Pumpkin/ Chocolate Pudding Pie

While our love for cakes is not to be tested, we wanted to share a spotlight on another Fat Kid treat dear to our hearts- PIES!!! Because nothing says Thanksgiving dessert like pie we're bringing a whole series of pies this week. Kicking off the pie series is a Fat Kid take on the classic pumpkin pie. 

From the Diary of Britt: I LOVE pumpkin pie. In fact,  pumpkin was my first pie love. Confession: When I was a kid, I was not a pie fan. Crazy, I know! But I was the type of kid that just took the vanilla ice cream and said, "No thanks" to pie. Until one Thanksgiving when my older sister tricked me into having some pie with the old "You're so boring eating just ice cream." I fell for it and fell in love with pumpkin pie! Now, other pies have come and gone, but I always come back to pumpkin. You never forget your first Pie Love. 

Pumpkin/Chocolate Pudding Pie

Now, Britt has baked many a pumpkin pie in her day until she got a recipe that she deems to be PERFECT, but is not exactly fat kid worthy. Instead, we decided to mix the love of pumpkin pie with another pie classic- CHOCOLATE. 

Now, making this pie is dependent on finding this special Jello mix- Pumpkin Spice pudding. While we're sure you could make it yourself with Vanilla pudding and spice, you won't get that same beautiful   pumpkin-orange color that is crucial to pumpkin pie. 

Yes, that IS a chocolate pie crust!

Now, this might be one of the easiest recipes we've done on Fat Kid Kitchen and it easily makes enough for 2 pies.  Important note- don't follow the instructions on the box. REPEAT- do NOT follow the box! TRUST US FELLOW FAT KIDS!

First step- mixing the chocolate pudding. Grab a big mixing bowl, pour in the chocolate pudding powder, and add exactly 2 cups of cold milk (1% is recommended). Now, if you're going the Soy, Lactose free, or Rice Milk route be sure to use less than 2 cups otherwise you'll be whisking for days and never get that nice pudding texture. 

Once you have the milk added, it's time to whisk away. Whisk for about 4 minutes- let it rest for 2 minutes- and then whisk again for about 5 minutes. Pour chocolate pudding into pie crust pan - until the pan is half way full (Note: you'll have extra pudding) Place pie in the fridge. 

Now, do the exact same thing for the pumpkin pudding. Add mixture to bowl, add milk (recommend using less than 2 cups this time) and whisk away. Feel free to add in anything else you like to pumpkin pie recipes - like cinnamon or nutmeg. Since this was our first time with pumpkin spice pudding, we decided to just let it be and see how it turned out. 

Take your pie crust out of the fridge and add the pumpkin pudding on top of the chocolate. 

Using a spoon, swirl the chocolate and pumpkin together. Put back in the fridge until ready to serve. 

In the meantime, if you didn't make 2 pies, go enjoy the extra pudding!

Love, 

Britt & Liz

Barbie Doll Birthday Cake!

16 years ago this week, Liz's mom delivered the most magical birthday cake of all birthday cakes to her 9-year-old daughter (if you know how to do math then you know how old Liz turns this week.  And if you don't know how to do math, you're Liz's new bff).  To add special birthday fuel to the fire that is Liz's raging Peter Pan syndrome, Fat Kid Kitchen attempted to re-create this magical birthday cake.  Here is a story about that...

Peppermint Rose:  THE LEGEND.

From the Diary of Liz: Ah, there she is, guys.  My mind-blowing, gravity-defying 9th Birthday Cake, courtesy of a bakery called Deerfields, located in the Chicago suburb my family and I used to live in.  It's still around today, making Fat Kid dreams all over the Midwest come true, one epic birthday at a time.  I had a cake consultation and everything.  This bakery was determined not to disappoint me.  I brought in the doll, this chubby-faced barbie-knockoff in a pink pirate captain's hat that actually smelled like peppermints and roses.  I said "I'd like a cake baked around this doll, please!" I had seen the doll-dress cakes in their brochures, boasting that they could turn your daughter's favorite doll into a birthday cake that "she'll never forget!".  And trust.  I never forget that damn cake.

For years I contemplated its many complex mysteries.  Did they bake her with the cake?!  If so, how the hell didn't she melt?  Did they carve out a little hole for her legs?  How'd they do the freakin' layers?!  SO MANY QUESTIONS.  Well, now I'm a highly functioning adult who can solve mysteries on her own and has a baking blog.  So it was time to unlock the Secrets of Deerfields! (*You can turn on the soundtrack to Inception now if you want).

We found this really fantastic doll-cake-baking kit at Michael's to help us on our mission.  It would be a very smart idea to purchase this kit if you want to go on this journey!  That dome shaped dress is no easy feat.

Oh HEY there awesome Mermaid.

Barbie Doll Birthday Cake

The doll that came in our special kit was not an actual Barbie and was kind of an amputee of sorts (see below), but we think you could easily use a real Barbie doll.  Or just forego the doll altogether and eat the cake because the cake is delish!  But where's the fun in that...?

You can pretty much pick any kind of cake you want as long as you follow this simple rule:  Make enough for a two-layer cake so it properly fills the dome.

First, crack open your doll-cake-kit.  You will find the following inside:
-Doll pick (which is basically the torso of a doll with a straight plastic pick where its legs would be)
-Dome cake pan
-Metal rod + Screw
-Stand for the dome pan

Momma warned me 'bout evil bakers who would put me in a cake but I NEVER LISTENED!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put the cake pan together following the instructions in the box.  The metal rod should stick straight up through the dome.  It's where your doll will go later.

