Kids and Baking

Hello everyone! Im glad to be back. I haven't posted on steemit for a few days now. Life took over. At first I wasnt sure what to write about. So I gave it a day. And then over the past few days my kids got sick with the flu. First my son Aaden, then my toddler Frankie and then lastly my girl Emma. Day after day. It was not fun chasing down my two yr old with the bucket and follow her head movements lol And the smeeelll ooooh gross! And Emma.... her...um her grossness... her vomit (blegh) was blue ???? Never gave her anything blue to eat. After getting sick a few times it was still blue O.o Im not sure if I am to be thankful that it was one after the other or if it would have been better all at once and have it done with. Oh the laundry I have to do with all this mess! Hopefully Emma can keep in her few bites of toast this morning. I am thankful that I have not contracted it. I thought it wise to not take pictures and share it with everyone :p I will just leave that to your imaginations lol
During these says I was busy making 2 cakes. A birthday cake for a special girl and another that was ordered but I turned into a birthday cake anyways... everyone deserves cake for their birthday :) So for the birthday girl I made a unicorn cake. pastel colored flower hair, pink horn. It was a vanilla cake with banana filling and added fresh bananas too.

The icing circling the circumference is called a dam. It keeps everything in the middle, keeps it from oozing out. Stick it in fridge to let it firm up before adding the top layer of the cake.

Oh I forgot to mention pineapple icing!!!! Now it was suppose to be a cream cheese pineapple icing but little Frankie got to the cream cheese first. Apparently the idea of spreading on my winter coat was a better idea... sorry no pics had to get to her and clean it up fast before it got worse as it was also in the carpet.
So yes, pineapple icing, decorated with a buttercream icing as well and topped with a mix of nuts mixed in caramel. I took the juice from the crushed pineapple and turned it into a syrup, drizzled it on top.

Sorry for the poor image. One day I will be able to invest in a good camera. Cant see the drizzle very well but its there. The second cake for the birthday mama @earthmother is a carrot cake. With all the right spices it was bursting with flavors! I love it when someone orders a cake that I can have fun with. I do occasionally like a chocolate cake but its always the same, chocolate, vanilla... they are good cakes, but I looooove when the different flavors dance and marry in my mouth.

And to top off the look I made candied carrots. Now those are tricky. Its a long process and to have them shaped can be quite a task. I let them sit too long before taking them off the stick so it just crumbled. The better flavored ones are the ones coated in sugar. Helps with that bitter carrot after taste.

And voila! A very moist and delicious carrot cake.

I was excited to try it. Excited to see what these lovely ladies thought of their cakes. We went for lunch, enjoyed our time together. Brought out the cakes. One little girl was embarrassed but loved her cake :p

Unfortunately I dont have a picture of the unicorn cake. I thought I failed with the decorations as it was the time where my babies were sick. I wasnt able to put all my concentration on the cake. But @earthmother did take some pictures, memories to keep close to heart.

I almost forgot, here is the recipe for candied carrots:
1/4 cups lemon juice
1 1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup sugar.

3-4 carrots if small. Mine are big so I only used one. And chopsticks or something to use if you want to shape for spirals for example.
Peel strips of carrots. Now you may need to peel a bit of the carrot to get the width that you would like to have. Having them thin doesnt work the best i find.
Preheat the oven at 225. Put the 3 ingredients above in a saucepan and boil. Add the carrots and lower the temperature to simmer for about 15 min. Strain. Optional: put some sugar on a small plate and dip the carrots in the sugar. Shake off any access.
When you can handle the strips of carrots lie them flat on a lined cookie sheet and bake for about 30 minutes. Take them out. While warm twist them around the sticks for a spiral. I also made small roses by just rolling it and put it back in the oven. Now the recipe says for another 40 min. But it took me longer for some reason. Check them when its been 20 min. If there is browning take them out, they are done. If not put it back in. When they are crips take if off the stick. Mine didnt go crispy so I did it a while longer and gave up as it was getting late in the evening. So wait for it to harden just a bit, it wont take long, and take them off the sticks. I waited too long and they broke. Thats all there is to it. Just a long process.

Enjoy your day, thank you for reading ^_^ xx The recipe I got came from here: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2010/04/candied-carrot-curls-unique-carrot.html