I separated the batter into 6 bowls of decreasing amounts.  The largest bowl was dyed red using gel food colouring, the next orange, and so on.  Because of the cocoa powder in the recipe the colours are more muted than if the batter was a stark white.Now comes the hard part – getting it into the bundt pan!

After a good butter and flouring, I put a layer of red batter, about halfway up the pan.   This makes for a smaller cake than I’d usually make in this pan but I was afraid if I overfilled it the rainbow wouldn’t work.  Then I put the other colours into separate plastic bags and snipped a corner off.  I ‘piped’ the orange in next, leaving a rim of red around each side.  Then I ‘piped’ the yellow in the centre of the orange, then the green, blue and purple.  As you can see, keeping a steady hand was much harder than I anticipated!

I had lots of batter left over, so we made cupcakes; they have all of the colours in them but we just sort of blobbed them in instead of attempting the piping..  Once the cake was baked and cooled, Ashlyn helped me make the cream cheese icing and added the sprinkles.  Yes, we inadvertently made a Homer Simpson donut cake.

And when we cut the cake – success!  A very pretty, and very tasty, Easter cake.

I’m thinking of doing a variation of this for Ashlyn’s birthday in a few weeks, it was definitely worth the effort.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients

•  4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 ^1/4 cups oil
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 cups peeled and grated carrots (about 6 average-sized carrots)
• 1 medium can crushed pineapple (I think it’s about 20 oz), well drained
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1.  Beat eggs, add oil and sugar and mix well.
2. In another large bowl, mix all dry ingredients.  Add the egg mixture, carrots, pineapple and vanilla and mix well.
3. Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Cream together butter and cream cheese until very smooth.
2. Add vanilla  and icing sugar and mix well.

This icing takes colour very well and can be made the day before you want to ice your cake and kept in the fridge.  Bring to room temperature before you start icing!

Once I realized that I had invited a total of SIX 2-2.5 year olds, plus their five siblings ranging from newborn to 11 months old (and mommies, of course!), I thought it was the craziest idea I’d ever had but despite the general chaos it was so much fun!

I used a gingerbread recipe that I found on a forum I frequent, and I used the confectioners icing recipe  from Joy of Baking. They were fun to make, fun to decorate, and we’re having fun eating them now!

Gingerbread Men

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg yolk.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; then blend into the molasses mixture until smooth.
3. Cover, and chill for at least one hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
5. I found that my dough was crumbly, so I needed to knead it for a couple of minutes.  On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Frost or decorate when cool.

Confectioners Frosting

Ingredients

• 2 cups (230 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. In an electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth and well blended. Add the vanilla extract.
2. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beater.
3. Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add a little more milk if needed.
4. Tint frosting with food color, if desired. Place the frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip and decorate the gingerbread men as desired.

As a bonus, they freeze and mail very well!

MOLASSES COOKIES

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup milk with 1 tsp white vinegar in it to sour it (I think you could just use buttermilk but I haven’t tried it myself)
• 2 tsp baking soda (add this to the milk)
• 4 cups flour, plus more for rolling the dough out
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• jelly for the centres of the cookies (I used strawberry)

Directions

1.  Mix together all of the ingredients and chill for a minimum of 1 hour or overnight.  I usually make the dough at night and actually start baking the following afternoon or evening.

2.  Heavily flour your rolling surface and rolling pin.  Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick – I do it in batches to make it easier.  When the dough starts to stick, add more flour.

3.  Cut dough into circles.  I used a 2 inch cutter but you can also use a juice glass.

4.  Use your thumb to make a slight indent in the top of the cookie and add about 1/8 tsp of jelly.  Place the cookies about 2 inches apart of your cookie sheet because they will spread!

5.  Bake at 350 °F for 13 minutes.

This is what they look like when they’re done; you can see how much they’ve puffed up and spread out.

This makes about 2 dozen cookies, depending on how thick you roll the dough and how big your cookie cutter is.  Let them cool and enjoy!

BUTTER TARTS

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup raisins
• tart shells (I got 50 tarts out of one batch of filling)

Directions

1. Mix together all of the ingredients.
2. Fill tart shells 3/4 full.
3. Bake at 400°F for 8 minutes, then decrease oven heat to 325°F and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.  Tarts are done when they are nice and brown on top.

Enter the 5 minute chocolate cake.  I got the recipe from my friend Beth at Keep the Shiny Side Up a couple of years ago now but I had never tried it until tonight.  I have to say, for something that took less time to completely bake than running to the grocery store would have taken me – have you ever tried to “pop in for something quickly” with 2 little ones? – it was pretty darn tasty.  I might add a shot of Bailey’s next time around, if it’s at the end of another rough day.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
• a small splash of vanilla extract
• 1 large coffee mug (mine is massive, so don’t be fooled; this makes a very generous portion of cake)

Directions

1. Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.
2. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
3. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
4. EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

Strawberry Mallow Dessert (makes 2 servings)

Directions

1. Place strawberries in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar; stir and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Add marshmallows, sour cream and chocolate chips; stir to coat.
3. Spoon into dessert dishes.  Serve immediately or chill for 1 hour (it’s  better if you chill it).

This recipe for strawberry pie comes from my good friend Joleen.  I love that I don’t have to bake the pie, just the shell (or tarts, in this case).  The filling makes enough for a pie so it should make 2 dozen tarts no problem.  Ashlyn loved helping me by putting the strawberries into the tart shells; I think her system was “2 for the tarts, 1 for me”!

Directions

1. Bake tart shells according to directions on the box (or your recipe if you’re more adventurous) and let cool.
2. Cut strawberries into quarters and place into tart shells.
3. Cook together the rest of the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat until thickened.
4. Pour liquid over the strawberries and let it set for about an hour.

I used regular Baker’s chocolate and brown sugar from the grocery store and didn’t use tinfoil in my pan, since I used a stoneware dish.  I also didn’t put them in the fridge for additional cooling to make sure that they cut perfectly because after smelling them baking we couldn’t wait that long.

Heaven does not begin to describe these brownies.  They have a perfect fudgy texture and the caramel stays liquidy.  We froze half to save ourselves because restraint is lost around these bad boys.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Bobby Flay’s Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• Pinch sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 6 ounces high-quality unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped, plus 4 ounces
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown muscavado sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions

Make a mug of hot chocolate as you usually do, then add a peppermint tea bag to the mug and let steep for 5 minutes.  Take the bag out and add marshmallows as needed.  That’s it, that’s all – I love chocolate and mint and this was just what I needed today!