Cauliflower Vegetable Soup

Today I'm at home while the first major snowstorm of this winter rages outside. The kids are here, too, as school was cancelled this morning. They are enjoying an unexpected day off building snow people and playing outside.

I can't think of anything better than a nice warm bowl of soup. This one is a personal favourite. It makes a good lunch alone or with a sandwich. Cooked chicken or turkey can be added for a complete meal.

Cauliflower Vegetable Soup

1 leek, white part only, thinly sliced and washed well, OR

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, 1 thinly sliced, 1 grated

1 stalk celery, thinly sliced

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 tbsp. dried dillweed

1 1/2 tbsp. chicken soup base

Water, as needed

Squirt of lemon juice

Heat oil in a large pot. Add leek or onion, carrot, and celery. Cover and cook on medium-low heat until limp but not browned, about 5 minutes.
 

Stir in 1 1/2 tbsp. flour until smooth. Stir in cauliflower florets, salt and pepper, and dillweed. Add water to almost cover vegetables. Bring to a boil.



Add chicken soup base. Partially cover and cook until cauliflower is soft, about 1 hour.

 

Mash soup to the onsistency you like. Add a squirt of lemon juice to brighten the flavour. Adjust seasonings if necessary.

VARIATION: Add 1/2 cup cooked chicken or turkey cubes to each bowl. Add hot soup to fill bowls. Reheat in microwave, if needed.

 

Serves 4-8

Superfast Trifle

You've made a beautiful cake. Now, what to do with the top you trimmed off to make your beautiful cake flat? My solution? Trifle! It's fast; it's easy, and everyone loves an unexpected treat.

If your thinking you've had too much cake, check out my latest article at Mae Topics. Click here.

Trifle

Trimmed off white cake top from one cake or leftover white cake, cut in cubes

4 vanilla pudding cups

8 tsps. raspberry jam

1 envelope whipped topping, go make it

Divide cake cubes between four dessert dishes. You should have approximately 1/2 cup per bowl.

Drop 2 tsps. raspberry jam evenly over the cake cubes in each bowl.

Spread the contents of one pudding cup fairly evenly over the contents of each bowl.

Divide the whipped topping between the four bowls of yummy goodness.

Serves 4

Birthday Cake Gallery, Final Instalment

Wanna see a few more cakes?

This one is so easy and quick. Make muffins - any kind that would be good frosted. Put them together  on a platter. Spread the tops with Buttercream. Add a little cocoa to some of the Buttercream for the lettering and a decorative edge. I scattered the cake with these cute little gummy cars I found at the Bulk Barn.

This Smiley Face would be great for many occasions. Bake the cake in 8" round pans. Trim the tops flat with a long serrated knife after they have cooled. Put together with Buttercream tinted yellow with food colouring. Frost the whole cake with this yellow frosting also. Put the eyes and smile on with Buttercream tinted with cocoa. I use an artists paint brush for this.

This final cake turned out really well. It's Plankton! Bake the cake in a 9" X 13" pan. Trim the top flat with a long serrated knife. Round off the corners. Use these trimmings to fashion arms, legs, and antennae. Frosting hides a lot here! Frost the whole thing with Buttercream tinted green  with food colouring. Mix small amounts of Buttercream with various colours to make the eye and mouth, etc.I painted these on with artists brushes.

Birthday Cake Gallery - More Cakes

Here are a few more birthday cake ideas.

This is another Lego cake. There's a lot of lego at our house! Bake the cake in a 9" X 13" pan. Trim the top flat with a long serrated knife. Frost the whole thing with white buttercream, the tint some of it blue with food colouring for the trim and lettering. Scatter top of cake with small lego characters.

This one is a car-themed cake. Make the cake in a 9" X 13" pan. Trim the top flat with a long serrated knife. Frost it with white buttercream. Do the trim and lettering with white buttercream mixed with a little cocoa, and a small amount of cream to adjust the consistency, if it seems too dry. I decorated it with two hot wheels cars and some chocolate foil covered chocolate cars.

