Little Ivy Cakes

2012-01-18T16:48:00.000-08:00

1/18/12 - I posted this exactly one year ago. What's interesting is that now I have a fancy meyer lemon olive oil in my pantry that I have been meaning to break open and try. I should dust off that book and try another recipe. With my little Isaak, of course. ;)

OLIVE OIL CUPCAKES
Olive oil, Meyer lemon, vanilla bean cake with a French ginger liqueur, Meyer lemon glaze and bitter chocolate.

Wow! I haven't posted anything all year. Actually, I can't think of a better way to open up a new set of 2011 posts with fresh lemon, pure olive oil, and some brand new inspiration.

I had a lovely weekend. I hope you did too. My ~~Seanie~~ Prince Charming surprised me and swept me off to a Bed and Breakfast getaway that was a fun adventure, relaxing, and refreshing. When we returned to L.A., we happened to stumble upon the Santa Monica Farmer's market.

Yep, I went to the farmers market this weekend. YAY! Can I just say though, that I love this place! It's super inspiring and exciting. Every time I go to the FM, I get a new lease on ~~life~~ cooking and baking. This time, ONE *okay* ONE, of the things I found was some beautiful Meyer lemons. They smell so lovely. If you are not familiar with them, Meyer lemons are like a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. They are sweeter and less acidic than your common lemon varieties of Eureka and Lisbon. And... Meyer lemons are actually from China and were planted for ornamental purposes. The burst of popularity in California cuisine brought them into the spotlight for culinary purposes.

For Christmas, my sweet mother had an olive oil basket sent to me from a olive oil and fine foods company based in Los Olivos, California. To me, the best olive oil would be green, murky, and have that deep, rich olive oil smell. Mmmmmm. I mean that's the best artisan oil fresh from Italy right. I have said before how olive oil is pure gold in the kitchen. But, there are so many uses for olive oil dating waaay back, it's really interesting.

My mom also sent me a very cool book called The Passionate Olive.

Among many other useful recipes and uses for olive oil, in this book you will find a recipe for olive oil cake book-marked by me with some yarn. A desire to bake was sparked immediately when I found this recipe. And all these things, waiting in my cupboards to be used, finally came together in my head.
Olive Oil Cake
Meyer Lemons
French Ginger Liqueur
Valrhona Bitter chocolate (85% cocao)

Try baking the following. It won't let you down and is very easy. Sorry my pictures aren't that great. I baked at night and couldn't get good lighting or be bothered with the fuss of perfect pictures.

Olive Oil Cupcake Recipe (adapted from the cake recipe in The Passionate Olive)
Recipe makes 38 minis or about 20 regular cupcakes

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tbs and 1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder (if you don't have this, use vanilla extract and add it with your wet ingredients)
1 tsp ground ginger
Zest of one Meyer lemon
3 eggs, room temp
3 tbs milk
1 tbs Meyer lemon juice
1 stick minus 1 tbs melted butter
1/2 cup and 2 tbs extra virgin olive

-Preheat oven to 350F
-Mix the butter and olive oil in a small bowl and set aside.
-In a large mixing bowl, Sift and whisk flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla bean powder, and ground ginger.
-Usinings an electric mixer:
-Add lemon zest, then one egg at a time, then milk, then Meyer lemon juice.
-Slowly pour in the butter and oil mixture.
-Mix well but don't over mix either. You should have a smooth batter perfect for scooping into cupcake papers.

-Fill your cupcake lines 3/4 of the way full.
-Bake minis for 10, regulars about 15-18 minutes or until the toothpick comes clean yada, yada, yada.
-Let cool, then slowly pour about a 1/2 tsp of ginger liqueur on the cupcake and let it soak in.
Then frost with icing and melted chocolate.

Ivy's Ginger Liqueur and Meyer lemon icing Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tbs water
1 tbs honey
2-3 cups powdered sugar- I know it seems like a lot. You gotta do it on this one if you want a white frosting/glaze.
2 tbs Meyer lemon juice
1/2 a shot of ginger liqueur
1 tbs Meyer lemon zest.
-Whisk all ingredients together until you get your desired consistency.
-Dip or glaze cooled cupcakes. Beware the frosting will drip if you don't want this, let them dry faster in front of a fan.
-Drizzle with half a melted Valrhona chocolate bar, and sprinkle lemon zest to garnish.
-Store at room temp for a couple days at most.

So there you have it. They were moist and delicious! By themselves they could be a substitute for cornbread served with chili. And with icing and chocolate they are homemade gourmet cupcakes.

THE END!

2011-11-26T11:41:00.000-08:00

My baby is finally here in my arms!

Isaak Clemens von Buseck is his name and he was born on 11/20 at 7.1 lbs and 19 inches.

Isaak and I will be in the kitchen soon to bake something yummy for you!

2011-09-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Heavenly Tropical Cake

My mom told me about this cake that she and my sister fell in love with at the Tommy Bahama's Restaurant. Last year, my mom requested and paid a profesh baker friend of hers in Hawaii to make this cake for her birthday. BUT, it turned out to be a dud. :(

Not only was the cake nothing like the restaurant's version, but it wasn't even that good for what it was. :(

Just hearing this story made me feel A personal injustice, and an immediate super-challenge was launched. "I was going to make this cake RIGHT!"

Yet, to my surprise, the challenge turned out to be an easy one. By God's graces and favor, with just FIVE minutes online, I found the actual recipe for the cake here Tommy Bahama's Pina Colada Cake along with other yummy recipes they have published Tommy Bahama's Recipes and was already special ordering the key ingredients on my sixth minute into the challenge.

BTW, their food is really good! This is not a plug for Tommy Bahama's restaurant but, they do have some pretty good food there. If you ever run into one of their locations, go ahead and give them a chance. :) I know of one on Maui in Lahaina and one in Palm Springs near Indian Wells.

Anyway, so, I find their exact recipe *which is very simple* and THEN, on top of that they tell you in the recipe what brand of cake mix and the exact website and item # to order the white chocolate mousse mix. I ordered two cans around $5.00 each. One single can of mix could probably make three cakes. Below are my exact notes about the steps I went through.

I am telling you, THIS CAKE IS REALLY GOOOOOD! It passed the test of mom-authenticity and even BETTER everyone I make this cake for says it's beyond amazing.
You can make it yourself. It's A perfect light and fluffy bliss cake and would go very well with a margarita or mai tai I am sure. :)

Well... if you don't like pina coladas... or getting caught in the rain...then, maybe this is not the cake for you. You kinda have to like coconut and pineapple. Although, now that I think about it you could do any flavors with this recipe since it's a white cake and white chocolate whipped cream filling.

Just a side note: My recipe notes are quite detailed but you can make this process as simple or complex and gourmet as you feel comfortable. Drop the extra steps or ingredients if you want, the key is white cake, whipped cream frosting, pineapple layer, coconut rum and toasted coconut. It was wonderful fresh but I also think the more the cake sits and simmers the better.

Ingredients I used

1 box moist white cake mix (substitute 3 parts coconut milk, 1 part water for the water called in box instructions)
1 can coconut MILK

3 egg whites (as it calls for on the box)

Veggie oil ( as it calls for on the box)
Vanilla

1-2 cups Parrot Bay Rum coconut rum (original recipe from Tommy calls for Golden Rum which you could use too)

1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, very well drained
Shredded sweetened coconut, toasted

THE RECIPE and STEPS

-Toast 2 cups of coconut in a large frying pan on medium heat. Constantly stirring with a wooden spoon until golden brown. Then transfer coconut to a cookie sheet lined with a paper towel to let cool. Funnel into a baggie and set aside.
-Open the can of crushed pineapple and drain an much liquid as you can. Place in a bowl, cover and set aside in fridge.
-Grease 2-8 or 9 inch cake pans really well. (I've done round and square)
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cake:
-Combine the bag of cake mix, 3 egg whites, 1 tbs vanilla, 1/3 cup veggie oil, 1 cup coconut milk, and 1/4 cup water. Start to beat slow then mix well for 2 minutes.
or make as directed on you cake mix box.

-Pour batter into cake pans and bake 30 minutes or until golden brown and when you touch the top with your finger-it springs back. Let cake cool. Try not to over bake.
-Let cool, cover and place in the freezer. You can even make the cake a night before. It's much easier this way.
-When ready to assemble cake(perhaps the next day), torte each cake into to layers yielding 4 layers total (I did 3 though because I was worried it would be too high, heavy, a topsy-turvey)

Frosting/Filling
You can try to do the math on this one. The mousse directions on the can said use 1/2 gallon of whipping cream for the whole can but you don't want to use the whole can.
-Whip1/2 cup and 2 Tbs White chocolate mousse powder with 1/4 cup coconut milk, then add 1 pint whipping cream and whisk on high until you have stiff peaks.
-Add some vanilla extract Mix well.
Cover, and set aside in fridge until you are ready to assemble cake.
-Take cooled or frozen cake and cute your layer horizontally.
-Then, stack all cut layers together and trim the sides of crust.
-Place plastic wrap in between layers and set aside (in freezer again if needed) until ready to assemble.

Assembly:
On the fancy cake plate of your choice..with a doilie perhaps...
-Place first layer of cake down and using a pastry brush, brush on the coconut rum or sprinkle on.
-Spread a layer of the white chocolate mousse about 1/2 inch or so.
-Lightly cover mousse layer with crushed pineapple pieces
-Repeat steps ending with a flat surface cake layer facing up. Brush top with rum.
-Frost whole cake with white chocolate mousse and sprinkle top and sides with toasted coconut.
Sprinkle the coconut just before serving because if the coconut is on the cake and sitting in the fridge, the coconut will loose it crunchy-ness.

If you're really ambitious you could take your discarded pineapple juice and make a nice creamy pineapple sorbet to serve with the cake.

THE END!

2011-09-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Simple Wild Apple And Vanilla Bean Jelly

A couple weeks ago when I made apple pie I was wondering what I could do with all the pretty left over apple peels. I found an awesome simple apple jelly recipe that can really be used for ANY kind of jelly you want to make. These kinds of recipes always excite me because I can make tons of different jellies and it's so easy to make. The only thing you may have to invest in is a candy thermometer. It's worth it though and you can find one that is decently priced.

Here's how it's done.

STEP 1: Boil peels and cores from 4-5 apples in 3-4 cups of water for 15 minutes.
I used the wild apples from my tree and one Red Delicious I had on hand.
On my second batch of jelly(which was more planned) I used mostly Granny Smith for a nice tart flavor. And then a couple Red Delicious for color.

STEP 2: Strain all peels and cores back into your boiling pot, leaving you with about 2 cups of pretty, rosy-pink broth.

STEP 3: Stir in 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup lemon or lime juice, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (for looks), 1 tbs vanilla extract, and 1 tsp cinnamon or your favorite pie spice mix. Let boil until your candy thermometer reaches 220F. It takes about 20 minutes.

STEP 4: Let cool 5 minutes, pour into canning jar leaving about 3/4 of an inch at the top and let completely cool. Place lid on jar, and store in fridge or learn how to properly seal it.

THE END!

2011-09-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

Cupcakes in a Hurry: Chai Spice Cupcakes

Last week was a friend's birthday and I wanted to bake her a goodie. However, I had to make something that was quick and with on-hand ingredients. I had to be over at her house for her party a couple hours after getting home from work. Luckily, I keep some good stuff on hand like...spice cake mix and cream cheese?
I think it's Betty Crocker spice cake mix, it's really good and I use it for this yummy pumpkin cake cookie recipe I make in the fall.

Anyway, these turned out really good and the Chai element made them have a unique and gourmet touch.

Spice Cupcake Recipe
-Spice cake mix, follow box directions.
-Substitute the water it calls for with a half-half mix of milk and Tazo Chai extract.
-Add more cake spice/cinnamon/all spice to your liking(2 tsp maybe)
-Bake batter into mini or regular cupcakes
Oven temp is 350F, bake for 10-20 minutes depending on your cupcake size choice.

Chai Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
2 packs cream cheese, I think that's 8oz. -room temp
1 1/2 sticks butter, room temp
1 cup powder sugar or to taste
1/4 cup Tazo Chai Tea extract-I love this YUMMY stuff. I get it at the grocery store in the tea section.

1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs cake spice or pumpkin pie spice
-Whip cream cheese and butter, then slowly add each remaining ingredient one at a time.
-Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes
I decorated with cake spice, chocolate sprinkles, fine dry coconut, and pearl dragees.

THE END!

2011-09-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

PAINT YOUR NAILS PRITTY
This weekend we pretty much worked on fixing up our house three days straight. I finished putting away all my kitchen stuff and Sean did a whole bunch of stuff, including putting up window blinds.

On Friday after work, I did have some fun though. I went to see Crazy Stupid Love.
I went with my friends from work, the movie was super funny and afterwards we had a blast for happy hour. Don't worry, I had a virgin-margarita. :)

I also managed to paint my toe nails all pritty on Sunday, here they are...hearts and polka-dots.

That blurry thing at the bottom of the picture is my baby-tummy at 29 weeks. :)

If you want to paint your nails cute like mine,
-Paint your nails the background color you want after breakfast, I did grey. Let them dry.
-Then paint your design on them after lunch, I did little hearts on my big toe and polka dots on my other toes with teal and green.
To get my grey I mixed white and black polish together.
To get my heart color I mixed white and a dark teal I had.
If you want a glossy finish for your toes or nails after, brush on a clear coat after you're design has dried.

I like to have opaque white on hand to mix new and exciting colors with my darker color polishes. To mix colors I use a paper plate and bottle caps. For the hearts, I used a tooth pick for tiny design.

I have problems with painting my finger nails because I pick it off right away. But this time, I wasn't done being creative so I just painted my thumbs with little hearts.

Here's some pictures of Buddy and Frodo taking advantage of their long holiday weekend.

Frodo

Buddy

Have a great week! Only four days until another weekend. ;)

2011-08-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hey! Happy Sunday!

I challenge you to spend some time outside and enjoy the day if you can. Maybe....Plant something?

My goal today, among many other things, is to do one of these fun inspiring projects I found...wish me luck.

Teacup flower pot

OR

Write in moss idea

See you later. ;)
Have a lovely week filled with inspiration and creativity!

2011-08-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Homegrown Wild Apple Pie

Yes, I have made apple pie before, I know. This one is special though...becaauuuuse the apples came from my own front yard. Exciting huh.

And my husband had to climb on our roof to get them from the top of the tree, isn't he awesome! I am not sure what variety they are but, they have just the right tartness and are very refreshing. I also like that every apple is unique and a different size and shape. I made the pie making process as easy as possible on myself this time and I am glad I did because being pregnant and standing while coring, peeling, and slicing was tiring this time. I also enjoyed trying out a new spice a friend gave me from a place in Santa Monica called Penzey's. The cake spice she gave me is totally awesome! It's like a pumpkin pie spice blend but way better and it has a very unique flavor, I know I will be using this spice a ton.

