Happy 19th Birthday to My Sweet Sister, Suriyah

Friday was my older sister, Suriyah's 19th birthday. It was a great day, ending with a party and cake :). Love you sis!

The cake: 2 layer vanilla cake with a filling of cake crumbs, cocoa powder and marshmallow fluff (homemade, recipe to come soon, Lord willing!), frosted with marshmallow fluff and dusted with cocoa powder.

~ Hanunyah

Another Adult in the Family!

My older sister, Suriyah (#4 of 11) became an official adult on the 29th of March. We didn't do much on her birthday except I made brownies and blondies :), BUT a party was planned. A few days later Grandma took us out to eat (at a Mexican restaurant, of course), then she came home to a party.

A couple weeks go by.

A few days ago mom surprised her again to a special baby goat, a F4 Mini Nubian - Mom's b-day present ;).

Mom, Colleen (the goat's breeder) and Suriyah

~ Hanunyah

The Twin's 7th Birthday Cake

Well, I guess it's better late than never, but this was the cake that I made for the twins - the youngest two. (This post just kinda got lost in the chaos of life ;).) They turned 7 years old (!!) on the 3rd of this month, and Mom's birthday was on the 4th.

Chocolate cake with orange filling and fluffy orange frosting.

~ Hanunyah

Dark Chocolate & Strawberry Cream Cake for Hannah

The 10th of this month (a week ago) was a good friend's 17th birthday. We totally surprised her several times - it was great!

Anyway, this is the cake I made. They said it was good (she gave me a "thumbs up") with a nice fruity flavor from the strawberries. They also said it looked fancy, and it was even asked if it was store-bought (no, of course ;) ).

So, here's how it went . . .

Doubled the Oat Flour Chocolate Cake, using dark cocoa powder and not exact measuring ;) - I think it turned out better that most times!

Make some cool, fluffy stuff - beat some sugar syrup, egg whites and vanilla together. I was aiming for a marshmallow cream type thing, but that needs a little more work. So, add some chopped fresh, juicy strawberries to some of that . . . 

and cover it in the rest of the fluffy stuff. Yeah, and add some more chocolate if you want, just to make it a little more fancy.

Go outside to take a picture,

then remember that you had leftover chocolate glaze from the Tunnel of Fudge Cake that you made last week, and take it a step further.

Take it to the birthday girl's house (it survived the bumpy roads).

And watch it dissapear . . . 

in minutes . . . 

until you have a clean plate to take home.

~ Hanunyah

"Sweet 16"

Happy Birthday, brother!

This is a cake my older sister made for our brother (his birthday was on the 21st). Of course, I helped make the frosting part because she was having problems with boiling sugar.

Vanilla cake, peanut butter fudge/frosting, brownies, vanilla frosting.

~ Hanunyah

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Yesterday was my younger sister's birthday. I baked all day and made 3 dozen vanilla cupcakes, a strawberry jello poke cake and orange cooked frosting (triple recipe). For the cake and cupcakes, I doubled this recipe. I also added a few chocolate chips to the cupcakes and cake.

Of course, the funnest part was decorating the cupcakes. We had got a frosting dispenser from somewhere, and I just put it in the cupboard and forgot about it until yesterday. So, I pulled it out and figured it out - it turned out to be very easy to use and clean - it worked great! There are several tips with it, too.

So, here are the pictures ~ I thought they turned out pretty good for my first time try using this deal ;).

This is what happens when different colors meet ;).

Rainbow!

And lastly, the poke cake - very yummy and moist! (I'll post the recipe soon, Lord willing).

Love ya, sis!


~ Hanunyah


Link Parties:
Take-a-Look Tuesday @ Sugar Bee Crafts


Sugar and Spice at seven thirty three











Food on Friday @ Carole's Chatter

Chocolate Cherry Cream Cake

Today was my oldest sister's 23rd birthday (Happy B-day, Q!). See her work on her blogs - Got Down Syndrome, Hoppin' Herd of Hares and Country Girl Web Design)

Maybe not exactly pretty, but a nice mess.

