Penguin Cake

We spent the weekend celebrating Tinker Bell's 12th birthday. I have to say...I cannot believe my baby is 12. It takes my breath away. And to top it off she woke up seemingly more mature than the day before. She is a sweetheart, though. Without a shadow of a doubt she is the kindest person I know. Okay, before I cry...I surprised her with a penguin cake. She recently painted a mural on her wall of disco dancing penguins, so I knew she'd love the cake. Like the wolf cake, I didn't take step-by-step pictures. Sorry. :)

But first, we spent the day at Longboat Key on the gulf coast of Florida. It was about a two-hour drive. Crystal clear waters, white sand. We were greeted by two dolphins as soon as we stepped onto the beach. We also saw two sharks (little guys, couldn't have taken more than a couple of fingers), a sea turtle, and many, many fish. Some of the littler guys liked to swim around our legs and tickle us.





The penguin cake was pretty simple. I made two full batches of Martha Stewart's white cake, since that is Tinker Bell's favorite flavor cake. Each batch made two large 8-inch rounds, so four total. I stacked them with buttercream between each round, wrapped them in foil, and froze them. I carved them into the shape of the penguin's body--basically just carved narrow at the top, wider at the bottom. I used the carving pieces to make the head. I just glued them together with more buttercream.



The black frosting was incredibly easy. I used this chocolate frosting mixed with a 1-oz container of Wilton's Black Gel Icing color. I did not need to adjust the wet or dry ingredients of the recipe with the addition of the gel coloring. But the frosting had the most incredible consistency. It almost turned into a softer, less sticky gum paste. Really neat. I frosted the back, sides, and head with the black frosting (and it was perfectly black) and then used the remaining frosting for the flippers. I just picked it up and molded it into the shape of the flippers and it stuck right to the rest of the frosting without slipping. I was so surprised! I even used two small pieces for the eyes.



As for the white front and face...I used 7-minute frosting using marshmallow fluff because the kids had devoured all my mini marshmallows. I couldn't figure out how to get the frosting so perfectly white with just buttercream. Even with my clear vanilla, the buttercream just wasn't white enough. It was my first time with 7-minute frosting, though, and I didn't end up getting it as stiff as it should have been. So, the orange buttercream beak kept trying to slide down the penguin's face. All in all I think it came out great. Tink was super surprised and absolutely loved her cake. She also loved that I let her use her fingers to eat the beak before it slid down to the penguin's belly. :) Neither one of the kids could keep their fingers out of the marshmallow frosting.



We stuck the candles right onto the top of the penguin's head and called him punk.



Tinker Bell declared it her best birthday ever!

Strawberry Shortcake

March is strawberry season here in Florida, more specifically in Plant City "Winter Strawberry Capital of the World". Winter it is not, we wear shorts and flip flops to the Plant City Strawberry Festival every year. This year I decided to try my hand at making jam, so I bought A TON of strawberries. I made two batches (16 pints) of low sugar jam and still had enough leftover for a freezer full of strawberries already cut up and sweetened for shortcake. We also had strawberry pie, strawberry cupcakes, strawberries on our french toast and I think Tinker Bell ate more than she cleaned. We love March! So this recipe is for the shortcake biscuits and it makes enough for 8 people or 4 people with leftovers. The biscuits are fantastic in the morning with a little strawberry jam!



You will need:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 T white sugar
1 1/2 T baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

strawberries, sliced with sugar to taste (allow to sit for at least a half hour)
more whipping cream and sugar for topping




Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and cut in the butter. I use a pastry cutter, but knives or even a couple of quick pulses in the food processor works great. (I just hate cleaning my food processor and actually enjoy working the butter into the flour with my pastry cutter--memories of my grandmother working shortening into flour for biscuits.) Work it until you have pea-sized crumbs.



Combine the cream and vanilla.



Make a well in the flour mixture and add your cream. Mix gently until just combined.



This dough isn't pretty and it may even feel a bit dry. Totally okay! Gently knead it by hand a few times, creating a loose ball. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured, parchment lined cookie sheet and pat into an 8-inch square about 3/4 of an inch thick. Any thicker than that and you may end up with raw middles in your biscuits.



Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. This step is important--why? You want the butter to be cold because that is what gives you the flaky texture you love in biscuits. Trust me on this one.

Preheat your oven to 425. Take out the dough, slide the parchment onto the counter, and cut it into 9 even squares. Place them about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.



Bake until medium brown, 15 minutes exactly if your oven is spot-on with its temperatures.



My biscuits look a little ratty, I know. And I don't care, but if you like perfect biscuits that you can cut in half then just make your 9 squares even with clean edges. We don't cut our biscuits in half...we crumble. It tastes better. Really!





You may never see it crumbled in a magazine, but the little bits soak up all the delicious juice from the berries and you don't get a mouthful of biscuits with no strawberry flavor. I fill up a plastic freezer jam container with sliced strawberries and sugar and that is enough for four servings of strawberry shortcake. I just take the container out of the freezer the night before we want to eat it. I use about a cup of whipping cream with 2T powdered sugar added for the topping. Don't spoil your strawberry shortcake with Chemical Whip! :)



You may find yourself snacking on the biscuits late a night, sans strawberries. To avoid this dilemma you can wrap the biscuits in foil, place them in a freezer bag, and freeze them until the next time you want shortcake (or a snack). They'll be beautiful from the freezer for about 3 months.

Enjoy!

Mandarin Chicken Salad

When the weather takes a turn for the unbearably, beastly, suffocatingly hot here in Florida (right around the end of June) I start making a lot of salads, soups, stews, and sandwiches--anything to give the oven a break and not heat up the house. You think I left out grilling, right? Because this is the season when America collectively lights up their grills and throws on their hot dogs, ribs, hamburgers, and marinated chicken. Not here. The very last thing you want to do outside when it is 93 with a 104 heat index is stand over an open flame. Okay, we are going to have some BBQ this week, but that's just smoking and poor Bubba can close the lid and walk away for a while.



This recipe for mandarin chicken salad is super quick, easy, and extremely tasty. Best of all, it is also super filling. We didn't even want dessert afterward. Shocking, I know.

You will need:

lettuce (you choice of variety, I use a mix of iceberg and Romaine)
sweet and sour sauce/marinade
1 can mandarin oranges
slivered almonds
chow mein noodles
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts



I cleaned and cut up the chicken breasts into three pieces each (I used 6 breasts) and put them all in a Ziploc bag. I added 1/2 - 3/4 of the bottle of sweet and sour sauce. Chuck the bag into the fridge and leave it alone for at least 3 hours, overnight is best. **Store the leftover bottle of sauce in the fridge if you are leaving the chicken overnight**

I use a sweet and sour sauce that is much thinner than a traditional dipping sauce. It is more of a marinade than a sauce, really. I would not try using that ultra thick dipping sauce...I don't think it would coat the chicken properly and would probably burn when cooking owing to the high sugar content. My favorite marinade for this recipe is:



Your choice on how to prepare the marinated chicken. I sprayed a frying pan with cooking spray and cooked the chicken on medium high heat for 4 minutes on each side. But you could definitely grill them or even bake them (350 degrees for 20-25 minutes). It really won't make too much of a difference, unless you love that grilled flavor. :)



After the chicken is cooked, grilled, baked it is just a matter of putting together the ingredients on a bed of lettuce. I add about a handful of chow mein noodles per plate, about a tablespoon of almonds, a handful of oranges, and at least 3 pieces of chicken (equaling one chicken breast). For the dressing, I thin out some of the sauce with a bit of white vinegar. The bite of the vinegar cuts the mild sweetness of the sauce perfectly. For all four of us I used 1/4 cup of sauce and 1 tsp of vinegar total. You need very little dressing on this salad, just a drizzle.





How crazy tasty are those chow mein noodles. I could eat them like potato chips...and did. The whole family loves, loves, loves this salad. Make a little extra chicken so you will have leftovers. This chicken is amazing when eaten right out of the fridge, cold with a little bit of salt. Even better when standing in the kitchen eating it with your fingers. Enjoy!

Sandcastles in the Sand

We played hooky yesterday and went to the beach. It was a perfectly beautiful Florida day. We ate ham sandwiches and seedless red grapes, but I didn't end up cooking or baking anything. :)