Halloween is coming! And around here that means festive treats. This year I made my famous pumpkin bread recipe into twenty four cupcakes and topped it with my famous cream cheese icing (updated). To add a little holiday fun I made up some cupcake toppers and thought you might like to use them too.
This is what the sheet looks like. Just enough for a dozen fabulous cupcakes. Just cut, glue together with a toothpick inserted between two circles and bada bing you're fabulous. Download from Google Docs here. As I am still new to this printable business, please do not hesitate to ask me for help or let me know that something is amiss and you cannot get it to work!
Oh and one more thing?! Recently I was nominated for Circle of Moms Top 25 Canadian Mom Blogs. Could you be so kind as to hop on over and vote for me? You can vote once a day so if you could do that too I would be eternally grateful. Thanks!
I went a simple yet pretty route for this year's Halloween Cupcakes. Pumpkins! I made the cupcakes from my Fabulous Pumpkin Bread recipe found here. The decorating is a simplified version from Hello Cupcake. I love them. Hopefully so does the rest of the family. Tonight begins a weekend full of family Halloween fun! Cheers!
What says Mother's Day more than cheesecake? Nothing. I defy you to find me a woman who does not enjoy a quality cheesecake. So, naturally it fits that you would make the mother in your life a delicious cheesecake. This one is a New York style made with bananas and topped with fresh (and cooked) strawberries. It is big, and rich and there is nothing healthy about the combined ingredients but I promise you,it is one of the best cheesecakes you have ever eaten!
Crust
2 pkgs Lady Fingers biscuits (Should equal two cups when crushed) (Or Graham crumbs if that is what you have/prefer.)
3/4 Cup butter (melted)
Mix crushed biscuits with melted butter and press into bottom of springform pan. This recipe is large enough for a 12" pan.
Cake
(3) 8 oz pkg of cream cheese (softened)
1 sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
4 eggs (room temperature)
Beat cream cheese until soft, add sugar and salt. Add eggs one at a time and beat until super smooth. Pour over crumb crust and bake @ 350 for 50 minutes.
Take out and let cool for 15 minutes.
Topping
1 1/2 cup sour cream
1 large very ripe banana
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Mash banana really really good. The more you mash it, the less you see the bits. Blend all ingredients as smooth as possible. Pour over cake after the 15 minutes is up. bake @ 450 for 10 minutes.
When cool, top with fresh fruit. If you want even more delectable goodness, make a super quick berry reduction by heating one cup of berries with a couple tablespoons of sugar. Simmer until thick. Pour over individual slices of cake.
This cake can be made in a twelve inch pan and feed twelve easily. Or it can be made in a ten inch and still feed twelve. It just bakes higher in a ten inch, but the slices are just as heavy, just not as thick.
Bring this to yoru Mother's day tea party luncheon and you will leave with more than one Mom!
I made some carrot cupcakes this weekend for a family get together and since it was close to Easter I wanted to make them a little bit fun. Cream cheese frosting is not necessarily known for it's pipe-able properties. It is definitely known for being delicious and pairing perfectly with carrot cake though so it was only natural I thicken it up some how to make the pretty little bird nests you see pictured.
This yields enough to pipe small nests on about ten cupcakes and spread another ten. (The cupcakes I made were very muffin like without frosting so I chose to leave some bare for snacking.)
Ingredients
2 cups icing sugar
1-8oz package of cream cheese (Softened)
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
cream (Optional, use only if you find consistency not creamy enough)
Food colouring
Directions
With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together.
Add vanilla and colouring
Add icing sugar slowly until well combined.
Add cream tsp by tsp if consistency too thick. Alternatively add more icing sugar if it is not thick enough.
Put into icing bag and use immediately on cooled cake/cupcakes/cookies.
This is not so stiff you cannot spread it nicely, but if you want it creamier add another 1/8 cup of butter and cream by the teaspoon until it reaches desired consistency.
This, my friends, is what happens when your hormones demand satisfaction! You have heard of Bavarian Cream Pies? Well, this is the Ovarian Chocolate Cake.
By nature I am not a chocolate lover. That is not to say that I do not enjoy chocolate, but I am more of a liker than lover. Every now and then though, particularly when I am ovulating I crave sweets, usually in the form of chocolate. And about a year ago, I was craving it pretty bad so I made this cake. It has become a family favourite and I love to make it for special occasions like Father's Day (My dad is a chocolate fiend!) and like yesterday at my (not so)little brother's birthday dinner.
It is a devil's food cake with pudding between the layers, a mousse frosting and cookie crumb coating. It is a fairly involved cake, but totally worth it! Would you like to make one too? Oh goody! Let's begin.
Ovarian Chocolate Cake
Devil's Food Cake Ingredients/Directions
2 cups sugar ½ cup + 2 tablespoons butter, softened 3 eggs, separated 2 cups all-purpose flour ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp vanilla extract ½ cup boiling water 1 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 350 deg F and grease two 9 in cake tins.
Put cocoa in small bowl; add boiling water and mix until smooth. Let cool.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for approximately 5 minutes. Add egg yolks and mix well.
Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda, add cocoa mixture, sour cream, and vanilla extract and mix well.
Whisk egg whites until stiff and fold gently into the cake mixture. Transfer to the cake tins trying to keep them as equal as possible.
Bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes. Let the cakes cool.
Slice each cake through the middle to make four layers. Let each layer cool before icing.
Now, the easy parts. Filling and icing.
