Grandma Amanda's French Toast

One of my family’s favorite breakfast foods is my Grandma Amanda’s recipe for French Toast. Now this in not your typical Denny’s or IHOP style french toast, this batter-based recipe is far beyond that crappy restaurant style. Serve with scrambled dry eggs and extra cripsy bacon and you have yourself a fabulous Kurtz family breakfast!

Here's to Grandma Amanda,
thanks for making my Mom perfect!

Grandma Amanda’s French Toast
- 2 Cups All-purpose flour

- ½ Cup Sugar
- 3/4 tsp. Salt
- Dash of Pepper
- Cinnamon to taste
-1 beaten egg
-1 ½ Cups Milk
-Day old or slightly frozen bread, works with Texas Toast too

In a wide container stir dry ingredients together. Beat one egg and add to the flour mixture. Pour the milk into the batter and whisk until well incorporated and smooth. Batter consistency should be thin enough to fall easily from the whisk. If the batter is too think, add more milk to thin it out.

Add a small chunk of Crisco to a large skillet or griddle, heat to medium to high heat. Place batter-covered bread on the skillet and cook until lightly brown, flip and repeat. You may need to replenish the pan with shortening after a few slices.

In college I would always make breakfast for my roommates and our boyfriends, one day I decided that I would make stuffed french toast using my Grandma Amanda’s recipe. It was so good, and it quickly became a weekly request.

For Amanda’s Stuffed French Toast, fold 8 ounces of softened cream cheese into about a ½ cup of your favorite seedless jam (I used strawberry). Once combined, spread onto cooked french toast and sandwich two slices together. Place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and bake at 350° for a few minutes until the cream cheese melts a little.

Serve with warm syrup and powdered sugar if desired. Then run ten miles to burn it off- Enjoy!

Silhouette SD-My new love!

Recently I purchased a Silhouette SD machine, can I just tell you it is amazing! I have made some really cute things with it lately.  I am still working my way around all the cool options and things you can do with it, but what I know-I like A LOT!

Click here to learn more about the Silhouette SD

Click here to BUY your Silhouette SD

Coconut Cake

Ingredients

Cake:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

3 cups sifted self-rising flour

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

It was Tim's birthday and per his request- a Rebel cake!



Filling:

3/4 cup sugar 

1 cup sour cream

4 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup flaked, sweetened coconut

Frosting:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or 1 tablespoon white corn syrup

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup water

2 egg whites

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract  

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans.

2 Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed.

3 Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks. Cool completely.
4 While cake is baking, prepare filling. Stir together sugar, sour cream, milk, and coconut in a bowl until well blended.

5 Remove cake layers from oven and allow cake to remain in pans as you prepare to stack and fill. Remove first layer and invert onto cake plate. Using the wrong end of a wooden spoon, poke holes approximately 1-inch apart until entire cake has been poked. Spread 1/3 of filling mixture on cake layer. Top with second layer, repeat process. Top with last layer and repeat process again. (As I stack layers together I stick them with toothpicks to prevent cake from shifting).

6 To prepare the frosting, place sugar, cream of tartar or corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with a hand-held electric mixer for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water, being sure that boiling water does not touch the bottom of the top pan. (If this hap pens, it could cause your frosting to become grainy). Beat constantly on high speed with electric mixer for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Frost the sides of the cake first, being careful not to get crumbs in the icing. When cake is completely covered, gently cover frosting with coconut.

7 Cover loosely and refrigerate for three days (if you can stand it that long!).



Easy Cake Pops

 Want to learn how to make these for yourself?

Litte Miss Momma Shows us how

Here are the step by step instructions with pictures.

Feel free to leave a comment with any questions.

Ready, set, go!

Supplies:

Devils Food cake mix {and ingredients listed on box}

**Feel free to use any cake flavor**

1/2 package of chocolate/vanilla frosting

White Chocolate Candy Melts {2 bags from Michael's, Wal-Mart or JoAnn's}

Candy sticks {from Michael's, Wal-Mart or JoAnn's}

Styrofoam (to set the sticks in)

Gel Food Coloring {NOT liquid}

Foil

Vegetable Oil Spray

Shortening {large spoon full}

Step One:

Line your large cake pan with foil. 

Now grease the foil with vegetable oil spray. 

Step Two:

Follow the recipe on your cake mix and bake your cake as directed. 

 Allow the cake to cool.

 Step Three:

Put your baked cake in a large mixing bowl.

 Use your hands to crumble the entire cake. 

Add about 1/2 of the package of chocolate frosting to the crumbled cake.

The chocolate frosting is what acts as a glue to hold the cake balls together.

Now its time to get dirty.

Use your hands to mix the frosting evenly throughout the crumbled cake mix until the cake mix is well moistened. 

Your cake mix should be moist enough to shape into a large mound and keep its shape.

  And if your hands don't look like this, then you're doing it wrong {lol}.

Step Four:

Roll your cake mix into 1 inch balls using the palms of your hands.

You should be able to get 35-40 cake balls from a single batch of cake mix.

Step Five:

Now we prepare the chocolate shell.  Pour one entire package of white chocolate candy melts into a microwave safe bowl.  Follow the melting instructions on the package. 

 *Be sure not to burn the candy melts or they will taste super yucky*

Pull out your melted white chocolate and stir thoroughly with a spoon until COMPLETELY smooth.  Once smooth, add a large spoon full of shortening {Crisco} to the white chocolate to thin out the consistency a bit. Stir thoroughly again.

Step Six:

Take a cake pop and dip into the white chocolate about 1 inch. 

 And then place it into the center of your cake ball.

This will act as a glue keeping your cake pop and stick attached.

Then place your cake pop in the Styrofoam to harden.

Continue with the remaining cake pops. 

Step Seven:

Now you are ready to coat your cake pops in the delicious white chocolate.

This is the most tricky step of the entire recipe.  It took me some practice before I was good at evenly coating the chocolate on the pop.

The key is to place the pop in the chocolate at a sideways angle with one hand.  Using the other hand, spoon the chocolate mixture all around the pop.  Try to do this as quickly as possible before the chocolate begins to harden and get lumpy. 

Once you have evenly coated the pop, gently tap the stick on the side of the bowl to get off any excess chocolate that would drip.

Step Eight:

Now its time to make your pops look extra pretty.  Use the remainder of your white chocolate for the drizzle.  If you run out, make more following the steps above. Add the GEL food coloring of your choice until you receive your desired color.  The liquid food coloring will immediately harden and ruin your chocolate. 

Fill a Ziploc bag with your colored white chocolate.  Cut a small hole in one corner of the Ziploc back so that you can drizzle the colored chocolate over your pops. 

Now let your pops dry and then you are done!

I preferred the way the cake pops taste after they have chilled in the refrigerator for a bit. 

How pretty are these bad boys?!