Z Good Life

apple pie pockets

My grandma has been clearing excess "stuff" from her little house for several weeks. On more than one occasion, she has given us bags full of crafting items, kitchen gadgets, and so on. Lily is in hog heaven with the crafty stuff. (Anything we can't use, we toss or donate.)

Imagine my little baker's delight when we ended up with a Pampered Chef Cut-N-Seal! She's made sandwiches, of course, but apple pie pockets were the bomb!

They were pretty labor intensive, but delicious.

Please experiment more, Summer. We like it.

birthday cakes by summer

Our neighbor was so impressed with Summer's baking skills, she asked if Summer would like to bake the cake for her daughter's sleepover birthday party. It turned out pretty cute. Sophie Rose was THRILLED with it!

She created a miniature "sleepover scene," complete with sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, teddy bears, and an iPod! (Based on the cute artwork on the birthday invitations.) It's not perfect, but her VERY FIRST PAYING CUSTOMER was very happy.

Shortly thereafter, my sister asked if Summer would be willing to bake a cake for her 40th birthday. It was an adults-only cocktail party, so the cake needed to be elegant and formal. She sent us a few pictures of cakes she liked, and this is what Summer created:

Again, it's not perfect. Summer can point out every single tiny flaw that drove her nuts. Auntie Kristal insisted it didn't need to be perfect -- she just wanted her niece to bake her cake. It suited the formal party perfectly, and it was absolutely delicious.

Summer makes all of her cakes from scratch. The recipe is actually quite complicated. It involves making a meringue and folding it into the batter by hand. She hasn't perfected a chocolate variety yet, but the vanilla is exquisite. The fondant is store-bought because the recipe she tried was too sticky. She enjoys making cakes, and most of all just loves to make people happy! I'm very proud of her for her artistic and culinary talents. Beautiful work, my girl!

watermelon cookies

SOMEONE has been doing more baking at our house! Can you guess who it might be? :o)

meet claude

Our neighbors have a great German shepherd. They went on vacation for nearly 2 weeks and asked Jay if he'd take care of Claude for some cash.

We took Claude to the park with us on a sunny day. He had so much fun!

As part of his job, Jay walked the dog every day. After Jay got used to walking him, he let Claude pull him on his skateboard. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more!

On a side note, our neighbors also have a gorgeous organic vegetable garden. They welcomed us to help ourselves while they were away, so we did. We had an unending supply of sugar snap peas, enough green beans for 2 dinners, potatoes, several yellow squash, broccoli, and a head of cabbage -- not to mention beet greens, leaf lettuce, and kale as often as we wanted them. Thanks for sharing, sweet neighbors! We missed you and we're glad you're home.

oh my ganache!

Summer really loves baking and decorating cakes.This particular cake took two days because she made EVERYTHING from scratch.

First, she baked two round sponge cakes. She topped the bottom layer with her home made icing and some delicious berries from the neighbor's yard. (If you've never tasted golden raspberries, you should try them. They're scrumptious!)

We didn't have any sweetened condensed milk, so she made chocolate ganache with the heavy whipping cream we had on hand. It was a little more runny than it should have been, but it still tasted delicious.

Look at these gorgeous chocolate roses! She made modeling chocolate and found "how to" instructions on You Tube. Before placing them on the cake, she painted the edges with edible gold luster dust.

Finally, she covered it in her home made fondant and sprinkled it with gold luster dust. The thin ganache made the fondant step challenging. Chocolatey raspberry goodness kept leaking through the fondant, MUCH to Summer's frustration. It still turned out really beautifully. The best part is that it tasted soooooooo good. We brought it to my mom's for a big barbecue dinner, and it was a huge hit.

Keep practicing, Summie! Your cakes are very pretty and very tasty. We don't mind being your guinea pigs. Honest!

berries

We were very nearly out of freezer jam when strawberry season rolled around! Janet and I bought "jam flats" at a reduced rate this year, and we had our annual "jamming" session at her house while the kids played. When raspberry season opened a couple of weeks later, we went picking and then made raspberry freezer jam. My freezer -- and my family -- are happy.

My kids are really into frozen whole raspberries. They eat them faster than I can bake something with them! I don't rinse, otherwise they get too gooey. Then I put them on metal cookie sheets overnight until the berries are frozen solid. (I've tried plastic trays, but metal works better for some reason.) After thawing for a few minutes at room temperature, they are easily transferred into freezer ZipLoc bags.

Jay and Summer are eating the frozen berries already, and it's still raspberry season! Our neighbor offered to let us pick his berries because he has picked enough for his family. We gladly accepted, so we have 2 more cookie sheets full of berries down in the freezer. Nothing beats Washington berries!

summer the baker

Summer is still exploring her interest in cake decorating. She loves to practice. More often than not, she bakes something gluten-free so her daddy can enjoy it!

She uses g-free cake mix, and makes her own fondant and her own icing from scratch. Very impressive, Summer! Keep practicing, because you're getting better and better!

fun with fondant

Summer has recently been enjoying a TV show (on Hulu) called Cake Boss. The professional baker uses fondant to cover almost every cake he makes and decorates. It's amazing how creative one can be with this interesting confection!

You can make your own fondant, but we decided to use my 50% off Michael's coupon. This tub would normally have been $20. (Eeek!) It tasted OK, but I'm sure home-made would have tasted delicious.

Cut off a chunk and color it with gel food coloring. Fondant is malleable, much like PlayDoh. To color it, just add food coloring and knead it. It rolls out very easily with a rolling pin. Powdered sugar works great if it gets a little too sticky.

Summer "dirty frosted" (spread a thin layer of buttercream frosting to act as glue) a double layer of gluten-free brownies, then laid a sheet of fondant over the top. Once it's on there, just mold it with your fingers to your liking, then trim off any excess.

Make lots of colors! Roll it out, cut it with fondant shape cutters or a paring knife, and have fun being creative! After covering 6+ double-layer brownies and making 8 pink fondant elephants for Lily's birthday party, there's still about 1/3 of the tub remaining. A little goes a long way! It was fun to try something new.

in which lily turns seven

I happened upon some adorable birthday invitations a while back. Although they seemed a bit Summery with the pink elephants on a green tropical background (which is probably why they were on clearance), they served as my inspiration for Lily's birthday party.

Party favors: pink and green cotton candy, pink pencils, and pink elephant ornaments (and Tinkerbell Silly Bandz)

Lily and her best buddy Rayanne paint ceramic elephants.

Pink, green, and white place settings and sweet treats (Jelly Bellys and cotton candy)

Summer went online to see if she could learn how to make little elephants from fondant. She watched a short how-to video and then taught me how to do it. Summer has enjoyed playing with fondant recently, but that's a story for another post!

I thought this was a fun way to use my apothecary jars. :o) A little tissue goes a long way!

It was Summer's idea to use a wrought iron votive holder as a cupcake holder. Cute!

Happy 7th birthday to our little Lily Bean! I hope you had a fun birthday!

crabby guests

Thanks to my dad, we had 3 crabby guests for dinner.

 

Jay's prayer: "Dear Jesus, thank you for these deliciously, awesomely, amazing crabs who gave their lives for us." We all burst out laughing right in the middle of his prayer!

We definitely need crab-cracking tools for next Summer. We used corn on the cob skewers and pliers!