Ingredients (I guess you could call them that)
1 box chocolate pudding (Fudge flavour works really well) 1 cup (250ml carton) 35% whipping cream 1 tsp vanilla 2 tbs sugar 1 box Oreo cookie crumbs (You won't use the whole box, closer to half but I didn't measure this step)
Prepare pudding according to package directions. Spread a thick layer to the edges on three cake layers. And stack to form four layer cake.
To prepare whipping cream put cream, sugar and vanilla in a bown and whip until stiff peaks form. (You can also substitute Dream Whip here if you so choose)
Add remaining chocolate pudding to whipped cream and ice cake top to bottom.
Now, the part that requires a little bit of patience. Adhering the cookie crumbs to the sides without making a giant mess. To do this I poured the crumbs around the cake on the cake platter and then with a knife slowly 'pulled' (for lack of a better word) them up the side of the cake until I was satisfied with how it looked.
And it really does look fantastic doesn't it? But, never mind that how did it taste? Like a little piece of heaven! The combination of fluffy chocolate cake and pudding make for an almost brownie like consistency that is the good kind chewy. Now, there is one little sliver left and I am going to claim it before my chocolate fiend of a father gets it!
Look pretty darn good don't they? They were! I have to say, I was really proud of myself when these were done because not only were they my first quiches of any kind, but it was my own recipe inspired by what was in our fridge at the time. I had recently bought the goat cheese after reading Eating Animals because it said on the label it was vegetarian cheese, meaning no stomach lining was used to make it. I have had goat cheese before but this stuff was wonderful. We put it in everything for about a week. I wish I could tell you the brand but I have since thrown away the package. If you haven't tried it though, go, do that, right now, I mean it.
Now, if you have never made quiches before, they only sound fancy. I think the biggest pain in the but is the making of the pie dough, and if you already have a recipe you love like I do it is no sweat. In the interest of full disclosure, these were made with defrosted frozen pie dough leftovers from Christmas. Which helped because there are a few steps to these. All are super easy and super tasty though. Ingredients
Enough pie dough for a double crust pie You can use the guaranteed Tenderflake recipe here or your own.
2 large yellow onions sliced super thin 2 tbsp butter 2 tsp sugar
2 eggs 1/2 cup cream salt & pepper
1/2 cup fresh goat cheese (a nice feta would probably work too if you have to substitute) Fresh cilantro (or herb of your choice) Modis Operandi For the quiche cups:
-Divide dough in half and roll into balls. -Roll balls out as thin as you can. (About 1/8-1/4") -Using a drinking glass or circular dough cutter cut approx 2.5" circles from the rolled dough and place over cups of a mini muffin tin. -Lightly press sides into cavity. -Prick with fork on bottom. -Bake @ 425 until edges are golden brown, remove from oven but leave oven on. While quiche cups are baking:
-Melt butter in pan. -Stir in sugar until dissolved. -Add onions and stir until coated. -Cook stirring occasionally until onions are a nice dark brown and even a little crispy in places. -Remove from heat.
After you have removed quiches from the oven and onions from heat:
-Mix together eggs, cream and salt & pepper. Assembling the quiche:
-Remove dough cups to a baking sheet. -Cover the bottom of each cup with a couple caramelized onions (depending on how small they cooked down too). -Add 2 tsp of egg mixture (don't worry if it leaks out the bottom, you can always go back and add more before the next step) -Add a tsp of goat cheese. -Top with one or two cilantro leaves. -Pop back in the oven for about ten minutes. This is just to cook the egg so keep an eye on it.
Shampoo, rinse and repeat for any remaining batches. Two pie dough recipes did almost two full (24) mini muffin tins. You may get more or less depending on how thick your dough is and how heavily you fill your cups with ingredients.
The beauty of these is they taste good the day you make them, the next day warmed up in the oven and even on the third day warmed up in the microwave.
You know what I love about lasagna? Everything! For serious folks, is there anything this dish cannot be or do? With the exception of dancing a jig I say nay. It can have lots of meat, or no meat. Red sauce or white sauce. Roasted veggies or raw or even no veggies (although why would you?). And best of all, the leftovers are scrumdiddlyumptious!
This is a recipe I came up with that is make-ahead for the taste not the convenience (although no pots and pans at after dinner is nice too). Tomato based pasta dishes have always tasted even better when eaten as leftovers so I thought why not just make it ahead of time and reheat it for that oh-so good leftover taste?
So I bring to you my Vegetarian Leftover Lasagna. I would like to note that this dish is made in a ginormous deep dish lasgana pan so that it goes for a couple days worth of lunches and inners. But because of the size and depth of the pan it does take a lot of grocery to fill it.
**Please adjust according to your pan size and budget. ***Also, I am not much for measurements when I create so these are rough guesstimates, don't worry it really does not matter much. Melissa's Vegetarian Leftover Lasagna
-Ingredients- 6 yellow onions sliced into 1/4-1/2" rings 1/2 cup of butter 2 tbsp sugar
6 sweet peppers assorted colours (or not assorted)cut into quarters sesame oil (olive is a fine substitute) sea salt (table with do, but if you don't already use sea salt you should start!)
2 cans diced/crushed tomatoes 1 can pasta sauce (I love Primo brand, it has enough tomato paste in it that you needn't add any to the dish) 1 tbsp olive oil 4-6 cloves garlic (depends on your taste for garlic)finely chopped
8 oz mushrooms (any kind will do, I used white but I love criminis) 2 heads of broccoli (just one if they are bigger than average) 1 box of oven ready lasagna noodles. (You could use fresh, or pre-boiled ones but I happen to have a box of these in the cupboard) Cheese, lots of cheese. I used three pounds of shredded marble and Italian blends. We like a cheesy lasagna around here but you do not need to use that much. because this is a meatless lasagna the cheese content is really what ups the budget for this one.
