No Bake Easter Cake made from "Little Debbies" or other cheapo things

Ok.. So I was walking down the aisle at Walmart and the kids wanted to make a cake.  Since soy was ok on this day with the allergic child out of town, I thought... I can use anything junky from cake mix to ???

So we hit the junk food and cake mix aisle all full of soy and every other coloring and form of hydrogenated cheapo filler that Walmart shoppers use and WHAM!!!! There it was!!!  Waxy, plastic shortening covered Little Debbie's in hexigon shapes.  We bought 2 or 3 boxes for about .99 each and came home to make some quick frosting.  Put the frosting in a gallon ziplock. Clipped the bottom corner and here is the result.

WAY EASY and you can make as many layers as you want!!  It even keeps for a long, long time with all those preservatives.  It also fits on any pedestal cake stand.

Sweet Potato Sefleu or Casserole Recipe

Aunt Stephanie made some great sweet potato stuff for a Thanksgiving years ago and I called her to get the recipe.  When she emailed it to me, she wrote Sweet Potato Sefleu and thats the name we called it because I though it was some Southern name for it. I later found out that Sefleu was just a typo that the spellchecker she had must have mixed up but we've had this recipe in our book this way so long that the title has stayed.

Mom's Sugar Cookies Recipe

Suzanne makes awesome sugar cookies.  They take time and have to be done correctly.  This is one of those recipes where doing it right matters and one of those recipes where I fail when I follow the recipe.  I don't do it right somehow so mine can be reminiscent of playdough dried in the sun but when Suzanne makes these with the same recipe, they are the best and softest.  They freeze well and ship well in care packages to Utah and Hawaii.  Making these in the Utah altitude and Hawaii humidity might cause some need for modification though.  So here is the recipe and good luck to both of my college children.

 For frosting, call mom because that's another one of those things I just don't do right.

Also a note when letting your younger siblings help.  Have them wash their hands and blow their noses first and put theirs on a separate "special" pan to cook if they are coming in from a hard days play to "help".  The "special" pan is for them.  Ones that are "not special" and fine for anyone that they make don't need to be on the "special" pan. hahaha.... was just thinking of having them make a "special" set to send to college after an afternoon touching starfish and sweating from playing with friends at Sealife at Legoland.  Extra salt and misc. "flavoring" and textures are easily hid with frosting.

Devilled Eggs Recipe "Doubled Eggs"

How to boil eggs and what to do with them after dying them for Easter from the mouth of a preschooler.

Easter Dinner 2011

Orange Rolls and Swedish Tea Rings

There is way too much to say about Orange Rolls and Swedish Tea Rings.  I just don't have the time right now.  BUT, I keep forgetting to post this handout Suzanne did years ago that works for both.  She makes amazing orange rolls and her hints are from experience.  This year we did our traditional Tea Rings but didn't have time for separate orange rolls so we used double the orange roll filling and used it to make a couple of the tea rings and it was so much easier than making individual rolls and cleaning out all the muffin tins, that I thnk we may do the orange roll Swedish tea ring hibrid from now on,(or at least if I'm making them alone.)

For a pretty good Almond Filling I put 2 cups of white sugar, 1 cup of almonds, 2 teaspoons of almond extract and 1 cup of melted butter in the Cuisinart until it basically becomes almond paste.

For Swedish Tea Rings, I also frost them when cooled with an almond frosting and then sprinkle sliced almonds over the top if I have them.  Blackberry, Raspberry, or Boysenberry Jam with butter for a filling with or without sliced almonds mixed works well for filling too.  Let them rise about 30 minutes or more after shaping them.

FREEZING: I used to make these with cinnamon, orange zest, or almond paste and freeze after cutting the dough wrapped in plastic wrap and then in gallon ziplocks.  They were easy to thaw and bake leaving out overnight.  Instead of detailing the process, here is a similar to same process that I used to to and it has pictures. Freezing cinnamon roll dough to bake later