st patricks - I'm Topsy Turvy

Pot O’ Gold cake tutorial

February 28, 2013 by Ashlee · 24 Comments

Last year I shared my Pot O’ Gold cake, but I shared it the DAY of St. Patrick’s day so I figured there was no reason to share the tutorial. But THIS year there is still time so here it is!!!

Even a year later I’m still THRILLED with how this cake came together! This and my pumpkin are easily the best holiday cakes EVER (if I do say so myself) still trying to come up with the PERFECT Christmas cake….

Start with 2 half’s of a ball pan baked and an 8 inch cheesecake. The ball pans are always a little short of creating a full circle, SO I like to use a cake, or in this case cheesecake, to give it the height. Carve the top of all three so they are perfectly flat.

To get started cut a 4 inch circle off the bottom so you’ll have a flat bottom to work with.

Frost with whipped Ganache…

Flip it over, and frost the flat top.

Place the cheesecake on top and frost the other half of the cake with the ganache

Now you have your “pot”.

I cut the flat top off, because your going to be “filling” the top with edible gold coins you could leave the top. But I decide cut it, at about 6 inches wide.

Finish frosting the cake, I left the top UNfrosted at this point so I could flip it over later, you’ll see.

Roll out the black fondant, so you don’t get ripples as you wrap the fondant around the cake keep it pretty thick, just under 1/4″. This will be heavy, that’s why I always use very DENSE cakes, similar to pound cakes.

with the cake upside down (I used a 6 inch cake circle to hold it)…

Cover it with the black fondant!

Cover a base, I used three 6 inch circles to create a nice strong base that wasn’t too big.

Frost the top and cover with the edible gold coins. Then using dabs of the ganache add more coins until your happy with it. Roll out a long “snake” of fondant, and add it around the top of the pot. I use vodka, but you can also use clear vanilla when attaching fondant to fondant.

Add some details, I made the round rings the night before and let them dry, then used fresh fondant to attach them to the sides.

I love love LOVE the way it turned out! It made a great centerpiece for the party, and a delicious one!

AND the cheesecake center is not only tasty, but GORGEOUS as well.

Filed Under: cake tutorial, Cakes, carved, Holidays, st patricks ·

St Patricks day- Pot of gold cake & crochet baby top hat

March 17, 2012 by Ashlee · 24 Comments

Happy St Patrick’s day! My sister throws a fun party for her little girls and their friends every year for St. Patrick’s day. Since they now live in UT we got to go this year! It’s potluck style so I brought a pot full of luck! HA HA HA HA!!!!! I crack my self up!!! I’m HILARIOUS (Baby Boy is sickish and so full of snot right now he’s not nursing or sleeping very good so I’m over the top tired… And when I get tired I’m pretty sure I get more funny!)!

No really, this is a Pot ‘O Gold… CAKE! Yup, cake, I am TICKLED by how good this one turned out! I even took pictures of the whole process but figured since it’s too late this year I’ll pre-post it for NEXT year, but I still wanted to share at least the finished pictures with you! I just used chocolate coins, but it would have also been fun to use fondant coined painted with gold edible spray paint, but honestly the kids like the chocolate coins better!

I had to leave early to pick up my other kids from school, but my sister said all the other mom’s were surprised it was a cake when she cut into it. That is my most favorite thing ever, people not even knowing it’s a cake. All of my favorite cakes have that in common, my pumpkin, my Dr. Seuss hat, this one… SO fun!

And I figured this cake was the perfect chance to try out filling the cake with a small cheesecake (made for 1/3rd of a batch of my best EVER cheesecake recipe in a 6 inch pan) instead of frosting. I think I like it!!! I overcooked it a bit, Grrrr, but will TOTALLY do this again. It’s a fun surprise. and since the Wilton ball cake pans don’t quite make a perfect circle filling it with this extra inch of cheesecake totally made for the perfect circle!

And what party would be complete without some dressing up. The DA insisted on pink, of course, but Baby Boy and I dressed up in green! And just before the party started I sat down and whipped out this Green hat (literally, as we were leaving I grabbed the yarn and when we arrived I sat down and made it, finishing just before we had to leave!)! I couldn’t help myself!

Even sick he’s the happiest baby ever! Also? If you know of anyone that had a baby this weekend and want’s newborns I gave the hat to my sister, Chelsea Peterson Photography, to use for fun St. Patrick’s day baby pictures!

Filed Under: baby, Cakes, carved, Crafts, crochet, Holidays, kids, Party cakes, st patricks · Tagged With: cheesecake, chocolate, fondant, yarn

Homemade Root beer- Family Time

March 11, 2012 by Ashlee · 15 Comments

It’s St. Patricks day this week! And while we don’t drink beer we do enjoy ROOT beer!!! And my favorites? Root beer floats!

