Guava Cake- (The easy way!)

Yep I am cheating on this one!

You Will Need:

Cake:

• Yellow or Strawberry store bought cake mix
• 3 eggs
• Oil
• Guava Juice (if you use the can about 3 of them should be enough or 1 carton for the entire recipe).
• Red or pink food coloring

To prepare the cake follow the directions on box, however DO NOT ADD WATER!! But substitute the exact water amount for guava juice.  Add food coloring if using yellow cake mix, untill you get the shade of pink you desire. Bake as directed.

Cream Cheese Whipped Frosting:

• One 8 oz. packaged cream cheese (softened).
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 small tub of whipped cream topping

Soften and mix cream cheese and add sugar. Mix until well blended. Add vanilla extract and mix until it is well mixed. Then fold in whipped cream. Set a piece of seran wrap over it so that it dips into the bowl and touches the frosting and place in the refrigerator.

Guava Topping:

• 2 cups guava juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• Red or pink food coloring

Bring the guava juice and sugar to a boil , stirring frequently with a whisk. In a small cup or bowl mix the corn starch with very little warm water. Make sure the corn starch is not clumpy but more of a paste. Add it to the guava mixture in the pot and remove from heat mix well and add some food coloring till you get the shade of pink you want it to be. Let it cool down completely.

After you allow your cake to cool down you can now frost your cake. Use the cream cheese whipped frosting and put a nice thick layer on the cake. Save some if you want to make a shell border around the cake or want to write "Happy Birthday; etc."

I would recommend putting a border around the cake cake just so the guava topping does not slide off the sides of the cake and it just gives it a bakery bought look. After you put on the border you can then pour your guava topping onto the cake you may need to spread the topping so that it is evenly distributed onto the surface of the cake. Then place place cake in the refrigerator, until you want to serve it.

You don't have to make a traditional rectangle cake you can do a round one and layer the cake putting the cream cheese frosting between the layers. I will try to make a round cake so that I can add a picture as well of it but here is my finished traditional 13X9 Guava cake.

Banana Bread

My aunty Desiree makes the best Banana Bread in the World. Hahaha, okay well the best I have had the priviledge to taste. Problem is that my Aunty is still back in Hawai'i and I now live in Utah. I wanted to try to see if I could make something to satisfy my craving for her buttery sinfully ono banana bread...Ono is Hawaiian for delicious. Although this one is not buttery it does the trick and did I mention is easy to make.

Ingredients:

•  1/2 cup butter, melted
•  1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  1/2 cup sour cream
•  1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
•  3 medium ripe bananas

 Preparation:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray your loaf pan with cooking spray (flour if you desire).

2) In a large bowl mix together your melted butter and sugar until completey dissolved. Add your 2 eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until they are all combined.

3) In a small bowl mix your flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly pour the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Blend with a hand mixer until they are completely mixed.

4) Add your sour cream into your batter and mix well.

5) In the small bowl you mixed your flour in slice your banana's and then mix with a mixer or handheld mixer until it is a liquid (there can be some chunks of banana).

6) Pour the pureed banana into the batter. You may want to add nuts; etc at this time.

7) pour the batter into the loaf pan and place in the oven for 60 minutes. If your oven has a faster bake time you may want to check it after 45- 50 minutes.

**The outside of the bread will be crunchy almost, but the bread itself with be moist and soft. I have used this exact recipe to make banana cake and banana cupcakes, which the crust does not turn crunchy. I love it! Try it & enjoy it!

Pork Char Sui Manapua

Ohh yes.... If you have ever gone to Hawai'i or Samoa, then this is very familiar to you! Hawai'i the pork char sui filling seem's to be the most popular. In samoa you find another type of pork filling. Growing up in Hawai'i I favor the pork char sui filling. Let me warn you that this is a fairly easy recipe, however very time consuming. AND I MEAN TIME CONSUMING!
So I started off with my pork & the marinade:
*1 lb. of pork (boneless) I used pork roast. Trim the fat & cut it into 1 inch strips. Then place pork in a container with lid that is big enough to fit the meat and marinade.
So the marinade:
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sherry cooking wine.
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. Hoisin sauce (asian section of your grocery store).
1/2 tsp. of Red food coloring (optional).

