Milky Way Cake

A few months ago Pioneer Woman had a recipe on her blog featuring a "Milky Way Cake"
The cake she made looked REALLY gooey and yummy

A friend of mine used to make a cake by the same name but hers was a Bundt Cake....and DEEElicious!!!
I wanted to try to make it similar to how I had eaten it before so instead of using Pioneer Woman's recipe, I searched for another.  (Sorry PW....)  But if you would like to make both and do a taste test...by all means then check out Pioneer Woman's website. 

I found a cake recipe that looked fairly easy on Cooks.com and tweaked the icing with one I found on Allrecipes.com. 

So first you start with your milky way bars....

And melt them in a pot with some butter....sounds yummy already and smells good too!

Then separate your eggs....yolk in one bowl, whites in another...
Mix the yolks with some buttermilk and baking soda
And in another bowl place the flour and salt

By now there are bowls EVERYWHERE!!

And don't forget to keep mixing your melting yummy candy bar mixture (I kept my heat on medium low so I wouldn't burn it)
When that's melted to perfection turn off the heat and add your sugar and mix

The egg whites need to be beaten with a mixer until "stiff but not dry".  I think I did this right.  Have never beaten my egg whites like this but it was pretty neat to watch as they went from runny to fluffy to airy....

OK.... back to the melty mix.  Add your buttermilk mixture and your flour mixture in 3rds....and mix well....
I just mixed with a spoon...turned out great.

Then fold in your egg whites.  Mix with spoon until it looks uniform.

Then pour into a prepared pan (greased and floured)

And place in a preheated oven (325 degrees) for 1 hr 15 minutes....I only baked mine for an hour.  I guess my pan was thin and it cooked faster....just keep an eye on your cake when time gets somewhat close and judge "doneness" for yourself....I do the fork test.

Isn't that pretty....

I let the cake cool for a while but it was probably a tad bit warm still when I made and drizzled the icing on top..

For the icing I used some semisweet chocolate morsels, butter, corn syrup and vanilla....all melted and drizzled on top.

YUM!!!!  It certainly was a big hit with everyone!

Cake Recipe from Cooks.com
Again, the last 2 ingredients on this recipe are for the "icing" and I omitted that step because I didn't want a hard shell.

Icing recipe from Allrecipes.com
This as tasty.....

Hope you enjoy and if you do the taste test be sure to let me know which way is best.

Smiles,
Bronwyn

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Football Theme Birthday Cake

My Drew turned 12 last Friday and since he loves football, I thought this cake would be great.  I was inspired by cakes seen on http://www.cakecentral.com/

If you ever want to spend hours just looking at cakes and getting tips from others, check it out!!

Anyway, I the cake I made was inspired by two seperate cakes, I just used the components I liked.

Here was my timeline (in case you are wondering How long does it take to make one of these cakes!)

On Friday I made 2 batches of marshmallow fondant. (took about an hour....give or take....more time is spent on the clean up process)

On Saturday I baked the cakes...

On Sunday I made the buttercream icing ad coated the cakes with the crumb layer and then added the fondant.
The whole process took me about 4 hours....my brown didn't cooperate the first time around and I had to scrap and restart.

I covered the bottom cake with green and the top with brown fondant.

Then I cut strips of white fondant for the field markers and the laces on the football.

I wrote the numbers and Happy BDay message with buttercream.  I will claim that I was running late to my sons bday party and thats why I left the "D" out of Happy Birthday Drew......

Well, thanks for looking and enjoy this splendid fall weather.

Smiles,
Bronwyn

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Toffee Bars

I haven't baked anything yummy lately so I was browsing cook books on my book shelf.  I have many cookbooks but don't always cook from them....
for instance, this Betty Crocker cookbook.....I've probably had it for 5 years or more and have made ZERO recipes from the book!!

So I was looking and found a recipe for Toffee Bars....

Well, I love toffee...and I had all of the necessary ingredients so I thought why not!?  Plus we are going to a cook out later and I can take these yummy bars along so they don't sit in my house and call my name....

My food does that to me sometimes, calls my name....says complete sentences such as "Bronwyn, come have some of me....I am so tasty....so what if you eat too many calories today, you've been doing good and you can always go for a walk/run later"

I know other people hear their food too which is why I haven't sought professional help.