Did you know you can make root beer at home? There are a few variations and recipes out there, one is even on the back of the root beer extract recipe. BUT we’re scientists at our house, so we went searching for a version made with dry ice! Fun to make AND fun to drink!

Dry Ice Root Beer
16 C cold water
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbls Root Beer Extract
1 pound dry ice, broken

Stir the cold water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved! This step is the most important, if your sugar isn’t dissolved it will stick to the dry ice in chunks. Once it’s dissolved add the root beer extract and stir it in!

Crush the dry ice, but remember to be careful. Dry ice is fun, but not a toy, you can easily get burned. Use hot pad holders, or thick gloves when touching it. We crushed it in a bag on our wood cutting board with a hammer.

Pour it into the root beer sugar water….

and stir to keep clumps of the dry ice from sticking to the bowl!

The kids LOVED playing with the “smoke” cloud… and we let them stir, supervised of course.

You can see it bubbling away here! keep stirring it until the dry ice has all dissolved.

Then pour into glasses and enjoy!! Ours wasn’t quite as carbonated as store bought root beer, and seemed a tad bit off. Maybe a different brand of extract would be the key, but it was still really fun and the kids loved it!

Filed Under: drink, Family, Food Tutorials, Holidays, kids, Recipes, st patricks · Tagged With: tutorial

This week for dinner- St. Patrick’s day Pizza’s

March 18, 2010 by Ashlee · 3 Comments

We made Green Shamrock shaped chicken alfredo pizza’s! We actually made three, but only 2 fit at the table at a time. The right is the kids pizza, with chicken, green onions, garlic, mozzarella and parmesan. On the left is a more grown up version adding mushrooms and spinach to the mix.

I have to say I love my bread machine. I don’t use it as often and I should or even want too! I forget about bread until it’s too late WAY too often. Which is sad because I love bread! Anyway, I have a great machine with a dough setting. We’re actually big enough now that I really need a larger machine, but we’re making due without leftovers these days. I actually do 1 1/2 of this recipe and with the 6 cups of bread flour that’s pushing it! Last time my sweet hubby started the dough for me while I was out doing errands and didn’t know where I kept the bread flour. It was WAY less dough that way, and just not nearly as wonderful, so stick with the bread flour. To get the color I dyed the water before I put all the dry ingredients in.

Bread machine pizza dough
1 ¼ C water
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 C bread flour
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp bread machine yeast
Place in bread machine in order of manufacturer’s directions- liquid first or dry first. Start dough setting. Knock back dough, roll out two 12 inch rounds.

So with the 1 1/2 recipe I get 3 pizza’s out of this dough. So knock down the dough and separate it into three balls. To create the shamrock shape this is what I tried. I thought they worked out really well! I rolled it out a bit to create a circle.

I cut two short notches to create a stem and two longer notches to create the third leaf.

I tried to squish the corners back into the dough a bit so it wouldn’t just turn into a circle with notches…

and rolled it out. This dough is amazing, especially if you like your pizza dough thick. It’s wonderful. But it doesn’t create the best thin crust in my opinion, a bit tough for that. Maybe if I cooked it longer…

Anyway, cook the pizza dough at 425 for 5-6 mins (and on a pizza stone, try it, there is no turning back it’s terrific!), they won’t be all the way done, but that’s how we want it, since we’ll be cooking it with the toppings more latter. While that’s cooking make the alfredo! You can use store bought if you’d rather, but I have a great homemade recipe that’s easy, foolproof and tastes great! I added the dye to the milk and cream before I started cooking them. In this picture the colors off. I need better lighting for the kitchen pictures.

When the pizza crust came out half done I added the alfredo right too it. When I first started making this pizza I added WAYYY to much sauce. I know what your thinking, how can there be such a thing as too much alfredo??? But it just doesn’t work on a pizza. It’s surprising how little sauce you really need actually. Luckily I learned from a pro (thanks Robert) who used to make pizza for a paycheck.

And finally add your toppings. I like to sauté my chicken and at the end add the garlic and onions to cook just a bit. I spread that mixture around and top with mozzarella and parmesan. Really you can add anything, my hubby likes the mushrooms and spinach and I bet some of you out there have great suggestions too! Through it back in the oven at 425 for another 5 mins to let the cheese melt and the crust finish and your ready to go!

We at ours with a green table cloth, with spinach salad, green cups and of course green milk! I hope you all had great St. Patrick’s day and even better meals!