-Modus Operandi-
In a large saucepan or dutch oven, melt the butter and sugar. When the sugar has dissolved into the butter add the sliced onions and cook until soft and dark brown. You are caramelizing them with the sugar here not just frying.
Meanwhile, core the peppers and slice them into quarters. Put on a cookie sheet lined with foil and brush with oil (sesame really does works well here) and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Put on the middle rack in the oven with the oven set to broil. Remove from oven when just starting to char.
In another large saucepan, heat olive oil and add chopped garlic. (Make sure the oil does not get too hot because that can make the garlic bitter.) When garlic is soft and just turning brown add the two cans of tomatoes. When tomatoes have warmed add the can of pasta sauce. Let warm through and then turn down to simmer.
This is where you would be slicing mushrooms and broccoli if you are adding them. I blanched the broccoli (through in a pot of boiling water for about a minute)but it is a taste thing.
layer ingredients in the following order:
Sauce Noodles Roasted peppers (all of them) Cheese Sauce Noodles Caramelized onions (all of them) Cheese Sauce Noodles Broccoli & mushrooms (all of them) Cheese Noodles Sauce Cheese
Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Remove from oven let cool completely and transfer to fridge if you are eating it the following day or freezer if you are saving it for later later.
Whenever you decide to eat it, I would take it out at least a couple hours before you want to eat it and bake it for about an our. Honestly, I learned that the best time to take it out of the oven was when you could smell lasagna throughout the house. When this is happening, take the foil off cover with more cheese (there is always room for more cheese) and broil until cheese is browned and bubbly.
Ahh, blogger how I have missed thee! But I am back now. And with lemony goodness from above! T'was my youngest brother's birthday on Tuesday so we had a dinner for him yesterday. The siblings were supposed to come down from the city but the weather did not cooperate so we had a lot of Leftover Lasagna (to be shared with you next week) and leftover Lemon Joy cake. So I managed to snag a couple photos to share with the recipe(s).
The cake was inspired by the Lemon Meringue Cupcakes I made on Christmas day from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Book. Those were incredible. So tasty, but messy (My icing kept sliding off the lemon curd) but when Matt asked for a non-chocolate cake, I thought this was as far from chocolate as we could get.
The cake is a combination of three different recipes in the Joy of Cooking cookbook. The first is the Lemon Chiffon Cake (pg. 710). I doubled the lemon zest amount and substituted a half cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice for a half cup water. If you have never made a chiffon cake I urge you too. So light, so airy so wonderfully moist. I made it the day before and left it in the pan with plastic wrap to seal it and it was still super fresh when I pulled it out to fill.
The filling is a simple lemon curd recipe (pg. 687) made mostly of cornstarch, water and a bit of lemon juice and zest. I may have doubled the zest called for in this recipe as well, but maybe not. Super simple though. To fill the cake, I slice of a layer off the top, cut a channel with a serrated knife, pulled out the spare cake and filled with curd. Replacing the top piece was easier than getting it off in one piece and once done, you would never have known I hollowed it out.
The icing is Seven Minute Icing (pg. 790). Let me tell you, Joy of Cooking's recipe is super simple compared to the recipe in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. I managed to screw that up on Christmas day, but this one was easy peezy lemon squeezy. It is super sticky, and hardens super fast though so you need to work quick on a light and delicate cake like chiffon. I found the trick was to dollop generously, then spread with a wet spatula and 'slice' the icing off the spatula with a butter knife. After making the cake I realized a video tutorial would have been helpful. Next time, I promise.
The reason I used Seven Minute Icing was so I could brown it with my kitchen torch like meringue. The cake had so many lemon elements I thought a meringue like topping was fitting. It looked wonderful. It tasted wonderful too. It was rich though. The chiffon cake was the perfect base for the lemon curd and super sweet icing. You definitely wouldn't have wanted a sweet buttermilk vanilla cake under that.
This edition of Mmmmm Good Monday is construction instructions for an army tank birthday cake like this one!
There are lots of images of army tank cakes to be Googled. There are even some tutorials out there, but I found that they were all just smidgen vague for my liking. So, forgive me if I break it down too much I am not making any assumptions about your intelligence, it is more a reflection of mine! :)
Note*** I made this from a carrot cake bundt recipe. I cannot see why a regular double cake recipe would not suffice.
Materials: For tank body: Cake batter, your choice. 9x13" Cake pan (I used a glass lasagna pan) 4" Ramekin or oven proof dish with straight sides.
For accoutrements Licorice cigar (cannon) You could always use a tube shaped biscotti) Licorice pieces halved (tracks) Circular sweets, I used chocolate covered mint patties (wheels) Green plastic army guy(s)
Icing: Your favourite icing recipe. (I used cream cheese because it was a carrot cake.) Light green or yellow and light blue colour pastes to make a bright light green. Black (or purple) icing colour paste.
Construction Instructions
Bake cake recipe according to instructions, but watch times because of the rammekin dish. Cut and assemble as pictured below.
Here is a picture of mine pre-icing. Mind the wooden skewer, I broke a corner off whilst removing the cake from the pan.
