My Secret Weapon: Wilton

There is so much online that no one can know everything that is out there.  But here is another thing that I love.  I love it because, with this site, I can give my nut allergic sons something like what others take for granted . . . an awesome professional tasting birthday cake!

Remember Wilton, the company that sells all of the wonderful cake and muffin pans?  Well, like most companies these days they have a website, and part of it is devoted to recipes!  Mmm, yummm!

While I can’t generally go to a bakery and just order a cake for my children for their birthdays (unless it's one of the few nut-free bakeries), I know I can go to Wilton's recipe page and find just the recipe that I want.  I can adjust the ingredients to suit their allergy (ie. use vanilla extract in place of almond extract) And I know that it will even just as good as any bakery cake, probably even better.

All of the cake, cookie, cupcake, dessert, filling, and icing recipes you could want, all in one place.  After trying one of their recipes, you'll never want to buy a can of frosting or a box cake again!

And if you need ideas for decorating your cake, brownies, etc.  they have that too!  Click here for ideas for decorating your favorite baking projects.

Fast And Fun Treats

 
As I’ve mentioned before, we do not have a lot of money these days.  To be creative and frugal is to make sure that my kids don’t feel like the jingle in my pocket is as small as I know it is.  My mother-in-law actually complimented my husband and I once on the ways that we find to help our kids not to “miss out on things”.  She’s a good woman.  She appreciates me.  She’s in her 70s.  That might come in handy for her later . . . wink, wink LOL ;)  Actually she’s a feisty woman, and I love her, but I digress . . .
I love it when I can look in the pantry and just whip up a surprise for my family as a special treat.  It amazes me how much time and money is wasted on premade treats.  There are so many easy treats to be made that taste so much better.  Here are a few of our favorites. 

Why buy hot cocoa mix?  Do you have Hershey’s baking cocoa, water, milk, sugar, vanilla, and a little salt?  Why not try Hershey's hot cocoa recipe?  It tastes so good, and it’s not that much harder than making cocoa from a mix.  Too hard?  If you follow the recipe for a single cup of cocoa (it’s listed as a variation of the recipe I linked to), well, it can’t be much easier than that. 

Want chocolate milk? 
-Put 2 tbsp. each of baking cocoa and sugar in a mug. 
-Add a dash of salt.  Mix well. 
-Add just enough boiling water to make a thick chocolate syrup.  (Stop here and you have syrup for ice cream, etc.) 
-Add 1 cup of milk, and mix well.  That’s it.  And Hershey’s has a dark chocolate baking cocoa too ;) 
Oh, and their recipes for chocolate cake and frosting on the baking cocoa container are soooo good!

Another family treat is cinnamon rolls, but why add any more dyes and preservatives then you have to.  Remember the pizza dough balls that I mentioned buying?  I don’t just use them for pizza, oh no! 
-Just stretch a ball of pizza dough into a giant rectangle.
-Spread a thin layer of butter over dough.
-Next sprinkle on a thin layer of flour, brown sugar, (and maybe even apple sauce if you have it). 
-Sprinkle a little cinnamon. 
-Starting at the short end, roll the dough into a tight tube.  Take a pizza cutter and cut the tube into slices.  Flip the slices on their sides on a greased cookie sheet, and bake about 10 minutes at 450 degrees (watch and adjust this if necessary). 
-For glaze just mix a little melted butter (about 2 tbsp.) and powdered sugar until you form a thick paste.  Add a splash of milk and about 1 tsp. of vanilla.  Mix well.  When it’s the right consistency, you are done!

They taste so much better than store bought!
Maybe some day I’ll add pictures so that I can really make your mouth water ;) 

But till next time . . . God Bless!