Pour the marinade over the pork, place lid on, and place in refridgerator for 3 hours (at least). Wait about an hour then begin to work on your dough.

Bread Dough:
2 tbsp. dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup warm milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tspn salt
2 large eggs, room temperature.
3 1/2- 4 cups all purpose flour

Mix the yeast, warm water, and the first measure of sugar together. Let it stand for 5 minutes.
While you let that sit go a head and mix the milk, butter, second sugar measure, salt, and eggs. Then add that to the yeast mixture.
Once that is mixed then add 3 cups of flour one cup at a time.
It should still be sticky & messy. So on a clean floured surface dump your dough mix out and add more flour. Keep adding flour, until your dough is no longer sticky. It may have a shine to it and when you press your finger into it, it should spring back up. In a clean bowl put 1 tbsp. seaseme oil, kind of swirl the bowl so that it coats the bottom. Then place your rolled ball of dough into the oiled bowl and turn it so that it is evenly coated in the seaseme oil. Then cover with plastic wrap and set aside for about a 90 minutes.

Cooking your pork:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then prepare your baking pan and line it with foil. (I recommend a roaster pan or broiler pan). Pour about 1/3 cup of water on the bottom of the pan lined with foil.
Place the pork strips on the broiler rack or roatser rack (save your marinade though). Place it in the oven for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes take out of the oven and with a pastry brush your marinade onto the pork. Put back into the oven for 8 more minutes.
In a small bowl go ahead and mix:
1tbsp. hot water
1 tbsp. sugar
Mix until the sugar is completely dissolved. When the pork is done pull it out of the oven and put your oven on broil. With a pastry brush, brush on the sugar glaze and then put back in the oven for 3 minutes. Then you are done....

Yes a process hang in there- the outrcome is worth it!

Keep your eye on the prize!!  =D

Filling sauce (your are going to chop your pork and add it to this).
1 cup water
2 tbsp. cornstartch
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
You can add minced garlic & ginger (optional)
8-10 drops red food coloring (optional)

Put water in a saucepan and when it comes to a boil add the cornstarch and mix until it is a thick paste.
Remove from heat and add the other ingredients. Mix well...

Add the chopped up pork... set aside....

Get parchment paper and cut it into 3-4 inch squares.

Back to working on the dough:
Punch it back down. Then knead it a little. And take the dough and divide it in half. Then keep dividing the sections in half until you have about 18 of dough balls.

Now to assemble these:
Take a ball of dough and roll it your hands and flaten it all to make a round circle. Take a spoonful of pork filling and place it in the center of the dough. Then fold and pinch the dough together closing the filling in the dough.
Set your uncooked manapua on a square of parchment paper.
Repeat the process until you wrap all of the manapua's.

After you wrap all the manapua's, then set them aside on a cookie sheet keeping the parchment square under it and spacing them 2 inches apart. Set aside for 45 minutes.

Prepare your steaming pot/ bamboo; etc.... Get the water boiling on high.
Place your manapua in the steam racks leaving some space between them, about 2 inches. Let them steam for 18 minutes. Do not open the steamer during the actual steaming time..... Remove from heat & ENJOY!!!

Make it easier on yourself & buy the char sui already made... Hahaha cheat! Saves you some work.... And this Char Sui marinade recipe is not 100% like the one you get in Hawai'i but it sure is close....

Halloween Wreath

It took a few hours..... But I have officially made a wreath. I have been spending alot of time on pinterest. So I was looking at wreath and thought why not make one for Halloween! So I bought the wire wreath frame from Roberts craft store (don't forget your 40% off coupon). 2 yards of fabric from Wal-mart. I bought 1/2 a yard of four different prints. The I found some Haloween garland and ornaments at Micheals, which were marked down 50% off. Ohh yah, this wreath cost me $10.

I cut the fabric into strips and then tied it around the wire frame.  I just kept tieing it until I ran out of fabric. The wire wreath frame has 4 complete cirlcles. I did not put fabric on the outer ring & inner ring. Just the 2 in the center... I used some fishing wire to secure the garland and ornaments in place. Love the way it turned out!!

