31 Mar
Tuesdays With Dorie: A Quarterly Review
Posted by Chelle as Favorites, Tuesdays with Dorie | 0 Comments
I can’t believe that it has been three months already since I told Laurie that I would bake from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours” with her each week, and hurriedly whipped up the Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies. In these past three months I have somehow managed to only miss one week (the Snickery Squares), and have been churning out Dorie recipes each week like a champ.
While every single thing that I have made has proven to be fantastic, I do of course have my favorites. Out of the recipes we have made so far, the following are the ones I am dying to make again (and likely will in the near future). Since we make so many things, I thought I would take a moment to share my favorites (so far) with you! Enjoy 
Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte
Russian Grandmothers’ Apple Pie-Cake
29 Mar
Daring Bakers: Perfect Party Cake
Posted by Chelle as Cakes, Daring Bakers | 63 Comments
And perfect it was. This was no surprise, given that this is a Dorie Greenspan recipe. Thanks to Tuesdays With Dorie I have become a huge Dorie fan, and have found that all of her recipes are nothing short of foolproof.
This month was hosted by Morven at Food Art and Random Thoughts and we were given quite a bit of leeway for this challenge. It was certainly a nice change of pace, so thank you! The original cake recipe calls for lemon zest and extract, but not being the biggest fan of lemon (as was evidenced by giving away my Lemon Meringue Pie in January), I took the advice of my friend Laurie (otherwise known as quirky cupcake), who thought that orange would be a nice complement to the raspberry used in the recipe. Well, isn’t she a smarty pants, because orange tasted fantastic in this recipe!
Aside from that change, the only other modification I made was the icing, as the original recipe calls for a meringue buttercream, but I thought that a cream cheese frosting would be just wonderful with the citrus and fruit flavors in the cake. It turned out to be perfect, although I would like to give the meringue buttercream a shot one of these days as well.
A number of people reported having problems with the cake not rising, but mine seemed to puff up just as Dorie said it would. The recipe gives the option of using the paddle or whisk attachment of the stand mixer, and I opted for the whisk as I figured it would infuse even more air and fluff into the cake, and whether it was the whisk or not, the resulting cake was perfectly moist and fluffy.
The only problem I really had came during assembly. I found it near impossible to spread the frosting on TOP of the raspberry layer. The frosting just kind of slid around, and raspberry jam slid everywhere. In hindsight, I would put the layers prepared with the raspberry jam in the freezer to set somewhat before trying to frost on top of it. Another friend of mine, Amber, also had a great idea - she reversed the layer and put the frosting on first and then the jam on top. She said this worked very well, so that’s another approach to consider next time.
I loved this cake and couldn’t get enough of it. The flavors complemented each other perfectly and the result was an extremely moist and fluffy cake with both a light taste and texture. I couldn’t think of a better cake for a spring or summer special occasion!
This will certainly be a cake recipe that I keep to use as a base for multiple flavor combinations.
28 Mar
Cupcake Hero: Ambrosia Cupcakes
Posted by Chelle as Cupcakes | 25 Comments
I’d first like to thank Laurie for still being my friend, as this is my first Cupcake Hero entry. I know, I’m a bad, bad friend.
This month’s ingredient theme for Cupcake Hero was marshmallow. The very first thing that came to my mind was smores, and I’m pretty sure that was the first thing that popped into about everyone else’s head. After seeing a number of smores entries show up in my Google Reader, I decided to rethink my approach. I was brainstorming all of the wonderful things that I have eaten that contained marshmallows in some way, shape, or form. A few popped into my mind, but I kept coming back to one - Ambrosia.
For those that have never had it, ambrosia is basically a “salad” of fruit cocktail, Cool Whip, coconut, and miniature marshmallows. My grandma used to make this all of the time around some holidays, but it mostly reminds me of Easter. It’s such a light dessert and Easter is typically the gateway holiday to warmer weather. So here we are, the week after Easter and I had to do something with marshmallows - Ambrosia Cupcakes it was!
These cupcakes are made with a base of fruit cocktail cake, then freshly whipped cream is piped into the centers (you’ll see that I didn’t quite pipe deep enough), topped with a marshmallow creme frosting, sprinkled with coconut, and, just for good measure, topped with a cherry. I had never made homemade marshmallow creme before and, wow, that’s dangerous to have sitting around! So good!
27 Mar
Beef Burgundy, Crockpot Style
Posted by Chelle as Beef, Crockpot | 0 Comments
This was another hit from the Cooking Light Slow Cooker cookbook. I have made this dish twice now in a very short amount of time, and I really enjoy it. The meat becomes very tender and the sauce is extremely flavorful. The whole pearl onions and mushrooms both cook down and really taste wonderful. And I’m totally sold on using my crock pot - it’s so nice to spend a little time early in the day and have dinner done and waiting for you when you’re ready to sit down and eat!
26 Mar
Say Hello to… Big Red
Posted by Chelle as Kitchen Products | 0 Comments
Isn’t she pretty?
I have been lusting after Le Creuset for about three years now, but getting a piece was never a priority. Well, some generous family members gave me some money for my birthday, so I pooled it together and gave Big Red a nice new home. I’m planning on making beef stew later this week, so I think that will be her inaugural meal… so excited!!
