Lucky Leaf & 10 Lucky Winners

At the end of January Krista from Lucky Leaf contacted me about trying their one of their Lucky Leaf premium pie fillings.  While I’m not crazy about pies my children are so I figured why not. Along with the two cans of  Lucky Leaf premium cherry pie fillings I received Wilton’s heart shaped pan, a set of heart shaped measuring spoons, and recipe card for a sweetheart cherry cake.

My honest opinion?  I still don’t like mushy fruit but thought the cherry pie filling had a pleasantly sweet flavor and  it didn’t have that awful artificial cherry taste.  I made a slight change to the recipe in that I added all the pie filling at once.  I did this so my mixer would chop up the cherries as I didn’t want chunks of them  in my cake. Both the kids and I really liked the cake.   (I loved the frosting and wish I could have split the cake into two layers as I had plenty of frosting to fill it.) The only issue I had with it was that the outside was done well before the middle.  I think there may be too much batter for the pan.  Next time I’ll divide the batter between two pans instead of the one.  Thanks Krista for the chance to try Lucky Leaf!  I’ll be keeping my eye open for more the next time I go to the grocery store. I’m thinking  strawberry pie filling with a lemon cake!

I’m sure you’re wondering about the 10 lucky winners.  Well, Krista and Lucky Leaf have very generously offered to give 10 lucky commenters a chance to sample their products and receive a Wilton heart shaped pan along with the sweetheart cherry cake recipe card! All you need to do it swing by Lucky Leaf and tell me what recipe you’d like to try. (I’m hoping you’ll find some good ones I might have missed!)  Besides my giveaway click here for info on Lucky Leaf’s Blue Ribbon Recipe Contest.  You’ll have a chance at $1000 and $50 worth of Lucky Leaf premium pie filling products!  Good luck!

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Here’s a photo of Babygirl and Joe just before they left tonight to attend Winter Springs’ Annual Father Daughter Dance!

Mini Triple Layer Banana Cake & Finding the Yummiest Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this cake four or five weeks ago when I promised my sitter, Miss Karolyn that I’d make cream cheese frosting (this was the fave) for her mom who was baking 100 banana cupcakes for a baby shower.  Her mom, Beth wasn’t sure what cream cheese frosting tasted like so, I decided to use my brown speckled bananas to bake a  few cupcakes and top them cream cheese frosting for her to try.  I only baked 6 cupcakes and  used the rest of the batter to make a mini three layer cake and three mini bundt cakes (My bundt cakes stuck to the pan, so no photos.).   I also used this opportunity  to try out two new recipes.  I used this lovely layered banana cake recipe and its cream cheese frosting recipe which I found on the blog, Evil Shenanigans.

The cake was great the first day and even better I thought the second.  The frosting on the other hand was good but not great.  Miss Karolyn’s mom who I passed along all the cupcakes to liked both the cupcake and the frosting but I thought I could do better with frosting. 

When Miss Karolyn had first asked about the frosting I called my blogging buddy Monica to ask her opinion about how many cups of frosting I would need and to see if she had a recipe to recommend.  She did and I should have listened up and made it from the get go.  I didn’t but luckily I talked to her again and she convinced my I needed her recipe a try.  Oh, my goodness!  It is hands down the yummiest cream cheese frosting I have ever had.  My only issue with it and every cream cheese frosting I’ve ever made is that it doesn’t hold it’s shape or at least mine doesn’t.  It  gets so soft.  Yes, I added powered sugar, as much as I could without over doing it.   Is there some secret I’m missing?  Help! 

Vanilla Bean Frosting from Cupcake Bakeshop

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I only added a splash as I used  vanilla bean paste)
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (I used 1Tbs vanilla bean paste)
• 4-5 cups powdered sugar (I used 5 cups)

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined. Then add the vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and 3 cups of powdered sugar and beat at low speed, occasionally stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar to arrive at the consistency and sweetness you like.

Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes.

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Thanks everyone for all your get well wishes.

If you like fun kitchen gadgets check out this post for a chance to win your own Microplane nutmeg grater.

