A Peachy Summer Night

One of my favorite things about summer is being able to sit outside, enjoy a drink and a delicious meal from the grill. We are pretty fortunate that less than a block away there is a little fresh produce stand that I can walk to in about 3 minutes. I think they may know me by name by the time the summer is over. I forked over a well spent $6 today on 3 ears of sweet corn and 5 delicious, juicy peaches. Originally, we thought about grilling the peaches for dessert but I thought that those peaches were far too delicious to be eaten in only one fashion. I decided to make some of those lovely peaches into some delicious drinks. I started by breaking down my peaches.

Skinning Peaches:

1) Take a knife and make an X on the bottom of the peaches.
2) Get a pot of water to a rolling boil.
3) Drop Peaches in boiling water for 30-60 seconds.
4) Take peaches out of water and put in an ice bath to cool down.
5) The skin should peel right off the peaches.

Once your peaches are peeled, put them in the food processor and blend until they are finely pureed.
Take the puree and put in through a sieve to get rid of any grit or chunks.

You now have delicious base for a lot of different drinks!
Drink #1: Peach Ginger Fizz

2 ounces peach vodka
1 ounce passion fruit vodka
2 ounces peach puree
dash of sugar
3 oz ginger ale

Put in a shaker with ice and shake until cold and mixed. Pour into a glass and top off with ginger ale to taste.

Drink #2: Peach Julep- A Brendan Connolly suggestion.  

3 ounces bourbon

1 ounce simple syrup

1 spring mint

quarter fresh peach

1 ounce peach puree

dash of bitters.

Muddle simple syrup, mint and peaches together. Add bourbon and ice and shake. Top with dash of bitters and garnish with a mint sprig. 

We really enjoyed drinking outside, grilling and enjoying the amazing weather. It was an ideal summer night and I hope there are many more to come this summer! 

Limoncello Coconut Cupcakes

If there are two things that go over well in this household its lemon and coconut. We bought a bottle of limoncello for a delicious limoncello tiramisu for my birthday. However, it needs to be used in more than just the occasional martini! I've been itching to bake and what else to do but use some of those delicious ingredients for a tart, delicious summertime cupcake. It's time for some Limoncello Cupcakes!!

Lemon Cupcakes

1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sour cream (I used 1/4 C Sour cream 1/4 C buttermilk)
1 large egg
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 Tablespoons of lemon zest

1) Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to your mixer. Use paddle attachment and beat until combined. 2) Add butter, sour cream, buttermilk (if using it, eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add in lemon zest.
3) Divide into cupcake liners and bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes










Limoncello Curd

1 cup lemon juice (preferably fresh squeezed)
1 cup sugar
Zest from about 2 lemons
7 egg yolks
10 Tablespoons of butter
1/2 C Limoncello

1) Whisk egg yolks and set aside in a medium sized sauce pan.
2) Please lemon juice, zest and sugar in another sauce pan. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Add butter until melted.
3) Temper the eggs with the sugar/lemon mixture by slowly adding hot mixture to eggs while whisking quickly to avoid cooking the eggs before incorporated. Continue to mix until fully combined.
4) But mixture back to heat until reaches 160 Degrees.
5) Take off heat and add limoncello.
6) Cool













Coconut Frosting
2 Sticks of Butter
1/2 Cup cream of coconut
1 teaspoon coconut extract
4-5 Cups of Powdered sugar

1) Cream butter in mixer.
2) Alternate cream of coconut with powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved.

*Side Note*
If you can keep yourself from thinking inappropriate things whole using cream of coconut you get bonus points!
I'm fairly certain its impossible.









Assembly:

Cut holes in your cupcakes using a large piping tip or a paring knife.

Fill with delicious lemon curd.

Frost cupcakes and top with toasted coconut. 

Enjoy!!

If this doesn't look absolutely delicious than you are absolutely crazy!!

Super, Super Yum. 

