Mother's Day Recipes

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope you all mothers are enjoying a lovely day doing what you want and being appreciated for everything you do!

I actually did some baking today, but honestly I didn't mind.  It's the cleaning I hate!  And besides, the baking I did was for my mom and my mother in law; baking is never a chore when it's a labor of love.  The goodies I baked up were two yummy recipes I found online for bread pudding and quiche, which I've shared below because they are too good to hoard for oneself!

My mother in law always makes monkey bread and to honor her, I wanted to do a bread pudding. I thought I was going to do a french toast flavored bread pudding, but when I stumbled on this delicious mango and coconut bread pudding, I couldn't resist, especially when mangos were on sale for a quarter apiece at the foodstore!

Photo by Becky Luigart-Stayner as found on MyRecipes.com

Mango and Coconut Bread Pudding

My mom had requested quiche and I found an equally amazing recipe that used shredded potatoes for the crust.  I added in a little bit of feta cheese on my own and it turned out scrumptious.  I'm sad that my mom wasn't here to partake since she got sick last night and had to stay home, but I know she'll get to try it soon, as this is definitely a dish that will be sticking around in my repertoire!  In fact, I think it would make an amazing dinner one night.

Photo by Jim Bathie, as found on MyRecipes.com

Potato Crusted Spinach Quiche

Here's to mamas everywhere...Happy Mother's Day!

Cheers,
Kelly

Paddy Cakes

St. Patrick's Day is upon us!  I shall be baking up a batch of the Black and Tan Brownies I made last year for our annual St. Pat's feast with my husband's family, but I also baked up some of these lovelies this year too.  I admit, it's the same cake mix that I used for my daughter's birthday party, the Orange Supreme flavor by Duncan Hines.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  They're a lot sweeter than I'd prefer, but still tasty, and even better still when you throw some cream cheese frosting on top.

Orange cupcakes are perfect for St. Patrick's Day, especially when you ice them in white with green sprinkles...it then represents the colors of the Irish flag!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and yours!

Luckily yours,
Kelly

Sweet Valentine's Day!

Nothing says I love you like a baked representation of someone’s sweetness! While I personally loathe Valentine’s Day as a bunch of commercialized crock, I take full advantage of it as yet another excuse to blow up my kitchen and my kidneys with an excess of sugary love. This year was no exception.

Billa is obsessed with Scooby Doo and I found cute Scooby valentine cards and pencils. I’m saving the pencils for goodie bags for her birthday party (which will be Scooby Doo themed, natch), but the cards were perfect to slip on a cookie pop!   I mixed up some turquoise and apple green icing to coordinate the cookie pops (because I’m a freak like that) and they came out super cute. I had grand plans for these, but I saved myself a whole lotta trouble at the last minute when I remembered that they were for toddlers. No point in gilding the lily for an unappreciative crowd! I added little pink hearts on them to girly them up just a tad, which unfortunately ended up looking more like blobs, but whatever. The kids liked them and that’s all that matters!

The remaining icing and cookie dough became Valentine themed sugar cookies for an impromptu dinner party we had Sunday night with my little brother and his girlfriend. I’ve wanted to try new designs and I am in love with these little lovebirds. They were so easy to create too. I may have to use these for my sister-in-law’s wedding shower later this year…they’re so adorable! And I really like the color scheme of the turquoise, apple green, and pink for Valentine’s day; it reminds me of the current Valentine’s products at Target this year which are super adorable.

Lastly, I sugared up my coworkers with some homemade Valentine-themed Hostess cupcakes that I saw over at Bake at 350. I LOVE Hostess cupcakes, even though they’re probably one of the worst things a human being can consume. These are waaaaaay better than their inspiring counterpart. I was lazy and did the cupcakes from a mix (hey, I was supermom the past week and took care of a sick little girl and her daddy, not to mention fought off the plague myself, so I think I’m allowed some leeway once in awhile!) and I have to say, it’s entirely unfair that the box mix created such perfectly domed cupcakes.; The yummy filling and frosting recipe is from scratch, and I used leftover royal icing to create the swirls on top with the word ‘love.’