After the cake has cooled and you have cut and assembled it to something at least resembling the one pictured it is time to ice! First mix your green. Mine looked this at first (It was actually left over from those every cupcakes). Once you are happy with the green, add a little bit of dark purple (I used black) food colouring paste at a time. A little goes a long way and you want your icing to be army green, not grey (I assume.). You don't have to mix it all the way, it will blend itself as you apply it to the cake.
Spread it as evenly as possible. Leave the top of the turret until last. Cut a little hole out and insert a toy army man. Ice around him.I would have liked to smooth mine more but I didn't have the proper tool and really, I just got excited at how awesome the cake looked.
After you are satisfied with your icing job you can apply the wheels, tracks and cannon. I would take care to either leave the cannon as long as you can or insert it almost half way. It saves it from sagging down to the cake. (The cigars are a bit heavy.)
Last but not least, I have made up some cake flags. Cut out and glue together with toothpicks in between. These are great. This way you don't have to find somewhere to write on the tank. (But feel free as it is YOUR cake.)
This is Wednesday in her Little Red Riding Hood costume I made her! Is she not the most adorable thing you EVER DID SEE?! And she wore it! Twice! Love it.
The costume was inspired by this one at Martha Stewart.com I thought it would be a great idea for Wednesday because she really does not enjoy bulky costumes, things on her head or being a showpiece. Kind makes Halloween tricky non? (No pun intended) so I thought if I can get her to wear the cape (even by itself) then everyone will know what she is and we can both be happy. It worked, I had a blast making it and watching Wednesday trick or treat in it! Even with a red hooded sweater cloak on without the cloak people knew. She stayed super warm though with the coat and cloak and the layers on her legs. If a really cold wind hadn`t come up when it did we would have let her keep going for the fun of it.
This was her first year trick or treating and we were lucky enough to have a little friend for her to go around with. Her play date friend Sydney was a lion and man was she cute! They caught on to the process after the second house and then it was us parents who had to keep them from going to houses that were not giving out candy. Wednesday used a yellow basket for her treats but it emptied quickly when being swung about so we had to keep emptying it for her. She didn`t mind, she though getting candy was great but the whole process and being out with the big kids and the moon made her very happy. Daddy and I managed to get a few pics in but the camera was not cooperating. *sigh* Our little girl went trick or treating. She is growing so fast!
Details on the costume construction:
I started with the hooded cape. My mom had originally bought me a simplicity pattern that used a single yard of six foot wide felt but I did not have a six foot wide yard of felt. So, I used this tutorial at blueprints to make the cape. (Sort of, I cut it differently, made it from felt and tweaked it more) but she was a big help for the basic idea. I did use the Simplicity pattern for the hood though. Because the pattern did not have a seam allowance due to it being intentionally cut from felt I cut the pieces from a red fleece sweatshirt and used the nice wide bottom hem as the front of the hood. I had to tweak the cape a bit to accommodate the hood and the big fat black button (from an old Mrs. Claus apron of my mom's) but Wednesday was super accommodating in the many "Wednesday, can you try this on a moment for Mommy?" So far cost of costume = zero dollars.
Next I made the bodice-ish-shirt-thing. I just so happen to have a white turtle neck kicking around that Wednesday never wore (I am not a big turtleneck fan). I found two very nice pieces of black felt and laid them on top of the shirt and with a white pencil crayon just kind of drew the curve for the arm and a vest front. I ran the pieces through the machine with a semi-decorative stitch around the edges and then basted the pieces to the shirt. I finished it off by giving it a faux lace up with red embroidery thread. The felt and floss were both thrifted pieces) So far cost of costume = zero dollars.
The next day I began the skirt. Which was so ridiculously simple that I might lose this week to the sewing machine for Wednesday's wardrobe. But I digress. The skirt came from an old corduroy skirt my mom had in her alterations pile for some five years. She thought of it when I said I needed some black fabric for the skirt and offered it up. I snatched it without hesitation. It is lovely, I may have to use it elsewhere soon. Anyhoo, the skirt is just two pieces of fabric sewn up the sides, a wide hem and an elastic fitted under the hem. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Costume cost = zilch.
The 'fur lined boots' were a pair of fun fur topped striped baby leggings tucked into a great pair of black boots. The baby leg warmers I had on hand from last Christmas and the boots were another hand me down. Great touch though right? Costume total = nadda.
Last but not least I had to buy a pair of tights for her little thighs. I found a pair on clearance at Wal-Mart for three bucks. So, costume total? Three dollars + one and a half days effort. Not too shabby for my first time doing the Mama-come-Martha eh?
That night we carved the pumpkins. I asked Wednesday what she wanted and she said a monkey, so a monkey I gave her. For the bigger pumpkin I had wanted to carve something from a stencil but my poker took was not sharp enough for the intricate design so I let Wednesday draw on the pumpkin and then carved out her design. It actually looks kinda cool.
I roasted the pumpkin seeds by rinsing them, drying them in the oven a few moments and then I used this for a (lol) recipe:
Put seeds in a bigger bowl than you think you need.
Sprinkle with oil About two teaspoons per bigger pumpkin`s worth.
Sprinkle with about one teaspoon (per medium sized pumpkin) of sea salt. (Grind up bigger salt with a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin and sandwich bag. But sea salt does make the difference.
Mix well. Lay in a single layer on cookie sheets and bake at 375 until golden brown.
Try not to eat them all yourself. I said try. They are so very good!
