Review: A Sweet Fix cakes

So, back up to my daughter's first months of life... stress had already set in about her first birthday party.  I knew already from television, my friends and the Internet that one of the single most important things you can do for your child revolves around their first birthday party.  I am kidding... I think... but the first birthday party is huge to some people.  With that information logged securely in my brain, I set out to find a place to purchase an awesome cake. 

We live in the DFW area of Texas and I knew that, ideally, I wanted to stay local to the Ft Worth area since I didn't want to drive all over creation to get a cake.  I had a cake made from another local bakery the year before for my baby shower and it was expensive and not really worth it.  I wanted a better experience.  I began looking for local bakers with decent pricing.  I will say that even though a person doesn't seem to have their ducks in a row on their website or in person they sometimes want to charge an arm and a leg for their cakes and I wasn't down for that either.  I do understand the cost difference between a grocery store bakery and a baker making us a custom cake and am definitely willing to pay more for the craftsmanship and quality. 

Mission: Find a local bakery who provided consistently good cakes, good flavors and decent pricing.  Who would have guessed this would be so difficult to find?  Most wanted to offer a single layer cake or cupcakes for the price that I wanted to pay for everything.  Or their cake flavors were sub par.  Also, I look a lot at online reviews.  I always figure that if you are upset enough to go online and write a poor review then you must have a had a bad experience. 

Then I found Heather from A Sweet Fix on Facebook.  *angels singing and a harp playing* 

 

She offered numerous pictures of her cakes, from all angles and multiple different categories, like birthday, adult themed, etc.  Her website included flavor lists, what she normally offers for cakes and it's obvious that she does custom work.  I really enjoyed looking through the pictures of the cakes that she has made in the past for inspiration and was glad that I got to take full advantage of that before I called her so I was semi-prepared.


 I called and spoke to her right away.  She was so friendly!  We talked about what I wanted (hot pink, black and white Minnie Mouse for Isabella's first birthday party) but other than that I was open.  I knew that I wanted a layer cake, 2 smash cakes (one for pictures and one for the actual party) and some cupcakes.  I was open to flavors and decorations on the cake.  We decided on a layer cake with vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream for her bigger cake, chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream for her cupcakes and vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream for her smash cakes.  Other than that, I left the decorations up to her.  She quoted me a price well under what I was expecting and I almost fell out of my chair!  Based on what we had seen from other bakeries this seemed too good to be true!!

This is what she came up with!!  We thought it was amazing.  I will admit that we did leave the cake out in the hot for a bit too long and so it slid a bit but the taste was AWESOME!  As you can see Isabella loved it as well!  The cake was so moist and delicious!  The buttercream was sweet but not overly sweet, which is a delicate balance that not many people can get correct.  The chocolate cupcakes were great!  I was completely happy with our order. 

 

Of course, I was so pleased with our first order that we went back to her on Isabella's second birthday and this was the result.  Again I left it open to her creativity and I was super pleased.  Forgive the nameplate - she made an error but fixed it ASAP!

Again, it was delicious!!  This time we decided on vanilla cake on one layer and strawberry cake on the other.  This tasted like actual strawberries and not some fake strawberry gross flavoring.  It was AMAZING!  We had a relatively small party and managed to have less cake leftover than the last party where we had one of her cakes.  It was a hit! 

 

I will say that normally she works with fondant on cakes but we don't usually care for it so she makes our cakes with buttercream.  Even though she doesn't normally make them that way, I think that she does an amazing job.  I have recommended Heather to all of my friends, family and anyone that I know from Ft Worth who is looking for a cake.  She does awesome work and you really feel like you are getting a fair price considering all of the detail work that she puts into her cakes.  You can tell from the pictures above that she attended to all the little details, like even the little hot pink bows on the Minnie Mouse heads were perfectly shaped.  It's the attention to those kind of details that really make her cakes stand out.  I envision that we will be ordering cakes from Heather for years!! 

 

For more information and details you can visit Heather on her website http://asweetfix4u.com  or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/asweetfix .

Bacon wrapped jalapeno bites

I have seen these for years and always wanted to make them.  See my previous confession re: my level of cooking knowledge from prior to a few years ago as the main reason why I did not.  About a year ago my sister, Jessica, brought these to a holiday celebration at my parent's house and my desire to make them was renewed. 