Back to the bars....I gathered my butter, vanilla, flour, salt and brown sugar (I just love brown sugar) and chocolate chips....

Mix the butter, sugar, egg white ( I accidentally used the whole egg...oops)  and vanilla....mix it until creamy and then add the flour and salt

Spread the mixture into an ungreased baking dish and bake

Remove from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top....the recipe called for 2/3 rd cup of chips....but I thought Really!!??  That's not enough chocolate so I just dumped the whole bag on top.

Let the chips soften and then spread them all over the top of the cookie base.

Doesn't that look YUMMY?

The recipe also says you can sprinkle with nuts...that would be tasty but I was also thinking some Heath Bar crumbles would be delish.....Alas, I had neither!

Once cooled enough so I could hold the pan comfortably, I put the whole thing in the refrigerator....I want the chocolate to be hard....

Ok I couldn't wait for the chocolate to harden and had to cut a piece to taste.  Have  I said YUMMY yet in this post.....wow...the base is so buttery and tasty and the chocolate....well is chocolate so enough said...

Recipe...(Adapted from the Betty Crocker cookbook)

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg yolk (or you could just use the whole egg like I did...)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2/3rd cup chocolate morsels (I used a whole bag of semi-sweet)
nuts or heath bar crumbles or any variety of items....mini M&M's would be colorful and tasty

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Mix butter, brown sugar, vanilla & egg yolk, add flour and salt and continue to mix until creamy.  Spread the batter into an ungreased rectangular baking pan (13x9x2).  Bake for 25-30 mins.  Upon removal from oven, sprinkle the chocolate morsels on top and when they get gooey, spread them across the top of the cookie base.  Then you can add any topping you would like.

Hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day weekend and to all my Biggest Loser competition......EAT UP!!!


Smiles,
Bronwyn


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Bye Bye to Summer

I am so sad to see summer vacation ending... now comes the early wake up times for kids....fighting with Morgan to wake....making school lunches....fighting with Morgan to wake up.....doing homework....fighting with Morgan to wake up....UGH


But since we've had a few days delay of the school year ..... Hurricane Irene and subsequent power outages..... I have been given a few more days to enjoy my babies and to reminisce  about summer vacation :)

Here are some pics of the day we went to Virginia Beach with Joni and her kids Olivia and Alec.

Harry Potter Fanatics

We had a wonderful time that day!!  As you can see, we played in the water, made sand castles, relaxed under the shade and had a nice picnic on the beach.

Thinking back on this summer I realize how blessed I have been to have so many wonderful experiences.  Touring multiple battlefields (and trying to teach my kids a little bit of our country's history along the way) going camping..... going to Boston!!!  What a wonderful summer this has been!

Anybody have any ideas about waking up a teenage girl for school????? 

Smiles,
Bronwyn

Please Vote For ME :)

A while back I shared some pics on my blog about our trip to Harpers Ferry and Antietam Battlefield.  I also submitted some of these pics to the Civil War Preservation Trust Photography Contest.

WELLLLLLL!!!
They picked one of my pictures to be included in the Peoples Choice category....

YEAH!!!  I am so tickled to have had my picture chosen!!!!

So if you would be so kind to go to this site right here .....

and vote for this picture....(it's picture number 2 on the contest site)

I would be much obliged! 

And then you could ask your family, friends and neighbors to vote for me too!! :)  Just kidding

Thanks for letting me share my good news with you!!

Smiles!!

Bronwyn

Clafoutis

Pronounced "kla-foo-TEE" ...

I found this recipe in my Clean Eating magazine....I think I mentioned before that we are doing a Biggest Loser contest at work and I am really trying to prepare healthier foods...

Well Clafoutis is a French desert...that's about all I know but you can check out this link for a Non-diet recipe which includes a nice blurb about the desert. 

I had a hard time assembling the ingredients for this...I went to all sorts of grocery stores looking for spelt flour....spelt is a grain that is similar to wheat but has grown in popularity because of it's "nutty flavor, high protein and nutrition content"  I got this information from a google search...I really am clueless about Spelt.  If you want to know more check this out.

