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Another Big Bite

Another Big Bite

Tag Archives: frozen

The Cake that Almost Wasn’t

14 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by anotherbigbite in Bitchfest, I'm a Crafty Mo' Fo', Party Hearty

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birthday cake, elsa, Elsa Cake, frozen, Frozen Cake, party

Another Big Bite - Elsa Frozen Cake

Thanks to Heidi over at Sassy Crumpet for taking a WAY better pic than I did. 🙂

“Don’t spend that much on an Elsa cake!  I will totally make one for you.”

Ah, ha.  Famous last words.  Why is it that whenever I expect things to go smoothly, I end up with chunky peanut butter?

One of Finny’s preschool friends was turning five, and like just about every girl under the age of fourteen, she is a major fan of Frozen.  Surely you have heard of this small, independant film?  You know the one; made by Disney, starring not one but TWO sparkly princesses…  The same one that people are spending hundreds of dollars on merchandise on Ebay…  The movie whose soundtrack I have managed to tune out much like a seasoned mother tunes out the tantrums of her two-year-old…

alice bday1

In December, I made Alice and Ariel cake and I thought I would tackle this one in much the same manner.  A plain, round cake with a VERY basic princess on top.  Nothing too fancy, and “not Ace of Cakes or anything, so don’t get too excited.”  The internet is chock full of Elsa cakes.  I’d find a little inspiration, get to try my hand at marshmallow fondant (to get rid of the marshmallows taunting me from the pantry) and maybe even get super fancy with sugar “ice.”  Hell yeah.

Hell no.

My first batch of sugar ice never got any harder than maple syrup.  Many YouTube videos and and two hours later, I was proudly admiring my second batch of perfect blue sugar glass.  And I was ready to tackle a fondant Elsa as soon as the kids went to bed.

Fondant Elsa had other plans.  Turns out marshmallow fondant isn’t quite as stiff as regular fondant.  Just as I was working on her head, I noticed her slowly slumping to one side.  I went to cut another toothpick to hold her up and as I turned around, I watched the skewer holding her up poke through her shoulder.  I gave up and waited for her to dry out a bit before I kept going.

She dried up enough to stand on her own by the next morning.  The cakes were baked, frosting was made, and the following evening I got to assembling everything.  Purple and blue marbled cakes got a coat of teal frosting and marshmallow fondant snow.  I made a fondant Olaf which turned out much better than expected.  The blue and purple sugar ice was set to go on the next morning before the party.

photo 3

photo 4

Just as I was finished putting the sugar ice on, I stopped to snap a picture of my handiwork.  It turned out pretty cute and just as I was patting myself on the back, Alice decided she would take a taste.  She gouged out a hunk of fondant and cake from the top of the cake and I completely lost it.  I started crying and yelling; it was as ugly as the time Finn knocked over the Christmas tree and smashed half of my childhood ornaments.  A few minutes later I realized I was being an idiot.  I smooshed in a few more shards of sugar ice and packed everything up in the car.  I may or may not have sung “Let it Go” to move past my drama.

photo 5

It was hot that day.  We stopped to get lunch at McDonalds on the way to the party.  Just like every Saturday afternoon, the place was packed, but the kids were so excited to get to the party that they didn’t ask once to go in the playplace.  We headed over to the gymnastics gym.  And we were the only ones there for Ava’s party.  Because I was an entire day too early.

photo 1 (2)

On the way home, I noticed that the whole cake was slumping…  It was too hot, and all the movement in the car was making all the frosting slide down around the cake’s ankles.  By the time I got home, I was crying again.  (Might I mention I was more than a little hormonal?)  I did the only thing I could think of; I pulled Elsa and Olaf off and we ate the cake.  I drug the kids to the grocery store and gathered all the supplies to make a whole new cake.

“The cake never bothered me anyway….”

photo 2 (2)

As I was putting it all together the next morning, Finn was more than a little confused.

“Didn’t we eat that cake yesterday?”  Yes we did, son.  Yes we did.

Cake 2.0 made it to the party relatively unscathed and the birthday girl loved it.  Which made it all worth it in the end.

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Mango Sorbet

28 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in From the Kitchen

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Tags

cooking, dessert, frozen, ice cream, mangos, recipe, sorbet, vegan, vegetarian

Another Big Bite - Mango SorbetA week ago, there was a fire sale on mangos at Costco.

via

No, not that Mango.

The fruit.  Two bucks for nine mangos?  Sure, they looked a little rough, but they weren’t even ripe yet and otherwise seemed to be just peachy.  I took the $4.00 gamble and bought two cases of them.  Eighteen mangos and I headed home to see what the other was made of.

Good investment, Lisa.  They were perfect, and so the fam and I set about eating mangos like it was going out of style.  I thought that I would end up pulling out the dehydrator on the second case.  Sure, there were three casualties.  But mango sorbet was just aching to be made…  So I made it.

After combing through my cookbooks, I realized that every sorbet recipe I had called for corn syrup, and lots of it.  Those damn “it’s fine in moderation, just like sugar” commercials that the corn growers of America put on haven’t convinced me.   Also, adding a cup of corn syrup to another cup of regular sugar is overkill in the sugar department at any rate, no matter how good or bad corn syrup is for you.

For this recipe, I cut the sugar way down.  I also used raw sugar, which toned the color of the sorbet down quite a bit.  If I had used refined sugar, those nice little scoops of mango-y goodness would be electric yellow.  I thought of skipping the sugar completely, but adding sugar is part of what makes the sorbet scoopable.  Skipping the sugar entirely would result in a slushie straight from the ice cream maker or a solid block of mango juice if you continued to freeze it in the freezer.

1mango1

Since I didn’t want to go down the corn syrup road, I brought my sugar and water to a boil, simmering it until the sugar was fully dissolved.  Then I dumped the mixture over my chopped mangos and lemon juice and let it steep for three or four hours – but I don’t think anything over an hour in the fridge – enough to cool it down – was necessary.

Mango Sorbet

  • 4 cups ripe mangos, cubed (about 4 large)
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup water

In small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil.  Simmer until sugar is completely dissolved.  Remove from heat.

Combine mangos, lemon juice and sugar syrup.  Allow to cool.  Refrigerate at least one hour.  Before freezing, blend mixture until smooth (I used my immersion blender, but a blender, food processor or potato masher would do the trick).

Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.  For firmer sorbet, place in freezer-safe container and freeze for four hours.  If the mixture gets too hard to scoop, allow to thaw slightly in the refrigerator for one hour or microwave on half power for 45 seconds.

1mango3

The thought occurred to me to puree up some strawberries to pour over the top, but in the end, we were all too anxious to eat it.

Another Big Bite - Mango Sorbet2

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