Lemon-Vanilla Layer Cake with Fluffy Lemon Buttercream and Strawberries!

Just wanted to get this photo posted ~ the recipe is coming tomorrow when I have a few spare minutes! It's a lemon-vanilla layer cake with fluffy lemon buttercream, filled and topped with gorgeous strawberries!  It's the birthday cake for my friend Chris's mother-in-law.  I hope she had a spectacular 95th birthday!  Stop back for more about this cake tomorrow!

Brick Cookies!

Today I delivered 40 brick sugar cookies to an office at Skidmore College (where I work). These cookies were to be given to the parents of the Class of 2013 Parents Fund, and also to the College's Board of Trustees. When I was asked if I could make cookies that looked like the bricks that the Parents Fund provides for graduating seniors, and are located in a patio on beautiful Case Green, I was sure I could. I just had no idea about how to go about it. After a little thought, I realized I could cut sugar cookie dough into rectangles, ice the baked cookies with royal frosting, and decorate them like the bricks that bear our graduates' names. I got the brick-like finish by blotting the dark grey/black icing with a paper towel onto a paper plate until it was almost dry, and then dabbing the paper towel onto the brick-colored icing that had dried overnight.

Using Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe, my tried-and-true and absolute favorite, I added a little bit of lemon flavor, this time with extract. Sometimes grated lemon rind does the trick.  It's very versatile flavor-wise. You can't go wrong with AB's sugar cookie recipe!

Here are a few photos of Brick Cookies!:

Thanks for stopping by! Please come again!

Dark Chocolate Pound Cake, the Easy Way!

OK, we turned the heat off and tonight it's 45 degrees F and dropping! To warm up my little garage apartment, there's a cake in the oven.  It's the easiest, quickest cake I could throw together to get this place warmed up. I started with a dark chocolate cake mix, added instant pudding, eggs, oil, and water. It's baking now in an old and trusty bundt pan. It is so old that the yellow coating on the outside has peeled off and there are just patches of it here and there. I think my mother got it for me with S&H Green Stamps! That should tell you how old it is, circa 1974 I'm guessing, the year I got married! This tough cookie of a pan outlasted the marriage by almost two decades, and it's still going strong!

It's been through a lot!

EASY DARK CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE
Oven - 350 degrees F
Bundt pan, sprayed with cooking spray

Ingredients:
1 dark chocolate cake mix (I used Pillsbury Moist Supreme)
1 box instant chocolate pudding mix, 4-serving size (I used Jello brand)
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water

Directions:
In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well for 2 minutes.  Pour batter (actually, it's pretty thick, so you may have to spoon batter) into prepared bundt pan.

Bake for 45 minutes until cake tests done (toothpick or press test).

Remove to wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.  Turn cake out of pan onto wire rack.  Cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
water

In medium bowl, stir confectioners sugar and cocoa.  Add water, just a few teaspoons, and stir with fork.  Continue adding water and stirring, just a few drops at a time, until glaze is thick and flows slowly off a fork.  Glaze top of cake and let the glaze run down the side.  Let sit for a while for the glaze to set.

Mother's Day 2013

To celebrate Mother's Day and to give my daughter Katie a much needed break, I took Henry and Peter with me this morning for a few hours. While we were in Posie Peddler buying flowers for Katie, who walked in behind us but Bill, Katie's husband, ready to pick up an arrangement of yellow roses that made our purchase look pretty meager! Henry and Peter had already chosen tiny spray roses for their bouquet - Henry chose orange and Peter yellow. Orange is Henry's favorite color and if you ask Pete the color of anything, he says "yellow" even if he means green, red, or blue. So, to those roses we added some pretty babies' breath, lacy greens, and my addition of black-eyed Susans. We also chose flowers for Grammy Eddy, the boys' great-grandmother. After we left the flower shop, we visited Grammy for an hour or so and had a lovely visit. The boys' cousins Hannah and Katie were visiting as well, and it was so nice to sit and catch up with this amazing woman who raised six sons and has always been the best mother-in-law and Grammy anyone could ever ask for (right alongside my own Mom, of course!).

I then loaded the boys back into the Jeep and we headed to McDonalds because I had promised them a Happy Meal and time at the playground (right in the McDonalds). Lunch was barely eaten (I had one of those new grilled chicken wraps, sweet chili, and it was really good!), milk was spilled, and the boys were reluctantly extracted from the playground so we could go to the grocery store and finally head home. It all seemed to go pretty quickly but it was a good three hours out of the house, and I consider that my gift to Katie for Mother's Day! To hear Pete, when he got out of the car at home, yell with such excitement and pride to his mother "I bought you flowers!" just made my day. Such cute little guys, my grandsons! (she says humbly!)...

