Cranberry-Port Fudge Brownies

  I found this recipe in my June/July 2010 issue of Taste of Home magazine and thought I'd give it a try.  

Unfortunately, I gobbled them all up (and sent a few to a friend) before I could take a picture!  You'll have to take my word for it that they were super yummy, incredibly rich and a definite "make again"!!

Cranberry-Port Fudge Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup butter, cubed

1-1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup tawny port wine

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter; stir until smooth.  Remove from the heat, stir in sugar and vanilla.  Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.  Stir in flour and salt just until blended.  In a small saucepan, combine cranberries and wine.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook until liquid is reduced to a thin syrupy consistency (about 3 minutes).  Stir into the batter.

Transfer to a greased 9-inch square baking pan.  Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (do not overbake!)

Cool on a wire rack.

Prep: 25 minutes

Bake: 30 minutes + cooling

Yield: 16 servings

Taste of Home, June/July 2010, page 83 "High Tech Bake Sale"

Flowers!

All the flowers I've been working on over the past 3 weeks are finally being presented on this beautiful cake!!

I've made Daisies, Victorian Roses, Daffodils, Pansies, Violets, Chrysanthemums, Rosebuds, Apple Blossoms, and Primroses!

We also learned how to use Color Flow icing and made the cute little birdie!  

And, we learned the basket weave technique and the rope border.

 Such a fun time I had in Course 2!!  I've already signed up for Course 3, which is all about Fondant.. and I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks for stopping by!!  Would you like a piece of cake?

Course 2, Class 2

Hiya!!

Sorry I didn't post about last weeks class - we didn't do much.  We introduced ourselves to our new classmates and browsed through our new "text" book.  We did some practicing of shells and reverse shells and learned how to make a rosebud and mums.  It was a fun class, but I just didn't come home with anything to "share"!

This week, though - I have a photo of some flowers.  We only make 1 cake during this course, and that is our finale cake on week 4.  And, let me tell you, it's a stunner of a cake and I can't wait to make it!!

So, this week we made Apple Blossoms, Violets, Violet leaves and we made some colorflow birdies.  I was really excited about the birdies!  They are so cute!!  We made all of these out of Royal Icing, so they are dry and being saved to use on the finale cake.

I need some more practice, so I will be playing with these some more and will probably have new and better ones to use on my finale cake.  Especially the birdies - I really think I can do better on those.

In the photo, I started to play with making an earth using color flow icing.  I have an idea to make Earth Day cupcakes in April, so I was just playing around to see if I could "design" an earth, it doesn't look too bad, but I think I'll use a darker blue and of course green, which I just didn't have made at the time.

So - enjoy the photo!

Next week we're making Victorian Roses, Primroses, Daisy's, and a few other flowers!  Should be a busy night!

Happy Baking!

Roses!

Whew!  Course 1 is all done!  Last night was our last Wilton Course 1 cake class!   Our Finale cake is a basic white cake with a 7-petal Wilton Rose bouquet, a shell border and a few sweet peas.  I was afraid of the roses at first, but I think with practice (lots and lots of practice!) I will have them down pat!  

I made this cake for Emily.  She had surgery this weekend to have her appendix removed after we spent hours in the ER trying to figure out why her tummy hurt so bad!  She was such a brave little girl, I am so proud of her!  I asked her what color flowers she wanted and she picked pink and purple, so that's what she got!  She loves her cake and so do I!

Again, I bake a Butter Recipe Golden cake (Duncan Hines) and filled it with a layer of cream cheese filling and a layer of cherry filling.  It's yummy!

Next Tuesday, I start Course 2 - we'll be working on Flowers and we only have one cake to make on the last class.  I'm sure I'll have photos of flowers to share with you, though, so check back!  :)

Clown Cake

Last night I had my 3rd cake decorating class and we made clowns!

