Raisin Toes

After bath time tonight I hold Benjamin he had raisin toes, so he took a bite. This little guy makes me laugh!

Toffee Cake

This is an easy cake to make, but I made it difficult. Why? The original recipe uses Cool Whip, but I wanted to make a fresh whipped cream frosting. That's not all, I wanted the toffee to be nut-free, so I made a batch of homemade toffee. The first batch of toffee I tried was a disaster. The butter and sugar separated, but I tried a different recipe that worked out great for me. I made the toffee a couple of days before I made the cake so I didn't have to bake everything on the same day. I at least used a packaged cake mix and kept that simple.

Toffee Cake

1 package devil's food cake mix
Whipped Cream Frosting (recipe below)
1 1/2 - 2 cups Toffee broken up into small pieces, prepared before hand (recipe below)

Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Prepare and bake cake according to package directions. Cool on wire rack completely. Cut each layer in half horizontally. Fold about 1 1/2 cups of the toffee into the whip cream frosting. Place one layer on serving dish and spread with about 1 cup frosting mixture. Repeat with remaining layers. Use remaining frosting mixture to cover top and sides of cake. Sprinkle top of cake with remaining toffee. As decoration, top cake with big wedges of toffee.

Whipped Cream Frosting

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c heavy whipping cream

Beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Slowly pour whipping cream into mixture, scraping sides and bottom often. Mix until soft peaks form.

Toffee

1 lb butter
1/2 c water
1/4 c light corn syrup
2 1/2 c sugar
2 c chocolate chips

Butter a 12"x18" baking sheet, set aside. In heavy saucepan, combine butter, water, corn syrup and sugar. Place over high heat and stir with wooden spoon until mixture begins to thicken. Reduce heat to low and remove wooden spoon. Clip on a candy thermometer and cook syrup to 290F. Remove from heat and carefully pour in buttered baking sheet. Cool for 1 hour. Melt chocolate chips and spread over toffee. Allow to set for 24 hours. Break into pieces and store in airtight container.

Successful Peach Cobbler

Last year I made a peach cobbler that turned out a bit sad. I figured I would give it another try with some fresh peaches that one of my neighbors gave me. I got this recipe from allrecipes.com but made a couple of changes. The peaches I had were fairly large, so I only used 6 peaches. It was great because it was perfect with the amount of topping. If I had used any more peaches, I think that the peach to topping ratio would have been off. Also, I diced my peaches rather than thinly slice them. There were some comments under the recipe that indicated that the cinnamon sugar mixture was too much, but I liked it as the recipe called for. Once the cobbler is cooled enough, top it off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoyed the yummy dessert.

Peach Cobbler

Fresh Peach Mixture

6 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and diced

1/4 c white sugar 

1/4 c brown sugar 

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg  

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsps cornstarch 

Topping

1 c flour 

1/4 c white sugar 

1/4 c brown sugar 

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 T unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1/4 c boiling water 

Cinnamon Sugar Topping 

3 T white sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). In a large bowl, combine peaches, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Toss to coat evenly, and pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in butter with your fingertips, or a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in water until just combined. Remove peaches from oven, and drop spoonfuls of topping over them. Sprinkle entire cobbler with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake until topping is golden, about 30 minutes.

What Has Benjamin Been Up To?

What has Benjamin been up to while mama was sick (hense the pause in posts)? Well, the usual of messes, exploring and fun. All I have to say about the picture above is that I'm glad it wasn't a whole role of tape. He got himself in a sicky situation there. I'm glad it wasn't a role of toilet paper because I think he would succeed in making a bigger mess.

Benjamin was fascinated with the steam-vac and followed daddy around as he helped clean for me one day.

Above is a mixture of spaghetti and ramen. He loves eating the spaghetti, but loves playing with the ramen!

Benjamin loves taking time each day to play on the piano. Some days I actually turn the power on for him and he explores the different sounds he can make.

One day when Benjamin finished playing with some stuffed animals, this little froggy decided to hitch a ride on his foot. Benjamin went around like it was normal. He's been a fun little guy to have around and he makes me smile every day. Mike and I are very blessed!

Happy Boy at the Zoo

Thanks to a work party...Benjamin got his first visit to the Hogle Zoo. He was fascinated by all the animals. The first we saw were the elephants. Mike took several pictures and he will post them later.

There were also sea lions, polar bears, birds of all kinds including a golden eagle that we got close to, giraffes, grizzly bears, tigers, lynx, black swans, crocodiles, bats, sand cats, orangutans, gorillas, rhinoceros, gila monster and other lizards and those are all the names of the animals I can remember. There were many more. I think that the elephants and sea lions were Benjamin's favorite.

Throughout the zoo there were several Lego exhibits. I thought there were pretty cool.

 

Earlier this year summer I took Benjamin on a merry-go-round, so it was Mike's turn to go with him. Below is a video of him whipping by.

 

Right before lunch Benjamin got a snake painted on his arm. After it was painted on, he tried to pick it up off his arm. It was quite amusing for us.

Poor little guy was exhausted after running around the zoo he took a nap on the drive home.