Soccer and Lightning McQueen cakes

 

A couple more cakes that I did for Free Cakes for Kids in November

Biscoff Scones

Quite a while ago I came across some recipes involving an ingredient called Biscoff Spread.  I was very intrigued and picked up a container of the stuff during my regular grocery shopping.  I have to confess that I was a little deceiving to my family when they asked about what it was for a couple of reasons: 1) because I didn't exactly know what it was myself and 2) I had a feeling that once they tasted it I would lose it for my baking project.  According to Audrey after taking just one bite - "this stuff is meant for a spoon right out of the jar!"  She even agreed with me when I said I thought it was better than Nutella - which is huge considering that she seems to think Nutella is as important to one's diet as water!  Craig simply told me not to ever make these again because they are evil.  That's pretty high praise actually :) 

This recipe comes from the King Arthur Flour blog (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/09/12/biscoff-scones/) and it was quite simple

Hasty Pudding

It's been busy in my kitchen for quite some time now, but I'm still pushing through my quest to learn new techniques by using Alton Brown's "I'm just here for more food" book.  It's the custard section now (I had to skip the foams because I didn't have some equipment - but I'll be getting back to that soon).  Hasty pudding is an interesting recipe because it's basically banana pudding with just little differences to the recipe you would find on the cookie box.  However, it worked out well because this came up right about the time of my Dad's birthday and he always loves banana cream pie and I thought I could work this in too.  Since I've never made the pudding before, I'm not sure if I had the texture completely right - I forgot to check the temperature before I took it off the stove.  But it was still a little "loose" after a couple of hours in the fridge so I decided not to try to use it in my pie and just go for the traditional cookie trifle.  A little fresh whipped cream on top & yummy!

 

Making pudding from scratch can be a little daunting I think because of the tempering of the eggs into the milk.  But it tastes so good when you get it just right.  I've made vanilla pudding several times to use as a cake filling and I loved the banana variety.  Alton suggested using banana liqueur "if you're feeling frisky" - I was, but I didn't have some and I didn't want to buy any since I didn't think I'd really use it very often.  My solution was

Halloween cakes

It seems like my life has turned into a mix of either having a bit of time on my hands where I can start to feel like I'm making progress on long overdue projects, or so overwhelmingly busy I can barely take a breath!  I know as the holidays approach that will develop into a nice steady stream of crazy busy too.  In the last week and a half I have done 4 birthday cakes, a birthday pie and a bridal shower cake.  Not to mention my weekly baking on behalf of my quest for more knowledge. 

This cake was one that Audrey requested of me for her dorm resident advisers.  She didn't give me too many details - "just make it go with Halloween; maybe some ghosts with party hats or something"  So that's what she got.  The inside was a