I don’t do crust. I have attempted crusts and have always epically failed at them. I do not like to attempt to get the butter and flour into the right combination of coarseness. I do not like the pressure of rolling it out, chilling it, rerolling it, and hoping you don’t overwork something in the process. I don’t do crust.

I did crust this week. It stressed me out a little. I expected the worst. And ya know what? It came out perfectly. I did crust!!!

So my friend Becky was showing me a recipe for sugar cookies that called for sour cream and she asked me if I thought it was weird that the cookies had sour cream in them. A little bell went off in my head and I remembered these little guys had sour cream in them too and it was far stranger to be in a pastry crust than a cookie, right? She wanted to try them and I was going to be watching the Bears game with her and some other friends that night so I figured I could bring these along. I cut it close. All the chilling time and prep time to roll and shape these things made me later than I wanted to be but not the last so it was all good. And everyone LOVED them. I was nervous because I took them straight out of the oven and over to the game so I had no idea what they tasted like. And I suck at crust so it could have ended disastrously.

I made half the batch for Sunday night and didn’t take any pics because I was so rushed to get to the game. And they all got eaten. So I made the other half today for pics (and I may have eaten some…). Sundays were cut into circles as Dorie suggested but I had a lot of scrap. I saw some other TWD posters did squares or triangles to eliminate scraps so I did both of those today.  I did not veer from this recipe at all and it was awesome. I think I will do some pear ones with my scraps for my parents. Yum.

For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or get it from Jules’ blog: Someone’s in the Kitchen.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

My friend Rachel is getting married in a few weeks and her bridal shower was last night. I wanted to make her an elaborate cake with the wedding colors but she is not having bridesmaids!! She told me her flowers were going to be sunflowers so I instantly knew sunflower cupcakes were in order!! They were surprisingly easy to do and she loved them!! Everyone was scared to eat them so I had my sister take the first one to get the party started. haha. Enjoy!

Field of sunflowers!

BOY WAS I WRONG. Nothing this delicious should ever be considered a waste of eggs! This was possibly the most delicious thing I’ve ever made. Its like a fudge brownie thats lighter than air. YUMMMMM. I will be making this for my Bible Study group when they come over at some point this year.  And maybe at other moments just to make it because its that good. My fav Dorie recipe so far. So don’t be scared of it!

I made no changes to the recipe and made sure to use high quality chocolate. I sprinkled the top with powdered sugar but it kind of clumped. I think I used too much or something. My edges got a little dark too and I’m not sure why but it was still delicious.  Let’s put it this way-my family and friends missed out majorly by not being in my house when this baby came out!

Thanks to Susan of She’s Becoming DoughMessTic, who chose chocolate soufflé for TWD this week. For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Susan’s blog.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

OK, these were so incredibly delicious!! And I am not a coffee lover by any means. My dad, who is a coffee lover, was completely in love with them and ate most of them. Glad I pawned them off to his fridge and out of mine! The only thing I changed was the size of the pan. I only had an 8×8 so it baked a smidge longer.

So, I realize I am late yet again with my post. I work on the computer ALL DAY so I really hate getting on here when I’m not working so its sometimes hard for me to post on Tuesdays. I will get better at this!! I promise!! You may also notice I missed the Lime Cream Pie. Well, I didn’t really. I almost didn’t make it because I am not a pie eater but at the last moment decided to just make the cream and see how it tasted. It was GREAT! so great in fact, that I ate it all without taking any pics. So, yeah. Kinda failed that one. But I will make the full pie one day for a bake sale or something and then redeem my blog with pics of that one.

Thanks to Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell for choosing Espresso Cheesecake Brownies for TWD. For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Life in a Peanut Shell.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

So, I saw the challenge for Cupcake Hero was bananas for this month. How could I resist my favorite fruit in a cupcake?! This recipe was actually for a cake that won the blue ribbon at my town’s July 4th celebrations a few years back. I tweaked it a bit and Viola! here it is!!

The cupcake is a banana batter with chocolate chips sprinkled in. I piped in pineapple fluffy filling and covered them in whipped cream frosting. The cutey cherry is definitely the finishing touch! I would consider sprinkling with chopped peanuts as well but these are going to be around my niece who has severe nut allergies so I left them off. I try not to get nuts near anything she could possibly get into!

So, onto the recipe….

