Lucky Cake

I did this horse shoe and clover cake not too long ago and thought it would be perfect for sharing on St. Patty's Day! So happy day to all of you Irish! Please eat some Irish potatoes for me tomorrow!

From Scratch: Brownie Sundaes

From Scratch: I'm going to start a new series on the blog! Ever since I got married and had my own kitchen to cook in, I've been interested in making things from scratch, that I would ordinarily buy. Don't get me wrong, I didn't grow up in an overly processed foods family, in fact, my Mom would refuse to buy certain things I begged for at the grocery store on Saturdays, saying oh I can make that for us. And she did! I've been trying to take that a step or two or three farther over the years and I now have an ever growing arsenal of my favorite recipes for things I would have normally bought before. So I'd like to share some of those here from time to time.

We had company over for dinner this past week. I needed a dessert for the evening and was in the mood to make ice cream. When I was trying to come up with a flavor, I remembered when I was a kid and at church we sometimes had brownie sundaes with the boys and girls club. For some reason this stuck out in my head so vividly. I thought that it would be fun to do that, especially since there were kids coming over for dinner.

I'm starting this series off with three from scratch recipes!

* I'm not always this ambitious when it comes to making things from scratch. I love to do it when I have the time and it just so happened I HAD the time this week to make a dish with three separate components.

Ice cream: Recipe can be found here. I added vanilla bean and seeds to the milk and cream mixture.

Chocolate Sauce: forget the hershey's syrup. this sauce is so much tastier and high fructose corn syrup isn't the main ingredient or and ingredient at all.

~ from seeded at the table

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups sugar
• Pinch of salt
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

Combine the water and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium while stirring with a whisk to dissolve the cocoa. Stir in the sugar until dissolved. Bring to a boil while stirring occasionally and heat for 3 minutes, watching carefully to avoid boiling over. (Turn down the heat, if necessary.) Remove from the heat and mix in the salt and vanilla. Let set to cool. Use a funnel to pour into a clean glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Store in the refrigerator for up to two months. 

Chocolate Chip Brownies: The best I've ever made!honey and jam's version of alice medrich's best cocoa brownies

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks, 5 ounces or 141 grams) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (9 7/8 ounces, 280 grams) sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 7/8 ounces, 82 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup (66 grams, 2 3/8 ounces) all-purpose flour

2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.
Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and microwave for 1:30 minutes. Remove and stir until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot. It looks fairly gritty at this point, but don’t fret — it smoothes out once the eggs and flour are added.

Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread evenly in the lined pan.

Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack.

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.

Serve all three in a bowl, for a trip down memory lane!

Gumpaste Lilac Cake!

Lilacs! They are probably the most inspirational flower I could make this long, cold, snowy winter. So you can imagine how delighted I was to find out they were the favorite flower of this birthday girl. I'm just starting to dive into the world of do it yourself gum-paste flowers. It really intimidated me, until recently, when I was asked to do some hydrangeas for a wedding cake. I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I decided to try my hand at making some. That was my first experience making my own gum-paste flowers. 

 Lilacs were a little different story. Each little flower you see is made by hand, no cutter necessary. This tutorial was amazing! Yes, they were time consuming and yes you need to make way more than you think you'll need for a bunch and yes each flower is wired individually, but it was really great to learn a new technique and I couldn't believe how true to the real deal lilacs they actually turned out when I put them all together! 

For this 60th birthday I also made a couple dozen lilac frosted cupcakes to go with.

Thanks also to Optika for this shot of the cake and cupcakes! Go check out their new website! They do good work!

Baby shower cakes: recently

I've had a lot of baby shower cakes this winter!

 Also a lot of people in my life are pregnant or just had a new little one! It's that season and I couldn't be happier! I loved making little fondant onesies, bottles, pacifiers, etc. It's giving me baby fever! NO...it's not what you think! We are not expecting! Well at least not right now!

