A Little Something....Sweet!

TWD: Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits

2011-05-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

MY TURN, MY TURN, MYYYYYYY TURN!!!

Thank goodness I picked something that takes only 1 bowl, has only 8 ingredients, can be put together in 10 minutes and eaten 10 minutes after that. My choice rocks!

I am so happy to be part of a baking group that challenges me to bake things I might never otherwise make on my own. I love reading everyone's variations every week. Some stick to the recipe as written and more often than not...go way off the recipe and come up with modifications I would never think of. I read them and then of course, have to try them for myself. :)

So anyway, I chose these super easy Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits. I'm thinking chopped crisp bacon might be nice stirred into the dough. Ok, not really thinking...because I KNOW it would be great stirred into the dough. Or cheese...mmm, cheese.

These were served for breakfast this morning. I think I'll seve them tomorrow and Thursday as well...if they last that long. :)

Don't forget to check out what the other bakers' came up with here.

Go out and buy this awesome book....in the meantime, here's the recipe:

Dorie says:

This is not the most well-behaved biscuit you'll ever come across-all that sticky maple syrup and slip-through-your-fingers cornmeal produce a dough that's too moist to roll out and cut into neat little rounds. Here you scoop the sweet mixture onto a baking sheet, count the minutes in the oven and enjoy the surprise: a biscuit that's a cross between a featherlight cornbread and a flaky scone, a breakfast or tea sweet that's outrageously good with butter and jam or honey and just as good eaten plain. In fact, if you ust tasty, gritty, stone-ground cornmeal, the odds are good you'll want nothing to come between you and its sweet, full flavor.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground (I used regular ground cornmeal)
1 TBSP. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
6 TBSP. cold, unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
1/2 cup cold whole milk (I used 1%)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and baking soda together in a bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your finger, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You'll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between-and that's just right.

Stir the milk and maple syrup together and pour over the dry ingredients. Grab a fork and toss and gently turn until the ingredients are mostly combined and you've got a very soft dough. Don't worry if the dough doesn't look evenly mixed.

Use a tablespoon to scoop 12 mounds of dough onto the baking sheet. Bake the biscuits for about 15 minutes, or until they are puffed and golden brown (these won't be straight or tall like traditional biscuite). Transfer them to a serving basket.

EAT!! (I added that part)

TWD: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

2011-05-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

Subtle...that's what this cake is. Not in your face like a chocolate and espresso filled bundt cake...or unobtrusive like a plain-jane vanilla bundt cake...just subtle. :) Kinda sneaky, like you don't know what you're going to get with your first bite, but once you've had it...you've just got to have more.

I like this cake. Perfect when you just want cake. Not frosting or filling, just cake.

I did use ground almonds for some of the regular flour and then of course, added some almond extract. No dried or fresh fruit. Like I said, just cake.

Thank you to Peggy at Pantry Revisited for choosing this cake for this week's cake. I'll be making it again.

Don't forget to check out the many variations here.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Basic Marbled Loaf Cake

2011-05-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

Ok...so this working full time thing is seriously cutting into my baking time. I can't seem to fit it in anymore and I think I'm going through withdrawals!

Many thanks to Carol at The Bake More for picking this week's TWD. This is a simple to put together loaf cake. I think I could bake a few of these in lots of different flavor combinations and just have them in the freezer for you know, whenever I might need one.

I chose to make the chocolate/orange combination. The zest of one orange and 1/2 tsp. of orange extract went into half of the batter and some melted dark chocolate into the other half. I just kind of layered the two into a loaf pan and didn't get all swirly.

If you look real close...you can see the orange zest... :)

I love how each slice you cut looks different. And yes, I had this for breakfast too.

Don't forget to stop by here to see the many variations the other came up with. I can't wait to try one with different colors.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

2011-04-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

A little sweet, a lot buttery, crunchy, and lemony. That pretty much sums up these little cookies. Perfect by themselves and even better with a cup of tea right about 3:00 in the afternoon.

I can picture these with lime, orange and even grapefruit zest added to the sugar.

Thank you to Valerie whom you can find over at Une Gamine dans la Cuisine for choosing this weeks TWD.

Don't forget to check out what the other bakers came up with.

Oh yeah...here's last week's Tourtely Apple Tart...which my kids ate for breakfast all week. :) A big hit at my house.

Ground almonds in the crust and the filling along with soft cooked apples....Hey! It's way better than cereal!

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Strawberry-minus the Rhubarb Double Crisp

2011-04-14T08:46:00.001-07:00

Ok..so...the "T" up there in TWD is going to stand for Thursday this week. I hope no one minds. It's baseball season and I do have my priorities. :)

I had a few issues with this one. Nothing that can't be rectified with a few tweaks. First off, no rhubarb...well, I could find it but I draw the line at buying bright green stalks of rhubarb. This is California!!! It should be plentiful...not this year. It is still in the 30's in the mornings and I can hear the heater kicking on. IT'S THE MIDDLE OF APRIL!!! I should be in shorts and flip-flops by now! Working on my flip-flop tan! Oh well...I'm sure it will be here soon enough and then I'll be complaining about it being 108 in the shade. Never happy.... :)

Ok, let me start off by saying I had no problem finding strawberries. Big, red strawberries for super cheap in the grocery store. Strawberry crisp it was going to be. Add in some lemon zest because I always have a ton of lemons...leave out the nuts and I'm good to go.

This becomes that....mmmm....lemon sugar.

It's still a little sweet for me. I love the crisp topping but the thick, sweet filling is a little too much. Maybe it's the cornstarch added? I think I would prefer just the unadorned berries and the topping. Maybe with some homemade vanilla bean ice cream....oh yeah....

I'll have to try this again when I find some red rhubarb. I like the sour with the sweet and that might just do the trick.

Thanks to Sarah at Teapots and Cake Stands for her pick this week. I enjoyed having this for breakfast. :)

Don't forget to have a look here to see what the others have come up with.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Pecan Powder Puffs

2011-03-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

I look at that title and immediately think Power Puff Girls. I don't know why...I have two boys and neither of them has ever once watched, played with or talked about Power Puff Girls. At any rate..that's what I see. :)

This week's TWD selection was chosen by Tia over at Buttercream Barbie. And these cookies are anything but puffs. Made with nuts (I chose pecans) and just a little cinnamon, they resemble Mexican Wedding Cakes or Russian Tea Cakes. I said resemble because these are so much better than either of the others I have made before. Got that? :)

These are good with or without the powdered sugar. I of course, made a whole batch and took half of them to a friend for his birthday. His favorite cookies are Mexican Wedding Cakes so I had to share.

I just want to remind everyone to remember to let go of some of the little things during the day that maybe weren’t so great....and to find something good in everyday.

Here's mine for today:

Spring is finally here in Northern California and not a minute too soon. With 223" of snow falling up at Squaw Valley in March...I can honestly say...I am ready for some sunshine and warm weather.

Have a look over here for lots of variations on these cookies and thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Citrus Cranberry Sunshine Muffins

2011-03-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

So...this is what happens when I make a half batch of something:

And...this is what happens when I make the full batch of something:

Guess what I did this week....yep. Exactly....the half.

Northern California needs a little sunshine right now...we've got plenty of citrus, that's super plentiful...it's the sunshine we're lacking. These little muffins taste like sunshine. :)

They're bright and cheerful and light with just the right amount of sweet.

I'll tell you what I did. First off, halved the recipe (never again), used dried cranberries instead of currants. I didn't have any lemon extract so I just left it out. Oh yeah, the one thing I didn't cut in half was the lemon zest. I just threw it all in with the sugar. I'm really glad I did...you can definitely taste the sunshine...um, I mean lemon.

You can even see the lemon zest in there!

And..to healthy them up a bit :) I used half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. This kind that I get from Trader Joe's.

My kids came home from school and each had 2. 6-4=2. 2 left for me to eat....or save for the boys...or eat...or save. I can't decide. Maybe I'll just go make another FULL batch. We'll see.

Thanks to Lauryn over at Bella Baker for this week's choice. Certainly a hit at my house.

Stop by the TWD site to see what great combinations of dried fruit/nuts/chocolate the other bakers thought to put in their muffins.

Thanks for stopping by.

Corniest (Not so much) Corn Muffins

2011-03-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

I made these, had a story to tell, and then never got around to it. Something about not doing so much and having lots of free time.

My apologies.

These corn muffins were great. The only thing I did was to omit the can of corn and throw in some shredded smoked cheddar cheese. YUM!

As you can see...I ate them warm with butter. Like there's any other way to eat them? I mean, COME ON!

Thank you Jill. Sorry I'm late. You can find Jill's muffins over at My Next Life and everyone else's here.

Thanks for stopping by.

And then I made these...

2011-03-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, so...I skipped TWD this week. I'm sure you can guess as to the reason. Pots of dark chocolate and cream sitting in front of my two boys and me...my oldest looking at it and grimacing. (It's a texture thing.) My youngest looking at it and asking for leftover lasagna...and you know what would happen next. There would be 3 empty pots and only one dirty spoon. Yeah...not what I needed.

So...why not make cookies instead? That way I can spread the love. I started out just wanting chocolate chip cookies made from the ATC Baking Book. Then I saw the homemade marshmallows on the counter that needed to be used. Why not just chop them up add them to the cookies? And oh yeah, why not just brown the butter for the cookies before adding it to the dough...and forget the chips, let me just throw in semi-sweet chunks.

So these happened....

Really good, really gooey, really chocolaty.

You can go look at all of the other gorgeous Chocolate Pots de Creme here. And you can find the recipe on Christine's blog Black Cat Cooking.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Toasted Almond Scones

2011-02-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, so my 9..almost 10 yr. old boy got an iPod Touch for an early birthday present. I made a rule that he can't download any app or game without asking me first. So now...every 15 minutes he's bugging me about a game or an app that farts at time-set intervals....or a DNA app that tells him he's only 30% related to himself. Don't get me wrong...I have a few games on my iPhone...Angry Birds just MIGHT be one of them...but I might just be re-thinking the rule I made when he got the thing.

Anyways...in between the asking and the farting...I made these scones. Triple the almonds with almond flour, almond extract and well...just almonds. These were a big hit with the younger boy. He doesn't have a huge sweet tooth like the older one and I do. These are perfect for him when he rolls out of bed 15 minutes before he's supposed to be at school. Grab and go...that's what it's all about around here.

Let me just tell you what I did. I toasted some slivered almonds to be used in the dough. I ALSO toasted some almond meal I had lurking in the freezer. I thought the toasting might bring out the flavor a little. Pretty sure it worked. I also upped the almond extract to a little more than 1/4 tsp. Sprinkle the tops with some turbinado sugar and you're good to go!

Ok...just a short post as I'm off to LAS VEGAS for a couple of days for the WPPI trade show. I am also going to meet KARI from RETRO BAKERY! I really can't wait. :) (You might remember how excited I got when my friend Michele brought me back some Retro cupcakes last year here.)

Thanks Mike who is over at LivingOutWest. He has the recipe posted on his page. Or better yet, go buy the book!

Have a look here to see what everyone else came up with.
Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

2011-02-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

Let me just start off by saying....I took the easy way out.

I baked these in a 9" square dish and a loaf pan....kinda like really chocolaty oatmeal brownies...with some cinnamon poking through.

After making 80 rolled, cut and decorated sugar cookies and 3 dozen cupcakes over the weekend...I just didn't feel like scooping and baking an cooling any more cookies. So basically, I was being lazy, but I think it worked for me.

I made a full batch of these. Melted the butter, chocolate and brown sugar together with a little water thrown in. Mix in the eggs, one at a time then combine with the flour/cocoa mixture and stir in the oatmeal.

I had no problem with the chocolate and butter separating as some did. My mixture came together and stayed together just fine.

I dumped half into an ungreased 9" square pan and the other half into a loaf pan. I baked them like brownies. Meaning, still soft in the center. I cut them really small because the batter that I ate straight out of the bowl was super rich.

