Cheesecake-Stuffed Strawberries

It has been well-documented that my favorite thing to do, any day of the week, any hour of the day, is cook. I've become known as the one who will never show up empty handed to a get-together and will never let you leave my house hungry. But I also have a tendency to be a "behind-the-scenes" cook - meaning when guests arrive I have been so busy cooking that I usually don't have anything for them to help me with.

So when I received a text from my friend Missy, an aspiring home cook herself, simply stating "I have a recipe I want to do with you," I was thrilled that not only would I get the chance to try something new, I'd get to try it with my girlfriends and hang out in the kitchen for a couple of hours. What could be better than that?

These strawberries may have been better than that. They're incredibly simple but I would imagine people would think you spent a lot more time on them than they actually take. Add a couple of friends, a bottle of wine, and some finger foods and it sure beats a night out - with no money spent and without fighting for a parking spot!

You will need:

2 lbs strawberries, trimmed and hulled
1 8-ounce brick cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup crushed graham crackers
Mint leaves, for garnishing (optional)

Wash, trim and hull strawberries to create a bowl in the center of the strawberry. If you want to stand yours up (which I recommend as it's easier to fill and present), slice off about a quarter inch of the bottom of the strawberry so it will lie flat. Dry strawberries and arrange them on your serving plate.

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese (make sure it is very soft), powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Stir until the mixture is smooth and free of lumps. Spoon cream cheese mixture into a piping bag (or Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off) and fill strawberries until the cream cheese just crests the tops of the strawberries.

Add the crushed graham crackers into a small bowl. Immediately roll the tops of the strawberries in the graham crackers, coating the cream cheese, and return to serving plate. If desired, garnish each strawberry with a mint leaf.

Black and Blue Berry Cobbler

When I was 16 with my first taste of freedom in the form of a driver's license and a car, and heavily influenced by the Food Network (which was just gaining ground), one summer night I told my mom I was taking over dinner. I remember it vividly: we were having my and my brother's mutual friend Jeff over for dinner, and I would make chicken cordon bleu, salad and raspberry pie. After an awkward exchange with an ex-boyfriend at the deli counter, I ventured to the frozen aisles for my raspberries - the thought of buying fresh raspberries, in July, in Texas, never entered my mind. Figures. I'm also 99% sure I used a frozen pie crust.

My chicken, while tasty, was laden with toothpicks and dinner became an adventure as everyone compared the amount of toothpicks by which their chicken was fastened together.

The pie, however, was probably doomed to begin with. Had I known the joy of seasonal produce, and had I been working with a recipe (I didn't need one because I was a genius, after all) my pie wouldn't have required the exorbitant amount of sugar I doused it with. Of course I was convinced that it would be glorious and perfect, but I watched in disappointment first as the raspberry juices puddled all over my plate, and again as confused puckering, mirroring my own, spread across everyone's mouths. "I can't decide if it's too sweet or too tart," I wondered aloud.

"It's both," my dad and Jeff answered in unison.

I think I waited until college before I attempted another pie.

Fortunately, cobblers are much more forgiving. A biscuit topping instead of two crusts prevents any sogginess of the bottom crust, and what better way is there to showcase plump summer berries?
 
For the biscuit topping, you will need:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
9 tablespoons very cold butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup boiling water

For the filling, you will need:

2 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2-3 cups fresh blueberries
2-3 cups fresh blackberries
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

To make the topping, whisk together the dry ingredients. With your fingers or a pastry knife, cut in the butter and work through the dough until the flour resembles coarse crubms. Add the boiling water and stir until a sticky dough forms.

Combine all of the filling ingredients, making sure to coat all the berries well (the mixture will appear to be a bit watery). Pour the filling into a 10" deep dish pie plate or cast iron skillet and drop spoonfuls of the dough to cover the top (do not spread the dough over the berries).

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until topping is crisp and golden brown, and berries are thick and bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Adapted from Cooking for Seven.

Bread Pudding Cups

I committed at the last minute to bring something for a company bake sale yesterday, knowing I wasn’t going to have much time that evening for baking. A fussy dessert was out, and whatever it was I wound up bringing had to be portioned into individual servings for a bake sale. What to do?

When I went home for lunch, my answer was right in front of my face. I still had half a pan of bread pudding from the weekend in the fridge and decided in a moment of brilliance what I was going to do. Mini bread puddings portioned out in muffin cups! And I would only need to pick up a few things from the grocery store. I had no idea how they would bake in muffin cups, but they held their shape wonderfully and stood at room temperature both overnight and through the bake sale without issue. To top it off, they were delicious and raised money for a good cause.