This car cake took quite a bit of time. The cake is baked in a 9" X 13" pan. It is then cut in half, lengthwise. One piece is cut in two pieces and put together for the roof section. Toothpicks are used to spike it together. IT sits on a piece of styrofoam covered in aluminum foil. A foil covered box could also be used. You need to be imaginative here. The wheels are purchased chocolate cookies. Frost it as shown in the photo.

More next time.

Birthday Cake Gallery

Here are some of the birthday cakes I've made of my sons' birthdays. All use this cake recipe and this recipe for the Buttercream Frosting.

This cake is baked in three (8") round pans. Carefully cut off the rounded tops of all the layers to make the cake tops flat, with a long serrated knife. Put the layers together with some of the Buttercream Frosting, and frost the top and sides with it.

To make the chocolate frosting for the trim and lettering, I simply stirred a small amount of sifted cocoa into some of the Buttercream. You can tell by the colour when you have added enough. If it gets too dry, add a tiny amount of cream until it is the correct consistency again. Do the trim, then the lettering. I used small Lego characters for the theme.

This is a Rock Monster cake. The cake is baked in a 9" X 13" pan. With a long serrated knife, cut the rounded top of to make a flat surface. Frost top and sides with Buttercream to which cocoa has been added for contrast.(Stir in the cocoa, then add a little cream if it's too dry). Do the trim with White Buttercream. Lego rock monsters stand on the surface of the cake.

I'm very proud of the Spongebob Cake. I drew a template of spongebob, actual size and spent a very long time transferring him to the cake. Bake the cake in a 9" X 13" pan. Cut a slice off one side to make the dimensions look better. Use this piece to form the arms, legs, and nose. A toothpick is inserted in the cake and the nose is speared on the toothpick, then trimmed. Be very careful to remove the toothpick from that piece before serving.

Frost the top section with Buttercream tinted yellow, the middle with white Buttercream, and the bottom section with Buttercream with cocoa added. Add arms and legs pieces. Frosting hides a lot here! Eyes, cheeks, necktie, etc. I added last with the help of paint brushes. You know, those artists brushes we buy for our kids water colours. I have a set of these for cake decorating. They're really indispensible.

More cakes next time.

Buttercream Frosting

This is a wonderful frosting for decorating cakes. Please use real butter for optimum flavour.

Buttercream Frosting

6 tbsp. butter, at room temperature

3 tbsp. heavy cream or evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 cups icing sugar

I do this in my electric mixer.

Beat together the butter and heavy cream. Mix in vanilla extract.

Into a large bowl, sift icing sugar. Measure out 3 cups for the frosting. Put the rest away.

With mixer running, beat in icing sugar gradually until smooth.

This is enough to decorate one cake.

Happy Birthday!

My oldest sons' birthday one week ago. It's difficult for me to comprehend that he's 12 years old. Time flies by so fast. I made his cake, as I have done every year - car theme this year. Wanna see it?

This cake wasn't hard to do. Just takes time and love. Here's the recipe and directions. This is my "go to" birthday cake recipe. It never fails.

White Birthday Cake

3/4 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsps. vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsps. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease and flour a 9" X 13" rectangular baking pan.Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla extract.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. (Dry - milk - dry - milk - dry).

Pour cake into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated 350F oven for approximately 45 minutes.

Cool in pan on rack. Remove from pan.

Be sure cake has cooled completely before decorating.

When cake has cooled completely, cut top level with a long serrated knife. Brush away stray crumbs.

Make White Buttercream Frosting. Cover top and sides of cake with it.

Tint remaining Buttercream with blue food colour. Stir in a few drops at a time until it looks good. Write your message on cake with it. I used a #2 decorating tip. Trim outside edges. I used a #27 decorating tip around outside edges, dotting the frosting  all the way around.

Makes one special cake.