Kelsie & Jose's Wedding Cake!

I made my 1st official Wedding Cake. What a stressful time it was. As a mommy of four- I wanted to scream! But all the stress was worth it. I learned so much from this cake & the out come was GREAT! Looking forward to making more cakes as time goes on. Congratulations to Kelsie & Jose- You guys are awesome & i wish you ALL the happiness that Love can bring! Hope I can get better pictures of it from the bride to post soon!

Fun Hula Skirt

 

Being Hawaiian, I have no choice but to have a First Birthday Luau for my baby Girl. Her Birthday is a month away so planning and preping is in full swing. This simple Hula Skirt can be a hit at any girl's luau or hula themed birthday party at any age..... 

You will need:
* 1 Elastic Band (Found these in the hair section of Wal-Mart).
* Good pair of scissors (I used just a fabric scissors that I had in my sewing stuff).
* Rolls of Satin Ribbon. I used 2 different colors & 3 rolls of each color (6 total for my 1 year old) Older children you will need more rolls of ribbon.
* Lighter (not pictured)
* any candle you may have around the house. (not pictured)
* sharpie marker or any pen that will mark the elastic band. 9not pictured).

**** If you are making the Hula Skirt for an older child, you may not want to use the elastic headbands, you may want to use ribbon from a roll. I would have your child stand in front of you and then take the ribbon and wrap it around them. Make sure where the ribbon meets that you have an inch hanging extra on each side to tie the skirt around them. Like a bow on the back of a dress. I would tie knots where the ribbon meets, that will help to keep the satin ribbon from sliding around and give you a guide as to how much ribbon you need to wrap around the main ribbon. (also be sure to burn the edges of the main ribbon so that it does not frail during assembling of the skirt.

While my baby was standing up, I took one of my rolls of ribbon and measured from her hip to her ankle & doubled the length. Then cut the ribbon the doubled length. You can however measure with a tape measure if you rather do that way just remember to double the length. I made my daughter's skirt go to her ankles, but you can actually make it at any length that you prefer.

Using the piece of ribbon that I cut as a guide I cut the remaining ribbon ALL six rolls of ribbon.

All of my ribbon is cut into double the length of my babies hip to her ankle. You can choose now to burn the ends of the ribbon now or work on your hula skirt. I would recommend burning the ends now to prevent it from frailing out while you assemble the actual skirt. I just used a candle I had around the house. Just carefully put the end of each strip up to the flame, you don't even have to touch the flame you will see it melt and seal the cut edges. Now it is time to assemble.

Take one of the elastic bands and one strip of the ribbon. Using your fingers like picture fold your ribbon over.

Take the loop end of the ribbon and place it under the elastic band. Do not let go of your loop just yet,

Using two hands feed the hanging ribbon through your loop making sure the elastic band is being secured between the loop and the hanging ribbon.

Straighten your ribbon so the satin side is up.

And then tigthen your loop. Now repeat until you either have to run to the store to get more ribbon or you have it all the way around the elastic band. As you can see from my next picture I did two tones one next to the other, but feel free to get creative with it and change it up. You can even add some tule to give it a tutu feel if you wanted to.

My one year old was actually smaller than the elastic band size so I put it around her while she was standing and marked it with a sharpie & tied a knot at the sharpie marks, cut the excessive & burned the edges of the elastic band.

Here she is modeling off her new hula skirt.


This skirt can be used for a Halloween Costume as well.....

Cake Pops!

This cake trend is sweaping the US. So of course I would have to attempt it. My work had a end of summer pool party. I wanted to bring a dessert I knew no one else would bring, so I signed myself up for cake pops. I have seen people get really creative with these. I decided to keep it simple, because I did not want to get overwhelmed with the process and four kids! So Here is my first attempt of cake pops! They tasted great. I was nervous because I had heard that Starbuck's cake pop's tatse terrible! But weeks later my co-workers are still talking about them.