When I took Wednesday shopping the other day she saw all the Halloween decorations and wanted "Spiders Mommy, spiders!" I couldn't find anything I wanted her to have (you know, that is not the kind of junk that falls apart in a day) so I promised to make her spider cookies. I bought some cookie cutters and Halloween coloured sprinkles for cookie fun. What a mistake, well in the beginning anyways. I tried out Martha's sugar cookie recipe because I had made it years ago and it worked perfectly for cut out cookies. For some reason though, I couldn't get it to work. I don't know if I didn't use enough butter or if I was too impatient when it came to the chilling but it didn't work out. So, I thought this one time I will buy a pre-made dough thinking of Pillsbury doughs. We went to three different grocery stores and no one carried it. I was getting really flustered. I went through my cookbooks and found a recipe in a book I trusted. I made the recipe exactly as it stated and chilled it overnight like a good girl. The next morning (Halloween)I pulled it out but it was so sticky as it warmed up. I thought "OMG this cannot be happening again!" but with a lot of flour I managed to get the cookies cut and almost three times the recipe yield. (Some were super thin). Thank goodness. I watched them like a hawk in the oven they turned out perfectly. I spent Wednesday's naptime decorating them with leftover cream cheese frosting and sprinkles. I had a lot of fun with the decorating. I had originally wanted Wednesday to help but I had managed to fluster myself so much trying to get the dough just right that I just made them up and let her have one after lunch. I put them into wax paper treat bags I made by sewing up the sides and middle of some folded wax paper. I stapled them shut and covered the staple with a pumpkin sticker. I had originally wanted to make them prettier but had no time for Halloween ribbon shopping. They still looked and tasted fantastic though. The cookie recipe? One of my new favourites for sure. Ron likes them plain and I can't wait to make a bunch for Christmas! This post is long enough, I will share the recipe at a later date most likely for an MMmm good Monday.
The sun started to come out so we used the available light to take some photos. Then over to a family member's house for even cuter photos!
We went trick or treating after much hub bub (It was almost like the world did not want us to go!) But we made it!
We let her trick or treat for about a half hour. And then we bundled her up under a wool blanket in her stroller and we went home. She was so pooped from the day she was in bed and asleep by eight o'clock. We ate some of her stash but we are not big on candy either. I'll let you know how long it lasts with everyone chowing down. Poor Wednesday, doesn't get any of it. The "Hide it and forget about it" method mentioned over at Unplug Your Kids works well!
I think, that is it! What a great three days! I will leave you with a slide show of the rest of the photos we took of the day. I hope your Halloweens were all happy, healthy and fun!
Pretty awesome yes? I really want to say these were fun to make but I had a deadline and things just seemed to keep going wrong! First, a batch of twelve Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes burned thanks to the muffin tin I was using. The bakers Secret non stick tins cook really hot. I don't like it. But the recipe says it yielded 36 cupcakes and it actually yielded almost 48. This was especially helpful because in my haste I forgot to spray the mini muffin tin and was only able to save half of those as well. So much for being the cupcake fairy to a few friends.
But I got over it and moved on to the icing, a Swiss Meringue Butter Cream again a la Martha Stewart. Again a big fail. First it took a pound of butter which I didn't have on hand and had to wait until Wednesday was finished lunch before I could go and purchase. Then, I don't think I let the meringue qhip enough because after I added the butter and let that whip It really just tasted like sweetened whipped butter. And to top it off when I added my colouring it separated and made the icing look (but not feel) gritty instead of green. Grr!
But, I managed to whip up a cream cheese icing that turned a great shade of green and finally began to decorate. The time limit I had (we were going to a relative's for some pumpkin picking fun) meant I couldn't calm down and let my creative juices flow, or really use any icing for decorating but the pictures in Martha's Cupcake book were super easy and super healthy and I ended up copying most of them.
All in all they did turn out great (Both in looks and taste) and I did learn a few things so next time it should not take me four hours to make some cupcakes! They were enjoyed by those that ate them and that is what counts. Although Wednesday woke up asking for marshmallows and cupcakes for breakfast.
Author's note: I find it hard to bake fom Martha's book when it is not a special occasion because the recipes yield so many (on average I think 24) and I do not eat many sweets. I am more of a muffin kind of gal, fruits and nuts and such right? But Halloween is the perfect time to break out of that norm right? Right!
Mmmm good Monday already! For this edition I bring you Butter tart Mini Muffins! These are so good you will have to give them away to stop eating them. For realz. I have been on a buttertart binge (well not binge but my butt was paying the price) because the local tartery (Rachel's Tarts) makes the most delish deep butertart with a homemade super flakey crust. But at 160 calories a tart I coudn't keep up the habit. So when I was at one of our local farmers market and a woman had butter tart muffins I thought hey! this might be the answer. Alas, her muffins were just too much. Mostly too much sugar. But I thought hey, if I tone down the sugar and make them in a mini muffin tin we just might have something.
That was weeks and weeks ago. The muffins were baked on Friday. I ate little else for two days. Thank goodness they are gone! But ow I have another gift I can make for Christmas Presents. I found the recipe through a google search and it was perfect. You can find it here at Chatelaine.com. But, I like to give the recipe text for linkaphobes. Ingredients
1-1/2 cups ( 375 mL) raisins
3/4 cup ( 175 mL) granulated sugar
1/2 cup ( 125 mL) butter, cut into chunks
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup ( 125 mL) milk
1 tsp ( 5 mL) vanilla, rum or butterscotch flavouring
1-1/2 cups ( 375 mL) all-purpose flour
2 tsp ( 10 mL) baking powder
1 tsp ( 5 mL) baking soda
1 pinch of salt
1/2 cup ( 125 mL) walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup ( 75 mL) corn or maple syrup
1. Place raisins, sugar, butter, eggs, milk and vanilla in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is hot, slightly thickened and just beginning to bubble, from 4 to 5 minutes. Cool slightly, uncovered, in the refrigerator, while continuing with recipe. 2. Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Grease 12 muffin cups or coat with cooking spray. Stir flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in centre and pour in warm raisin mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in nuts until evenly mixed. 3. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake in centre of preheated 375F (190C) oven until golden and a cake tester inserted into centre of muffin comes out clean, from 15 to 17 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately pour about 1 teaspoon (5 mL) syrup over top of each muffin. Cool in cups for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Muffins are wonderful served warm. Store in a sealed bag at room temperature for up to 2 days or freeze.
