My summer creations...

These were all made in the beginning of summer before my pregnancy hindered a lot of my motivation and energy to bake things in the kitchen. I plan on making things again soon, as my energy and determination to do more things returns, now that I'm nearing my 2nd trimester. 

 These cookies were made for my friend Savannah. I hadn't seen her for 2 years and I went to visit her. She just turned 7 in August. She is growing too fast!

This is my 4th of July American Flag cake. It looked pretty before it was cut too! The layers are white cake, and red velvet. The frosting is a yummy cream cheese frosting. 

I made Mickey Mouse cake balls :)

This cake was made after my first cake decorating class at Michaels. 

These cookies were my first try with royal icing. I got the royal icing recipe from glorioustreats.blogspot.com, as well as the American Flag cake tips.

These are my no coffee tiramisu cupcakes. I made lady fingers into cupcakes, soaked chocolate syrup on them and put a mascarpone cheese frosting in between and on top.

Stuffed French Toast

For Easter breakfast, I made Andrew and me Stuffed French Toast. I got the idea from The Pioneer Woman but she doesn't give exact ingredient measurements, so I improvised. I have a delicious strawberry crepe recipe with cream cheese as the filling. I used that recipe for the filling; and it was SCRUMPTIOUS! It was so sweet, no syrup was needed. 
Here are the ingredients I used:
1 cup sliced strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
9 teaspoons heavy whipping cream
1 loaf of French Bread

1. I set my elecrtic griddle to 350 degrees. 
2. Cut French Bread into two-inch slices, then cut a deep pocket through the middle.
3. With an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese, sugar and cream until nice and creamy. 
4. Add the strawberries, sugar, and almond extract to the cream cheese mixture until combined.
5. With a spatula, put the cream cheese mixture into the pocket of the bread slices. 
6. Dip both sides of the bread into the french toast batter (see ingredients below) then put on the griddle. Flip the toast after about 1 minute or until golden brown. Then feel free to serve with cool whip, powdered sugar, and strawberries on top. 

• French Toast batter:
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Homemade Onion Rings

Okay, I know that Onion Rings are not sweet, or a dessert by any means; but they were so good I just had to share!! I had an extra half onion to spare, and dried bread crumbs so I found a recipe online. It was so yummy!
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk, or as needed
• 3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• seasoned salt to taste
• 1 quart oil for frying, or as needed

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a deep-fryer to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C).
2. Separate the onion slices into rings, and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Dip the onion slices into the flour mixture until they are all coated; set aside. Whisk the egg and milk into the flour mixture using a fork. Dip the floured rings into the batter to coat, then place on a wire rack to drain until the batter stops dripping. The wire rack may be placed over a sheet of aluminum foil for easier clean up. Spread the bread crumbs out on a plate or shallow dish. Place rings one at a time into the crumbs, and scoop the crumbs up over the ring to coat. Give it a hard tap as you remove it from the crumbs. The coating should cling very well. Repeat with remaining rings.
4. Deep fry the rings a few at a time for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove to paper towels to drain. Season with seasoning salt, and serve.

I don't have a candy thermometer, so I couldn't measure the temp. of the oil. I just turned the stovetop to medium, and turned the onions over when they were golden brown. It worked just fine. Enjoy! 

 

Tuxedo Strawberries

So I had left over chocolate from making the Chocolate covered peeps for the Pina Colada Cupcakes and Red Velvet Cake Balls as well as strawberries just sitting in my fridge, I just had to try to make Tuxedo Strawberries like the Tuxedo Peeps I saw online. It was so easy!! I just dipped some strawberries in white chocolate and put them in the freezer to harden. Later, I melted the semi-sweet chocolates and dipped the already-white chocolate dipped strawberries into the semi-sweet chocolate side ways on both sides. Then I took a bobby pin and used it to decorate the bow ties. And Ta-da!! Tuxedo strawberries! I had to make some regular chocolate-covered strawberries as well. Those are my favorite to eat!