I will forewarn anyone who is interested in making these: bacon wrapped jalapeno bites are labor intensive.  However, they are totally worth it and usually a hit whenever I make them. 



Tips:

1. I do this process in phases. I do all of the cutting and removing of the seeds first, then move on to the next step, instead of finishing one pepper and moving onto the next one. This stops all your tools from being potentially covered in hot jalapeno juice.   
2. WASH YOUR HANDS. I repeat WASH YOUR HANDS. Say it with me now: WASH YOUR HANDS.  Handling jalapenos and not fully washing your hands ensures that you will touch your eye balls at some point in the near future and you are guaranteed to forget that you didn't wash your hands until your eyes are burning off.
3. We use cheap bacon in this recipe and it is just as good as expensive bacon.
4. I use aluminum foil between the broiler pan and the drip pan to ensure easy clean up.  If you like spending time scrubbing greasy pans after you eat, then you can omit this step.   
5. I use a soup spoon to remove the seeds and ribs in one fail swoop instead of using my fingers.  This doesn't stop the juice from squirting in your face so beware.   
6. These are equally as good the next day - cold is ok too according to my husband. 
7. The peppers that I used in these photos were on steroids - normally 4 ozs of cream cheese will be more than enough for 8 peppers.  Adjust accordingly.   

Don't use the same spoon to fill your peppers that you used to remove the seeds and the ribs, or wash it thoroughly.  You don't want to waste all that time removing the seeds and the ribs of the pepper to put the heat back in by getting the jalapeno juice in the cheese mixture. 

Bacon wrapped jalapeno bites
Ingredients:


8 whole jalapeno peppers8 ozs cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
8 strips of bacon









Preheat over to 425 degrees F.  Prepare your pans by putting aluminum foil over your drip pan and heavily spraying your broiler pan with cooking spray. 

Cut the stems off your jalapenos, cut them in half and de-seed each half.

Mix together all cheese and use a clean spoon to fill each half with cheese mixture.

 

 

It should look like this once fully incorporated. 

 

  

And you should have something that resembles this once your peppers are finished being filled with the cheese.  Resist the urge to eat immediately.  They will get even better, because everything is better with bacon!

  

  







Cut bacon strips in half and wrap each jalapeno half with one half of a piece of bacon. 
Place on a broiler pan with a drip pan underneath. 

  

  

Bake 25-35 minutes depending upon how gooey you like your cheese and how crispy you like your bacon.  Rest assured that even if they don't turn out perfect looking that they will still taste amazing! 
 

 

 

-Sara

Teething baby + Sick Toddler = awesome day

Silas turned 1 on December 31st.  He is my last baby.  We will cover the sadness around that subject sometime in the future.  For now, let's just say that he is enduring the worst part of baby/toddlerhood - teething.  Specifically cutting molars.  I have always told someone that if it was possible for babies to cut all of their teeth in like two days, I would much rather that happen.  Unfortunately it does not. 

We are currently on day 5ish of molars coming in.  Let's regress a second and relive our lives months ago when Silas cut his other eight teeth in like two weeks.  He gets a fever, is up ALL NIGHT, and just generally a ridiculously cranky baby for days.  Isabella was never a problem with teething.  No fighting, no crying, no whining or anything.  We always attributed it to the amber teething necklace that she wore.  I have told my husband that we should have Silas look like Mr. T with so many amber necklaces to combat his teething.  We have one on him that he has worn solid since he was about 2 months.  Please don't judge - I am the worst amber owner ever.  I don't take it off of them ever... I don't wash it... I don't sun it... he just wears it.  I am currently researching how I should go about washing it but I am kind of afraid to remove it because of how he will react.  Currently he doesn't even seem to notice it and I don't want to draw attention to it in any form or fashion. 

So, we are on about 5 days of not sleeping for Silas, me and my husband.  Needless to say our house is in an awesome mood. Because the universe sometimes likes to throw all kinds of fun at you at the same time, Isabella woke up this morning and said that her ear was hurting.  I got instantly anxious because she has had HORRIBLE double ear infections before and not said anything about pain.  After a doctor appointment for the both of them it is determined to be nothing serious except teething for cranky baby, ear infection for Isabella and totally shot day for mommy.

