'Tis the Season

Strawberry season that is. Who could resist fresh local strawberries? Especially when combined with cake. I must admit this is so simple I am almost ashamed to put it on here. However, not so ashamed to make not one, not two, but four of these delicacies in the last two weeks. All this is is a simple sour cream pound cake sliced in half. I slice the strawberries and let them sit making their own juice for a few hours and then lay the slices on the bottom slice of cake, and pour the juice in the bowl over them so it will soak into the cake. Then I layer some store bought whipped topping on top of that and of course some more strawberries. Next I place the top layer of cake and lightly smush (yes, that is a technical term) it down. On top of that cake I spoon more whipped topping and then some strawberries that I halved lengthwise. Any strawberries left over and juice are places around the bottom of the cake for garnish. Voila! It is finished and ready to be cut. Oh, on the last cake I swirled some chocolate sauce over the slices of cake and served it. I did not hear any complaints. Feel free to use this and adapt it...it is easy and so ugly that it appears elegant. Go Figure!

Blue Ribbon Cake for Blue Ribbon Families

As you may have noticed from some of my other posts, my career allows me the opportunity to enhance our programing with cake on occasion. One such occasion presented itself recently. Our final session of Strengthening Families allowed us a grand celebration with four families who completed the program.

Strengthening Families is a curriculum from Iowa State University that Christy Strickland, our Robeson County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Family and Consumer Sciences Agent implements. During the seven week program the families have dinner together, then split into adult and youth groups (the youth in this program are 10-14), then come back together during a family session at the end of each night. During the program the parents learn about listening to the youth, setting limits, discipline, and having families meeting to allow the entire family to work as a group. The youth learn about the responsibilities that parents face, learn why it is important to follow rules and gain tools for dealing with peer pressure. As a family they work on their communication skills and find ways to talk about the tough subjects like alcohol, drugs, and sex. After completing the seven week course the families will be invited back in September for a refresher and to let us know what is working for them.

For the families that finished the program they received a certificate on the last night and celebrated with a blue ribbon cake. After all they are blue ribbon families and I could not think of a better cake to make for them. After the night everyone sat down and had one if not two pieces of cake and we were even able to salvage some, for someone important to our program to take home the next day. We just want to wish our families good luck in the future.

Flipping Out Over this Birthday

I love a special request for a cake and this one didn't flip me out but it did let me have all sorts of fun. I have had the privilege of creating several cakes for this young lady. Hannah turned twelve this month and I happen to know she would sleep in her flip-flops if possible. So when her mother requested a flip flop cake it seemed perfectly normal.

This cake came from the Betty Crocker web site. There you find instructions on size, baking and even a template that you can print out to create the flip-flops. The only change was to make sure flowers were edible (not fabric or plastic) and fruit roll ups and candy could be replaced with icing (after all there really isn't such a thing as too much icing). To keep with the theme I used licorice for the straps but bedazzled them with icing balls to keep with the color scheme of the cake.

I understand the cake was a hit with the tweens who attended the party and the birthday girl flipped, which is always a relief. After all we wouldn't want it to be a flop.

It Was a Moo-ving Experience.

It was an utterly wonderful experience, and there is no bull about it. I have a bunch of these, so I apologize now, it came from a story I did on Cow Patty Bingo, however I digress. This is the moo-ving tale of a livestock agent, a surprise, and a cow cake (great elements right?).

I was having an e-mail discussion with a group I work with about a meeting. In the midst of all the details it came up that one of our livestock agents was having a birthday the day of our meeting. From there were chewed on the information and determined a cake was in order. The only issue was how would the cake get there because I was not going to be able to go. So my counterpart who was coming over to drop stuff off offered to pick up the cake and get it there. In the back of my head I was milking the information, trying to determine how she would get the cake over there without the livestock agent seeing it since they were riding together, but what the hey? I knew she could handle it.

There was a quick decision about the cake. A livestock agent meant animals could be used, especially pigs, goats, lambs, and cows. After a little more thought we determined the cow would be the most appropriate and I some how milked the situation to create a diary cow, instead of a beef cow which is what she really works with. My colleague picked up the cake from me the night before and disguised it in a trash bag in the back of the van for ride over to the meeting. When asked by the intended receipt what it was she said casually, "oh just some supplies" which was accepted without hesitation.