* If you make mini muffins like I did, cook for 8 minutes and just drizzle a smidgeon of corn syrup on the top.
For today's edition of Mmm Good Monday I bring to you two wonderful peanut butter treats! Ron's favourite baked goodie is peanut butter cookies so when I baked him up a batch I had to bake myself something so that I wouldn't eat his cookies. I found a great peanut butter oatmeal bar that was awesome.
The cookie recipe is from Kraft's website and only bakes up a dozen, not enough in my book. But it is fairly low in sugar and high in awesomeness.
1 cup Smooth Peanut Butter (Kraft or a nice natural works well) 1/2 cup sugar (White works best but I like brown too) 1 egg
Preheat oven to 325º F. MIX peanut butter, sugar and egg. ROLL into 1-inch balls. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets. Flatten with fork. BAKE 15 min. (Do not overbake.) Let stand on baking sheets 5 min. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
And you get twelve of these delectable goodies!
The peanut butter bars were found through a google search for peanut butter and oatmeal. Unfortunately I forgot to bookmark it and I can't seem to find the one I used so for now you just get a picture of the uber tasty bars.
These lasted a few days and were perfect for snacking and taking places when we were in a hurry. I hope I can find the recipe (I printed it out at least just can't find that either.)
As the days get cooler I am hoping to use our crockpot more, maybe next week I'll have a chili recipe to share. :) (Or you could share yours with me!)
Mr. Sweet and I were invited to a birthday dinner this evening and a blueberry pie was requested. At first I was a little trepidatious about making a pie because my experience with pastry is nil. The last pie I made was when I was seventeen, a bittersweet 14 years ago. A cherry pie incident that never really faded from memory. But I digress. I thought it is now or never, if I really want to call myself a baker (and I do, I really do) than I must take on...the pastry.
So, remembering a conversation with my mom about lard and shortening (shortening makes a great crust for those that are experienced crust makers)I bought a pound of Tenderflake (lard) and two bags of frozen wild Canadian blueberries.
The crust was so easy I thought I must have screwed it up. Seriously, I think I had the crust for both pies rolled out in a matter of tennish minutes? Maybe fifteen. The filling was equally easy since it was just sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, cornstarch and...blueberries. Four cups per pie!
The crust recipe is from the box of Tenderflake, I made the three double crusts and froze one of them.
Ingredients........ 5 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour 2 teaspoons of salt 1 lb of Tenderflake Lard 1 tablespoon of vinegar 1 egg, lightly beaten Water
Mix together the flour and salt
Cut in Tenderflake Lard with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal or peas.
In a 1 cup measure, combine the vinegar and egg. Add water to make the 1 cup measure full. Gradually stir liquid into the flour/lard. Add only enough liquid to make dough cling together. I used my hands, and had no remaining liquid but I like to keep my surfaces floured.
Gather this into a ball and divide it into 4 portions. Be sure to cover whatever you are not using at the moment with saran wrap to keep from drying out.
Roll out each portion as you need it on a lightly floured surface.
For the Pie Filling I used the recipe from Joy of Baking.
4 cups fresh blueberries 1/2 cup granulated white sugar 2 tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour) 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon lemon zest Egg Wash:
1 large egg yolk 1 tablespoon cream
In a small bowl mix together the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest. Place the blueberries in a large bowl. Add the sugar mixture to the blueberries and gently toss to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie shell. Then, in a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and cream. Lightly brush the rim of the pastry shell with the egg wash. Starting at the outside edge of the pie, place the cut out pastry stars in a circular pattern on top of the blueberries, making sure the tips of the stars are touching. Once the top of the pie is completely covered with the pastry stars, brush the entire surface with the egg wash, making sure that it does not pool. Place the assembled pie back in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Remove the chilled pie from the fridge and place on a larger baking pan, lined with parchment paper, to catch any spills. Bake the pie for about 20 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Continue to bake the pie for about 35 - 45 minutes or until the crust is a deep golden brown color and the juices are bubbling and thick. If the edges of the pie are browning too much during baking, cover with a foil ring.
Place the baked pie on a wire rack to cool for several hours. The pie needs time for the cornstarch to thicken and leaving it be (or putting it in the fridge) for a couple to three hours is recommended. We tried to eat it warm and it was good but the juiced leaked out where we sliced into it. We then put the second pie in the fridge to cool completely and just warmed it in the oven at the party and it was perfect. We also chilled the pie we sliced into and waited till evening to eat it and it turned out great as well.
This pie is super simple and super tasty. I am so happy with it that I intend on making tarts with the renmaining frozen dough. I am really happy though because now all those recipes that call for crust (quiche for example) can now be added to the to-do list. Also, with Thanksgiving next week I am now adding pie to my roster of treats to bake! For serious I think Mr. Sweet fell in love with me all over again today. ♥
I am a day late and dollar short I know. But the weather here has been sub par to say the least and when the weather is dreary so is the lighting in this apartment. But, today I managed to get a picture of a piece of the delicious cake I made yesterday.