They were incredibly delicious and my coworkers loved them. If the word is short enough, these could be used for lots of different events. And imagine changing the color of the cake and frosting! I may bake these again next year but with red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting, and red lettering. Shoot, I might even do these for my daughter’s birthday party too. Recipe for the filling and ganache are below or you can follow the link for the original cake recipe and blog entry from Bake at 350.


Instructions for constructing the Hostess cupcakes:

1. Bake chocolate cupcake according to package directions.
2. Use a piping bag fitted with a filler tip (or wide tip) and insert it into each cupcake, squeezing gently until filling is just beginning to ooze out.
3. Let sit in the fridge for a few minutes, while you mix up the ganache.
4. Once the ganache has cooled a bit, gently dip each filled cupcake into the chocolate and set aside to set up.
5. Put your choice of icing into another piping bag and pipe the trademark swirls and word of your choice across the top.

For the Filling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup marshmallow creme

Using a mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar. Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon heavy cream; beat until smooth. Beat in the remaining 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar and 2 tablespoons heavy cream in batches, alternating after each addition. Beat in the marshmallow creme; set aside or refrigerate.
For the Ganache
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


Place the chocolate in a stainless-steel bowl. Heat the cream and 1 tablespoon butter until just boiling, then pour over the chocolate; let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla; let stand until cool but still glossy and liquid.



I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day with your loved ones, and that this post inspires you to be a ‘sweet’heart to all you meet!

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Kelly

Halloween Cookie Pops

The week before Halloween I had an order for cookie wedding favors.  I decided to make some cookie pops for my daughter's daycare with some of the leftover dough and they came out really cute!  I had originally wanted to do some pumpkins and/or ghosts, but creativity and energy had left me as a result of being sick with a sinus infection earlier in the month.  The kids loved them and there weren't any left when I got Sybilla from school that day!

I lucked out in the packaging department with these Halloween bags that magically appeared on my desk at work last year.  Really, I have no idea who left them for me, but someone decided they needed a home and placed them on my desk–and wouldn't you say I found lovely home for them, indeed?

The design was actually very easy to make:

1.  Create a dam from white royal icing around the edge of the cookie.
2.  Flood outline with white royal icing.
3.  Working quickly, create a bull's eye out of black royal icing.
4.  Use the tip of a toothpick to 'pull' the icing from the center of the cookie to the edge.
5.  Allow to dry and eat!

Make a bull's eye or swirl while the flood is still wet, otherwise it won't work!

Then starting from the center, pull the tip of a toothpick through the rings, creating the webbed effect.

Once they're dry, you can make little spiders to sit on them.  I made some from additional royal icing, but you could use small candies too.  I think this technique would be great to use with other colors and other shapes.  The trick is to make sure that you pipe the contrasting color while the flood is still very wet, otherwise, it won't work.  Something else to think about too: use a very small tip to pipe the contrasting color.  I was using a squeeze bottle which had a larger tip and as a result, created really thick bull's eyes.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Happy Baking,
Kelly

America Tastes Sweet!

I hope you all had a lovely 4th of July!  We enjoyed a relaxed afternoon with our friends and neighbors and ate hamburgers, ribs, sausage, and hot wings. It was good times!  As usual, I brought dessert and I whipped up a humdinger of one!

My northern friends, you're probably more familiar with these than me and my southern compatriots, so forgive me for being a little loopy over them, but I am in LOVE with whoopie pies!

And so is my daughter:

Along with the rest of her friends:

These were red velvet flavored, which I dyed half of them blue and the other half red, and slathered cream cheese frosting between the two.  Heavenly!  Whoopie pies rock.  Cupcake, you're dead to me. Over.

In addition to whoopie pies, I created this little free form tart for further Fourth festivities with my folks and frere (I love alliteration):

Behold the Galette of Glory! 