 Do you have a baby shower to plan or attend soon? I hope you found these to be inspiring!

Facebook Giveaway!

Does anyone else think this feels like the longest winter ever? I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway this winter, since these days can feel long and not to exciting! All you have to do is head over to my page on Facebook : Snacky French  "like" the page if you don't already, then share the sweet news with your friends! If I get 300 likes before next Thursday at 12pm, then I'll announce the winner and ask who referred them!

ATTENTION CAKE FANS! : If you like Snacky French, please tell your friends to like my page! If I can reach 300 likes in one week, I'm going to giveaway a dozen cupcakes to the 300th like and for the person that referred them a free cake! It's a win win! Let's spread the word! Please share this! I'll announce next Thursday if there is a winner!

If THE GOAL IS MET: The 300th liker will win one dozen cupcakes of their choice!!
The friend of the 300th liker (the person who referred them to like my page) will win a custom decorated cake ( any cake of their choice up to $100)

you can see more of my work at www.snackyfrench.com

Little's Cakes Roundup

 So today I'm sharing a lot of cakes with you! Kid's cakes are great! Lots of color, fun designs, characters etc. I hope you enjoy and are inspired for your little one's next birthday cake! For more inspiration check out my website or pinterest!

Little Mister 1st Birthday Cake

Here's a little first birthday smash cake I did recently! Loved the little man theme they chose!

ONE and a half!

 It feels like ages since I've sat down to write a little update on my little one! I'm realizing just how much has happened in 6 months. So here goes.

 Liam is into/ doing/ loving these days :

•  Running, dancing, clapping while dancing, and walking backwards
• MUSIC! He can't get enough. He waves his one hand in a swaying motion every time he wants to listen to some.
• He loves food. He had about 2 months of being a picky eater in his entire life so far.
• He loves to play with his play kitchen when we are in the kitchen.
• He loves to shovel the snow with his little shovel. He really just likes being outside any chance he can get.
• His favorite words are all done/gone, teeth, cheese, shoes, keys, momma, dada and nana.
• He just started to draw with markers
• Liam and daddy made a special Valentines surprise for me!
• Liam likes things in order! He likes to line his toys up and he is pretty good at putting things away.
• He also has great strength for his age. He lifts up very heavy things. 
• His favorite book is pat the cat!
• He loves to stand on the windowsill and wait to see Daddy come home from work.
• He likes to ride his scoot bike.
•  He is pretty tall for his age. 
• He likes to "sing" along at the bedtime songs we sing him
• Liam is a busy one, up until nap or bedtime. We can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring! Hopefully more words, games, giggles and discoveries!

Christmas Flea Booth

Here's a few shots from the Christmas Flea Market I was apart of! The holidays were such a busy time this year, what with traveling out of state, that I haven't had the opportunity to share these until now! It was a fun little event, put on by our church, Rock Community Church. I met a lot of new people, handed out coupons and salted caramel shortbread samples. Sold some festive cupcakes and cookies and had a great time!I'm hoping to do more fleas and festivals this year and maybe even the farmer's market this summer!

slowing down

I've been absent from this space for over a month now. Honestly, I hadn't given it much thought, except when I work on some projects and  realized I haven't shared them here. We are recouping from a busy holiday season, that was filled with lots of baking, last minute gift getting, traveling and more traveling.

 And while we had a great time doing all of those things, we were in desperate need of a daily slower pace. So that's what we are working on this January. Slowing down. Making dinner on a regular basis that doesn't come from the freezer or a box, building block towers, dancing around the kitchen, playing in the snow and most days hunkering down inside when its 5 degrees outside or venturing out on an errand or two. There has been time to catch up with friends and work on side projects like our yearly photo book. Things that bring me joy. Oh and we are still working on our kitchen renovations, so that keeps things interesting.

 I'll be back here on a more regular basis soon. I have some cakes to share, maybe a recipe or two and definitely pictures of this 1 1/2 year old!