FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Archives for December 2011

Cake Bakin’

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One would think I’d wait until an ice cream cake was completely frozen to take pictures, but three hours is a long time to sit around thinking about cake!  I can assure you that the piece I had for breakfast this morning was much more pulled together.

I spent a decent amount of time yesterday searching for the perfect cake to test out for FoodFash’s second birthday.  And by perfect, I was looking for something that was the perfect balance of challenging, delicious, and had a less than overwhelming amount of ingredients.

Epicurious simplified my search times a million by putting together a list of thirty top-rated cake recipes.  Talk about easy, ten minutes and thirty mouth watering pictures later I made my decision: Peppermint Ice Cream Candyland Cake.

I opted not to make the candy brittle.  As fun as that looked, I do not have the patience for candy thermometers and sugar art.

As I folded the melted butter and chocolate into the dry ingredients, I wondered why boxed cake happens.  I actually wondered why boxed anything happens as often as it does.  Sure, I understand time constraints on occasion, but I came to the conclusion that boxed anything at the market probably doesn’t save you that much time.

 

Here are some thoughts on this recipe:

1.  I’m more of a brownie girl than a cake girl and this cake was much more brownie-like than cake – win

2.  I’m not a huge ice cream fan, but I do like brownies with ice cream or ice cream with lots of <insert topping> chunks in it – win

3.  Spreading the ice cream with your hands worked much better than using a spoon, which caused fingers so cold they hurt.  This alone would deter me from ice cream cake making in the future – fail

4.  I enjoy making anything that utilizes my KitchenAid mixer and I think cake baking will be more of a regular occurrence now that I’ve had a successful cake baking experience – win

Do you like to bake?  What is your most/least successful baking experience?

Dearest FoodFash

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Dearest FoodFash,

Today, you are two.  And for every second of the past two years, you’ve been a motivating force in my life.  You’ve turned me into a confident cook, baker, and crafter of all sorts.  You’ve given me the strength to show vulnerabilities and accept the support of my family and friends during the good times.  You’ve provided opportunities for me to test myself and become a stronger, better me.  But most of all, you’ve served as a connection between inner self and outer self, narrowing the gap between my dreams and my reality.  And for all of this, I am incredibly thankful.

Moving forward, I promise to remain committed to you.  I promise to keep you relevant, exciting, and pretty.  I promise to help you grow, connecting you with new blogging friends while nurturing your relationships with old blogging friends.  FoodFash… twenty twelve is going to be one for the books.

All my love,

Kristin

United Skates Of America

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Last weekend, Laura and I brainstormed over Sunday beers and decided that rollerskating was going to happen in our near future. We also thought that red and green elf rollerskating was the only way to go.  We showed up United Skates of America’s adult night, excited, but not knowing what to expect.

We skated for three solid hours to 20% top 40, 80% classic rollerskating jams of the 80s and early 90s.  We couldn’t have picked a more fitting playlist if we had tried.  We heard Debbie Deb twice, and that’s all one could have hoped for.

Laura was a master skater and qualified to skate during the expert only, bounce skate sesh.  I, on the other hand, only had the basics down and still experienced the occasional “whoop whoop” moment where you feel like you’re going to bust it.  Overall, it was SO much fun.  I am totally down to do this on the regular!