Coconut Lime Cupcakes

Long story short with these cupcakes. They are pure and simple delicious...if you like coconut.
If friends offer to make you birthday cupcakes for your outing and give no input what-so-ever you may end up with coconut cupcakes when you don't like coconut. If nothing else, we enjoyed making them and many more will enjoy eating them. Don't stay silent!

I will say that if you enjoy lime and/ or coconut, these cupcakes are absolutely delicious. They are tart and not overly sweet. The toasted coconut on the top gives it a great texture that pairs really well with the citrus lime flavor. I will definitely be making these again.

Super yummy delicious coconut lime cupcakes

Coconut Lime Cupcakes

Makes 12 regular or about 40 mini cupcakes

I doubled the recipe and it made 31 perfectly sized cupcakes. 

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

§                                 1/3 cup vegetable oil

§                                 3/4 cup granulated sugar

§                                 1 cup coconut milk

§                                 1/4 cup milk

§                                 1 tsp vanilla extract

§                                 1 tsp coconut extract 

§                                 1 tbsp lightly packed, finely grated lime zest

§                                 1 cup all purpose flour

§                                 1/2 tsp baking soda

§                                 1/2 tsp baking powder

§                                 1/4 tsp salt

§                                 1 cup sweetened coconut

Lime Buttercream Frosting:  (I thought this frosting was AMAZING and I don't even like frosting!)

§                                 2 sticks butter

§                                 1 tsp vanilla extract

§                                 1/4 cup fresh lime juice

§                                 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

§                                 1 tsp finely grated lime zest (or more because its delicious)

Optional topping:

§                                 1 cup sweetened coconut, toasted in the oven until browned and crunchy

Directions

Can you tell I like green?

Cupcakes:

1.                              Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake pan with liners. 

2.                              In a medium bowl, mix together the vegetable oil and sugar. Add the coconut milk, milk, vanilla, coconut extract, and lime zest. Mix to combine.

3.                              Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until smooth. Add the coconut and mix to incorporate.

4.                              Bake for about 20 minutes for regular cupcakes and slightly less for mini cupcakes, until the cupcake top springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean.

5.                              Cool completely on racks before icing.

Frosting:

1.                              Beat the butter until fluffy.

2.                              Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.

3.                              Add the vanilla and lime juice, beat for another 5 to 7 minutes or so until fluffy.

4.                              Add the zest and mix to distribute.

5.                              Chill until ready to use.

To Assemble:

1.                              Heap the frosting onto the cupcakes or pipe onto cupcakes using a pastry bag and decorating tip of your choice.

2.                              If using toasted coconut on top, sprinkle the cupcakes with the toasted coconut and press lightly so that it adheres to the frosting.

3.                              Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

If any of you know how Teresa and I bake together, it usually involves me baking and Teresa doing the dishes, snitching batter and frosting and taking pictures. This venture was no different. 

Teresa's job while I finished frosting the cupcakes.

Everyone deserves a little reward. 

The frosting was absolutely amazing if you like limes. As you can see Teresa took the liberty of dipping the paddle from the frosting INTO the toasted coconut. 

Bitch Cake

I know I haven't baked or posted in a while but I'm super excited to see a cake of mine has gone viral. A few years ago my friend Teresa Prince was doing an amazing photography project reclaiming the word Bitch.

You can see all her awesome photos here. A lot of my friends posed for her with their talents and strengths being reclaimed with the term bitch. As I love baking I made sure that was what my picture encompassed.

I threw together a quick soft pink yellow cake. Donned it sweetly with the term bitch on it and rocked my sign.

Sugar and Spice and everything nice, that's what BITCHES are made of!

Admittedly, it wasn't my most beautiful cake, it wasn't anything special. I even used a cake mix, which goes against my better judgement but it wasn't about the cake, it was about the message.