Banana Split Cupcakes

Cake:
2 1/3 cups cake flour
1 Tbs baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
2 medium-sized ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
½ cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips

Pineapple Filling:
20 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding (4 servings)
1 cup Cool Whip, thawed

Frosting:
2 packages of Dream Whip
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with paper liners.
2. Blend all cake ingredients except the chocolate chips on low speed for one minute. Scrap down the sides of the bowl and continue mixing at medium speed for 2 minutes. The batter should be well blended and the bananas should be pureed.
3. Fill the cupcakes 2/3 full. Sprinkle the tops with the chocolate chips.
4. Bake until they are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Then invert them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
5. While the layers are baking, prepare the filling. Mix the pineapple with the pudding mix. Gently fold in the Cool Whip. Let the mixture thicken in the refrigerator.
6. Place the Dream Whip, milk, and vanilla into a mixing bowl. Beat on low until combined. Turn the mixer to high and beat for 4 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until needed.
7. Once the cupcakes are cooled, fill your piping bag (with a large tip) with the pineapple mixture. Fill the centers with the filling.
8. Using a large star tip, pipe the whipped cream frosting onto the cupcakes and top with a maraschino cherry.

Its Tuesday and I’m posting my Tuesday With Dorie recipe!! Whoohoo! I’m not late this week!!!!

There has been a lot of lovely feedback on how Fall-ish this recipe is and I will not disagree. Cinnamon and allspice with apples will always conjur images of Fall for me. I love Fall but am not sure I love it in August. Regardless, these bars are yummy!! Very moist and the perfect amount of sweetness. The best part? Its made in one bowl and no mixer required! I don’t know why but I hate dragging out my mixer. I realize it makes life so much easier but I just dread it for some odd reason.

Anyway, on to my tweaks to the recipe. The only thing I did was left out the nuts. I think I’ve stated this previously but my neice has severe nut allergies so I avoid using them as much as possible. Plus, I don’t LOVE them so no love lost there. I did not line the pan with parchment as indicated in the recipe. I should have. Don’t be lazy like me. Follow the directions. I did not have heavy cream and couldn’t justify spending the money for 2.5 TBS of it so I swapped in half and half for the glaze. Still tastes good! The glaze is very thin, and not like the picture. I’ve read its from putting it on while the cake is still warm and it gets absorbed. I also read that doubling the glaze helps alleviate this problem.

So, try this recipe. Its worth it! For this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection, you can find the recipe on Karen’s blog: Something Sweet by Karen or look on page 117 of Dorie’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

So, here I am, a day late yet again for my TWD posting. I just can’t help it… By the time I got these beauties covered in chocolate and their pics taken, I had to leave the house to deliver them to my chocolate loving nieces and get to my martial arts classes. So, I post late again. Better than not posting at all, yes?

This recipe was super easy and just uses one bowl. I made some slight modifications. I left out the orange zest because I had no oranges. Instead of 2.5 oz. of bittersweet chocolate, I used 1 oz. bittersweet and 2 oz. semi-sweet. I am not a huge lover of dark chocolate so I had to kick up the sweetness level a bit! Also, I didn’t have any white chocolate as that darn stuff tends to jump into my mouth everytime I buy some. What the heck? LOL. So I melted some regular chocolate chips and used those with some cutie star sprinkles. These were a HUGE hit with my sister and her girls. I will be making them again! Next time I will make a variety of flavors like cherry, mint, and peanut butter. YUM!!

Thanks to Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection. Check out the blogroll to see how others did with this week’s recipe!

Banana Bundt Cake

So after a somewhat long sabbatical, I am back. I have been baking but I keep forgetting to post and/or forget to take pics before its all gobbled up! I did make the last TWD, the vanilla ice cream but had no pics and forgot to post. And I’m posting on a Wednesday because, yes, I forgot yesterday! I need my blog to be able to meow at me like the cats do when they are hungry! haha.

So this cake was SUPER delicious. I gave some (most) to my TKD instructor and he and his family had it gobbled up within 30 minutes of it arriving home!! His brother said it was some of the best banana cake he’s ever had. So moral of the story? BAKE IT! Its so delicious! It will definitely be a fall back recipe for me when I need to use some black bananas! Very moist and dense. Wish I still had some laying around!

For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read The Food Librarian.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

I did a baby shower cake this weekend. I am SOOOO happy with how it came out! The mom to be originally wanted a pink monkey cake but I think this option came out so much prettier!! Everyone loved it and part of me wanted to keep it on my kitchen counter forever!! Alas, I had to bring it to the shower and share….

The cake is a plain white cake with fudge filling. Not my most exciting creation but still super yummy! Its covered in buttercream and then in marshmallow fondant. Can I just tell you how much of a pain it was to get white fondant brown?!? Yikes. I had to add cocoa powder and some of the fudge filling to get it right because it kept coming out the color of something in a baby’s diaper with just the brown food coloring… But it tasted yummy! How can you go wrong with MMF and fudge?!?!

This is my fifth fondant cake and my skills are greatly improving! So excited to do some more! Yay!!!

Close up of the rolled fondant roses

the insides of the cake