It's a strawberry and blueberry galette which I further decorated by laying stripes and stars on top from pie dough.  My folks had some dried orange peel in a jar that complimented the fruit nicely, and topped off with some vanilla bean ice cream, it was delightful after a heavy meal of BBQ chicken and pizza. 

I tell you what, America never tasted so sweet.  And a very heartfelt thank you to the men and women in the service who fight each day to keep it that way.   Happy birthday America!

Happy Baking,
Kelly 

Inspiration: Fourth of July Desserts

Happy Independence Day!  The 4th of July is a wonderful holiday, complete with barbecues, swimming, hot weather, and fireworks.  My favorite memories of this holiday always revolve around fireworks and the food–we often ate ourselves silly on grilled meats, corn on the cob, pasta salads made with home grown tomatoes, and the desserts.  Oh, the desserts!  Cookies, pies, cakes, and best of all, ice cream! My mom would set up the ice cream maker in the morning and make peaches and cream ice cream with peaches gleaned from neighbors (that were usually traded for some of my dad's tomatoes) and come afternoon time, the freshly frozen soft treat would be ready for consumption.  My best friend Kellie jokes about how ice cream is the perfect dessert for such occasions, because it melts and fills in the little empty spaces in your stomach.  I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly!

To kick off the Fourth of July, I've compiled some of my favorite ideas for desserts, along with links to the recipes.  I still haven't decided what I'm making, but I think ice cream will definitely be on the menu!

Everyone loves pie...how about an Old Glory themed pie!  This beautiful and whimsical pie is made with cherries and blueberries:

Use small fondant cutters or a knife to create the stars and stripes!

Of course Martha has a whole slew of amazing looking desserts and recipes.  This one was one of my favorites.  Shortcake is always yummy!

You can always go the cake route for something a bit more traditional.  Dying cake batter in different colors and baking it together (a la the Rainbow Cake) is becoming very popular and it super easy to do.  I won't give a recipe to this one, since you can use whatever cake recipe you like (or cheat and use a box mix); all you need to do is portion it out and use food coloring to dye it according to your wishes.

Photo from Taste of Home.com

If you're trying to go for a healthier take on 4th of July dessert, you can always try this fruity dish.  You use a cookie cutter or knife to cut stars out of puff pastry, brush them with egg whites, then sprinkle sugar on top and bake them until golden.  Serve with them a bowl of fruit and a non-fat yogurt dip and you have a simple, easy, and healthy dessert!

Photo also from Taste of Home.com

I hope these ideas inspire you to make something new or spice up your traditional Fourth sweets.

Happy Fourth!
Kelly

Portfolio: Easter Cookie Pops

Spring came early to Central Texas and with it, so has Easter!

To celebrate the return of spring and Easter, I made some bunny cookie pops for my daughter's class.  I had joked with her daycare provider about making chocolate bunnies, well, I did just that! Sort of, anyway.

I had planned on doing them with chocolate royal icing, but my plans got ruined when I forgot to set the timer on the first batch of cookies. 

Portfolio: Valentine's Day Cakes and Cookies

Ah, for the love of cake...it was Valentine's Day yesterday and I made a lovely batch of goodies to celebrate!  Hannah is the daughter of a former coworker who turned 6 this year and her original birthday plan was for a spa themed Barbie party.   But then she saw an American Girl doll she really wanted instead, so she opted for the doll and a less elaborate cake.  Her mom is an event planner for a huge real estate company and between all the planning for their annual event and her daughter's birthday, I am still amazed at how well Stormi keeps it together.  Here is what we came up for Hannah's party:

Valentine Cookie Pops

As I slaved away in the kitchen making cookies for a party and cookie pops for my daughter's class, I realized I am becoming my mom.  My mom is a very talented seamstress and I don't have near the patience or precision that she does (which is saying a lot, considering I made both of my prom dresses in high school and the majority of my wardrobe throughout high school and college and worked in the costume shop).

Finished cookie pops