Anyway, here's a recipe for the apple crisp pie I made:

SIMPLE APPLE CRISP PIE
4-5 cups apple slices, use a smacky-type apple that is a little tart.
1/4 cup lemon juice and 1 Tbs. mayo, whisked together in a large bowl.
1 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 stick butter, melted
1-2 tbs pumpkin pie spice mix or a combo of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg etc...
2 frozen Marie Calendar pie shells (I know, I cheated this time to make it easy)

THE OAT CRISP

1 1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1-2 tsp. Penzey's Cake Spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick and 2 tbs butter.

-Preheat oven to 375
-While slicing your apples toss them in the bowl with lemon juice and mayo to prevent browning.
-Toss all apple slices with sugar and pumpkin pie spice mix, let sit for 10 minutes.
-Mix your oat crisp in a separate bowl. Combine oats, brown sugar, flour, and cake spice
-In the microwave, half melt your butter (you want some butter solid but soft and some melted)
-With your hands, mix in butter evenly with dry ingredients, set aside.

-Fill pie shells with apples, and drizzle 1/3 cup of the leftover sugar/spice juice on each pie.
-Drizzle the 1/2 stick of melted butter evenly over both pies.
-Crumble Oat mixture evenly over both pies.

-If you can, place both pies on a cookie sheet covered with foil and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until crust is golden brown and you see some bubble action. My favorite part about baking apples pies is how delicious and dreamy they make the whole house smell.
-Take them out of the oven and let them cool.

-Then eat a slice with vanilla, or in this picture, butter pecan ice cream.

THE END! See you soon ;)

2011-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

COOKING IN ITALIA:

Well, life has swallowed me whole people. We are in the thick of remodeling, and settling into our new home. AND…Hey, if you don’t already know, we are having a little baby boy in mid-November! YAY!

So, I have haven’t had any time for kitchen projects and blogging. Most of my kitchen things are actually still packed at the moment, anxiously awaiting their new home.

I can’t wait to share the adventures I will have in my new kitchen. Keep checking in, I should be posting shortly. I always get so many fun ideas, it's just a matter of actually making them. LOL.

Finding new recipes and ideas to make contribute to my happiness and along with that, is sharing these things with friends on and off the blog world. I am especially excited because we have a good apple tree, orange tree, and 2 peach trees. They seem to be finishing their season for now though. Booo! I may have to wait a while for the next harvest.

So finally, I am able to bring you pictures from my wonderful experience of a the cooking I took in Italy with my mother and sister. We had a lot of fun and a TON of food. :) If you want the detailed names or recipes to what you see below, let me know and I will provide them to you.

The instructors were just amazing and so much fun. I will remember them in my hearts forever.

making pasta from scratch. Flour, eggs, salt, and major arm muscles.

Pork chop cut into three, rubbed with salt, pepper and sage, sandwiched mozarella, and wrapped in bacon.

Zucchini stuffed with zucchini chopped and bread crumbs, then baked.

Fresh parmesan and herb pasta bowl, baked and then frozen over a bowl to shape.

Me and our lead chef instructor, she was so lively and fun!

THE END! Gratzi Italia-for a lovely vacation. :)

2011-05-23T03:39:00.000-07:00

Ciao from Italia!

So far I have been to Firenze, Assisi, and Arezzo. It's all been amazing and the Italians are so nice.

2011-05-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

AN OVER-DUE UPDATE

Hello! I know. It’s been a long time, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. Life has been busy lately and non-stop. I just finished leading a cooking a baking group. The group of ladies I got to know were so awesome and we had a lot of fun! I know, it sounds weird, but I didn’t have a lot of good opportunities to take pictures and stuff. We made the popcorn caramel cupcakes that I did post on here. And other stuff like; lasagna cupcakes, raspberry mousse tarts, chocolate covered strawberries and rice krispie treats, crepes etc...

So, ya, my life has been buzzing with new life changes that I want to share with you. :)

Number One: Is that I found out I will be having a baby in November. We have been hearing the heartbeat the last couple appointments and it's just amazing!YAY! I had to get through the two months of constant nausea before getting excited though. I am so grateful because my hubby and I had been trying for two years.

Number Two: Is that we are in the process of closing on a house here in Los Angeles. Also exciting, but it makes you very busy and there is a lot to do and think about. The house needs some esthetic TLC too which will be fun but time consuming.

And

Number Three: I am leaving on Tuesday for an all-girls trip to Italy with my mother and sister for fifteen days. A long distance AND time to be away from home right now but, again, exciting. I hate flying so keep me in your prayers. LOL

I will hopefully be able to update you with little blurbs and pictures from my trip and I can’t wait to get back into blogging and having fun in the kitchen.

Have a wonderful sun-shiny summer. I will see you back here soon.

2011-02-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

Buttered Popcorn Cupcakes

with Sea Salt Caramel Frosting and Sauce

I have always had a thing for those Buttered Popcorn Jellie Bellies, when I tell people I like them, they react with a "yuk!". It makes sense though, that they are so delicious, because it's a buttery, salty, sweet flavor*WHICH, I LOVE!*. I personally just love those salty/sweet or spicy/bitter combos.

Anyway, when I saw Ellie make this Buttered Popcorn Ice Cream and Stef make these Popcorn Cupcakes, I was instantly inspired to make something with buttered popcorn. So the two things on my list were popcorn macarons and/or popcorn cupcakes. First up, CUPCAKES!

For these, I combined and pulled from different ideas and recipes. I took Stef's advice and ordered the Amish popcorn flour and took Ellie's advice that the salted caramel sauce from David Lebovit's was A-mazing.

Then I found the butteriest base cupcake recipe I could find and ran with it.

I also had a lot of fun in the kitchen with others and made them with a baking and cooking group that I am currently leading. We had so much fun eating a lot of popcorn...with salted caramel sauce, making the cupcakes of course and then eating them. Start your own cooking and baking group, it's a lot of fun! :) You will never be lonely in the kitchen again. :)

If you want to give your try at these, it's worth it. Make them for a movie night and have friends over. Or... the Oscars are on the 27th, you could have an Oscar watching party and serve them. Speaking of the Oscars, I need to catch up and watch some of the nominated films I haven't seen yet.

Before we get started with the cupcakes and such, let's make some popcorn....
This is how I do it at my house:
-In a large pot, coat 1/2 cup of organic popcorn kernels with 2 tbs of veggie oil over medium heat and cover with a lid.

-Shake/slide by the pan handle as the kernels start to pop. Once the popping stops take off the heat immediately and turn off heat.

-Pour on a large piece of tin foil and let cool
-Melt 1/2 to 1 stick butter for about 1 minute in the microwave. Whisk in a pinch or two of sugar and salt and mix well. Butter should look creamy but be a liquid.
-Drizzle on popcorn as even as you can with a measuring cup. Place in a heatproof bowl and keep warm in the oven on the lowest temp of your oven. Beware that the bowl can be hot once you remove it from the oven-duh.

Yummy!

Buttered Popcorn Cupcake Recipe

What you need *makes 24 regular size cupcakes*

11/2 cup AP flour

1 cup popcorn flour or use all AP flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp is best

1/4 cup pureed cream corn

2 eggs, room temp

2 egg whites, room temp

1 tbs vanilla extract

1 cup milk *infused with buttered popcorn* (optional)

1/4 cup buttered popcorn for milk

1 cup buttered popcorn for decorating cupcakes

What to do

-Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin pans with cupcake liners

-In a small saucepan, heat milk on medium-low heat until tiny bubbles form around the edges.

-Stir in buttered popcorn and take off the heat to let steep for 10 minutes.

-Strain popcorn out of milk, add vanilla and set aside.

-In a medium bowl, whisk both flours, baking powder, and salt.

-In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until a pale color and majorly fluffified in your stand mixer (3 minutes?)

-On a low speed, add purred creamed corn, and eggs one at a time.

-Alternate adding half the flour mixture, then half the milk mixture in two additions. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix well but don't over beat.

-Pour batter into cupcake liners a little more than three-fourths full.

-Bake about 15 minutes until cupcakes are golden brown and when gently pressed with fingers, springs back.

-Set cupcake pan on cooling wrack and let cool a few minutes before transferring them directly on the cooling wrack to cool completely.

-Frost cupcakes with sea salt caramel buttercream, buttered popcorn, and drizzled caramel sauce.

Salted Caramel Buttercream/Sauce-by David Lebovit's

What you need

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbs butter, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt-to taste
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 stick salted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1-3 tbs water, room temp

What to do
-In a large heavy duty saucepan over medium to med-low heat, cook sugar without stirring until the sugar near the edges of the pan starts to liquefy.
-Using a wooden spoon, begin gently stirring, encouraging the melted sugar around the edges toward the center and delicately stirring up any sugar melting on the bottom as well. The sugar may look pebbly as it cooks, but keep going; it will melt completely as it turns amber color.
-Continue to cook until the sugar turns a deep brown color and starts to smoke a little. The darker you can cook the sugar without burning it, the better the final sauce will taste. You will know it's ready when the sugar is the color of a well-worn penny and smells slightly smokey.
-Remove the saucepan from the heat carefully and continue to stir, protecting your hands and arms, pour half the heavy cream-the mixture will bubble up furiously with just enough attitude but nothing you can't handle.
-Stir in the rest of the heavy cream until smooth.
-Stir in 2 tbs butter, vanilla, and salt to taste. Mix well.
-Pour into a heat proof container and set aside to cool for the buttercream frosting.
P.S. When I make the caramel again, I will take pics of the process and post. Pictures always help.
Buttercream fun
-Cream butters and sugar for 4 minutes.

-On a low speed at first, add powdered sugar-then beat well until very fluffy, adding water a little at a time while mixing. The water will help with air volume.
-Add 2-3 tbs cooled salted caramel and beat another minute.

-Pipe frosting onto cupcakes or create smooth frosting whip.

The End!

2011-01-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

Roasted Garlic and Herb Cheesecake

with a Spicy Walnut Crust

Global Gardens in Los Olivos, CA is a specialty food company that specialize in olive oil and things of this nature. You can become a member and get seasonal baskets from them or purchase their items separately. My lovely mother actually joined as a member and ordered me a seasonal basket. *how nice is that?* I received a beautiful bottle of olive oil, pomegranate balsamic vinegar, a colossal garlic bulb, and some yummy spicy walnuts.

Last week, I decided it was time to roast the garlic for dinner. In order to roast garlic, you do not need a garlic roaster. However, it does make is fun. Especially when you have a Buddy helper. :)

It's worth spending about an hour and half making roasted garlic because the garlic is just yummy. :)
It has milder garlic taste but more flavor and it's soft with a bit of chewiness. You can use the garlic in a recipe, slice it up and toss with veggies for dinner, or spread it on some french bread with butter.

Roasted Garlic
-Preheat oven to 300F
-Slice about a 1/8 or 1/4 inch off the top and bottom of two regular size garlic bulbs, leaving the peel still on them. (as you can see in my picture I went a little backwards.oops!)
-Place the bulb onto the plate of the garlic roaster or in a small baking dish lined with aluminum foil coated with 1 Tbs olive oil.
-Place fresh herbs around the clove if you want and then sprinkle some salt and pepper over the clove.
-Drizzle olive oil all over the clove and herbs, about 1/4 cup.
-Cover the garlic with the lid of the roaster or aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
-Remove foil or lid to expose garlic to dry heat and bake another 40 minutes while basting with olive oil every 15 minutes or so.

I tossed some slices with green beans for dinner and then saved the rest to make my planned savory cheesecake.

The Walnut Crust:
1/2 cup Cheese it cracker crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped, spiced walnuts-
(Coat in a butter, honey, and cayenne sauce and bake for 10 minutes at 300 tossing occasionally)
1/4 cup melted butter
-Coat crumbs and walnuts with melted butter and then press lightly into a 3 ramekins LIKE THIS METHOD or mini spring form cake pans. Set aside.

Roasted Garlic Cheesecake Recipe
1 80z pack of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
3 tbs corn starch
2 eggs
1 roasted garlic glove
2 tbs olive oil
fresh herbs
salt and pepper to taste

-Puree in a food processor, soft roasted garlic, fresh herbs like rosemary and sage, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Set aside.
-In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth.
-Add sour cream and then the cornstarch.
-Add eggs and milk
-Add roasted garlic mixture
-Place cake pans on a cookie sheet.
-Pour cheesecake batter into your cake pans and bake at 275 for about 30 minutes.
-Serve warm with bread or crackers or chill and serve as a cheese spread.

That's all for now, I hope you have a lovely weekend!

2011-01-18T00:15:00.000-08:00

OLIVE OIL CUPCAKES
Olive oil, Meyer lemon, vanilla bean cake with a French ginger liqueur, Meyer lemon glaze and bitter chocolate.

Ivy's Ginger Liqueur and Meyer lemon icing Recipe

THE END!

2010-12-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

SING ALONG!
Here's something that I want to share with you...
Ever since my friend, Diana at didoart posted it on Face Book the other day, I just can't get out of my head. It's so refreshing!

Have a Sunny day!

THE END!

2010-12-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

My sweet mother-in-law sent this to me and I had to share.

*It's funny because it's true.*

Tequila Christmas Cake....recipe

Once again this year, I’ve had numerous requests for my Tequila Christmas Cake recipe, so here goes.

Please keep in your files as I am beginning to get tired of typing this up every year!

1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup water
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
Lemon juice
4 large eggs
Nuts
1 bottle tequila
2 cups dried fruit

Sample the tequila to check quality
Take a large bowl; check the tequila again to be sure it is of the highest quality..

Repeat.

Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Beat again.

At this point, it is best to make sure the tequila is still OK. Try another cup just in case.
Turn off the mixerer thingy.

Break 2 eegs and add to the bowl and chuck iin the cup of dried fruit.
Pick the fruit up off the floor.

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit getas stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose

with a drewscriver.

Sample the tequila to test for tonsisticity.

Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something.

Check the tequila.Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner

Finally, throw the bowl through the window.
Finish the tequila and wipe the counter with the cat.

Cherry Christmas!

2010-12-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!
I meant to get a December post up waaay earlier but, you know how life is...and...:)

So, there ya go. LOL.

Here are some new kids on the block for Christmas time cookies, I just discovered them this week and absolutely love them. They are super simple and will be a big hit, I promise. Found them here at Betty Crocker.
Actually the only complaint I have is that they are a little tooooo sweet for my taste. I may try to come up with a from-scratch recipe for this cookie.

Chewy Pistachio Cranberry Cookie Recipe
Adapted from Betty Crocker recipe

Ingredients:
1 bag sugar cookie mix
¼ cup AP flour
1 pkt pistachio pudding powder
1 stick butter, melted
2 eggs, room temp
A little over ½ cup Craisins, chopped
A little over ½ cup pistachios, shelled and chopped (medium-coarse)

Equipment that make this recipe easier
Large mixing bowl, holds ingredients without spilling all over your kitchen counter
Wooden spoon, fun to mix with
Parchment paper, prevents sticking
Cookie sheet, bakes cookies and prevents them from falling on the bottom of your oven.
Small cookie scoop, helps make all cookies the same size.
Kitchen timer, helps your A-D-D brain to remember you have cookies in the oven.

