto the next step.

Step 6 - While cakes are cooling, make your frosting (don't really matter what kind, just not the store bought, as I think that will be too soft)
 
Step 7 - I do this part on my counter, as I don't have a cutting board, don't worry the counter was clean before starting. Lay all of the cakes out, this is somewhat tricky but not really. You're going to take 2 of your round cookie cutters, and make three concentric circles.

Rainbow cake

Helpful Tip: If your cakes didn't bake evenly, before you cut the circles, make sure to level them out at this step, also cut the edges so all cake layers are the same size. I forgot to do this, and had to use a lot of frosting to make up for the unevenness of each layer, oops!

Step 8 - I usually line each of the same size circles up and then start mixing and matching before I do the frosting and putting them back together. This way you can be sure that each of the layers will have different colors in them.

Start with the largest circle, and apply frosting on the inside ring, place next size ring cake layer in it.


 Then frost the middle circle inner ring and put the smallest cake layer in. When you're done it should look like something like this:


When they're all done, you'll have this.

You can see the white circles above from where I was applying the frosting to the inner circle.

Step 9 - Now frost your cake like normal, putting frosting between each layer, and then frosting the whole thing. With these cakes, I like to buy the small ice cream cones from Trader Joes and use that as decorations. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, oops! But here it is when it's been cut into, the perfect Minecraft cake of the little human in your life that is obsessed.

How To make a Minecraft Cake


See easier than you think right? Making fun cakes doesn't have to be hard, time consuming yes, but not hard. You got this, if you do make it, tag me in the photo or leave a picture in the comments! Good luck, you can do this!

Linking up here

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

S'mores Cake Pops

Happy Tuesday! Guess what happens in 10 days? I know it's hard to imagine but it's National S'mores Day. And what do bloggers do to celebrate? We of course make up a bunch of S'more recipes of course! Last year I did a S'mores Brownie. This year I had to think of something that was better than last year, how could I possibly do that? Then it hit me, combine the two things my kids love together, cake pops and S'mores. So I bring to you S'mores Cake Pops.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. By purchasing through Foxy's Domestic Side, you're helping me to continue creating fun things for this space.

Ingredients:

Boxed Cake Mix
Canned Frosting
Lollipop Sticks
Graham Crackers
Small Marshmallows
Candiquik - Chocolate Melts (this tastes WAY better than the Wilton ones)

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Directions:

Step 1:

Make your boxed cake per instruction in a 9 x 13 pan.


Step 2:

Put 3/4th of the cake mix into a bowl, and crumb with hands. Saving 1/4 for when you add in your frosting, you want to make sure that your cake to frosting ratio is good, so just in case you add too much frosting, you can add some more cake into the mix.


Step 3:

Once your cake is crumbled, add in about half a can of frosting.


Mix thoroughly


You want it to be barely wet, too much and it won't stay together later on.


Step 4:

Use a small portion (maybe enough to make a 1-1.5 inch ball) and roll into a ball, this step is not completely necessary, but when you're starting out it make sit easier to visualize where to put your marshmallow.


Step 5:

Take two small marshmallows and put in center of cake ball.




Step 6:

Put the tray of cake balls into the freezer for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, crush up about 6 graham crackers. You can use your food processor for this, but when I was making this I had some napping kids on my hands.



Step 7:

Melt your Chocolate Melts. I like to use CandiQuik, found at Walmart or online. Follow directions on the melts that you buy.


Step 8:

Take cake pops out of freezer, and dip the tip of the lollipop stick into the CandiQuik and place into cakepop balls.



Step 9:

Once all of the lollipop sticks have been placed, put back in freezer, for 5-10 minutes. You'll probably have to re-melt your CandiQuik, and dip cakepop balls into chocolate. Make sure to really tap the excess chocolate off, this could take 30 seconds to a minute depending on how much is on there.


Step 10:

Using your hands, drizzle the crushed graham crackers over the outside of the cakepop.



And your finished product!


I took them to work, because there was no way we were going to eat all of these, and the people at work loved them. The kids and Mr. also gave them a thumbs up.


NOTE: I tried to use marshmallow fluff, but it made the inside of the cakepop super fragile and when I did the taste test with some friends, everyone said they liked the ones with the real marshmallows best. I made 4 different kinds and made my friends try one of each. They didn't complain much.


Enjoy!
Here is the cake pop stand I'm using.


For those of you that are more a hands on, show me how to do it, I also made a video for you! Take a look, and please like the video so more people can see, thank you!


Now go check out some of the other ladies participating in National S'mores Day!

 

  Linking up here    

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

S'mores Brownies with S'mores Blog Hop

Hello Foxy Friends! Today I have an exciting post! A while back Whitney had mentioned she wanted to try a new S'more recipe, I had suggested we do a blogger collaboration where we all try a new S'more recipe, then Whitney discovered that it's National S'mores day today! So now you get 8 different recipes to try, go check out all of the other ladies and their amazing creations. But first my S'mores Brownie recipe.


