Monday, December 31, 2012

Chocolate Truffle Cake - for Sheena

Here is the recipe for Sheena's favorite chocolate cake.  She has been very patient waiting for it!  I really, really wish she was here and I would gladly make it for her every day.   (Warning:  if you eat too much of it, you will be awake for a long time.  For that reason, it's great for breakfast :)


Chocolate Truffle Cake
From Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts 1991
16 servings
Begin 3 hours before serving or day ahead

Ingredients:

2 8-oz packages unsweetened chocolate squares (16 1-oz squares)
1 cup plus 6 T. margarine or butter (2 1/4 sticks) at room temp.
3 large eggs
2 t. vanilla
2 2/3 cup flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 1/2 cups. confectioners' sugar
3/4 c. heaving or whipping cream
10 1-oz squares semisweet chocolate (I only use 8 squares b/c I don't grate the last 2 squares on top of the cake, see step 11)
Rose for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1.  Grease three 9-inch round cake pans.  (I use cooking spray. Then I cut out 3 circles of wax paper to fit in the bottom of each pan, then spray again.  It ensures that the cakes will slide out easily!)

2.  In heavy 4-quart sauce pan over low heat, heat 12 squares unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup margarine or butter (2 sticks), and 2 1/2 cups water, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth.  Remove from heat; cool slightly.

3.  In large bowl, with wire whisk or fork, beat eggs and vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in warm chocolate mixture.

4.  To chocolate mixture, add flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; continue beating with wire whisk or fork until batter is smooth and well blended.

5.  Pour batter into cake pans.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in ceanter of cake comes out clean.  Cool cakes in pans on wire racks 10 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool cakes completely on wire racks.

6.  Meanwhile, prepare truffle mixture:  In heavy 2-quart saucepan over low heat, heat remaining 4 squares unsweetened chocolate, stirring frequently, until melted; cool slightly.  With spoon, stir in confectioner's sugar, remaining 6 T. of margarine or butter (3/4 stick), and 1/4 cup heavy or whipping cream until mixture is smooth and blended.  (Don't use mixer, it gets too crumbly!)

7.  Prepare glaze:  In heavy 2-quart saucepan over low heat, heat 8 squares semisweet chocolate and remaining 1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream, stirring frequently, until melted, smooth, and slightly thickened, keep warm.

8.  Assemble and glaze cake:  (I put the cake on a large plate or serving dish before assembling it so I don't have to transfer it later when it's really big and heavy).
                   
     With metal spatula, spread 1 cake layer with 1/2 c. truffle mixture.  Top with second cake layer, pressing down gently but firmly.  Spread with another 1/2 cup truffle mixture; top with 3rd cake layer.

      Glazing cake:  Over assembled cake, pour prepared glaze.   With metal spatula, spread glaze to completely cover top and side of cake.

     
9.  Refrigerate cake until glaze is set, about 30 minutes.

10.  Remove cake to plate (mine is already on the plate, I put it on a large plate before step 8).  

     Piping border (optional, it does cover the messy bottom of cake, you could also use whipped cream instead of truffle mixture):  With rosette tube, pipe border of remaining truffle mixture around bottom of cake.  

11.  Grate remaining 2 squares semisweet chocolate; sprinkle around top edge of cake.  Garnish with rose.  (I don't do either of these.  Mine isn't as fancy.  I think I usually pipe more truffle stuff around the top edge of the cake too, or just leave it plain).

 
       





Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas in PA

We spent Christmas in PA this year for the first time in years.  First stop - my brother's house where we got to see grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Oh, and the kids got to open their present from Nanna and Pap Pap.  You can see the excitement below!


Luke asked for the Lego police station in September.  He was truly surprised though when he actually got it! He kept asking me if Nanna and Pap Pap were really going to get it for him.


The girls both wanted the American Girl doll McKenna. She was the 2012 doll of the year.  


Sarah got her first AG doll!  It looks just like her :)


Emma loves McKenna :)


One of the best parts of Christmas this year - Natalie! She's almost a year old and she is so cuddly and sweet.  She got some new toys too, and especially loved it when Uncle Joel flew her around like an airplane.


After my brother's house we headed to Greensburg to see Grammy and G-Pap. We don't have as many pictures because the batteries died in my camera and we didn't get new ones for a few days!  Oh, and while we were there the radiator in the van cracked.  That added a little bit of excitement and wonder to our trip :)


On Christmas Eve we headed to Indiana, PA and got to go to the service at Grace United Methodist Church, where Joel's dad used to preach.  It was beautiful and the kids loved the electric candles they got to hold.  There was a little bit of snow on Christmas!  