What to do:
-In a large mixing bowl, whisk together cookie mix, pistachio pudding powder, and flour
with a wooden spoon.
-Add in melted butter and eggs, and mix well.
-Mix in Craisins and pistachio nuts.
-Scoop batter onto cookie sheet with parment paper, like a drop cookie, small-medium size ball, with a scoop or a large spoon about 2 inches apart.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes SHARP.
-Take cookies out of the oven, the center may look a little under-cooked, THIS IS OK-TAKE THEM OUT!
-Let them sit 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before you transfer them to a flat cooling rack.
-Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, although I doubt they will last that long.

These are fun because they make me want to try other variations, like sugar cookie mix with lemon pudding and cranberries or chocolate pudding with chocolate chips etc…

If you try this recipe or any other version, let me know.
Stay tuned for Christmas-y Meringue Cookies
THE END!

2010-11-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

NEED A PUMPKIN PIE RECIPE?!

THANKSGIVING IS enjoying time with your family and friends

THANKSGIVING IS our American heritage and abundance we harvest

THANKSGIVING IS giving to those in need

THANKSGIVING IS reaching out to the lonely

THANKSGIVING IS being grateful for who and what you ALREADY have

THANKSGIVING IS a warm heart and welcoming hearth

THANKSGIVING IS being content after enjoying all the food you worked so hard to make all day

THANKSGIVING IS laughing with good company

THANKSGIVING IS sharing graceful smiles

THANKSGIVING IS showing unconditional love

Amongst the RUSH and STRESS of Thanksgiving and the up and coming Holidays, let’s actually THINK about them for a second.
I know it may feel busy all around you and you may start to feel overwhelmed with all you “need” to do, bake, get, cook, shop, shop, shop, and shop, bake.

But, when this happens, this overwhelmed-ness feeling, just STOP. And breathe slowly in-and-out five times and get that peace back.

It’s just about celebrating and enjoying life and being kind and understanding to the people you love.
It reminds me of a quote,
"I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel."
-Maya Angelou

Do you make people feel good when they are around you? or do they feel bad when they spend time with you?
Do you welcome them into the Thanksgiving cooking to help? Or do you shoo at them to get out of the kitchen?
Do you snap at them when potatoes fly all over the kitchen walls and ceiling? Or do you laugh with them?
Do you criticize that relative at the table? Or do you encourage them?
Do you choose to be offended at someone or something they said or did? Or do you take a deep breath, let it go, and give them the benefit of the doubt that they did not mean to hurt you?
Taking the time to be gracious to people you love, and grateful for what you ALREADY have will make all the difference in your heart and will shine through for others to see. Sure no one can be perfect but we can make an intentional effort to me kind and be a light in life.

And being a light in life sometimes means baking yummy things right? :)

So if you want to make an easy semi-from scratch pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I strongly encourage it! It’s really simple to make and it will be waaaay better than store bought, I guarantee it. If you make your dessert pies the day before Thanksgiving it will reduce your stress level and you can then focus on the rest of the turkey dinner on THE day. You don’t even really have to find a recipe because there is usually a recipe for pumpkin pie right on the pumpkin can label. Plus you are about to read one right here...
Here’s my adapted version from Libby’s

The Crust:
I make (or buy to save time) a graham cracker crust-chocolate or vanilla. For some reason, I am just not crazy about the regular pie crust for pumpkin pie.

2 cups chocolate or cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (blend chunks of the cookies in your food processor or blender until you have fine crumbs.)
½ - ¾ cup butter, melted

-Whisk butter and crumbs together until just moist.

-Press mixture into you pie plate on the bottom and sides.Set aside. No need to pre-bake.

The Filling: Extra spices for me please!
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tsp All Spice
1-2 tsp ground ginger
1-2 tsp nutmeg
Pinch cardamom
Or if you want and need it to be easy, 2-3 Tbs pumpkin pie spice instead of all the above
½ tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
1-15 oz plain pumpkin
2 large eggs, room temp
1 -12 oz can evaporated milk

-In a small bowl, whisk all spices, salt and sugar together, set aside.
-In a large bowl, lightly whisk eggs
-Add in pumpkin and sugar/spice mix
-Slowly pour in milk while mixing slowly. Add only ¾ can of milk if you want a thicker pie that has less chance of being runny.
-If you want to get fancy, melt ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips with ¼ cup heavy cream, and 1/2 cup of your pumpkin batter, then swirl it into the rest of the filling and pour into pie crust to bake.
-Or if you want to get fancy, beat 1 pk cream cheese at room temperature until fluffy then add your sugar, eggs, pumpkin, and milk.
-Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 45 minutes until knife in center comes clean.

And if you can make your own whipped cream topping, it is again, totally worth it!!!

The Whipped Cream Topping:

1 pint whipping cream
1 -2 Tbs powdered sugar
2 Tbs vanilla extract or paste

-Chill your completely dry steel bowl and whisk attachments for 15-20 minutes in the freezer (this will make your whipping go much, much faster)
-Pour whipping cream in the bowl and whip with electric beater until you have soft peaks (5 mins)
-Then add your sugar and vanilla.
-Continue to whip until you have stiff peaks (another 3 mins). Store up to a day in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap.
-Or make chocolate whipped cream by melting 1/2 cup chocolate chips, let cool for 10 mins. Fold 1/3 of your whipping cream with the chocolate. Then add the chocolate/cream to the rest of your whipped cream.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with amazing food and company.

2010-11-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Bread

It's November! The month of Thanksgiving. Wow! There are so many things to be thankful for in my life. At the top of my list right now...Thanksgiving food! :) I can't wait. The Turkey, stuffing, and homemade cranberry sauce are my favorites and I have to eat them together(a little in each bite-is that weird?) I know some people, like my husband, eat each food separately...The turkey, then the stuffing, then the potatoes, then the cranberry sauce. How do you eat? Are you like me wanting to have the salty and the sweet together, or do you savor each one by itself?

Ohhhh, and then there is dessert. I grew up mainly on homemade pumpkin pie and real whipped cream-It was always so good.

I like to wait until Thanksgiving Day to have a slice of pumpkin pie though, because if I start eating that stuff too early, I will be sick of it before Thanksgiving. So, I make other pumpkin things to tide me over. Last year I made these bomb pumpkin spice cookies. You mix pumpkin with a box of spice cake-mix and like.. 1 egg or so. The batter is thicker than a cake batter..then you spoon them onto parchment as cookies and bake them. And top with cream cheese frosting. They were super addicting.

Anyway, this year, I have stumbled upon making a yummy pumpkin chocolate swirl bread and it turned out deliciously moist and beautiful when sliced into pieces.

Ivy's Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Bread Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp all spice
3 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne
pinch of cardamom
2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter, room temp
3 eggs, room temp
1 can pumpkin
2 Tbs Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup milk
-Preheat oven to 350F
-Butter a 9x9 square baking pan.
-In a medium bowl, whisk all dry ingredients and set aside
-In a glass bowl over a pot of 1/2 cup simmer water, melt the chocolate chips, stir to smooth, take the bowl off the heat and set aside.
-In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy to to the max
-Add eggs (one at a time) and vanilla.
-Add in pumpkin, mix well.
-Mix in half the flour mixture, mix.
-Pour in half the milk, mix.
-Add the rest of the flour, mix.
-Add the rest of the milk, Scrape sides of bowl and bottom, and mix well.
-Separate the batter into two bowls. In one, mix in the melted chocolate.
-Alternate pouring each batter type into the baking pan. The pan should be 3/4 full.
-With a wooden spoon, swirl the batter around a little and smooth out the top.
-Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife comes clean when stuck in the middle.
-Let cool, then invert onto a cutting board and cut serving size slices.

THE END!

2010-11-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

"Restaurant Style" Chicken Enchiladas

I ALWAYS order enchiladas when eating out at a Mexican restaurant. I love them sooo much! So I decided I was going to try and make them like they do at the restaurants...then I could have the yumminess anytime I wanted. HELLOOO! (It's pretty smart of me, I know).

Here's the recipe if you are interested
Recipe makes about 6 enchiladas...
You Need:
Chunks of shredded chicken pieces preferred to come from a whole cooked chicken

4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1-2 tbs taco seasoning
3tbs lime juice
3 tbs butter
1/2 Red onion, diced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
pinch of salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper
Pack of tortillas, I prefer corn tortillas but my hubby likes flour. Sometimes I do white corn tortillas.
Veggie oil for cooking tortillas
Small can of diced green chilis
Small can diced jalapenos if you want it to be spicier
10 oz can enchilada sauce

What you need to do is....

-Mix grated cheese with taco seasoning and set aside.

-In a medium skillet, saute lime juice, butter, onion, tomatoes, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper until onions are translucent. Take off heat and pour into a bowl. set aside.

-Then in a clean skillet heat veggie oil or grape seed oil (a couple tbs to start)

-cook both sides of tortilla, lift the tortilla up with a spatula and put your next tortilla underneath it, you should now have two tortillas in the the pan-new one on top. Repeat until you have 6-7 cooked tortillas. add more oil occasionally if you need to. You just want to make sure that your tortillas are pliable and will not break when you stuff and roll them.
-Place your tortillas on a plate and cover with a papertowl. If they seem to
oily-dab each one.
-Preheat oven to 450F
-Build your enchiladas with sauteed onion mixture, geen chilis, chicken and cheese. Don't stuff them too much.
Ross and place in baking dish lined with foil and buttered. Have the fold of the tortilla facing down. Save about 2 cups of cheese for the top of the complete dish.

-When all tortilla's are rolled completely cover in yummy enchilada sauce. cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes until bubbly.

-Sprinkle rest of cheese over top with some chopped green onions or cilantro and bake until cheese is nice and melted(about 5-10 mins)

Serve with black beans, Spanish rice, 1 whole black olive, and a raddish rose. :)

THE END!

2010-10-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Somewhere over the RAINBOW

The Wizard of Oz is still one of my favorites but, as a kid it was like... THE FAVORITE! When I would visit my older cousin and her husband in the summer, they would play dress up with me. I was Glenda *the good witch*, she was Dorothy, and her husband was Toto. Oh they loved me so much to put up with that kind of funny business.

Anyway, I was on a rainbow kick this week with rainbow heart cookies, and a rainbow swirl cake.

The first time I saw the cookies at Diamonds for Dessert, I knew I HAD to make them. They are just so cheery and delightful. I made some bigger ones where I sprinkled sugar on before baking too.

Heart Shortbread adapted from Diamonds for Dessert with a few different steps
3 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2/3 cup milk
food coloring

-Cream the butter and sugar then add in the egg.
-In a seperate mixing bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
-Add half your dry mixture to the butter mixture.
-Pour the milk and then add in the rest half of the dry mixture
-Divide the dough into five equal pieces. Take one piece of dough, add two to five drops of food coloring until you get your desired color. I used neon and regular food coloring.

-Knead the dye into the dough. Repeat with different food colorings.
I used this handy tool to knead in the color.

-Wrap each piece of dough in plastic wrap and flaten into a small disc, then chill them for 45 minutes.

-Then between two pieces of plastic wrap roll them out to the desired width between the plastic wrap on a flat work surface *1/8 inch?*
-Preheat the oven to 325ºF
-Toss the discs in the freezer for 30 minutes or more.
-Then take out one flat disc at a time and cut the shapes as quickly as possible-place then on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Having the dough frozen was much easier to handle and they kept their cut shape better.
-Bake each color batch for about 10 15 minutes depending on the size.
-If you want the cookies crunchy after cooled, place back in the oven covered by foil, and bake for 5-10 more minutes and then let cool again.

The rainbow cake is a little less involved at I saw a super inspirational version here at one of my favorite blogs Almost Bourdain. She made this cake with her little girl which I think is super adorable and such a smart and fun baking project to do with kids.

You make your favorite vanilla cake recipe or if you want to make it REALLY easy, pick up a box of white cake mix. Divide the cake batter evenly into separate bowls and add food coloring to tint as desired.
The pour each color into the cake pan(that has been buttered and floured) one at a time, tap the pan on the counter a couple times to spread after each color addition. And when adding the new color, pour directly into the center of the last color. I started with purple first and it's the outer later at the bottom of the cake.

I topped mine with a fluffy cloud of meringue frosting that I made HERE. I also thought it would be pretty to coat in white buttercream and cover in finely grated, dried, unsweetened coconut.

Have fun!

THE END!

2010-10-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

It's October!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

and I made...Chocolate Rose Meringue Cookies

The reason October National Breast Cancer Month is so important is because I think everyone has been affected my this monster in one way or another. I actually lost my grandmother, "Edna Evangeline", to breast cancer when I was eleven. It was difficult for me and a long battle for her that breaks my heart to this day.
And now I have heard of and known people who are breast cancer survivers, which is awesome!
I have a sister-in-law who lives on the east coast and I don't see very often but, she is fighting breast cancer right now and I have seen how strong she has been through this season in her life. I am sooo, for a lack of a better word, blown away by her and admirer her character and faith.

I actually wish I was a better person who had my act more together to raise some money but, this year, all I can do is give you links to supporting sites. Oh, and buy some products to benefit breast cancer research and make these cookies in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. :)

-National Breast Cancer Foundation

-National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

-Yoplait-Save lids to Save lives

-Article: Seven Ways you can help support Breast Cancer Research

I think Next year, I want to organize a bake sale/craft sale where all the profits can be donated to Breast Cancer research. Why don't I think of these things earlier? I am putting it on my calendar to plan for next October.

So, every time I make these meringues, I REALLY enjoy making them. You can do so much with them. They are simple to make, and they look really messy but cool. You have seen them HERE and before that, HERE. But I am giving you the full recipe again. I swear it's easy-you must try at least once. :)

This version was inspired by my mother. Awe, I know. :) She gave me a tin of this beautiful tea that inspired me to do a rose chocolate meringue cookies.

CLOUD MERINGUE COOKIES:
-Prepare a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and preheat oven to 275 F.
-Melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips or cut up chunks in a small bowl over a 1/2 cup of simmering water in a pot. (AKA-homemade version of a double-boiler which you could buy HERE for lots of money if you wish.)
Set aside.
Also note that for the chocolate you could use any of your favorite chocolate bars too or even butterscotch chips. One of my favorites is this raspberry chocolate bar that would be awesome in these meringue cookies.

-In another larger bowl, heat 4 egg whites and 1 cup of sugar in a bowl over a homemade version of a double boiler. :)
-Whisk this mixture for about 7 minutes until the sugar has dissolved completely and the mixture is quite hot.
-Take the egg whites off the heat and beat with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until you have soft peaks.

