Tuesday, July 28, 2015

How to Make Pastels

Check out my first YouTube video on how to make Pastels!


I would love to hear some iMovie editing tips!

Sunday, July 12, 2015

How to Make Brigadeiro

My mom is Brazilian, so we eat brigadeiro.
Brigadeiro is a delicious, Brazilian, chocolate made from sweetened condensed milk, Nesquick, and butter.

First, mix up two canes of sweetened condensed milk and 1/4 cup of Nesquick in a pan. We don't measure the Nesquick, but 1/4 cup is approximate. Cook it over medium-low heat.
See how it gets smoother, then thicker:
Make sure you mix it almost the whole time! If you start seeing clumps, you are burning it. (As you see in the picture above.

If you want to pour it on a cake, just let it cool for a little bit. If you want to roll it into balls, cook it until it gets thicker, let it cool completely, and roll it into balls. I recommend that you roll it into chocolate sprinkles. It's a messy job.

Here is a brigadeiro cake:
Sorry for the finger scraping on the cake. Don't worry, if I ever make you something, or you come to our house, that won't happen. But that's how good it is!
Are you Brazilian? Have you ever tried brigadeiro?

Happy 1st Birthday Genesis!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Genesis!
Happy Birthday to you!

Genesis is one! I made her a smash cake, and boy, did she make a mess eating it. Here's the tutorial!

First mix up your batter.
Genny pouring in the oil.
Genny mixing the cake. Well, just for 
a picture.
Pour into small greased pans. I only used two for the cake, but I didn't want to waste all that batter! The extra were cupcakes.
Her face when I took it away from her: 
 Now a happy baby, she is waiting for her cake to bake.
After the cakes are baked and cooled, spread frosting on one cake and put the other on top.
 Frost it in a thin layer of frosting called the crumb coat and refrigerate for a little while.
Now, I will show you how to fill a bag of frosting without the mess.
Cut a piece of plastic wrap and place a blob of frosting on top
 Roll it up and knot one end.
 Place your coupler around the unknotted end.
 Place the coupler in the decorating bag.
 Cut off the end and screw on the coupler ring. (Coupler ring not shown.)
And now frost your cake!
Now let's watch her eat the cake!
At first, she didn't know what to do.
Then with a little help from us, she decided to get her hands dirty!
Isn't she cute?
Now we get to watch her open her present! (She opened it before she ate the cake.)

Who else has a cute 1-year-old?

Saturday, July 4, 2015

4th of July Cake Tutorial

Happy Independence Day! Not only it is Independence day, it is my grandpa's birthday. Sadly, they are in Brazil right now, so we don't get to celebrate with him. But guess what? I have a really cool cake tutorial. It has an American flag in every slice!

First, mix up two boxes of vanilla cake.
Pour the batter into three bowls. You will need about one cup more in one bowl than the rest.
 Then, add red food coloring to the bowl with more batter. Add blue to one of the other ones.
 I added white chocolate chips to the blue batter.
 Pour them into the pans that are greased with butter and flour.
 I gave the job of "cleaning" the bowls to the children. ;-)
 (I didn't give that bowl to Genny. The other children were apparently finished with it and left it there. I turned around and...)
After the cakes are done baking and are cooled, you will need to cut the white cake in half, and the red one in thirds.
Using a bowl, cut a ring around the blue cake.
Stack a layer of red, then white, then red again. (With frosting in between.)
Using the same bowl you used for the blue, cut out circles from the other red and white cake.
Can't see it, just pretend.

Spread frosting on the top layer of the cake. Add the blue cake ring.
Add the white cake circle and spread frosting on it.
Do the same thing with the red.
That's it! (Well, except for decorating it.)

Soooo, two cake mixes, 3 1/2 cans of frosting, lots of food coloring, some colored sugar, and a few hours later, I have this:

Christian liked it :-) 
(of course, everybody did.)
Oh, and 2015-1776 is 239. It has been 239 years since America gained it's independence!

Do you have any 4th of July traditions?