However, today I logged into www.theberry.com and saw my cake! It was of course under the heading of being brutally honest. Check it out if you can. It's #8. As you can imagine I slightly freaked out. So to everyone who stole my photo off flicker, pinned it, or submitted it elsewhere. Thank you for allowing me to constantly stumble upon my cake in so many different mediums. 

Be sure to check out Teresa's project as she's the one who helped create the idea for the cake! 

Same Sex Weddings and Rainbow Cake

   Yesterday I got to go to easily the coolest and most open minded wedding I had ever been to. One of my dearest friend's sisters was getting married and I was asked to make the cake and so I was able to go celebrate the marriage of Sam and Robyn. The really cool thing about their wedding was that it was an interracial lesbian wedding that was 100% legal in the state of Iowa. It wasn't a commitment ceremony but these two got to express their love for each other in front of their friends and family, in the eyes of God and in a legally binding ceremony. It was awesome. A few weeks prior, Robyn's adoption of Detroit, a special needs child, was made official. Sam and Robyn are now an amazing family of 4, including Sam's son from a previous marriage. It was so fun to be a part of their special day and I'm so glad they allowed me to make all their wedding day goodies! How else do you celebrate a gay wedding except with a rainbow cake! I made a two tiered rainbow cake that was very wedding appropriate on the outside but a lot more fun on the inside. The reaction from everyone during the cake cutting was great!

The butterflies were also edible. 

The happy couple with their fantastic rainbow cake!

In addition to the rainbow cake, I made 10 dozen cupcakes. 

Instead of posting all the the recipes here I will link to the ones I used!

I made a total of 5 cupcake flavors:

 1) Blue Velvet

2) Chocolate Espresso

3) Chocolate

4) Pink Champagne

5) Wedding Cake

Blue Velvet Cupcakes

Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla/ Chocolate Swirl Frosting

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Wedding Cake Cupcakes

I know its been a long time since I updated my blog. This  has been a crazy busy year and I haven't had much time for baking. I'm hoping I can do a little bit more once I get my new oven installed. A big thank you to my friend Teresa for being my baking assistant and making it all possible. But most of all:

Congratulations to the new 

Samantha and Robyn Carwyn!

May Update

May has been a very busy month! Jon and I both had our birthdays. I had graduation. We had our birth mother's day picnic. I served dinner one night at the Ronald McDonald House with my boss. Work has been busy and Jon and I have started house hunting. I haven't been baking a whole ton but I've been able to get a few things in. I made a cake at the end of April for a lovely lady who I used to work at Old Chicago with. I also made some super cute cupcakes for birthmother's day. I also decided to jump into macaroons over the long weekend, which I'm super happy to say was a success! I made both American and French macaroons and I can't wait to try them again.

First things first.
Dee's Birthday Cake:

Dee's cake was a 4 layer cake that had two layers of chocolate cake and two layers of white cake dyed a burgundy wine color. I piped grapevines all over the cake and I think it turned out really cute. She said she liked it and that there were left overs for days, which doesn't surprise me since this cake has two full cake recipes in it! 

NEXT!

I absolutely love my job at the Ronald McDonald House. My boss and I served dinner with another board member one night in May. It was a great way to really sit down with the families who are at the House and chat with them. One of my recent favorites, Jaxson, was finally going home the next day after an 8 week feeding clinic at Monroe Meyer. I thought that a funfetti cake would be appropriate for the little ones at the House. I had some fun decorating the cake as well. 

I'm all for sprinkles and I probably could have put more in!

We were all happy to see Jaxson be able to go home but we definitely miss him at the House.

Birthmother's Day was next and I have always wanted to make these cupcakes and so I figured it was worth a shot. Next time I make these cupcakes, I'm going to allow myself more time. I didn't start baking the cupcakes until 9 am and I had to be at Nebraska Children's Home at 11:30, needless to say we were late because I was frantically piping petals on the cupcakes! I made them as cookies and cream cupcakes. Each cupcake had chunks of oreos in them and them had an oreo on the top for the center of the flower. 