(If it takes you longer than 15 minutes to whip theses into a meringue-something went wrong and you should start over. :( I know.
-Then add 1-2 Tbs of your flavoring...Vanilla, Rose extract and chocolate rose tea leaves in this case, peppermint, almond extract etc...

-Continue to whip a couple more minutes until you have stiff meringue peeks.

-Then separate the meringue if you want a couple different color ribbons in your cookies. Dye one batch of meringue with a couple drops of food coloring, in this case, red.

-Then gently fold your chocolate and color meringue together leaving ribbons of your chocolate and color.

-With two large spoons, spoon the meringue into fun and messy clumps that are about 3 tbs onto your parchment paper and about an inch or so away from each other. Sprinkle anything you like to decorate them before baking. In this case I used pearl dragees and the Chocolate Rose Tea from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

-Bake at 275 for 20-45 minutes depending on how big your cookies are. You want them to be crispy on the outside and a bit chewy on the inside. I did minis this time and baked them for 20 minutes.

THE END!

2010-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

BANANA CHOCOLATE BREAD

We all have those ripe bananas that are too brown to eat but, we feel bad trashing them, right?And it's always good to have good banana bread recipe on hand, right? I made this a couple weeks and ago and it was really yummy to have with tea for breakfast. Not too sweet. And you can choose to make it with chocolate or without.

Banana Chocolate Swirl Bread Recipe
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, room temp
3 bananas, ripe and mashed up with a fork
1 "normal" banana, slice into 1/2 inch thickness for top of bread.
2 eggs, room temp
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Sugar in the Raw

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Butter a 9x9 baking pan or bread pans.
-Melt chocolate chips in a bowl over a pot of 1/4 to 1/2 cup simmering water. Take off heat and set aside.
-Mix flour, salt, and baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon into a bowl. Set aside.
-Beat sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl.
-Add egg, yogurt, and banana. Mix to blend, then add flour mixture. Blend until fully combined.
-Take 1/3 of the batter and mix in a separate bowl with melted chocolate. *optional
-Pour into baking pan and swirl around
-Place cut banana slices on top, slightly pushing them into the batter.
-Place whole pecans as well if you want.
-Sprinkle with Sugar in the raw.
-Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.
-Let cool, Sprinkle some more sugar on the banana and brulee them if you have a culinary torch.
-Then slice on cutting board and serve warm with tea.

THE END!

2010-10-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

Coupon Giveaway: for a FREE Bottle of Lea&Perrins Worcestershire sauce!

So, I got a little surprise in the mail today. Coupons for a free bottle of Lea&Perrins Worcestershire sauce. I know, exciting right!
Lea&Perrins and the Food Network are doing a "Shine at Dinnertime" Video Recipe Challenge. You can get more info and rule details by CLICKING THIS LINK. To enter you make a video making a mealtime recipe that features Lea&Perrins Worcestershire sauce. Sounds really fun huh!? The prizes sound really great though.You could win TEN-thousand dollars and five runners-up will win ONE-thousand dollars.

I found out about this contest through a "spread-the-word-through-food-bloggers" campaign that FoodBuzz and Lea&Perrins is doing. Food Buzz is actually also giving food bloggers a chance to win $500 for spreading the word about the Shine at Dinnertime video contest.

I actually do use Worcestershire sauce all the time to flavor my meats. And Sean practically drowns his steak in the stuff and would drink it straight if I let him.What a Crazy!
Thinking of a unique and yummy way to use Worcestershire sauce will be a fun challenge. And I thought you may want to join in too. So I am giving away TWO of my three coupons. I love sharing. :)

These are some of the ideas I can think of right now:
Lea&Perrins, Gruyere potatoes Gratin with dill
Lea&Perrins Stuffed Peppers with mushrooms
Lea&Perrins Pot roast with Potatoes, cherry tomatoes, green beans, celery etc...
I am thinking of doing these is the form of a dinner cupcake?

TO WIN! a coupon for a free bottle of Lea&Perrins just do the following:
1. Make sure you are a follower or subscribe to to my blog posts
2. Leave a comment by October 31st answering ... How you would make a Worcestershire cupcake.
3. And/Or tell me from my list of ideas above what sounds most appealing.
4. Don't forget to leave an e-mail in case you win so I can send you the coupon.
Good Luck! :)
THE END!

2010-10-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

ALOHA, HAUPIA!
You make me love you long time

So, Haupia is A delightfully refreshing Hawaiian coconut treat.
Thaaaaat...if you couldn't tell, I looooove. I may have had it as a kid, while living on the big island of Hawaii or when on Maui but, the first time I remember eating it was the day after my wedding day. My Seanie and I..in love...went to dinner at Mama's Fish House while on our honeymoon. AND, I have GOT to tell YOU! It was the best meal I have ever had! Aside from one at Mattie's Taven in Los Olivos, CA. But anyway, our really good friends who actually set me and my lovely hubby up, Tony and Heather, treated us to this dinner and it was an amazing moment for sure. IF you are ever on Maui, You must eat at Mama's Fish House or even stay at the Inn there. It's totally worth it!
Oohhhh*sigh* sweet memories. :)

So, traditionally served in little bite-size cubes after a Luau or big dinner feast.
You can read a little bit about it HERE on Wikipedia.
But, really, I could eat haupia all day and any time of day. That's how good is is.
I mean, it's so good that people who DON'T even LIIIIIKE coconut, eat it all up like it was going out of style.
No, um... it's so good that my whole batch was eaten up so fast that I couldn't get a picture of the finished product fast enough.
Actually, it's so good that, honestly, I was really only worried about eating it, not taking any finished-product blog pictures.

I need to make it again though. Everyone really liked how I made it but, I want to try making it again with homemade coconut milk and not coconut milk from the can. I think it will make a world of difference.

You can do a ton of stuff with haupia and you can make it as simple or as complex and gourmet as you like, either way... it's going to be good.

Coconut Milk-from scratch:

8 oz pckg unsweetened dried coconut
1 cup boiling water

-Blend coconut and water
-Let mixture cool
-Place a sieve with cheese cloth over a large bowl
-Squeeze the mixture once poured n the cloth to extract as much liquid as possible
-Use right away or store for a couple days.

Coconut Milk from Scratch Scratch:

1 matured coconut with only hard brown shell exposed
1/4 to 1/2 cup hot water
sieve and cheese cloth

-Drain the coco water from the coconut by piercing the "eyes" with a clean nail and hammer
-Put coconut with shell in oven and bake for 30 minutes at 325 F.
-After cooled, crack the shell open and get all the meat out.
-Peel the inner brown layer, and chop coconut into small pieces.
-Place coco meat in blender or food processor and add hot water, enough to cover the meat. Puree
-Place the mesh sieve with cheese cloth over a large bowl
-Pour the puree through the sieve, squeezing to extract the juice from the meat
-Discard meat or use for something else.
P.S. You should use the fresh milk right away but, if you need to, store it in fridge for 1-2 days covered tightly.

HAUPIA Crust RECIPE *optional

*Usually haupia is just by itself but I found this recipe that made a bottom crust and it was really good)
1/2 cup butter, room temp
3 Tbs sugar
1 cup AP flour
1/4 cup chopped pecans or Macadamia nuts(they sell honey roasted that are A-Mazing!)
Zest of 1 lime (If you want...it's what I did)
-Preheat oven to 350 F.
-Whip all ingredients together
-Line your haupia pan with parchment paper and little parchment tabs to help pull out your completed, chilled desert later.

-Spread the crust dough smooth and flat in the bottom of your haupia pan ( I an used 8x8 square cake pan)
-Bake for 15 to 10 minutes at 350 F.

HAUPIA
4 cups coconut milk
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla or vanilla bean(optional)

-In a medium saucepan, combine coco milk, and whisk until smooth and turn on medium heat
-In a medium mixing bowl, whisk sugar and cornstarch
-Slowly whisk in sugar mix, occasionally whisking.
-Turn to medium low heat and cook until you have a thick, shiny consistency.
- Taste to make sure your mix is not grainy. If it is than cook for longer until the coco fat is melted and smooth.
-Pour into a square pan depending on how thick you want your haupia squares. And if doing the crust thing, make sure your crust is cooled.
-Sooth out and place a parchment sheet over top-make sure there are no wrinkles.
-Seal with plastic wrap.
-Chill for 5 hours or overnight.
-Invert onto baking sheet, and then invert again onto another baking sheet so you have a clock of haupia with crust on bottom.
-With a large, thick knike, slice even haupia squares and transfer to a serving plate.
-You can serve with...
whipped cream
chocolate whipped cream
drizzled plain coconut milk
drizzled coconut rum
or sprinkled toasted coconut
But, really, by itself, it's just fine. :)
THE END!

2010-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Stuffed Dates for Fall

October One, Twenty-Ten. WOW! The pumpkin patches are sprouting, crab apples are overflowing, the sweet aroma of caramel is in the air, and we had our first rainy down pour earlier this week. It was actually 113 degrees on Monday and then by Wednesday, we had a freakish warm rain sweep through. We were at the park with Buddy and the rain just dumped on us, accompanied by a beautiful tropical sky and rainbows jumping everywhere in and out of these fluffy hot pink clouds. CRAZY huh. :)

So, dates are fallish right? Aside from that summery date shake that you can get in Palm Springs, CA or Arizona. Dates are a rich heavy fall thing. You know, they're in Christmas fruit cakes and such.

Anyway, these are *special * Medjool dates filled with cream cheese, lavender, bacon,
and then coated in chocolate.
Medjool dates are really yummy and moist but very sweeeet. The cream cheese really counters their sweetness, and the salty bacon and dark chocolate make this a perfect fall treat.

For a dinner-garnish, I cut them in half *but not all the way through* took out their pit, and put some cream cheese in the middle. They were really good and got me thinking to make...these devilish desserts with the chocolate and bacon.
I am also thinking, dates sliced over melted brie and crackers would also be really delish.

Here's what I did for:
Ivy's Chocolate Covered Dates
12 Medjool Dates
1 container cream cheese, whipped or not.
6 cooked and crispy bacon strips, I used the pre-cooked bacon from Oscar Meyer because it's easier.
1/4 cup lavender sugar for sprinkling

-Slice dated open, almost in half but not all the way.
-take out the pit

-Fill 1/4 tsp cream cheese.
-Sprinkle with lavender sugar.

-Stuff with some medium size bacon pieces. Set them aside until ready to coat with chocolate.

Chocolate coating recipe:
4 tbs bitter-sweet chocolate or whatever chocolate you like. I used bitter-sweet to counter some of the dates sweetness.
2 tbs butter
-Melt chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water
-Stir so they are combined and take off heat.
-Dip dates until coated with chocolate and place on a flat plate lined with parchment paper.

-Chill in fridge for an hour or so and up to a week. Or for quick chilling, place in freezer for 10 mins.
-Sprinkle with bacon bits and sugar for looks if you want.

THE END!

2010-09-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

A Recipe Re-Run

BLUEBERRY SALSA

Originally found HERE on one of my favorite blogs, My Own Sweet Thyme .
And my first attempt HERE in a post with other blueberry creations, I have now decided this salsa deserves it's own post. I made it for work along with two other salsas (Thai curry and yellow tomato, and chipotle and roasted tomato).
Inspired by three plump and very ripe tomatoes sitting on our common meeting table at work, we decided to make some salsa and have chips to make our Thursday more exciting.

Blueberries are not really in season right now but, I found a tiny container at Whole Foods for $5.00. I almost skipped getting them but, at the last minute sneaked them into my basket. I am so glad I did.
This salsa is going to kick ass and is MY favorite.

Blueberry Salsa Recipe:

1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, coarsely chopped
2 tbs lime juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 -2 Tbs Cilantro, medium chopped

1 med shallot, finely chopped
1 heaping Tbs freshly grated ginger (YUM)
1 medium Serrano chili, seeds extracted. Minced twice * be careful while mincing these hot buggers*
1 tsp coarse sea salt

-Gently toss the first four ingredients together in your salsa bowl. Cover and set aside. Chill.
-Then, in a separate bowl mix the rest of the ingredients. cover and set aside.Chill.
-A half hour to hour before you are ready to serve the salsa, marry the two together and let them sit and talk.

THE END!

Come back soon for Haupia, a yummy Hawaiian dessert.

2010-09-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

RED VELVET *Cake Batter* ICE CREAM

*Speckled with RV cake crumbs
*Swirled with cream cheese frosting
*In French tuile ice cream cones

Yes, I am officially in denial that summer is over. It's CRAZY that it's fall 2010 already!
After being told repeatedly that school is in session, that I can no longer where white as of September 6, and that apples pies are in order. I continue to have the inspiration to make ice cream flavors instead of making hot cocoa. There are still a couple more ice creams on my list that I REALLY want to make but, they may have to wait until next summer.
I think once I start to see pumpkin patches popping up everywhere, I will feel the inspiration of fall and will start acting like it in the kitchen. Just the other day, friends gave me some gorgeous figs from their tree.

So, this ice cream turned out exactly how I expected, for once. D-E-E-licious without the cake batter tummy ache. It tastes just like red velvet cake batter PEOPLE! But...it's ICE CREAM! Cold, sweet , creamy, yummy, red velvety ice cream.

If you happen to like red velvet cake and...um...that flavor at Cold Stones called "cake batter". This is the flavor for you. Yep, that's right. How can I get you walking away eating a brand new ice cream favor today?

RV cupcake baked from left over box cake mix

Aside from having a little trouble working out the cream cheese frosting swirl, the recipe was quite simple.
You don't even really need to add in the cake crumbs or cream cheese-I just thought of it at the last minute and had to get fancy. But, it means you have to make RV cake and whip up frosting too, which can be fun, you'll have extra RV cupcakes to share with...family? Friends? Co-workers? :)
Here's the recipe...

Red Velvet Cake Batter Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup red velvet powder cake mix from the box, sifted
1-2 tablespoons powdered buttermilk, sifted
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla
1/2 cup red velvet cake crumbs
Cream cheese frosting (Whip 1/2 of an 80z cream cheese pack at room temp and
1 tbs powdered sugar)

-Sift cake mix and buttermilk together and whisk to mix
-Beat 2 yolks with sugar until pail
-In a medium saucepan whisk milk, cream and vanilla
With heat on low to medium-low:
-Whisk in egg mixture and cake mixture.
-Constantly stirring, let heat to 160 degrees F, read my a candy thermometer
-Take off heat immediately and pour into a boil. Whisk once more and chill.
-Pour chilled "custard" into the ice cream maker.
-Add Red velvet crumbs after 15-17 minutes of churning or when ice cream is freezing and no loner liquid-y.

-After Ice cream is done churning, gently fold in the cream cheese frosting as best you can
-Chill in freezer for 2 hours and serve.

OR....Maybe...make ice cream sandwiches?

THE END!

