Kids Cooking Classes

We've been having fun at our house with kids' cooking classes. The Boys made Storm Trooper Cupcakes and Vader Tots. The girls made Minnie Mouse cupcakes and a baked pasta Alfredo. The kids have been entertaining and fun to work with, very endearing!

The homemade tater tots or "Vader Tots" are out of this world good. The kids loved them. I wish I had more! The recipe is simple:

6 potatoes
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder ( although I would like to try them with just finely chopped onions instead)
1/4 teaspoon of dill
1 Tablespoon of flour
Oil for frying and butter to coat your hands
Optional: fresh parsley

1. Boil the potatoes for 7 minutes.
2. Let them cool
3. Meanwhile mince your garlic.
4. Grate your potatoes using a cheese grater.
5. In a big enough bowl to hold all of you potatoes add the garlic, onion powder, dill and flour.
6. Mix well
7. Use a mellon baller to keep the size consistent. Butter your hands. The potatoes mixture will be SUPER STICKY. Shape potatoes into tater tot shapes.
8. Heat Oil on medium high and toss the tater tots until they are golden brown on all sides.

Hope you ENJOY!

We made a cream cheese frosting. I'm not fond of the traditional equal parts butter/cream cheese frosting so I make mine a little different. I use a three to one ratio. This recipe will frost about 48 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups of butter (3 sticks) at room temperature
8 ounces of cream cheese
8 cups of confectioners sugar
3 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Whip it good, Whip it real good :-) Until it is smooth and there are no lumps.

I'm still trying to find the perfect white cake recipe so for now I'm not going to list that.

I loved the way the star cupcakes turned out. To get that beautiful midnight blue color I mixed and shook a 3.25 OZ container of black sprinkles with a dark blue sugar sparkle container about half that size. I found both at Michael's. I couldn't find the shade of blue food coloring that I wanted so I mixed a lot of blue with just a dab of black food coloring.

The hardest part about the Minnie cupcakes was the red fondant bow, but even that wasn't too hard. I bought the red fondant from Walmart. If you go to the cake decorating isle it's $10 for a large box, but we didn't need a whole lot. You can also find it on the baking isle with the candles and such for $3-$4 dollars. That amount was perfect. I cut it into strips and we made the bows out of the strips. 

I also love this baked pasta Alfredo dish, Delish! 

Ingredients:

Pasta of your choice. 

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 Tablespoons of flour

1 cup of chicken broth

1 1/2 cups of cream

3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

2 Cups of shredded chicken ( I usually just pick up a rotisserie and use that)

1 1/2 Cups of Mozzarella 

1. Boil your pasta according to the directions on the box.

2. Meanwhile, you can start your sauce. 

3. heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil on just over medium heat

4. Saute garlic until just golden

5. Add in you flour and brown for an addition minute or two taking care not to burn the flour or garlic

6. Add in the chicken broth, cream, parmesan, salt and pepper.

7. Heat just until it starts to boil.

8. Now it's time to assemble your pasta.

9. In a large enough bowl to hold all of your pasta mix pasta and sauce together.

10. Add chicken and stir once more.

11. Place your pasta and chicken in a casserole dish and top with the mozzarella.

12. Bake until the cheese is melted and golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

This may just become your new favorite dish, it is that good!