These are like little chocolate oatmeal cakes. I think I expected them to be fudgier with the way the batter was behaving. Pleasantly surprising...perfect when you need some chocolate and you need it right away. These will be in my freezer. :)

A big thanks to both Caroline and Claire from Bake with Us for choosing this week's TWD.

Check out what the other bakers came up with over at the TWD site.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Great Grains Muffins

2011-02-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

"Nice job mom, this is one of the best things I ever ate."

So....I guess I'll be making these again.

My youngest wants more dried cranberries...the oldest, less. Either way, they both ate them for breakfast and anytime I can get both of them to like the same thing at 7:00am is a win in my book.

I had no cornmeal in the pantry.....what???.....so I just used additional whole wheat flour in place of the missing ingredient. I used the white whole wheat flour I found at Trader Joes and it seemed to do the trick.

No nuts of course, but dried cranberries. I think next time I'll try fresh blueberries. Actually, I think pretty much anything added in might just do the trick.

Ok, so I'm a day late...sorry about that. But I'm glad I baked these up...they obviously were a hit. So a big thank you to Christine from Happy Tummy. :)

Don't forget to have a look over here for these yummy muffins!

TWD: Nutty Chocolatey Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

2011-01-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Oh yum!

I'm just going to tell you straight up that I ate 4 pieces of this cake. Right after I cut it...and one right after another. No breaks in between. Then I had to stop myself because I needed something to take to the brunch I was headed to. As it was, I showed up with pretty much half a cake. I really don't think anyone noticed. :)

A lot of bakers had problems with the cake sticking to the bundt pan. I super-sprayed mine with Baker's Joy and kept the filling away from the sides. No problem with sticking. Mine came out intact.

I also had to kind of use my fingers to spread the batter over the filling at the end. I didn't want the fall out some had a problem with, It seemed to work. Nothing came out when I unmolded.

The one substitution I made was to use lemon zest instead of orange zest. Simply because I had lemons in the house. And oh yeah, left the raisins out of the swirl....that just didn't seem right.

And I got to use nuts in the filling!!! Since this cake was destined to be consumed outside my home...I was able to use nuts. And I used pecans. So the combination of pecans, cinnamon, mini chocolate chips and fresh nutmeg....made for a tasty swirl.

A big thank you to Jennifer over at Cooking for Comfort for choosing this week's TWD.

Don't forget to have a look over here for the rest of the bakers' beautiful cakes.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

2011-01-18T21:29:00.000-08:00

Let's make this short and sweet.

Betsy from A Cup of Sweetness chose this week's TWD.

I have so many lemons....I don't know what to do with them all. I have a lemon tree in my yard...friends drop big bags of lemons at my front door...my parents bring them to me...This recipe helped out a little. :)

I substituted nonfat Greek yogurt for the sour cream because that's what I had in the fridge. I also left off the glaze because I'm keeping them in the freezer. At least one of my boys likes to eat these for breakfast so he'll be in muffins for days.

Bright and lemony with a crunch of poppyseeds. Very nice.

Don't forget to stop by the TWD website to catch up with the other bakers.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Fluff-Filled (Minus the fluff) Chocolate Madeleines

2011-01-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

No ridges...no humps...no filling...but a really yummy chocolate spongy cake dipped in bittersweet chocolate ganache.

This week's TWD tasted really good but was lacking in the looks department.

I don't know what happened with my madeleines. I had my new madeleine pan buttered and floured. I had my madeleine batter chilling in the fridge. I portioned out the batter into the 12 wells of the pan. Pre-heated the oven to 400 then lowered to 350 when I put them in. Baked them for 14 minutes and ended up with smooth chocolate blob looking things.

Each one overran the mold it was in and not one gave me the "hump" or the "ridges" characteristic of the MADELEINE!!!!

Oh well, maybe I just need to try again. This was my first time using a madeleine pan and certainly not my last. I think I'll play around a bit and see what happens.

So...I bypassed filling them with fluff. I did not, however, bypass dipping them in the chocolate ganache. Chocolate dipped in more chocolate? Of course. Why not? And the ganache kind of hid the lack of....things....in my madeleines.

Thank you to Margo over at Effort to Deliciousness for this week's choice. Go to her blog for the recipe and have a look at her beautiful photographs to see how these are supposed to look. Absolutely perfect. :)

Stop by here to see what the others came up with. I saw peanut butter ganache, nutella filling, mini muffins and vanilla cakes. Lots of variations.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Midnight Crackles

2011-01-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Anniversary to Tuesdays with Dorie!!! It's been 3 years that this fabulous baking group has been going and I am happy to say I have been a part of it for 2 of them. My very first TWD post was 11/4/08....Rugelach! I have had so much fun since then. I can't believe that I will have a cookbook that I will have made almost every recipe in. If you were to look at my Baking From My Home To Yours book...you will see a frosting splattered, pencil written, chocolate smeared, well-loved cookbook. :) Like many others I'm sure.

This week's pick was from Laurie and Jules over at Someone's in the Kitchen. Laurie founded the TWD group back in and Jules has been helping her with the site....so very appropriate they chose a recipe together. Together they chose Midnight Crackles...a rich, chocolatey, slightly spicey cookie perfect for sending to people with the rest of your Christmas cookies.

Full disclosure...I made these cookies back in December of 2008 and posted about them, but no pictures...what's up with that?? I didn't bake them from my book but from the December '06 issue of Bon Appetit. So...I already knew I loved them.

A lot of people had issues with the dough becoming to firm if left in the fridge too long. I think I left mine about 1/2 hour and it was fine for scooping and rolling. I used my small scoop so that if I ate 5 in one sitting...I wouldn't feel so bad because hey, they're small!

I still have some of these in the freezer. They're perfect when you want something chocolate. :)

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Midnight Crackles over here.

Oh yeah...when I posted the about the Cardamom Crumb Cake 2 weeks ago...the cake itself had gone into the freezer to be eaten on Christmas Morning. Thanks to all the great comments letting me know I would absolutely love the cake....as you can see, we did. :)

The one with the sweet tooth...

Thanks for stopping by!

TWD: REWIND!!!

2010-12-31T08:20:00.000-08:00

This week's TWD is a rewind....thank goodness.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. My family sure did and now my brother, his wife and their 2 kids are here for a week long visit from Atlanta. We are all headed to Bass Lake for the week along with my two boys and my parents. Skiing, sledding and snowboarding will be on the agenda for the week.

Before Christmas, I received a request for a lemon tart. The person requesting also loves meringue so I combined 2 recipes into 1.

Dorie's The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart topped with meringue from Dorie's Creamiest Lime Cream Pie.

Under the broiler for a few minutes and there you have it. I hear it was a hit.
Don't forget to check out what the other bakers came up with.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a safe and happy New Year celebration!

TWD: Cardamom Crumb Cake

2010-12-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks Jill for choosing this week's "perfect for Christmas morning" crumb cake. I love cardamom and I love cake so the two together is pretty much perfection. A little fyi...cardamom is a common ingredient found in Indian and Scandinavian cooking and a nice change from the typical cinnamon found in coffee cakes.

I'm not saying I would pass up a cinnamon flavored coffee cake...but if it was sitting next to this cardamom one....I think I would choose this one.

This cake was so easy to put together. Mix up the topping, set aside. Mix the dry ingredients, rub the fresh orange zest into the sugar and then pour the wet ingredient over. Pour into the pan and top with the crumbs. 35 minutes later you can be digging in.

I did have a few substitutions and omissions. I left out the walnuts in the topping because both my kids and my parents would be eating this Christmas morning. My kids can't stand nuts and walnuts make my mom's lips swell. :) Not a good start to present time.

The only thing different with the cake batter was to substitute half and half for the whole milk..simply because I had no milk in the house. I have buttermilk, whipping cream and half and half in my fridge....but no regular milk. Somehow that seems so wrong.

I can't comment on the taste as this is going into the freezer for Saturday morning. But with the combination of orange zest, espresso powder and cardamom...I can only imagine it will taste exceptional!!!

I'll let you know.

Don't forget to stop by here to check out the other bakers' creations.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Apple Coconut Family Cake

2010-12-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

Oh yum!

Good thing my kids liked this cake...or I would have eaten the whole thing myself. And no, I didn't cut the recipe down. I made the full deal!

First off...I used sweetened coconut and toasted it. I like the flavor of toasted coconut better than the super sweet of untoasted.

I also omitted the rum, simply because I didn't have any. :)

Oh, and I used Granny Smith apples. No glaze on the top...just a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

There's not a huge coconut flavor in this cake..just a hint. Which is just enough.

Thanks Amber for your.....easy to put together in this crazy month...pick!

Stop by here to see the many variations.

Thanks for stopping by.

Update...photos!

2010-11-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

My friend Monica sent me some photographs from the pumpkin themed baby shower she threw for her sister-in-law.

Look how creative she is! She made the pumpkin mobile and the leaves on the branches had "mommy" quotes written on them.

Monica's daughter L.C. liked the pumpkin cupcakes.

She also gave out pumpkin spice playdough in plastic containers to all the kids at the shower. Can you tell she's a pre-school teacher?

Thanks for stopping by.

How cute are these?!?!

2010-11-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

So, here's the 2nd half of the baby shower order. The theme was fall and I was given free reign.

An order for a dozen pumpkin cupcakes that I could decorate however I wanted. How lucky is that?

I think these fit the bill perfectly.

I used the Pumpkin Browned Butter Cupcake recipe from here and then just frosted them with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting.

A coating of orange sugar sprinkles...a little pretzel stem, some vines and leaves and they were good to go.

They fit in perfectly at the shower. My very creative friend gave out pumpkin playdough as favors to the kids at the shower. Isn't that cute?

Ok...and just so you know...this was my first time making browned butter. Definitely not my last. I might have a little problem with that browned butter....just saying.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Rewind...or Fast Forward?

2010-11-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

So...I skipped the Cranberry Lime Galette because I didn't want to have to eat it myself and my freezer is so jam packed with baked goods that I couldn't stuff one more thing in there.

I'm sure I'll regret it, because I love, love, love cranberries!

Anyway....this week's TWD is a Rewind....which basically meant, I could bake something that had already been chosen by the group or a recipe I happened to miss one week. I did neither. I chose the fast forward route and I baked something completely new. Luckily for me...I had an order for a dozen mini pumpkin tarts and a dozen pumpkin cupcakes to be served at a baby shower.

I wouldn't have to eat anything I baked!!! :)

So..I chose to make Dorie's Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart (page 324) in a bunch of mini versions. The filling is super easy to whip up. Throw everything into the food processor. Process for 2 minutes, pour it into a partially baked tart shell, or in my case...12 tart shells, and bake.

FYI...the recipe says to bake the mini tarts for 10 - 15 minutes, mine took more like 25 minutes.

A little drizzle of chocolate on the top and some lightly sweetened real whipped cream. YUM!

Oh yeah, I sprinkled a little pumpkin pie spice over the tops of them.

Ok...so I did eat 1. But it was in the name of research. I couldn't deliver the goods without checking to make sure they were edible. :)

Check here to see what the others chose for their Rewind.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake

2010-11-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

So....this weekend in Northern California...Saturday was sunny, a warm 79 degrees and I was wearing shorts to my sons' soccer games. Sunday rolls around and it's rainy, gray and a cool 53 degrees. How does that happen? I guess I shouldn't sound surprised...it happens every year here and every year we act like it's the weirdest thing.

Perfect weather for baking though. Especially something reminding me of fall...something with cranberries baked right in. Even though I would much rather be snuggled on the couch in front of a warm fire... :) I had to make do with the oven warming the house.

Let me just start by telling you that the cranberry jam is so very good. Just cranberries, orange zest, oranges and sugar. I could have just made the jam and stopped there. Jarred it and given it away as Christmas gifts. I just might make another batch and do that.

I didn't add any extra sugar to the mixture. I thought it was just right with the 1 cup of sugar added at the beginning.

I also didn't roll the dough. I froze the discs and grated one into the bottom of the pan. Spread the cranberry jam on top and then grated the other frozen disc onto the top. Anytime I can avoid rolling dough...I gladly do just that.

