Cinnamon Banana Oatmeal

 Cinnamon Banana Oatmeal

Ingredients:

1/2 C cooked oatmeal, Old Fashioned

1 T agave syrup

1/2 medium banana

a sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar

Directions:

Cook oatmeal as directed on package.

Top with agave, chopped banana, and cinnamon-sugar.

Nutrition Facts Table from Livestrong.com

Recipe by Rashel Fitchett

Benefits of this meal:

• Low in fat, cholesterol, sodium.
• A source of vegetable protein.
• High in fiber. 
• Provides energy for high-exertion exercise (running, biking, swimming).

Not-so-benefits of this meal:

• High in sugars. (Remove Agave and Cinnamon Sugar to reduce)

Red Velvet Cake...How-To Photos

Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake, Baked and Photographed by Rashel Fitchett

Red Velvet Cake is different than most cakes which call for milk and butter. Red Velvet Cake calls for buttermilk, a large amount of oil, vinegar, and red food dye. The buttermilk and vinegar give this cake a slight "tang", the oil gives it a more moist consistency, and the food dye...well, we all know Red Velvet Cake is supposed be....red.

Here is a recipe for Red Velvet Cake that makes a large, three-layered, cake.

Dry Ingredients:
3 3/4 C unbleached, all purpose flour
3 C flour
6 T cocoa powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda

Wet Ingredients (at room temperature)
3 eggs
2 1/2 C canola oil
1 1/2 C buttermilk
1 1/2 T vinegar
1.5 t vanilla
2 oz red food coloring

Directions (see below for a pictorial, step-by-step)
1. Get out all ingredients. Let the wet ingredients sit for 30 minutes or until they are at about room temperature (you'll get a better lift of your cake batter if you do).
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Grease and flour three round cake pans.
4. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients with a whisk for 3 minutes.
5. In another large bowl, add wet ingredients as follows:
          -lightly beat eggs
          -slowly add oil into eggs while stirring with a whisk
          -slowly add buttermilk while stirring with a whisk
          -add vinegar, vanilla, and red food coloring all at once
          -stir with whisk for about 1-2 minutes, no lumps should be left behind
6. Pour about 2 1/2 C of the batter in each of the three prepared pans, using all the batter equally amongst them.
7. Arrange all three pans in the preheated oven so than none are touching the edges of the oven and with a space in between all pans. If they don't fit, first bake two, then bake the third.
8. Bake for 30 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and let sit in their pans for 10 minutes to cool.
10. Remove your cake from the pan, using the plate-flip method, and let sit on wire cooling racks to cool completely.
11. Wrap in plastic wrap and tin foil and freeze for easier icing later.

 Here are my ingredients coming to room temperature.

 I prepare cake pans by wiping with crisco and dusting with flour.

 Whisking dry ingredients aerates the flour, giving your finished cake "bounce".

I gently beat my eggs with the whisk.

 Slowly add the oil, stirring as you pour. This incorporates the fat evenly in the protein.

 Add the buttermilk in the same way. This is where the "wet" part comes into play.

 Add the vinegar, vanilla, and color. Jeez, this is red!

 Add the wet to the dry.

 Stir well, getting rid of large lumps.

Evenly distribute the batter amongst the three pans.

 After 30 minutes of baking in the oven, let them rest in their pans for 10 minutes.

Then, cool them completely on racks. See than nice rise to the tops...that is that room temperature thing  ;).

I'll be wrapping these in plastic wrap and tin foil and then freezing them so that later, when I ice them, they are hard and don't fall to crumbly pieces as I am pushing the cream cheese frosting across the tops and sides. More on that later.......

Cake Pops

I needed to learn to make cake pops for my daughter’s 16^th birthday party. It was a must, to have cake pops at the party, due to their famous presence at local bakeries and coffee shops.

Too expensive to purchase 150 of these sweet little concoctions, I turned to my own resources to get the job done. In this particular case, I used Google, Pinterest, YouTube, & AllRecipes.com to eventually find video, which really helped me figure out how to dip these suckers in frosting.

First, went out and purchased Babycakes Cake Pop Baker. I got mine at Michaels with a 50% iPhone App coupon for a total of $15.00.   

Then, I chose the cake recipe. I went with Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake . I halved the recipe and it made 57 cake pops. In the picture, here, notice I placed the cake batter in a picnic "ketsup" bottle. It made it particularly easy to get the batter in those little dome shaped molds. You can use a plastic sandwich bag, too, with a corner snipped off.

 Be sure to fill it just below the fill top of the mold. If you fill them even, they puff up too much, like in the picture below, and they will come out with a crispy ring attached.

I used Baker's Joy before each batch and the cake pops came out really easily with the tongs that come with the cake pop maker. I baked these 4 minutes flat. They were perfectly baked and not dried out. I laid them on a wire rack to cool. 

Here they are, finished, and waiting for their lollipop sticks. I used 6 inch sticks. 

For frosting, I went with my own thoughts on that: 4 C confectioner’s sugar, 3 T butter, enough milk to create a soft consistency, and corn syrup to make it more thin and shiny. Before you stick the stick into the pop, dip the end in the frosting. This keeps the pop from falling off later when you dip them.

 Be careful not to push the stick more than halfway through the pop. If you go further than halfway, you are risking that the stick will later "pop" out the top of your pop. Ick. See further below for an example of that.

 Now its time to freeze them. I put mine in freezer bag, arranged flat like above, on a cookie sheet, then I placed them in a chest freezer for 30 minutes. This makes the cake hard and will help you when you are dipping them.

 When you choose a vessel for your frosting, choose one that is tall and skinny. But not so tall that you can't reach all the way to the bottom with your cake pop. I used a syrup pourer. Review this video for tutorial on how to dip.

I took each pop out of the freezer individually, dipped them in the frosting, sprinkled the pop with sprinkles, and then set them to dry here in this box that I punched with holes. I used a metal skewer and it turned out just about the right sized hole. Keep warming your frosting between pops. The thinner the frosting, the less chance that your pop will get too heavy and fall down the stick.

 Here is an unfortunately soul who fell off his stick :(.

  And finally, I used the remaining frosting to make one last attempt at decor on the pop.

I tried, also, dipping them in chocolate melts...which are much different than dipping them in chocolate. Chocolate has A LOT more sugar and ends up making it too sweet. Chocolate melts, however, have more waxy-product and less sugar, making it taste chocolately, keep its candy-coating-ness, and not taste so sweet. I used, here, Simply Melt. It tasted better than the icing I made, but I need white cake pops, so I may need to try white melts. Hmmmm.