When I was trying to think of a recipe, I didn't google, or Pinterest anything, so I could come up with something on my own. I thought about what a S'more consists of, chocolate, marshmallow and graham crackers. So I thought, hey let's do a graham cracker crust, brownie and some marshmallow on top. Perfect right? So off I went to the store. Full disclosure, I actually bought a bag of marshmallows too to see which one won out, the marshmallow fluff won, more on that later.

Okay, so that's what you need, not pictured is the eggs, oil and water that it took to make the brownie mix.

Ingredients

1 Package of Ghiradelli Chocolate Supreme Brownie Mix (the one with the syrup packet)
Egg, Water, Oil - As directed from the brownie mix
1 Stick Butter - Melted
2 Containers of Marshmallow Fluff
Graham Crackers
1/4 cup Sugar
9 x 13 inch pan

Directions

FYI: Going to need a food processor, or you can use a baggie and a rolling pin or something to crush the graham crackers. Okay let's really get started:

Preheat the oven to 375°

My graham cracker box came with 3 packages inside, I used 1 package plus two extra graham crackers from another package (no rhyme or reason, just thought 1 package was not enough, so I added two more). Break up the graham crackers and put in food processor. Grind until a fine crumb.

Add the melted butter and sugar (note on the sugar, you could definitely do less, I found that it was almost too sweet, but saying 3 Tablespoons, just seemed weird. Anyway, the first time I made this (the pictures below), I didn't use enough butter, so the second time I did it I added more butter and it worked out better, so add more butter (adjusted to 1 stick), the end product (far right picture) will look a little more wet than this.

Note: The second time, I used the food processor for the graham cracker and the transferred to a bowl and hand mixed in the sugar and the butter, and it worked just as well.


Moving along, the first time I put some foil in my pan, and then buttered it. Then pressed the graham cracker crust to the bottom and cooked in oven for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly golden brown.


Meanwhile, make the brownies as directed, minus using the fudge syrup packet, save that for a second, trust me this is an important step. Once the crust comes out, spread out the brownie mix evenly over the crust.

Here comes the fun part. Cut a small hole in the syrup packet, and swirl up and down the length of the brownies, then using a toothpick drag it across the swirls. See pictures below. It took about 30 minutes to cook my brownies, since the recipe calls for making the brownies in a 9 x 9 pan, and we're using a bigger pan, they are a little thinner. So start watching them around the 25-30 minute mark.


I ended up making these twice and the second time it was not as pretty because I didn't cut the hole small enough, so the brownies instead looked like this. And I forgot to use the foil trick, which in the end doesn't really matter, but it was nice to just pull up on the foil and have the brownies come out. I ended up taking the whole pan to a party, so it was nice that I didn't have any foil sticking out. So make your choice before cooking.


Here is where my experiment came in. I wasn't sure if real marshmallows or the fluff was going to be better, what is a girl to do? Do both, so half of it I did mini marshmallows and the other half I did the fluff...I then decided since a true S'more there is graham cracker on top, I would break some more graham crackers sprinkle that on top along with some mini chocolate chips, because, that's just fun.


Then I stuck it into the broiler...here's where you have to be careful. The below picture I had it in the broiler for 60 seconds...too long! Watch yours carefully.


So taste test, I took it to our 4th of July party and had people try both and the consensus was that everyone liked the fluff better. The mini marshmallows was a bit more textured and had a chewier affect, the fluff was like it was a part of the brownie and was soft when chewing. So if you like a little chewier brownie use the mini marshmallows, I personally liked the way the fluff looked when it came out of the oven. So ONE MORE TIME...

No foil, more butter in the graham cracker crust and I messed up the syrup part, but it still tasted good.


Using two jars of marshmallow fluff, transfer to microwave safe bowl and heat till slightly warm (makes it easier to spread). 


Add the graham cracker crumbles (this is 2 crackers worth), sprinkle some mini chocolate chips on top and broil for about 30-45 seconds.


Let cool completely before cutting. Trust me on this. Also use a super sharp knife, worked better than a butter knife or a plastic knife. There you have it the BEST Marshmallow Brownies in the world. Super sweet, so you should cut them in smaller pieces than normal.


I figured since today is usually an outfit day I would show you an outfit I would wear where you would typically eat S'mores, camping! Okay maybe glamping, but hey it's an outfit I would wear out doors.


Hair up in two buns, because most likely my hair is dirty from camping, you know, no showers. No jewelry because who wears that when camping?


It's hard to see my hair, but they are in two tiny buns.



Ah, there you go, now you can see them.




So there you have it what I would wear camping, well the flip flops would be more for beach camping...okay let's say we're beach camping. So there you have it an outfit and a smashing yummy S'mores recipe. Now go check out the other ladies S'more recipe, it's wide variety and super delicious! I think I need at least a couple more months of summer to try all of the recipes out!


Foxy's Domestic Side S'mores brownies
Work it Mommy S'mores popcorn
Living on Cloud Nine S'mores Cheesecake cups
Chasin' Mason frozen S'mores cups 
Our Pretty Little Girls S'mores Bars
Sweet Turtle Soup S'mores shake

What is your favorite S'mores recipe? Have one to share?

Link up your summer outfits below!



Linking up here