Emma chewing her new fairy necklace.  Fairies were definitely a theme this year, especially Tinkerbelle and Periwinkle.


Luke and Mia during movie time.


Emma with Merida from "Brave", one of her favorite movies.  I think they watched it at least 5 times since Christmas Day.


Emma introducing Felicity to McKenna.



Christmas night at 1am!  We ended up leaving a day early to beat the ice/snow we got on Wednesday.  I actually gave the kids Dramamine and it worked so well!  They were all out by 10pm.




Sunday, December 16, 2012

Amelia's 7th Birthday!

This past Tuesday we got to celebrate Amelia's 7th birthday.  She wanted her presents  upon waking, she gets that from me :)  This year she got a Hello Kitty  bubblegum machine, a gymnastics leotard, a Barbie wedding dress, gymnastics lessons from Grammy and G-Pap, and a huge Lego set from Nanna and Pap Pap.  It was definitely a great birthday!  In the evening she had her Christmas program at Dayspring so we listened to the kids in K-2 sing Christmas carols and shake lots of jingle bells.  They did a great job!

Yesterday, Dec. 15th, she had a Pinkalicious party!  There were 11 girls at the party and 1 boy, who was tortured the entire time by girls chasing after him :)  The girls made crowns, colored, and decorated pink cupcakes with icing and sprinkles.  We hid pink Christmas ornaments around the yard for everyone to find, unfortunately the boys didn't know that so a few of them got buried or tossed into the gutter :)  It was a sweet time with friends and this year I was especially grateful for my 7 year old and that I got to celebrate another birthday with her.

Here are some pictures from the event:



Amelia at the Christmas program, this is her new smile for pictures :)



She wanted a pink strawberry cake.



The best part of the party!  Joel had the brilliant idea to buy pink hair spray, and all of the girls had some pink hair.  He finished out the can on Luke's hair, and this was the result!



Amelia's new leotard



The book that inspired the whole party!


Crown making station


Decorating cupcakes


Gaeligh :)




Coloring station


Look at all of the pink!






Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Lego Museum

I can't believe it's taken me this long to blog about the Lego Museum!  It was a huge event at our house.  Luke and the girls spent days setting up their Lego creations, complete with signs.  They wanted to go around town and put up posters advertising the museum, but I said I didn't think we would want strangers in our house.  So instead we invited our friends on Facebook and sat back to see who would come and visit.  The admission prices were a little erratic, sometimes it was free to get in, and other times it was 5 cents.  There was also talk of increasing the price to $15 after a certain date.  Luckily for visitors, that didn't happen.  Here are some pictures of the museum and our visitors.  Over all we had over 20 people visit the museum!


The Waters dropped by unexpectedly!  The look on Luke's face was priceless :)


The Wickenheisers were able to stop by on their way home from NC.  Of course they only came to see the museum.


Luke and John David enjoyed making funny faces together.


The Gilbartes were able to visit after church one day!  Their family is rather large - 8 people - they just met the "8 people at a time in the museum" quota.  Otherwise some of them would have to wait downstairs in the waiting area.


These were Luke's fancy airplanes.


Luke showing his exhibits which included: The Guillotine, Statue of Liberty, Police display, Fireman display, Mummy Sarcophagus, Escape airplane and wall, Magic and secret garden, Puppy Car, and another Magic Garden.



Quintin  - who loves to say "Luuuke"


The girls also had exhibits:  Statue of Liberty, Magic and Secret Garden, The First Thanksgiving, Twisty Wisty Thing, and The Spooky Sarcophagus.


Luke being crazy.

Horseback Riding

The kids had the opportunity to go to a friend's farm for some horseback riding, they had such a fun time!  All of them rode on the horse and Luke especially enjoyed all of the dogs there.






Saturday, November 24, 2012

Misc. Pictures


Me, about to eat my last Hostess chocolate cupcake.  Sad times.


Luke working on his Lego creations.  He also has a Lego book which he wants to show me every day.  Then, he tells me what he wants for Christmas from the book.


This week was the official opening of the Lego Museum at our house.  More pictures to follow.


Amelia helping with baking!



This is their "snuggly" pose while watching a movie :)


Our Thanksgiving table set with the dishes/crystal the McKnights gave to us.  It was fun being fancy for a day!