Technorati Tags: banana,cake,cream cheese,frosting,giveaway

A Failure and A Success

I know I’ve been MIA lately.  The kids, their homework, and extracurricular activities have kept me super busy.  They’ve adjusted well to going back to school but I’m still struggling to balance everything.  (I think it’s been a week since I last baked anything. :(() I’m hoping to get back into the groove of things soon!

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A few months ago I had my first giveaway.  One of the items which I gave away was Martha Stewart’s Cupcake cookbook which I preordered for the winner.   At the same time I preordered the winner’s(Noodlegirl) cookbook I preordered one for myself.  When I received the cookbook I excitedly flipped through looking for a cupcake recipe  to try.  It didn’t take long for me to settle on  the snickerdoodle ones.

  I decided instead of baking up 28 cupcakes I’d bake a two layer six inch square cake (I had also recently bought two Fat Daddio pans) and with the rest of the batter a few cupcakes.   Everything went smoothly.  The cake batter was delish and the yummy cinnamon-y aroma filling my kitchen was driving me crazy! My cake layers which I baked up first looked great and my six cupcakes were the most perfect looking cupcakes to ever come out  of my oven.  To say that I was excited was an understatement! 

As I waited for my layers and cupcakes to cool I got busy making my frosting.  Instead of making Martha’s seven minute frosting I decided to make the cinnamon brown sugar buttercream I had  recently seen on the blog, Lick the Bowl Good.  Monica’s buttercream is the success part of this post.  The buttercream is actually an Italian Meringue and I’m happy to say it came together without a hitch.  It also piped like a dream. 

Now for the failure part.  The snickerdoodle cake and cupcakes that looked so wonderful coming out of the oven?  While cooling they had shrunk in on themselves and when I tried one of the cupcakes it was bone dry!  How can that be?  When I did the toothpick test it came out with a crumb or two stuck to it and that was five minutes prior to when the recipe said they should be done!  Talk about disappointed!    The worse part?  A few days after I tossing (with force) the cake  into the garbage disposal (I should have made cakeballs, duh!  Throw in enough frosting, dip into chocolate, and just about anything will taste good.) I came across several blogs that raved about the cupcake recipe.  (Here’s one of them.) Maybe it was me?  I’d like to give it another try but I’m scared.  So, I think I’ll just stick to this snickerdoodle cake recipe or this snickerdoodle bundt cake one. 

 

I’m sorry that the photos are crappy but once I realized how awful this was I really couldn’t muster up any enthusiasm for the the photos.  The only reason I took any to begin with is that Babygirl frosted and decorated the cake. 

Technorati Tags: snickerdoodle,cake,brown sugar,cinnamon,cupcakes,frosting

Look familiar?

These yummy sugar cookie bars might look familiar as they've been making the rounds lately.  I originally saw them on the blog One Ordinary Day, then on The Repressed Pastry Chef, and AGAIN on My Baking Addiction. 

I had printed out the recipe from One Ordinary Day when I first saw them there and had every intention of making them but one of the Twins' teachers had something else in mind when she requested a treat for her class.  So they were pushed to the side for another day.  After seeing these pop up and raved about on two more awesome blogs I couldn't put them off any longer. 

I'm not crazy about sugar cookies but I am crazy about these.  They really are all they are hyped to be. Blondies and Snickerdoodle ones are still my favorite but these are an excellent alternative. 

I was worried that they might be overly sweet so I cut back on the sugar (about a 1/4 cup) but after tasting the bars I  think next time  add the full amount. I topped my bars with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles but had intended to frost only half of the pan with it and the other half with Em's Buttercream Dream Icing.  I didn't softened enough sticks of butter, grrrr, so I was forced to frost the whole thing with the cream cheese frosting. The  recipe is from Simply Recipes and is the one I used to top my red velvet cupcakes.

If you haven't already please hop over to this post to leave me your opinion and enter my giveaway.

Technorati Tags: sugar cookies,bars,buttercream,frosting,cream cheese,sprinkles

Another Cake Collaboration With Charity

Here's the second cake I promised you.  Unfortunately this cake  lived in the shadow of Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake so was not given its proper dues.