You will need:

1 pint cream or whole milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1 loaf (12 ounces) Italian bread, torn into small pieces

1 package King's Hawaiian Rolls, torn into small pieces

In a large bowl, combine cream or milk with eggs and whisk. Add vanilla, salt, sugars and melted butter and whisk until combined. Pour in chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir to combine the mixture. Add bread and using your hands, toss the bread cubes until all are coated. Be sure to distribute the chocolate chips and walnuts throughout the mixture as they have a tendency to sink to the bottom.

Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with muffin wrappers and evenly divide the bread pudding mixture among 20 of the cups (the mixture should mound over the top of the cups slightly). Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until the bread is golden and the chocolate has melted. Allow to cool and remove from muffin tin. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature - but they're best warm and gooey.

Strawberry Crumble

March always does this to me. The first hint of a warm breeze and I'm overly excited for more permanent warmth. Eventually I will wake up on a pretty morning and dress for work in a sandals and a skirt without leggings underneath. I will then find myself walking through a windstorm in the parking lot knowing that all the other employees walking into work in jeans are laughing at me.

The same goes for produce. Strawberries start to grace the shelves in shades of crimson only slightly deeper than their pale December counterparts, and I giddily fill my cart, only to find later that they need significant help from a sprinkle of sugar before I can consider them palatable. I'm annually premature and I'm not sure I'll ever learn.

Enter this strawberry crumble. Grand Marnier, sugar and butter join forces with the otherwise subpar strawberries and create something not only palatable, but superb - early March or not.

You will need:

1 pound of strawberries, tops removed and cut in half

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or cognac

1 teaspoon lemon juice

For the crumble topping:

1/2 cup flour

Scant 1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cold butter, diced

6 tablespoons rolled oats (not quick-cooking)

1/4 cup dry-roasted almonds, chopped, or 1 tablespoon almond meal

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Add the flour, sugar, salt, and butter to a medium bowl. Work the butter chunks into the flour mixture with your fingers, crumbling until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the oats and almonds/almond meal and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the strawberries.

Spray a pie plate or 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray. Pour in halved strawberries, vanilla, lemon juice and Grand Marnier and toss gently to coat. Top strawberries with crumble mixture and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the crumble is golden brown. Allow the crumble to rest and cool before serving.

February Daring Baker's Challenge: Panna Cotta


Q: What could be more indulgent than a dessert comprised nearly entirely of heavy cream?

A: A dessert comprised nearly entirely of heavy cream, with added sugar and hot fudge, served from a champagne flute and enjoyed after an extraordinarily decadent 3-course dinner at home.

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Well, I forgot about the cookies. And I used a David Leibovitz recipe. Whoops.

Otherwise, thank goodness this challenge came around when it did, because we decided to cook at home this year on Valentine's Day, and I had no idea what to make for dessert. Chocolate was a given, but if I made cake, we would be left with far too many leftovers - plus I have issues with eating my weight in cake batter. Panna cotta also requires (or rather, demands) vanilla beans instead of extract, and I happen to be fascinated with vanilla beans. Sold!

Since it would be just the two of us, I divided the following recipe in half (but stuck with one whole vanilla bean), and the panna cotta mixture still divided perfectly among 3 champagne flutes (kindly ignore the price tags on my champagne flutes). I topped each flute with an espresso hot fudge sauce. While the pudding and the sauce were lovely and a perfect end to an indulgent meal, I think I finally understand what people mean when they say something is “too rich” – I couldn’t finish my glass. This summer, I’d love to experiment with different toppings, like fresh berries or peaches, and serve dessert in smaller cups.
You will need:

4 cups heavy cream (my heavy cream carton yielded only half of this, so I topped it off with skim milk and the results were fine)
½ cup sugar
2 tsp vanillia extract, or one vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 packets powdered gelatin
6 tbs cold water

Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. If you are using a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds from the bean into the cream and add the bean pod. Cover, and let infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the bean then rewarm the mixture before continuing. Lightly oil eight custard cups with a neutral-tasting oil, or spray lightly with cooking spray.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes. Pour the very warm panna cotta mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

Divide the panna cotta mixture into the prepared cups/glasses, then chill them until firm, which will take at least two hours. Cover with plastic wrap if not enjoying immediately after they have set.

