A birthday is not complete without something to satisfy the sweet tooth! Since I’m determined to use less and less sugar in our diets, I have been experimenting using agave as a substitute, using this website as my guide. My oven cooks about 25 degrees higher so it’s been tricky. I haven’t gotten it all figured out but I’m getting there!
A few days before Miss Emma’s birthday, she said to me, “You’re making homemade ice cream for my birthday, right?” I love this girl. She just has this ability to let everyone know exactly what she wants. And how can you say no to a sweet girl with bright eyes looking at you expectantly. Well, you can’t. So I said, “Of course!” I found this vanilla ice cream recipe to be simple enough and I had most of the ingredients anyway. I substituted the sugar with 1/2 cup agave. It came out so smooth. It might not have been low fat but it was low sugar!
Not only did she know she wanted ice cream, but she kindly drew a picture of what she wanted her cake to look like.
Well, I didn’t oblige her too much on that one. I made a yellow cake with buttercream frosting. It turned out a bit dry. I intend on perfecting this agave, cooking thing! For the frosting, I added a little strawberry jam to make it pink!
Then we had her class celebration on her actual birthday. She has a Barbie magazine that she got in Africa over a year ago. That magazine came with us to the states. She has eyed these butterfly cupcakes in it since her last birthday. Since I didn’t do the cake for her birthday last year, I told her we would do them this year. They were perfect for her class! I made a vanilla cupcake (again with the buttercream frosting). We cut the tops off of the cupcakes after they had cooled and then cut those in half. Then we frosted the cupcake and laid the “wings” on top of the frosting. Emma Grace made the “body” by lining it with jellybeans! Her teacher told me one girl said they were better than chopped steak! (I did take what I learned with the cake and the cupcakes turned out much better.)
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