Charity's choice this time around was a cake she saw on the blog, Food Loves Writing called Restaurant Eve's Cake.  Though essentially a white cake the recipe does not call for just egg whites but the whole egg. In the post, the writer mentions that the cake tastes like sugar cookies.  I agree.  It is reminiscent of sugar cookies though in my opinion better.  (I'm not fond of sugar cookies  as the ones I've eaten in the past have been crunchy, overly sweet, and often topped with even sweeter frosting.).  The frosting Charity decided on was a Fresh Strawberry Buttercream she saw on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  I had initially planned on using blackberries instead of strawberries but a little girl who shall remain nameless ate so many of the blackberries I didn't have enough. 

For the cake I followed the recipe as written with my only change once again being the size and type of pan I used. I baked (18) cupcakes and a (thin) 11" x 7"  cake .  With the 11"x7" cake I cut out six 3"x3" circles and made two 3 layer mini cakes.  This was  by far one of the easiest cakes I've made and the icing on the cake is,(ha!) besides being tasty and easy,  clean up was a snap.  Now the frosting on the other hand was another story.  Was it good? Yes. Would I make it again?  Probably not.

My biggest problem with the frosting was the consistency which led to my second problem. It was too sweet.  I only made a half  batch and should have used 2 cups of powdered sugar but because it was extremely runny I had to add a heaping third cup and still it was very "soft".  My dilemma was, in order to get it to a consistency that was manageable I would have to add more powdered sugar, making it extremely sweet. As it was I was already pushing it.   I went ahead and gave it a try as is and "frosted" one of the mini cakes and a few of the cupcakes. With the left over frosting I beat in about 2 oz of softened cream cheese (all I had left) and another 3/4 cup of powdered sugar.  The consistency was a bit better and the taste wasn't quite as sweet.  I used this batch to frost the mini cake you see here.

I think a fresh strawberry cream cheese frosting would have complimented the cake better as the cake on its own was sweet enough and would have benefited from a tangier frosting.  The buttercream frosting we used would have been better suited to a cake that needed a bit of sweetening.  Don't forget to see how Charity's cake turned out and whether this was a keeper!

Technorati Tags: strawberries,buttercream,cake,frosting

Not more cake.....

Yes, more cake but this is the last one for a few posts.  I actually made this cake before I made the Double Layer Chocolate Cake and the Red Velvet one.  Monica at Lick the Bowl Good called it Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Coca-Cola Cake.  That's a mouthful. I made this for the Twins' baseball coach's birthday and just called it Old Fashion Coca-Cola Cake. 

I have to tell you I much prefer this "chocolate" cake over the double layer one.  I don't think this is a true "chocolate" cake.  It's more along the lines of a red velvet.   You may find this shocking or not.Especially after reading my last post but  the frosting made the cake for me. It was a chocolate one but following Monica's suggestion I added a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to it and oh, man I was scraping the pot clean to get the last little bits if it.  I usually have no problem walking away from anything chocolate especially chocolate cake but not this time I actually ate two and half pieces of it in two days.   While all the kids liked this and some actually ate two (Will three, :-)) pieces the parents I think enjoyed it more.  In the car ride home the Twins mentioned that their teammates said it was good but it wasn't the best thing I've made.   

On another note:  Thanks for your letting me know what books you have read that have been good.  I'm starting a list, so that next time I go to the bookstore I'm not wondering around like a big dufus.

Baseball update:  The Twins played four baseball games this weekend two on Saturday and two on Sunday.  We won all four games! One was a come from behind (by four points)in the last inning to tie the game and then win it in the tie breaker inning.  Jalen drove in two runs to tie the score and Devon was supposed to sacrifice bunt to move the runner over but instead he beat out the throw and later scored the winning run.  Yay, GO STING!  I'm going to try and get a current photo of the whole team and the twins to post. 

Hope everyone had a happy and green Irish  food filled St. Paddy's Day! 

Daddy, I love and miss you. Hope you had a WONDERFUL birthday!!!!

Technorati Tags: cake,chocolate,frosting,news

It's not about the cake but the frosting!

This is all about the frosting and this frosting is too  good to not pass  along.  Some of you may be like, duh, Ingrid where have you been and others, hopefully one, will be like, hey, thanks!  :-) I found this  caramel frosting recipe on Erin's Food Files.  (Check out her candy coated marshmallow heart pops.)

