Archive for September, 2009
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!
So, I wanted to make this one and I was very excited to do it. THEN I read that you have to serve it immediately. Hmmm. I always bake and then bring the goods to my friends and family. So I seriously considered skipping this week, as it seemed to be a waste of eggs for me to sample it and then have it fall flat on its little chocolate face.
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!
First Birthday Cake: Baby Einstein Edition
Posted by: Liss
September 7th, 2009 >> Cakes, Chocolate, Specialty Cakes
My friend asked me to make her son’s first birthday cake and the theme was Baby Einstein. I have no children so I agreed, not knowing what that meant! She sent me a link to the party decorations so I knew what things looked like. Man, it was a lot of characters!! So, I enlisted the help of my wonderful mother to help me cut out all the animals since I would not be able to do it alone in any sort of reasonable amount of time. The top is the smash cake for the baby (who ended up not really smashing it, just playing with the frosting a bit…) and the middle layer is vanilla and the bottom is chocolate. I’ve been told the cake was a hit!
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….