Top with desired garnish - some ideas are:

Hot fudge
A mix of white and semisweet chocolate chips
Caramel sauce
Macerated berries
Grilled peaches
Candied nuts
 
Go crazy! Here's the link to the original post.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

All I did for these was adapt the recipe for pumpkin cream pies into pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I topped some with caramel-chocolate candy corn and some with toasted walnuts.

Tada!

By the way, I've finally figured out a good lighting situation in my house...now I want to re-take all of my food pictures! I just might do that...

Pumpkin Cream Pies

I caught wind of a possible canned pumpkin shortage through one of the blogs I regularly read, which I shared in passing with Josh at the grocery store as we passed the canned pumpkin display. I then watched as into the cart went 7...8...10 cans of canned pumpkin. "Think that's enough?" he asked.

Enter the first of at least 10 pumpkin desserts/dishes I'm sure I'll find myself making this season: pumpkin cream pies (or whoopie pies).

For the cakes, you will need:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 can pumpkin (15 oz.)
2 whole eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat together brown sugar, sugar, oil and pumpkin. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition, followed by the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.

Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.

Cut 3 inch squares of parchment paper, about 48. Using a pastry bag with a round tip, or a big zip top plastic bag with one corner snipped, squeeze out concentric circles of batter (spirals), starting from the middle and working outward until the circles are about 2 inches in diameter.

Transfer each square to a baking sheet. Bake for 11 minutes, or until firm, and cool on a rack.

For the filling, you will need:

1 package cream cheese, softened (8 oz.)
1 stick butter, softened
1 package powdered sugar (16 oz.)
3 drops vanilla extract
2 dashes cinnamon (1-2 tablespoons)

Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.

Match similarly-sized cakes. Frost flat side of half the pies and sandwich with its match.

Enjoy right away, or chill overnight. These keep very nicely in the fridge for at least a few days.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me...

I'm a bit late as I actually turned 27 six days ago, but this cake was simply too phenomenal not to blog. It was by far the richest, most decadent cake I've made since I shunned the boxed mixes for cakes from scratch. And seeing as how I've made cakes for several (7) friends and family members this year, I figured I may as well go all out for myself.

There are certain flavors and combinations I am always drawn to: marshmallow and chocolate, caramel and graham crackers, and of course, peanut butter and chocolate. I considered a drizzle of caramel over this cake, but ultimately decided to leave well enough alone. It certainly didn't disappoint!

So far, 27 is sweet.

For the cake, you will need:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of two 9-inch round cakepans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide among the 2 prepared cake pans.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely.

For the frosting, you will need:

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter, (commercial, not "natural" PB is best - I used Jif)

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

For the glaze, you will need:

8 ounces seimsweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup half-and-half

In the top of a double boiler or in a bowl set over simmering water, combine the chocolate, peanut butter, and corn syrup. Cook, whisking often, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is well combined.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half, beating until smooth. Use while still warm.

To assemble:

I cut one of my layers in half - you can skip that, or cut them both in half (though you may want to double the frosting if you cut them both into two layers).

Place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or large serving plate. Spread the PB frosting evenly over the top. Repeat with the next layer. Place the last layer on top and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. This should be a thin "crumb coat" to seal in the dark crumbs against the light frosting. Refrigerate the cake for thirty minutes to an hour, then frost completely with a thick layer of frosting.

To achieve the drip-glaze, start by pouring the mixture over the top center of the cake (freezing the frosted cake for at least an hour before topping with the warm glaze will help). Using an offset spatula, spread the glaze over the top of the cake and let it drip slowly over the sides.

Adapted ever so slightly from Smitten Kitchen.

Champagne Cake

While I was at home with my parents, we had a smattering of desserts available any time of the day, mostly attributed to the fact that I couldn't get enough of cooking in their lovely kitchen and therefore, baked every day. Between my mom's blueberry fluff, my blondies, chocolate syrup, caramel sauce and the refrigerated organic cookie dough my mom spotted at Kowalski's, the most gorgeous grocery store I've ever set foot in, we certainly didn't need to add a cake to the list of endless choices.

Ah, but add we did.

Wisconsin residents are able to buy wine and liquor on Sundays (lucky them!), so mom and I browsed the liquor store in search of a sweet, sparkling Asti or Moscato, which we figured would work best with the sweet buttercream. We settled on Barefoot, which was nice for drinking, but didn't pack as much champagne taste as I was hoping it would. Dreamy and light as the cake may have been, next time, I'll use a drier champagne.

For the cake, you will need:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup champagne
6 egg whites

For the buttercream, you will need:

3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons champagne, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare 2 9 inch cake pans: grease with butter and coat with flour.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together, and then blend into creamed mixture alternately with champagne.

