New Years Hits and Hypes!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years celebration and a great beginning to 2012. I thought it was about time that I reflect on some of the great ideas and those that fell flat for our home New Years celebration.

First of all, the Broncos lost to Kansas City Chiefs which put all of Denver on the edge of their couches. All were relieved when San Diego Chargers beat Oakland Raiders making it possible for Denver to go to the playoffs! Whew!

Oh, wait, you did not plan to read about football on my cakes and yummies blog, did you? O.K. As I told you previously, I planned to make the Poppychow on Brown Eyed Baker and Roasted Chickpeas from allrecipes.com.  I did make the Poppychow and if you love popcorn, peanut butter, and chocolate as much as my husband you will love this recipe. It was a really big hit and will be a repeat in our household.

However, I found a recipe for honey cinnamon roasted chickpeas on Two Peas and Their Pod and decided to try that instead of the Roasted chickpeas (yeah, we really needed more sweets in the house). Well, sometimes you learn more than you expect when you try a new recipe. Everything went together easily and I could actually visualize the end product being so delightful. I have never used an oven thermometer but decided to try one while baking the chickpeas. That was when the lightbulb really went on! Long before the chickpeas were to be finished a stinky burning smell came from the oven. Oh no, quickly removing those babies, I glanced at the thermometer. It had been right on the mark after preheating the oven but was now 75 degrees higher than it was supposed to be! Needless to say we did not even try the chickpeas so I cannot tell you how wonderful they may have been. However, these chickpeas are the reason I now know that my oven is wacko and I have been watching it more carefully as I bake. So I owe some good baking to this chickpea recipe! I'll let you know how they are if I ever get the oven to bake them correctly!

One other really BIG hit was our breakfast on New Years Day morning. I love Two Peas and Their Pod and can always find so many interesting recipes from them. I really wanted to have something that I would not spend the morning making and cleaning up, and that would be a special treat. Needless to say, their Cinnamon Baked French Toast fit the bill.  I prepared it the night before and cleaned up that mess. All I had to do in the morning was throw the topping on the dish and bake it. The house filled with the delightful smells of cinnamon and sugar as we prepared for our breakfast. A small fruit salad and juice/milk to drink and we were set. This dish made enough for 8 with leftovers. It is the perfect dish for those times when friends and family are staying over. I highly recommend this dish!

I did promise a cake or two and that is what I have for you. I decided to bake a champagne cake with white fondant and some glitz. I used two different recipes for the champagne cake. On the first I baked two 9 inch cakes from Dez's WASC recipe but replaced the 1 cup of water with 3/4 cup of champagne and 1/4 cup of water. This recipe raised nicely, was light and airy and tasted wonderful. I decorated it simply with white buttercream. I only dirty iced it, filled it with bavarian cream/raspberry filling and and was playing around with the buttercream when I came up with this.

I kinda' like the white on white theme with a little sugaring to top the cake and some fondant stars

The other champagne cake recipe came from allrecipes.com and is called Champagne Cake I. Somehow this recipe never really came together as I would expect. It was quite lumpy and sticky after mixing and although it did raise it lacked the sweet airy texture I was looking for. Was it a good scratch cake which is typically more dense and less sweet, yes. However I was looking for something more sweet and airy.

I did not fill this cake and did bake it in the 10 inch one layer pan as directed. I then covered in fondant and decorated with fondant cutouts. This is the result.

What it lacks in style it makes up for in good wishes for the New Year! Happy New Year everyone. May you prosper, have excellent health, and find many times to laugh until you cry!