Monday, July 23, 2012

Fresh Peach Spoom

Its that time of year, where peaches are in season and super delicious. There is a farmers market every weekend at the shopping area near my house and so we go on Saturdays and get fresh produce like peaches that we can't grow at home.
This last weekend we got a box of peaches, 13lbs of peaches for only $6. They are nice and ripe and super juicy. Since we bought so much Mom was looking for a way to use a bunch of them fairly quickly. I decided to make a spoom (its like a sorbet but better).
Spoom is a sorbet with the addition of a meringue. It turned out pretty awesome.

Ingredients
1 lb fruit puree (it can be fresh or canned or whatever, and any flavor you want it to be
Simple syrup: 2 cups sugar,1 cup water, lemon juice
Italian meringue: 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup egg whites (buy the plain egg whites in a container that has already been pasteurized)

To make the simple syrup, pour sugar and water into a heavy bottomed pan and boil until the sugar is dissolved, add a little bit of lemon juice (this is not to flavor the syrup its to make sure that the sugar does not recrystallize.) Let cool, and then refrigerate until ready to use.
In a bowl (I suggest using a kitchen aid or a mixer you can just turn on and let it go). pour in the egg whites and start whipping. once they have started to change to white slowly pour in the sugar. Turn to high speed and allow to whip up. You want medium to stiff peak, to test for that stop the beater and lift it out of the meringue and hold it upright so the meringue is on top. If the peak falls over any then it is below stiff, if it doesn't move then it is stiff.
IN a ice cream maker or whatever you have got to freeze mix the puree and the simple syrup. Allow it to cool down to almost freeze and then add the meringue in and allow it to freeze the rest of the way. If your ice cream maker is anything like mine, it will take a while to make it.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

All put together minus carpet  
This last weekend I have done a lot of work to please to my two cats. I built a cat tree from them. I got plans for it from dadand.com and started working on it on Friday night, measuring and planing the cuts to make. They said that it should be able to be completed in about 2 hrs and for about $25. It took a couple hours on Friday, all day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday to complete it. It was $25 for the carpet, and then $24 for the sisal rope, and another $7 for the shelf/ 2'x4'x1/2'' particle board. All in all is a little bit more than $25 that they said, but still less than buying a good quality one from the store.

All put together with carpet, and cats enjoying it

Its no where near what a professional one would look like, but I'm happy with it and the cats seem to love it. There are parts that are not straight or level, but I blame the wood not my workmanship. I am accident prone, and I am surprised that I did not get injured more than I did making this cat tree. I stabbed my self with a screw and bled a little bit because of that. I also was using the scissors too long and got a blister that popped before I realized I even had it. (That is not counting all the little burns I got from the hot glue gun, but they didn't stay for very long so I didn't count them.)


 
 

Apple Cake with Maple Frosting from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups peeled and chopped Granny Smith apples (about 2 apples)
½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour bottom and sides of 9 inch cake pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk in two additions and mixing just until blended. Stir in the chopped apples and walnuts. Scrape the batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until it is golden and a toothpick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the pan on a wire rack.

 Cream Cheese Spice Frosting
6 ounces cream cheese softened
3 tablespoons butter, softened
½ tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Instructions
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter at medium speed until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract, spices and slat. Reduce the speed to low, add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until well blended. Raise the speed to high and beat until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
Add a 1/8 tsp maple flavoring along with the vanilla extract to make Cream Cheese Maple Frosting

Changes Made
Instead of chopping the apples, I used our food processor which has a shredder blade and shredded the apples. Also I did not add the walnuts in case anyone was allergic to nuts. I doubled the recipe and made 32 cupcakes instead of one large cake. I filled the liners almost to the top. I baked the cupcakes for 13-18 minutes.
For the frosting I added extra butter on accident and I did not add the maple flavoring. Also I added a small amount of cloves instead of the freshly ground nutmeg.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Tequilla Sunrise Bundt Cake

Can you find the cupcake?
There is this party tomorrow that is for the celebration of the 4th of July. I'm not a person who really gets into decorating cakes for special occasions, like for example I do not care if the baked good I make is fitting with the color scheme of red, white and blue. I wanted to make a cake that was pretty, and  delicious.

I think that desserts are kind of like books, everyone says they aren't judging the book by its cover, when in reality how else are you supposed to judge the book as to whether or not you want to read it. People judge desserts by how they look before they decided if they want to eat it.