With some cherries on hand and a instant pudding recipe I created yesterday (made in the Vita-Mix, with a surprise ingredient - yes, we are having fun with this "blender on steroids" ;) ), I made this cake today for her birthday. But after adding the second layer of moist oat flour chocolate cake - that crumbled, and I thought it was going to be a disaster. But, I poured some cherry sauce over the pudding mess and added the third layer of cake - it ended up holding together pretty well.

Moist chocolate cake oozing with puddin' and cherry sauce.

So, after all this turned out pretty good - very moist chocolate cake, vanilla pudding, cherries and toppings don't hurt ;). I decided against using frosting, and I think it was sweet enough without. You could go the frosting route, but I think it would be pretty rich - is that a bad thing? It just depends on what you're in the mood for ;). In other words, feel free to cover it in rich ganache, or just throw on some chocolate chips and cherries.

Chocolate Cherry Cream Cake (Gluten, Dairy, Corn-free)
Hanunyah Creation

3 11-inch round layers of oat flour chocolate cake (3 times the recipe)

Cream Filling:
1 3/4 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla
3/4 to 1 cup water


Cherry Filling:
1 cup fresh or frozen cherries
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar

1. Combine all cream filling ingredients in the Vita-Mix. Blend on high for a couple minutes, adding enough water until smooth and desired consistency is reached. Cool.

2. In a small saucepan, combine all cherry filling ingredients over medium-high heat. Stir until it comes to a boil and is thick. Cool.

3. To assemble - place one cooled cake layer, bottom side up, on a large platter. Set aside. Pour the cream filling on top of the cake layer on the platter. Top with the second layer of cake. Spread the cherry filling over that. Place the remaining cake over that and top with frosting or whatever you want - chocolate chips, cherries, marshmallows, etc.

A sticky mess with some kind of weird gap in there . . . 

~ Hanunyah

21st Birthday Party for my Sister

About a week ago was my 2nd oldest sister's birthday. We surprised her the day before her birthday and took her out to eat. The day of her birthday she had to go to town (actually for her broken arm . . . but that's a different story), so we got everything ready while she was gone. We usually go over to the neighbor's (friends) for dinner on Monday nights anyway . . . but this time all of our friends came and surprised her.

Here is the cake I made for her ~

. . . AFTER I frosted the entire thing I realized I forgot to put filling in . . . oh well.

Here are some pictures of other goodies from the party

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Oatmeal cookies with some kind of glaze that Suriyah made

~ Hanunyah

Birthday Cake and Cupcakes

Gracie's birthday was May 4th. Her family forgot it was her birthday, so they called me the night before her birthday and asked if I could make her a cake. Her favorite flavor is lemon, so I made over 50 cupcakes (1/2 of them lemon, and 1/2 vanilla), and a 2 layer cake (top layer lemon, bottom layer vanilla). She liked them, they were nice and fluffy and pretty moist.

This is the only picture I got of the cupcakes. I used colored sugar to decorate everything - just mix some food coloring and a few drops of water into white sugar.

Cake or Cupcakes (Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Corn-free)
Adapted from www.Babble.com

Cake:
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons shortening or lard
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 3/4 cups gluten-free flour (I use rice)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup milk (I use goat milk)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Icing:
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon shortening or lard
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place cupcake papers in three 12-hole muffin trays. If you don’t have enough trays, just fill the papers and cook them in a second batch.

2. Beat shortening until creamy. Add sugar one third (1/2 cup) at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and milk, and beat until well combined. Spoon into cupcake papers (about 1/2 full to 3/4 full).

3. Bake for about 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer to wire racks and allow to cool completely.

Icing:

Cream shortening until smooth. Add the milk and half the sifted confectioners sugar. Beat until well combined. Add the remaining confectioners sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. The mixture should be a spreadable paste; if it is too dry add some more milk, if too wet add more confectioners sugar.

~ Hanunyah