Tuesday, June 16, 2009

TWD: Honey Peach Ice Cream

So I've been a bit of a slacker lately. My apologies....between the end of the school year, baseball playoffs, pre-k graduation and a wedding to photograph...I haven't been around much. But I have been baking and creating!

I'm going to post everything in one big lump. I'm out of town for this week so I hope this posts ok on Tuesday.

First off: Honey Peach Ice Cream. Thanks to Tommi of Brown Interior for choosing this summer treat for TWD. I went to the farmers' market and picked up two different kinds of peaches. After reading the comments on the TWD page, I decided to puree all of my peaches so as not to have icy bits in my lovely ice cream.

I also used my vanilla bean paste so that I could see the little flecks of vanilla bean in the finished product.

Mixed it all up and poured it into my Cuisinart ice cream maker. (I love that thing)

45 minutes later....perfection.

I had a little dinner party and all of the kids got ice cream cones for dessert.



Secondly: I did make last week's Parisian Apple Tartlet. Though sadly....I didn't take any photographs. I used the all butter puff pastry from Trader Joe's and cute them into squares instead of rounds. I didn't use any apples but instead chose peaches for two of them. Plums for one and freshly picked, pitted and halved cherries for the last. I think the cherry was my favorite though they were all tasty.

I made them after dinner following one of the baseball playoff games and I was rushed and it was dark and I forgot to get out the camera...bad blogger!

Thirdly: I completely forgot to post the Fresh Mango Bread!

I had a whole story to tell you about when my husband and I lived in Australia...Far North Queensland to be exact...and how we used to pick mangoes in our yard from our mango tree...how mangoes were eaten standing over the sink so the juice didn't get all over you. How we used to eat at a restaurant called Mango Jam in Port Douglas...when Port was a small town. :)

Alas....I forgot to post...so here are the photographs. We loved the bread!

Don't forget to stop by here to see what the others have created.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

I feel a little scattered.....

Just a few photographs to show you what I've been up to while neglecting the posting.

Treats for the end of season party. My oldest son was on the Phillies....we made it to the playoffs and came in 3rd place!!

Vanilla sugar cookies decorated with royal icing.

These were a big hit...almost more exciting than the trophies! :)

And the parent treat:

Because the parents are what keeps the team together.


These were a big hit too...though some people inhaled the powdered sugar. Next time I'll go a little easier there.

Used Cafe Johnsonia's recipe. Which is fabulous as it has double the filling.

And I had some orders as well:

10" 2-layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for an 80th birthday party. I used all my royal icing flowers from my Wilton class #3. I also used Dorie's carrot cake recipe for Bill's Big Carrot Cake subbing dried cranberries for the raisins and omitting the nuts in the batter. It was a big hit.

10" 2-layer strawberry cake with chocolate frosting for an 8 year old's birthday. I used the strawberry cake recipe I found here because it used real strawberries in the batter instead of jello :) and I used the recipe for Instant Fudge Frosting found in my new book: Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes. It's so easy.....made completely in the food processor...and soooo good! As soon as the Cake Slice Bakers' opens...I'm in! :)

And....my first stacked cake for someone other than myself. Thanks to all the other bakers who have made a beach-themed bridal shower cake and photographed it. I looked at quite a few pictures for inspiration.

This was the vanilla buttermilk cake recipe again from Sky High. The bottom layer was a 9" triple layer with fresh strawberry filling and frosted with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. The top was a 6" triple layer filled with lemon curd and frosted the same. I made the shells from white candy melts and painted them with silver and lilac pearl dust. Brown sugar for sand. The bride-to-be was very happy with the end result. And I finally got to try one of my finished products and I was a guest at the shower! Very tasty I might add.

I'm making her wedding cake next Sunday! Just a 2 layer stacked cake for a small intimate church wedding. I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks for stopping by.