Wedding Friday: Preserving the top of your cake

I'm a few days late on this post, so today we have "Wedding Friday".  "Wedding Wednesday" has a much better ring to it, but just go with it for this week. :)

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Mr. Bear and I recently celebrated our 1st anniversary as husband and wife!  In keeping with tradition, we saved the top tier of our wedding cake to eat on our anniversary.

After defrosting, it actually still tasted pretty good!  I had been nervous because most other married couples said theirs tasted horrible.  I wanted to share how our cake was preserved in the hopes that others may have a similar experience (good cake).

First and foremost, you have to start with a delicious cake. Ours was super moist at our wedding, and it had about 1/2" of buttercream frosting on the outside that locked in the flavor.

Second, make sure whoever is baking the cake knows you want to keep the top tier of the cake.  Our bakery left the caterer a small box for the top tier.  This made it easier to take home.  You will also want to make sure that your venue/caterer/whoever is cutting up the cake to serve knows that you want to keep the top tier of the cake so they don't cut it up and serve it.  Additionally if you are saving the cake and it has a filling that needs to be refrigerated, make sure to tell your venue/caterer so they can keep it in the fridge for you until the end of the night (or the following day if you are collecting all of your items in the morning).

After you take your cake top, you will want to take the box and put the entire box into a plastic bag.  We used tall kitchen trash bags for this and tied them off in the middle of the bag to create a tighter seal.

We then wrapped the cake in one more kitchen bag before placing in my parents' ice chest.  We let the cake freeze, untouched for several weeks until we came home from our honeymoon and were able to pick it up.

The cake then was transferred into our freezer and remained there until our first anniversary.

A few days before our anniversary, I took the cake out of the freezer(still in the plastic) and placed in the fridge to defrost.  After 2 days, we then cut into and ate the cake.  It wasn't as moist as the original servings, but it was still pretty tasty!

Here is a look at our cake after we cut into it:

-Danielle

Easy and Tangy Mac & Cheese

After a short hiatus, I'm back!  July has been quite eventful.  Since I last posted, we've celebrated our Independence Day, we've gone to a wedding, Mr. Bear and I celebrated our 1st anniversary, a new addition has been added to the family (in the form of a cute little maltese puppy named Genie), we hosted 20 people at my parents' lake house, AND I'm another year older.  Whew! I'm exhausted!

While I'm getting caught up on everything, I wanted to share one of the many recipes I made for the large group at the lake.  When hosting that many people, I usually look for recipes I can prep ahead of time, that are easy to make, can feed a lot, and taste yummy.  For lunch, I made a super easy and tangy Mac & Cheese.

Mr. Bear and I love homemade mac & cheese.  I've made it several ways, my favorite being a Vermont white cheddar version with pumpernickel croutons on top, however, that version takes FOREVER to make.  You have to grate a block of cheese without nicking your fingers, you have to make a roux and then a bechamel sauce, you have to cut up nice pumpernickel and create garlic croutons.  It is a process and is reserved for fewer than 4 people.  I'll post that one this winter.

A big pan of mac and cheese really does go a long way though so I've been making the recipe below for years when we want a quick mac and cheese fix.  It is a conglomeration of a recipe found here, one from Heinen's grocery stores, and my own tweaks.  I love this recipe because I can prep the ingredients, stick them in a freezer bag and when I'm ready to serve just bake the mac in a 13x9 pan.

Easy and Tangy Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

1 lb (16 oz) elbow macaroni, cooked as directed and drained

2 cups (16 oz) grated SHARP cheddar cheese + additional for topping (optional)

1 package (24 oz) of fat free small curd cottage cheese

1 package (16 oz) light or fat free sour cream (I like Daisy Brand)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese (can be grated or shredded)
Seasoned Salt
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Cracked black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Take cooked pasta and set aside to cool

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine cheddar, cottage cheese, sour cream and parmesan cheese. Mix well

4. Add pasta into mix and thoroughly combine, ensuring all pieces of pasta are coated

5. Sprinkle a light layer of seasoned salt, a layer of garlic powder, a layer of onion powder, and about 4-5 cranks of the pepper mill onto the cheese and pasta mix.  Mix well and taste a small portion.

6. Repeat step 5 until you can distinctly taste the seasoning without over salting.  This varies each time I make it, depending on the cheese brands used.  Just be sure to take a small taste of the pasta mixture before adding additional seasonings.  I'm heavy handed on the garlic, onion and pepper.  I try to only use as much seasoned salt as necessary to slightly taste it.  Salt can always be added by each person after the fact.

7. Pour pasta mixture into a greased 13x 9 pan, distributing evenly

8. (Optional) if desired, sprinkle some additional cheddar on top of the dish.  This will create a nice bubbly crust.

9. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, or until the edges are browned and the topping is bubbly.

Tips:

1. Make sure to use sharp cheddar.  Cheddar cheese mellows out as you cook it.  You will lose the flavor if you use mild cheddar in this recipe.

2. Although I try to use light or fat free ingredients in this recipe to cut down calories, don't try to make this with the fat free cheddar.  It will not melt and you will be stuck with something not delicious.

3. If you are feeling adventurous, add a few splashes of hot sauce (I like Frank's Red Hot) to your pasta mixture.  Cheddar cheese and hot sauce go really nicely together.

4. Instead of topping with cheddar, you could also replace with a Cheeze-It crumb topping (mix melted butter and Cheeze-It crumbs).  Not low cal, but really delicious.

5. Tweak the recipe as necessary for your taste.  This is a great starting recipe, but you can do so much to it.  Broccoli would be delicious in the dish, or change up your seasonings. If you don't have enough cheddar, mix in other cheeses.  Mozzarella makes the cheese really melty.  This recipe is really flexible.

-Danielle

Recipe: Easy Baked Empanadas

As promised, here is an easy recipe for baked empanadas!

What is an empanada you ask?  Per Merriam-Webster, an empanada is a turnover with a sweet or savory filling.  It is typically fried, but I prefer to bake mine.

These empanadas are a great way to use leftover taco meat.  Since there are only two of us, if I make a full pound of taco meat, we typically have a decent amount leftover.  This is a great way to use up that meat without having tacos, again.

Fair warning, these are not the healthiest things in the world, even though they are baked.  I use pie crust to create the turnover, so I wouldn't recommend having this in your weekly repertoire, but it is a good treat every once in a while.

Easy Baked Empanadas

Ingredients:

approx 1/2 lb seasoned taco meat, chilled 

I use 94% lean ground turkey and taco seasoning for mine.  Once the seasoning is on the turkey, it tastes exactly like beef, but with less fat an cholesterol.  It is important to have the meat chilled in the fridge and not right out of a hot pan.  You will destroy your pie crust if you put a hot filling in it and then try to fold it over.  I recommend mixing veggies and beans into your meat for added flavor, however it is completely optional.  Corn and black beans are great!

1/4 cup shredded cheese

I usually use a low fat mexican cheese blend, or if I'm shredding the cheese myself I'll use a sharp cheddar

2 9in. pie crusts

I typically use a premade pie crust (found in the freezer section of the store), but if I'm feeling adventurous, I'll make a pie crust from scratch.  If you are going to make a pie crust from scratch, make a few and freeze the leftovers.  This will allow you to have easy access to a much better crust.  In a pinch, the freezer crust works well.

1/4 cup egg substitute, or 1 egg

I use egg beaters or egg whites.  This will only be used as an egg wash on the empanadas to give them a shiny and flaky outside.  It will also be used to help bind the two sides of the empanada together before you crimp.  The egg beaters and egg whites cuts down the calories a little bit more.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with foil.  Lightly spray the foil with oil (if you have something like the Misto) or nonstick cooking spray.

2. Roll out your pie crusts to 1/8".  Using a 3"-4" round cookie cutter, cut your dough into as many circles as possible.  Remove the scrap pieces of crust and re-roll the scraps to cut additional circles (depending on the size of your cutter, I usually end up with 6-10 empanadas).

3. In your first circle, place a small pinch of shredded cheese into the middle of the circle.  On top of the cheese, place about 1 tbsp of taco filling.  Be sure to leave about 1/2" all around the circle clear of any filling.  Repeat steps for the remaining circles.  Take your egg wash and brush around the perimeter of all of your circles.  Fold one side of your circle over to the other to create a half moon shape.

4. Using a fork, crimp the outside edge of the empanada to seal, carefully avoiding punctures to the filled portion of the pastry.  Repeat steps for remaining circles.  Place empanadas on cookie sheets.

5. Take the remaining egg wash and lightly brush onto the outsides of your empanada.

6. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Tips:

1. Don't forget to lightly flour the surface you are rolling your pie crust onto.  Additionally you will need to lightly flour your cookie cutter

2. If you don't have a larger side round cookie cutter, never fear!  There are tons of great alternatives in your kitchen!  I typically use the lid to the oatmeal tub or a tupperware lid.  Get creative!

3. If you don't have a pastry brush for the egg wash, use your fingers to brush on the egg wash.

4. Make sure there are no tears in your empanadas.  They will ooze once you start baking.

5. If you don't have enough taco filling left to fill all of the circles, feel free to try dessert fillings!

-Danielle