St. Patrick's Day Theme

My daughter and I decided to decorate the house with a St. Patrick's Day theme for our dinner guests last Friday.

I was on Pinterest and saw this cute Kiss Me, Luck of the Irish poster. I printed a 5X7 poster and framed it. You can find it on http://www.box.com/shared/0esqxeb0si. 

The kids ate their dessert with a four-leaf clover toothpick which we made with crepe paper and attached with tape. We also made a larger size for the adult dessert which is seen above. We used a skewer taped with crepe paper and merely dusted with cocoa powder to get this effect.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tiramisu II Tutorial

I was on the Wilton forums a couple of weeks ago and stumbled on a thread about tiramisu. I've never even though about making tiramisu before so this was going to be a top priority dessert.

I made family dinner plans with a friend and I decided to make it easy. Pizza was on the dinner menu and since that was a phone call away, I decided I would bake us dessert. This was my opportunity to make tiramisu.

I had a look at a few different recipes for tiramisu, and as you know, I've been hooked on allrecipes.com lately. I found the recipe Tiramisu II by Christine and read all of the rave reviews. This was going to be the recipe!

First thing, I had to bake homemade lady fingers. I decided to use the Ladyfingers Tested Recipe by Stephanie Jaworski from JoyofBaking.com.

I'm still a novice when it comes to whipping egg whites (especially since I majorly fouled up the macarons) but I've been more confident with the success of the orange chiffon under my belt.  

The first batch baked up beautifully. I realized that I piped the ladyfingers too fat and too long (4" long and a good inch wide). I was a little skeptical with the amount of ladyfingers so I immediately baked another recipe.

The second batch were short and skinny (2 1/2" - 3" long and 1/2 inch wide). I tried surrounding the outside of the cheesecake pan with them initially but soon realized that I was going to need the entire second batch to do this. I looked back to the first batch of ladyfingers and thought I'd cut them in half to place around the pan. This worked out perfect.

I also decided to spike my whipping cream with instant coffee, Starbucks VIA to be exact.

The ladyfingers were soaked with freshly brewed coffee and Kaluha (I doubled the recipe as suggested by a few of the reviewers). 

FYI, I decided to go with Kahlua because I walked up and down the rum section at the liquor store with no idea which one to purchase. The prices ranged from $15 - $89 and I'm not a rum connoisseur of any sort. There was a mini Kalhua bottle for $10 at the checkout, and it states that it's rum and a coffee flavored liqueur on the bottle, so that was my ultimate decision.

I feel there's something unsettling about putting the layers together and not seeing the end result until serving. I had no idea how this was going to turn out...

I'm happy to share that I was thrilled with both recipe selections and added coffee flavors - my guests also had rave reviews and even had seconds! 

I served the few extra ladyfingers to the kids which they had with fresh berries and marshmallows. 

Everyone was happy.

French Baguettes

I feel like I'm on a roll with bread making (since I successfully made soft pretzels yesterday) so I thought to make French baguettes today.

Now, who can argue with 838 reviews with a total 5/5 stars recipe? This was a no brainer. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com, French Baguettes by Judy Taubert.

I added parmesan cheese and oregano to the top of the loaves.

I created a humid environment in the oven (as recommended by another recipe) by placing a pie dish filled with water on the bottom rack.

Presto, the loaves were done in 22 minutes! I give the recipe five stars.

Soft Pretzels: Bacon + Cheese, Plain and Bacon Dog

We're home bound these days and I only had 3 hot dog buns in the freezer. Between the teacher's strike, my husband running errands and being home bound, I decided I would make soft pretzels this afternoon. I read that 60 minutes is required to let the dough rise (on multiple recipes) and discussed the wait with the kids, but they didn't seen to mind.

I went with a recipe from allrecipes.com: "Buttery Soft Pretzels" by Christa Rose (with some slight modifications).

I found the dough rather dry after steps 1 and 2, so I ended up adding 2 tablespoons of water.

I kneaded the dough for 5 minutes on my stand mixer. It was still heavy and not right in opinion but I let the yeast do its magic. 

I let the dough rise for 50 minutes and halved the dough. I placed 1/2 back in the greased bowl and divided the other 1/2 into 6 logs for 6 beef wieners that I had pre-cooked.

I dipped the logs for 30 seconds in the baking soda and water and slit the logs to fit in the wiener. I also snuck half a slice of processed cheese and topped them off with grated mozzarella cheese. 

I baked them for 10 minutes and added bacon bits and more grated cheese to the top of the pretzel dogs.

I found that the bacon and cheese didn't really add anything more to the pretzel dog, but it was worth a try in my opinion.

It brings me back to the days of a whistle dogs... love a little nostalgia.

I baked miniature pretzels with the other 1/2 of the dough that was reserved in the greased bowl. I had some bacon bits and grated cheese leftover so I ended up with 2 variations of the classic soft pretzel. These mini's took about 10 minutes in the oven.

I can hardly wait to make these again. The recipe has surely earned my family's approval!

Angry Birds Fruit Gummies

Can you believe my daughter and I discovered this at the local candy shop? They sell Angry Birds fruit gummies! There were 3 of the blue boxes and we purchased 2 - 1 for each of my candy eating children. 

These birds are the latest craze so we were thrilled to find them. Here they are outside of the packaging. I think we'll be picking a few more boxes up once they're re-stocked. Who can possibly resist Angry Birds fruit gummies? Not us!

Rosette Cake Tutorial

A quick step-by-step guide to creating your own 'rosette' cake:

1. Start by placing your cake on a pedestal.

2. Crumb coat, and start with first rosette in the center of the cake.

3. Work your way around the circumference the cake. Fill in gaps with freehand swirls.

4. Add additional decorations as desired and serve.

Note: I was planning to continue the rosettes around the entire cake (similar to my previous post) but I ran out of icing. In the process of smoothing it out, the top design was touched ever so slightly by my spatula. Fortunate for me, I found that the finished cake had a much cleaner look after doing so.

This is the final top view of the cake. I packaged it up and hand delivered it to my Grandma. Hope you all decide to give this a try for yourself. I really do love the simplicity of the design and think you will too!

Orange Chiffon Cake

I have 2 cartons of eggs in the refrigerator and what better way to reduce them? By baking an orange chiffon cake, of course!

I've been dying to pipe this popular design on one of my cakes. There's 3 large rosettes on either side and a single rose on each end. I also added a Callebaut White Crispearls on top. My conclusion? I love this style of cake decorating. So simple.

I have another 6" round cake that I'll be bringing to my Grandma this afternoon. Expect a tutorial next post!