In another large clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into batter to lighten it, then fold in remaining egg whites. Fill the cake pans about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cakes comes out clean.

Adapted from Gimme Some Oven

Blackberry Pie

I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

For the crust, you will need:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup solid vegetable shortening, chilled
5 tablespoons ice water

For the filling, you will need:
 
2 pints blackberries (1 1/2 pounds)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar and salt. Add the shortening and, using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the ice water and stir with a fork until the dough is moistened. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gather it into a ball. Knead the dough 2 or 3 times, just until it comes together. Divide in half; flatten each piece into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375°. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Working on a lightly floured surface, roll out one disk of dough to a 12-inch round. Transfer to a 9-inch glass pie plate. Roll out the remaining dough to an 11-inch round.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, stir the blackberries with the sugar, flour and lemon juice, lightly mashing a few berries; scrape into the prepared pie crust and sprinkle the butter cubes on top.

Brush the overhanging pastry with water and carefully set the top crust over the berry filling. Press the edges of the dough together and trim the overhang to 1 inch. Fold the edge under itself and crimp decoratively. Cut 4 slits in the top crust.

Bake the pie in the center of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the bottom crust is golden and the fruit is bubbling. If necessary, cover the edge with foil for the last few minutes of baking. Let the pie cool for at least 4 hours before serving.
 
Adapted from YumSugar.

Chocolate Chip Shakes

If you were to ask Alyssa what her favorite beverage is, I'm betting a million to one that she would answer Starbucks' Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino. Actually, she refers to it as "frozen hot chocolate," so you'd win that bet on a technicality. As the days have gotten hotter and hotter, she requests "girl time" visits to Starbucks with a frequency that may eventually land me on our local Starbucks VIP list, if such a list exists.

When I spoke to her on the phone this week, she requested a trip this weekend, as she generally does. As a home cook, I was surprised to find myself offering for the very first time to learn to make them for her instead. Duh.

By the way, I would never feed this already-climbing-the-walls eight year old a coffee drink. This is a cream-based Frappuccino that wires her up enough with its unapologetic chocolaty-ness.

You will need:

1 cup of milk

2 tablespoons of sugar

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons chocolate syrup
2 cups of ice
1/8 tsp vanilla
 
I found this to work perfectly and even managed to blend it well with an immersion (hand) blender, since our standard upright blender broke a few months back. Feel free to experiment and play around with the proportions until it's just right. This gave us 3 juice-glass sized servings.
 
Prefer your Frap with some whipped cream? You'll need:

1 cup heavy cream, very cold
2-3 tablespoons sugar

Beat, beat, beat, until stiff, about 4 minutes. Plop by the spoonful atop the shakes and drizzle with chocolate syrup, if you can handle more chocolate.

Please an eight year old today.

Or a thirty year old.

August Daring Baker's Challenge: Ice Cream Petits Four

I found my first Daring Baker's challenge to be...well, challenging.

I do realize that's the whole point. I knew what I was getting into, if only from the examples I've seen around the blogosphere. And truth be told, if participating in these challenges is going to teach me anything, the biggest lesson I'll learn is time management.

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event, and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petits Four. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop.”

Ok, ice cream. It was about to be another in a string of 95+ degree days, and apart from that, it's definitely a new skill, which is why I set out to join this group in the first place.

Though we were given free reign on the type of ice cream to make, I didn't want to attempt spreading my creative wings too far this time around, given that it was my first challenge. My head swirled with ideas: coconut-lime ice cream, blackberry-lemon, chocolate and pretzel, etc. Instead I played it safe (or so I thought), with a classic chocolate-vanilla stracciatella (literal translation from Italian: torn apart).

Stracciatella is an Italian version of American chocolate chip ice cream (my favorite). Near the end of the freezing process, you simply drizzle ribbons of hot, melted dark chocolate over the frozen custard, and nearly immediately break it up, creating broken chips of dark chocolate running through the ice cream.

Nearly immediately. Remember I said that.

Infusing the milk with vanilla went well (vanilla beans on sale at World Market through September - 2 for $2.99!).

The custard process went well.

I was pleased with the taste, pleased with the way it was setting up in the ice bath. It went into the freezer at 7:00; I finally left the kitchen around 12:15. Because I don't have an ice cream maker - an appliance I'd have never deemed necessary until I attempted the process manually - I attacked the freezing ice cream with a hand mixer every 30 minutes in between. Two to three hours to until ready to eat, David Lebovitz? This is the first time you've ever led me astray.