Henry's Mother's Day card for Katie, and the trivett he made at pre-K.
He calls it "abstract art!"

Now that we're home, I am making Apple Pie Bars (encore from last week's blog recipe) because no one had any last time -- they were all designated for the wedding and all I could do was tease my family with the possibility!  So, for Mother's Day dessert, apple pie bars are in the oven. Pete's taking a nap, Henry's helping his parents get the garden prepared (though all I've seen him do is go a little crazy with the hose, aimed at the chickens!).  I'm here in my upstairs apartment, like a bird on a perch, enjoying the busy-ness outside as the aroma of apples, spices, and a buttery crust wafts through my kitchen. My son-in-law Bill has ordered take-out from a great Italian restaurant in Ballston Spa, Augie's, because he said no mother should have to cook today. Well, I didn't have to cook, but I was inspired to bake, and I still have a little kitchen duty, but I don't mind a bit!

It's Mother's Day, and life is good!

and my wish for the day:

Banana Berry Smoothie! Delicious Nutrition!

Sometimes, when I need a nutritional meal but don't want to cook, I make a smoothie. This one, a banana berry smoothie, is great because it combines low-fat greek yogurt with frozen chunks of bananas as well as frozen blueberries and strawberries. I take bananas just past their peak and cut into 2-inch chunks and freeze in a zippered freezer bag, so they're ready when I am. My freezer is always stocked with frozen berries, since I use them for baking all the time. A can of whipped cream is a staple in my fridge -  just a little bit makes so many things so much better!

You can come up with all kinds of custom smoothies, depending on what fruits you have available. Try adding even more protein and fiber with flax meal, wheat germ, or protein powder. You can even add peanut butter! It's completely your own designer smoothie!

Whenever you have fresh fruit that you can't use up, chunk it up and freeze it! You will be very grateful when the time comes to whip up a delicious meal in just a matter of seconds!

BANANA BERRY SMOOTHIE!

1 frozen banana, in chunks (3 to 4 2-inch chunks)
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
4 frozen strawberries (or 4 large fresh)
1/2 to 1 cup Greek yogurt, vanilla (or your favorite yogurt)
1/4 cup milk, skim to whole, your preference

In blender, pour milk.  Add yogurt, then fruit.  With cover on securely, mix well, and blend until completely smooth.  If it's too thick, you can add more milk, a few tablespoons at a time.

Pour into a tall glass, spritz with whipped cream, and drink through a straw.

Instant vacation!

Cheesecake Stuffed Blueberry Coffee Cake Loaf

Recently I posted (on facebook) a photo of a coffee cake I brought into work as a "thank you" to my co-workers for a great first four weeks on the job. I never got around to posting the recipe, so tonight I bring you a great coffee cake loaf, stuffed with cheesecake filling, with blueberries, a cinnamon streusel topping, and light glaze.  To make this, I took my favorite coffee cake recipe (adapted from Cooking Light), made a cheesecake filling, used frozen blueberries and topped it all with a brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. The coffee cake loaf was a huge success, so much so that the morning crew devoured it, and the staff that comes in at noon missed out! To make up for that, the next week I brought in a lemon bundt cake and didn't put it out until noon. That way, everyone had an even shot at getting a slice of gratitude!

Here's the recipe:

CHEESECAKE STUFFED BLUEBERRY COFFEE CAKE LOAF
Oven 375 degrees F
Standard bread loaf pan, bottom lined in parchment paper, sprayed with cooking spray

Coffee Cake Batter:

1/4 cup soft butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Cheesecake Filling:

4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon extract
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, dusted with a tablespoon of flour

Cinnamon topping:

1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Confectioners sugar glaze

Directions:

Make coffee cake batter: Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add sour cream and extracts. Beat well until completely blended. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well until completely incorporated.

Make cheesecake filling: Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Add extracts and flour, and beat thoroughly until no (or very few) lumps remain.

In prepared pan, pour/smooth 1/2 the coffee cake batter. Sprinkle with half the blueberries. Add all of the cheesecake mixture, covering entire surface. Sprinkle the rest of the blueberries. Top with the remaining batter.

Mix together the cinnamon topping ingredients and sprinkle evenly over top of batter.