Next, in a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients for the cake:  Flour, sugar, salt, baking powder.  Then separate the yolk from six eggs and put them in a smaller bowl.  Britt is the master egg yolker.  Observe.

Make egg white omlettes later with the leftovers!

Combine the wet ingredients SANS MILK with the yolk and then add them to the dry mixture.  Then add the butter.  It's going to start getting pretty sticky, and this is when you need the milk.  If you find it's still really thick and sticky you may add a tad more.  You don't want the thing being a giant sugar cookie (as delicious as that would be).

The consistency it ought to be...

Grease the dome pan before pouring in your vanilla soup of the gods.  Once it's all glopped in there, take a heaping tablespoon (or more if you wish!) of the blackberry preserves and swirl it around the top of the cake, comme ça:

 

Stick it in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes.  You may need a wee bit more time due to the shape of the pan, so definitely test with a long toothpick before you commit to taking it out!

Once it's ready, let it cool for a good long while.  It helps if your house has lousy heat like Liz's does. :-/  Then flip it over onto a cake platter and make sure your doll-pick fits in the hole.  Now, if you chose to use a real doll with legs, you'll probably need to CAREFULLY carve the hole in the cake a little wider to accommodate.

Clothe me now, for the love of all that's holy!!!

Now here's the fun part.  The cake kit recommends using fondant for the dress, but Britt and Liz HATE fondant.  But if you don't, then by all means go for it.  We used a simple vanilla cream frosting and decorative white icing for the top of the dress.

Take notes, Katy Perry.

We pondered who this character ought to be.  It was a white dress, and the doll had luxurious brown curls, so we thought a Kate Middleton cake ought to be quite easy!  LIES.  Without lacey sleeves, this could be any trashy bimbo of a bride.  The lacey sleeves defined that dress.  And we were quite ill-equipped to make them, we needed smaller tips for the frosting tube.  That is where we failed.  We're sad to admit it.

Sleeveless bimbo bride.  You're no Kate Middleton.

Decorate as much or as little as you want!  At that point we'd been working on the cake for almost 3 hours and our blood sugar was low and the sun was setting and it was almost time to have wine.  So we wrapped it up and called it a day!

Bongiorno Principesa!

And was Liz satisfied with the result?  Did it live up to the legend?  It might not have looked quite as fancy, but judging by these identical awkward expressions...

...we're pretty sure we did a-okay!  And the best part of this whole endeavor?  We've got this princess cake mold now that we can use for years to come.  Hey friends.  Guess what you're all getting for your birthdays this year?

Love,

Liz & Britt

Fat Kid Kitchen: Not-so-lean, mean, Halloweenin' MACHINE!

This weekend we ushered in the holiest of international fat kid holidays:  HALLOWEEN!  More specifically, it was Halloweekend: Two whole days of festive insanity.  There's a reason our faces are in none of the following photos.

Britt hosted a grand Werewolf Bar Mitzvah on Sunday night (for those who are unfamiliar with this kind of shindig, please direct your attention this-a-way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_P3PNuZU )

We made two different Halloween treats that afternoon.  Both are simple and fun and can be tweaked for all the upcoming holidays!

Witch's Brew

Can we all just agree a party just isn't a party unless you have some punch? And a Halloween party isn't complete until you have some Witch's Brew! Here's a list of simple ingredients and steps from our Fat Kid Spell Book (Shh it's really just our usual cook book...)

Witch made not required, but encouraged!

Now, Britt believes in the science of trying out party punch as you go so you won't find exact measurements here. However, she recommends using only half a bottle of Butterscoth Schnapps because it's so sweet and about 2 cups of Vodka. (Note- this recipe used cheap vodka so you might want to use less if you prefer a higher shelf alcohol.) Mix Schnapps, Vodka and Apple Cider together and try it. It will probably be really sweet and that is where you start adding Sprite (or 7 UP) to cut the sweetness. Basically, just try it out until to you like it!

With the base of the brew done, all you need to now is add the fun extras. For this brew, we cut up about 4 red Gala Apples. (Yes, real fruit has finally made it to Fat Kid Kitchen but that's only to make up for what's next on the list.) Finally, our favorite part- that's starting to become a Fat Kid standard- adding GUMMY WORMS! Not only do the worms add to the theme, but they soak up the alcohol for a fun snack at the bottom of your drink. If you want to make this punch for a Thanksgiving or Fall party, you might want to skip the gummy worms. You can always save them for this cake!

That's it! A pretty simple spell recipe for any Fall party. When Britt served it, she added ice and sprinkled cinnamon but feel free to add your own touches. Only thing we really feel is essential to making this brew is challenging your inner witch - or you could just dance to "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" in kitchen!

Chocolate Ghosty Peep Pops

These will be self explanatory.  Enjoy the visuals!

Step One:  Ghost Peeps!  On wax paper!

Step Two:  Melt white chocolate chips, send your ghosties to the hot tub!

Lay the peeps face down on the wax paper with their backs all chocolate coated.

Wait till they harden, and then....

Impale them on candy sticks! (Britt bought a stack of sticks at a craft store)
 Stick sticks in a bowl of candy corns!

You could easily do Peep Pops with any kind of festive Peep, so these are good for all holidays worthy of Peeps.  And the Witch's Brew sans gummy worms is a delicious Fall treat for Thanksgiving or any other happy gathering during the months of apple-cinnamon-relevance. 

Happy Halloween Fat Kid Nation!  Hope you had a magical weekend of gluttony and becostumed madness!

Love,

Britt & Liz