Today is the day before Silas's first birthday party.  I have a million and one things to do.  I am finally getting a second to breathe after making a cake from scratch, cake balls, prepped fruit salad, prepper the dip for tomorrow, cleaned the kitchen, made the banners and got as much prepped as possible for the food tomorrow.  I hope to be able to take some pictures and post them tomorrow.  For now, I am going to pass out while the second cake cooks. 

-Sara

Cooking pumpkins

This year I wanted to do something super special for my awesome husband so I decided to make him a few pumpkin recipes made from "real" pumpkin, not the can stuff.  I wasn't sure how to go about doing this but I got A LOT of help from this woman's entries:  http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinpie.php

I will admit that I didn't fully explain my plans in advance to my husband, so he was a bit surprised when he came home to 8 pumpkins in the kitchen.  I will admit that I was originally intimidated with the thought of roasting and using pumpkin in this fashion but it turned out to be a lot easier than I originally imagined.  There does need to be a disclaimer here that while the steps of this process are not difficult, they are time consuming and this process is definitely not for everyone.  I think that everyone should do it once just to taste the difference between roasting your own pumpkin and using the can stuff.  I will also justify that I only used what are called "pie pumpkins" or "sugar pie pumpkins".  Supposedly you can use the normal jack-o-lantern pumpkins but I heard that they can be stringy and I didn't want to mess this up.  I got my pumpkins for 3 for $5 or 4 for $5 depending on the size and didn't have any issue paying that considering the amount of yield that we received. 

Now on with the show.  I bought my pumpkins from my local farmers market.  I have seen them at my local grocery store but not a lot of them and not consistently.  I didn't do any voodoo magic to try and figure out if they were ripe or able to be used.  I just picked 8 of them originally.  I saw originally because I am mildly ashamed to admit that I repeated this process again a few weeks later and came home with like 15.  Because of that shameful behavior there are approximately 40 cups of cooked pumpkin in my freezer right now.  If there happens to be a threat of the Apocalypse soon and you need pumpkin, you know where to go. 

Below are the steps that I followed.  You can adjust to fit your situation. 

1. Wash and dry your pumpkin.  Use soap.  I just used my dish soap.  Since you are not eating this part then it isn't necessary to get it totally spotless - your main focus is to remove dirt, mud, etc. 
2. Cut the pumpkin in manageable size pieces.  I cut mine in half.  Actually my husband was very helpful and cut ours in half since they can be quite tough before they are cooked.  Think sweet potatoes except like 15 times as big. 
3. Scoop out all the gunk from the inside.  At this point you can separate the seeds and roast them if you would like.  I also took great care to remove most of the stringy grossness as I thought that this would help with the pureeing part later. 
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and bake on 350 for anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes.  The skin of the pumpkin will get brown but don't worry - this will just add more flavor to your puree.  You are looking for the flesh of the pumpkin to be easily penetrated with a fork, knife, etc. 
5. Once the pumpkin is done, remove from the oven and allow them to cool enough to where you can handle them.  The pumpkin will feel just short of 4 billion degrees at this point and I have burned myself multiple times trying to rush this step.  Normally I wait 10-15 minutes because I still want it to be warm but you could allow the pumpkins to completely cool and still be fine. 
6. Scoop out all the flesh of the pumpkins into a food processor and puree until smooth.  This will not take that long to get it smooth but you will need multiple batches. 
7. **This step might not be necessary depending on your pumpkin or what you will be cooking.**  Pumpkins by nature are watery.  Once ours were pureed we put them in a strainer or a cheesecloth and drained off a lot of liquid.  I knew that we were going to be baking bread or pies with ours and didn't want too much liquid in either recipe.  You will be amazed at how much liquid you can get from pureed pumpkin. 
8. At this point your pumpkin is ready to be used or frozen.  We used our Food Saver machine and saved them in 2-3 cup bags clearly marked with the date and the amount. 

 In following posts I will share some of our favorite recipes using this pumpkin.  In my opinion, this is the ONLY way to go now that I have cooked with this pumpkin.  I think that you can definitely tell the difference between cooking your own pumpkin and the pumpkin in a can.