I have been holding on to this recipe all summer wanting to try it but with all of the birthdays to make cakes and cupcakes for it kind of got put on the back burner (no pun intended). With the dreary weather and no birthdays in sight yesterday I was able to buckle down and bake it. Even Wednesday gave me the breathing room I needed to bake up a storm. Gosh that kid is great. The result was a very tasty Berry Coconut Cake from Canadian Living Magazine's website. Recipe and nutritional information to follow.
Berry Coconut Cake
1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened 3/4 cup (175 mL) granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) all-purpose flour 1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) baking powder 1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt 1 cup (250 mL) sour cream 3/4 cup (175 mL) each raspberries and blueberries (I used a frozen mix totaling almost two cups) Topping: 1 cup (250 mL) shredded coconut (I used sweetened) 1/2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup) 2 tbsp (25 mL) butter, softened 1 tbsp (15 mL) all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp (1 mL) cinnamon
Preparation:
Topping: In small bowl, combine coconut, sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon until crumbly; set aside.
In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time; beat in vanilla. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt ; stir half into butter mixture. Stir in sour cream. Stir in remaining flour mixture.
Spread in greased 9-inch (2.5 L) square cake pan. Sprinkle with raspberries and blueberries. Sprinkle with topping. Bake in 325°F (160°C) oven for 60 to 75 minutes or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack.
Nutritional Info Per serving: about - calories 425 protein 5 g fat 21 g carbs 54 g
A couple notes: I don't know if my oven is baking hot these days but I used frozen berries and still baked it for 15 minutes less than the recipe called for (55 minutes instead of 60-70). The same thing happened with the lemon loaves I baked last week so it could be my oven. But it could have been the glass cake pan I used for the cake. All I can say is watch your cake and start checking it at 55 minutes. (I use a wooden skewer.)
I only had sweetened coconut and was not about to go out to buy a lowly bag of unsweetened. So I halved the brown sugar amount in the topping. It was good, maybe a little sweet but not too sweet. Good. But if you have unsweetened I would probably recommend it.
There is one last piece sitting in the pan on the counter as I type this and it will take all of my will power not to eat it.
Happy Monday! As mentioned in my last entry I managed to squeeze some baking into my wonderful weekend. I realize now that the last few entries have been goods that fit into muffin tins. This is not the only thing I bake. But It is just so simple, so sweet and so perfect for running out the door to have these portable little goodies on hand. The goodies this time are Upside Down Apple & Honey Muffins. The apples and honey were both bought at the farmers market the same day and you could taste it. These were super simple, I dare say almost healthy and super tasty! The pieces of apple gave them flavour where normally sugar may have been used. next time I make these I am going to try and substitute whole wheat flour and see what happens. (I am currently out right now so unbleached all-purpose it was.)
Here is the recipe.
Apple & Honey Upside Down Muffins
* 3 apples * 2 tbsp honey (the stronger the flavour the better, I used buckwheat) * 2 tbsp cinnamon * 2 tbsp sugar * 2 cups all purpose unbleached flour * 3/4 cups packed brown sugar * 1 tbsp baking powder * 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk substitute * 1/4 cup oil
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Liberally grease muffin tin.
Mix cinnamon and sugar. Measurements are approximate because I used leftover cinnamon sugar sprinkle from my blueberry muffins made from "The Joy of Cooking" 75th anniversary edition. Sprinkle generously over muffin tin so that each cup has a nice coating of cinnamon and sugar.
Peel and core first apple. Dice into tiny pieces and mix with honey. Spoon into muffin tin. You don't need a lot in each cup, one good sized apple diced should be enough.
Mix all remaining ingredients together at once. Don't over stir (muffins hate it when you do that). The batter is not nearly as runny as most don't be alarmed at its stickiness.
Spoon mixture evenly into tins.
Slice remaining 2 apples thinly leaving peel on. Cut out core as pictured below. Place over batter in each cup.
Bake about 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes clean. (I used a non stick pan and this was the perfect amount of time you may need to adjust for different pan finish.)
Remove immediately from pan and let cool on rack. Makes 12 scrumptious muffins.
For this weeks edition of Mmmm good Mondays I bring you Cheeseburger Cupcakes and a feast fit for any carnivore!
We themed the party "Meatitarian" after the Wendy's commercial. Ron and I are raising Wednesday vegetarian and we ourselves only eat meat rarely and when this commercial was released we recieved a couple phone calls from our family making reference to it. We decided to use it as the them to the dinner because my dad is always complaining about the lack of meat at dinnertime these days and I thought he would be able to appreciate a meat buffet. The buffet consisted of dry rubbed and marinated for two days in a homemade sauce by Ron and then slow baked in the oven ribs, meatballs slow cooked in a crock pot in the same homemade bbq sauce, Sweet and spicy Thai chicken wings, two coleslaw (another homemade ginger sauce by Ron) type salads, bake potatoes, cheese bread, mac n' cheese bake and the Cheeseburger Cupcakes for desert.
The cupcakes were almost as big a hit as Ron's ribs. I got a lot of oohs and aahhs but Ron's ribs were eaten into extinction. I tried a couple meatballs and although the sauce was wonderful I cannot stand ground beef and it's meatballs counterparts. Give me a meatless meatball any day! I did manage to fill up on a bake potato with sour cream and some mac n' cheese. After the entire day in the kitchen making the cupcakes, I really was not that hungry anyway.
