Spiderman

We celebrated my son's 4th birthday with a Spiderman party over the weekend.  I also discovered Window Crayons by Crayola and we had a lot of fun decorating our sunporch for the occasion!

Strawberry Rhubarb

I made my first pie of the season last week.  Strawberry Rhubarb.  The rhubarb came straight from my Aunt's garden and couldn't have been better.  I made the pie dough in my food processor and included the recipe below.

Ingredients for pie dough = 1.5 sticks cold butter (cut into small pieces), 1.75 cups all purpose flour, 1/8 tsp. salt, ice water, plastic wrap, Silpat

1. Place flour and dough in the food processor and combine them.

2. Cut the butter into the flour using the "Pulse" function.  Pulse ingredients until texture of oatmeal.

3. Add 1 Tbsp. ice water at a time.  Watch dough closely, as soon as it comes together stop the machine.

4. Remove dough from machine and place on Silpat.  Cover dough with plastic wrap and roll out. 

Easter

We had a great time preparing for Easter this year.  The kids dyed eggs, we made several batches of cupcakes, and we had numerous egg hunts around our house.

 

Busy Bees

Here is another idea from "What's New, Cupcake?"  I made this for a Staff Luncheon at the kids' school.

I inserted mini Milky Way bars into the center of each cupcake for a chocolate surprise.  I also substituted 1 cup buttermilk for the 1 1/2 cups water called for on the box and added one extra egg to the mix.  After the cupcakes are frosted, you place the sugared hexagon cookies on top to form the honeycomb.

The bees are made from black and yellow fondant icing.  I used almond slivers for the wings and attached the bees to the cookies with extra frosting.  I also made a few stained-glass cookies (Jolly Rancher cookies) that I hung on jewelry racks next to the cupcakes.  It was a very spring-themed dessert, even though there is still snow on the ground here.

Apple Cupcakes

This idea comes from "What's New, Cupcake?," a book with creative decorating ideas that I received over the holidays.  Its Teacher Appreciation Week at the kids' school so I thought I'd try the recipe for apple cupcakes.

To give the cupcake its round shape, you cut off the bottom third of a mini donut and place the larger half on top of the iced cupcake.  Then you ice the entire cupcake again and roll it in red sugar.  The stems are made of Tootsie Rolls and the leaves can be made from fondant, gum drops, or pressed licorice.

Donut Day

We had a 'Donut Day' at my grandmother's house this weekend and it was a blast.  The women in our family (aunts, cousins, nieces) all gathered together in my grandmother's kitchen and we learned how to make homemade donuts from start to finish.

To make the dough; scald 1 cup evaporated milk and 2 cups water on stove top in small saucepan.  Let cool 1 min and then add 1/2 cup shortening.  Cool entire mixture until lukewarm and add 2 tsp. salt, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 packs dry yeast (not Rapid Rise).  Once sugar and yeast are dissolved, add 2 well beaten eggs and 7 cups flour (one cup at a time, kneading with hands towards the end to achieve proper consistency).  Cover bowl with tea towel and let rise approximately 1 hour or until dough has doubled in size.

Roll dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut out donut circles.  Place on tablecloth and let rise 15-20 minutes.  Use large saucepan to fry donuts.  Melt 1/2 can of Crisco (or more) to fill pot halfway full of grease.  Fry donuts about 20-30 seconds (flipping midway) in grease.  Remove lightly browned donut from pan and immediately dip it in glaze.  Then set on plate or rack to cool.  Glaze = 1 box powdered sugar, 1/2 cup cold water, 1 tsp. vanilla.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Shamrocks, leprechauns and green cupcakes!  That's how we celebrated St. Patrick's Day.

I use my pancake pen (Williams Sonoma) to squeeze the cupcake batter into the liners.  Although its meant for pancakes, I've found that using the pancake pen is much easier than trying to spoon the batter into the individual molds and nowhere near as messy as the conventional method.