My Cake, Crab Cake & More Cake!

It's been a week full of cakes!  I celebrated my birthday yesterday... and enjoyed cake from my favorite local bakery.  Yum...  Well, usually yum.  For some reason, since I began my baking journey, I have become quite fond of my own layered creations.  But, as my darling husband and family agreed, it is quite lame to bake your own birthday cake. LOL

So cake #2 this week was delivered to another birthday girl... a wonderful woman who is named "Jenn" (not I, said the fly.  I am typically "Jennifer" or "Jeni").  This birthday girl is celebrating today.  Apparently she is a fan of crabs.  Or was it that her friends say she is a crab?  Or she likes crabs?  Awe, I can't remember. ;)

Crab Themed Birthday Cake by Randomly, Jennifer.

I've never carved a cake before... and it was a hot mess before I piped everything!  The cake (chocolate layers, fresh strawberry filling) was sooo moist, it was difficult to carve without it falling apart into delicate tid bits of snack material.  In the end, it turned out pretty darn cute.

Crab Themed Birthday Cake by Randomly, Jennifer.

I received word this morning that she loved the cake.  As I type it is lunchtime, so I am guessing she may be eating a piece of her crab cake now...

Crab Themed Birthday Cake by Randomly, Jennifer.

Oh, how I wish I had a piece to eat too.











So tomorrow I have to make another cake... one for a bridal shower.  Chocolate on chocolate with more chocolate.  (Um, yum!)  I'll be sure to make extra this time!


Funny thing... the bride-to-be is also a Jennifer.  LOL!

Freezer Meals, Honey Balsamic Chicken Tenders and Zucchini Chips Four Ways

I went to a party for a friend.... One of those Wildtree events. Yeah, I had NO clue what Wildtree was. For those of you who are curious, you can Google them. I did buy a few things and will let you know more about those when I get them and try them on the family. Well, this Wildtree event inspired me to go home and make some freezer meals. That led to over cooking meals all week (in qty, not drying things out!) so I can freeze extra meals for later. (Sopa Huevona, Tacos, etc.) Seriously, I used to do this more often... why did I forget about it? Dinner on those 'I don't feel like cooking' nights will be easy now. I needed that Wildtree party to remind me how much easier I could make things for later with just a little preparation now.

Picture screen captured from budgetbytes.com.
Click here for direct link to their recipe.

Anyway, while I'm on the whole cooking kick I was scoping out my friend's Pinterest pins for some new recipes... I found these under her "Paleo" board... made them and totally love them! So in the spirit of good food and sharing the wealth (food wealth that is!), check these out. Meat is expensive, so the Honey Balsamic Chicken Tenders is fantastic because it doesn't require much meat so you could splurge on better chicken (organic!). I ate mine on a bed of spinach with the honey balsamic sauce drizzled over top. Yum!

Picture screen captured from
The Copper Collection.
Click here for a direct link to their site.

The Zucchini Chips Four Ways were soooo good! I made the parmesean, chipotle, and salt & vinegar versions. I didn't care for the salt & vinegar but the other two.... oh yeah, did I mention they were soooo good? I ate them up quickly! :)  I baked mine on convection bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for approx. 15-20 minutes. I also put the zucchini through my kitchen aid food processor with the slicing blade. That cut two zucchini up in about 5 seconds flat. Easy peasy. I'm a salt lover but even I would recommend cutting down on the salt if you're like me and use coarse sea salt. Just my 2-cents.






Let me know if you make either of these and what you think of them!