On center rack of preheated 375-degree oven, bake for 40-50 minutes OR (important) until loaf tests done when a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry OR when the loaf springs back when pressed lightly in the center. Another clue that it's about done: you can really smell the aroma of the baked loaf.

Cool on wire rack for half hour. To remove from pan, cover top of loaf with a dishtowel (to keep streusel from falling off!) and invert loaf into your hand, then turn it over onto a wire rack to complete cooling.

Drizzle confectioners sugar glaze lightly over the top (1 cup confectioners sugar mixed with water, a teaspoon at a time, until it flows in a thick stream off a fork - be careful to add only a little water at a time or it will become too thin very quickly). When it looks like Elmer's glue, it's done. You don't have to use it all - just as much as you want.

Hope you enjoy this recipe. I know you'll love the coffee cake!

A Wedding Dessert Table, and Apple Pie Bars

Yesterday was a very busy day in my baking life. My co-worker, Pam, had trusted me to bake for her wedding (she's a former wedding planner!). So, a little after noon yesterday, Katie and I packed up my Jeep with the goodies I'd been baking for days, before and after work, and I was on my way. In the back of the Jeep: wedding cake tiers (to be assembled on-site - makes for a much less stressful commute!), and a variety of desserts - his and hers - for the dessert table. On the "hers" side: cupcakes and carrot cake petit fours. Pam was also having a fruit platter and coconut macaroons provided by the caterer. On the "his" side: big squares of brownies with, and also without, nuts; apple pie bars (recipe follows), as well as Italian cookies, also provided by the caterer.  Pam and Joe were married at Pat's Barn, part of the RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) Industrial Park, but there was nothing industrial about the setting, it was much more park-like. They had a beautiful day, with blue skies, a light breeze, and temperatures in the 70s. Pat's Barn is a beautiful venue, and I enjoyed the hour or so I spent there setting up the wedding cake and dessert tables. While I was setting up, a representative for RPI events came through with a number of couples showing the space as they prepared for Pam's reception. They stopped to watch as I worked, as the blank canvas of two white tiers came to life with vines and flowers. It was fun to explain what I was doing, and to reiterate that I am NOT a professional when asked for a card!  I explained that I bake only for good friends and family when I have time, and enjoy that so much. To become a professional would take the joy out of my part-time passion, I am afraid. Who knows, maybe one day when I retire from the 9-5 I may become more active, but for now, I am happy to share my amateur pursuits with you!

And speaking of sharing, below you will find photos of the cake and desserts, followed by the recipe for apple pie bars, one that I requested from my BFF Sue Valenti. This is her recipe, word for word, with no changes. Sue grew up in the UP of Michigan, where "bars" are a favorite dessert.  There are all kinds.  But her recipe for apple pie bars is one of her specialties! I found a number of variations on-line as well. (Here's another version, from Taste of Home - interesting to see the regional differences.)

Sue and I worked side-by-side for a few years, and became very fast, and life-long, friends. She retired from Skidmore College three years ago, but we still have lunch together at least once a week, and dinner once in a while. She and her husband Pete are terrific people, and I love their kids. They are like a second family to me, and I am so glad to have them in my life. So thank you, Sue, for sharing your best recipes with me, but more, your time and friendship.

Apple Pie Bars, Brownies with and without nuts, assorted cupcakes, petit fours

Congratulations to Pam and Joe!

APPLE PIE BARS

Crust:

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups butter or margarine (not shortening)
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
7 1/2 tablespoons cold water

Mix flour and butter like pie crust. Mix the egg, egg yolk, lemon juice and water in a separate bowl.  Add liquid to the flour mixture and blend well with a fork ( the mixture will be quite moist, not dry like a pie crust). Roll out half of the dough and place in a jelly roll pan. Roll out the remaining half for the top. (This dough tends to rip easily because it is so rich, but it patches well and doesn't show.)

Filling:

10-14 apples
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons tapioca
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Peel and slice apples like you would for a pie.  Combine dry ingredients and mix with the apples.

Place the apples onto the crust and distribute evenly.  Place the top half of the crust on top of the apples and seal the edges (I usually have the bottom crust hang over the edge of the pan a bit and then fold that up onto the top of the top crust).

Bake at 375 degrees F for 30-35 minutes.

While still a little warm, frost with powdered sugar frosting.  It will be like a heavy glaze.

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Thanks for stopping by! I look forward to bringing you more recipes and stories about my baking, so come back again!