2010-09-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

Mini Banana Cream Cheesecakes

with Bavarian cream

I am really enjoying the elegant and sophisticated idea of Mini cheesecakes. And so far, I have made it a reality twice. With Mini Red Velvets and now with Banana Creams. Being able to individualize each dessert is so much fun and you don't have to worry about slicing the cheesecake with the knife in water thing to make the slices look pretty.

So if you want to give mini cheesecakes a try but you don't want to buy 12 mini cheesecake spring-form cake pans at $6.95 a pop. Do what I do, and use ramekins. I understand you may think this is too much work, but it's really not and you can pre-prep all this before you start making a mess in the kitchen with the cream cheese. I think it's worth it because you can buy a 4 pack of ramekins for around $4.00-$6. Say you needed to serve 12 people...it would cost you $18.00 BUT, if you bought fancy spring forms it would cost you $83.40. So you are saving $65 bucks! Plus I have accumulated my ramekins over time, so I didn't have to go out and buy all them at once.

Did I convince you to read ahead on how to do this? :)
Good, Ok so....
-Trace the size of your ramekin on parchment paper with a penscil, then stack 12 square pieces of parchment and cut away with your shape. Make sure to cut just inside the pencil line.

-Then cut out strips of parchment paper as well that are long enough to stick out of your ramekin an inch or so on each side.

-Place strip in the ramekin and crease if needed. Then fold teh tabs back around this lip (like seen in the third pic down from here)

-Then place your circle in the ramekin on top of your strip.

-Then place ramekins in an a baking pan lined with aluminum foil. Place pan on oven wrack and pour boiling water until half way up your ramekin. place sheet of aluminum foil over pan and bake at 350 for 15 mins then at 200 for 45 mins or until center only slightly jiggles. Let cool. Then Chill overnight or freeze for half hour to hour. When the cakes are well chilled they are easier to handle and pop out of the ramekin.

-Carefully run knife around edges and gently pop the cake out.

For the molding of the Bavarian cream, surround the cheesecake with a folded strip of aluminum foil or a plastic mold piece if you want to get profesh and have smoother lines.

-Pour 1/4 cup Bavarian cream on top of each cheesecake and chill for 3 hours. (wow, you can tell I didn't do a white balance on these next pics. Yikes.)

-Then take off aluminum foil gently and smooth edges of cakes with a butter knife.

Decorate with toasted coconut shavings, chocolate, and bruleed banana slices.
Oh and if you are looking for some cheesecake tips, I posted some with the Mini Red Velvet Cheesecake Recipe.
THE END!

2010-09-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

A SIDE NOTE: The Cupcake Wins

I was wondering if cupcakes were on the down-trend and if any other new trendy sweets had a chance of becoming the new "cupcake".

So, I posted a little poll here on my blog, uh huh, it's to the right and down from the very words you are reading now.
I realize my little poll did not get a great representation of the world and what they think about sweets. I have to say though, that the people who took my poll, have great taste. YOU have great taste....

YES, CUPCAKES ARE THE BEST. STILL. AND ANYTHING HOMEMADE IS BETTER. :)

The very three*3* REALLY TRENDY sweets right now that are getting all the attention besides cupcakes are:
-Whoopi Pies
-French Macarons
-And Red Velvet

And I thought they would be the favorites in my poll. People are writting about them everywhere! Every kind of whoopi pie flavor is springing up on blogs, magazines, and in bakeries. French macaron cookies have certainly hit high popularity in the last five years and every gourmet flavor on the planet has been made in form of a macaron. And you can find red velvet anything anywhere, I have made red velvet stuff at least five times myself and am working on another project right now.

Yet, these three received none or the lowest votes of popularity in my poll.

What do you think about this?

I, personally do not get the whoppi pie thing yet.
I think macarons are really gorgeous, but eating them is not that satisfying.
And I love red velvet but, you can get tired of it after a while.

So, cupcakes still remain the favorite. They are the classic, simple, iconic fun dessert that kids and grown ups love. They can be enjoyed the classic way with rainbow sprinkles or dressed up in gourmet flavor combos giving them a wide range of appeal.

Actually, I just thought of this. They are like 80's music, it was good then, and it just gets better and better as time goes on. However, there were some really bad 80's songs. And I have had a couple bad cupcakes. But, so many 80's songs were REALLY, REALLY GOOD that you ABSOLUTELY LOVED and LOVE and are your favorite songs of ALL time! Like cupcakes. You've had some pretty darn good ones huh. :)

I love 80's music and I would also consider myself a big cupcake fan.I need to eat a cupcake while at an 80's party though.
Anyway, I am a cupcake fan. It's why I started this blog in the first place. My favorites are cupcakes that people have made or I have made myself. They are just better.
HOMEMADE is better!
They are made with love and creativity. And I think that is more exciting than buying a cupcake for five dollars. And you don't know who made it, what they put in it, or what they were wearing last week when they made it.
When something is homemade, you can just feel the comfort of fresh, home-baked goodness that is so satisfying. Plus when you make something at home you can control exactly what goes into your product and are so proud of what you have accomplished.

Plus, commercial bakeries pack their stuff full of sugar and crisco. Bleghk. Even most recipes call for a lot of sugar and I usually cut it in half or even more if I can. For frosting recipes, they usually call for two sticks of butter (1 cup) and four to five cups powder sugar. WOW! That's a lot. And that much sugar just isn't good for us.

I add about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup and it's sweet enough for me. No one ever complains that my cupcakes aren't sweet enough. And if you need that pretty piping quality for your frosting, a cup or two is plenty.

Anyway, I hope you have a delightful weekend full of homemade cupcakes!

THE END!

2010-09-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

DINNER MENU: Stuffed Shells

"Ooooooooow, Ivy, stuffed shells, how fantastic!

It has been such a random gloomy day here in Los Angeles. Bleghehkgh.

I think A delicious comforting dish for dinner like....stuffed shells is in order.
Oh my gosh! Is Summer really over? NO! I refuse!
Well...today I will embrace the gray skies and will cozy up to stuffed shells but don't think this is the end for me. I still have a couple ice creams to make. :)

Well, I talked briefly about stuffed shells before, RIGHT HERE *where the picture is much better than the one below*, but I didn't do the whole recipe thing so, I thought it would be fun. It's one of our favorites and is pretty easy. They do take a while though because of the baking time in the oven.

I think most jumbo pasta shell boxes have recipes right on the box you could follow.
I like filling them with ricotta cheese but you could do meat too. I just throw whatever seasoning I have on hand into the cheese and mix it up. No need to get exact with Italian food. Right?

Italian seasoning
finely chopped garlic
finely chopped onion/shallot
Dill
Fennel seeds
Pesto-homemade or not
Oregano
Basil
Rosemary
finely grated Parmesan or flavorful cheese
a pinch of crushed red pepper
Anyway.. you get my point-just through in some Italian-like flavors.

I make them different every time. It's fun that way.

Stuffed Shells

Makes 12 shells
Ingredients:
-Jumbo Pasta shells,
Olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 and onion or a medium shallot, finely chopped
1 tbs Dill
1 tbs Italian seasoning
pinch crushed red pepper
1/4 cup red wine
Medium container ricotta cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 package mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese block

What to do:
-Boil pasta shells for 15-20 minutes *always boil a couple more shells than what is needed because some end up ripping and you can't really use them.
-Saute onion, garlic, crushed red pepper, dill, pepper, fennel seeds and your seasonings in 1-2 tbs olive oil until garlic and onions are soft and transparent.Set aside. Or chop all seasoning and garlic in a food processor and skip the skillet.
-In a large mixing bowl mix the ricotta cheese with you seasoning mix and add 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese. Set aside
-Strain pasta shells and rinse with cold water (so you can handle them and not burn you fingers)
-Line a square baking dish with foil (for less mess) and sprinkle with olive oil.
-Take a shell in you hand and with a large spoon, scoop a spoonful of the ricotta mix into the shell and place it in the baking dish. "rinse and repeat" until you are done.

-In a large bowl, and this is optional, mix 1/4 cup red wine to your red sauce.
-Pour red sauce over the shells, completely coating them. Cover shells with foil.

-Bake at 375 degrees for half hour to 45 minutes.
-Sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese over top of the sauce and then (for prettiness) sprinkle some Italian seasoning or dill over the cheese.
-Continue to bake uncovered until cheese is deliciously melted (5 minutes)
Serve with a healthy salad and or garlic bread like when I made it HERE.

Ciao!

2010-09-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hello Dapper Ones!

I hope you had a lovely Labor Day weekend! And you are refreshed and ready for what the week has to bring. You can do it. I believe in you. "You're good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like you. :)

I have been working on a couple things lately to share but, have not arrived at my finished products to show you quite yet. In the meantime, Here is a cute blog that I have been ABSOLUTELY adoring lately. I mean I love doing the Kiiiiind on stuff they post and had no idea a blog like this could exist. They are in the business of being kind and I love it.

KINDOVERMATTER

and a video that combines two of my favorite things:
Music from the Movie Amelie and Cupcakes!

2010-08-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

Battling to love Tuiles

I am listening to "April In Paris" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on Pandora. I wish you could hear the song. It's so pretty.

It's not April and I am not in Paris but, tuiles are a lovely french, airy, and crunchy cookie. I have absolutely fallen in love with them but, I hate them! ...it's weird, I know. It's because they are a bit difficult to master and can be tricky if you don"t have all the tools you need to make the process easier.

I spent a ~~day~~ three days trying to figure out and experiment with these things. Whipping up the "tuile paste" is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out your cookie templates, gathering the right tools, and trying to master shaping the cookies how you want them when they come out of the oven because they are delicate, HOT and you gotta do it fast before they cool too much and harden.

Chili Aioli tuile with Gruyere and Cheddar cheese, sprinkled with herbs and sesame seeds)

I was also frustrated that there weren't enough "sources" out there on how to navigate my way through the process. I needed videos and step by step pictures to help me and see how the templates were created and how to use them etc. In this post I will try my best to make it easier for YOU if you decide to make these-because it is really worth it. THEY ARE ADDICTIVE, DELICIOUS, and you can make so many different flavors and designs.

First watch this video and then come back to me:

How-to video from Martha Stuart on Tuile

Okay, doneNow go here and print Martha's templates ( Circle and Flower) or draw your own shapes on a piece of paper. Set aside. You can also find plastic templates that could work for this at your craft store.

Second
Get your tools together. Invest in a Silpat, if you haven't already. I got one for $20.00. The reason I say this is because you can use it for many things and will get a lot of use out of it for baking, freezing and whatever. It's a nonstick baking mat. Also get an offset spatula if you don't have one already.

If you are making your own templates...go out and buy a couple plastic school folders that have a see-through qualify to them, and a good exacto knife.

Cut the plastic folder into two flat sheets.

-Then transfer by tracing your shapes from the piece of paper to the plastic sheets.

-Then cut out your shapes from the plastic with an exacto knife and punch and toss the actual shape you cute out. What you want is the plastic sheet with a the shaped holes.

-Wash your templates with hot soapy water, dry them and set them flat on your silpat.

-Taking your offset spatula spread your tuile paste in the hole as even as your can right up to the edges. make any designs you want before you lift the template.

-Then lift your template sheet and you will have your perfectly shaped tuile paste ready to be baked.

I made up a main batch and then split them to make different flavors. I added a table spoon or so of whatever kind of flavoring. For example add a tbs cocoa powder, grated ginger or ground dry ginger, chili aioli/mayo. For the savory ones, I cut the sugar in the recipe in half.

I also suggest you puree the flavor or herb with your sugar or use liquid flavor. You do not want large bits of things in your paste because it will make it difficult to spread evenly in the template. It is pretty to have sprinkled things on top of the cookies just wait to sprinkle stuff on top until after is is spread on the silpat with your template and ready to bake.


Vanilla bean and lime paste

Ginger and lime, and chocolate paste

Lime and herb, and chili aioli and herb paste

BasicTuile Recipe
3.5 Tbs butter, room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp finely grated lemon or lime zest
1 tsp vanilla paste
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup flour
-Cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and zest
-Add the flour and mix.
-Add eggs whites and mix well.
-Transfer paste in a smaller bowl or container and store in fridge until ready to use. You can store the paste in your freezer for up to a week.
-Bake at 325 or 350 degrees for 7 minutes or so.
-Take out of the oven and shape them right away.
-Store the bakes cookies in an airtight container for a week to two weeks.

(Lime and Vanilla bean with Chocolate stripes poppy seeds sprinkled on the one in the back)

I'll leave you with a photo of buddy being a good boy in the bathtub.

THE END!

2010-08-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! I hope you are having a Delightful Friday!

Remember when I made this:

Yeah! the homemade Blueberry Whiskey Ice Cream from Eagle Brand condensed milk.
Well, I had entered it into a contest and you can now vote for ME OR YOUR FAVORITE ice cream entry by clicking on these words. The voting ends Tuesday, August 31, 2010.

Thanks and have a Really wonderful Weekend!

2010-08-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

Sorbetto SCOOP!:

White Peach

Hi everyone! HOW'S YOUR SUMMER GOING SO FAR?

Mine hasn't really felt like a summer because the hot weather is just finally kicking in for us here in California and who knows if will stay. I am trying to fake it with summary ingredients in the kitchen. A few weeks ago, I was completely inspired by this one article I read on David Lebovit's blog about "Tasting Rome". He toured a gelateria behind the scenes while they made a white peach sorbet. YUM! I guess they just pureed the local peaches with sugar and then simply tossed it in the "ice cream maker". David's picture of the sorbet is amazing, it almost looks like peach mayonnaise or something *hey there's a good idea?*.

Anyway, I tried to reproduce the peachy dream as best I could. It turned out very delicious and refreshing but, most likely not as good as what was made in ITALY! Haha. See, mine looks more icey and theirs was very creamy, like butter. You should check out the picture, it's in the middle of the post somewhere. How did they do it?

Here's the recipe if you want to give it try:

Peach Sorbetto:

3 White Peaches (from the Hollywood Farmer's market)
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 tbs lime juice
2 tbs light corn syrup (to prevent from hardening too much in freezer?)
2 tbs heavy cream

-Cut peaches in slices with skins

-Puree half the peach slices with lime juice and pour into a mixing bowl. set aside.

-Puree the rest of the peach slices with the heavy cream and pour into the mixing bowl with the other pureed peaches. whisk together.
-Pour into your ice cream maker for 30 minutes.

-Eat right away or store in fridge for an hour or so. The sorbetto will harden overnight but not too bad.

The END! Have a *SUN-KISSED* peachy day!
Listening to music while I write again: Morcheeba "The Sea"

2010-08-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

THIS IS SOOOOO FUN!
I sooo would love to be in or do a video LIIIKE this!

BabyCakes NYC: Frosting Party! from BabyCakes NYC on Vimeo.