Oh yeah, I did double the recipe and bake it in a 9x13 pan. I thought the PTC would like something other than a bundt cake this month. So this is what they get...hope they like it. :)

However, let me tell you, when you double the recipe...that's a lot of grating...a lot.

And as you can see...I should have pressed the dough together a little more. The top looks a little spaetzle-y. Oh well, it sure tastes good. Not too sweet, very tangy and tart. A big hit in my house. I'll be making this again for sure.

Thank you, thank you to Jessica over at Singleton in the Kitchen. Your choice this week was great.

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

Thanks for stopping by.

Oh yeah!

2010-11-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

It's here......the red cup.

Now, I can go get a Peppermint Mocha.

Because...I can only drink one out of a red cup, anyone else have this problem? Anyone?

See ya. :)

TWD: Peanuttiest Blondies

2010-11-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday and I'm on time for TWD!

Miracle of miracles...

Ok, these Blondies were really easy to mix up and dump into a pan. I did it the day after Halloween...with KitKats, Almond Joys and Snickers bars...all calling my name. I didn't think the kids picked up enough sweets while trick-or-treating so I decided to bake something more!

I'll let you in on something...I make blondies a lot. My oldest does not like full on chocolate, hence, he does not like brownies. WHOSE KID IS HE???

I switched a few things up. I used dark brown sugar instead of light, because that's what I had.

I used mostly natural peanut butter with maybe an 1/8 of a cup of regular peanut butter, because I wanted to use the last of the jar.

I also didn't put the salted peanuts in...otherwise no kid of mine would have eaten them...and you know what happens there.

Dumped in a cup of mini chocolate chips. Oh yeah...I also baked them in a 9x13 pan sprayed with Baker's Joy. No problems there.

The result?

Peanut buttery goodness with some chocolate thrown in for good measure. Because everything is better with chocolate....wait that's bacon. Bacon or chocolate? Bacon AND chocolate! I can't decide.

Thanks go to Nicole from Bakeologie for this week's recipe.

Don't forget to stop by here to see the other baked up blondies.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week if I can keep this up. :)

It's been forever....

2010-10-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hi there...It's been a while. My apologies. I've just had a lot going on but hope to be back on a more regular basis starting.....NOW!

Let me just post a few catch up photos. See, I have been baking along with TWD..and taking pictures. I just haven't had the time to actually sit down and post. So, here you go!

First up...TWD Coffee Break Muffins.

I still have 2 left in the freezer. I love them with my morning coffee.

Next, Double Apple Bundt Cake. I did post this however, I put the cake into the freezer without taking pictures. A week later, after defrosting the cake, I added this thick and yummy brown sugar frosting. Unfortunately, the frosting was the best part of this cake.

I must have done something incorrectly as you can see the denseness in the middle. I don't know what happened as I have made this cake before with beautiful results. Oh well...that just means I need to make it again to get it right.

On to...Fold-Over Pear Torte

My crust was not quite big enough...and I added dried cherries to the pears. Yum. This too was put into the freezer but I managed to actually photograph and taste it prior to being wrapped up for later.

Be prepared for Peanuttiest Blondies this Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Double Apple Bundt Cake

2010-10-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ok...so, let me tell you what I did.

I made this beautiful, fall, apple cake thinking that I was taking it to the PTC meeting Tuesday night. Well, the meeting isn't until NEXT Tuesday night. Don't ask me how I got the dates wrong...I'm on the board for heaven's sake!

At any rate, I wrapped my beautiful cake up tight and tossed it into the freezer....without taking any pictures of it first. So, I will post the pictures next week, after it defrosts and I ice it with the lovely brown sugar frosting Liz from Cake or Death used. :)

For the record, I used 2 Granny Smith apples and 1 Honeycrisp apple grated up. As well as apple butter purchased from the store. I really wanted to use dried cranberries or cherries but didn't have any, so I used raisins and omitted the nuts.

Not sure how it tastes yet but if the smell coming from the kitchen is any indication...it will taste heavenly.

Thanks to Lynne over at Honey Muffin for this nice choice.

Don't forget to stop by the TWD site to check out the variety of Double Apple Bundt Cakes!

TWD: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

2010-09-07T10:17:00.001-07:00

Ok...I'll be honest. I made these twice. The first time I made a mistake and used reduced-fat peanut butter. (I know, the horror!!!) That's not to say they didn't turn out good. They did, just flat, crispy and not at all what I was looking forward to. But it's ok...because I ended up dipping them in bittersweet chocolate and sprinkling some chopped nuts on the chocolate. Took them to a Labor Day BBQ and they were a huge hit.

The second time, I wised up and used regular creamy peanut butter. Much better this time around. Chewy in the middle, crispy on the edges. Half of the dough I made without any mix-ins and the second half I threw in half a bag of milk chocolate chips.

I didn't bother with the crisscrosses on the pb and chocolate cookies. Even on the plain peanut butter cookies, my crosses didn't show up too much.

These are perfect little cookies to have on hand for anything, anything at all. And dipped, take them to a party!

Thank you Jasmine over at Jasmine Cuisine for picking this recipe.

Head on over to the TWD website to see what the others baked up.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies...and then some.

2010-09-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks Donna from Life's too short not to eat dessert first, for picking this coffee and chocolate packed cookie!

The smell of the shortbread itself is enough to make me want to eat the whole batch. But I didn't. I put them in the freezer. Out of sight means hopefully out of mind. (Sure...)

I made the Oatmeal Spice version as well. Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and freshly grated nutmeg.

Perfect to have on hand when someone drops by.

Perfect with a cup of coffee for an afternoon pick me up...or a morning pick me up...or just breakfast.

I used mini chocolate chips in the original version. Chilled my dough for a couple of days and baked them when I had a chance.

Easy.

Don't forget to stop by here to see the other bakers' creations.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

2010-08-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

It's gonna be a quickie.

Natalie from Oven Love chose this week's TWD selection.

A yummy breakfast bread to which I added dried tart cherries.

No butter here...just applesauce and canola oil to hold it all together. Lots of cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg and a pinch of cloves. A quick topping of brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped pecans.

Baked for an hour and came out perfect.

I should have doubled the recipe.

Next time.

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

TWD: Chewy, Chunky Blondies....and a little catch-up!

2010-07-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ok...a day late...but I was camping until yesterday so I'm just going to say "Better late than never."

I make blondies a lot because my oldest son does not like brownies (whose kid is he????). So I'm always willing to try a new recipe. I like that you can mix just about anything in and they will still be wonderful.

This recipe was super easy to put together...even easier after drinking a couple, ok 3, beers...at 10:00pm on a Tuesday. Which is exactly what I did.

I did decrease the amount of brown sugar to 1 cup instead of the 1.5 cups called for in the recipe.

The mix-ins were chocolate chips and butterscotch chips...no nuts or coconut. I was afraid the kids wouldn't eat them with the coconut and then I would of course, eat the whole pan.

I sprinkled some pink Himalayan Sea Salt over the top to cut the sweetness.....mmmm.

I baked them for 47 minutes and they came out perfect. I don't mind a gooey brownie but prefer blondies to be firm...go figure.

Thanks to Cookies on Friday for the great choice.

And on to last week's TWD selection...which I made in time to post but worked all day Tuesday and left for camping Wednesday. Luckily I have a few pictures.

Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunites chose the always wonderful Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake.

I made this cake last year. I made it in a bundt pan and topped with powdered sugar. It was really, really good.

Freshly grated nutmeg!!!

This time I made cupcakes and topped them with a cream cheese frosting. A few chocolate shavings on top made this version absolutely great.

I served them at a work meeting and they went fast.

Stop by here to see the other creations.

TWD: Brrrr-ownies

2010-07-13T06:09:00.000-07:00

This week's TWD is perfect for a summer day. Cool, chocolatey, minty....brownies with peppermint patties chopped up and mixed in.

This recipe was easy and all made in one bowl! I love that.

Melt butter and chocolate. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla and a pinch of salt with the flour.

Mix in the chopped up peppermint patties and you're good to go.

No problems with sticking (buttered foil lined pan) or glue like texture.

I'm taking these babies camping.

Thanks to Karen over at Welcome to our Crazy Blessed Life for picking this week's yum recipe.

Stop by here to see what the others have come up with. I can't wait to try these with peanut butter cups!

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes

2010-06-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

(Yeah, that's a big clump of the seeds from a vanilla bean...didn't quite get rubbed into the sugar all the way.)

Thank you to Wendy from the very super cute blog Pink Stripes for choosing this week's recipe.
Straight forward and to the point...the title says it all.

Lots of eggs, heavy cream and melted butter and the seeds from 2 whole vanilla beans...not to mention the rum. :)

I made 1 regular sized loaf and 3 mini loaves in disposable aluminum pans. I used most of the rum syrup on the regular sized loaf cake so that my kids could eat the mini loaves.

Very nice with a cup of coffee or tea....and tomorrow for breakfast. Toasted with a little jam???

YUM!

Stop by the TWD site to see what the others baked up.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Tender Shortcakes

2010-06-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

This week's TWD was chosen by Cathy at The Tortefeasor. Thanks Cathy!

I can remember, as a kid, eating strawberry shortcake made with those spongey cakes that were shaped like a hockey puck with a little indention in the top. I guess this was to hold the strawberries and Cool Whip and keep them from falling off the top. I think then we moved onto Angel Food Cake in place of the spongey cakes. I remember a couple of times my mom actually made biscuits from Bisquick and we might have even had real whipped cream with those.

I don't think I'll be having any of those things again. These little shortcakes came together so easily and they are so good I think I will always keep some on hand.

I made a full batch and froze half of the cakes unbaked. To the other half I sprinkled the tops with a little raw sugar and baked them for 18 minutes.

The only other change I made was to use half and half in place of the heavy cream....because that's what I had in the fridge.

Simple, simple and simple.

I ate one sliced in half with some chopped strawberries...naked. (Not me, the cakes!)

Simple and sweet.

Stop by the site to see what the others have baked up.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: White Chocolate Brownies (Fail)

2010-06-02T09:49:00.001-07:00

Ok...this will be short and sweet. I'm sick in bed.

I grind the almonds...it's all good.

I have no oranges...leave it out..still good.

I melt the white chocolate and butter...starting to go bad. Separation, big time.

Added it into the batter anyway. Fresh raspberries I found on sale plopped on top.
Leaving the meringue off as I'm planning to freeze the brownies.

35 minutes later...bad.

40 minutes later...bad.

45 minutes later...pulled from the oven and definitely not good.

Let me re-phrase. The edges were good. Very, very sweet. The middle? Very, very undercooked. Oh well. Into the freezer they go to be enjoyed at a later date.

Thanks to Marthe from Culinary Delights for choosing this weeks controversial recipe. :) Lots of people had problems with the baking time. But that's why we are here...to try new things and see how they turn out.

Click on over here to see what the others have baked up.

TWD: Cherry-Cherry Bread Pudding

2010-05-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here's what's different:

Cherry jam (from Trader Joe's....the kind with the whole cherries in it) replaced the apple butter.
Pitted and halved fresh cherries replaced the apples.
Half and Half replaced the cream.
1% milk replaced the whole milk. (The pudding was still very rich.)

I used Challah bread from Trader Joe's.

I didn't let the bread pudding sit for the required 30 minutes after pouring on the custard. I added the custard mixture and popped it straight into the oven. I also didn't have a roasting pan big enough for my 9x13 Pyrex. I baked it on a jelly roll pan and added enough boiling water so that it didn't overflow onto the bottom of the oven.

I baked it for an hour at 325....let it sit for 10 minutes and dug in. (Hey...we were in a hurry)

The final result was delicious...not too sweet...just tart enough with the cherries and the cherry jam. The halved cherries held their shape and did not turn to mush. I think this is the perfect breakfast dish. Eggs, milk, fruit and bread...that's breakfast!

Next time I might add some chocolate!!!

I'll post the pictures tomorrow...it's too late (and dark) tonight.

