Category: Birthday Party

Tiramisu as My Birthday Cake

February 26, 2012 Birthday Party, Cooking, Recipes

My mom is an amazing baker. She makes all her delicious desserts from scratch. When she asked me what I wanted for my birthday, then I immediately replied Tiramisu please. I recently asked her where she found the recipe so I could share it on my blog. She got it off the back of the bag of lady fingers she uses (the brand will be listed in the recipe below). The Tiramisu cake was just as divine as it looks in the picture.

*Note: She usually uses Brandy but did use Marsala which made it taste a little stronger. You could smell the wine more than the brandy. Strange but true.

Tiramisu Recipe

To make tiramisu begin by making zabaglione cream as follows:

5 egg yolks from Large Grade eggs – 1/4 cup sugar – 1/2 cup Marsala

In the top part of a double boiler, beat eggs and sugar together until the mixture is pale yellow in color. In the bottom part of the double boiler, bring water to a boil then reduce heat to simmer. Place egg yolk mixture over water and gradually add Marsala, beating continuously. Scrape bottom and sides of pan occasionally and cook 6-10 minutes until soft mounds can be formed. Transfer to bowl, cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.

1 cup whipping cream, chilled

4 tbsp. sugar

1 lb. Mascarpone Cheese (if unavailable, substitute two 8 oz pckgs. cream cheese combined with 1/2 cup whipping cream and 5 tbsp. Sour cream)

1 recipe Zabaglione

2 cups (16 oz) freshly brewed espresso or other strong brew coffee

1/2 cup Brandy or Marsala

1 tbsp. vanilla

2 7oz pkg Alessi Savoiardi Cookies

3 tbsp. cocoa powder

*Chocolate curls or edible flowers for garnish (optional)

Whip Cream with 2 tbsp sugar until soft peaks form. Fold in Mascarpone and Zabaglione and mix till well blended. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour. On a separate bowl, mix espresso, 2 tbsp sugar, Brandy and vanilla. Arrange 16 cookies on the bottom of a 9″x13″ pan. Carefully spoon about 1 tbsp of the coffee mixture over each cookie so they are well saturated but not falling apart. Spoon 1/3 cheese mixture over cookies and sprinkle with 1 tbsp cocoa. Repeat two more times ending with cocoa. Cover and refrigerate at least 5 hours or overnight so that cookies can soften as they absorb moisture. Garnish and serve. Makes 12 servings.

*My mom does not use either one for garnish and just leaves the cocoa powder on top.

Enjoy the wonderful tiramisu cake and please let me know what you think.

Thrifty Momma Ramblings $50 Gift Card Birthday Celebration Giveaway!

February 21, 2012 Amazon, Birthday Party, CVS, gift certificates, Giveaways, Rite-Aid, Wal-Mart, walgreens

Help me celebrate my birthday by entering for a chance to win a $50 gift card with the Thrifty Momma Ramblings Birthday Celebration Giveaway! Happy Birthday to me today! I promised you guys a giveaway to celebrate my actual birthday (not the blog). While I will not disclose my actual age, flattery will get you extra entries. Just kidding.

I decided the best way to celebrate my birthday is by giving away a $50 gift card! I will have the choices listed below. I also wanted to show off the redesigned blog in my new home. I moved to WordPress which was very simple (ok so I had someone move it for me), but I love being self-hosted on WordPress. I still need to add the final touches, but school is keeping me very busy. I am glad I only took 4 classes this semester. I want to thank everyone for being so patient with me while I made the move.

Now on the actual $50 Gift Card Birthday Celebration Giveaway!

I am using Rafflecopter for the first time and I must say it is going to be much easier to manage the giveaway. I have one mandatory entry of leaving me a comment on which gift card you would choose, and then tell me how you will spend my gift to you! It will be easy as pie (or cake). Yummy!

All the information such as when the giveaway ends (March 4th at 11:59 EST) and the rules are listed at the bottom of the widget. I will say this giveaway is only open to US residents aged 18+. The winner will be pulled using Random.org the following day. The winner will be emailed within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. The winner will need to let me know which gift card they want. Good luck to all who enter. Below are the choices for the gift card. Enjoy.

$50 GIFT CARD LIST:

Wal-Mart
Target
Amazon (online code)
CVS
Walgreen’s
Best Buy
Rite-Aid
Itunes

Guest Article: Child’s Birthday Party on a Budget

December 14, 2011 Birthday Party, Family Life, Personal Finance

The following post was written by Melissa C. who writes for the Blog Content Guild.