At 11:45 in an otherwise sleeping house, I melted 5 ounces of dark chocolate over a double boiler, and pulled my almost-set ice cream out of the freezer. I drizzled the chocolate over the top, neglecting to break up the larger blobs (mistake #1), and set it back in the freezer for about 10 minutes (mistake #2).

When I pulled it out again, the chocolate was hard as a rock, but I proceeded to assail it with my hand mixer regardless (mistake #3). Chocolate flew everywhere as the whirling beaters struck the hardened blobs, splattering my countertops with dark, sticky lumps. Panicked that I might soon fling chocolate within reach of the sleepily curious dogs at my feet, I gave up on the mixer and pulled the bigger chunks out with my fingers. I started to chop them on a cutting board, but the clonk of my knife meeting frozen chocolate was not a sound suited for midnight. So I brought out the cheese grater and grated the blobs until my fingers were dripping with body heat-melted chocolate.

I then gave up completely, took one final picture of the mess I'd created:

And flopped into bed.

In the morning, the stuff actually looked pretty good. I fluffed it up a bit with a fork, and let it melt just a little bit later in the evening so I could have a go at it one more time with the hand mixer.

The melting before the last freeze turned out to be the key: even though Josh eschewed the mixer and volunteered to stir it by hand, it re-froze creamy and smooth, and I had to stop everyone in the house from progressively chipping away at my ice cream supply. It turned out to be precious stuff, after everything I had to do to get it there.

Making the pound cake went smoothly. Aside from the 19 tablespoons of butter (the browned butter added a lot of depth to the taste of the batter, but honestly I could not taste it in the final product), the process wasn't much unlike any other cake I've made in the past. Plus, I found myself a sous chef for challenges to come.

Frankly, I can't be bothered to write much about the cake, assembly or glazing - even though the glazing turned out to be a huge nightmare - lest this saga continue much longer. In the end, I wound up with 12 cute iced petits four, which was decidedly less than the number of lopsided, melty rectangles Josh and Alyssa ate off the pan (the first picture in this post, of a petit four cut in half, is without ice cream. It separated from its other half and I was dumb enough to use that one as the display picture).

If I were to make this recipe again, it should come as no surprise that I'd more than likely make a full-size cake, and I will utilize store-bought ice cream - impressed though everyone was that the ice cream was both delicious and made without a machine.

Here's a link to the recipes and the original post (and some examples that turned out better than mine did).

Alyssa's 8th Birthday

I've been itching to entertain. Since Josh and I had yet to throw a party at our place, when conversations about Alyssa's birthday started coming up, my mind started racing. We quickly decided that we would go all-out, to simultaneously satisfy my entertaining itch, and to give her an 8th birthday to remember. Or hopefully remember. Try as I might, I can remember my 7th and 10th birthdays, but 8 and 9 are for some reason lost forever. Good thing we're in the age of the digital camera!

Alyssa made up her mind while I decorated Andrea's birthday cake back in April that she wanted a heart-shaped, pink strawberry cake for her birthday, much like the one we made for her last year...

...which was monstrous. Rich, crazy decadent, and tipping the scales at 10 pounds of sweet birthday evil. Or goodness, depending on the circumference of your waist.

So we designed the whole party around the cake. I did my best to channel my inner Amy Atlas, found leftover Valentine's decorations at various dollar stores (I was surprised but giddy to find them in June), created a dessert table, and did the place up in pink, red and white.

I'm pretty proud to say I did this all myself...cooking, baking, decorating. It's nice to remind myself from time to time that my degree in Event Management didn't go completely to waste. Josh told me "I don't want you to stress about this." So I started everything on Tuesday, and listed out what to do and when to do it throughout the rest of the week.

I'm a chronic list maker. They make me feel in-control.

The heart/pink/red theme was also carried over into some of the food:

 533 pink and white marshmallows, counted by hand...the winner took them all home (thank God)

Pink Party Punch (Simply Raspberry lemonade, Sprite and frozen raspberries)

                                                         Muddy Buddies with red M&Ms

Candied pecans

Strawberry Whoppers

Chocolate covered strawberries

 White sangria...for the grownups only, of course

 Cookies, dyed with red food coloring and decorated with royal icing

Maui onion dip

 And of course, the birthday cake!

The turnout was great. We came up with some great games, Josh surprised me with a hidden talent:

And everyone enjoyed themselves - especially the birthday girl!

Happy birthday, Alyssa! I hope it was everything you wanted and more than you expected.