Strawberry Limoncello Poppy Seed Cupcakes
My teachers at school taught me that using blues and black colorings is a put off because they aren't naturally occurring colors, like in fruit. (yes there are blueberries and blackberries, but neither of them actually produce that color, such as when you smash a blackberry it doesn't ooze black juice, it comes out redish purple). With that being said, I did use some food coloring with this project, but it didn't turn out as I hoped it would.

This cake decided that it wanted to come out of the pan in pieces, so I'm keeping it to eat myself. I made some more Limoncello Poppy Seed Cupcakes but this time I used some strawberry yogurt because that is what I had to use. I would have retried the bundt cake if I had the supplies to make a second one, but alas I did not want to make another trip to the store.


Tequila Sunrise Bundt Cake
This recipe comes to you via Booze Infused Cakes book.
Can't tell much of a difference between the orange and red layers

Ingredients:
Maraschino cherries, well drained
3 tablespoons and 1/2 cup Tequila, divided
1 package yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon orange juice concentrate, thawed, divided
1 teaspoon orange flavoring
Red food gel coloring (so you don't thin the batter)
3 to 5 tablespoons grenadine syrup
1 tablespoon sugar, sifted

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a bundt pan or other kind of pan if you desire. You can soak the cherries in 2 tablespoons of tequila, but I suggest not, I did not enjoy the tequila soaked cherries. In a large bowl mix together the cake mix, eggs, oil 3/4 cup orange juice concentrate, orange flavoring and 1/2 cup tequila. Mix until incorporated. Divide batter evenly between three bowls, (or I just took out a third at a time). A third of the batter is about 1 1/2 cups. Place a cherry in each of the grooves of the bundt pan, then pPour a third of the batter into the bundt pan before adding coloring. Add a little coloring to make it an orange color and pour a third on top of the plain batter. Add more coloring until it is a red color and pour into pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.
Just a picture of the fallen apart part

 

Remove the cake from the oven and drizzle the grenadine syrup on top, (go easy on the amount). Leave pan to cool for at least 10 minutes. Carefully invert cake onto wire rack and remove pan. (Let it cool more than ten minutes so it won't break apart since its still warm).  Whisk together 1 tablespoon each of orange juice concentrate, tequila and powdered sugar. Brush glaze over warm cake, let cool completely, and slice into wedges to serve. For my glaze I made it with just orange juice and powdered sugar and used more powdered sugar than a tablespoon, I made it a thicker glaze so that it would look cooler.  The picture in the book looked a lot more professional than the one that I have, and it actually looked more like a sunrise does.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Limoncello Poppy Seed Cupcakes

What's up internet fans? Long time no post, sorry about that. I'm going to make excuses now. It has just been too hot to bake anything and I have been pretty busy. I had a job and I was taking a class. Now the class is almost over with and I quit the job. Do not ever work for the Renaissance Festivals, at least the one in Colorado. Pay is barely over minimum wage and the place I was working was the only shop that was not allowed to except tips. It was a really crappy job.

I've got a favor to ask of those who live in Utah. My cousin's Harley was stolen from his apartment complex, so my favor is for you to keep your eyes peeled for it. And either call the cops about it or let me know so I can tell my cousin. A couple of things to look for are the scratches toward the back of the pipes, the mirrors are flipped upside down, and for a trained eye the screaming eagle intake vance and hines short shots
forward controls.
  Here is a picture of it.




I saw a while ago this recipe for Limoncello Pound Cake. I really like lemon poppy seed muffins, so I decided to try the recipe with an addition of poppy seeds. I also decided to make them into cupcakes/muffins whatever you want to call them. They were delicious. I made them kind of last minute and did not have a chance to charge my camera and take a picture. I suggest making them, since they are quite delicious.

Limoncello Poppy Seed Cupcakes 
3 eggs
1 cup yogurt
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup limoncello
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Glaze
3 tablespoons limoncello
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°, put liners in cupcake pan. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, yogurt, lemon zest and juice, limoncello, butter, and sugar.
Sift the dry ingredients together in a smaller bowl, then add to the mixture, literally mix until the dry ingredients are no longer visible, do not over mix otherwise you get a weird texture of cake.Bake for about 15-20 minutes, then test with a toothpick, should come out clean when the cake is done.
To make the glaze, put the sugar and limoncello in a bowl and whisk together, adding more sugar or limoncello if the consistency is not to your liking. Then put some on the cooled cupcakes. You can drizzle it on the cupcakes or use it kind of like frosting and make it look sorta pretty. Its up to you.