Posting soon: A Fresh and summary White Peach Sorbetto. :)

2010-08-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

PEACHY Margarita Weekend

Relaxing to Carmen McRae's "Ain't Misbehavin'" via Pandora

Here's my recipe for a quick weekend refresher-Now remember you can sub whatever you happen to have on hand some of the ingredients are optional here, and it's open for your creativity. GO WILD!

PEACH MARGARITA RECIPE:
x 1 shot tequila blanco or whatever kind you like best
x Frozen raspberries or fresh
x Peach lemonade or mix half lemonade and peach juice (Welch's has a peach grape that's really good)

(Got this lemonade on sale for 2.99 at Whole Foods. They make all kinds of other yummy flavors too.)

x Ice cubes
x Margarita rim salt
x Lemon rim sugar
x Dry tea leaves from a peach tea bag
-On a small plate mix salt, sugar, and tea leaves.
-Wet the rim of your glasses with a lime and dip the rim of your glasses in the sugar/salt/tea leave mix

-Pour tequila in glass and a few rasperries-mush and swirl around
-Then toss in 4-5 ice cubes
-Pour peach lemonade filling the glass to 3/4ths (3 parts)

-Then pour Jose Cuervo Margarita Mix or your favorite margarita mix to the top (1 part)

-Mix with a straw and...Viola. Enjoy with the ones you love *HEART

THE END!

2010-08-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes with Raspberries

These Cupcakes turned out really good and were very, very simple to make so I thought I would share them with you real quick.
So, a while back a sweet co-worker of mine gave me this awesome book, The Artful Cupcake. There are a lot of crazy-complicated cupcakes in this book and I will most likely never make all of them. But, while browsing through it for inspiration the other night, I found this manageable base-recipe for chocolate buttermilk cupcakes and a pretty frosting design idea. I happened to have a lot of buttermilk left over from my red velvet cheesecakes and a bag of Trader Joe's frozen raspberries. Crazy how it all falls into place sometimes.

Here's my adapted recipe:
Chocolate Buttermilk and Raspberry Cupcakes
(I was able to make 18 regular size cupcakes)
1/ 2/3 cup AP flour
1 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 sugar
1 cup buttermilk (This time I did use the real thing but, if you don't have it, let 1 cup regular milk sit with a couple tablespoons of lemon juice for 10 mins.)
1 egg
1/2 cup veggie oil
3 tbs vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
Lavender sugar *optional*
Cupcake Fun:
-Preheat oven to 350 and line your cupcake pan with pretty cupcake liners.
-Lightly break up the raspberries and toss with 1 tsp lavender sugar. Set aside.
-Sift flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and sugar together and whisk until completely mixed.
-Then add the buttermilk, veggie oil, and vanilla and blend well with an electric mixer.
-Fill cupcake liners about half way. Sprinkle raspberries into the batter and with a spoon lightly push them into the batter.
-Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean when stuck in the middle.
-Let cool before frosting.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8 oz package cream cheese, room temp
1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 to 3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted (or not)
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (for specks)
1/4 cup raspberry puree
Frosting Fun:
-Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.
-Add yogurt, sugar, vanillas, and raspberry puree
-Whip until creamy and light.

Chocolate Stripes:
5-6 tbs semi sweet chocolate chips
2 tbs butter
1 tbs light corn syrup (optional)
Chocolate Fun:
-Melt chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a pot of 1 cup simmering water.
-Once chocolate and butter is melted, mix with a spatula until smooth and take off heat.
-Mix in corn syrup
-Let cool for about 7 minutes and then fill a pastry bag with the chocolate and cut a small tip from the bag or use a small round piping tip. Pipe decorative stripes with the chocolate onto the frosted cupcakes.

Now back to battling tuiles.
THE END!

2010-08-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Whiskey and Blueberry Ice Cream

I made this ice cream to enjoy with my hubby tonight AND also for the Eagle Brand Ice Cream Recipe Contest over at Scoopalicious!
The contest ends Wednesday, August 11th so you still have time to enter! It's fun, you should totally do it! :)

I started out wanting to make just blueberry ice cream with lemon but when I saw the bottle of whiskey on the counter, I decided to give it a shot.
Why did we have a bottle of whiskey? You may wonder. Well, we are hard drinkers and love us some whiskey! No, um... I actually have been sick with a terrible cold and finally decided that a hot toddy would cure me. So Sean looked up the recipe, went out and got the ingredients and made me a Hot Toddy before bed. Boy did it conk me out, that's for sure.
Anyway, this ice cream was super easy and really very, very good. I thought it would be tougher w/o the ice cream maker but it almost seemed easier. I think I may use this condensed milk for my ice cream more often, it gives it a good creamy-ness that isn't too thick. I also like this recipe because it can be very versatile as you can substitute any fruit in place of my blueberries. And any liquor** you want, Perhaps Chambord or Grand Marinier?

My Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups blueberries
2 1/2 shots whiskey
4 tbs honey
3 tbs lemon juice
1 14 oz can Eagle Brand Condensed milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup rice milk or a low-fat milk
Steps:
1. Prepare a square cake pan that can fit in your freezer, line with plastic wrap and set aside.
1. Heat blueberries, honey, lemon juice, and whiskey for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Then let cool.
2. Pour blueberry mix into blender
3. Add Condensed milk, heavy cream, and rice milk
4. Puree all ingredients in blender.

5. Then pour into a the plastic lined cake pan and cover with plastic wrap. *Freeze.

*I froze the mix for 24 hours and the ice cream stayed soft, it must be the condensed milk. huh. OR maybe it was the **whiskey?
UPDATE: After a week, this ice cream still kept it's nice soft ice cream texture.
-Then Serve when ready. I made the ice cream cones as well and will share in another post.
If you try the recipe please let me know how it works out for you.

THE END!
Oh...Check out these Whiskey Cupcakes posted over at Cake Spy.

P.S. Buddy says, Hello. :)

2010-08-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

Mini Red Velvet Cheesecake

Red velvet, red velvet, red velvet! Yep, we all know red velvet is "in" with all the haute bakery couture these days. Actually, when I think back, red velvet has been pretty popular for at least 5 years now, AT LEAST. I mean, it has always been apart of the deep south dessert family but, it has now become a "trendy" thing spreading world wide. Do you think the fad is dying down though? I am not so good at predicting these things but, I do know I am seeing it everywhere and more than ever. People are still oooohing, ahhhhhing, and drooling when the words redddd vvvvelvet slips from their lips."What cupcake should I get? Chocolate or Vanilla......oooooohhhhh, they have redddd vvvvelvettt!. THAT'S WHAT I AM GETTING! It's perfect."

Trendy cupcakeries, cafes, fine restaurants, and sweet bakery shops are featuring this rich, vibrant, red dessert in all forms. New York City's, Magnolia Bakery has a red velvet cheesecake, cupcake, AND cake slice that they serve.

Just a little side note/tangent: Magnolia Bakery has been credited for starting the cupcake craze, if you didn't already know this, and has just opened a shop in Los Angeles on 3rd and Orlando Avenue, a block away from where I work! AND, actually, just a block away from the well-established and beloved Joan's on Third *which I LOOOOVE* and strongly recommend you go and check out if you haven't. They have all kinds of delicious food, and sweets. Anyway, Magnolia Bakery opened up at the beginning of August for about 5 days and then had to close down temporarily because they didn't have all the proper licensing or something. I hope they open back up soon.

Getting back to Red Velvet, Yoplait has a RV flavor...

...Yogurt Land featured a red velvet cake batter froyo flavor earlier in the summer that was absolutely delicious!

I am also seeing A LOT of red velvet cake versions of other up-and-coming tends like "whoopi pies"/"moon pies" and cake/cheesecake pops.

And of course, it goes without saying, there are tons of red velvet cupcakes. I mean, you are pretty much not a cupcake shop if you do not have a red velvet creation. What crazy red velvet stuff have you seen?

I have do not see a lot of ice cream, sorbet, or gelato RV flavors though. Wouldn't a gelato be beautiful! Sean and I have been on a gelato kick lately. My favorite is the pure white lemon gelatos but, watermelon is pretty good. And I just tried a chocolate gelato this weekend that was out of this world.

I guess that's enough for now. I will bring more Red velvet soon. I am working on a healthy red velvet cake recipe and I really want to try making an ice cream flavor.

THE PICTURES:
Out of the oven and chilled

Awaiting chocolate, no cracks!

Dripping with chocolate

Serving

Eating

Half eaten

and more eating

THE RECIPE

Chocolatey Crust:

1 1/4 cup oreo cookie crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
-Toss in 2-3 whole cookies with filling and then the rest of them, scrape the filling off and toss in the food processor or blender. Blend until you have fine crumbs.
-Whisk in 1/4 cup melted butter. It will seem like you should add more butter but, don't because it may result in your crust being harder and more compact which is harder to cut through with a fork.

-Press 1/4 cup of the mix in 6 larger 8" ramekins and press down firmly but, again, don't pack the crust too much so it ends up too hard.

TIP: Read your recipes all the way through before attempting them, this way you get the full picture. Sometimes you need ingredients or baking supplies that are in the descriptions and not necessarily listed with the ingredients. This is one of those recipes that you want to understand fully before attempting and being successful in from start to finish.

Cheesecake Fun:

1 1/2 of 8oz packs cream cheese at room temp

3/4 cup organic cane sugar
-Cream top two ingredients until creamy and fluffified.
-Add in eggs one at a time, beating lightly.
2 eggs, room temp
-Add in all the remaining below ingredients and mix well but be careful not to over-beat for the egg's sake.
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/4 tsp vanilla powder
2-3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 cup real buttermilk (It makes it a difference but if you really need to sub it-let milk sit with 2 tbs lemon juice of distilled white vinegar for about 7 mins)
1/2 cup sour cream, room temp
1/2 a 1oz bottle of Wilton's red gel food coloring or 1 bottle of liquid food coloring. I used gel and the gel taste came through in an after-taste in the cake. Not really bad just enough for me not to use it next time.

-Scrape sides of bowl and bottom and mix or a couple more seconds.
-Pour batter evenly in the 6 ramekins.
-Bake at 325 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 300 and bake for 30 minutes (for minis) and about and hour or slightly longer for a 9".
-To test for doneness, shake the pan gently-the very center of the cake should jiggle just slightly. If your cheesecake is done, turn off the oven and let sit for another 25 minutes to prevent cracks and imperfections due to temperature-change shocks.
-Then take out of oven and carefully remove from the water bath. Pour out the water from the pan and place the cheesecakes back in the empty pan lined with foil.
-Let cool to room temp.
-Then chill in fridge at least 8 hours.
-Carefully remove from ramekins or springform pan.

Note on using ramekins:
This is the first time I used ramekins for cheesecake. I wasn't sure if I would be able to get them out alive after baking. I buttered them first, and placed a strip of parchment paper sticking out on each side(as you see in my picture above). Then I place a circle of buttered parchment paper in bottom on top of the parchment strip. Once the cheesecake was completely chilled, I carefully pulled them out by the parchment strips. This worked quite well. My only complaint is that the parchment strips prevented from a perfect circle shape for the cheesecake. Other than that, it's much more cost efficient to make mini cheesecakes Vs. buying mini springforms at Sur La Table for $5.95 each.

CHEESECAKE TIPS THAT CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
To prevent cracking in the cheesecake bake it like creme brulee: Boil a medium pot of water. Protect the bottom of your cheesecake pan with two layers of aluminum foil. Then place in a larger square baking dish. Set the square baking dish on the oven rack slightly pulled out. Slowly pour your boiled water into the square baking dish until the water level is half way on the outside of the cheesecake pan. Then lightly place a piece of aluminum foil over the square pan and gently slide in your oven rack and close the oven door.
You can also avoid cracking by running a knife between the pan and the cake when you take it out of the oven. This loosens the cake from the edges so that it can shrink slightly as it cools without cracking and pulling from the sides.

How to cut a Cheesecake:
Dip a sharp knife into a tall glass of very hot water for a few seconds. Wipe the knife dry with a towel. Then make he first cut all the way down and out (pulling knife towards you. Repeat dipping the knife into hot water and wiping it frequently for every cut. This technique will result in very clean, crisp slices.

THE END!
I'll leave you with another Buddy portrait. :)

2010-07-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

I *Heart* Ice Cream Cake

Actually, I have made three ice cream cakes this summer-each time in a different way and I am still figuring out the best way that is easy and yummiest. This little heart wasn't torture, it was it's larger version that I made for a friend's birthday at work that was a disaster and that's why you will see no pics of that one except for my somewhat decent top decorating. Haha.

Working on small heart shaped desserts are always more manageable.

Baking

Jamming

Ice creaming

Stacking

Glazing

I have no recipes for you on this one as I used box cake and bought ice cream. I know, shame on me-I have a life and cannot make everything from scratch all the time. I know, It's sad to me too.
I do, however, have one perfect recipe for the chocolate glaze.

Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup butter, cut in 4 chunks
8 tbs bitter sweet chocolate chips
1 tbs light corn syrup

-Melt butter and chocolate in a bowl over a half cup simmering water.
-Once completely melted mix until smooth and take off the heat.
-Mix in corn syrup. Stir and let cool for 5 minutes.
-Poor over cake and chill.

THE END my darlings

I will leave you with a cute picture of Buddy and Amy.

2010-07-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

LUCIA HAS A BLOG!

I would like to welcome my sister to the blog world!

I am so proud of her. I could go on and on about all the things she has accomplished but, I won't embarrass her. All I will say is that... I am very proud of her. She is a very talented photographer and writer who is very creative and innovative in everything she does. She just started this blog a couple months ago called, POWDERCAKES, and I love it already.

Below is a picture she took and is my current favorite.

I hope you have fun with it LuLu! *Muah*

2010-07-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

Fruity-Marshmallow
Rice Krispie Treat Cupcakes

My sister and I made this fruit salad for a Fourth of July barbecue.

It's a traditional recipe from Sean's family and is called, Aunt Elsie's Fruit Salad. Along with this recipe, I have several others that are in a cute little family recipe booklet Sean has given me to hold onto. A few years ago his wonderful sister, Barbie, gave each family member one of these recipe booklets and I love having it. Whenever Sean wants me to make something he had when he was a kid, there's a chance I can make it for him with the exact recipe. :)

This time, I added 8 oz of whipped cream cheese with 1/4 cup powder sugar and vanilla bean paste. And I used mini fruit marshmallows instead of plain. I almost added chopped pecans because the recipe says to add nuts if so desired. BUT, As I excitedly mentioned *out loud* to my sister in the kitchen, "And.. we CAN EVEN add nuts into the mix!", Sean happened to hear and yelled out, "DO NOT put nuts in the salad, it's really gross with nuts!" So I took his advice. :) *Phew, that was a close one*
He's probably right, nuts in a creamy goey fruit salad isn't always that good and they get soggy sometimes.

Yes, the salad was REALLY, REALLY GOOD! I happen to love this salad every time.