So as I was saying I went to stores that I thought would have specialty organic items and could not find spelt flour...then one day I went to my friendly neighborhood Mars (which is where I usually shop) and there it was......right there in the baking aisle!!!  Mars didn't have cherries....fresh or frozen so I grabbed a can of cherries that were packed in water....I bet the syrupy kind would have been YUM but I resisted.

So tonight I made Clafoutis....

I added eggs, egg whites, spelt flour, organic cane sugar (recipe called for evaporated cane juice...could not find that ANYWHERE!! so I improvised)

 sea salt, skim milk and vanilla....

Quick story about the vanilla....you are supposed to use almond extract because apparently Clafoutis was traditionally made with cherries that contained the pit....probably hard to eat.  When the Clafoutis baked, the cherry pits emit an almond like flavor...so you're supposed to use almond extract but I wasn't sure I'd like that so I....improvised (again).
 
You add all of those ingredients to a blender and blend :)

Lightly spray a 9 inch oven proof skillet with olive oil spray cooking spray and add cherries and 1 Tbsp of the sugar.

Heat until sugar is melted and then add the blended ingredients...

Bake in a pre-heated oven (425 degrees) for 20 minutes and VOILA!!

Clafoutis!!  Some of the other recipes I saw were sprinkled with confectioner sugar....YUM
I didn't do that and mine was tasty.  I think it would be yummier with a dallop of vanilla ice cream..I mean frozen yogurt :) and/or a spoonful of cool whip.

The recipe adapted from the Clean Eating magazine

2 eggs
2 egg whites
3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 tsp almond extract...or vanilla :)
3 Tbsp organic cane sugar (they called for "evaporated cane juice" but I used what I had...the grainy kind)
cooking spray
pitted cherries....about 30 although I didn't count...
1 Tbsp organic cane sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Blend ingredients 1-6 in a blender...put cherries and sugar in a pre-sprayed pan and heat until sugar is melted and then add the blended ingredients.  Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Here's the nutritional information obtained from the Clean Eating magazine...
1/8th of recipe= 74 calories, 1.5 g total fat, 1 g fiber, 5 g sugar, 11 g carbs, 103 mg sodium, 5 g protein and 53 mg cholesterol.
Au Revoir!

:) Love,
Bronwyn

Jamestown

Well, I am almost out of pictures of vacation to share!  One of our last days of vacation was spent at Jamestown. We had an awesome time that day...no whiny kids even though the temperature for the day was 102 degrees. 

I will let you in on a little secret....bribing WORKS!  I told them all...before they went outside and felt the heat....that the child who complained the least would get a special prize at the outlet stores.  And IT WORKED!!!!

The first place we visited in the Jamestown area was the very nice air conditioned visitors center and museum. 

We then visited the Jamestown Fort site "the heart of the first, permanent English settlement in North America"

They are doing an archaeological dig in this area and that was really neat to see...

We saw a statue representing Pocahontas....one of my kids (I won't reveal which one Morgan so you won't get teased) said..."So Pocahontas was real!?"  

We then went to see the glassblowing.  The men working the molten glass amazed me....It was, I repeat, 102 degrees that day....and even hotter near the glassblower ovens. 

The glass glob comes out of the oven at 2000 degrees!! 

 After they work on the glob and shape it into a cup or vase...

they put it in the cooling oven which is set at a cool 900 degrees.  This allows the glass to cool slowly so it doesn't shatter. 

 Pretty cool huh!?

After the glassblowing we went to the Jamestown Settlement area....via the air conditioned shuttle

 and into the air conditioned visitor center.  They have a huge museum here as well but we just walked through quickly.

We went to the Indian village and learned how to shape needles out of animal bones....

How to weave rope....

And how to pulverize corn into flour.

We also toured the ships in the harbor there

and walked through the English settlement area....by now we were going fast because the heat was getting to us.

If you would like more information on the Jamestown site click here.  It was a lot more kid friendly than the Colonial Williamsburg area and when we left each child got a special treat from the outlet stores.

Thanks for looking...we've had a busy summer but I can't believe that school starts soon!!! I'm not ready!

Love,

Bronwyn