I had a layer of banana cake in the freezer that needed to be used from when I made this cake.  When I froze that sucker and even before tasting it I knew I wanted something caramel-y. 

Don't make the cake but do make the frosting. It was actually pretty easy and just a little time consuming.  You make your own caramel sauce (yay,me) and use it in the frosting which is a cream cheese buttercream concoction.  Did I mention it's goooood? No? I'm talking GOOD!  I thought I didn't like caramel growing up then I started blogging and realized, oh, what I don't like is that yuckiness they put into jars and label caramel sauce.  After making my own it's been confirmed I LOVE homemade caramel sauce and Julia, you're right this is even better than those caramels you unwrap and melt down with cream or whatever.  I know better now.

I  "frosted" the middle layer with caramel sauce then once it set up I added the caramel cream cheese buttercream. For top I  drizzled caramel sauce on it.  Everyone who had a slice only talked about the frosting an even my nonfrosting loving son said that it was great.  Yeah, make the frosting forget the cake!

On a side note I just finished the book Emma & Me by Elizabeth Flock.  I really enjoyed it.  Lately I haven't had much luck at the book store.  I can't seem to find anything that makes me want to stop what I'm doing and read!  Emma & Me was really good and I didn't even guess the end until the end which I really liked.  It's tiresome when midway through a book and you already have it all worked out.  I'm moving on to Wally Lamb's  She Comes Undone my friend, Wendy suggested it to me. Anybody else read it? Recommend it? Or anything else? 

Okay, just one more thing.  A few people have asked where did I purchase my cake stand.  I purchased it at Target on clearance for 5 or 6 dollars. 

That first photo is courtesy of Miss Karolyn.

Technorati Tags: caramel,cream cheese,frosting,buttercream,books

Red Velvet Cake "Baked" with Charity

On a previous post I mentioned that Charity from Sweet Charity  Pie and I collaborated on a Double Chocolate Layer Cake well, this week we've "Baked" up a Red Velvet Cake.  Charity picked last week's cake so this week was my turn.  I've been wanting to make a red velvet cake for a long time but being the scaredy cake baker that I am I needed a push.  When Charity inquired about what cake I was interested in I knew with out a doubt it was red velvet.  I crossed my fingers that she didn't hate red velvet and sent her an email.  She didn't and sent along links to various red velvet recipes but there was one red velvet post that I just couldn't shake and knew now was the time.  Finalizing our plans I emailed Charity the link to Cassie's post about the red velvet cupcakes she had made along with a boiled frosting.  Yay, Charity agreed it was the perfect recipe. 

I've got to tell you that this cake started out well but in the middle became a small disaster that I thought would end as a HUGE disappointment. 

The red velvet cake we made was from the popular cookbook Baked by Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito.  If this cake is anything to go by then the rest of the recipes are going to be as awesome everyone else has raved. 

My only change to the cake recipe was to use two smaller 6 inch pans. With the balance of batter I made  twelve cupcakes.  As usual I over filled them and only two were presentable.  Half of the cupcakes went to work as a birthday to treat to one of our vendors, half stayed home, and the two layers went in to the freezer to be frosted at a later date (Tuesday night after baseball practice).  For the cupcakes I made a cream cheese frosting from Simply Recipes.  Let me tell you that frosting was darn good, best cream cheese I've had yet! (I did halve the recipe.) With regards to the frosting recipe for the cake I used the one that went with it in the cookbook, Baked.  I followed Cassie and only added two out of the three sticks of butter the was called for in the recipe.  The frosting which is a boiled frosting, tasted, oh my goodness good! Unfortunately for me it did not really firm up. I eventually did after an overnight stay in the fridge but not without  slipping a bit.  The other thing I noticed about the frosting was it looked sort of like over whipped whipped cream.  You can see it in the photos of the cake.  (I don't think the book's instructions for making the frosting were detailed enough.)  After going back today to look over Cassie's post I noticed in her final photo of the cooked flour/sugar mixture that hers looked thicker than mine so perhaps that was the culprit for the slippery soft frosting. 