ANYWAY, I had some left over marshmallows from the fruit salad and I wanted to do something with them before they melted and stuck together in the bag. So I made some rice krispie treats.

Recipe for 16 rice krispie treat cupcakes:

4 cups mini "fun mallows" fruit flavored marshmallows, plus a handful of extra for decorating.
4 cups rice krispie cereal
3 tbs butter
1 tsp vanilla

-Butter 16 cups in your mini cupcake pan w/o papers and set aside.
-In a medium to large size pot, melt butter on medium heat.
-Stir in vanilla.
-Stir in 3 cups marshmallows, contantly stiring until all marshmallows are melted.
-Stir in rice cereal and stir until cereal is coated evenly with goo.
-Take the pot off burner.

-Be careful beacause the stuff will be a bit hot, with a wooden spoon and as quickly as you can, spoon treats into the cupcake cups.
-Coat your fingers and hands with butter(butter spray is the easiest in a project like this) and lightly press the treats into the cups shaping a round top like a cupcake.
-Place in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.
-Take the treats out of the pan and place each one in a cupcake paper. Set aside.
-Make your frosting for the top. I used whipped cream.

Small batch of whipped cream frosting:
1/2 a pint whipping cream
1/4 cup powder sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste(or whatever vanilla you have)

-Whip the cream until you have stiff peaks.
-Mic in vanilla and sugar. Chill.
Finishing:
-Pipe a small amount of whipped cream on the krispie treat cupcakes and top them with a mini fruit marshmallow and sprinkles if you want.

THE END!

2010-07-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

A Violette QUESTION FOR YOU!

When my friend, Amy, moved to New York City, she left me with 3/4 jar of this fancy french Confit*perserved* De Petale de Violettes *Violet Jelly*. The jelly has a sweet and unique floral taste that also has a slight zing. The taste is hard to describe, maybe.... think lavender(floral) but, lighter, sweeter and with a punch of citrus? I read online that it is eaten with toast, crepes and put in cakes and tarts etc...
I really want to make something FUN and new with this jelly!
WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD MAKE?
I think I need another flavor to pair it with though.
WHAT FLAVOR DO YOU THINK COULD GO WELL WITH VIOLET?

I would do lemon, but that seems a bit boring?
What do you think of about mini blueberry and violet jelly upside-down cake?

Anyway, It's a beautiful day and I am off to the beach. Have a lovely Sunday!
THE END!
Next up: Mini Rice Krispie Treat Cupcakes

2010-07-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

The Winners!
So, I just got back from crazy vacation land! And I now have a ton of things to catch up on and to do like... tell you who the winners are. :)

OK! So, I wrote each name on little pieces of paper and drew them randomly. The first name I drew was first prize winner etc.. etc...
It was very anti-climactic, BUT, I am very excited to send my prizes off to the winners.
I thank you ALL for humoring me for my 3rd blogoversary giveaway. Your questions were really good, a little too good. Anyway....
THE WINNERS ARE! *dut da daaaaaaaa.....*

FIRST Prize goes to.... ANGELAAAAAA!

SECOND Prize goes to... GILIAAAAANNN!
THIRD Prize goes to...STEVIE GAAAAAYLE!
And
FOURTH Prize goes to...SUZAAAAANNE!

Dear Angela
Your Question: "Why are you so darn cute?"
*Angela, I think you are a star in my life and I am very grateful to have you. To answer your question, I would have to say... It is what it is. I'm cute. There are no ifs, ands,or buts about it. HAHAHA! Why are YOU so cute?

Dear Gillian
Your Question: "How on earth do you bake all those yummy cupcakes and yet stay so slim and trim?"
*Gillian, I can't wait until I can have you on as a guest blogger to share the amazing healthy tricks you have? And to answer your question, I honestly never eat anything I make. LOL.

Dearest Stevie Gayle asked "Is there such a thing as a healthy red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting?"
*Thanks for stopping by Stevie Gayle! I would say YES to your question! But, it depends on what your idea of healthy is. I have a couple ideas in mind and will work on posting some recipes and thoughts on the this serious matter. Thanks for the great question. E-mail me with your mailing address so I can put a parcel in the mail for you! Yay!

Deary Suzanne asked "What is your all time favorite cupcake flavor?"
*What a lovely blog friend you have been. I love how everything you make feels so cozy and homey. Your question is really hard though! Dang! There are so many flavors I haven't tried and my tastes tend to change. I actually don't think I have had any that I would call my favorite. Weird? Hummm. Maybe the one I made called Amy's Strawberry Jam Cupcake, I liked the coco strawberry cream cheese frosting a lot. And I liked Stef's pickle cupcake with chocolate ice cream, that was actually really good. I have a ton that I want to try though like a lime margarita cupcake or a Guinness black bottom cupcake. Maybe I need to go out and do more cupcake tasting. E-mail me with your info so I can get your little package in the mail. :)

And here are some notes to those who didn't win. I couldn't just not answer your questions.

Dear Viola Sophia

*Crepes Suzette, Authentic French Style? First of all, I know who you are missy and I think you know how. I will look into this and post something to address the very authentic interest you have. Crepes are not my easy. I think you should be my guest here and show us. :)

Dear Bethany

*Thank you for being such a delightful blog friend I admire all that you do. Your question is so deep. WOW! No pressure. Um, I am actually afraid that I learned nothing over these three years and that would be so sad. But, no, I actually learned a lot of things from all the different and new recipes and ideas I have tried. The most valuable one and the one I still must keep reminding myself of is to give myself enough time. No project has ever been "Quick" and easy like I thought it would be in my head and it SOMETIMES leads to projects getting to be too big, too much, and with a stressful time crunch. I want to learn how to give myself more time to relax and really take my time cooking and baking.

Dear "Miss"

*I think black forest cupcakes are a brilliant idea and CAN be done. I will work on getting a recipe.

Dear "Elmirably" aka My mother.
*I have no obligation to answer your silly questions. Hahaha. Cookbook in my future? Maybe. We'll see. A no hot dog fourth of July meal. Yes! this can be done.

Dearest Jasmine

*You are so cute and have such a fun personality. I can't wait for you to do a guest vlog for me. :)
Pinnapples are available all year round but their peak season is March through June. My favorite variety is "Sugarloaf" but it may only be available in Hawaii? They are sooo yummy and less acidic. If you are able to go to the farmers market- I find it's a great way to know what's in season locally.

Dear Cptn. O-Man

*I will have to do some serious test-kitchen stuff and research to find a really good bouillabaisse. What a challenge, wanna help? :)

Dear Stef
*You know how much I love you because I practically stalk your blog and leave comments all the time. So thank you for coming over and visiting me when you have time. I think my favorite cupcake recipes are the simple yet elegant and gourmet ones. Or the really fun and different ones. I always like trying new things so I don't think I would ever have one all time favorite recipe. I make the chocolate soufle cupcake the most but, it's just because a lot of people like it so much.

Dear Amy Mac
I hope you are having fun traveling around this summer! I miss you! Buddy is as sweet as ever and I am sure would go Craaaaazzzy wild if you came to visit. I don't think I could pick just one place BUT, If I could travel anywhere it would be France. And maybe it's how the movie Amelie paints such a beautiful rustic picture. I would go for the open fresh food markets in the streets and their more down to earth food. I am not so much interested in the stuffy snooty fancy restaurants of France. I want to eat in family homes, that sounds wonderful and rich to me.

Dearest Dawn

"How do you use that frosting squeezer thing?"
*Dawn, if I had a prize for an "honarable mention" you would win with flying colors! and of course you would win the....umm... CUPCAKE SPATULA. Your question is phrased so well and made me laugh so hard. I think a video demonstration would be most appropriate in the situation. Don't you? I'll keep you posted. ;)

So I guess that's all for now. Thanks to all of you again!
THE END!

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

GIVE AWAY for my Blogoversary!

**Helloooow, click the play button and watch my little You Tube video**

I knooooooow, it's so Crazy! Riiiiight? It's been so much fun for me to have this blog.
First starting off with just an inspiration for baking cupcakes and then having my interests expand in o other things. This experience has profoundly changed my "foodie" life. I love sharing the things and recipes in life that excite me and I have made some great blog friends here that I am so grateful to have.

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN, here's what you do...
-Follow or subscribe to my blog if you are not a follower already
-Leave a comment no later than July 9th midnight PST with your e-mail and a question you want answered by me, preferably something relating to cooking or baking but, if you must ask why I am so cute, that can be answered too and you won't be disqualified. HAHAHA

WINNING:Four numbers will randomly be selected and if your comment number is drawn, I will contact you for your address information and send you your prize. I will also get around to posting the answers to the winners' questions.

Have a Wonderful July!

2010-06-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

A Mish Mosh

It's summer now and I have yet to go on a scooter ride with my hubby. I hope I get to soon. :)

My hubby is so good to me though! He pushes me on the swings at the park, brings me flowers, and lovely organic spotted eggs.

OH, I got my hair cut like Amelie a couple weeks ago for summer and somehow have no pics of how cute it was. Oh well, it's still kinda' cute but grows too fast.

I am stalking the following blogs right now...You should check them out.
Amelie's House
Vixen Vintage
Retro Ways
Spicy Ice Cream

So....uhhhmm.... how does this....

brilliantly colored beet cake batter...

swirled around in this cake pan...

Turn into THIS when baked????!

With my Beet Froyo in mind, I tried making a beet cake but, after it baked, it was not so PRITTY. The color did not keep at all. When I cut the cake open it was all grey inside. :(

Oh well, at least Buddy loves me.

Well, In July I am coming up on my 3rd Blogoversary and will be celebrating with some fun things including a give-away. So.....check back in a few days for my post on that

Until Then....Have Fun this weekend!

2010-06-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

Delicious and Refreshing

Lemon and Fruit Sorbet

One morning I noticed that I had some peaches and kiwis, that if not used soon, would not be eaten due to unappealing over-ripeness. So I decided to make a simple sorbet. I wanted it to be about the fruit since I had just read an article from David Lebovits' blog about some sorbet in Italy where they just pureed the fresh white peaches and then put them straight into the freezer to serve as is when frozen, it looked beyond yummy. I also have been inspired by Gillian who strives to have a processed-sugarless diet and has been making things such a chocolate with agave nectar instead of sugar.
*By the way I am trying to convince her to be a guest blogger and share some of the innovative things she's been up to lately*
Yeah, so, I only added a little bit of honey for sweentner BUT, aparently I did not add enough, the sorbet was a bit too *Smacky* so in the recipe below I wrote in to add more honey.I hope you try it and enjoy it! :)

Original Recipe: Lemon and Fruit Sorbet
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup honey
2 small ripe peaches with skin on
1 cup pitted and de-stemmed rainier cherries
2 peeled kiwis
1 tbs vanilla
3-4 tbs whipping cream

-Dissolve honey in lemon juice
-Cut the kiwis and peaches into chunks
-Puree all fruit and lemon juice in a food processor
-Then add vanilla and whipping cream
-Chill in fridge over night or in freezer for and hour or so.
-Churn chilled fruit mix in ice cream maker and let set in freezer for an hour or so before serving.
THE END!

2010-06-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

LAVENDER Lemon S'MORES!

BUT FIRST...
I really want you to meet our new puppy, Buddy...

Isn't he just so cute! He's a big love-bug and we adore him. Although, he has chewed up two pair of my flips flops, one pair of my sisters, a lens cap, and some other things, hopefully the list won't get too long. He's a good boy though. :)

Anyway, back to the s'mores...:)

It's been fun to have a friend that lives close by and loves lavender because I have had a chance to experiment and make lavender goodies for her to come over and try. The next thing I want to try is a lavender grill-rub and then maybe I'll give it a rest for a while.

Besides, my lavender buddy, Amy, is moving away! I know! Sad! To New York city, ya, she's moving to New York city! :( !
This past weekend we had a going away bonfire party at the beach for her and I wanted to make her lavender s'mores. So I made lavender lemon marshmallows and graham crackers and had another friend, Gillian, make homemade vegan dark chocolate. She made a pomegranate flavor and a blueberry flavor and they were really super amazing! But, if you're not a dark chocolate person, they may have been a bit too bitter for you. I think it was like 90% cocoa, so, strong, but very good and it balanced out the s'more beautifully. *In my pictures I used a store-bought chocolate with raspberry bits and it was good in the s'more as well.

So, for the marshmallows and crackers I basically just modified the graham cracker and marshmallow recipes I found from Smitten Kitchen - A blog you must check out if you haven't already. It's super profesh with gorgeous pictures. Oh and she's in NY city, that's funny.

For the Marshmallows, I blended about 2 teaspoons lavender and 2 tablespoons lemon zest with the 2 cups granulated sugar and then cooked the sugar as directed etc.. etc...I also added a little Wilton's violet gel food coloring to give them a hint of lavender color (I should have added a little more though) oh well.

The marshmallows took about an hour to whip up and then you have to let them set in the fridge for at least 4 hours but, I let mine chill overnight. At first I was quite worried the sugary goop would not gel, but it did and they were a lot of fun to play with. I am definitely going to try making a few different flavors in the future. One thing I found was that after I cut them, tossed them in powdered sugar, and stored them at room temp (which the recipes says to do), there was a bit of condensation and they lost their powdery-ness the next day. Luckily it only happened to the left over ones I didn't take to the bonfire.

Then, for the Graham Crackers I did pretty much the same thing but blended zest of a whole large lemon and 2 teaspoons lavender with the dark brown sugar needed in the recipe. And I omitted cinnamon from the original recipe.
For the sugar sprinkles I blended 1 tsp lavender and a 1/2 cup natural cane sugar to coat the top of the cookies before baking. I used the skinny round end of a chopstick to mark the dots on the cookies before baking which adds such a cute touch.

I found that using a cookie cutter is much easier too rather than trying to cut straight/pretty/uniform cookies with a knife. I also found that even though the graham crackers were really good, I probably won't make them again. Cut-out style cookies are a little bit of a pain so it just wouldn't be worth it again.

Anyway, the beach-fire party was fun and the s'mores were deeee-licious!

THE END!

Smores Bars

2010-05-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

LADY GREEN and her hat

Lime Coconut Pistachio and Avocado Ice Cream Cupcake in a Bitter-Sweet Chocolate Shell topped with Pistachio Candy Brittle

This ice cream cupcake is for the 2010 ice cream cupcake contest that my lovely blog friends, Stef, Tina, and Bethany have put on for three years now. Check it out HERE at CUPCAKE PROJECT and HERE at SCOOPALICIOUS.

Well, whew! This one was a challenge but I got through it and learned a few things. I really love this contest because it forces me to get the crazy ideas I have out of my head and into the real world. Some of my ideas flop terribly and others come out beautifully. I always learn so much in the process of creating these ice cream cupcakes every year. And I always say I will make more throughout the summer but I never do. So I am hoping this year is different because I have a couple other idea I want to make, share, and enjoy. This weekend's weather was just so warm and beautiful. YAY! SUMMER IS HERE!

