Happy Birthday Mark & Helene!

Easter weekend was wonderful this year! It was our first time hosting the entire family (us two, Mark & Helene, Mom & Dad) over a holiday weekend. It was great having everyone together again, we hadn't seen M & H since our wedding week! Another added bonus of having everyone together was getting to celebrate M & H's birthdays in person. Mark's is April 10 and Helene's is the 12th, which makes them easy to remember and twice as much fun! I texted Mark earlier in the week to ask if Helene had any favorite flavor combos (he will eat anything so I knew he would like whatever I made!) and he suggested raspberries with dark or white chocolate - YUM! I have never made a cake with fruit filling so I figured now was as good a time as any. I began searching online and ended up doing a combination of two recipes. I used the cake and frosting recipe from a post I found on Tasty Kitchen. I created the raspberry filling and garnish based on this recipe. Long story short, I love baking but I like to keep things simple. The cake recipe from Tasty Kitchen was a doctored cake mix (still tasted darn good to me) and the ganache was a simple chocolate melted with Cool Whip that I had already done for another recipe and knew it was impossible to screw up! Anyway, here are the results:

Yummy raspberry filling!

The cake was incredibly moist and I doubled the ganache recipe to make it extra thick and fudgy - a smalllllll slice was more than enough to feed my sweet tooth! ;) The most time consuming aspect of this recipe was straining the raspberries through a fine mesh strainer. I'm wondering, did I not puree them enough before straining, or is it just a laborious task? I felt like i was standing there pressing it through with a spatula forever. Any suggestions? I think it's true in baking that sometimes to make something a little extra special takes a little extra TLC and maybe that is the case with this raspberry filling because it sure did taste amazing!

Be back soon with Dorie Greenspan's famous World Peace Cookies, and yes, they are that good!

Check out this "Eye Candy"

I know it is late for a Halloween post but I think these turned out too creepy not to share. I made my first batch of cake balls after discovering Bakerella back in the spring (yeh, I'm not really sure how it took me so long either - she rocks!). For my first attempt, I made red velvet Easter themed cake balls and sent them to my brother and sister-in-law. Fast forward 7 months and they were still requesting more, so when Halloween rolled around I knew it was time to send over another batch. Hmmm, what creepy, Halloween-y, sphere shaped item could I turn into a cake ball? I know! BLOODY EYE BALLS! They were so fun to make, and actually easier than my original batch because I decided to poke them with forks and serve them on a platter. Having the forks as part of the treat made them very dunkable. The basic cake ball recipe can be found on Bakerella's website but all you really need to do is bake a cake, let it cool and then crumble into a large bowl. Next, mix in an entire can of frosting until the entire cake is moistened. Using your hands or a small scooper create the cake balls. Chill in the fridge (I left mine over night and it helped a lot) then melt chocolate and dip each ball. Place an M&M on before the chocolate hardens. Once you are done with all the dunking, take some red chocolates and melt. Place in a small ziploc or piping bag (I used a #2 tip) and add "veins" to each eye ball. This project was fun!! Here are the pics:

I thought the tray gave it a bit of a dark, dungeon feel...or not?

Close up.

Eye on a fork! Nom, nom, nom!

Enjoy!

Apple Mania

I know it has been awhile, but I have a good excuse! My camera cord decided to quit working so I haven't been able to download all of my pics. Anywho, I finally borrowed one from a friend so here are some of my apple creations. First, I made an apple cake from good 'ol Martha. You can find the recipe here. This cake was delicious - perfectly moist, chewy, nutty and apple-y at the same time. I didn't even bother making the caramel sauce but I'm sure it would be a yummy addition. Greg and I enjoyed this dessert for, ohhh about a week's worth of breakfasts! Nom, nom, nom:) Enjoy the pics:

Floury, cinnamony!

Mmmmm

Plopped out of the pan.

Close up of the baked goodness!

Next up was apple pie. I have been slightly obsessed with Rose Levy Beranbaum and her books, The Cake Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible. I would still like to check out The Bread Bible anddddd her newest book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes is definitely at the top of my Christmas list. Just based on the cake from the cover along with all the positive reviews on Amazon, I know it's gonna be awesome! Rose (apparently we're on a first name basis) is extremely knowledgeable about all things baking. While some of her explanations can get a bit lengthy and in depth, overall I love her style of teaching. She is very detailed and answers questions that others assume you should already know. So, when I wanted to make an apple pie I decided to use her recipe. After all, it is titled "The Best All-American Apple Pie." I used the version from the actual cookbook, but I also found it here for anyone who would like the recipe. It was a lot of work, but let me tell you, it was worth it! This was one of the best apple pies I've ever had. Here are the pics:

Greg creating the world's longest apple peel!

The apples in all their glory.

Me attempting to do a cute cooking shot - lil bit too much clutter in the background, ha!

Me attempting to take an artsy food shot.

The pie all ready to pop in the oven.

Would ya look at this beauty?!

I should have one more apple recipe coming up for the season and then I will be all appled out! I will also be back with my "spook"tacular Halloween treats - stay tuned!