Meal or No Meal....

Many of you have seen or heard of the game show “Deal or No Deal”. Well, the other night, we attended a party where the theme was “Meal or No Meal”. Thanks to my creative sister-in-law and her family. Our game involved a contestant, a BAKER, and Howie Michael as the host.

Here is the famous baker!

Instead of having numbered briefcases to select, we had numbered pizza boxes. Inside each pizza box was a picture of a treat or goodie. The smallest prize was a single M&M, and the largest prize was a giant box of chocolates.

There were other prizes in between such as an oreo cookie, miniature candy bars, regular candy bars, and king size candy bars. Every so often, the BAKER would call on a cell phone to offer the contestant a goodie to quit the game. This offer was based roughly on the amounts of goodies remaining in play. At this point, the contestant would have to choose “Meal” (which would end the game), or “No Meal” (and they would have to choose another pizza box).

We had a fun time, and in the end everyone got to take a treat.

I even made a numbered Briefcase Cake for the occasion.

Yes, it really is a cake!

I thought it looked like a real briefcase. I guess I'm not the only one, because somebody tried to open it!

One of my Passions Revealed

To all of my friends in cyber land. I am about to reveal one of my passions that I have this time of year. I have many of them, but this passion makes my mouth water and my taste buds dance. It is sweet and tasty. And people either love it or they hate it. It is something that I remember having every Christmas season since I was a small child. It is EGGNOG! I’ve been pretty good at avoiding it as I pass by the dairy section of the grocery store. But today I caved in and bought me some. Ok, to be honest, I bought a couple of cartons.

Now, I didn’t pour me a full glass and sit by the fire and enjoy a moment of heaven. Even though that sounds so nice. I made dinner and dessert with it. Oh, and it was good. Really, really good. My kids gobbled up every bite, and asked for seconds, and thirds, and fourths………ok, they just took seconds. But they liked it a lot. Dinner was Eggnog Pancakes! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Neither had I. But I made some and they were a sure hit. For some reason, eggnog pancakes and maple syrup go really well together. Here is the recipe for my Eggnog Pancakes. You should give them a try.

EGGNOG PANCAKES

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg

1 1/2 cups eggnog

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup cooking oil

1 pinch salt

1/2 t. rum extract

1/2 t. nutmeg

Preheat a skillet over medium heat. Mix all of the ingredients until combined. Melt a little bit of butter in the pan. Pour the batter by spoonfuls into the hot pan, forming 5-inch circles. When the edges appear to harden, flip the pancakes over. They should be golden brown on both sides. Makes 8-10 pancakes. Enjoy!

For dessert I baked an Old Fashioned Eggnog Bundt Cake. It was very moist, delicious, and rich. I got this recipe from Tina over at Mommy’s Kitchen, who by the way, has an amazing site. But you’ve heard me say that before. She truly is the blogger of all things yummy. Here is a link to her site, so you can get the recipe. It was easy to make and took only a few ingredients. And, I got to use a bundt pan that I bought about 10 years ago that I have never used.

Here are the few ingredients. (Notice the big, beautiful, brown eggs. They came from my Rhode Island Red chicken. She just started laying about a month ago.)

I mixed them together.....

......and here is my first Bundt Cake.

An Eggnog Bundt Cake! And it was more delicious than I could ever describe. I will definitely be making this cake again. Especially now that I've conquered my fear of baking in a bundt pan. I hope you give this cake a try and enjoy it as much as I did.

Krystal's Package Wedding Cake

I am finally able to post pictures of the cake that we did last weekend. And I say "we", because my husband actually did most of the work on this one. I'm teaching him well. I really enjoy the time that I get to spend with him while decorating cakes. He is by my side through every cake that I make. I keep trying to get him to go into business with me, but he isn't as passionate about cake decorating as I am. Even though he is extremely talented at it.

I am really pleased with how this cake turned out. (BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO GET A BETTER LOOK AT THE DETAILS) I had never made a big bow out of fondant before, and it really was the highlight of this cake. It took four days to make, and it was fun to take on the challenge. Here are some pictures of the progress of my bow.

How To Make A Fondant Bow

I started by rolling out the fondant to about 1/8 inch

thickness. Next I cut it into 1 inch strips.

I hung the strips over a wooden dowel, to shape them into a loop. I painted the ends with water and pinched them together.

Then I painted each loop with a shiny, red luster dust.

I found a plate that was about the same size as the bow that I needed, and covered it with waxed paper.

I made a royal icing and colored it the same color as the bow. I started by putting a big glob in the center of the plate.

I placed 7 loops on the bottom layer. I know the picture only shows 6, but I added one later.

After the first layer dried a little bit, I put another big glob of royal icing in the center.

And proceeded to add more loops...

....and still more loops.

I added more and more layers of icing and loops until the bow was complete. It was very fragile, and I wish I had another day or two to work on it. Next time I will start the bow a week in advance, which will give it a little more time to harden. But I was very pleased with the end result.

A big THANK YOU to Krissy for letting me be a part of your wedding!