Throwing a Child’s Birthday Party on a Budget

Throwing a birthday party for your child doesn’t mean you need to break the bank. There are lots of fun tips and tricks you can use that allow you to save money and will still allow for a memorable time!

First of all, if your child is very young, you don’t need to go out and buy a fancy cake from a bakery. These can be very expensive and, if your child is too young to even remember it, it is a waste of money. Many children love the Funfetti cake mix from Pillsbury that you can find at most grocery stores. You can make a fun cake yourself that will save a lot of money.

Instead of a cake, consider having cupcakes. You can make these yourself easily, or buy them from the bakery for usually cheaper than a cake. This takes the hassle out of having to cut a cake, and if your child is young they may enjoy playing with the cupcake far more than they would have enjoyed having a cake.

If you’re having a theme party, like a Mario party, save by buying minimal amounts of mario birthday party supplies. Instead, make some Mario-themed party-ware on your own. You can bake Mario-shaped cookies or a Mario cake.

Before heading to the store, survey what you already have with an eye for repurposing. If you have some leftover curling ribbon from Christmas, you could use it to tie around balloons. Similarly, some wire ribbon could help you decorate chairs and make the interior of your house colorful and welcoming.
Head to your local dollar store, especially goodie bag items. You can often find lots of stickers and small toys that you can put in small bags and tie with ribbons. It will look impressive to the children but won’t cost you an arm and a leg to assemble.

With some creative thinking and a little bit of planning, you can throw a great birthday party for your child without breaking the bank. Sometimes it could be easy to get caught up into the mentality nowadays of trying to have a birthday party better than any of the other children, but that’s not what is important. The important thing is to give your child a great, memorable time without stressing yourself out, and hopefully these tips will help you keep things in perspective and create a great celebration.

THRIFTY MOMMA RAMBLINGS IS 1 YEAR OLD!

May 14, 2009 Birthday Party, Gardening, saving money

I actually reached this milestone on Tuesday and didn’t even realize it. I’m very excited that my blog is a year old but I admit it’s not where I hoped to be by now. I have no one to blame but me since I haven’t promoted it as much as I should. I am happy with the direction it’s going. At first I did start this blog to do paid posting, but I realized how I much I disliked it. I didn’t have as much control over the content with certain companies, and it didn’t seem worth the effort. While I still hope to make a little money on here, mostly to pay the rent of my blog, I am mostly blogging to share what I’m doing and hoping I can share ways to help others save money. I didn’t know a lot of things when I was a young adult and wasted quite a bit of money. I also racked up a good chunk of credit card debt. I was very fortunate to have married a wonderful man that came from a frugal family. I learned many things from them, and we were able to dig ourselves out of a financial hole. We also have a healthy savings and emergency fund.

Along our adventure I came across some awesome books. The first one, my thrift bible, is The Tightwad Gazette. I have learned so much by reading this great book. It’s where I first learned about the snowball method. Her example illustrated a couple saving for a down payment to buy a house. Instead I decided to use it to pay off our debts. I started with the smallest ones first and worked my up. I had never heard of Dave Ramsey at this point. I probably didn’t do it in the exact way he outlines in his book The Total Money Makeover, but I was pretty close. He is right in the sense that mastering money while paying off debts is more about emotion than about math and logic. If I had used my credit card logically, then I wouldn’t have been in a mess. I also recommend reading his book since it’s a good starting point for getting out of debt. The big key point is you have to stop using credit while digging out of the mess. Otherwise you will never win. Once we stopped using them and cut them all up, then we did dig out of the hole. That is the best feeling in the world to not have any debt! I sleep so much better at night and I don’t cringe every time the phone rings.

Yes cutting out the bigger items like cable, phone plans, getting better rates on your insurance, eating out and such will make a dent in your monthly budget. Doing many of the little things will add up to bigger savings as well. If you can master your grocery bill, then you can save hundreds per month. The bigger the family the bigger the savings. I don’t buy nearly as much food for my family of 3 as someone will with a family of 4 or 5 and more. I’m constantly trying to cut down my bill and still eat healthy. That’s one reason I started a garden so I can make more items from scratch like tomato sauce and it’s healthier. I am using more of an organic approach and not spraying my plants. I am also composting my kitchen scraps along with yard waste like leaves. I just wanted to share a little bit more about me and my reasons for doing the blog. I really hope that all my tips are helping others to save money. I said in a previous post that most frugal tips are good for your pocketbook and the environment. Thanks for reading and I hope to continue writing for another year!