Girl's Room

Saw a picture of a girl’s playroom and I got inspired. I wanted to create this room for my little girl's. But when I did the pricing to order the stuff it was EXPENSIVE. So being the person I am I asked myself "Can I make it Cheaper?" And guess what? Yes I could! So I went to Lowes (yes the store that men typically LOVE to shop at and I picked up some fencing from the Garden section. I went to the county dump. Let me explain: our county dump has a paint shed, where people buy too much so they leave there left over paint there for someone else to benefit. I got a bunch of primer from there for FREE and white paint! Went home and primered the picket fence and room. I painted the walls with Lightening Blue. Then painted the fence white with free white paint (after 2 coats of primer). I went to a local kid consignment store and bought all the butterfly accessories used. I went to Michael’s craft store there flowers were on sale for $0.99 cents!! After the fence dried I went with small finishing nails and attached it all the way around the room. Then placed the flowers in the gaps of fencing! Put up the accessories and made the beds. There you have it a gorgeous girl's room that is great for them and great for your budget!

Paint: $15.00 purchased the blue

Fencing: $40.00

Flowers: $15.00

Bedding: $20.00 (That is the twin bed) Clearance at TJ Maxx

Crib Bedding: $75.00 (this included 2 butterfly pictures, mobile, Shelf's, light switch cover, and shelves you see on the floor, because I had not hung them on the wall yet.

Other accessories: $20.00

Curtains: $20.00 I added on the little flower sequences.

Faith's 2nd Birthday Cake

Opps.... I forgot Abby's nose! Well My 2 year old did not notice and neither did I. My advice to anyone who makes their own cake: Plan ahead. I baked cupcakes and was going just frost but I felt creative and with just two hours till the party started and I rushed this one. I started by baking cupcakes. I can't remember: I believe I used 26 regular size cupcakes for this. I then let them cool Placed them in the freezer (not recommended but like I said I rushed this one) and placed them on the cake board and arranged them to make the shape I desired. I bought from the grocery store Pink frosting and White frosting. Lots of it! I kept some white frosting for the eyes, but made separate batches of colored frosting blue, black, and purple. I took some pink frosting and added just a little red to make the mouth. I put all the colors in separate pastry bags to pipe out. I based the face part in pink frosting. Then went to work free hand drawing the face and hair with accessories: all free hand with my icing in a bag. I knew something was missing but guest were arriving so I decided to stop. I looked back at the pictures the next day and thought...... She does not have a nose! Lesson learned make stuff the day before, Don't rush!!

1st baby Shower Cake

This was made for my friend Brittney for her baby shower. Brittney is a FUN girl, who deserved a custom made cake and not a typical grocery store cake. I started this cake by using the Wilton's ball cake pan to make the prego belly. I then made the breast using Wilton's Large Cupcake pan. I cut the tops of the Cup cakes off and placed them cut sides together. I laid out my ball as the tummy and put my cupcakes where I thought the breast would go. I did apply some icing to the bottom of both to act as glue to hold down the cake so it would not slide off of the cake board.

I then iced the cake with some icing. I made my fondant using Marshmallows, Crisco, and confectioners’ sugar. I kneaded it like dough. I took out a portion of it and colored it black with Wilton's coloring. I kneaded it and added more black coloring until I was satisfied with the shade of black I had.

I took another portion of the white fondant and colored it a beige color to make it look like nude skin. I kneaded until I was satisfied with the shade of beige I had. I used Wilton's Brown color. I rolled the beige out into 2 joining circles. I laid them over the breast and then used scissors to cut off excess fondant. I then rolled out my white fondant making a sheet of white fondant that I laid over the pregnant belly and part of the breast. I used scissors to trim the fondant the shape I wanted it. Then made the bottom of the dress kind of ripple like it would if it came off of a big belly. Last I rolled out the black fondant. Made the ruffle like to line the top of the dress, where it meets the beige nude skin. I cut it using a template I made of cardboard and a knife. I used some icing over the breast where I was going to place the black lace and put the trimming on. I finally made a bow with the remaining black fondant and the part of the bow that hangs down. I used icing to "glue it" down to the cake.

And that's it! Cake is done!