Thank you to Elizabeth at Cake or Death for this week's pick for Tuesdays With Dorie. Check out her blog for the recipe...or better yet, buy THE BOOK!

Check out the other bakers here.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

2010-05-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

Here it is...or what's left of it.

I took this to a birthday party along with this huge Hot Chocolate cake. (Post on this baby coming up.)

We ate it all with the cake...I had to save this little bit for TWD.

Thanks to Becky from Project Domestication for picking this gem to kick off summer!

I don't think I cooked my custard long enough...it was still a little, no a lot, soft. Even after the ice cream maker had it's way.

No worries...I just put it into the freezer and stirred every 45 minutes for about 3 hours. It turned out just fine. Better than fine...smooth, creamy, caramel-y.

As you can see...better than fine.

Don't forget to check out the other versions of this summer kick-off.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Choc-a freakin-block Cookies

2010-04-27T05:21:00.000-07:00

I honestly don't think I could have fit much more into these cookies. They were certainly chock full of mix-ins. Let's see, there was chocolate chips, raisins, coconut, oatmeal and butterscotch chips.

I left out the nuts because nobody in my family will eat cookies if they have nuts in them. I think the nuts would have cut the sweetness a lot...but then I would have ended up eating all 43 cookies by myself. Not so good.

I scooped these pretty big and didn't get much spreading. Like others have said, you could taste the molasses plenty in the raw dough...but once the cookies were baked there was just a little hint of the flavor.

There is a big ziploc bag full of these babies in my freezer. Perfect for lunch boxes of late night snacks. :)

Thanks Mary. Your blog Popsicles and Sandy Feet makes me think of summer...even while it's pouring rain and windy outside my window.

Oh yeah, here's my Swedish Visiting Cake I made but didn't post about because I was so flippin' late. It was yum too.

Slivered almonds and the lack of any lemon zest anywhere in my house necessitates the need to have to bake this again.

Wouldn't pass this up in a pinch though.

Don't forget to take a look here to see what the others baked up.

TWD: Sweet Cream Biscuits

2010-04-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

Melissa at Love at First Bite chose this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe, Sweet Cream Biscuits.

These babies were so easy to whip up I made a batch in the spare hour I had between work and picking up the kids from school.

A little all-purpose flour, a little cake flour, some baking powder, salt and sugar all mixed together with some creamy cream. I flaked with the fork...and because I was so paranoid about over-working the dough, I think I ended up under-mixing. I patted the dough into a square and cut little circles out with a biscuit cutter.

After reading notes from other bakers, I chose to place the rounds pretty close together on the baking sheet...hoping this would help the rising. Well, they didn't turn out sky high but they're not hockey pucks either.

Straight out of the oven, sliced open with a little homemade lemon curd spooned in the middle..heaven.

Check out the other biscuit bakers here.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Mocha-(Not) Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

2010-04-06T00:46:00.000-07:00

I'm here and on time with photos!!!

Erin from When in Doubt...Leave it at 350 chose this bundt cake this week for Tuesdays' with Dorie. I changed up a few things.

I had whole walnuts in the freezer and ground toasted hazelnuts in the freezer too. Which do you think I chose to go with?

Yep, the hazelnuts. Once less food chopper to clean.

The only other change I made was to sub buttermilk for the whole milk because I needed to use it up.

I didn't get much of a marble effect....which could be because I didn't drag my knife through the batter. Ya think? I dumped 3/4 of the vanilla batter into the pan and the the chocolate/coffee right on top and left it.

I did however, serve a slice with a little warmed Nutella on the side!! Now...that's heaven.

This cake was dense and flavorful and tasting of hazelnuts and mocha. I will be making this again...and I will try for more marbling next time.

Don't forget to stop by here to see the other bakers.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD:.Coconut Tea Cake

2010-03-30T22:49:00.000-07:00

I made it...I made it...I just can't find the pictures at the moment. As I write, I'm taking all the photographs off my desktop so that I can load them onto the laptop. Hopefully I will find the one of this beautiful little cake.

Thanks to Carmen of Carmen Cooks...we TWD bakers got to bake up the Coconut Tea Cake. I made this cake a while ago using the playing around version by adding lemon zest to the sugar and the juice of half a lemon to the coconut milk and butter.

YUM!

I'll update as soon as I find the photos......

Stop by here to see what the others have created.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hmmmm....what have we here....

2010-03-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

Wow! Look at this:
My friend Michele, she of the persimmon, lemon and fig trees, went to Las Vegas for her Uncle Bobby's birthday.

I knew she was getting the custom cake from Retro Bakery...because she got one last year at the same time. Remember this post?

Well....she brought me back a little something.

RETRO FREAKIN' CUPCAKES!!!

They made it through airport security all lovingly wrapped in plastic by Kari. :) (I know this because she said she loves me!)

Here's what I got...

A Peanut Butter and Jelly.

A Coffee and Donuts.

A Hopscotch.

And....a Maple Bacon. Can you see that huge piece of bacon in the cupcake?

Michele said Hopscotch would change my life...but I'm here to tell you that it was
MAPLE BACON that did it.

They were all super moist and yummy and lots of buttercream...but I really liked the contrasting flavors of the sweet maple and salty bacon.

The PB&J tasted just like a pb&j.

The coffee buttercream on the the Coffee and Donuts was to die for.

The Hopscotch was super sweet and a friend of mine who really likes butterscotch inhaled most of it. It was really good but maybe a little too sweet for me.

If you are in Vegas anytime soon.....get your arse to Retro Bakery.

One day I'll be Kari...tattoos and all. :)

Oh yeah...I got a free t-shirt too! wOOt!

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

Irish Soda Bread....warm with butter.

So easy and so yummy.

Find the recipe here.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Thumbprints For Us Big Guys....and catch-up.

2010-03-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

THUMBPRINTS!!!

I thought they were only for Christmas...well not really...but that seemed to be the only time I made them.

Thanks to Mike from Ugly Food Dude for this week's TWD pick, I will be making them more often.

Needless to say, my kids really enjoyed the fact that these babies are their lunchbox cookies for the week.
I substituted ground walnuts for the hazlenuts because my parents have about 5 walnut trees on their property and I always have a bag of freshly shelled walnuts somewhere in my freezer.

I used my thumb for the indention because....they're THUMBPRINTS!!!!
I also used apricot jam...because that's what I had.

I just ate three of them typing this post. Nice.

Check out what the others baked up over here.

AND.....

Last week's TWD: Toasted Coconut Custard Tart chosen by Beryl of Cinemon Girl fame.

Certainly better late than never.....I loved this tart!

I omitted the rum...substituted unsweetened toasted coconut in the custard....and made a bunch (4) of little tart shells in my mini brioche pans. Go figure.

I also used 2 larger ramekins for the remainder of the crust.

A little lightly sweetened whipped cream and a perfect mini dessert.

Like I said...better late than never.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: My Best Chocolate Chip (Chunk) Cookies

2010-02-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

Yep they're flat....but I expected it.

After reading all of the comments I knew going in that the final result would more than likely be a flat cookie. Flat is not my favorite kind of chocolate chip cookie. I prefer fat and cakey...but I'm always up for something new.

Kait of Kait's Plate chose these chocolate chip (chunk) cookies for TWD this week.

I chopped the chocolate instead of using chocolate chips. This may be my new preferred way to add chocolate to a cookie. I used part of a big bar of bittersweet chocolate from Trader Joe's and that was a lot of chocolate to add to the batter. The good thing about chopping your own...the big chunks that were just a little too big for the cookie...got eaten with raw cookie dough attached...Yum.

I did add 1/4 extra flour to the dry stuff and also added 1 1/2 TBSP. of espresso powder with the vanilla. After scooping the dough onto the silpat, I froze the sheet for about 30 minutes before baking. I think that might have helped a little with the spreading.

These cookies are really good....but I still prefer this one. Simply because it's fat and cakey. My preference.

Check out the others to see their results.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

2010-02-09T13:31:00.000-08:00

This week's TWD was chosen by none other than Tanya of Chocolatechic. Of course she would choose something gooey, chocolately, fudgey and all together yum!

After reading the reviews I was very very careful to cover page 90 so that I wouldn't follow those instructions by mistake. :)

The one thing I did forget was to include the chopped bittersweet chocolate in the melting step along with the unsweetened chocolate. I was getting ready to add the beaten eggs and sugar to the chocolate mixture when I saw the bittersweet chocolate staring at me from the scale.

I melted it separately and added it to the already melted chocolate....I don't think it made a difference.

I poured all of the batter into a foil lined 9 x 13 pan and baked the pan for 15 more minutes than Dorie recommended.

After the brownies cooled I chucked them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. They were super easy to lift out of the pan and cut while cold.

These might be the best brownies I have ever made. I think this is the first time I have made them when the edges weren't burnt and the middle left gooey. They were so good. I even tasted a hint of salty chocolate.

Definitely a keeper.

Don't forget to check here for the other variations....some bakers preferred to leave them gooey...not that there's anything wrong with that. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: (Dark) Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

2010-02-02T06:30:00.000-08:00

Eating mini's of anything makes the world seem right.

This week's TWD was chosen by Kristin of I'm Right About Everything. She chose the Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes which is listed on pages 188 and 189 of Dorie's fabulous book.

I switched it up a bit by using 70% dark chocolate bars in place of the milk chocolate. If I'm going to have chocolate...I'd better be able to taste it! I'd read that these were subtle with the milk chocolate and I just couldn't have subtle. I also used buttermilk in place of regular milk as suggested in the "playing around" section of the recipe.

I didn't have a mini bundt pan but I did have a Cupcake Bundt Pan from Nordic Ware. This had 12 wells and the amount of batter in this recipe was perfect.

I also switched up my swirl....half had mini chocolate chips and the other half had toasted coconut in the middle.

After reading about all of the problems with the glaze...I was clenching my teeth as I was stirring the corn syrup into the melted chocolate. I only used half the amount of corn syrup and the glaze turned out perfectly smooth.

Dusted with powdered sugar...these are the perfect nighttime snack. Not super chocolatey...just enough to get your fix.

And they're minis....so go ahead and have two.

Don't forget to stop by here to check out the other bakers.

Thanks for stopping by.

See...I'm not that bad...

2010-01-28T11:25:00.001-08:00

Created by Oatmeal

TWD: One week behind...

2010-01-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

So....today's TWD was supposed to be Cocoa-Nana Bread chosen by Steph at Obsessed with Baking. Somehow I lost a week and now I am a week behind on the baking schedule. Who knows what happened...all I know is that I will never get that week back!

As you can see, these are my Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars which were chosen by Lillian over at Confectiona's Realm for LAST week's TWD.

The only thing I did differently was to substitute dried cranberries for the raisins.

3/4 of the pan of these babys went into the freezer to be consumed at a later date. I ate the other 1/4!

Don't forget to check the TWD site for the more current (than I am) and up to date bakers.

Thanks for stopping by. Next week I promise to have Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes to share with you. :)

TWD: Celebrating an Anniversary!

2010-01-05T10:55:00.001-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie marks a milestone...It's our 2nd Anniversary!! Now, although I haven't been baking along with this group for that long...I have been in it for over a year and it was the reason I started this here little blog. I have learned a ton from Dorie, her book and all of the other bakers in the group. Lot's of tips and hints, trials and failures. I so enjoy looking at everyone's blogs and reading their interpretation of the recipe of the week.

For this special celebration, we could choose to make either the Tarte Tatin or the Cocoa Buttermilk Cake or both.

Since I had previously made the Cocoa Buttermilk Cake for a client.....

Cocoa Buttermilk cake decorated with Malt Balls.

I decided to make the Tarte Tatin this time.

I prepared the puff pastry ahead of time and put it in the fridge. I also caramelized the apples about and hour ahead of time.

I then took everything to some friends' house. So I showed up with a cast iron skillet full of carmelized apples, a cookie sheet with a 9" circle of puff pastry, a silpat and a big plate for the tarte.

