Easter Cake

Forgot to post this earlier. I decorated my second cake, and it, in my opinion, looked wonderful! Not the best picture to show it off though, sorry :(

Herb popovers

Last night I started the process of making herb popovers. The cooking time was far too long to finish them last night, so I just let the batter chill in the fridge over night. 

It was pretty easy to make, only a few ingredients. 

The herbs needed for this bread was Thyme, Sage and Basil. Although, if you fancy you could add other types to it. I didn't add the Celery Salt to this recipe, as I do not prefer celery.

All mixed up, just a few more stirrings! 

I didn't have the type of pans the recipe called for, so I used these mini bunt bake pans instead. It didn't work out the best, but it was still very tasty. 

 - The girl being, Me

Easy trail mix

Last night I made a very simple trail mix to enjoy for today and tomorrow. I just mixed a few things together from the pantry, and it turned out fairly nice. 

In my trail mix I have popcorn, chocolate chips, honey cheerios, pretzels, raisins, and mixed nuts. 

Other wonderful things to add into a trail mix are yogurt covered cereals, flavored popcorn, and assorted dried fruits.

Most of the trail mixes from the store have items that are high in salt content. They also contain more "fun foods", than healthy things. Making a trail mix at home gives you the power to choose what goes into your mix, it also yields more, and for less money. Even if you buy all organic, it's more than likely still cheaper to buy your own ingredients separate, and mix them up at home. 

- The girl being, Me

Cake Decorating

Yesterday I spent the day making a cake for part of my cake decorating  4H project. One thing I learned was that I don't have much patience for something I am not very good at, Lol. I made it through though and managed to learn how to make a semi decent basket weave design. 

Learning how to make simple cakes is a great way to save money. Even if you take a short class, the cost of buying a cake from the store adds up with every birthday, holiday or special event. Plus you control what goes into the cake if you make it yourself. 

Most libraries supply many books on cake decorating, and how to get started. It's really easy to get a hold of them, and the supplies. It's cost effective too.

The process 

The recipe

The batter

The many tips we currently own

The 4H book explaining the proper ways to handle the frosting bag(s).

The finished product. My first attempt at the basket weave. Pretty much the entire cake was covered in it, because I wanted all the practice I could get from one cake.

I plan to practice with text(s) soon. For Easter I've been talked into making a basket cake for the family. We'll see how that works out, Lol.

- The girl being, Me

Banana bread

So this weekend I ended up being busier than I planned and I never got around to making bread. I did however find a  few older recipes in the cabinet I intend to try throughout the week!

Today, I did get around to making some banana bread for a friend. He recently gave us a large amount of bananas so to repay the favor I made his family a few loaves of bread. I used the same recipe I use to make my farmers market bread. The recipe only yields one loaf, so I had to do the batch separately. I've found that double batching makes it turn out really badly. So I just take the extra short amount of time and make the batter separately.

Here are some picture's of the process.

The recipe is a very important part of making the bread, of course!

Everything ready to be mixed together, with the bananas on the bottom.

Ready for the oven. 55 minutes at 350 degrees

Finished product! The one of the top is banana oatmeal bread, and the bottom is just plain banana bread.

Today I have also been busy working on another 4H project, which is cake decorating. I am making a two layer chocolate cake. I’ll post picture’s on that tomorrow as currently it’s in my kitchen waiting for the icing to soften a bit more. I should most likely take me all night, seeing as this is my first attempt at ever doing anything slightly fancy! 

Things I am going to try and get done this week are

1)      Clean rabbit cages

2)      Rebuild compost pile

3)      De-leaf the herb garden