Fruit Pizza

I made this fruit pizza for Father’s Day.  The star of the pizza though was the pineapple curd. 

And lucky us, we don’t need all pineapple curd that the recipe makes for the pizza, which means leftovers!  Babygirl generously drizzled it over her raspberries. She’s a smart girl. :)

I followed the curd recipe though I did adjust the method a tiny bit.  I’ve made curd several times and used my previous experiences to end up with a smooth and yummy pineapple curd.  The original recipe does not call for straining the curd once cooked.  I did.  I think because the eggs are not tempered they scramble a bit.  Scrambled eggs in curd is NOT yummy so be sure to strain it.  The only other change I made was to sweeten the cream cheese for the pizza.  The pizza recipe only called for lemon juice to be added to the cream cheese but I went ahead and added some powdered sugar.  I thought it needed it.

Pineapple Curd from Myrecipes.com, my changes.

Yield: 2 1/2 cups (serving size: 1 tablespoon)

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup  sugar
• 1  tablespoon  cornstarch
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1  cup  pineapple juice
• 2  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
• 3  large eggs, lightly beaten 
• 2  tablespoons  butter, cut into smaller pieces

Preparation

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a medium, heavy saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Stir in juices and eggs; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add butter, stirring gently until butter melts.

Strain mixture into medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap directly touching the top of curd to prevent a skin from developing.  Chill for at least 6 hours or overnight (the mixture will thicken as it cools) in the fridge.

S’mores Snack Cake

 

Seriously good and relatively easy.  For those of you that may not know, besides loving all things cinnamon, blondie, and banana loaded I’m also very fond of s’more-ish treats.  (I’m pretty sure its the warm melty roasted ‘mallows that gets me.) 

A while back Debbie from Mocha Me blogged about a s’mores snack cake  baked. She said while she enjoyed the cake it didn’t quite hit that s’mores note.  After thoughts of it lingered, I finally decided on how to get  that “s’mores” flavor I love.  I think I nailed it with my adaption.  Or at least that’s how I took the almost empty pan.  I did manage to snag this piece to photograph.

Click here for the original recipe as seen on Mocha Me or here for a printable version of mine. Note, for decorative purposes I stuck a graham cracker in the center and drizzled more chocolate on top.  Babygirl ate this piece and said it was better than her first one. 

Hope it’s a good one!                                                                                ~ingrid

Babygirl’s Strawberry Topped Cheesy Lemon Pie

This beauty is brought to you by my babygirl.  She not only made the pie by herself, she also took the photos.  ( I edited them in Picasa.)  In keeping with the theme of today’s post I’m going to allow McKenna, aka Babygirl tell you all about her pie.

Hi! This is Babygirl and I really loved this pie that I made.  It was fun and a little easy but it was more fun. Instead of just tossing the berries on top I wanted to make a flower with strawberries. (Well my mommy told me about it and I like the idea so I went with it.) It was hard making the strawberry flower because you have to pick the right strawberry slices. If you want to make the strawberry flower you can find it on Ms. Monica’s blog. If you have any questions send them to my mama and say that they are for me. Thank you. Babygirl out.

Here’s the adapted recipe by Babygirl: 

 Strawberry Topped Cheesy Lemon Pie, printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 18 graham cracker squares, crushed
• 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
• 3 TBS granulated sugar
• 1 lemon, zested & juiced
• 16 oz cream cheese (2 8 oz blocks) at room temperature
• 14oz sweetened condensed milk (1 can)
• Various berries for decoration

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place graham cracker crumbs in a medium sized bowl, sprinkle sugar over top, and pour in melted sugar.  Stir well with a wooden spoon.  Once the mixture is even in color place it into a 9 inch pie pan.  Using your fingers pat crust  mixture into place covering the bottom of the pie pan and completely up the sides.  Once the crust has been shape, bake for 6 to 7 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set  on cooling rack. Allow to cool completely. Meanwhile place cream cheese in a medium bowl and beat until smooth.  Add sweetened condensed milk and beat well, about 1 minute. Scrap down sides of bowl and add in lemon zest and juice.  Beat until smooth scraping down sides as needed.  Pour cream mixture into cooled pie crust and smooth out top.  Chill in the fridge at least 3 hours.  After the 3 hours or prior to serving top with fresh berries.

The original un-adapted recipe can be found in William Sonoma’s Sweet Treats.  This is a great book for young kids interested in baking.  Babygirl has successful made 5 or 6 recipes out of it!

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A proud Mommy moment, Babygirl was awarded The Presidential Award for Educational Excellence!  Only 20 out of 99 fifth graders in her school received it!  :) YAY!

Dessert Table: Lemon Berry Trifle

I’ve actually made this twice since I first saw it on Recipe Girl.  The first time was for Easter and then again for my brother’s dessert table.   It was a hit both times and will definitely be making a repeat appearance.

The first time I made this I used all strawberries and the second time I used a combination of strawberries and blackberries.  I also doubled the recipe for the wedding as I was feeding more people. 

