Strawberry Shortcake House

Here it is! The house of Strawberry Shortcake.  It is made of White Cake and Strawberry filling with a Vanilla Buttercream icing, all covered in Fondant. The best part of making this cake was when I bought a Strawberry Shortcake doll to sit on top, and opened the package to smell Strawberry Shortcake's hair- and it still smelled like strawberries- just like it did when I was a little girl!

The White Cake I made was modified from the recipe at Food.com. I also Quadrupled the recipe to make the 4 layer cake.

Ingredients:
1 C Sugar
1/4 C Butter
2 Eggs
1/2 C Sour Cream
3 tsp Vanilla Extract (I use homemade vanilla)
1 1/2 C Flour
1 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 C Milk (or Almond Milk, or water if milk is not available)

Instructions:
1) Blend sugar and butter until fluffy.
2) Add eggs, vanilla, Sour Cream and half of the milk.
3) Add in dry ingredients, mix until combined.

Mixture will be thick. If it does not pour well, add another 1/4 C of water or milk.
Bake in a preheated oven of 350 F (I bake at 340 in my oven because it runs a little hot).
Original recipe quantities will make a 9x9 cake. Quadrupling the recipe made 4 x 6" cakes.
Bake for 30+ minutes (time will vary depending on your pan size).

Red Robin's "The People's Burger" Contest- I Need Your Help! :)

I've entered a contest with Red Robin for the "People's Burger". I created a Spicy Shrim Po Boy sandwich (think Forrest Gump when you say it out loud :) ), but I need your votes! I'm in the top 60, and I have until September 11, 2011 to beat out the competition! So please vote for me daily (all you have to do is click this link: http://www.thepeoplesburger.com/my/Spicy_Shrim_Po_Boy , and click "Vote")!  If you can pass this on to friends and family on FB and Twitter or wherever you want to on the Internet, I would be very appreciative!

Thanks so much and happy Cooking and Baking!

Bits of Kibble- Cookies

I recently hosted a book club where we read the book Running with Scissors- a memoir written by author Augusten Burroughs.

 

In this witty and insane memoir Augusten reveals that his "family" likes to eat kibble- yes, puppy chow- as a snack because it is "tasty."  

I decided to make my own version of kibble for my book club guests to enjoy.  I made sugar cookies using my favorite sugar cookie recipe- and added a little bit of red, brown and orange food coloring, then made tiny balls of sugar cookie to make it look like kibble. Some of them have miniature chocolate chips inside to add a little bit of variety. These were a fun variety of sugar cookie and helped tie in some of this book's insanity to bring a bit of levity to our get-together :)