Help with an Angel Food Cake

So, with Mother’s Day and my birthday, I had an opportunity to use my second new cake pan, and I made my very first Angel Food Cake last night.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Here’s what’s left:

And I’m left with a question for any experienced bakers out there.  Why don’t you grease the cake pan?  The instructions were very clear not to grease it, and I think it’s interesting that the pan is made such that you can use a knife and cut it out, completely, since the sides come off.  So, why?  Does the grease make the egg whites deflate?  Does it mix together in a terrible mess?  I’m so tempted to try it with a greased pan and see what happens …   Maybe it will fall back down as it cools without the cake being stuck to the sides, I don’t know.  Any first-hand experiences out there?

Off we go, into the Wild, Blue Yonder!

 

Is this not the cutest little pilot you’ve ever seen?!

You want to make people smile?  Take these two with you when you run errands!

A Bundt Cake

Ok, so this post is not about my kids.  It’s back to my obsession with baking.  My sister-in-law bought me two new cakes pans!  I’m now the proud owner of a bundt cake pan and an angel food cake pan!  I was having a hard time putting them away and waiting until I had a reason to use them, but then my grandma came to visit and gave me an excuse.

This is my new bundt cake pan.  It’s green.  I love it!  If there’s anything prettier than the pan itself, it’s the cake when I flipped it out.

My biggest fear was that the cake would get stuck in the pan and come out in bits and pieces.  Not a problem.  It flipped out perfectly, every bump and curve perfect.  C even commented that it was a shame I was going to cover it with frosting so you couldn’t see the pretty shape.

I made an almond joy bundt cake because that was the one C picked out.  The batter has almond extract, sliced almonds and chocolate chips mixed in.  Mmmmmmm!

Then I mixed some almond extract in my homemade buttercream frosting and topped it with coconut shavings and little bits of almond joy bars.

Mmmmm, doesn’t that look good?

And as good as it looks, it tastes even better.  Yum!

So, if you come to my house, I’ll make you a cake.  You pick what kind you want, and I will make it!

Star Wars!

I have an amazing friend, really, really amazing friend, who joined the Idaho 501st Legion (http://www.idaho501st.com/) a while back.  When I was planning my Cub Scout Pack meetings, I got to my Space Derby, and I realized I had the perfect hook-up! 

Who is the coolest Cubmaster ever?! (Ok, so it’s not me, but I come close for this one!)

We didn’t have money for kits, so we taped balloons to straws and let them go.  It actually worked pretty well.

We even had Star Wars Themed desserts!

Happy Easter!!!

We started with an Easter Egg Hunt that my nieces set up for me.

The girls were even good enough to leave a few eggs laying around for J.  S complained that she didn’t get as many as L got until I told her to be glad she hadn’t gotten as few as J.  That shut her up quick, and the each quickly gobbled up their candy.

(You will please note my fence in the background behind S.  After a year and a half, the landscape company came out and made good on their warranty and fixed it.  It’s standing straight up and down now.  You will please avert your eyes from my empty garden … no one plants around here until mid-May at the earliest, so it still looks sad.)

“Mom, there’s a funny thing in this other funny thing …”

“Yum!”

Deciding to be happy with her own basket instead of trading it for her brother’s.

I wanted to take Easter pictures in advance, because with church at 9am, Sunday morning can get hectic.  And as soon as we get home, we eat lunch, so clothes get changed or dirty.  Sadly, I’m not a very good photographer …  but here we go!

“Smile and say ‘cheese’!” gets me a pained look.

I try to pose her.  “Put your hand on the fence and lean on it …” and she couldn’t figure out how to put her back and her hand on the fence, and by time I was done positioning her, the smile had faded even more …

I tried to get her to relax and be silly so I could get a natural smile … instead she looked like she’d swallowed a bug!

But I did get this one, and I’m pleased with that.  Funny, this was the second one I took, so I could have saved myself the trouble and stopped there!

On to my next subject …

L was actually pretty good … especially when I realized that I kept thinking her mouth looked funny because of her missing tooth, not because she or I was doing something funny!

And it was on to Subject #3.  Who I first caught in that moment of “Mom just took my pacifier away, and I’m not going to be happy without it!”

Followed by the “Wide open mouth, coming to get the pacifier” picture …

And now that my mouth is sufficiently hidden, I’ll give you a dazzling smile!

… and break into tears again when you take the pacifier away to get a picture of that smile. 

A few minutes later, distracted by Hercules (seems we’re much better suited to rabbits than to dogs!), he lets me take the pacifier.  But now the lighting is just wrong.

But still, I end up with this one, which almost makes it all worth it!

Happy Easter!

March update … a little late. :-)

Okay, first off, look at my baby!!!  Wait, where’s the baby?!!!  When did he turn into a little boy!  Wow.  I just stare and stare at this picture wondering when he started to look so big!

Can you spot the gap in L’s teeth?  I pulled her first tooth out.  It gave me chills.  I can still feel it … urgh.  She got over it much faster than I did, and she’s already begging me to pull the one next to it …

I should probably say a word about Molly.  I’d begged C for a dog since we got married.  He finally said yes.  I rushed out and got this little girl from the next town over’s shelter (a kill shelter).  Over the next three days, I realized I’d neglected to ask myself if I was ready (or had the time for) taking care of a new dog and all that goes with it.  In the end, the answer was no.  I took her to the local shelter (a no-kill shelter) and sponsored her for adoption.  I’m not saying we’ll never have a dog … just not any time soon.

Remember those hobby horses I made the kids for Christmas?  And C had to help J walk his around the house?  Well, he’s figured out to hold on to the mane and do it himself.  It makes him very happy.  (Note, he doesn’t have a pacifier in this picture – we were doing well getting rid of it until he started teething again!)

Here is a late “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”  You’ll note that S is wearing a dress.  She is always begging to wear a dress lately. 

I made chocolate chip cookies this month.  Usually I talk myself into making oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies, so I can fool myself into thinking they are healthier.  This time I just went straight for my old “best ever” choc chip cookies.  Yes, the recipe is as good as ever.  Good thing I had a bunch of people to give these away to.

Both J and S were more than willing to help me “dispose” of the cookies.  But L took one bite and declared them yucky.  They had chocolate in them, and for that they could not be forgiven.  In fact, when I went to put the next batch in the oven, she asked me, “You’re not making more of them, are you?!”  My poor child!

But she’s awful cute, so I’ll keep her!

I owed my sister a favor, so I made my niece a Snow White dress, like I’d made for S.  I’m finding it’s getting easier to sew the more I do it, and I’m getting better.  See that little point at the bottom of the bodice, where the yellow line ends?  In S’s dress, there’s no point.  I couldn’t figure out how to do it until after I’d finished it up and I was lying in bed wondering what on earth they were thinking.  THEN I figured it out.  So it was nice to have a second chance and see if I could do it right.   (L is just about the same size as my niece, so I kept trying the dress on her to see if it fit.)

And finally, my girly-girl.  She went to a friend’s birthday party, and they all came home with super hero capes.  She declared herself to be “a princess bat woman” and then added the cowboy hat later. 

With just ONE girl scout cookie …

J painted his face.  Apparently, he’s like his dad.  Chocolate is not meant to be eaten … so he smeared his face with it!