The only thing that gave me a problem was the caramelizing. My caramel took a lot longer to turn amber than 15 or so minutes. Even then, I thought the apples were a little on the pale side. Looks didn't matter in this case though as this tasted delicious with some vanilla bean ice cream on the side. A nice ending to a nice dinner and super easy to put together.

Don't forget to stop by the TWD site to see what the others baked up.

Thanks for stopping by~

TWD: Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake

2009-12-30T10:39:00.000-08:00

Here's the deal...I made this cake in plenty of time to post yesterday...but then the flu struck and it all went to h-e-double toothpick.

I made this for our Christmas Eve family get together and it was a huge hit.

I piled on the whipped cream and raspberries and then shaved some milk chocolate over the top.

Very rich, very lush, very delicious.

Here's where the problems start again.

I was in a hurry to get to my cousin's house on Christmas Eve so I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the finished product prior to leaving.

There were a lot of other dessert there so I knew that mine wouldn't get eaten entirely...that's fine, I only needed one slice to take home for a picture.

When we left that night I had about 3 slices of cheesecake left so I knew that would be perfect for photographing the next day.

Well...Christmas...presents..brunch...kids etc. No time to photograph. Someone had a slice for dessert and I assumed they cut a wedge to enjoy.

I was wrong.

They scooped a bunch out of the middle of the cake and I no longer had any wedges.

Oh well...here's what I had left.

Top view

As I said, it was delicious....and I'm not a cheesecake lover.

Here's a little wedge I was able to salvage.

This was super easy to make and there are lots of ways you can dress it up.

Thanks to the Tea Lady over at Tea and Scones for her choice of this yummy dessert for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie.

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

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: My Favorite Pecan Pie

2009-12-22T05:26:00.000-08:00

Probably my favorite now too....

Tuesday's with Dorie this week is brought to us by Beth over at Someone's in the Kitchen with Brina.

I've only ever made one pecan pie before and that was when we were living in Australia. It was Thanksgiving time and a friend of mine really wanted a pecan pie. Being the only American within a 50 mile radius I said I would make her one.

Bad idea....I ended up baking it for something like an hour and a half and the thing was like a hockey puck..a super sweet hockey puck but nonetheless, she ate it and then thanked me!

Never again....I'll bake pies that are easier to gauge when are done.

Then came this pie. Not so sweet and easy to bake. I took Dorie's word for it that the pie would be done when puffed and not jiggly and you know what? She was right!

My crust got a little crispy and brown and lost it's crimping but still tasted good.

I omitted the chocolate and espresso powder in this pie because this was a Thanksgiving dessert and I was also bringing the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake to the Thanksgiving feast.

A little brown sugar whipped cream does a body good.

This pecan pie is a simple, flavorful pecan pie. What a pecan pie should look and taste like! And Dorie's right, you can taste the pecans.

Don't forget to stop by over here to see what the other bakers' have created.

Thanks for stopping by.

Here's hoping everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!!

Still on a quest for the best...

2009-12-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

...cranberry sauce.

I have a thing for cranberry sauce. Always have. I am the one to bring the sauce to the Thanksgiving feast, wherever we happen to be. I love trying out different recipes, adding different spices, ingredients etc. I don't think I've made the same sauce twice.....ever. I love how you can combine a bunch of ingredients with whole cranberries and after turning to mush after cooking for a while, it still ends up tasting great!

So when I saw this recipe over at Noble Pig, I had to try it out. This sauce uses canned mandarins, a chopped up apple, orange marmalade, raisins and curry powder among other ingredients. (These are just the ones that you might not find in every cranberry sauce recipe.)

It sounded intriguing to me.

So..I used 4 fresh mandarins instead of the canned. I live near the foothills of Northern California and it is mandarin season around here....it would have been sacrilege to use canned! I left out the raisins and used dried cranberries instead (out of raisins) and I chopped up a Pippin apple picked from a friend's tree.

After combining with the rest of the ingredients, bringing to a boil and simmering for about 45 minutes...I had a yummy sauce.

I'm not sure if this is the ultimate sauce for me. I will continue on my quest. In the meantime, enjoy this version and let me know what you think.

And while I was there, I saw this recipe for Sweet Potato Pie with Marshmallow Meringue Topping. I am so making that next.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cranberry Crumb Bars....AKA Something everyone will like when you bring it to their house on a moment's notice

2009-12-10T00:22:00.000-08:00

Trolling through the food blogs I found this recipe here.

Since it's cranberry season and I have cranberries in my freezer just waiting to be used, I decided to go to the grocery store and pick up a few more bags!

Hey, they're on sale right now. At least that's how I am justifying my purchase to myself.

This is so easy to put together and tastes so good. The fresh cranberries are left whole so there is no need for chopping. There is a crust on the bottom and a crust on the top (from the same dough mixture, the topping just has some added cinnamon) and a beautiful cranberry filling.

I didn't have any oranges for the fresh juice so I just poured in some Tropicana.

Deeeelightful!

Go make your own right now!

TWD: Sables

2009-12-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

Update: Added some pictures for your viewing pleasure :)

I wanted to get this up on Tuesday so I'll add the photos tomorrow. No light today and I refuse to use flash :) We did get snow though!

Bungalow Barbara chose this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection. These tasty little cookies can be found on pages 131 - 133 of Dorie's book. The nice thing about these cookies is that they can be made sweet or, with a couple of omissions and additions, savory. I think I'm going to try those next.

The dough comes together quickly and once you roll it into logs and chill for a couple of hours in the fridge, it's good to go.

I doubled the recipe so that I could use the cookies for Christmas give aways. I also changed up the original recipe by using the playing around spice version. I added cinnamon, ginger and freshly grated nutmeg.

The dough chilled for 3 days in my fridge.

Once I brushed the logs with the beaten egg yolk, I sprinkled one with green sparkling sugar and the other with red and white. Sliced them up and baked them for 17 minutes exactly.

They turned on really nice. Crisp and buttery....spicy with a bit of crunch from the sparkling sugar. I'm afraid I could eat and eat and eat these and not realize what was happening until they were all gone. Perfect for teacher gifts.

Have a look over here to see what the others baked up.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD...late: Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake

2009-12-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

I debated about even posting this as I am so late...but my pictures were pretty and the cake was so very good.

Thanks to Katya of Second Dinner for choosing this cake. Perfect to take to a dinner with friends.
Found the chestnuts at Whole Foods.

And the vanilla sweetened chestnut cream

It did take me 3 days to make...in stages....but it was the centerpiece dessert for Thanksgiving and being not too terribly sweet, it went over very well.

I didn't have a 9" square pan. I used a 9" round and made 3 cupcakes with the extra batter. Good thing I did, the cake rose right to the top of the pan.

They're little chestnut cupcakes filled and iced with the chocolate caramel and then the glaze (ganache) on the top.

I didn't have any problems with the glaze not firming up...in fact it firmed up to SPREADING consistency in about 2 hours. I spread it on with a spatula.

I dusted the chestnuts with some gold dust (edible) and then flicked it across the top of the cake. You can't really tell in the photograph, but it's there.

All in all a complete success. Don't forget to stop by here to see what the others baked up.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Cran-Apple Crisp

2009-11-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

So easy, so good, so TART!!

The recipe for this weeks TWD, chosen by Em from The Repressed Pastry Chef, was really easy to throw together. Most of the ingredients I keep around so this could be something to make up at a moment's notice.

I threw in some extra fresh cranberries so I could use the last of the bag. Right now I think I have a total of 5 bags of fresh cranberries in the freezer. I tend to stock up on them at this time and then use them throughout the year...you never know when you might need cranberries!
I also subbed in half whole wheat flour. I threw all the topping ingredients into the food processor and pulsed for the full minute. I thought I blew it at the beginning when the topping started to resemble powdered sugar but I kept it on and it all came together to form large clumps. Does anyone else think their food processor is more trouble than it is worth. Anyone?

I made my crisp as one large one in my beautiful red Martha Stewart baking dish. Very festive. I assembled everything and then brought it over to some friends' house for dessert. I baked the crisp when I got there and it made the whole house smell like the holidays.

We served it with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Wow...this thing packs a pucker punch! Everyone loved it...not too sweet and just the right amount of crunch in the topping.

This is all that was left the next day.

I ate it for breakfast because it had oatmeal and fruit in it. :)

Don't forget to stop by here to see what the others have made this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mixed up TWD: All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

2009-11-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

This month TWD is all mixed up....As I have a PTC meeting to attend tonight I chose the beautiful All in One Holiday Bundt cake which Britin at The Nitty Britty selected. If you don't have Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours yet...go out and pick it up! It's a wonderful baking book and this recipe can be found on pages 186-187.

I love bundt cakes and have been following Mary from The Food Librarian as she makes one bundt a day during the month of November for National Bundt Day on November 15th. Some of hers look absolutely wonderful.....wonder if she'll make this one?

This sure lives up to the All in One Holiday part of it's name...pumpkin, fresh cranberries, apples and pecans not to mention cinnamon, ginger and fresh nutmeg.

Here's what I used:

I was going to roast my sugar pie pumpkins but decided to use those for a pumpkin pie so I can get the full pumpkin flavor.

I used apples from a friend's tree:

I used the one on the left...the smaller ones are perfect kid-size!

Dropped them down the side onto the counter.

Chopped up some frozen cranberries.

For some reason I had been thinking that this recipe used dried cranberries and even stocked up on some this weekend at Trader Joes. Good thing I had some fresh in the freezer...but I bet it would be fine with the dried.

I left the pecans out of the cake...not sure all the parents like nuts.

Mine took 54 minutes to bake.

Naked bundt:

Fancy dress bundt:

I used the maple glaze Dorie mentions and sprinkled some chopped pecans on the top. They can scrape those off if they don't want them. :)

Perfect for a holiday table....or classroom table....either is fine.

Don't forget to stop over here to see what the others came up with.

Thanks for stopping by.

As Michele put it...Autumn Deliciousness!

2009-11-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

My friend Michele, she of the persimmon, lemon, fig trees, and I made apple cider donuts at her house last Sunday.

It was an experience.

I found the recipe on the Smitten Kitchen blog. The dough came together very easily. We doubled the recipe to make more donuts, if you can imagine. The reducing of the apple cider is not a step to be missed...both in the donut batter and the glaze for the topping.

Remember to keep you donut dough/batter? not sure which one to use here...cold prior to cutting and frying. Ours got a little soft and we couldn't cut the donut shapes.

Also...frying just 3 at a time in a small deep fryer works best. We couldn't turn the donuts over if there were more than 3 in there at a time.

I like the cinnamon/sugar topping the best and they are heavenly when eaten warm!

Thanks to Michele's mom for finding us the fall plate. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Some cakes

2009-11-05T00:43:00.000-08:00

I have been busy again! I love it and would never complain....I'll show you what I've been working on:

4 dozen chocolate and vanilla cupcakes frosted with vanilla and chocolate frosting. Simple fall colored decorations. These were for a wedding rehearsal dinner. :

A fun cake for a 16th birthday party. Alana's mom gave me a photograph of what she wanted and I went from there:

Bottom tier is a 9" vanilla cake with fresh strawberries and vanilla SMBC. Top tier is the same but filled with lemon curd. All decorations are homemade marshmallow fondant except for the "16" which was made from gum paste. (Wires weren't edible) Please excuse the quality of the photograph, I was in a hurry to deliver!

A Dora cake for a little girl turning 4:

10" chocolate cake with vanilla SMBC and homemade MMF decorations. Store-bought Dora candle.

2 dozen mini chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting for a birthday celebration at school:

2 dozen s'mores cupcakes for a Halloween party.

Love the ghostly faces

A Jack Skellington cake for a birthday close to Halloween:

9" vanilla cake with lemon curd filling and lemon SMBC. Fondant face. I do believe my smooth icing is improving!

Isn't that the cutest cake you've ever seen? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

TWD: Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

2009-11-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

This month's Tuesdays with Dorie selections are different. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday this month, we are allowed to post any of the 4 chosen recipes on any Tuesday this month. Since I plan on making the fancy Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake for Thanksgiving dessert, I chose to make these lovely cookies first thanks to Pamela over at Cookies with Boys.