If you ever feel like trying your own version of this creation, here are some recipes below to give a try.

Ivy's Coconut Lime Pistachio Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 stick butter, room temp
3/4 cup natural cane sugar
3 egg whites
1 cup cake flour
1 cup AP flour
1 1/2 tsp of each baking soda and baking powder
Juice of two limes
1/2 cup Coconut milk
1/2 cup toasted and chopped coconut
1 tbs lime zest
1/4 cup finely chopped pistachios

What to do:
-Beat butter and sugar until fluffy
-Add egg whites until mixed well and fluffy

-Sift in flours, and baking powder and baking soda
-Add pistachio, coconut and lime zest

-Add lime juice and mix well with a wooden spoon
-Add coconut milk and beat well for 1 minute
-Fill cupcake papers 3/4 of the way and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Ivy's Avocado Ice Cream Recipe:

(Avocado shell made of dark chocolate and filled with avocado ice cream)
*Avocado Ice cream with caramelized pistachio sugar and vanilla bean
Ingredients:
1 cup 2% or whole milk
1 pint(2 cups) whipping cream
1-3 tsp lime zest
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 Avocados
Juice of 2 limes
Pinch of sea salt
4 egg yolks
1/4 Caramelized pistachio sugar (optional)
1/2 cup natural cane sugar

What to do:
-Puree meat of three avocados, salt and lime juice until smooth, set aside.

-Heat milk, cream, vanilla bean paste, and lemon zest 5-10 minutes constantly whisking.
-Take off heat and let steep
-In a large mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks, pistachio sugar, cane sugar until a pale yellow

-Add 1 cup of heated cream to the egg mixture and mix until smooth
-Add the avocado puree until smooth
-Then slowly add, while whisking, the rest of the cream to the egg mixture until completely mixed in.
-Pour the mix back into the pot and heat 5-10 minutes until thick.
-Pour into a heat-proof bowl, give it one more whisk and then cover with plastic wrap that touches the surface of the custard.
-Chill in fridge for up to 4 hours or overnight.
-When ready to make your ice cream, pour into the ice cream maker and churn away.

THE END!

2010-05-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

LAVENDER ICE CREAM

I am not CRAZY!...... about lavender but, it's slowly beginning to grow on me.
This ice cream really turned out quite lovely!
I think I tried making something before with lavender but I did't encorperate it correctly and I probably added too much lavendar that resulted in a "soapy" flavor. This time I used a couple culinary lavender tips from a friend who has much experience and love for these dainty little flower buds. She has made some awesome stuff...like...lavender lemon shortbread cookies, and lavender mojitos.

Tips learned:
1. A little lavender goes a long way: A light and gentle hint of lavender is much better than a strong chemical-tasting blast of lavender.
2. Chop up buds into smaller pieces instead on using the whole flower
3. Blend lavender in sugars, salts, or make a simple syrup that you can THEN use to cook or bake with
or now that I think of it, Stef over at Cupcake Project did a butter infusion with lavender HERE.

So, Amy came over and we had the ice cream with her homemade strawberry-lavender jam she so graciously gave me*YUM*. The combo of the tart jam and sweet creamy lavender was really something special. It made us think that lemon curd would be an even more amazing ice cream "over-the-topper".

Try the simple recipe and enjoy. It took me an hour to prep and 20 minutes to churn the next day. The batch made about 5-6 servings.

Ivy's Original Recipe

What you need:

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp culinary lavender flower buds

1 cup milk (I use 2%)

2 cups heavy cream

contents of 1 Red Lavender tea bag (or 1 tsp chopped lavender)

1 tsp lemon zest

1-2 spots of Wilton's Violet concentrated gel coloring

(Add color if you want a violet ice cream. Otherwise ice cream will have a cream color)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste(or extract)

5 egg yolks

+1-2 tbs lemon zest

What to do:
-Separate your yolks from the whites and place in a large mixing bowl

(large enough to hold your whole ice cream custard batch)

-In a food processeor mix sugar and 1 tsp lavender. Set aside

-Heat milk, cream, Red-Lavender tea bits, and lemon zest on medium-low heat for about 10 minute, stirring occasionally until little bubles start to appear. Turn off heat and let steep for 5-10 minutes. Strain and put some tea-bits back in cream if you want some to speckle your ice cream. Set aside

-Whisk egg yolks, lavender sugar, and vanilla bean paste until a dull yellow color

-Add 1/2 cup of your heated cream to the yolks and whisk

-Then slowly add the remaining cream mixture and return to the sauce-pan.

Constantly whisk to prevent burning, simmer for 10 minutes or until it coats the back of a wooden spoon and is custard ready.

-Add in violet coloring to your liking and mix well.

-Transfer custard to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to prevent a top-scum from forming. Chill overnight or at least 4 hours.

-Chill an empty bowl in the freezer that will hold your finished ice cream

-Add your chilled lavender custard and churn according to your ice cream maker's instructions
-Add 1-2 tbs lemon zest at this time to the churning ice cream.

-Transfer ice cream into the freezer-chilled bowl, cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to prevent ice crystals. Chill in freezer for at least a couple hours to set.

Serve with lemon cookies if you have them Or make ice cream sandwiches.

THE END!

2010-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I just want to take a moment and honor EVERY mother out there in the world including...

YOU, mothers that are alone-you are not aone, mothers in other countries who have NOTHING but, STILL give everything to their children, mothers who sacrifice, mothers who give unconditional love, mothers in pain, mothers whos children have forsaken them, and mother's who have have had to give their children up for adoption-may your hearts be healed, mother's who adopt, happy mothers, frusterated mothers-it will pass, hopeless mothers-you have so MUCH to hope for, stressed mothers-relax, mother's who have reached out to the needy and famished children of the world, mothers who have lost or been separated from their children, and mothers in Haiti-we cry out with you, past and present First Ladies, mothers in leadership posistions, young mothers, middle-aged mothers, grandmothers, and nurturing aunties who have taken the lost under their wings-you have hearts of gold.

If you are a mother, you are a breath of fresh air! and the salt of the Earth.

You are SOOO very important and what you do is not taken lightly.

Thank you for all that you do and all that you are.

I love and cherish you!

Here are just a few mothers near and dear to me that I want to mention (in no particular order) with exception to the top four that have directly impacted my life and shaped who I am today.

Grammy LaVonne

Mrs. Peach

Mrs.Mary Carol

Aunt Marshie

April, Crystal, Dierdre, Angela, Lisa from M.O.S.T.,

Stef from C.P., Heather, Heather F., Amy S., Mimi, Tara, Erica, Erin, Dawn, Barbie, Lisa R., Rachel from D.F.M., Jasmine, Laurel P., Katie M., and Holly W.

I wish you a whimsical sun-shiny day full of happiness.

May God continue to annoint and bless you with strength, endurance, wisdom, patience, nurturing, virtue, and love.

Have a great Sunday!

2010-05-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

Come join the FUN and enter an ice cream cupcake contest.

You could win some pretty cool prizes...and it's going to be fun to jump-rope into summer creating the ice cream cupcake of your dreams.

Don't let ANYTHING
(excuses, skills, lack of skills, fear, intimidation)
stop you from entering! You have until May 31st 2010.
Just think of a yummy combo and do it!
You can do it all with cake-box mix and ready made ice cream or you can do it all from scratch, it's all in your hands.

See details at Scoopalicious or Cupcake Project
My Favorite from 2008 A Lilac creation made by Michelle at Big Black Dog

My Favorite entry from 2009- A ginger rum creation made by Lisa at My Own Sweet Thyme

Below is my entry from 2008-Red Velvet Cake with Creme Brulee ice cream, Meringue frosting and a blood orange slice.

And my entry from 2009 -Brown sugar cupcake soaked with Grand Marinier, orange ricotta cheese layer, olive oil ice cream, and strawberry mousse frosting)

Can't wait to see you be creative and dive into this! :)

2010-05-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

Picture Collage

The End! I am off to watch Amelie.

2010-04-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

Sean's Hummus made by Ivy

When we lived in Erie, Penna. five years ago, there was this little convenient store. We made friends with the owners who were from the middle east and had a take-out businness for meditteranean food. We loved the food and Sean especially fell in love with the hummus they made. To this day, Sean always talks about how good it was with it's strong lemon and garlicky flavor.
So, the other night we decided to have spinach pie, grape leaves, and pita bread for dinner and I was inspired to make homemade hummus. :)
I tried to get as close to "Sean's favorite" as possible and I think I came PRITTY close. Either way, it turned out really good and passed his approval. It's so easy too, you should try it. :)

THE Recipe

1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds (optional for more flavor and overall body)
1-3 tbs ghee or soft-soft butter (optional for richness)
3 tbs olive oil
4-5 tbs lemon juice
3 med-large garlic cloves cut into chunks
a 15 oz can of organic garbonzo beans
2-3 pitted kalamata olives (optional for additional flavor)
Salt and Pepper to taste
(1-2 tbs water for consistency)

-Puree all ingredients together in the food processor until you have your desired consistency.

(Delicious ghee made by mother)

Dip pita bread and enjoy! OH, and here's a great Pita Bread Recipe from one of my new favorite blogs The Vintage Wife.

Have a lovely day! And plant some echinacea flowers in your garden for summer, they attract butterflies. :)

THE END!

2010-04-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

Get Away from L.A.

I am sure it's no secret for locals of Los Angeles that Santa Barabara is a nice day or weekend getaway from the crazy city. Yes, Santa Barbara is lovely and there's is much to do or not do there. Visit the quaint little zoo, stroll the sidewalk art fair, or savor a bowl of seafood chowder sitting at a table in the sand watching the sun melt over the Sea's horizon.

But wait! Before you do the Santa Barbara thing, I want to tell you that a little town just south of SB is just as worthy of your time. Carpinteria! Yep, I spent most of my elementary school days in this area and it has become quite charming and worth the stop and/or stay.

A must is getting off at the first Carpinteria exit, turning left over the bridge and walking what I know as "the bluffs". It's a beautiful walk along some cliffs lined with eucalyptus trees that drop down to the ocean and where the seals and pelicans share a little glimpse of their busy life with you. Be sure to cross the train tracks safely. :)

Foos wise, if you want a steak house, try The Palms. And I want to try the Chamomile Cafe, it's so, so cute! but is always closed when I am there. :(
I would say the thing you can do without.... is a little busy-bee cafe which is neat and fun to "bee" in. Even the waitress embodies the personality of a bee but, the breakfast food and service needs to step it up a noch. and Tony's, which I hate to say, was not very good. I grew up eating and getting spumoni after dinner there as a kid but, the waiter was disappointing and the food wasn't anything too special.

So anyway, me and hubby drove up this past weekend for the day as we have done before. This time we browsed a couple antique shops on Linden Avenue *FUN!* I wanted everything. We picked up some taffy from Robitaille's, enjoyed a banana chocolate milkshake at THE SPOT, and walked the beach.

And back we came to L.A. refreshed... for now.
THE END!

2010-04-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Simply Seasoned Butters
I love any kind of herbed butter. There can be so many things you can do here with what you already have in your spice rack or in the fridge. I love doing just a simple rosemary butter with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. But, These two particular butter recipes adapted from a WS cookbook I have and are really delicious and extra special. I make them occasionally and always love them because they have some real popping flavors that will bring color to any spring or summer vegetable. You can make a batch, use it tonight, and then freeze the extra to have in a snap for future dinners. EASY!

Kalamata Butter

This one is my favorite because of it's gorgeous purple color. I use this one on steamed green beans, tossed with jasmine rice, or slightly melted with some mayo to dip steamed artichoke leaves in.
-Just toss all the ingredients below in a food processor and you're done.

10 kalamata olives pitted
1/2 stick of butter, room temp to slightly chilled
1 medium shallot, outer layer peeled off and discarded, then cut into big chunks
1 small- medium garlic clove cut in half

Lime Chile Butter

This one is yummy on corn on the cob, asparagus, or new baby potatoes sauteed in the butter with some olive oil.
Mix all ingredients below with a wooden spoon and you're done.
lime chile butter

1/2 stick butter, soft room temp (not melted)
1-2 large clove garlic, finely minced with a knife not a garlic press.
1 tsp (mild) chile powder
A sprinkle of paprika
A sprinkle of cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs chopped fresh cilantro
squeezed juice of half a lime

I hope you enjoy and have fun expanding on these recipes!
THE END!

2010-04-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

Amy's Glowing Strawberry Jam

For the few of you who read my blog, I deeply apologize for lacking in posts. Work and life has been kicking my butt lately. The busy-ness of life takes away my time and energy sometimes to cook, bake, and inspiration sometimes.

Anyway, I am here now and may or may not have time to post but, know that the INTENTION is always there to share with you all my cooking and baking projects.

I am dedicating this post to Amy who has really jump-started my inspiration, in many things really... People, relationships, life, art, and most importantly, baking and cooking.
*Amy, you are such a beautiful, strong, and bold person. Thank you for being such a nurturing friend, and for taking such wonderful, and daring food adventures, you are an inspiration.*

Hopefully Amy will do a guest blog for me soon. But, in the meantime, I will brag on her glowing strawberry jam.
Just recently, she gave me this lovely homemade strawberry jam that she and her family has made for years as a family tradition. It was such a precious and rare gift that at first I didn't want to use it until the perfect occasion EVER! HOW-EVER, as Amy's jam stared back at me one night from the freezer shelf, I said, "NO, you know what!? this jam is meant to be enjoyed, it's not meant to just sit in my freezer for a year and never be used."

So I had some ontop of some creamy vanilla ice cream and...I mean, do I really have to say that it was delicious? Of course it was, this jam is so fresh and Yummy! and it has this gorgeous romantic glow to it. I love it!

I decided I would make cupcakes and bake some of the strawberry jam in the middle. YUM! In my head I wanted the cake to be vanilla with some chocolate that way I could show off the pink jam in the middle. But, my batter turned out way too dark and you couldn't really see the jam. :(
The recipe was basically buttermilk red velvet without the red coloring so I am not going to post it. But, my method was to sandwich a dollop of jam and ricotta cheese in between batter and bake them for 20 minutes. They were delicious and I had many great reviews from a lovely new group of girlfriends I have. But, the cupcakes got a little dry after a couple days, red velvet does this. Anyway, when I perfect the vanilla-chocolate cake I was hoping for, I will share the recipe.

I was really, really, REALLY excited about how the frosting turned out though and I will give you the recipe.You will want to eat this on everything. :)

Strawberry Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
2 8oz cream cheese packs, room temp
3/4 cup powder sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste(or vanilla extract)
1 Tbs cocoa powder
3 Tbs Amy's strawberry jam

-Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy and fluffy

-Sift in powder sugar and cocoa powder
-Whip in vanilla and jam, beat on high for a minute.

I hope you have a lovely April. Have a wonderfully blessed Easter. I will see you soon with some small but yummy savory recipes.

THE END!