Pina Colada Easter Cupcakes

My Mom recently sent me an amazing cupcake recipe book called, 100 Best Cupcake Recipes. It has a ton of recipes that I can't wait to try. A few days ago I made a recipe called, Tropical Luau Cupcakes, which basically were all the flavors used in a Pina Colada. And since it's the Easter season, I decorated the top of the cupcakes accordingly.
For the cupcakes, you will need:
2 cans (8 oz. each) crushed pineapple in juice
1 package yellow cake mix
1 package (4-serving size) banana cream instant pudding
4 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• Preheat oven to 350. Line 30 standard muffin cups with cupcake liners. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Set pineapple aside.
• Beat cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, reserved pineapple juice, oil and nutmeg in a large bowl with electric mixer at low speed 1 minute or until blended. Beat at medium speed 1 to 2 minutes or until smooth. Fold in pineapple. Spoon batter into cupcake liners, about 2/3 full. (I usually use a 1/3 measurement cup to scoop the batter in, not filling it, just scooping with it.)
• Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool completely.

For the frosting you will need:

1 cube of butter, softened

2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream

Powder sugar

About 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

About 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.

    The frosting was a little bit more experimental, so when making it, just make to your taste.

• With an electric mixer, mix the butter, whipping cream, and about 1/4 cup powder sugar to start with. Keep adding powder sugar until it reaches the consistency you like.
• Add the extracts as you go, as well, until you get the taste you like too.
• I also added green food coloring so the frosting could help the roasted coconut to look like grass. See below.

For on top of the frosting I dyed half a bag of coconut green and then roasted it in the oven at 400 degrees, and mixing it every 5 minutes until it had a crunchy texture to it.

I originally planned on just putting Starburst jelly beans on top to look like Easter eggs. But then I found an image on-line of Tuxedo Peeps, and decided to try to make SVU Baseball Peeps. So I went and bought my peeps and semi-sweet chocolate chips, and dipped half of the peeps into melted chocolate.

Melted chocolate recipe:

• 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Place the chocolate chips and oil in a heat-proof bowl and microwave it at 30 second intervals, stirring in between until you get an even consistency.

Then place them on parchment paper and put in the freezer to cool and harden.

After the chocolate had hardened, I pulled the peeps out and used a green icing pen to write SVU on the front of the peeps. I then place them in the freezer again to harden, which didn't really happen.

So a little bit later, I took them out individually and wrote the SVU Baseball team's jersey  numbers on the back and then placed them in the freezer on their sides so the frosting wouldn't smudge. 

Later, I put toothpicks on the bottom of the peeps and stuck the peeps in the frosted cupcakes. The green icing ended out melting, so I had to wipe the frosting off before I left for the game. I was very sad. Next time, I'll melt white chocolate, dye it green and pipe that onto the Peeps and let them freeze on both sides. 

I kept the Peeps out of the cupcakes and stuck them in slip-lock bags and into a cooler to keep the hard shell during the game. Once the game ended I stuck them back in the cupcakes and added the jelly beans on top, as well.

I still can't decide if I like the chocolate peeps, or the pina colada cupcakes the best!

Breakfast in Bed Muffins

Today I woke up and decided to make Andrew some muffins that he said looked really good, for breakfast in bed. They were really yummy! They're kind of a pancake consistency with chocolate chips, but in muffin form. The recipe that I found says to make mini muffins but I don't have a mini muffin pan. It also says to just line the pan with cooking oil (I call it "spray release"), but I was all out, so I used cupcake liners. Even though the cupcake liners worked, it would definitely be better to use spray release because the melted chocolate chips stick to the liners.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.
• In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
• Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
• Bake for 8-9 minutes.

I then poured some maple syrup in a bowl for the muffins to be dipped in. They were very scrumptious!!

Marshmallow Popcorn Balls

My mom made marshmallow popcorn for my family growing up. She would make it for parties or just for fun. I made about a week ago for a baseball game, and I forgot how delicious it was! It's also so easy to make! Just make sure you have a large bowl handy!

Here is the recipe:

4 -5 quarts popped corn (3/4 to 1 cup of kernels)

1 cup butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 bag mini marshmallows
 
Mix marshmallows in popped corn.  Mix rest of ingredients except for vanilla in stove pan.  Bring to a boil for 3 minutes.  Add vanilla, stir.  Pour over pop corn and stir until marshmallows melt.

To get the balls to look like baseballs I used Twizzlers ropes. Then I wrapped the ball in saran wrap so they wouldn't stick together.