I'm sure you're wondering what about the cake and small disaster.  Well, the both the cake and cupcakes were soft, fluffy, moist and tender.  They were worth all the trouble I went through.  I'm almost sure I'd make this again it someone I LOVED was to request it again.  LOL!  It will probably be along the lines of childbirth for right now the pain is fresh but in the end it will be fade and even be forgotten enough that I'll give another go!

Now the story of my disaster.  I'm not sure about you guys but I have the very bad habit of cleaning as I go and maybe I get a little distracted by the cleaning.  On this occasion it bit me in the butt because as my butter, egg, and buttermilk was slowly mixing in my KitchenAid I started to wipe the surrounding area.  I noticed a spot behind the mixer and brilliant me reached behind with my sponge.  As I pull my arm back it hits the lever and increases the speed to THE MAX sending pink eggy, sliming, stinky batter sans flour EVERYWHERE.  All over my new white t-shirt (why the heck didn't I wear my apron, my consolation was it really wouldn't have helped), all over my clean dishes sitting near by, my glasses, my hair, over my containers of utensils, on the walls, and floors.  I mean everywhere three days later I'm still find small dots of red. (I actually have photos which I intended to post but everything looked so gross I just couldn't.)  Now mind you its 1o o'clock at night when this happens.  I've lost part of my batter and it's going to take me a while to clean up (Thanks, honey, for helping and not laughing too much!).  I cleaned up enough to forge on despite my worry that I've lost too much of the liquid part of my batter.  All's well that ends well because my cake tasted wonderful and (I think) the cupcakes even better.  I wish I learned my lesson but the following night as I was making frosting I found myself doing the same thing again.  The dummy just won't learn!

Please take a moment to read about Charity's take on this cake.  I won't give it away, so go on now and check!  (Charity, sorry about posting this soo last minute!)

*The lovely cake photos are courtesy of Miss Karolyn & the cupcake ones are me.

** Sorry I haven't been around as much to read and comment on your blogs. I've been struggling with the time change and am just so behind. I have three other posts to add photos to and publish and another three to add photos and links!  Hope to be all caught up soon!

Technorati Tags: red velvet,cake,cupcakes,cream cheese,frosting boiled frosting

Banana cake w/praline filling and white chocolate ganache frosting

You may have recognized the title as the cake that the group The Cake Slice  made and revealed at the end of January.  After  drooling over the photos, reading the name of it, and hearing how wonderful it was I was convinced I need to take the plunge and try my hand at the cake.  Except for the Snickerdoodle cake it would be my most  from scratch cake. 

I followed the recipe as this was not the time to try modifying anything . Overall everything went smoothly.  My one and only mishap was over beating the whip cream after I added in the white chocolate.  

This is another one of those desserts I have mixed emotions on.  On Tuesday when I tried it, well, lets just say if it wasn't because it would have killed me to toss out a whole cake I wouldn't even have mixed emotions.  That first night it was flat out NOT good.  I couldn't have been more disappointed.  I had made the cake layers on Sunday, on Monday I candied the nuts, and on Tuesday made the frosting and put it all together.  I think  I should have made the nuts first then the layers, and while the layers were cooling the frosting & filling.  Oh, well.  Anyway the following day the kids and sitter tried the cake and liked enough to finish most of it up.  On the third day remembering my experience with Ina's Lemon Yogurt Cake I decided to give it another go.  It was edible.  It was okay and I could tell that it had potential but it still wasn't something the impressive cake delish cake I was hoping for.  I actually have the third layer that I froze right away instead of using.  I'm going to give the frosting and filling another go but with a few changes.  Lindsey at Cafe Johnsonia wrote me a great email detailing how I might have gone wrong and what I could do the next time.  I had left her a comment on her post of this cake telling her of my dilemma.  Maybe at a later date I might try the cake itself again.

Btw, notice the improved photography?  Nice, right?!  The children's sitter and my official taste tester, Karolyn took the photos.  I took some too but deleted them after she sent me hers.   She rocks!

**Thanks for all the get well wishes.  I'm not 100% but I am feeling A LOT better!!!!!

LiveJournal Tags: bananas,cake balls,ganache,pralines,white chocolate,frosting