Birthmother's Day was great. I got to spend some time with the Harters and my Calvin. He and Jon had fun at Gramp's and Grammy's place. 

Run, Calvin, Run!

Last, but not least, MACAROONS! 

I've always wanted to try and make French macaroons because I figured they would be a good challenge and they are a light yummy treat. I found a really easy recipe for American coconut macaroons and threw them together on Friday night. It makes a really small batch but they were really good and Jon enjoyed them.

1 1/3 Cup coconut flakes

1/3 C sugar

2 T all purpose flour

1/8 t Salt

2 egg whites

1/2 t vanilla

In a small bowl, combine the coconut, sugar, flour and salt. Stir in egg whites and vanilla; mix well.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 325 for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

I ended up making ones that were a little bigger than a teaspoon so my recipe only make 7 macaroons but it was worth it. Crispy on the outside and soft and coconutty inside. 

I also made French Macaroons with blackberries.

I used Martha Stewart's recipe for macaroons. I will do another post that goes through the process soon but I didn't take pictures as I went this time. But I think macaroons deserve their own post.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend! I hope this summer brings good things and lots of baking!

Stormy Day Baking

You can tell I'm stressed because I'm trying to make time for baking and calm my mind. Last weekend I was able to bake for Easter. This weekend Jon and I spent the weekend at home because we were threatened with a big storm. As I sit here we have only had some intense rain, but nothing huge. I'm kind of disappointed. I LOVE thunderstorms. After we made some yummy waffles this morning, we ran off to the store to get all the fixings for a nice dinner and dessert. There was a recipe I saw in Martha Stewart's Raspberry-Cream Sandwiches in her cookie book YEARS ago and I've always wanted to make them but never had access to full vanilla beans. My sister-in-law made sure I got some in our wedding gift. Today was the day to try the recipe out.

Martha Stewart's Raspberry-Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 3/4 C all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/4 unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 C sugar plus 2 t sugar
1 large egg
2 t pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
6 oz (1 cup) fresh raspberries
7 1/2 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to  350*. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.

Mix butter and 1 1/2 cup sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg, extract, and vanilla seeds; mix until smooth. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture.

Scoop batter using a 1 inch ice cream scoop, space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes and let them cool on parchment papers on wire racks.

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This was my first venture with real vanilla.

My awesome vanilla from Trina! (Yay!)

Super flavorful vanilla beans! Delicious!

The Raspberry-Cream Filling is a yummy white chocolate raspberry ganache. The recipe in my cook book called for 1 1/3 cup of raspberries and the online version only calls for a cup and I can see why. I think the extra 1/3 cup creates too much raspberry puree and throws off the balance of the liquid and chocolate. The filling didn't set up as much as I would have liked. Next time I won't use as many raspberries. The flavor was delicious but I would have loved for it to have been thicker. 

Directions:

Puree raspberries and remaining two teaspoons sugar in a food processor. Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a small bowl, pressing to extract juice; discard seeds. Set mixture aside. 

Melt white chocolate in a heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat, whisk in cream in a slow stream. Slowly whisk in reserved raspberry mixture. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. 

Beautiful creamy white chocolate

Spread 1 heaping teaspoon raspberry cream on the underside of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies. 

I served these for dessert after the dinner we made for us and our parents. We served them with ice cream. Delicious! 

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Dinner:

  Jon and I made a yummy dinner. I haven't been home much because of work and school. I wanted to spend some time this weekend making something that required more than a half hour to make when we were both hungry home from work. We made Alton Brown's Pork Wellington and I made some potatoes that were inspired by Pinterest. It was a great success. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pork-wellington-recipe/index.html

http://pinterest.com/pin/6614730672937786/

Today was a delicious success. I'll be making a cake next weekend for a birthday so I get to bake again. I'm glad that after 3 whole months of barely baking that I'm making a come back in April