After making the trip across three counties, and having lunch the meeting was getting ready to commence. For those like myself who could not attend, we were hooking up via computer conference to the meetings. The twist here is that the birthday woman was also the technical person. So, as the story was told to me, as she is working at getting it all set up and having technical difficulties they brought the cake in, candles, singing and all and red faced about the difficulties I believe she told me her thoughts were, " are you kidding? Thanks, but right now."

In the end the technical difficulties were grazed over, the cake was cut, and chocolate seemed to so the the tension and add a special sugar high to the meeting. I told you it was a moo-ving story.

A Party for Baby Boy Shooter

I love where I work because we are like a great big family. When one member of our family is celebrating we all celebrate. Recently our livestock agent, let's call her Michelle, found out she and her husband were expecting. Being avid outdoors people they were even more thrilled to find out that the baby was to be a boy.

So as part of our office celebration there was a baby shower complete with gifts, food and of course a cake. We have a committee that designates how such events are handled and when they came to me to do the cake I was excited. I knew I had the baby carriage and was thinking about an N. C. State theme. However I was later informed that the room had a jungle theme and I needed to include that theme with the cake. So I did what does not come naturally to me and decorated the cake in Carolina Blue....I mean baby boy blue. However to go with the jungle theme I add vines to the design and added a welcome baby Shooter to the cake. I must say this was not the only cake at this party. Two of my creative co-workers created two diaper cakes (tiered cake creations made of diapers-not edible but highly useful in the future), one that matched the cake, the other with an N.C. State theme. All in all it was a wonderful event.

The best part of this story however is that I can announce that Jackson, arrived a few days early and very healthy at 8 lbs 11 oz. Mom, Dad and baby are doing great and I just want to bake another cake to celebrate.

Oh Oh...Oreo?????

I have ever told you how much I enjoy the people I work with? This cake is thanks in part to them. For Christmas my mother ordered a sandwich cookie cake pan. The neat thing about this pan is that it is very detailed on the top and bottom cookies and then the icing goes in the middle. Takes no time to decorate. The present was back ordered and arrived after Christmas at my office. So I could not help but share my good fortune with my co-workers who suggested maybe I should start testing cakes with them. After all I would not want to sell a bogus cake (see how selfless my co-workers are?). So over the weekend I baked the cake which was a dense chocolate cake with butter cream icing in the center. How bad can it be for you, after all the entire project involved three sticks of butter. I consider it health because I used unsalted butter for this one. I believe one of my testers said she was going to spend the evening in a diabetic coma after eating a slice. A few testers from the health department came by to get sodas and I offered them some. They seemed quite taken with it. I think the official cookie cake will now be part of the cake menu.

Oh Deer Christmas is Over?

Every once in awhile I have to bake a cake just to bake it or give it to someone or someones very special. A very special family so deserved a cake, so I baked this one for them the day before Christmas. Delivery was not via the Santa express which made it very difficult to get it to them so I delayed on the decorating and keep the cake fresh with a little bakers secret...I kept it in the freezer until I decorated it today.

The family I made it for, in essence, has adopted me and I am in training as a plumbers child. I have already fixed toilets in three states and another country. Not to mention that their daughter, who used to be one of my co-workers, and is currently one of my volunteers (once you get into 4-H you never want to leave) is one of my best friends. When dad and little brother came and helped bail me out of the lake that had formed in my kitchen...the least I could do is bake a cake for them.

The cake is a butter cake and is supposed to be Rudy the Reindeer. I am guessing this is Wilton's way of making a Rudolph the Reindeer cake pan without infringing on copyrights or trademarks. I thought about stringing lights from the antlers to make it more holiday like but since it is the beginning of the year I decided against it. One of the designs shows the deer with a hat and making it a hunting deer which could be a great idea for an avid hunter in need of a cake. Just a few neat ideas to help round off celebrating the holiday.