These babies do pack a wallop of flavor! Spicy, sweet, peppery...all that goodness. I didn't put the "large" pinch of cracked pepper in the mix...stuck with the "small" as the kids will be eating these. I also rolled the balls in turbinado sugar prior to baking. I like the finished look of the cookies I didn't press down before putting them in the oven. I think you can see the sugar crystals clearly and I think they're prettier :)

These cookies taste like Christmas. I kept half of the dough in the freezer to make later this month as it has been about 85 degrees here for the last week...it sure doesn't feel like fall/winter here!

I'm also excited this week as a friend of mine from high school who moved to Colorado and started a family has joined TWD!!! Shelly, whose blog can be found here, and I have kept in touch throughout the many years we have lived far away from one another and I am happy we get to do this together!!

Stop by here to see what the others baked up.

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins

2009-10-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday. It's cold, wet, rainy and windy today. Unlike yesterday which was clear, warm and dry. Typical Northern California weather...we went from summer to winter in one day. The poor trees are always so confused...do we turn colors or just skip that and fall straight to the ground? It's the same every year, but every year we act like we've never experienced it before! Roads are flooded and trees are falling...I think I'll stay inside and bake the day away.

This week's TWD selection was chosen by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.
The fall smelling and tasting Allspice Crumb Muffins can be found on pages 16 and 17 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Not much playing around with this recipe except to substitute buttermilk for the whole milk and adding a few raspberries to half the muffins.

My kids will love these for breakfast!

Don't forget to check out what the others have baked up over here.

Thanks for stopping by.

See...I have been busy :)

2009-10-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

I had a few orders and made some cakes:

Some friends of mine had a small church ceremony for family prior to taking off to Cabo San Lucas for their wedding celebration. They had a little lunch reception at a restaurant here in Roseville and I made their wedding cake.

Bottom tier is a 2 layer 10" vanilla buttermilk cake with fresh strawberry filling and vanilla SMBC. Top tier is a 2 layer 8" vanilla buttermilk cake with fresh lemon curd filling. Same frosting. Brown ribbon and scrolling topped it off. The top is a little wonky but not bad for my first wedding cake!

I made a birthday cake for an 8 year old boy born on the Fourth of July!!

10" chocolate cake with strawberry filling on the bottom and 6" vanilla cake with strawberry filling on the top. All iced with vanilla SMBC. Fondant stars.

A first birthday cake for Addi:

10" vanilla cake with fresh strawberries and vanilla SMBC. Addi's mom asked for a pink, black and green color theme....and Addi got her own little smash cake on the top. The ladybug is vanilla cake as well. All fondant accessories and all edible except for the antennae.

I love the ladybug trail.

(Pictures of this cake were taken with my point and shoot camera....my apologies for the quality :) )

A Princess cake for Ella's 4th birthday:

I didn't really know what I was doing here and thanks to all the inspiring princess cakes over at cake central.

The towers are rice crispie treats covered with homemade MMF. Next time I would let the treats sit out a little longer to harden. They were very soft and kind of wobbly...the kids loved them sliced up though!

And finally....a baby shower cake:

I was given a link to the bedding the mom had picked out and a cake flavor and that was it! The decorating was totally up to me. I think I do better with specifics...I looked at too many green and brown cakes and couldn't narrow it down!!

This is a 10" 2 layer spice cake (yay for spice!) with cream cheese frosting on the bottom. The top layer is 1/2 spice and 1/2 chocolate with cream cheese frosting. Homemade MMF decorations. The mom-to-be was happy with her cake and I think it matched the bedding perfectly.

Anyone have any tips for smooth icing a cake? I'm up for anything.

Ok...I'm gearing up for next week...4 dozen chocolate and vanilla cupcakes for a wedding rehearsal dinner and a 16th birthday cake! Wish me luck :)

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Chocolate Un-Crunched Caramel Tart

2009-10-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Now known as: GOOD LORD, SOMEONE TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME IMMEDIATELY!

This week's super spectacular yum-yum was chosen by Carla at Chocolate Moosey.

Really, no words are needed....

I could have eaten the whole thing myself. Luckily my friend Michele (of the lemon, persimmon and fig trees that I so often take from) was having a birthday last week so I was able to off load half of the tart to her. Two pieces to another friend with a birthday...and then I ate the rest!

The only change I made was to leave the nuts out so my tart was un-crunched and super smooth.

I will definitely be making this again, and again, and again. I need to get myself some tiny tart pans....that would be awesome!

Don't forget to stop by here to check out the other bakers.

Thanks for stopping by.

See...I did make them

2009-09-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

These Flaky Apple Turnover were last week's TWD pick. Julie from Someone's in the Kitchen chose them for her hosting week.

My 5 yr old and I picked the apples from a neighbor's tree.

We put all the rotten apples in a pile for them to pick up. (I would have done it but I only brought along one bag...for MY apples)

We were very careful of the little bird and her nest when picking.

Chopped them up.

Dropped a raspberry on a few.

Chopped up some caramels on a few.

Made some into little bundles.

Sprinkled the tops with raw sugar and.....

....there you go. Passed some out to the neighbors with the apple tree. We loved them.

I have 9 tucked away in the freezer to be consumed at a later date.

Thanks for stopping by.

It's still Tuesday isn't it?

2009-09-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...total slacker. I really have a good excuse....but who really cares? I'm here now and it's not like I haven't been baking. I have...but finding the time to take the photos off the camera...onto the computer, and then sitting down and actually writing something? That's the hard part!

These Cottage Cheese Pufflets that Jacque from Daisy Lane Cakes chose for this week's TWD adventure were not my favorite thing to make. But that's the whole idea of this baking group, right? To venture out and try new things. Don't get me wrong, the taste is lovely I just get frustrated when something is not going the way I think it should be going! :)

Should have chilled the dough more...even more than I did. I used apricot jam for the filling and my kids don't care what they look like. :)

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

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Classic Banana Bundt Cake

2009-08-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

A little something from Wikipedia:

A Bundt cake is a dessert cake cooked in a Bundt pan forming it into a distinctive ring shape. Bundt cake is pronounced "bunt", the "d" being silent.

The bundt may have originated from the German Gugelhupf, a ring shaped cake. The word bundt appears as early as 1901 in The Settlement Cookbook, written by Lizzie Kander of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bundt is used instead of bund in a recipe for "Bundt Kuchen."^[1] The aluminum Bundt pan is a variation of ceramic cake forms and was trademarked in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, founder of Nordic Ware, based in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, who developed it at the request of members of the Hadassah Society's chapter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ^[2] They were interested in a pan that could be used to make bundkuchen (sometimes called kugelhopf or Gugelhupf), a popular German and Austrian coffee cake. Similar cakes were made in Europe in Germany, Austria and Hungary with similar traditional kugelhopf pans. The old-world pans, with fluted and grooved sides, made of delicate ceramic or cast iron, were heavy and therefore difficult to use. He modified some existing Scandinavian pan designs and fashioned the pan out of aluminum.

Since introduction, more than 50 million Bundt pans have been sold by the Nordic Ware company.

The women of the Hadassah Society called them "bund pans". The German word bund in bundkuchen originated from bundling or wrapping the cake's dough around the pan's center hole^[3] (in German the final d is pronounced like a t). Dalquist trademarked the word bundt, and Pillsbury licensed the name in 1970 for a line of cake mixes.

National Bundt Pan day is November 15.^[5]

And there you have it...a little history on the bundt.

Mary of The Food Librarian already knows the history of the bundt because she loves, loves, loves the bundt cake! It is pretty perfect. It's portable, feeds quite a few people, not too messy and baked in one pan.

I love them too and with school starting up soon...I'll be making and naming them again. (For the PTC meetings :) )

Thanks Mary for picking this simple but dee-lish cake for this week's TWD.

I subbed plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream and dusted the top with powdered sugar. I am taking this baby camping with us this weekend so it's cooling it's heels in the freezer.

Don't forget to stop by here to check out what the others have baked.

Thanks for stopping by.

And the secret ingredient is....

2009-08-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

....Rosemary!

Whoulda' thought? I admit, I consider rosemary to be more of an herb for savory uses...not so much the sweet things. But I have reconsidered.

I found this recipe for Rosemary-Lemon Sandwich Cookies over on the Better Homes and Garden site. I had (still have) such an over-abundance of meyer lemon juice that I was searching for something lemony and different to use them up. I didn't want lemon bars again...or lemon bread. (I made 2 of Ina's loaves) I was looking for something different.

These cookies are wonderful! Not too sweet with just a hint of the rosemary coming through. They are basically a tender lemon sugar cookie sandwiched with the to-die-for mixture of lemon curd and mascarpone cheese.

I didn't make my own lemon curd because I had a jar of TJ's curd in the pantry.

I could down this mixture in one sitting...no problem!

I made the cookies a head of time and then just put them in a ziploc in the freezer for an opportunity to present itself. The opportunity was last night. A appetizer and cocktail get together with some old friends from high school. I brought these little gems along with the mallow cookies I made (another post, another time). Both were a big hit.

I loved that these were made in one bowl....less dishes! Super easy. I think next time I might actually sprinkle a little coarse salt on the top of the cookies before putting them in the oven. It would have cut the sweetness of the filling a little and brought out the rosemary a bit more.

....because I will be making these again, for sure!

Thanks for stopping by.

**Update....a friend suggested these cookies could be made into thumbprints! I agree. Indent the cookies before putting them in the oven and when they come out and cool....fill with the lemon curd/mascarpone filling. HEAVEN!

TWD: Vanilla Ice Cream

2009-07-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

MMMMMM....nothing beats home made vanilla ice cream. Pure, unadulterated vanilla ice cream. Dairy perfection.

Lynne from Cafe Lynnylu chose this weeks selection for TWD from the wonderful book:

Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Let me start out by saying...I'm not really much of a plain vanilla type of girl. Well I wasn't until I made this ice cream. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love vanilla flavor and the smell...but as far as ice cream goes...I prefer to have a little something extra when I eat it. My favorite ice cream to order at the ice cream shop is Rocky Road. You have chocolate...something crunchy...something soft...a lot going on the Rocky Road. Even with store bought vanilla I would add something to my bowl. Most of the time it's mini chocolate chips...but never would I eat it undressed.

Well, that my friends, has changed.

There is no need to add anything to this ice cream. The flavor speaks for itself.

The only change I made was to use nonfat milk in place of whole milk, because that is what I had in the fridge.

I also used one of my pleasantly plump vanilla beans. I believe that is the most important step...the steeping of the bean with the milk/cream combo. Sooooo good.

Beat the yolks and sugar together until thick. (I used frozen egg yolks I found in the freezer.)

Cook the egg/sugar mixture together with the milk/cream/vanilla bean mixture until thick and then strain into a heat proof bowl. Only a few scrambled egg scraps! :)

Everything else went according to plan. Chilled the mixture in the fridge. Took the puppy to the vet for her 2nd set of shots. Came back and poured the mixture into the ice cream maker. 40 minutes later....perfection!

I did eat all 3 scoops!

Don't forget to stop here to check out the other bakers.

Thanks for stopping by!

And finally...

2009-07-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

I think I am caught up now.

Denise of Chez Us chose the super yummy Brioche Plum Tart for TWD.

I had to think ahead for this one.

My family was going to Lake Almanor for the week and I really wanted to bring this along. Dorie mentions that this is best eaten the day it is made. What to do? Well...we were leaving on a Thursday...so...I prepared the brioche dough Wednesday afternoon and left it to sit overnight in the fridge. Thursday morning I got up super early and baked the tart before we left. I loaded up the warm tart into the front of the truck with us (pure torture!) and hauled it up to Almanor. Well, we didn't end up eating it that night...we had it the next night (Friday) for dessert. Yes it was a little soggy but it sure was good. Everyone loved it and there was not one piece left for breakfast!

