Snow Ice Cream

A few weeks ago a friend sent me a recipe that I've been dying to try. The recipe is for Snow Ice Cream-- ice cream made from fresh snow! Unfortunately we haven't had much snowfall this year in the greater Vancouver area, so I've had to wait. Then this morning we awoke to a nice blanket of fluffy snow and I immediately thought to try this recipe while we had the chance!Snow Ice Cream Recipe

8 cups fresh snow
1 cup milk (canned, evaporated milk is best for a rich taste. I used 1% milk and ended up with more of an icemilk consistency)
1/2 cup white sugar (can substitute 1/4 c raw honey)
1 1/2 tsp real vanilla extract
a couple quick dashes of sea salt

Put ice cream bowls into the freezer so they are cold and ready for serving. Mix milk, sweetener, vanilla and sea salt with a whisk in a big bowl. Gently fold in snow. This will be soft, rather like old-fashioned homemade ice cream fresh from the ice cream maker. If you add too much snow, it will be thicker but taste diluted. So just add snow until it tastes right. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, nuts, or colored sprinkles before serving. One recipe makes 3-4 servings, so you may prefer to make a double batch to start with!
Enjoy!

-JLR

Apple Bundt Cake

Last year for Christmas I received a silicone bundt cake pan as a gift. When we return to Tanzania, I'm hoping to have a full set of silicone cake and cupcake pans because they are so light-weight compared to metal pans! I also love the way you can bend them to loosen the cake, and need little to no oil/shortening to keep cake from sticking. I've even been using a silicone baking mat that helps cookies cook evenly without getting stuck! But enough with my fascination with silicone bakeware... :)

I quickly realized that I didn't have many recipes to use in my new bundt cake pan since the idea of making bundt cakes has always been more of a nice idea than a practicality. I've tried a few and just the other day ran across this one from Martha Stewart.com and made it for our small group last night. It was so yummy! Sorry, I have no pics-- it was mostly gone before I even thought of it! I did make one change-- I added a small amount of cinnamon to the glaze. I had been planning to just do a dusting of powdered sugar, but then realized that I had done this too soon (the cake was still warm) and so the appearance was not what I wanted. Hence the cinnamon glaze.

Anyone have other bundt cake recipes that I could try?? Here are a few ideas I'm currently searching for... lemon poppyseed bundt cake, traditional coffee cake, sour cream coffee cake, chocolate cake, and pound cake. Let me know if you have any ideas!

-JLR

M's Bday Cakes #2 and #3

These pictures have been such a long time in coming! I finally downloaded the pics to my computer, so a blog post seemed appropriate. Pics from Micaiah's first cake this year can be found here.

Her second cake was for Micaiah's actual birthday. Tim's parents were visiting at the time and his mom has some dietary restrictions. This cake worked perfectly! The batter was simply 2 boxes cake mix, 2 cans of sprite zero and food coloring. The icing was cool whip (the fat-free, non-dairy kind) plus 2 packages of pudding mix. Super easy! Well, at least until the part where you divide it up and put it all together!

The process...
The birthday girl...

The inside rainbow swirl effect...
And for being a diet cake, it was really quite yummy!

Micaiah's third cake of this birthday season (gah!) was the fanciest. The cakes themselves were simple white and simple chocolate, but the decorating was what made it a beast of a cake. In keeping with the princess party theme, I had great ambitions for a castle cake. It wouldn't have been possible without the Wilton Castle Cake set, which included plastic towers, windows, doors, and directions for how to do this. I was also able to do some ahead of time, which helped a ton. Here's what we ended up with:

Adding the towers I had decorated the night before. (I hadn't thought to get the camera out before this!)
The final product and details...



Micaiah blowing out the candles at her party...
The cake tasted great and was so pretty. The only problem is that I wish I'd have had a way to anchor the turrets better. Throughout the party I kept hearing small crashes only to find that one or more of the turrets had fallen and needed some rigging.

After last year I was excited to 'raise the bar' since I knew I'd have more access to cake decorating resources (pans, consistent electricity, ingredients, etc.). After surviving this year I've made a commitment to 'lower the bar' for next year for my own sanity. :)

-JLR

Wheat Pizza Crust

This is the recipe I've been using for pizza crust, if you are interested. I got the base from my sister-in-law and have been tweaking the wheat/white flour combination since this summer. Half and half works well, but I also tried 2 c wheat and 1 c white this past time and it was ok. It didn't rise as much as the other, but it tasted great! This is a very basic dough recipe-- probably similar to many others out there, I think.

1 C warm water (1/2 C boiling plus 1/2 cup room temp, then allow to cool only slightly)
1 T yeast
1 T sugar
1 T oil
3 C flour (1 1/2 C each of white and whole wheat)
1 t. salt
A bit extra flour
A bit extra oil
A sprinkle of cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar and oil, stir, and allow to set for 5 minutes. Once you see bubbles forming, add salt and flour. Knead on lightly floured surface for 7-10 minutes or until not sticky-- try not to add too much additional flour during this step. Lightly oil the dough and place in a bowl, covered, in a warm place until it has doubled in size. Punch down. While dough rests for ~5 min, put small amount of oil into the pan (I usually use two small/med nonstick cookie sheets-- approx 9x13) and spread evenly. Should just be a very light coating. Sprinkle cornmeal lightly over the pan/oil. This helps keep the pizza from sticking once cooked. Roll out dough and place in pan(s), folding over the edges if desired to form a crust. I often put freshly minced garlic on at this point-- just mince and combine with small amt of butter, then brush on. Top with sauce and desired toppings (veggies, pineapple, meat, cheese, etc.)

--JLR