Wolverine Birthday Cupcakes

My eldest son is in Senior Kindergarten and had requested Wolverine cupcakes to take to school for his birthday. I could not imagine how I was going to make them. I spent a couple of weeks pondering how I would decorate them and each time I wanted an easy way out. The easiest thing to do was to purchase toppers for the cupcakes but I couldn’t find any at Michael’s, Party Packagers, Bulk Barn, or even Wal-Mart. They had Spiderman, Diego, Dora, Superman, Thomas the Tank Engine…Oh why?!? I even tried to convince my soon-to-be 5 year old to choose Spiderman (he loves him a whole lot!), but nope! He was set on Wolverine. Anyhow, here are his Wolverine cupcakes (don’t laugh). I know that I made some mistakes (nose should have been done in yellow) and it doesn’t resemble Wolverine much but remember 5-year olds have great imaginations and if you tell them it’s Wolverine then it’s Wolverine they see. I made 21 of them, well the birthday boy put the grin on the Wolverines. So, here they are!

Ha-ha! I just noticed I missed piping the nose on one of them. I don’t think any of the children noticed.

By the way, the teacher gave me great feedback. They were a hit!

The recipes I used are:

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)
Vanilla Frosting (from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes)
I used Sour Big Foots to make Wolverine’s eye mask

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

Mascarpone cheese is hard to come by and even when it is available, it is very pricey. I found on the web that it was possible to make my own. I Googled “make mascarpone cheese” and found many sites for the recipe, unfortunately I don’t remember what site I got the recipe from. The recipe seems very simple (but simple does not mean easy – more on that in a moment).

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

1 pint (500 mL) whipping cream (35% m.f.)
1 Tbsp lime or lemon juice (I used lime)

First things first, I doubled this recipe which I do not recommend.

Set a double boiler up so that the bottom of a medium metal bowl sits slightly in the simmering water. Pour the whipping cream in. Whisk or stir occasionally until the cream reaches 180 degrees F. This took forever (45 minutes to be exact). Actually, my cream never reached 180. The closest I got was 165 degrees. I figured this isn’t right (it shouldn’t take this long) so I just whisked in the lime juice and hoped that it would work. I whisked lightly and frequently for another 10 minutes over the water bath and it didn’t look like it had thickened the cream, although the cream had reduced a little from the 50 minutes it’d been heating up. I thought that it was a failure. I took the bowl off the double boiler and let it cool to room temperature (though I think the site I went to said to cool slightly) before covering it with plastic wrap and putting it into the refrigerator overnight. Because I was certain that it wasn’t going to work I left it in the fridge for two nights before taking a look at it. To my surprise it had set!!!! I proceeded to take the bowl out of the fridge and scooped the “cheese” into a fine sieve lined with a coffee filter set over a bowl to allow any excess liquid to be removed from the cheese. I covered it with plastic wrap again and placed it back in the refrigerator overnight yet again. The next day I took a look and it really did look like Mascarpone cheese. I took a taste and mmm…it was very good. I was so happy because I had made 20 ounces of Mascarpone cheese and it had only cost me $2.75 in ingredients.

Next time when I make Mascarpone cheese, and I will make it again, I will stick to the original recipe of 500 mL whipping cream and 1 Tbsp lime/lemon juice because I think this is the reason I wasn’t able heat the cream to 180 degrees F. Or I might follow another recipe that uses tartaric acid in place of the lime/lemon juice. I wonder if tartaric acid is easy to find…

Super Hearty Oat Cookies

These cookies are so delicious and hearty. And they make a lot. This is a great recipe if you’re serving a large number of people.

Super Hearty Oat Cookies (makes 50 cookies)
~ adapted from The Eat-Clean Diet

1 – lb tub + 2/3 C margarine, non-hydrogenated
2 C brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 – 1/2 tsp salt
5 C large flake oats *
3 C quick oats *
4 C all-purpose flour, unbleached
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 C dried cranberries

* if only using one type of oats, just measure out 8 C oats in total.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets.

2. Cream margarine and brown sugar.

3. Add eggs and beat.

4. Beat in honey, vanilla and salt.

5. Using a strong wooden spoon or spatula, stir in oats and flour.

6. When almost fully combined, add chocolate chips and cranberries and combine well (may need to use hands but work quickly so that the chocolate doesn’t melt onto hands).

7. Roll cookie dough into balls (around 40-50 balls). If baking them right away, place on prepared baking sheets and press down to flatten. Bake each sheet for 15 minutes or until desired brownness. If freezing, flatten balls  and freeze separated for an hour, then throw into a plastic baggie. When baking frozen cookies, just put onto a prepared baking sheet and put into preheated 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes, but will most likely need a longer baking time. Check for desired doneness.

Cross-Border Shopping

PPGs!!!! Re-unite.

My girlfriends and I went cross-border shopping yesterday. What an adventure! We had lots of fun and shopped ‘til we dropped. Oh! I can’t leave out that we also went to The Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch. Wow! That was amazing. It was my first time and totally not what I was expecting. A wonderful atmosphere and a grandiose feel. The menu was amazing too.

Some places we hit:

• The Fashion Outlet near Niagara Falls border. The stores of main interest: Coach, Lindt, Corningware, Under Armour, Nine West, Solstice, Nike, The Bath and Body Works
• Walden Galleria: The Cheesecake Factory, Solstice, Sephora, Victoria’s Secret, The Bath & Body Works, Loft by Ann Taylor, Teavana, Geox
• Sam’s Club.

Now, I know that sounds like a lot of places, but I didn’t spend that much. I think I got off easy – total bill was $250. Half of it was actually groceries from Sam’s Club and $35 was for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and for gas. I also got 2 t-shirts (bogo 50%), hand-sanitizers ($5 for 5), swimsuit and a pair of sunglasses.

Thanks, hubby, for watching the children! I know it wasn’t easy with a 4, 2, and 1 – year old, especially when #2 had a bad cold.

Just Shake and Bake It Drumsticks

Literally!!! Dinner is served in 45 minutes with only 5 minutes of which  you are actually doing the work. And the best part is that everyone loves them. Now that’s my kind of dinner!

Just Shake and Bake It Drumsticks ~ serves 5

10 chicken drumsticks
1 C corn flake crumbs
2 - 3 Tbsp seasoning **(your choice)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and set aside.

2. Put corn flake crumbs and seasoning in plastic baggie and toss contents lightly.

3. Rinse chicken drumsticks.

4. Place one drumstick into crumb mixture and shake until coated. Place on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining drumsticks.

5. Place baking sheet into oven and bake until juices run clear at thickest part of drumstick, about 40 minutes. In the meantime, you can prepare your side dishes.

** My favorite seasoning is lemon pepper. Some other seasoning suggestions are Italian seasoning, Montreal Chicken Spice, Garlic Plus, dried herbs (stick to 1 - 2 Tbsp). Just use any seasoning that you have on hand or that you think would go well with chicken. The picture below was really cheating:  because I had some Shake and Bake mix sitting in the cupboard for over 6 months I decided to mix in 1 pouch Shake and Bake seasoning with 1/2 C corn flake crumbs.