I didn't have any issues with the brioche dough...but had an issue with lifting the dough from the bowl and letting it fall with a slap. First of all...it was very sticky so there was no slapping involved. Secondly...I couldn't lift it neatly from the bowl...was I supposed to oil the bowl first? Not sure. It ended up all over my hands. I also didn't slap the dough down every 30 minutes for 2 hours. I just didn't have time. I left the dough in the fridge to rest overnight and it all seemed ok.

(Sorry for the quality...it's my point and shoot!)

As for the plums....I picked these up at the farmers' market Tuesday morning. They were so pretty inside...white and purple with some streaks of green inside. I also had a handful of red and gold raspberries, blueberries and blackberries that I threw on top of the plums.

I sprinkled the top with turbinado sugar and baked it with a foil tent for the last 15 minutes. The dough browned really quickly.

Another winner!

Check out the others here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Here's another....

2009-07-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Another TWD that is.

Lisa from Surviving Oz chose the wonderful Tribute-To-Katharine-Hepburn Brownies. She also won the TWD new avatar contest! She is also a fellow American married to an Aussie..just like me! She however is living in Australia...and her blog is wonderful and funny and brings back a lot of memories for me of living in Australia before we uprooted and moved back here!

At any rate....I made these when I was supposed to...just didn't get around to posting. So here we go.

I read all of the comments and still didn't change anything in the recipe. Yes I tasted cinnamon...but just the right amount. Yes I tasted coffee (I used instant espresso powder)...but again, just the right amount. The only changes I made were to leave out the nuts because I don't like them in my brownies...and I only used 3.5 ounces of chopped chocolate instead of the 4 ounces called for. Sorry, but my bar was only 3.5 ounces.

I unloaded the good stuff:

I baked them for about 37 minutes and they came out just right. Not gooey at all.

I cut them into small squares as they were very rich.

Definitely a keeper!

Don't forget to check out what the other's created.

Thanks for stopping by!

A-Ha.....bet you thought I'd never be back!

2009-07-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well....things have calmed down a little around these parts. Not too much, just enough for me to write a few lines about things I have baked up.

Now...I know I am so completely late on all of these TWD but I did bake them before the deadlines....just didn't get a chance to post. So now I will dole them out slowly... :)

TWD: Perfect Party (Cup) Cake

The family and I had a 3rd of July party to attend and I was bringing the dessert. This recipe was calling to be made into cupcakes. I loved the cake part. Very light...a hint of lemon...and the cakes didn't fall apart when I coned them.

Look at all of that lemon

I used buttermilk in place of regular milk and didn't have any lemon extract so I just used vanilla.

Here's the jam I used

The full recipe made 26 cupcakes and I filled the liners about 2/3 full. The cake turned out so pretty and completely white.

I cut a cone out of the top and filled them with the jam and replaced the top.

No problems with the buttercream but I was in a hurry to finish and get to the party so I just slathered the frosting on top...smoothed and added some blue and red kissables....see red, white and blue! No time for filling a bag and piping.

Kinda looks like a smiley face!

In addition to bringing the jam filled vanilla/lemon cupcakes...I brought along a batch of these too.

Martha's S'mores Cupcakes or (Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow).

They were gone in a flash.

I didn't have a chance (or a torch) to brown the marshamallow frosting but nobody seemed to mind!

Thanks to Carol of mix, mix...stir, stir for her choice. Stop over at the TWD site to see what the other on-time bakers have created.

I swear I'll be here....if not today...

2009-07-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

then tomorrow!

I know, I know....I'm a total slacker in the blogging department. I have shirked all of my baking club responsibilities for summer at home with 2 kids. This of course involves day camps, swimming lessons, camping with the family and weekends on the boat.

I have baked all of my TWD assignments, just haven't had a chance to post them. I feel a large post coming on.

I will be back this week with photos and musings...thanks for stopping by!

TWD: Honey Peach Ice Cream

2009-06-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

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.

I feel a little scattered.....

2009-06-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Here's what I'll be drinking...all summer long

2009-05-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

Now that the hot weather is here....my drink of choice from Starbucks is a Venti Shaken Passionfruit Iced Tea Lemonade with a shot of Raspberry Syrup....it's nice, cold and refreshing. However, as I am currently not of the working (outside of the house) world it gets to be a bit pricey.

My solution: Make my own! I know...simple, huh?

I started out with this:

I made sun tea using 7 tea bags and sat my jar in the sun for about 4 hours. I also kept the tea bags in the jar overnight in the fridge.

Then I used these:

When I asked my neighbor if I could have some lemons from her tree, she brought me a bag of 27 lemons.

I used the recipe I found at Simply Recipes to make the lemonade.

Then I combined half iced tea and half lemonade in my glass....and it was right on.

(Minus the passionfruit, plus the pomegranate.)

Thanks for stopping by....

TWD: Chipster Topped Brownies

2009-05-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Ok...maybe a little much with the cookie dough baked on top of the brownie. Don't get me wrong, I love them both but after this recipe I think I will keep them separate.

This week's selection was chosen by Beth over at Suppilicious.

After reading the comments over at the TWD site, I got a little concerned about my brownie layer not baking through. I did not have a problem with that. My issue was the cookie layer...pretty much raw save for the top crispy layer of golden brownness.

Chocolate and butter melted and ready for the brownies.

Here's how it turned out. Brownie layer into the pan perfectly. Tasted lovely. Mixed up the cookie dough layer, which tasted lovely as well, plopped it on top of the brownie layer which had set up just enough to keep the cookie dough on top. Easily spread the cookie dough over the top of the brownie and into the oven it went. No problems with dough mixing, chocolate chips sinking. Everything looked good to go.

No problems here.

Now....here's where I may have run into a little problem. My cookie dough was nice and browned on the top, the tester came out with a little bit of chocolate on the top, so I pulled them from the oven and set them aside to cool. When I lifted them out of the pan and cute them...the top pretty much shattered at every slice. What I had on my hands was a perfectly baked brownie layer....a raw cookie dough layer...and then a pocket of air ??? and a nice thin crispy layer on top.

Is this supposed to happen?

I was able to get a few from the outside edges to take to my Memorial Day BBQ. Everybody loved them and they were very tasty. I did still eat the raw bits in the middle! :) I just don't know if I would make these again. There were a lot of dishes... a lot of ingredients and like I said, I think I prefer the two elements separate.

Thank you Beth...I always enjoy trying something I have never baked before....that's why I joined!!

Check out what the others came up with over here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Put da lime in da coconut

2009-05-25T11:21:00.001-07:00

I have a friend who had a birthday a while ago and I wanted to make her a birthday celebration cake. I asked her what kind she would like and she said "pie". Well....I am not a great pie baker...yet :) so I asked if she was to have cake, what kind? So she says...no frosting...no layers...not too sweet and I like coconut.

I found the perfect cake for her.

The Key Lime Coconut Cake in the March issue of Gourmet.

It is baked in one 9x2 pan.....1 layer.

It is topped with coconut....no frosting.

It has key lime zest and juice in the batter and on the top....not too sweet.

I made this just like the recipe says. I even found a bag of key limes at Wal-mart so I was able to stay true to the recipe. But jeez, have you ever tried to juice a little key lime? Or zest them? And I swear it took me like 20 limes to get the amount of juice the recipe called for. (I might be exaggerating a little, I didn't count while juicing. It sure seemed like that many!)

The recipe says to bake the cake in a 9x2 pan. Make sure you do that! I accidentally baked mine in a 9x1.5 pan (Why I have one I don't know) and the cake rose over and spilled onto the handles. No mess just a little misshapen cake on the bottom...nothing a knife and my mouth couldn't handle.

The end result was nice and refreshing. A great summer treat.

I would have liked the cake to be a little more moist...ahh, hate that word :) so next time I would double the amount of glaze for the top of the cake. I poked holes with a wooden skewer so that the glaze would get down into the cake. That helped a lot.

Oh yeah, I left out the rum as kids had some of the finished product.

Happy Memorial Day....let's not forget.

Thanks for stopping by.

Here I am BBs.....

2009-05-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

Barefoot Bloggers I have not forsaken you. This month's bonus recipe is The Barefoot Contessa's Lemon Cakes. Lovely Little Lemon Cakes. Of course I used some of my Meyer Lemon stash. I made these for my 2nd grader to take to his teacher during teacher appreciation week. I baked them into little loaves as his teacher has 3 daughters she needed to share with. They were a hit!

And I baked one large loaf for my pre-schooler to take to his teacher. She didn't have anyone she had to share with....except her husband.

Unfortunately, I didn't save any for myself. (Or fortunately if you happen to be talking to my hips!)

The teachers both told me their loaves were delicious!

Can't ask for anymore.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bummer

2009-05-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

My first attempt didn't turn out too well.

Puffy tops but hollow inside.

Used Trader Joe's Almond flour which has the almond skins ground up in it. Ok it you don't mind the speckles.
(With some leftover blackberry buttercream....someone told me it looked like ham! Ha!)

Think I folded too much.

I'll try again!

Let me tell you about these little beauties....

2009-05-18T15:51:00.001-07:00

I had an order for 1 dozen mini cupcakes for a baby shower. I wanted to try something a little different than the vanilla/chocolate combo so I found this recipe over at Love and Olive Oil. Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Fresh Blackberry Buttercream. Sounded light and summery and girly at the same time with the pink frosting piped on top. So pretty too. (I love the piping on the ones there!)
Batch #1. You can kind of already tell something went wrong with the numbers listed huh? I didn't even realize that the recipe was a vegan recipe until I started making them! My first vegan cupcake. This recipe uses coconut milk and almond flour too. Ok, so I started my first batch and the batter was oh so tasty. Poured some into each mini cupcake holder. (The batter was very thin) Popped them into the oven and took them out when the toothpick came out clean. After cooling I got this:

Major sinkage.

Batch #2. Made it again but this time left out the baking soda and reduced the baking powder to 3/4 tsp. These turned out better but still didn't puff up. Either the way, both batches tasted great. The sinkers were just a little more dense. Still tasted of vanilla, almonds...a hint of the coconut and the blackberry buttercream....oh yum.

I made little fondant flowers to put on top and big ones to scatter around the tower. Oh yeah, one extra large cupcake for the mom to be.

I think I still need to work on this recipe and I like that it was vegan (without the buttercream though that would be an easy enough fix). It's always nice to have diversity in your repertoire!

They were a hit at the baby shower and that's what matters!

Thanks for stopping by....

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

2009-05-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Summer has come to Northern California...well technically it is still spring but this weekend we are expecting heat in the triple digits...nothing like bypassing spring all together!

For the time being...let this spring-y tart surprise you with it's tasty twists and turns.

Thanks to Barb from Babette Feasts for choosing this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection.

As you know...I typically have an over abundance of Meyer lemons around here. I put them to good use here.

This recipe uses the whole lemon!! No wasteage, I like that.

The taste is not what you would expect, it does have an edge of bitterness but I enjoy that it is not so sweet-tart. And the crust....just like a shortbread cookie! I used almond flour in mine...I love that you can see the little flecks of almonds in the crust. :)

Check out what the others have created over here.

Thanks for stopping by...I'm off to try my skills at.....MACARONS!!! I'll keep you posted.

I'm Out!

2009-05-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

No TWD Tiramisu cake for me this week. Too much going on. I will post something yummy later.

Make sure you check here to see what the other bakers have created.

Thanks for stopping by.

Finally!

2009-04-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well...my Wilton class #3 is finally completed. I was getting tired of making all of that icing, buttercream and royal, and then not using it and having it in my fridge for weeks. I must say that covering a cake with fondant is not so scary anymore. I do still need a lot of work getting it smooth and pretty but at least I know the basics...measuring to cover, rolling, putting it on the cake and smoothing it. So many fun things to make with fondant too! Now I need to find the time.

Gift cake lesson #2.

I did try to make all of my cakes/icings something yummy so my kids would enjoy eating it. This cake was strawberry cake with a strawberry jam filling iced with vanilla buttercream covered in fondant. This was Wilton fondant and should not be eaten!! :) Not a very nice taste at all though some people in my class loved it.

