Channeling my Inner-Kim

Two weeks until Tonio's teacher, Jenny Rienstra, has her baby...and I had to ask myself, What Would Kimmy Do?  A shower seemed obvious!  Lupe (Tonio's little buddy, Monsi's, Mom) agreed and we collarborated to put something together to show Jenny how much we appreciated her and to make sure she had some more things to take care of the baby with!!

Kim loved all of the teachers at Cottonwood.  She absolutely loved to do special things for them and to surprise them.  And, of course, she loved babies!!  She so enjoyed her time being pregnant and every minute with each of our children.  She would get so excited when she heard one of our friends was going to be blessed with a baby.  I tried to channel that, as we planned for this event - and thankfully, Lupe had some great special touches to achieve that Kimmy feel!

Let me start with the cake.  We held Jenny's shower at 10:00 a.m. this morning, so I thought I'd try to make Kim's famous apple-blackberry breakfast cake!  My first challenge...what the hell is a 'spring pan'?  I dug through the cabinets, searching, holding each cake pan that Kim owned up and trying to make it tell me if it was a spring pan.  I finally found the only thing that could possibly be a spring pan.  I was ready.

                               This is only the second cake that I've ever made from scratch.  The directions said to cook it for 55 minutes in a 9" spring pan.  I had a 12", so I improvised and checked it for doneness at 35 minutes.  Close call.  It was done!

I quickly learned that the spring pan is sheer genius!  Simply unlatched it and pop!  Out comes the cake!

   Ingredients:

   Granulated sugar for pan

   1 1/2 cups of flour

   2 tsp baking powder

   1/2 tsp salt

   3 oz (6 tblsp) butter, melted and 2 tblsp cut into pieces

   3/4 cup brown sugar

   1/2 cup milk

   2 eggs

   4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges

   1 cup (1/2 pint) blackberries

   1/4 tsp cinnamon

        Preheat oven to 375.  Butter a 9" springform pan and dust with sugar.  Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, milk and eggs in another bowl.  Whisk in flour mixture.

       Spread evenly into pan.  Arrange apples over batter, sprinkle with blackberries.  Gently press fruit into batter.  Combine 2 tbsp of brown sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over fruit.  Dot with remaining 2 tbls of butter.  Bake until top is dark gold, apples are tender and a knife comes out clean, about 55 minutes.  Cool and serve.

          Came out great.  Thank you Kim.

               We ended up with a nice assortment of fruit, gogurts, rice krispy treats and cake.  Thanks to Isaiah's mom, Julie, for bringing in drinks and staying with us to help serve and clean up!!  Once the sugar absorbed into the kid's bloodstream, things started to get interesting!!

                As I mentioned above, Lupe came through to add the Kimness to the shower:

                         She had each of the children dip their thumb in green paint and then her husband, Manny, drew faces and arms/legs to make them frogs, Jenny's favorite!!  What a nice keepsake!  She also provided the decorations and some great cupcakes.  Lupe took all of the stress out of the details - I really only had to sweat the cake!

                 They were delicious and decorated with a tiny baby rattle!!

                     Tonio loves Mrs. Rienstra!!  He was so excited for today, yet was able to keep it a secret!!  "I suspected something might be up when Lupe was taking the kids into the pod yesterday..." she told me, but otherwise, noone let it slip.  Tonio helped make the cake by adding ingredients and doing all of the necessary whisking!

                 We are all wishing the Rienstra family much happiness and enjoyment when their new little blessing, Nathan, comes into their lives...pretty soon!

                    Love,
                           Dave