The cupcakes were inspired by this flickr tutorial set. I tweaked them a bit using brownie hamburgers (inspired by Martha's brownie cutouts from her Cupcakes book) and buttermilk in the vanilla cake mix (it was a *gasp* box mix) and I made my own vanilla icing recipe from Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. A tip: Dust your cookie cutter with cocao to cut out browine 'burgs. I used icing sugar without thinking first and well...you can see where I am going with this. Topped with some killer 5-0 shaped sparklers they were worth all of the effort.
Better than all of the cooking and baking though was having my family here. My sister and brother were here from Toronto for the night and my other brother came in from Kingston the day of the dinner. Very close friends of the family made it in from out of town for dinner and cake and it was great. Said friends even bought dad a t-shirt that went perfectly with the theme it said "There is room for all of God's creatures, right next to the mashed potatoes." I was sad when everyone had to start heading out hoping to beat the Sunday night traffic but I was exhausted at the same time. After battling that cold this month, having a child who now rises with the sun (literally) and company, visiting and baking I am truly exhausted. I slept like a rock last night and I just might nap with Wednesday in the next hour.
Then again, I might start another craft project because I am a glutton for punishment.
Happy Labour Day my fellow North Americans! And a very happy Monday to any readers from other parts of the globe!
It has been a whirlwind time here in Sweet Home Ontario and so I have a lot of posts to post and yet not enough time. As a way to help me organize my thoughts I thought I might give a theme to a few days of the week starting with today. Mondays are officially Mmm Good Mondays! and as a premier post I bring to you Pineapple Banana Muffins!
Mmmmmm good right?
I recently had a lot of fresh pineapple around the kitchen that needed to be used up before it went to rot. This was a perfect way to use it up (that and dried pineapple flowers ala Martha Stewart). They took no time to make even without the help of my handy dandy Kitchen Aid counter top mixer. The muffins turned out perfect and lasted a couple days (I made two batches) tasting fresh(ish) right until the last muffin. Here is the recipe text copied from the Cathlin Cooks blog.
½ cup olive oil ½ cup packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 teaspoons rum 3-4 ripe bananas, mashed 2 large eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour ¾ teaspoons baking soda ¾ teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon ¼ teaspoon nutmeg ½ cup pineapple
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a muffin tin. In a large bowl, beat together the oil, brown sugar, vanilla, and rum. Combine the mashed bananas and eggs in a separate bowl and add to the sugar mixture. Beat until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir it into the banana mixture. Chop up a cup of fresh pineapple and add to batter. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and let cool in the tins before removing to cool completely.
***
As you can tell from the photo they turned out perfect and perfectly delicious. I would also like to point out it was tricky finding a recipe calling for fresh not canned pineapple and this one was worth the search.
Side note: As a child growing up i thought all pineapple tasted like that from a can. Was I surprised when I had my fist taste of fresh, perfectly ripened pineapple. I haven't been able to consider, let alone bake/cook with and or eat. But for at least twenty years prior I had no idea the deliciousness of a fresh pineapple. Crazy isn't it?!
The single zucchini from our garden. Looks ginormous next to a mini muffin yes?
Wednesday kept calling it a "Keemy" and asking to hold on to it.
This was probably the most moist, the most tasty, the most delicious cake bread I have had in ages. I wish I could take credit for the recipe but alas I cannot. I just baked it to perfection. The recipe came via someone on my friends list on Livejournal. It is here at Virtual Cities. I will paste the text out for you too though.
Lemon/Blueberry Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
3-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
Juice of 1 lemon
Chopped zest of 1 lemon
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup frozen Maine wild blueberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour two 5 x 9-inch loaf pans. Beat eggs; add sugar and beat until well mixed. Add canola oil and beat well. Add lemon juice, zest, and zucchini and mix well with a wooden spoon.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, soda, and baking powder together. Add to the zucchini mixture; mix well. Fold in the blueberries. Pour mixture into the loaf pans and bake approximately 55 minutes until done (test with a cake tester). Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes prior to removing from pans.
Totally worth the effort it takes to grow, pick, shave and shred the zucchini!
The thing I love most about baking before the smells and tastes and satisfaction is the giving and sharing. That is what I love most about baking, sharing my creations. No recipe is small enough to keep to yourself and so your family and friends all get a piece of tasty goodness. Yesterday I baked for my brother-in-law's 38th birthday. I made Stout Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book. Funnily enough, it was my brother-in-law who gave me this book for my birthday last month so it only seems fitting that he receive the first batch of baked awesomeness.
And awesomeness they were. They tasted very much like gingerbread without the ginger due to the molasses and spices. They were incredibly moist and tasty and not to big or too sweet. The glaze is made from beer and icing sugar and adds that perfect bit of 'oomph'. They were so good.
Because these were not iced or piped with anything fancy, I printed up some little flags from marthastewart.com and I also photocopied a couple templates from the cookbook. They were the perfect touch. (It really is a wonderful book. Full of gorgeous photos and delectable recipes.)
Welcome! My name is Melissa and I love to create. Mostly I collect ideas and every now and again I have some good ones of my own. I love my family, coffee and storage. (Usually in that order.)If you have never visited here before please, grab a coffee and poke around. If you have any questions I am super easy to reach by clicking on a link below!
. I love them. Hopefully so does the rest of the family. Tonight begins a weekend full of family Halloween fun! Cheers!
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