Peacock Themed Birthday Cake

This weekend's cake.

Top tier:
Banana Split - Layers of banana, cherry, & chocolate cakes filled with chocolate fudge & banana crème.

Bottom tier:
Decadent Chocolate - A divinely decadent chocolate cake filled with chocolate fudge & chocolate-chip mousse.

Super Moist Chocolate Muffins

It's Friday so I have another muffin recipe and these are one word: scrumptious! Very moist, tasty and full of chocolate goodness! Even better the next day.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 applesauce 

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

2. Combine flour, sugar, 3/4 cup chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk egg,  applesauce, yogurt, milk, and vegetable oil in another bowl until smooth; pour into chocolate mixture and stir until batter is just blended. Fill prepared muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips.

3. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Coffee Cupcakes with a Baileys and Kahlua Frosting

So these are two of my favorite things booze and cupcakes.  In the spirit of keeping it simple this is another great recipe I'd like to share. 

If you're not going to dissolve your coffee before adding it to the batter, make sure your instant coffee is fine when adding it in. I would recommend putting it into a coffee grinder, food processor or blender to make it fine.

When you don't dissolve it, you can see the specks of coffee in the batter as pictured above and I love it because it gives you more flavor.

Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons instant coffee ground finely or dissolved in 3 tablespoons boiling water.

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 350.

2 Sift flour with salt, baking powder in a mixing bowl.

3 Add rest of the ingredients in another bowl except the coffee. Whisk mixture until creamy in texture.

4 Add in the flour and whisk for 10 seconds.

5 Using a spatula, fold in the coffee. Pour mixture in well greased baking pan.

6 Bake on the middle rack for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Frosting

Ingredients

1⁄3 cup butter, softened

2 1⁄4 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon Kahlua

1 tablespoon Baileys

3 tablespoons instant coffee

1 tablespoon hot water

Directions

1.  In small bowl dissolve instant coffee in hot water.

2.  Beat butter at medium speed in a mixing bowl until creamy.

3.  Add gradually powdered sugar, Kahlua, Baileys and hot coffee mixture.

3.  You can add more Kahlua and Baileys if you want a stronger coffee flavor frosting.

4.  Will frost 12 cupcakes.

Buttery, Flaky Pie Crust

I love a nice golden flaky crust be it for fruit pies or pot pies. This is another super easy recipe that makes a single pie crust so if you need a bottom and top simply double the recipe.  I used a food processor with this recipe because I used frozen butter and it just makes it easier, but if you don't have a food processor just use cold butter and a pastry cutter or fork to combine dry ingredients with chopped butter.

Flour your surface to knead dough, form into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate. 

After chilling, roll dough out and place in pie dish.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, frozen and diced if using a food processor (chilled           and diced if using a pastry cutter or fork).

1/4 cup ice water

Directions

1.  In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. 

2.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  I used frozen butter and a food processor for this step, if you don't have a food processor just use cold butter and a pastry cutter or fork.

3.   Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Knead the mixture and form it into a disc.

4.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

5.  Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

Follow my Baking/Cooking Escapades on Snapchat

I tend to snapchat when I'm baking or cooking a savory dish.  If you have snapchat add me and follow along.

Yellow Themed Wedding Cake w/Banana Flavors

Top tier:

Banana Caramel Cheesecake ~ Banana cake with cheesecake & fresh caramel filling.

Bottom tier:

Bananarama ~ Banana cake filled with caramel, banana crème and chocolate ganache.

Raspberry Muffins

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I love muffins on the weekend, because they're yummy, easy to make and all you have to do is grab them and go.  When you can use fresh fruit in them they're even better.

It's important to not use a mixer after adding the raspberries, I use a rubber spatula to fold them into the batter.

This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

⅓ cup butter melted

1 cup sugar 

2 eggs

½ cup of milk (any kind of milk would work)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1¾ cup flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 to 2 cups fresh raspberries

Directions

1.  Melt the butter then stir in the sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

2.  Measure in the flour and baking powder - mix well

3.  Gently fold in the raspberries.

4.  Fill greased muffin cups two-thirds full.

5.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Simple Pavlova Cake

Some say Pavlova cake comes from Australia and some say New Zealand. I could care less because even though looking  at this cake you'd think it rather difficult to prepare, in fact it isn't and very delicious.  It has a meringue base, topped with chocolate as I did or fresh fruit w/cream . This is a recipe that I have experimented with and am very pleased with.

A stand  mixer is ideal when preparing meringue, however if you don't have one a hand mixer will get the job done as well.

You'll know when your meringue is ready because it should have stiff peaks.

As I stated I used chocolate shaving as a topping rather than free fruit.

Ingredients

3 egg whites

1 pinch salt

1 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup chocolate shavings

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment. An easy way to do this is to draw around the outside of a 9 inch pan with a pencil.

2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar gradually, while continuing to whip. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch; lightly fold into meringue with lemon juice.

3. Spread a layer of meringue to fit circle on parchment, approximately 1/4 inch thick. With remainder of mixture, pipe or spoon swirls around the edges to form a shallow bowl shape.

4. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 1 hour. Turn off oven, but leave meringue in oven for an additional 30 minutes. When cool, the meringue should be hard on the outside, and slightly moist on the inside.

5. In a large bowl, combine the cream and half a cup of confectioners sugar, and whip until thickened.  Place on top and decorate with your chocolate shavings or fresh fruit.