I do have a recipe I use for my own fondant but since I was in the class I wanted to use theirs to see how it differed from my own. Mine is much softer and I haven't tried to cover a cake yet...only decorations. That is my next project!

This was my final cake for class #3. A stacked cake covered in fondant and decorated.

I'm glad I took this class. I learned how to properly stack a cake with correct support structure using dowels. The top layer is vanilla cake with fresh strawberries and orange buttercream frosting. I took inspiration from the Cake Slice Bakers for the bottom layer. Chai spiced cake with honey ginger cream cheese frosting. Wow! Yum!

I covered both layers with the Wilton fondant again and made the little marbleized "ribbon" with fondant as well. Buttercream dots and flowers finished it out.

A little bumpy, a little lumpy..I'll work on that

Lessons learned:

1. Square cakes are easier to cover with fondant than circles.
2. Get your icing as smooth as possible before covering with fondant!

Do I want to take class #4?

TWD: Playing around with the Chocolate Cream Tart

2009-04-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Should I? Shouldn't I? Should I? Shouldn't I? I really shouldn't...I have so much to do this week including my final stacked cake for my Wilton class #3....blondies for Karate promotions...a couple of cakes due...but Oh, I really want to. Just to try it. And it so happened, I had a frozen good for almost anything pie crust dough in the freezer...some cream to use up and a baggie of 4 frozen egg yolks. It was calling to be made.

I used the playing around method Dorie suggests in the book...because the chocolate version didn't have enough calories. :) I made a coconut cream by boiling cream with sweetened coconut until it was thick. I used the regular pie crust and baked it in my tart pan. Should have used the pie pan like Dories suggested but I really wanted the tart shape!

After the coconut cream was cool, I spread it on the bottom of the crust then topped it with the bittersweet chocolate cream. A little whipped cream on the top sprinkled with some toasted coconut and OMG!!!

I cut of piece of the tart just to photograph...well I needed to taste it to make sure it was edible....I finished the whole piece. It was that good! Bittersweet chocolate with sweet, smooth coconut cream and a crunchy shortbread-y crust. Heaven!

Check out Scrumptious Photography for the recipe and some amazing photographs. Don't forget to click here to see what the others have created.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cupcake Bites for Little Wonders

2009-04-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here are the little cupcake bites I made to participate in Holly's (Phe/MOM/enon) Blogging for Babies - Little Wonders event. The purpose of this event is to raise funds and awareness for the March of Dimes, March for Babies.

Most of you might be familiar with them, but for those that aren't, they are the leading non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to pregnancy and baby health. Their mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality, through research, community services, education and advocacy.

My entry are these little cupcake bites I found over at Pioneer Woman's site. She made them with Bakerella when Bakerella visited The Ranch. I want to visit The Ranch so bad.

These were super easy and I brought them to a friend's birthday night out at a dance club. I know they don't have clubs out at The Ranch...they probably make their own version of a dance club there. I wouldn't miss not having clubs. :)

I used a red velvet cake mix...baked it in a 9x13 pan...and crumbled it all up when cool.

I then added a tub of cream cheese frosting. I think next time I would add just 3/4 of a tub. They were very very moist.

Mixed it all together and rolled little cake balls with my hands. I would have used a scoop but didn't have one small enough.

I put the pan of cake balls into the freezer and they actually sat in there overnight.

The next day...I melted Candy Melts in dark cocoa flavor and put a little in each candy mold. Plopped a cake ball in and set them in the fridge to harden.

After removing them from the mold, I dipped the tops in a mixture of red and white melted Candy Melts (Michaels was out of pink when I went to buy them!) topped with a mini M&M and some sprinkles and there you go!

They're only tiny.

But quite good.

Ready for the club. :)

Want to know more about Little Wonders March for Babies Team? Fantastic!! Here is the Team Page. Any amount that you can sponsor is extremely appreciated. Please, please help spread the word and sponsor Little Wonders if you can! Thank you!

Hospitality at the PTC Bundt Cake

2009-04-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Another PTC meeting...another bundt cake. I found this recipe for Blueberry-Lemon Bundt Cake on Martha's website. This is not a light cake...more like a pound cake...a really good lemon with fresh blueberries in it pound cake baked into a bundt cake shape.
It's a pretty straight forward recipe and the only changes I made were to rub the lemon zest into the sugar prior to creaming it with the butter rather than mixing it in with the blueberries. I also used fresh frozen blueberries that I had frozen last summer and wanted to use them up before buying any more fresh.

I made a simple lemon juice and powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over the top....delish!

No TWD this week...

2009-04-23T09:16:00.000-07:00

...I've been sick and haven't felt like baking or blogging....not to mention that for 3 days this week the temperature was 95...IN APRIL!!! The last thing I wanted to do was turn on the oven. That would have meant turning on the a/c. There is no way in h-e-double toothpicks that I am turning on the a/c IN APRIL!!

I feel better now and HERE I AM!!

Here's something I made prior to our mini heatwave.

Crunchy Banana-Maple-Pecan Breakfast Muffins that I found over at Noble Pig. Only I left out the pecans and only used 1 frozen overripe banana instead of the 2 the recipe called for...because that's all I had in the fridge. If you haven't visited the Noble Pig, please do so. Cathy lives down the street from me (well, down the freeway and then some) and the whole family is getting ready to move to Oregon and have their own vineyard, and make their own wine, and live in the country....I will live vicariously through her.

These muffins are perfect to throw in the freezer and remove as needed. They are multi-purpose muffins. Great for a snack, breakfast or dinner if your husband and children have gone fishing for the day and won't be home until after dark.

These muffins are hearty and chunky and have lots of good-for-you stuff in them. Whole wheat flour, oat bran and granola make them super filling. The substitutions I made...in addition to leaving out the pecans because my family won't eat them and only having one banana...included:

Leaving out the mini chocolate chips and only topping half the batch with them.
Adding dried cranberries to the batter.

You can also fill the muffin tins almost to the top without having spill over. Easy, filling and super yummy.

Thanks for stopping by...

TWD: 15 Minute Magic Chocolate Amaretti Torte

2009-04-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hmmm....I think I must have done something wrong...

I did make a double batch, could that have been my downfall?

Used Baker's Joy?

Pans too small?

Cooked too long?

Because this is what happened:

But I squished it back together and that one is in the freezer.

The other one we ate for dessert on Easter Sunday. I made the almond whipped cream which I beat too long...sigh...

And a little strawberry sauce to serve with it because I needed to use up some over-ripe strawberries.

Everyone loved it, but I thought I could have done better...isn't that always the case? :)

I think I might serve the other one as Dorie suggests...Hot Fudge Sundaes.

It sure tastes good at room temp, with a cup of coffee, at breakfast time!

Click on over here to see what the others baked up.

Thank you to Holly over at Phe/Mom/enon for choosing this weeks "whip up in no time" dessert. If you haven't visited her blog...make sure you do. She is phenomenal :). Right now she is posting about the 2nd Annual Blogging for Babies event in support of the March of Dimes. Everyone can participate....I already have my baking idea in my head!

Skipping TWD this week...

2009-04-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

Not only are bananas my least favorite fruit on the planet (can't even stand the smell) but neither one of my kids like whipped/pastry cream and only one likes the banana. Well, I guess I could have made it and given it away but I made something else instead....have a look see:

Yep....Smitten Kitchen's Homemade Oreos!

Recipe adapted from Retro Desserts, Wayne Brachman

Now...these won't stay around for long. They are going to my youngest son's Easter party at pre-school. I debated whether to do these or sugar cookies and frankly, didn't want to spend a day frosting cookies...so Oreos it was. (I also had some left over Whoopie Pie filling in my fridge that I needed to use up :) )

In her post, Deb indicates that you can leave out a full 1/2 cup of sugar if you want the more authentic less sweet taste of an Oreo chocolate wafer. I did that and of course she was right. It also cuts the sweetness of the filling. Oh...and I didn't use her recipe for filling...I had made Whoopie pies for a baseball snack a week ago and needed to use that filling up. It uses marshmallow creme, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. It was super soft and runny so I added about a cup of powdered sugar and beat it for a few minutes. That did the trick. Deb's recipe calls for butter, vegetable shortening, powdered sugar and vanilla so you can see the difference.

Let me tell you...I'd rather eat these over anything banana any day! And of course, I did....someone had to eat the singleton.

Wow...who new painting my fingernails would serve a purpose, considering I paint them about twice a year! (Does anyone think that might be too much filling for an Oreo?)

Make sure you stop by TWD to check out what the others made....and thank you to Amy from Sing for Your Supper for making this week's selection. If I liked bananas...I sure would have baked along with you!

Thanks for stopping by....

Would you like some candy little boy.....

2009-04-04T17:48:00.001-07:00

Here's a cake I made for a friend's birthday. He has a thing about a "crunch/moosh" factor when eating desserts. He has to have something crunchy to match the mooshiness of the cake and frosting..ta dah! I think this fits the bill.

Once again I used Bakerella's fantastic recipe for moist (the word I hate most in the English language :) ) yellow cake and baked it in 2-9" pans instead of 3-8" pans because, well really, I don't have any 8" pans! The remaining batter made 6 mini cupcakes. This recipe has you cool the cake layers in the pans for 5-10 minutes and then taking them out of the pans and immediately wrapping in plastic wrap. She's wasn't kidding when she said she'd found it...the resulting layers are very soft and moist. I did not add the sugar water spray this time as I felt the layers didn't need it.

After cooling completely, I sliced each of the 2 layers horizontally and filled and frosted the cake with Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting substituting half the milk for hot brewed coffee.....sweeeeeet!

I broke the KitKats into twos and dabbed some frosting onto each section, stuck them on the cake and filled the top with Hershey's Kissables. Tied a ribbon around for safety reasons :) and it was good to go. Just an FYI...the cake weighed about 7 pounds! :).

Many thanks to my new FB friend Rayelle for inspiration....if you are in the DC area...she's the one to call for all your cakery needs! Thanks Rayelle!

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea.....

2009-04-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

...Spongebob Squarepants!

Here's a birthday cake I made for a friend's daughter. She turned 4 and wanted a spongebob cake. I used Bakerella's recipe for the vanilla cake and iced it with a plain vanilla buttercream. There is a layer of chocolate filling hiding inside. I couldn't quite get my buttercream smooth...still working on that...and didn't want to cover the whole cake with fondant. I compromised and used fondant decorations, some hand formed and some rolled and cut. The feet are Swiss Rolls :)

His arms are a little skinny, but I made those before making the cake and didn't have anything to go off of...From this angle he looks a little woozy!

I think it turned out ok...we'll see what she says.....

TWD: Coconut Butter Thins

2009-03-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

Shoulda' been called Coconut Butter Butter Butter thins!

Jayne from The Barefoot Kitchen Witch chose this weeks TWD recipe from the book: Baking From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Let me start out by saying I enjoyed making these cookies. Everything came together easily. I made my dough and put it into the gallon Ziploc the night before. Took it out of the fridge the next day, peeled off the plastic, got out my handy ruler and cut away. I did like the fact that the dough was rolled into a perfect square and all the same thickness. No mess, no muss, no extra flour on my floor...or in my hair...or on my black Twilight t-shirt. :)

My substitutions were: Used grazted zest of a lemon in place of a lime and chopped pecans in place of the macadamias...because I had pecans in the pantry. I do believe I chopped them too fine.....need to leave them a little chunkier next time.

I cut the dough up into 1 1/2 inch squares and baked them on a Silpat. I only have one Silpat so I kept the other squares in the freezer while one sheet baked at a time. My life would be a whole lot easier if I had another!
Baked them for 18 minutes exactly and got the lacy look around the edges...which I guess is what they're supposed to look like. Dorie does mention lacy but a lot of other bakers got the shortbread square. Just so you know, the shape doesn't affect the taste at all!! :)

I do believe I will crumble some over my ice cream tonight....just a thought....

Check out the other bakers here to see what they have come up with.