Lemon Berry Trifle, adapted from Recipe Girl                                            (for a printable recipe with my changes click here)

SYRUP:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup water                                                                                                          (I added the zest of the lemon(s) I  juiced)

LAYERS:
12 oz. pound cake or butter loaf (store bought ok)
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
3 cups fresh blackberries
3 cups fresh strawberries

1. Slice cake into ¾” slices and place on wax paper in a single layer.

2. Prepare lemon syrup: In a small saucepan, bring sugar, lemon juice, zest, and water to a boil over medium heat. Stir to dissolve sugar completely. Let cool, then brush over both sides of each cake slice. Quarter each slice.

2.5 Wash and dry berries well.  Hull and half strawberries if using. I kept the strawberries and blackberries separate because I wanted two distinct layers of berries in my trifle. After prepping the berries I placed them into a bowl and tossed them with half of the left over lemon sugar syrup.

3. Beat cream cheese with sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium and slowly add cream. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft whipped cream.  (I added the last of the lemon sugar syrup.)

4. Arrange half of the cake pieces in the bottom of a glass serving bowl or dish (2 qt. size is sufficient). Spoon half the cream-cheese mixture over the cake in dollops; spread to the sides of the dish. Scatter berry of your choice on top. Repeat layering with cake, cream cheese, and berries.

5. Cover and refrigerate until chilled (about an hour). You may also refrigerate overnight.

Servings: 6-8

Recipe Tips:
*For a lower fat version, try fat-free pound cake and reduced-fat cream cheese.
**You can use any variation of berries.  I’d just make certain to have 6 cups worth.     

This recipe is very forgiving; play around with it and make it yours.  I also think the lemon sugar syrup and cream cheese/whipped cream filling would be great in other recipes. Recipe Girl, has a “how to” video for putting this trifle together.

Never Forget………………

Cox and Forkum, www.coxandforkum.com.

Lemon Lime Goodness

Lemme get this out of the way.  If you’re opposed to using cakes mixes you should probably stop reading and click the red “x” in the top right hand corner, because this recipe uses a cake mix and boxed pudding but that’s okay because in the end it was all kinds of lemony lime good!  If you’re okay with shortcuts that take you straight to yum than by all means please continue on….

I saw this  lemon lime cake at my buddy Monica’s.  She was contacted by Duncan Hines to review one of their recipes.  Lucky for us she chose this beauty.

Instead of making one big bundt like Monica I decided to cut my baking time down. I made one 6 cup bundt, 2 mini bundts, and 2 mini loaves.  Sounds like a lot of cake, right?  Well, they were ALL gone by the next night. Guess we like them. :) I did make one major change to the recipe and that was to leave out the first glazing of the cake.  It’s not a glaze in the traditional sense as you’re supposed to poke holes in the warm cake and pour the "glaze” over the cake allowing the cake to suck in the glaze and cool.  Monica mentioned to me that she thought it almost made the cake too moist and suggested foregoing that glaze.  I followed her suggestion and still ended up with a moist cake though I did lose the sugary crust the glaze makes.  

Lemon Lime Cake adapted from Lick the Bowl Good      (For the complete printable recipe click here)

Cake:

• 1 pkg Duncan Hines® Moist Deluxe® Lemon Supreme Cake Mix
• 1 (3.4 oz) pkg lemon instant pudding
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup lime juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 10-inch Bundt or tube pan.

For cake, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup lime juice in large bowl. Beat at low speed with electric mixer until moistened. Beat at medium speed 2 minutes.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan 25 minutes. Remove cake from pan onto cooling rack.  Allow cake to come to room temperature before adding glaze.

 Lime Glaze by Monica

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• zest of 1 lime
• juice of 1 lime

In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and zest. Squeeze lime juice into bowl a little at a time. Stir until there are no lumps and continue to add more lime juice until the glaze is thin enough to drizzle. Pour over cooled cake and allow to set.

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A little Baseball;  the Twins made their high school’s summer baseball team! Woohoo! Now I just have to figure out how to get them to all their games when I’m supposed to be working.  :)

Miss Karolyn’s Cake

If you read my last post, you’ll probably recognize the name Miss Karolyn.  She took all the photos in my last post and the ones here and here. 

Karolyn is my children’s sitter and has been taking care of them after school and during the summer’s for the past five years.  We are very fortunate to have her as the children’s caretaker and also as a family friend. What I didn’t mention is that Karolyn is our resident chocolate lover.  Being that we’re not fond of chocolate she’s stuck eating bread pudding and bars.  :)  This past Tuesday was her birthday and for her birthday I made her this glorious chocolate hazelnut cake I found on Bake or Break.

The cake turned out splendidly considering I only made one slight boo-boo……I forgot to fold in the 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate!  Luckily it already had 14 ounces of nutella so it was still chocolate-y.  While Karolyn loved the cake, I tasted a slice and thought it would have benefited from the chocolate that I forgot to add in. It was chocolate-y but not that rich, decadent over the top chocolate taste you expect to get with a cake that has no flour in it other than 1/2 cup of ground hazelnuts. 

Click here for a printable recipe and my notes on toasting, peeling, and grinding hazelnuts.