Easy Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread

I'd never even thought about making artisan bread until I came across this super simple recipe.  It requires minimal prep just a lot of time allowing the yeast to ferment, but results are absolutely amazing.  When I say it's super easy to make a child can do this,and it's very adaptable. Try using different flours, adding nuts or seeds, cheeses, dried fruit, herbs, and more. Make this yours. You won't wanna spend money on another loaf of crusty bread when you can make it yourself and without all the extra ingredients and/or chemicals added.

 I doesn't matter the type of corn meal you use just use what you have on parchment paper to keep the dough from sticking. Flour one side of your kitchen towel that will touch the dough.

I love my Dutch oven, I would highly recommend one to your cooking arsenal if you don't have one. 

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INGREDIENTS:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/4 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast

2 tsp kosher salt (or 1 1/2 tsp table salt)

**optional

I added a couple tablespoons of fresh rosemary and thyme, along with some granulated garlic to the warm water. you can add fresh garlic if you choose. do whatever you want!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix dry ingredients until combined.

2. Add warm water and mix until flour mixture is absorbed by water. Dough will be wet and sticky.

3. Cover with plastic wrap and store at room-temp or a turned off oven for 12-18 hours, and up to 24.

4. Two hours before you're ready to bake, gently pull dough out of bowl onto a heavily floured surface, being careful not to puncture too many air bubbles. Gently form into a ball.

5. Place dough on top of cornmeal covered parchment paper and cover with a clean, floured kitchen towel for 2 hours.

6. During the last 30 minutes of those 2 hours, pre-heat your oven and empty Dutch oven to 450 degrees. Let it sit in there the entire 30 minutes.

7. When it's super hot, transfer the parchment/dough into the Dutch oven, cover and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.

8. Remove lid after 30 minutes and bake an additional 5-15 minutes, or until bread registers 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer.

9. Immediately remove bread from the hot Dutch oven and let cool on a wire-rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing

The Perfect Bake

I received the Perfect Bake as a Christmas gift and have yet to use it but once I find the time to play with it I do plan to review it.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bar

Ingredients

cooking spray

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 tablespoons milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1lb chocolate bar (milk, dark or white)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray the bottom and sides of a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Mix flour, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, milk, egg, vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl.  Pour batter into the prepared baking dish.

3. Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 20 minutes.

4. Put your chocolate bar in the microwave for 15 second increments to soften it a bit and use your vegetable peeler to shave out chocolate making little curly cues.

5. To get the shaving to stick place a very thin layer of peanut butter on top of the cooled baked peanut bar, then sprinkle your shaved chocolate on top.

White Almond Sour Cream Wedding Cake

White Almond Sour Cream Wedding Cake 

White almond sour cream cake filled with cheesecake & raspberry puree. Also great with chocolate-cheesecake filling!

Wedding Cake

Wedding Cake

Wedding cake with alternating tiers of:

Tuxedo - Layers of white & dark chocolate cakes filled with layers of white-chocolate truffle & rich fudge filling.

White Almond Sour Cream - White almond sour cream cake filled with cheesecake & raspberry puree. Also great with chocolate-cheesecake filling!

Cheesecake Brownies

Cheesecake Brownies

"Jazz up an out-of-the-box brownie mix with an easy cheesecake topping."

Ingredients

1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1 egg

1/3 cup white sugar

Directions

1.  Prepare the brownie mix as directed by manufacturer. Preheat oven to temperature indicated on box. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

2.  Spread the brownie batter evenly into the prepared pan. Using an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, egg and sugar until smooth. Dollop the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie batter. Swirl together using a knife or skewer.

3.  Bake according to manufacturer's instructions. Brownies will be done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pan, then cut into bars and serve.

Chocolate Souffle with Liqueur

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter, for ramekins

white sugar for dusting

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup white sugar, divided

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons bread flour

3/4 cup milk

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup chocolate liqueur

2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips, melted (optional)

1/2 cup fresh raspberries for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Thoroughly grease the the bottom and sides of four ramekins with the tablespoon of butter. Coat with sugar, tipping out any excess. If desired, place a raspberry and a drizzle of chocolate as a "surprise" at the bottom of each cup.

2. Combine the cocoa powder, cornstarch, and a tablespoon of the sugar; set aside. Mix the butter and flour to form a paste. Lightly whisk one egg yolk in a heatproof bowl.

3. Heat the milk to the boiling point in a heavy saucepan; whisk in the flour-butter mixture until it melts. Gradually pour the hot milk into the egg yolk in a steady stream, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring the custard to a simmer over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula.

4. Cook and stir the custard until it thickens, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat, stirring occasionally to keep it smooth. Combine the three remaining egg yolks with the vanilla, liqueur, and the sugar-cocoa-cornstarch mixture. Whisk in the warm custard, cover, and set aside. (The custard can be made ahead of time up to this point and refrigerated for a day before proceeding with the recipe.)

5. 35 minutes before serving, whip the egg whites until they are thick and foamy and have quadrupled in volume. Gradually mix in the remaining 3 tablespoons of the sugar, whipping until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the custard to lighten it, using a whisk or rubber spatula. Fold in the remaining meringue.

6. Immediately transfer the souffle batter into the prepared ramekins, making a smooth mound slightly above the rim of each ramekin. (If you have a piping bag, you may pipe the mixture into the ramekins.) Bake at once in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the souffles have risen and the edges are set. Serve hot, with raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries to garnish, if desired.