Key Lime Pie

Cake, Cake and More Pie? Ok... so it's not another cake... but what can be better than Key Lime Pie? Not a whole lot if you have ever had a good one!

I use my mom's recipe and it's delicious! So yummy in fact that Key Lime Pie is my designated item to bring tomorrow for Thanksgiving at my cousin's house! It's also really easy to make... (btw... the sour cream topping also makes a pretty good fruit dip!)

SOUR CREAM TOPPED KEY LIME PIE

Crust (for one 9-inch pie)
- 1 pkg. graham crackers (Nabisco Honey Maid)
- ¼ cup butter
- 1/3 cup sugar

- Crush graham crackers (roll w/ wooden rolling pin in gallon size plastic bag)
- Melt butter.
- Pour crushed crackers into bowl and stir in butter and sugar until coated.
- Set aside small amount (approx 1 Tbsp.) to sprinkle over sour cream topping.
- Press into pie pan (use metal spoon to press down and shape).
- Bake in 350° oven 5 minutes.

Pie

- 2 eggs
- 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (Eagle Brand)
- ½ cup key lime juice (you can use fresh if it's available... and you don't mind juicing all the key limes!...)
- 1 tsp. grated lime rind (optional) (I never put this in...)
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 baked 9-inch graham cracker pie shell

- Beat eggs slightly.
- Add milk, key lime juice, 1 tsp. lime rind and ¼ tsp. salt.
- Beat at medium speed 2 minutes.
- Pour into shell.
- Bake in 350° oven 10 minutes.
- Let cool on counter-top while preparing sour cream topping.



Sour Cream Topping
- ½ pint (1 cup) sour cream
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/8 tsp. salt

- Mix sour cream, sugar, and 1/8 tsp. salt.
- Spread over top of warmed pie.
- Sprinkle remaining crumbs evenly on pie.
- Return pie to oven for 5 minutes at 425° to set sour cream.

NOTES:

Crust – double recipe for two 10-inch pies.
Pie – triple filling recipe for two 10-inch pies.


BTW... if anyone is looking for an awesome pie carrier... here it is! The Dual Chef's Tote by Lamarle - you can carry 4 pies w/ this! (It's basically two of the single Chef's Totes... but it includes a longer handle to carry them together...)

Chocolate Cherry Cake

So it's been a while since I've posted... We've been really busy (I had my second baby two weeks ago!) and since I'm done with my classes I haven't been baking too much. I found this recipe for Chocolate Cherry Cake online and it was so easy and tasty that I had to share it! If you like Chocolate Covered Cherries - then I highly recommend it!

Here's a couple of pictures... (I had to bake mine for closer to 40 minutes... so make sure to watch your oven...)

The cake right out of the oven...


The frosted cake...

Fondant Tool/Book, Cupcake Kit or Phone Call Giveaway!

Want to win a Celebrate w/ Fondant book and fondant cutter? How about a Cupcake starter kit and Silicone Cupcake Silly Feet? Or maybe you have some questions you'd like answered and want to talk to an expert?

Enter to win this contest at The Sugar Lane you could be one of FOUR winners! (All you have to do to enter is post a comment! How easy!)

Thanks again Donna for hosting another great giveaway!

(Contest ends October 7, 2008)

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 4

Tonight was my final and last of the Wilton Cake Decorating Classes! It seems weird that they are all over and that I won't have to go next week! I've been going to class every Monday now for almost 4 months!

So tonight was mostly decorating the final cake. We did go over a couple of new things. First, we learned to make the favor box - very easy and cute... We also looked at how to do inlays and overlays... I decided to use those techniques on my cake... Too bad it's not Valentine's Day! My cake would be perfect if it was... The design is pretty simple, but it was still time consuming! (It took awhile to roll all the little balls for the border!) My red also didn't come out as red as I would have liked... but I got tired of added color... All in all I think the final result was pretty cute...


Now I just have to figure out what to do with all my free time!

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 2&3

For my second and third fondant and gum paste classes we covered a ton of stuff! (It turns out I'm the only one in the class, so the instructor offered for us to do a double class to be able to finish a week earlier...)

We went over techniques like draping fondant and the handkerchief... but I didn't use these on my cake. We also learned to make the carnation (unfortunately I won't have any pictures since my didn't survive the drive home). Carnations are very time consuming, so I'm not sure when I'll use them on the cake.

We also learned the fantasy flower - which is a made up Wilton flower. It's actually not that complicated and looks pretty when it's finished.


I decided to decorate my cake very simply w/ a few daisies and leaves (which were very easy to make) and a ribbon border (also very easy). My cake is a Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake (I think it's actually called double chocolate fudge or something like that...) and I made Peanut Butter Buttercream (YUMMY! Can't wait to try it w/ the cake!)

Wilton Candy Class

Yesterday I took a Candy Class at Michaels. It was well worth it! The class was mainly supposed to be a demonstration class, but since only two of us showed up, our instructor let us participate and practice making the candy!

It was a two hour class and in that time we learned... cream cheese mints, nut clusters (made using equal parts of chocolate and nuts/pretzels/mini marshmallows/candy, etc. and dropped by clusters onto waxed paper... then drizzled w/ colored chocolate for decoration), maple cremes (first we painted the mold w/ chocolate, next we made a paste from powdered fondant, maple flavoring and black walnuts, the filling was dropped into the molds and then we "sealed" them w/ more chocolate), chocolate covered cherries (made the same as the maple cremes, only the powdered fondant can be flavored w/ almond... you can also add some or no cherry juice depending on how you like them), chocolate lollipops (pouring chocolate into molds and letting it harden), chocolate desert cups (painting chocolate into desert molds and letting it harden, can be filled w/ ice cream, fruit, pudding, mouse or whatever!) and peanut butter cups (these were really yummy! We dropped some chocolate into the mold, then some of the peanut butter filling using creamy peanut butter and then more chocolate!) I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures and the candy we brought home didn't last long enough to be photographed! :-)

I had never heard of powdered fondant before and I'm going to have to go to my local candy store to buy some! It can be mixed w/ whatever flavoring or coloring you want to make the "creme" filling for different kinds of candy! I'm thinking I'd also like to make vanilla cremes!

(We used Wilton's dark cocoa chocolate for making all the candy... it tasted really good!)

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 1

So last night I started my fondant and Gum Paste course. (The other woman who signed up didn't show... so I was the only one there... It was really nice having the one on one class!) Anyway, we really didn't learn anything new. The instructor went over how to cover a cake board and also reviewed covering a cake in fondant.

I have to bring a cake for next week (it's supposed to be covered in fondant, but I think I'm just going to use buttercream - I'm going to be giving the cake to my mom for a dinner she has to go to and they will enjoy the buttercream better...). We're going to decorate the cake in a sample of the new techniques we'll learn in class. The only new thing I need to buy is some gumpaste.

(I'm also taking a Wilton Candy making class on Saturday at Michaels... so hopefully I'll have something to post about that...)