Is there anything cake can't do?

Since I have moved in with the Starks', Eli and I have had our ups and downs. Lately, more downs than ups. His mother is a lot nicer than I am and more tolerate of his awful behavior. As a person who has been in education for over 10 years, I have a different approach to children than a mother would. Not only that, but I am firm, direct, and I will sit there and let you starve if you throw a fit about dinner. It is his choice if he wants to eat or not. And if his choice is to storm off and kick a box very loudly for 45 mins, fine. Wear yourself out! But, I guess I am just mean and it is why I don't have kids. However, Eli and I bonded today.

Eli loves Cake Boss. This is a show I used to watch a lot, too. Not so much anymore. However, I watched it with him last night. He started asking me questions about the history, asking me if I know certain techniques like the Cake Boss uses, etc. It was wonderful. By the end of the night, he was in the chair, sitting with me and we were talking about cake. It was so wonderful.

Today Eli and I decided to make cookies together. He wanted to make Halloween sugar cookies and frost them. He actually paid really close attention and wanted to help. He said, "this is the most funnest day I have ever had!" Every part was his favorite part. Sifting the flours, pouring in the eggs, adding the sugar. He even tried gluten free cake for the first time. 


After we finished our dough for the cookies, we let it set in the freezer and went out to dinner for his brother's birthday. His plan was for us to bake and frost them while the family watched Waking Dead. We are not fans of the show because we think it is gross (second bonding moment of the day!) But, before we went to dinner, we decided to bake a cake since the baking bug had crawled into our brains.

We made a gluten free, pumpkin spice bundt cake with a cream cheese drizzle and a walnut crumble (walnuts I shelled myself from walnuts in the backyard!) It was perfect. He was so helpful and helped me with the dishes. He said he would be the dish drier and went on about how he would never be a dishwasher at a restaurant :) This seven year old boy worked so hard today. The boy who never tries new things tried something new. I got him to shower, wear pants, and clean without being asked. I couldn't believe it. I actually convinced a seven year old boy to take a shower, all because of cake. Is there nothing sweets can't do? 

Eli baked with me all day. We got home from dinner and we got out our dough. It needed to sit out for a little while, so we started on our royal icing. We made orange, green, blue, and yellow. Our cookie shapes were pumpkins and ghosts. He did such a great job frosting all the cookies and said one day he and I would have our own baker. 

After we were done baking, he said it was time for us to go watch Cake Boss so we can learn some more techniques. We crawled into the large chair with me and fell asleep in my lap watching some crazy Italian-American from Jersey frost giant cakes:) I hope his dreams are just as sweet. Tomorrow: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Stay tuned:)

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

·         4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

·         1 teaspoon baking powder

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

·         2 cups granulated sugar

·         2 large eggs

·         2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1.     Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.

2.     Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.

3.     Preheat oven to 325 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough between two pieces of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top layer of plastic wrap. Cut out cookies with a 4-inch one-piece-shaped cookie cutter. To make an ornament, cut out a hole from the center of the neck about 1/4-inch from the edge using a straw. Transfer cookie dough on plastic wrap to a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to freezer, freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from freezer and transfer shapes to baking sheets lined with nonstick baking mats. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat with remaining disk of dough.

4.        Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Royal Icing 

Ingredients

·         1/2 cup meringue powder

·         8 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

1.         Using a hand mixer with the beater attachments, beat together meringue powder with 1 cup water until peaks form. Add sugar and continue mixing until smooth. If mixture seems too thick, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix until desired consistency is reached. If mixture seems too thin, add confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached

           Ingredients

·         Nonstick cooking spray, for pan

·         4cups Pamela’s gluten free baking flour

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1 tablespoon ground ginger

·         2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

·         1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

·         1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

·         2 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar

·         4 large eggs

·         1 cup buttermilk

·         1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree

           Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 14-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray. Dust with flour, and tap out excess.

2.        Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.

3.        Beat butter and brown sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to low. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Beat until just combined. Add pumpkin puree, and beat until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan Bake cake until golden and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Carefully turn cake onto rack too cool completely.