October | 2012 | audirose

Took some time out this weekend to decorate for all the Halloweener’s. I always try to do something that I can find around the house and it was really very inexpensive this year. If you put your mind to it and use your imagination, anything can happen. I first took a walk in the forest and gathered some old long branches that were lying around on the ground (money spent = FREE). I scavengered for the best looking and scariest ones. I am pretty lucky since I am right by a forest full of dead branches. But you can look right on your property, the park, just about anywhere and I am sure you can find some. Carrying them home (a 2 minute walk lol), I then planted them in some tall garden planters that I had around the house. I also filled them to the top with earth for stability. Once they were in the pots firmly, I began to decorate with the faux webbing (.99 cents at the dollar store for a bag with spiders and one bag goes a loooong way). I added some silhouette ghosts, some spiders here and there, a witches hat and Voila! A spooky halloween… I can’t wait for Halloween night muhahahhaha.

These are the pics in day-time. I will be carving out my pumpkins the morn of Halloween and will take a few shots at nightime to get that spooky eeeerie feeling.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOLKS!!!

Halloween Haunt Entryway

Wow! what a few months it has been! Working, activities, events… I just can’t keep up it seems. I am sure most of you have days (months :O ) like these and it seems like it is never ending, I am finding it very hard to find “ME” time, Oooops.

Anyhow, I finally found a moment to get on my blog and blog about a wonderful cake recipe I made this past week for a special birthday. This was my first attempt to make a Grand “Black Forest Cake” (which was the special guests favorite). I searched the Internet endlessly for a recipe I thought would really be deliciously yummy. I wanted a really moist cake and a true to true made Black Forest Cake using all the actual ingredients. Even the Kirsch Liquor :O (not just cherry liquid for me). I wanted to make an authentic german Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (Black Forest Gateau).

So this is what I came up with. I will post the link where to get the recipe below. Now mind you this was fairly easy to make, however you have to have patience because there are a few steps, and you can actually make the cake a day ahead (I made my cake in one day and put it in the refrigerator for one day to allow the cake to absorb all the cherry liquid that has the kirsch (Cherry liqueur) in it, made me feel like the cake was fresher hahaha, if you make the cake a day ahead, it sits in the refrigerator for two days), and do the cherries step a day ahead as well, and actually doing the cherries the day ahead is better because they should soak in the kirsch for at least a day (and the liquid as well). This recipe was great because it also includes a how to video. So here is my finished product, drumroll please (LOL)…

Black Forest Cake Supreme

So this is my four layer Black Forest Cake. I did double the recipe from the Joy Of Baking Site, as I wanted a BIG Supreme cake and I also cut back on the Kirsch, using 2 Tblsp. for the cherry mix and using only 1 Tblsp. for the cherry liquid mix. However I do recommend using the 2 Tblsp. for the cherry liquid mix as in the recipe. I was a little nervous about the Kirsch overpowering the cake, (have you ever smelled that stuff ?!) but it actually made the taste, oh my ummm well YUMMY! So go ahead and follow the recipe. I did also hold back on spreading the liquid on the cake, again that overpowring the Kirsch took over on me, but go ahead be liberal the cake does not get soggy (just don’t go craycray). But like I mentioned I did double the entire recipe to make the cake pictured. This cake was delicious, it is actually a Genoise cake and verrrrrrrrrry good. Everyone enjoyed the cake and there was none left for take home goodies (well I still have quite the bottle of Kirsch left, so I will definitely be making this again, my thumbs up!).

*TIP: Please use ACTUAL Sour Cherries for this recipe, (they come bottled or canned) not maraschino, maraschino cherries can be used to decorate the top of the cake, cherries with stems are preferrable, but I could not locate them for my recipe boohoo 😦

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ot5YdDTLTBY

Black Forest Gateau Recipe: http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/BlackForestCakeprint.html