Sheet Pan Pork Chops with Apples

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp maple syrup

2 tsp mustard

salt and pepper

1 onion sliced in wedges

2 apples, cored and cut in 8 wedges

4 boneless pork chops

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, and about 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. 

Put the onion slices and apple wedges on a baking pan. Drizzle with about half of the liquid mixture and toss to combine. 

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper on both sides. Place the pork chops in the middle of the onions and apples. Brush the remaining liquid mixture on both sides of the pork chops. 

Bake in the center of the oven for about 15 minutes. 

Turn the oven to high broil and move the pan to the upper third of the oven. Let it caramelize for about 3 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and let the pork rest for about 5 minutes before serving. 

 

Boston Cream Birthday Cake

Ingredients: 

2 yellow cake mixes plus ingredients to make the cake

Custard:

2 cups milk

1 egg

5 egg yolks

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

Chocolate Ganache: 

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

3/4 cup hot whipping cream

Heat the milk in a saucepan. 

In a separate large bowl, add the full egg and the egg yolks. Add the cornstarch and sugar. Whisk together. 

When the milk is warm, add about 1/2 cup of the milk to the egg mixture to temper the eggs. Whisk together. Then add the egg mixture to the rest of the milk. Let it boil. It will get thick really fast when it starts to boil. 

Remove from the heat and add the softened butter and vanilla. Whisk one more time. Put a piece of wax paper on top of the mixture and put in the refrigerator to cool. The wax paper will prevent a film from forming on the top. 

Bake the yellow cakes (It only took about 1 1/2 cake mixes to make the two large circles. I made 12 cupcakes with the remaining batter. 

I put the custard between the two cooled cakes. Then mix your ganache. Make sure the whipping cream is hot so it melts the chocolate chips. 

Spread the ganache over the top of the cake. 

 

Coffee Cup Birthday Cake

The cup is three tiers of cake with the bottom shaved inward slightly. The handle is fondant. I used chocolate ganache for the top. It is about 1 cup of chocolate chips with 1/2 cup hot whipping cream. Stir until it is melted and the spread on the top of the cake. 

 

Funko Pop Birthday Cake

Rachel loves collecting Funko Pops, so she wanted a Funko-theme birthday party. This is what we came up with...

For her cake, I designed a personalized Funko box with her name and her custom pop design. This is just printed on paper and folded into the box shape. 

She picked 8 of her Funko Pops to be represented around the cake. She also picked the background color for each pop. 

She picked Freddie Mercury, Chandler from Friends, Bob Ross, King Triton, Belle, Erin from The Office, Hamilton, and Bo-Katan

An alternative to the custom box could be the Ronald McDonald birthday Pop or...

 Birthday Freddy

 

60th Birthday Cake

60th 

 

McDonald's Cake

For David's 1-year anniversary at McDonald's, we made a cake to celebrate. I used an edible marker to write on the white fondant on the front.  

 

Shark Week Party

I used a tortilla and pizza sauce to make the shark. The bottom is made from cucumbers and salami. Blackberries, cheese, and gummies made up the rest of the board. 

 

Christmas in July Party

We started our Christmas in July celebration with snowman pancakes. 

The kids found small gifts under our seasonal tree. 

I made Little Debbie Christmas Tree copycats in both white chocolate and milk chocolate. http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2022/07/little-debbie-christmas-tree-copycat.html

We had frozen hot chocolate, snowman pizza, and snowflake cinnamon roll: http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2021/12/snowflake-cinnamon-roll-with-caramel.html

 

National Ice Cream Day Party

National Ice Cream Day is always the third Sunday in July. This is how we celebrated.