I struggled with my cake at home, when I was frosting it, I had some unruly crumbs and the whole thing ended up being pretty crumby.  I could have put another layer of frosting on once the first layer was set, but I was in a hurry to get to class on time and then I figured I could just cover it with decoration!

So, this week we learned all about "building up" the frosting by making a couple of clowns.  And we learned how to make polka dots without "pimples".  We also practiced making face (with frosting!) and we worked more on our Wilton Rose practice.   I need to work more on my roses before next week!

So, here's my finished cake!  It's a Butter Recipe Golden cake with a layer of cream cheese filling and a layer of cherry filling (might be the reason for the crumbs, I had to cut the cake in thirds to get the fillings in.)  Hubby chose the filling flavors!

 

(this picture, you can really see the crumbs along the side - pooh)

I added Bradley's name and age to this cake, because Emily's was on last week's cake.

I think it turned out pretty good - and I just enjoyed a slice of cake and it was quite yummy!

Rainbow Cake

Cake Class #2

Tonight we got to make a rainbow cake!  We learned about piping stars, lines and letters.  And we learned how to do an image transfer using piping gel.

So, I took my prefrosted cake (French Vanilla flavor) and I had all my colors mixed and ready to use.  I had all my new tools in my new tool box and everything else that was on our list.  I was ready to go!

We had too much fun!  

Here's my finished cake

 

The sample cake had another name, of course, but Emily really liked the picture of the rainbow cake I was going to make, so I put her name on mine.  She loves it and can't wait to have a piece tomorrow before school!

My hand is sore from making all those little stars, but, man, it's so much fun!

Check back next week, we'll be making clowns!  :o)  

New Cake Decorating Class!

Hi there! 

I just wanted to share with you my experience at my first Wilton cake decorating class last night.  What a blast it was!  Even if we didn't actually "do" anything, I had so much fun learning the terminology and techniques. 

It reminded me of my childhood days, when I would sit silently (yes, I can do silent, if I have to!) at the kitchen table and watch my Mom decorate cakes.  This was something that Mom enjoyed doing while my brother and I were young.  She would make wedding cakes and birthday cakes for friends and friends of friends.  I remember there was a set of twins that she would always bake birthday cakes for.. one cake stands out in my mind.  During the "Cabbage Patch" doll craze, these little girls really wanted a Cabbage Patch birthday, so Mom decorated a cake to look just like a cabbage patch, and she used 2 plastic doll heads (because they were twins!) and it was just awesome!  One of these days I need to go spend some time at Mom and Dad's and try to find Mom's photo album with all of her cakes in it!

Anyway, back to my class.  Our teacher, Greta, has been decorating cakes for 37 years (sheesh, I'm not even 37 years old!) and she has a Masters Degree from Wilton!  She is super sweet and funny and crazy talented!  Just like Mom, she makes those Wilton roses look so easy!  We each had the chance to hold a piping bag (ok, I've done that once or twice!) and use the flower nail to make the rose base.  It's harder than you'd think, but with practice it becomes second nature.  We also learned how to fold the parchment triangle into a piping bag.  Now, this was an accomplishment for me!  While watching my Mom, I was always amazed at how quickly she would turn that sheet of paper into a bag!  It was something that I could never actually get the hang of, and have always used the disposable bags!  But, guess who was one of the first ones in class to get it done?  Yup, Me!  All those years of watching Mom payed off!

I am super excited for next week!  I have a lot of supplies to gather up between now and then - and living in a "limited" area isn't helping much!  I don't have time to order off the internet, so I hope I can find everything I need in time!  I have to bake a cake, and frost it with light blue frosting.  Then I have to make 6 frosting bags in red, blue, yellow, green, light blue and white.   Have you guessed it?  We'll be making a rainbow!  :o)  We will be learning how to do a pattern transfer and piping stars and letters.

I will definitely be back next week with pictures of my "creation"!  For now, I'm off to practice my piping skills and rose base building!

Happy Baking!