Quick Mini Cake Pop Maker

I have been using this babycakes cake pop maker for two weeks now and I finally decided I should let others know about this wonderful time saving machine as well!

I previously had to go through the whole torture of crumbling and rolling and fancy coat making the cake pops for my baby girl because it's her absolute favorite snack that she loves to take to school and share with friends during lunch break, but it's time consuming and a bother to do when you're working.
Now I have this Babycakes Cake Pop Maker and all I have to do it, just use regular cake mix or mix my own cake, usually a 3 egg batter works wonders for making a whole batch. They turn out perfectly even shaped and sized and look very appetizing.
The maker itself is really easy to clean and compact so it doesn't take much space in my cabinet, I can just put it along with my other baking items and it doesn't even stand out.
My baby girl is happier now that I get to make cake pops for her more often since this saves me a lot of time.

Stir-up Sunday - Christmas Pudding Traditions

Moist cake tastes best when it's fresh when it's no more than — say, a day out of the oven. But our traditional holiday cake is an exception to this general rule. Christmas fruit cake improves with age. The rich spicy fruit mixture "grows mellow" on standing, as old-time cooks would explain. The fact is that the various ingredients "blend in flavor as they stand together making that special  taste for which this cake is so famous.

This holds true also for pudding. Most pudding is best when fresh. But  real Christmas plum pudding grows better if it has time to "ripen."

Ho wonder, then, that good English housewives consider the last of  November and the early days of December the stirring days of the year — the zero hour for mixing and cooking Yuletide cake and pudding.

As a matter of fact, the British call the last Sunday in November "Stir Up Sunday." The name came from the collect read on that day in the Church of England which begins: "Stir Tip, we beseech Thee, the wills of Thy faithful people." But the story goes that the women in the congregation usually take that challenge to heart as a reference to the stirring that should be going on in their kitchens in preparation for Christmas.n order to honor the three Wise Men, pudding is traditionally stir from East to West by every member of the family.

 American housewives are also at the job of making fruit cake and plum pudding at this season, and they're making them not only for their own use but also for Christmas gifts or for sale. Homemade fruit cake and plum pudding is a source of considerable income to many homemakers these days. For example, in Alabama members of the home demonstration club have made a real business of selling Alabama fruit cake that features home-grown ingredients.

Important Tips About Temperature in Your Baking

The season of festivals is arriving.You may be doing a good deal of cooking these holidays. You want your food cooked to perfection, of course. Little things can count a lot in cooking little things like a few degrees of temperature, for example. The fine points of temperature have much to do with fine cooking. So perhaps you would like to hear some of the fine points about temperature, as reported by food scientists of the Bureau of Home Economics.

One tip well worth remembering is the larger the food, the lower the temperature it needs for cooking. Take the Christmas bird, for example, "The bigger the bird, the slower the oven." A chicken weighing 4 to 5 pounds roasts best in an oven registering 350 degrees Fahrenheit. But a turkey weighing 6 to 9 pounds needs an oven 25 degrees cooler because the turkey is larger than the chicken. And a big turkey weighing anywhere from 18 to 25 pounds needs a much slower oven—an oven registering only 250 degrees. You see, there is a hundred degrees difference in temperature in the oven for the 5-pound chicken and the oven for the 25-pound turkey.

The same rule holds true with Christmas cake. The larger the cake, the slower the oven it needs for baking. Little cupcakes bake in a moderately hot oven of 375 degrees. Layer cakes which are larger but no thicker than cupcakes need just a little less heat. Have your oven a"bout 10 degrees cooler for layer cakes than for cupcakes. Cakes baked in loaf pans are larger than either layer cakes or cupcakes. So these need an even slower oven. Sake loaf cakes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Dark fruit cake is the largest and most compact cake of all. This is one reason, it takes the slowest oven. Bake dark fruit cake at 250 to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.

The same rule works out with bread. 

The reason for this rule about lower temperatures for larger foods is just common sense. If you have too hot an oven, the outside of your turkey or cake or loaf of bread may bake too much before the center is done. 

The right temperature for baking bread and cakes depends not only on the size but also on the leavening in the mixture. Yeast bread and baking powder bread take about the same temperatures for baking. But mixtures raised by steam like popovers must go into a very hot oven, and those raised by air in beaten egg whites need a slow oven. So popovers bake at 450 degrees, but sponge cake at only 300 degrees.

 Other ingredients count, too, in this matter of proper temperature. Honey, molasses, and chocolate all have a tendency to scorch easily. So mixtures containing a good deal of fat also bake better if the temperature is not too high.

You probably will be doing some whipping during the holidays—whipping cream or egg whites for desserts. Here's a temperature -point to remember about whipping. Cream whips best if it is very cold, but egg whites whip best if they bare room temperature—that is, around 70 degrees. So get the eggs out of the refrigerator and let them wait a half an hour or so on the kitchen table to take the chill off before you begin whipping. But keep your cream in the refrigerator until just before you whip it.

Not only the eggs but all the other foods that go into a cake should be at room temperature before you mix the cake. Studies at the Bureau of Home Economics have shown that cake mixtures are more stable—less likely to separate—if the eggs, fat, flour, sugar and all the rest have the chill taken off before you mix them together. You'll find that the fat creams more readily, too, at room temperature.

One last tip about temperature. Did you know that almost any flavor—sweet, sour, spice, etc.—tastss strongest in hot food and mildest in cold or frozen food? A custard mixture may taste quite sweet if you eat it hot, but made into frozen custard it may hardly taste sweet at all. So remember to flavor the foods you serve cold more than those you serve hot.

Delightful Pumpkin Dessert Cookbook

Pumpkin lovers will just fall in love with This Delightful Pumpkin Dessert Cookbook.

You can get every imaginable dessert category with pumpkin here. Not only recipes, but the author included fan facts and history about pumpkin & thanksgiving which makes this  book very interesting.

Now pumpkin pie is not the only option for fall dessert, you can make pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin fudge to name a few. The recipes are easy to follow and the results are spectacular.

Thanksgiving Baking with Kids

I use to do thanksgiving baking with kids. It keeps the kids entertained and busy on holidays. I found this cute thanksgiving recipe which is simple enough to make with delicious results.





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